On January 1, 2015, a day in the icy cold woods with friends led us into marvelous circumstances. Each time we'd go somewhere off trail to play, stop somewhere beautiful, move on, 'find' something else magical, and continue, appreciating - over and over - the time-wittled magic of so many elements that needed to come together to create what we could notice. We could have stayed hours in one spot and remained spellbound. The anthology of enchantment seemed to permeate us deeper and deeper, making the four of us feel an incredible sense of Love. 

I have not often marked the gregorian New Year to be of much importance to my life. Solstice feels special. Dark. Deep. But so reflective that the process of understanding the year continues far past the turn of the date. The new year always felt like it happened in early Spring, for me. But there is something quite real about writing the new number in my journal. If 1/1/2015 is any indication of the kind of year 2015 is due to be, I am likely to be sweetly surprised and embraced by mythical rapture in ways that will completely stretch my concept of Love. (2014 definitely stretched it already!)

My friend Shay Hohmann remarked, "We've been going through this dark time, from the 21-31 feels like the peak of darkness, and January is like dawn. If the New Year is a day, January is the Dawn."

His comment went straight to my heart because the current poem I have been memorizing to perform tonight begins in this way, 

"My only faith in technologies are in that which are old. 
I trust in the "breakthroughs" of a seed through soil. 
This is a Revolution readying the heart
to rest under the morning blankets of frost
under the thinnest layers of snow
melting
just as the sky turns blue before dawn
and the landscape begins to refresh its colour..."

The poem continues, exploring concepts of darkness, before we break out of the soil in the end. This week, the poem has put me through several haunting initiations. I had no idea when I wrote it that it would effect me so deeply, but as I've been memorizing it, it has revealed many secrets, and brought up a lot of emotions. Synching up its story with events in my life in un-planable ways. Just once, yesterday, I was speaking the words of the poem in my mind - not aloud - completely through concentration, my body not able to be on autopilot because I wasn't using my mouth or voice. It's a nine-minute poem, and I felt, even through the concentration, my awareness of the three other human souls with me, the forest spirits, the cathedral frost, epic cliffs and icicles, and the music of the Little River. The pulsing Life from the huge trees around us. It felt like channeling. Like shamanic journey work. The same level of attentive concentration and openness to cosmic whispering. 

And if January is the dawn of the day that is the New Year, then this truly is the Revolution melting. It is ready, and it has made each and every one of us ready by putting us up to some really intense challenges. No way around it, 2014 was a year of extremes.

Astrologically, the Pluto-Uranus dance that has been happening since late 2012 will have its final exact square in March. Until then, we'll remain within 1 degree of the two being in this intense aspect with each other. A Square in an aspect of tension... the tension being: 
Pluto - Death and Rebirth. In Capricorn - Earth. Social structures and governances.
Uranus - Revolution, sudden changes in consciousness. In Aries - Fire. Initiation.

This is the global revolution. 

The darkest part of the year just passed. "Solstice" means to Stand Still, so we can bring together and focus our inward attention. We gather, reflect, tap into, and contribute to global healing energy potential. Intentions for focusing our collective structure on building a foundation from Love (rather than corruption) of designing social systems from a directive of collaboration and listening (rather than control).

Saturn moved into Sagittarius two days later, relieving the intensity of the last two years as Saturn plowed through Scorpio. We're beginning to understand where each person's heart is within the greater context of healing the plant, healing society, healing ourselves, by bringing our awareness into loving, caring interactions with every person we meet, inclusive of our interactions with our environment to create a new system of interaction altogether. Sagittarius is the fire and passion of society, and now this is the arena of our lessons. (More on Saturn in Sag. from Michael Schultz.)

This means we are - we have the capacity to - dream in a new world. Traditional astrologers see "squares" - such as the square between Uranus and Pluto currently - as bad luck. Evolutionary astrologers consider "squares" to be the greatest gift for action and growth. It is not easy. Especially with Pluto involved. I have heard others describe Pluto as the "astrological blowtorch" and they're not far afield. Pluto is digging out the deepest level of corruption in our social system and bringing them to the surface -- from governments to families to our own personal value structures, fracturing through all levels, together, we are revealing what needs to change. And yet the trick is not to focus on the problem.

