January 15, 2008

Hello Darling Ones, I hope you are enjoying life in the year 2008.  It has one BIG thing going for it—it’s NOT 2007!

Astrology is not numerology, and I am ignorant of the meaning of the numbers beyond the basics, but our preceding year, 2007, was a 9 year (2 + 7 = 9) and nines (in the Tarot system) are The Hermit.  The Hermit, (trump card  #9) is the card of wisdom, patience, harvest, learning and (often) insight that comes from suffering.  (sigh) Why does it always take suffering?

The Hermit tells us that we will reap what we sew, he is a wise man, a teacher and he constantly refers to our challenging experiences as “life’s lessons”.  You know how you feel in a reading when you hear that something will be a LESSON, right?  (Hint: most people turn pale)  Besides, if “we” are reaping what we sew, and we have sewn ourselves into a challenging tapestry in the last few years!

The numbers (and the Tarot cards) are logical, sequential and they develop as they go.  We start with a 1, and end on a 9.  We began to weave our last “ tapestry” in 1999. (1+9+9+9=28=10=1)  As we look back upon these last years, one thing certainly stands out—those years were ones that have been influenced by the ill effects of FEAR,  those effects being war, greed and detachment from each other’s pain, suffering and needs.  Did we do our Hermit thing and learn anything? If there’s one thing that would be WISE to have learned, it is to participate—a Democracy means that ‘the Decider’ is US (We The People)…not a profiting corporation or some weak and frightened person at the helm of our ship, sailing us off the edge of the world.   

So 2008, you see, adds up to 10, yet another 1 again.  We are back at the beginning, once more spinning our Wheel of Fortune in Tarot language—and the numbers tell us that we are ready for a change!

The Wheel is drawn many ways in the hundreds of decks you will see, but the one that I use, the Crowley (Thoth) deck, gives the image of three ‘beings’ on Fortune’s wheel.  There is a Monkey, an Alligator and The Sphinx.  They suggest to us that in changing our fortunes, we must be 1) flexible like the monkey, 2) reach for new opportunities and have patient timing like the alligator, and be 3) willing to change long-standing patterns, like The Sphinx.  If we are inflexible, dogmatic and unwilling to change, it will stop the wheel from turning.  CHANGE is what operates the wheel, and positive change is what makes a positive result occur! 

That said, what do we want this change to be this year?  Well, one of my favorite quotes on life came from Julia Child…she said, “A recipe is only as good as the integrity of its ingredients”.  If we want our lives to be more honest, prosperous, loving and opportunity-filled, then we must use those ingredients and create those very things for All.  We do this first by believing it’s possible, and then VOTING for it.   Whatever recipe we want, WE are responsible for the ingredients we use.  We currently find ourselves at a beginning point—co-incidentally, once more at an election point (humm) so we choose again…choose wisely, Grasshoppers—vote your hopes, not your fears!  

(Listen, I must mention that this Wheel of Fortune year is for your own PERSONAL creative benefit--I was reminded by son, Gabe and spouse Wally that there's more to life than politics--sorry, I've been a bit obcessed lately.  It's THE year to dare to dream--and to ACT on it!)

Okay, so what changes do I wish to create this new year?  Got an hour?  Yeah, I got suggestions, but that’s just me—what about you?

You who have had readings have most likely been subject to my opinion (ahem) of what Earth is.  It is, I believe, a well-stocked Amusement Park.  You have every manor of ride and experience.  You’re here at the park for a while, then you ‘go home’.  If that’s so, (and it’s just a theory) then WE, each of us, are ‘responsible’ for our ‘day at the park’.  When it is a Wheel year, we set the tone for the next course of rides. 

So, coming up--do we really want to do the big Global Warming ride?  It comes with a great tidal wave effect and crashing building sequence.  What about the Endless War ride?  You can practice ahead for that one with your home video game—wantonly killing ‘insurgents and immigrants’ and you get to be God’s chosen ones!  Of course, we could always do the Global Co-operation ride, but it’s not very popular and besides, you have to listen to It’s A Small World After All played over and over again.

Anyway, besides The Tarot, here in AstrologyLand, it’s a big year too.  January 25th Pluto will enter Capricorn for the first time in 248 years (remember it was there last in the years when we were forming the US Constitution?  Remember that wonderful old, dusty, unused document that really had something going for it?) hey—maybe these aspects will bring it back into popularity and we can USE it again?

You know, everything spins around and around again, that’s the way it IS with a wheel.

Anyway, just wanted to say, “Hi”, let you know that I’m still here (slightly crazy—this Pluto aspect you know) and that I alternate between ‘high hopes’ and ‘hopelessness’.  Which one will it stop on?  I guess I just might have something to do with that, eh?

Happiest of Wheel of Fortune years to YOU!