Archive | Spirit Matters

Sitting Pretty with Venus Retrograde

Venus retrograde starts tomorrow and we are already feeling its effects. Unlike Mercury, Venus only retrogrades every 18 months, and it lasts six weeks when it does. Venus is not only the planet of love but the planet of beauty. It governs sweetheart Pisces, whose sign we are under anyway, and is profoundly creative. When this planet goes retrograde, it does not mean things associated with this sign go awry. It means they go under the microscope.

No big aesthetic or romantic moves are advised until mid-April. Marriages, engagements, cohabitation arrangements, and trysts beginning during this aspect have shaky long-term prospects, and major haircuts, clothing and home decoration purchases usually prove a disaster. (Yellow pointy boots: what was I thinking?) But Venus retrograde is a grand time to revisit long-simmering creative projects and to clear the air when it comes to matters of the heart. Exes resurface, less to reignite love affairs than to settle old scores and mend broken hearts. Any fissures in existing relationships–not just romances but intimate connections of all sorts–also come up to be mended. Significant breakthroughs in your professional practices, especially those of an artistic nature, are on the horizon, as well as the release of toxic emotional patterns. This particular V.R. begins in Aries and ends in Pisces in direct conjunction with Chiron, the wounded healer.* Aries is generally regarded as the child of the zodiac, the most boundless and self-referential energy, and Pisces is our resident old-soul, a Great Mother portal that’s as invested in kairos as in daily life. Thus we will begin by examining our relationship to ourselves and our creative practices—how we betray ourselves, how we nurture ourselves–and end by addressing our deepest wounds with others as well as our connection to the divine feminine. Bottom line: This will be a deep-feeling early spring, with passion serving as a teacher rather than a playmate. Only the softest fabrics, the sweetest scents, and the gentlest songs will do, and the palest pink is the right color to keep close.

*It’s no coincidence that Chiron is the protagonist’s name in surprise Oscar winner Moonlight. Our whole culture is undergoing a seismic shift, and though it is painful as hell, the synchronicities are awesome to behold.

Astro-Punk

Today’s solar eclipse in Pisces not only coincides with the new moon but with a Uranus-Mars conjunction. All told, this is the astrological equivalent of a 1977 Buzzcocks show. In terms of tonight’s Oscars, expect the unexpected, not to mention a bevy of anti-establishment speeches. (Take it home, Moonlight!) In terms of your personal practice, all new moons are opportunities to set new goals but this particular constellation begs the question: What should I be blowing up? In terms of the U.S., the status quo is so obviously dunzo that the motto—nay, the mandate— is THE ROOF THE ROOF IS ON FIRE. As spring progresses, we’ll build anew but, today, raise high the roofbeams, celestial carpenters! Postscript: Upset was right!

Named and Counted

Whenever I’m feeling lost, bereft, furious, or, yes, joyous, I list my blessings. I’ve done it since I was a child and I’ll do it on the last day of my life. It’s how I start every prayer; how I enter scary rooms; how I honor all triumphs. It’s powerful to visit with the bright light that pours through our lives in even the worst moments.

From the minute this coup seized the White House, it has attacked every vulnerable corner of our land and our people. Many of us have been living with the heaviest of hearts–so heavy that our immune systems are eroding, so heavy that we wake with lumps already closing our throats. Enter the Tr%mp Flu: fever, chills, despair. Not since Mr Oyster have I been this laid out, and not until reconnecting with my lifelong ritual have I begun to heal. Now, before turning on electronics or even making coffee, I name and count blessings. It connects me to the child I once was, the crone I hope to become. I thank the divine feminine in all her manifestations and honor the light that precedes all shadows. Then and then only then do I turn things on, heat things up, join this eclipse.

"All, everything I understand, I understand only because I love."
― Leo Tolstoy