If we refrain from focus on governmental and political problems in our social interactions, we have the greatest potential for healing at this time. What is "amiss" that needs attention is something we can apply to the structure, process, or ways of being through our Love. What kind of world will we create? Depends on how deeply attentive we can get. And it requires quite a lot of stillness among a busy "holiday" world in order to know what is right for us. Winter is a naturally slower time in nature, not a time of "doing", but a time of Listening.   

The reason to refrain from focus on the horror of all that in wrong, while it is important to be aware of it, to be angry at it, to feel the truth and frustration of injustice -- it is more powerful to realize these systems came from somewhere, rather than to stop your discovery at Anger and stay there. The next question, after the "what" is revealed, is "why". Why? It is not due to erroneous fault in individuals alone. It is not solely because of "greedy" rich people, "violent" police, "lazy" houseless folks, or the "silent" middle class. Human beings created large systems (Capricorn). And those Systems are being turned upside down and need to be transformed (Pluto). If we want another wold built upon Anger, then stay in your Anger. If we want to grow into a culture of equality, justice, freedom, health, and Love, we must choose to act out these qualities in our personal life. I find it is MUCH more interesting - and requires much more focus attention - to be perfectly honest with myself and seek Love and understanding for every person I interact with than it is to be blatantly Angry at the World.

And because of the work in finding that honesty everywhere, I will say I notice Life takes on a nature of radical beauty, as well as haunting neutrality.

It is wonderful to realize that some of the best days of our lives are yet to occur. Perhaps some of the worst too. Yet, equipped with only the wisdom we have gathered from our own experience, we know that Life goes on. And Love -- however we want to describe it or feel it -- will forever be the foundation by which we can let Life construct magic from the unknown.

During my time at Buckeye Gathering, I was inspired by meeting a fellow astrologer, Stargazer Li, who was blacksmithing with the same teacher I was working with during the week. After sundown, Li hosted a cosmic adventure, gathered in a large meadow surrounded by tall pines aside Lake Concow in Northern California to listen, speak, and taste essences that form the stories of the Northern night sky. Li is an incredible storyteller and myth-weaver, completely hilarious and down to Earth with her heart in the stars, and the group of us lay looking up both giggling and gazing in amazement. 

Nighttime always meant stars in Central Oregon, where I am from, and I have always loved them, embracing the darkness. When the sun sinks below the horizon, and the story of Light and Day sets, if we cannot look up and let the awesome magic of Darkness fill our Soul, we are missing half of the story. 

And as Li says, "... it's actually a lot more than half."

The starry universe, as seen from Earth, has been the craft of myths and stories as far back as history goes. And as we've noticed patterns of the stars, how they move, the events that occur, the feeling of energy in a particular time, we have learned how the stories shape and culture us. The night sky has always been a tool for our self-discovery in the mystery, billions of markers in the passage of time. Astrologers, astronomers, historians, and storytellers were all of one person, not so separate.

Separation of these roles partially took form during what Li calls the "Dude Standardization Project" 2000 years ago, when astrology began to derive its meaning from calling the Spring Equinox "0° Aries" with no regard as to what is actually happening in the sky. The constellations found on the path the planets moved through in the night sky were given an equal 30° pie slices in a perfect 360° circle of time. This is what we call the "Western Tropical Zodiac", and what most western astrologers (including me) use as a standard for drawing and interpreting astrological charts. 

The problem with this now, 2000 years later, is that outside of our charts, books, papers, and perfect circles, we've been living on a planet with a wobble in its tilt, in a solar system that's moving through the galaxy, in a galaxy moving through the universe. The Sun does not move into 0° Aries in perfect mark each year throughout infinity, but, in fact, every century the Sun has moved "backward" through the zodiac another 1.4arc° bringing the Equinox in 2014 at the front end of Pisces. Ever heard we're moving into "the age of Aquarius"? This is the same thing. The equinox will shine in the constellation of Aquarius in the year 2597. We're in the transition period between Pisces and Aquarius. You can read more about the procession of the equinoxes here. 

To further this point of the visible night sky being different than the western astrological chart, not only is the Sun's placement "off" compared to the night sky, but all the other planets. 

While this is no news to most astrologers, I did have one question I've never found a satisfying answer for. I asked Li, "So why does western Astrology still work?" 

