in the aftermath of the storm
hi starstuff,
how are you doing in the aftermath of the jupiter/uranus storm that started on april 20/24? i am feeling the ongoing aftershocks, the rippling effects, reverberating through my being, and my life. and i know i’m not alone. so tell me, how are you doing?
it’s sort of nice, that this transit happens only once this year. sometimes when big transits happen between two of the outer planets, retrograde action can make it so they pass over each other more than once. uranus moves so slowly (84 years to transit the sun), and jupiter only takes a year to move through one zodiac sign (12 years to transit the sun, and thereby your entire natal chart), and once is all it will be this go around.
but nevertheless, we remain changed on the other side of a momentous experience. and what better way to know that shifts are happening than to have witnessed the stunning and unusual display of the Aurora Borealis dancing through our skies across the world just two nights ago.
in the wake of the earthshaking transit, i attending a couple of beltane and new moon gatherings over the past few weeks. i love the communities that i get to be apart of. one is a family-focused pagan community where we gather on many sabbaths with an emphasis on play and ceremony. the other is my coven, where we mainly gather in ritual with women, though sometimes including men and even the kids, as well. and in one of those gatherings, i jumped the fire shouting out my word of the year: release.
i came up with my word because i realized it could apply to a plethora of concepts and i could apply to nearly anything i encounter in the year ahead. it also complements the major generational transit i’m moving through right now: pluto square pluto. it’s the time of life when there are some serious deaths to anything we’re still holding onto that are just dragging us down. it’s both us dragging it along, refusing to release it (whatever “it” is), and it’s weight also drags us down, slows us down, feels heavy and like a burden.
and so, definitely not without an ironic grin, here i am just over one week later, completely out of commission with the sorest low back i’ve had in a very long time. i can’t pick up my baby and i can’t help my preschooler with the things i normally do for him. i’m a pretty earthy being. i have a good smattering of fire and water as well, but at my core, my sun sign is an earth sign. and so when i shift, my body shifts. and it’s never without discomfort. but the experience of pain is somewhat comforting to me. is that weird? i don’t even know anymore. i studied Rolfing, many years ago (i graduated with the last uranus-jupiter conjunction in 2010). one of the primary principles that Dr. Rolf spoke about, that is one of the ones i go to in my everyday life is, “where is hurts, it ain’t.” and i apply it liberally. when my preschooler is getting uptight about something that wouldn’t typically bother him. when someone takes a dig at me, which feels out of the blue and uncharacteristic. when my back goes out and i’m unable to do anything. “where it hurts, it ain’t.”
and so, with my allegiance to the stars, and having had that glorious display of magical solar flares through our atmosphere, i remain steadfast in my trust that all is well, everything is in alignment (no pun intended), and i’m in tune and on time in all the ways, including this sore back. and what i know for sure, i’m in a deep grief process. the pluto square pluto gives us an absolute abyss of spaciousness to grieve anything we’ve yet to grieve, but need to leave behind at this mid-way point. it’s a 1 year and 9 month journey. one will be transformed on the other side, one way or another. so my greatest advice to is trust whatever it is that brings up sadness when this transit hits. because that’s precisely what it’s here to do.
that’s all for now, everything is taking longer these days, and i’m appreciating the opportunity to really and truly slow down, taking in all the beauty around me, as the earth springs to life.
ps. i adore this very beltane-themed song. my dear friend jana introduced me to this band many moons ago, and it turns out they’re from a tiny mountain village just up the mountain from boulder, co., where i lived on and off for my Rolfing training all those years ago. it’s called nederland, and is the original town for “frozen dead guy” days, which i was able to attend one of the years i lived there.
it’s one of my very favourite festivals, where coffins are paraded through the streets in the dead of winter, to honour the town’s only cryogenically frozen citizen – how very plutonian. i wouldn’t believe me if i hadn’t lived there. if you’re curious, check it out here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen_Dead_Guy_Days