Typically those of us in the healing and magic communities make a point of sticking to the positive. In this capacity I am no exception, for I ardently believe that even the most challenging aspects of life pose an opportunity for spiritual growth. That said, when we have as many planets in Aries as we currently do—Uranus, Mercury, Eries, Sun, Venus and, as of today, Moon—I feel more than a little weary. All that unreflective go-go-go and me-me-me energy! Such pressure! Such bother! Such blather! Today, though, I am facing a profound crossroads in my creative and professional life, so I am trying to practice what I preach. Let us all welcome this new moon as a fire point, a power surge, an ignition like no other. Standing in the afternoon’s light at the river’s edge of my neighborhood, here is my cry: Please, mommy goddesses, give us the faith and temerity to push ourselves where we need to go. As the Aries goddess pictured here sings: “Get hip to the consultation!” It goes without saying that I pretend she’s singing “constellation” instead.
I’ve been a fan of female jazz singers since I’ve had my own apartment to fill. My first grownup love affair would have paled without Ella and I would not have survived the last without Nina. Yet only now have I succumbed to the charms and chimera of Carmen McRae. Something about her grown-lady yowl—her oldest soul take on that youngest of topics (love love and more love)—opens me up and strips me down as this brave new world keeps shifting beneath our feet. She croons”Miss Otis regrets,” and I marvel at how many colors course through that Cole Porter shade; “I’m okay how you come and go” and I make peace with my romantic limbo. Of all her albums, it’s “At the Great American Music Hall” that’s holding me closest. Listen and 