We are a culture that embraces the philosophy of "the perfect complete circle", compressing our lives into equal compartments, organizing our most important physical structures on paper without regard to the landscape, missing the necessity of collaborative human-scale social systems, and minimizing our contact and connection with nature as much as possible. As was forced in all colonized places, we built our society around becoming "higher" beings by distinguishing ourselves as separate and individual. Western Astrology works for us, who have decided to create these systems of dis-integration, because it helps us get in touch with who we've become within these very systems. In the context of a culture that would do such a thing as turn our spiraling universe into a perfect circle.

When, in fact, nature never makes perfect circles.

Even our solar system is a spiral. One of my teachers in Port Townsend, Birch Gerke, shared, "The only view of the solar system that is circular would be with the sun coming straight at you at seventy  thousand km/hour." More than 43,000 mph.

No system by itself has the complete picture, and there's no need to throw out astrological charts, commit to Vedic astrology, or mount a telescope to your alter for some sidereal direction. All of these systems have a place, and the combination of them is what can be really cool. 

For example, 

Astrologically (chart), Jupiter is in Cancer the Crab. Jupiter - expanding, Cancer - the home/family. 
Astronomically (sky), Jupiter is clearly right in the middle of the Gemini twins. Jupiter - still expanding. Gemini - friendships, brotherhood/sisterhood. 

See how these work together? Isn't that cool? 

Another one, 

Astrologically, Mars is retrograding (moving backwards) in Libra Scales. Mars - initiation, the warrior. Libra - in partnership, relationship. 
Astronomically, Mars is retrograding through Virgo the Goddess, toward her Heart. Mars - still the warrior. Virgo - reapproaching the heart of the Goddess. 

Don't worry, everyone has been feeling this Mars-Libra tension. :) How do we be strong individuals in relationship? How do I be fully individually Me, without being an asshole? How do I take care of the 'other' and myself? What is the role of willpower in Relationship? ...And at the same time incorporate the energy above, of Jupiter in Cancer/Gemini - expanding our sense of family, home, friendships... in the middle of a global revolution and dismantle of the present structure of society and power as a whole (Pluto in Capricorn square Uranus in Aries). Our hearts, our families, our culture are all undergoing extreme transformation. 

The beautiful thing about being about to look up at the night sky is you can develop your own relationship to how you see the planets move. Without knowing anything about astrology, you can literally watch Mars fly through Virgo and then backtrack to her Heart, reconsidering the situation. The moon makes its way through every constellation in the zodiac in just 28 days, each night, changing shape. Not only do you not need to know anything about astrology, you don't even need to know where your lost keys are, if you'll make rent this month, if you'll ever fall in love, make amends with your old co-workeror, the next step of your grand 10-year project, or if you left the irrigation on. You can just Look up. And how do you remember feeling in that moment? 

This is a visible story we are completely allowed to participate in. 


And it is breathtaking!

"Mind stuff. Sky stuff. The universe we observe and measure. The universe we dream. It is all the same. Wherever we look, we see mind. Whatever we imagine, we see cosmos. We are the dreamers, and what we are dreaming is the universe." ~ Steven Forrest

Astrology is a fundamental way I understand the community organizing process on a cosmic level. How are we to create places that are meaningful to us without drawing on our own innate beauty? How are we to learn to embrace the rhythms of highly variant energies, especially with the state of the World at current, if we assume things exist in a stagnant and unchanging universe?  

We are in dire need of coming together to Remember we live within a strong network of interconnection, to come into conscious balance with our planet, and ourselves. I have seen first hand that community can only function efficiently when individuals within the community are empowered, supported, and encouraged to do what makes them come alive. There's great news found within this because the need to come together and enjoy life again is a directive completely worth devoting our energy to! It also requires us to honor the feelings of grief, anger, fear, and shame that may come through us when approaching these growing edges; we can Heal these wounds by committing to them, understanding them, and letting them pass though us. 

North American popular culture does not prioritize understanding what makes us happy or how to grieve, what our natural skills are, and how we may work well with other people and under what circumstances. That's where Astrology has come in for me, because while there is much written history and popular press about violence and problems, simultaneously there has existed a vast universe of diverse energies - unending alternative stories - to pay attention into. Even the Madrona tree behind me through the open door on the porch has been growing peacefully before this house was here, and it has something to teach me if I am attentive to it. In essence, this is Deep Democracy - when all voices are heard and valued, not just the loud ones, not just the majority. 

