What would you say to your seven year old self?

Take care of yourself

— you never know when the world will need you.

Rabbi Hillel

So the Moon continues her companionable journey around our home planet, and we Trackers mark her path noticing the brightness or absence of her light during the night. We seem to be obsessed with keeping track. "When the world was new the Jade Emperor decided to create a calendar. He named the years of his calendar after twelve animals...He chose Rat for his cleverness.,Ox for his strength, Tiger for her fierceness, Rabbit for her gentleness, Dragon for his wisdom, Snake for her cunning, Horse for her swiftness, Ram for his courage, Monkey for her intelligence, Rooster for his beauty, Dog for her loyalty, and Pig for his good nature and common sense."

I wonder about the ways we human beings account for time, giving credence to what we remember and how we remember our history, and decide (or remember) our original magic. When I was in town the other day one of my usual stops is to walk up the short flight of steps into the post office. The glass door reflected the head and hair of someone with wildly white hair on end from the static. It took a few seconds to register. That was my head of hair.

An old friend I have known since we were kids growing up in Kuli'ou'ou Valley on O'ahu sent me a photo. "You and me at seven" the email said. The scan slowly opened that black and white picture. The leaves of a plumeria tree showed first. Then the tops of two dark haired heads. And finally the faces, shoulders, and then the feet -- two bare, two shod.

Me and 'Sandy' at seven years old

Sixty years later those kids have moved from the valley to make lives far from the Kawekiu Rise and Dalene Way neighborhoods. I peer deeply into the little girl who even then seemed serious (and she needed glasses). My friend 'Sandy' was always an inventor and fiddler with tools creating upside-down bicycles and becoming even more facile with his hands. As 'Sandy' and I have renewed an old friendship and kept in touch via email I was incredibly comforted to write him one day, "I have always loved writing and daydreaming. And now, I get to do that all the time." To have a friend after nearly seventy years ...

Rabbi Hillel is right. I would look into that little girl's eyes and tell her, "Take care of yourself-- You never know when the world will need you."

Go play: An intention for New Moon in Virgo, Saturday, September 15, 2012

New Moon, Hilo in the Hawaiian Moon Calendar, is a time when Hina (the moon) rises while the Sun is visible. To the eye, Hina is invisible but it is that soli-lunar synergy that makes Hilo a powerful time to clear the boards and begin anew. A great time to set an intention. I've been feeling so much ... the sorrow and the pain overwhelming; the responsibilities; so many adult decisions, on and on. Something my husband said as we were just waking up made me think again, think and choose again. Choose different. I've been catching myself when I start spinning old tapes or not-enoughness and wrote about a subtle yet powerful shift and movement here.

Elizabeth Spring's suggestion for tapping into the energy of a 5th House North Node has been keeping me company when the old tapes habitually kick-in. Spring writes:

"Your fifth house North Node here wants to have more fun, and to see life as a game worth playing. It can bring out your entrepreneurial and artistic side as well. This Nodal axis wants to get personal—to risk the love affair, to have a child, to express itself creatively. It doesn’t need to get philosophical and talk about saving humanity---how about just one child at a time? And maybe that child could just be your inner child that’s been neglected for awhile..."

 

I have a partner who is no less a Pan or Puck of European folk tales, more like Robin Hood in ways that make me wonder about our fated connection as Nest Builders. He is off for the morning with his tools, doing things most people like to talk about as good deeds to be done. While he goes off to do things with people, I am here enjoying the oatmeal and raisins he cooked up for us. Pete has a lively Jupiter in the 5th House of creativity and spontaneity, so I am gifted with that example every day. Aware that my journey forward in health includes lightening up and playing more I searched for something to encourage that intention. I found this from Wikihow. The article describes how to embrace your inner child and starts with this:

Remember what it was like to be kid, running around without a care in the world? Well, stop remembering and start embracing your inner child! Here are some ideas for reconnecting with the trusting, fun-loving and perceptive part of you that may just have disappeared under piles of hard work and life's trials.

8 Steps follow for the how-to embrace your inner child, and this one is particularly fun:

#6  Never say the phrase "I'm too old". Try "I'm in my middle youth" instead. Tonight's (in the US) Hilo moon is a great time to stop (just) remembering and start embracing my inner child. Some fun is available if I go do it. That Puckish influence is worthy of rescued action. Go, go. Go play, middle youth!

