“Do stuff. be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration's shove or society's kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It's all about paying attention. attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. stay eager.”
― Susan Sontag
“Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action. ”
― William James
Spring continues to bloom here, and I’m surprised by just how impacted I am by the verdant grass and wildflowers. I’ve never experienced a Spring quite like the ones in Tennessee. Surely the most electric shades of green I’ve seen outside of New Zealand. The air, as it warms, softens, inviting play.
I was in Sedona, Arizona with a dear friend during the Libra Lunar Eclipse. My first time and although I’d been warned, I was not quite prepared for just how potent the vortexes were. The landscape is otherworldly, iron reddening the cavernous mountains dotted with prickly pear cactus, pine, juniper and agave. It snowed and hailed on our first day. By the third and fourth days, the Sun was shining and I felt simultaneously cocooned and spun, having experienced a string of energy healing sessions that left me both zen and slightly father afield. The fact my Uranus line runs right through Arizona certainly contributed to the feeling. It’s not so different, actually, from how I felt in New Zealand, where my Uranus line also runs. A visitor, not at home, and yet liberated from within.
Returning to Nashville’s yin earth felt like a balm (Nashville is on my Neptune line), even amidst the continued heightened energy of Eclipse Season. How influential is Astrocartography? How accurate?
I (unintentionally) moved to Los Angeles, my Pluto and Mars lines, just before undergoing a tumultuous decade of Pluto Transits, moved to New Zealand (my Uranus line) during a significant Uranus transit and came to Nashville (my Neptune line) while Neptune is opposing my Sun. The latter two moves were not predicated on the astrology, but it’s been wild to watch it all play out - and as a tool for greater attunement to a place.
I’ve noticed, for example, that my eyes and my body aren’t always aligned. I had painted my bedroom a deep boudoir pink eleven months ago, only to find myself activated and unsettled by the color. Daniel painted it white (Sea Salt by Portola), and I was overwhelmed by just how different the space feels (although upgrading to an Avocado King mattress may also have played a part). This applies, too, to physical location, which is part of why I love travel so much. What are the scents and sounds and colors that bring me alive, that ground, that inspire? What land formations or waterways calm? What are the people like? Do I feel connected? It requites a degree of sensitivity which I’ve found myself leaning more into over the years, a slowing down. It’s never just one thing, never just one aspect.
On this Aries Solar Eclipse: Purifying fire, cardinal action, eclipsing in and eclipsing out. Mercury is Retrograde and we’re returning to ourselves. Our true selves, purging that which complicates and unnecessarily consumes. There’s no need for the fear that’s been stoked. It’s all very thrilling and possible and full. What’s next, we ask? Not off in the future next, now next. What’s right in front of us? What’s our point of action? We don’t need to know where it all leads. It’s a fallacy to think we can. It’s also a distraction. We learn as we go. Strike while the iron’s hot. So much noise out there, pulling us here or pushing us there. Who is it all for? Have we lost touch with our instincts, our primal selves, conditioned out of self trust and self knowing? Have we lost our way? We’re gaining it back, we’re getting on track. There’s excitement here, fueled by willingness and game. This can’t be planned out. It must be lived, felt, experienced, known. Moment to moment, presence. The Jupiter-Uranus Conjunction is closing in, expect the unexpected, let the windfalls come. It’s all about our relationship to the unknown. Can we change? We, not the world, not someone or something out there, we, I. Change starts within, cracks us open, alters our perspective, our world. Beginners mind, again and again. No one is coming to save us, can we save ourselves? Fire in our bellies, determined (Mars conjunct Saturn). It’s a whole big gorgeous mess of a world we’re living in. Let’s not let the media - with its clickbait currency - convince us it’s all rot. There is so much good, so much beauty, so much heart. What a shame it would be to let it all pass us by.
Some prompts:
What themes are currently present in my life? What conversations or thoughts am I having more of lately?
What was happening in April of 2023 and further back in 2005, during the last set of these Eclipses?
Is there a thread here? Can I see or find any correlation between what was occurring then, and what is occurring now?
What, if anything, needs to change in my life? What changes are bubbling up?
What’s in the way?
What actions, however small, help activate these changes, step through the blocks, and move me past my comfort zone?
Let me know how you all are faring during this time and what you’ve noticed about your relationship to place and Astrocartography?
xxDani