The design practice of Permaculture teaches us to "use and value diversity", and astrology invites us to consider the divine within us, to value our word, and to consider others' in the same spirit. 

For those of you who know me personally, I've probably collected some information from you at some point and pulled up a very strange looking chart that looks something like this: 

This is a a starchart for April 20, 2014 10:00pm in Port Townsend, WA. (Approximately as I'm writing this).

Learning Astrology is a bit like learning another language, so I won't go very far into the details of reading the chart in this post. You can notice there is a lot going on, even if you have no idea what you're looking at. Coloured symbols on the outside, black symbols in the inside, interior lines, exterior lines, the angels made between the symbols. Simply noticing these distinctions is enough to start. Maintaining curiosity will keep you entertained forever.

Imagine an inclusive world where the values of children and elders were taken into account equally, with equal curiosity, and equal power. With all people, no matter their gender, age, or orientation, and of people allowed to give voice to landscapes. An array of experiences, opinions, feelings, and work styles as complex as the starchart above. This has already begun. Projects implemented at a home scale, to transforming local and national government structures.

What is your personal place in it? 

We create places that are meaningful to us by drawing on our own innate beauty. Astrology is one way we can begin to learn how such beauty reflects itself in Us.

“When you drop on the planet and you take that first breath, that moment, the structure of the solar system is infused into you. Your spirit comes into the solar system… there’s billions of stars in the galaxy, and there’s billions of galaxies, why’d you come to this one little star? And when your spirit comes in here, it’s like a sponge wiping water off the cabinet, it soaks up the essence of it and squeezes it out it into your life! And at that moment, the pattern is injected into you.” ~ Kelley Lee Phipps

While Astrology...
1. ever continues to help me get to know myself
2. has been a compassion-building tool for me, to see how other people genuinely function and experience the world differently than me
3. has helped me speak to others about their life in a beneficial and healing way...

... I don't believe astrology to be an end all be all. Even if everything about astrology is completely misinterpreted, thousands of years of observations and wisdom are utterly folly, and us crazy astrologers were never tapping into anything True... the magic of this universe and the infinite level of unique dimensional pattern in each person is still incredible.  Even if there is no meaning in Life whatsoever, it is still beautiful, and beauty is worth replicating in the physical world. 

Last month I told a client before our astrology reading, "We are always responsible for our lives. Always. Life happens for us, and always to support us. Like a garden, there is no end point, another season will come, another plant will grow, and will we look at it as a weed or medicine? Astrology can give us a little bit of a weather forecast, but it is our own choice whether we embrace the rain. That is why people who know nothing about astrology (or any 'one' particular study) can lead extremely balanced and happy lives simply by adopting an understanding of the basic flow of Life from whatever metaphor they choose, based on what they notice through first hand experience. The flow of Life is an essentially neutral energy that runs through all things whose source is of Infinite Love. You co-created the design of your life for you highest and greatest good. You can feel that creative impulse whenever you are willing to commit to it completely. Then you're free. Free to do whatever you want, because what you want is good and pure, at its core."

A very simple example:
Earlier today I came inside from the garden, made lunch, and opened the window and the door to the porch. About when I finished eating, a couple of buzzy flies came around. I noticed them and immediately stopped my work on the computer to clean up. I didn't just "wish" the flies away, or get annoyed at their buzziness. I moved on my desire to be rid of them, and as soon as I started cleaning, they went back out the window and five minutes later I was back to work, feeling better about things being cleaned and not distracted by the noise. I co-created the experience with the flies, dishes, compost, water... by taking direct action in the moment to change the circumstance. 

We can choose to cultivate our spirits in the very same way, by getting to know our internal landscapes and paying attention to those little 'buzzy flies' of feelings that come up for us, taking responsibility for them, and doing what Healing work is necessary to - "do the dishes" - so to speak. The steps needed to fill the dish rack and the steps needed to do Placemaking projects are not so different. Then, the process of Placemaking becomes a direct reflection of our internal landscapes, enacted on the external landscape.  In the mind, the body, the spirit, there is no separation. As our Souls are growing, we are changing the physical world. We are Placemaking.