Pluto's long transit through the 12th House

The sun rose, peeking through the trees. I stepped from the porch of the vardo, looked at the newly birthed light, stopped to chant E A LA E, welcoming Ka La. Another day. My voice crackled, I was congested and surprised with the halting sound I was making. Though by the calendar fall begins in eight sunrises, the kilo (observations) says "It's fall now." Autumn is beautiful, the sun is not as strong as summer's rays. Most of the Alder leaves are on the forest floor. We shiver outside when we leave the comfort of the covers.

Orange organic Vog Mask 
Hover over the image for Vog Mask's Mission

Vog Mask on Utah mom and babe

This is an update, to a post I wrote in 2013 about the planet Pluto's long transit through the houses of an astrological chart. Thanks to you, my readers, I saw that the old post was being read often. I reread it myself. Part of what I wrote was:

"I woke from sleep shivering. Yes, it's cold outside but the cold was coming from inside. Coming from the deep sadness. So often, these captive feelings find their way into the fiction I write, the myth converts the unthinkable into truth. The story transforms. And, it will probably go there into the mythic page, but for now the dream wants me to put it down as chronicle. Like my astrologer, Elsa P. I have the planet Pluto transiting my 12th House. The transit began just about now, 5 years ago. December, 2008. Pete and I were living in the basement "Kitchenette". The years of digging deep, hiding when appropriate and surviving [and believing] we could thrive again had begun..."  

Now, I see that the Pluto transit through my 12th House began not 5 years earlier in December 2008, but did instead start in early 2004, when I sold my family home. What does that have to do with anything? Well, at this time Pluto is retrograde, giving all of us a final look at what secrets and systems need to 'die' be let go. Pluto is still in my 12th House where digging deep, discovering secrets, and hiding when appropriate to thrive another day are all still the orders of the day. The planet has progressed, and the work of the deep sadness and learning from these captive feelings has found its way into the fiction I write. The story does transform. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, at the cave's opening. Like the look and feel of a Fall Sunrise, it's not summer but it is fall, and there is hope I survive ... different, no doubt, and thriving possibly.

Yesterday I was communicating with a trusted friend about writing, astrology, and our saga of moving.

" I write these issues into the medicine stories, and call it mythic memoir and with Pluto still retrograde in my 12th House the truth of that is so deep. The blows have been so many and continue. I had to take a full time out yesterday, called my old therapist and as she suggested "allowed myself to feel the pain" rather than attempt one more solution, or another plan just yet.
My remedy for this long Pluto transit through the 12th has been to write my way through. Blog after blog since 2008 with the transit in the 12th starting in 2004 when I sold my family home. With Virgo's transit into Libra the attempts at moving and finding a new home are difficult, painful realizations for pirates like myself and Pete, who live outlaw lives because I am sick with an illness society would rather deny and the vardo we built is illegal according to code (as is homelessness inthis country) because it does not contribute to the economic machine."

My friend wrote: "That Pluto transit is so long, and the 12th house for sure is not for sissies.  You are one of the bravest Warriors I know, for you're not afraid to take a stand on our disintegrating society.  Or perhaps it's more that you are simply not constitutionally able to avoid doing that." Reading her message was an affirming moment, she had asked how life was with me/us and I rambled on about it warning her upfront in my email to stop there if you wasn't ready for 'Moki's Inferno." She proceeded, read the entire diatribe, and held my crazy as witness with no platitudes. I appreciate this very much! 

While Pluto hovers (now) over the final degrees of Capricorn in the 12th House (the ASCendent or horizon) in my astrological chart I take my friend's observations to heart and talk it through with Pete. We reconnoiter and consider our next steps. Do I take a stand because I am a warrior, or is it that I am simply not constitutionally (or astrologically) able to avoid doing that? It may be one of the final secrets to dig up and expose to the light of a fall and winter sun. Pluto will finally emerge from my 12th House in mid-January, 2017. I wonder what my stories will be like then, and, will I trade in my I Can Breathe Mask for a Vog Mask as I take a stand?

Doing the work of an elder in training

Fall is the season of harvest, time to pick and put-up the beans, shuck the ears of corn, eat the rest of the tomatoes, juice the apples, store the keeper apples through the winter, pick the winter squash and make delicious orange colored-spiced soups. All the yummy things that started with seed have ripened.

Pete and I have been busy harvesting our life that began when we built Vardo For Two eight years ago. The harvest and the work at this point is big, worthy of makua o'o who are seasoned with experience yet humble in knowing there is always the mystery and the mystery is not a pray-and-go easy payment plant. It's a "Pray to Allah. Tether your camel" kind of approach.

I'm writing about this season of harvest and readjustments on The Safety Pin Cafe. It's the place where the issues and reality of living with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, and the laws in this country (America) regarding legal definitions of "housing" can be thrashed out. I thrash through the issues as Pete and I clean up the physical surroundings and prepare to hitch-up. We built our sleeping hut on wheels with faith in a power greater than ourselves. Na Akua, our gods are good. But we have our part to do, too.

We're tying the camel, and doing the work. The makua o'o uses those Nine Tools again and again and like Pete reminds me choosing the right tool for the job is more than half the job.

The Informant Is the latest post on The Safety Pin Cafe, and connects a recently released documentary "Karl Marx City" with two Washington state news articles/posts dealing with laws about housing and homelessness. This all started with a dream I wasn't sure I could wake from.

The tools of the Makua o'o used: all nine

Venus enters Libra is one of those post I write with astrology framing a broadly applied picture. I had a dream that woke me up.

The tools of the Makua o'o used: In particular, #1. Notice and #4 Soften the ground of your being

Spider Bite was a way to acknowledge the guardian getting my attention.

Which tool or tools was/were used or using me you think?