What a difference

It might have been too much sugar and caffeine. Or, it might have been me exploring (exploding!) the fit of the Nodal Shift I made the other day. Regular readers know I study astrology with Elsa Panizzon via her blog ElsaElsa; I am not a astrologer. But, if there are new visitors a bit of history ... At a pivotal time I discovered Elsa on the Internet. She saved my life by telling me in essence "if all your friends are deserting you, you might as well float." The advice was so obtuse it made perfect sense. Struggling with the decay and disease I could not explain nor inoculate against, I began writing (this blog and others); helped my husband build a Gypsy wagon to live in and float through the high tide of Global Warming, sensitivities (in all its manifestations), and kept learning astrology via The Astrology Blog. Elsa was the first astrology blog on the Internet, and has proven to be a source of constancy while encouraging a cyber community that respects diversity and 'respect' in general. I'm one of the old gals who is a regular but 'low-key' contributor. I don't write or post much on her blog but participate when I am inspired by the writing or am particularly 'educated' by an interpretation, and am an appreciative student in Elsa's on-line classrooms. My history with Elsa began in 2008.

Earlier this week something Elsa said began to tickle at me like an itch just below the surface. It's not a new thing for Elsa, but it was a new potential for me. From the Boards a year ago I found this that says something about my ramble today.

Elsa wrote: Lots of people out there who have been at it as long as I have use these other systems. I don't know if they have ever tried equal.  people do get attached to their placements and if they move, people don't like it but I can't tell you how many times I have explained their equal house chart to someone and had them realize it described them, instantly.  It's just a no fail thing for me but I would not stop searching on my word. I am just weighing in.

The link to that Board post will give those who are interested, more discourse about the different House Systems(used or preferred when reading an astrological chart). For me, the shift from reading my astrological chart using the Placidus (uneven house) to Equal Houses does two things right away. First, my Scorpio Sun (that does not change when you change the House system) moves from the 10th to the 11th House. Second, my North Node in Taurus (again that does not change) but it does move my North Node from the 4th to the 5th House. The nodes of the moon are polar opposites and with the shift in the way I interpret my chart I am there with what Elsa wrote above: "I can't tell you how many times I have explained their equal house chart to someone and had them realize it described them, instantly.  It's just a no fail thing for me..." The North and South Node influences are a key marker for my life navigation. I've learned and applied a lot of the writing found at Elizabeth Spring's North Node Astrology website. What I'm experiencing with this Node Node-South Node move is: this feels more like me!

Elizabeth Spring writes about an 11th House South Node, "With the South Node in the 11th house, there’s a chance that you need to move up an octave in choosing friends who support you and your dreams, and also a need to leave behind peer pressure in any of its forms. It’s important for you to become clear on who you are and who you want to spend your time with—move away from the crowds or groups that simply fill your time, and find a few “heart-mates” instead of acquaintances, and look for the community or place where you really belong. Look around a bit, so that you can sit at the right “camp-fire.”  it’s time to take more risks, to reach for center stage, and to develop one’s confidence---even if it means allowing your childlike qualities to come out more, and for you to be more of a “character.” Spring's expertise and focus as an astrologer has taught me to examine the South and North Nodes; I've done that. Using my own chart and the patterns and challenges that come up or repeat themselves it makes sense for me to feel the shift in Houses within the signs for a deeper and clear sense of direction. She goes on to say, "Your fifth house North Node here wants to have more fun, and to see life as a game worth playing. It can bring out your entrepreneurial and artistic side as well. This Nodal axis wants to get personal—to risk the love affair, to have a child, to express itself creatively. It doesn’t need to get philosophical and talk about saving humanity---how about just one child at a time? And maybe that child could just be your inner child that’s been neglected for awhile..."

That's the thing with 'sugar and caffeine' and the explosion that took place over the passed couple of days. Too often I've capped off the childlike character to make peace at all costs. It's not a bad thing -- getting along-- but even that can be taken to excess. I'm feeling so close to defining myself so I can and do find people who will be friends with the me I am today. The journey through is messy, there's no way around it when the answers are down there in the muddle. The fun I wish for has hastened me, that little girl me, to remember a friend with curly red hair and freckles. We used to make up dance routines to songs like HARVEST MOON, and explored the wondrous taboos of breasts on friends who had them when we didn't. So long lost this old friendship. I wonder too often if I was ever that playful girl  with a friend who knew I was creative and goofy. But, I was and I still am. I love to make up stuff, love to dance and hope it's not too late to save that girl child. What a difference a move, a day, can make. Twenty-four little hours. Sing it Esther!