There is some evidence of ripening 
This was a ramble of words and experiences that I specifically likened to Spider pulling silk to make her web. Pete and I had just been through a second negotiation for a safe place to be for the fall and winter. The prairie and the community were not the place. We thought they were not ready for us. But, perhaps we were not ready for them?

The tools of the Makua o'o used: All Nine

There are other posts on The Safety Pin Cafe chronicling our Fall of doing the work ... if you are curious about the ongoing, and seasonal work of an elder in training please take a look, I'll be there.

Aloha kakou,
Mokihana

Rap and Ramble

While Pete and I clean up and prepare ourselves to move from the woods, I'm writing Rap, and Rambling on over at The Safety Pin Cafe.

Updated 8/17/2016
For a while I'll probably be writing at The Safety Pin Cafe about the unfoldings and walking through the fog, 

Po 'ole (the 'Ole phase, the quarter moon phase): kicking back

We've been busy  and needed some re-tuning from the temptation to get stressed out. Today and tonight is a  Po 'Ole, an 'Ole Moon phase (Mahalo nui to Kalei Nu'uhiwa for correcting my Hawaiian) in the Hawaiian Lunar Calendar. A good time to kick back, re-tune, re-assess and kilo (observe) the little things that make for a happy feeling of being in the flow. Small bits of joy, like this Mo'o (lizard) riding an open G.

Something to enjoy! Mahalo ckb.

Kakou mind

Kakou. We (plural, inclusive)
Kakou mind. to think in terms of we/us

Just received the latest Podcast of Leo Kupa, E Ho'olono mai from our son Kawika and Hui Mauli Ola. This one features Keola Souza who talks about Mākau Kino- returning to kanaka ʻōiwi ways of learning to restore mana and maintain pono.

The thing that continues to inspire and recharge me is the exuberance and timely messages that my husband and I receive from these teachings. Open to receive and learn everyday is super important. To keep open channels from the young(er) than we are with a new spin on Ancestral Wisdom, that is a great experience. 

The Kakou Lessons Keola shares was just the bait this old tuna(ahi) needed. Listen closely as this young Kanaka teacher shares one of his favorite 'Olelo No'eau late in the podcast. 

Mahalo nui loa hiapo and hui.

Thank you

"We cross borders without regard, ignorant or arrogant of the protocol native to the transitional spaces that take us from this place to that place. Traditions remembered and practiced would maintain and pass along the right things to do, at the right time, and in the right frame of mind. Have we all become wanderers with passports unstamped with the memory of teachings from the Ancestors and Nature? There are rituals to remember and common magic to induce respect and reverence for the beings and places that share this planet."

 - The 'Introduction' to the medicine story The Safety Pin Cafe

So, as Pete and I dig into the corners to dust and shuffle through the gathered this-and-that's of our lives, tossing the rubble and packing the precious, and make room for our next beautiful place and welcoming communities on Haumea we remember the rituals and the protocol ... we give thanks for what we have, what we have had, and those seen and invisibles who have made it possible. These pictures don't identify you all, but know we aloha all of you. Pardon us if we forgot and left anyone out.

Hover over the pictures for descriptions.


Mahalo nui loa kakou,
Mokihana and Pete

P.S. Just because it makes me smile to see this dimple face bruddah. Let's play with the Ukulele, in this post for giving mahalo nui. "Mastering Difficult Chords" I need this lesson!!

New Moon (in Leo) Road Trip

We tapped into the sun-rich energy of a Leo New Moon, packed up our faithful Subaru "Scout" and headed for the dry country tides of Sisters, Oregon. After six beautiful years of rooting and building community in South Whidbey Island, we are spurred to find a new place to continue our Safety Pin Cafe Lifestyle. We have just unpacked from a four day road trip and are reassured that there is indeed more to being on this beautiful planet.

The photos here show where we have been: "Dry Country Tideland." We were welcomed to a beautiful place in the Sisters desert to visit a friend, and the Pack of four dogs who are the inspiration for the canine characters in Beatrix Blunt. At 3,000 feet elevation, the shift in environment is dramatic. Sparse vegetation, dry air, heat and canyon breezes teach me how to sense anew with reverence and respect for who and what is there. I introduce myself to the beings of this dry country and let them hear my voice. My lungs and sinuses clear, breath comes easier, differently, with the dry country tides. It is that ease in breathing I had come to experience.

Hover over the photos for a description.

Our route north, from Sisters took us through the beautiful big rolling hills and ancient spaces of this great 'aina, the land. When we were new to the vardo, our tiny home on wheels, we traveled this same route out of Bend, Oregon where we visited with our same friend and parked in a horse pasture for several weeks. We wished to be with that route again, and were blessed with a comfortable temperature, relatively empty roads, and awe inspiring kilo (observations) that have grown in perception and layered in knowledge. Thanks to many years of living with Mahina and her path of Kaulana (the Hawaiian Moon Calendar) our connection to natural moon cycles has fine-tuned our practice. We notice so much more. We are grateful. Mahalo Na Akua.

The new cycle of Mahina has begun. We are thankful for the experience of being able and willing to open up those safety pins long enough to re-pin them into a future of caring and service, and sharing The Safety Pin Cafe in its evolving nature. We have some new perspectives to fold into our reality. There's plenty to juggle and some of it's not solid. Satori wrote this about the astrology of this new day:

"Thursday morning the Moon hits Virgo, sextiling Juno in Scorpio then moving into conjunction with Mercury. Early on, find your emotional focus point and power up. Steady yourself but stay ready to shift to keep balance. It’s complicated by the Moon’s brief square to Mars in Sagittarius. Don’t bolt: settle. Settle your mood regardless of what needs doing... Read the rest

E Ola. Here's to life, and many thanks to our friends Leslie, Tony and the Pack for the hospitality!