Dear Friend and Reader:
This is Beltane weekend; some Celtic folklore regards the entire month of May as Beltane, the festival of spring. Here is an article from a few years back that coves the subject well, and here is another that reviews all of the Quarter Days and Cross Quarter Days.
The Moon is in Sagittarius, picking up fire and air energy and finally crossing over the Galactic Center late Saturday night; it will be in Sagittarius until Sunday morning when it ingresses Capricorn at 6 am sharp ET (3 am in California, 11 am in the UK, noon in Europe, and late Sunday night in Oz). The Moon will make a nice sextile to Chiron as it enters Capricorn. Ceres has stationed retrograde just shy of Pluto in early Capricorn, though the two are close and making the same basic transits in your natal chart.
The Saturn-Uranus opposition is still at full strength, though technically it was exact (for the 4th time) Tuesday. Uranus in Pisces is in direct motion, as is Jupiter in Pisces — both are headed for a conjunction in early June in the first degree of Aries — the Aries Point. Though this astrology is ‘in the future’ we are under its influence today.
That influence is: a moment of renewal on a cosmic scale; a new idea about Life, and Self, and The World — it’s like a trump card coming out of the astrological deck, one that you see only every 75 years or so. That sounds like the old definition of jubilee.
Meantime, for a bit of the Beltane spirit, here is The Mummer’s Dance from Loreena McKennitt.
Have a great weekend, and if you have any thoughts, please share them in the comment area below.
Yours & truly,
Ha, that’s funny, my brother (of whom I spoke earlier) and I when were 6/7 years old used to watch a show on local tv real early in the morning before the parents woke up called Jubilee Showcase. we loved it, so over the top, a lot of afros and gold and smiles and rhythm… we dance like crazy fucks around it… haha (more plutonian 4th house memories from hypnotic)
Jude, you rock…
2000 was a jubilee year. A heavily footnoted Wikipedia article is saying it’s the 49th or 50th year of the cycle. This conflicts with Arthur Joseph Kushner telling me it was the 75th year but he told me a while ago and I may be misremembering. Here is that article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubilee_%28Biblical%29#Length_of_the_Jubilee_cycle
Oh yes, for sure we must all have our story on this ( and just as surely my mother never ever “came”) My brother was one of those so-called “mistakes” dispite my father’s (apparent mis-) use of condoms. He was followed with me as soon as possible in order to “get it all over with”. Seems we’re in a long moment to rid ourselves of parental myths, as Len suggested – whether they be our biological parents or those that have been in places of authority in our larger world.
Time for a mummer’s dance,
xo
Mistakenly posted this to the next entry…
I was a honeymoon kid – catcholic style. Years ago Planet Waves teamed up for a feature called, “Did Your Mom Come Too?” — recounting our conception stories.
Here it is:
http://www.ericfrancis.com/issues/0212/momcome.html
Great word, jubilee, Eric — great concept. Thanks for bringing it back around. A new idea about life and Self and the world is EXACTLY what I’m longing for.
Linda, I’ve been where you are in the crunch between Mom/Pop satisfaction and corporate sellout and you have my empathy. Until we get an ethical understanding of commerce, the Suits will always be hucksters. And if you think this is painful for you, think about the balancing act going on in your boss’s soul. It’s good to hear you sound so positive and determined. If you trust your heart it will take you where you need to be.
Hypnotic, my Grandmother used to tell the story [endlessly] about how she tried to abort my Dad. She was a clueless sort and while my Dad came close, again and again, to overcoming that mythology ultimately he chose to hold victimization close to his heart. Now he’s a cranky old Tea Bagger. Me, I was conceived on the briefest of war-time honeymoons despite protection, and when my Dad came home, radiated at Bikini Atoll in early bomb testing, there were no more kids for my folks. Biology makes the way and soul takes the opportunity. HOW we got here ain’t all that — THAT we got here is the whole game. And once we arrive, it’s our turn to SHINE.
Don’t mean to blog-whore, but my recent post at Jude’s Here speaks to some of this and includes this quote from Sister Joan C., which … given the news and energy of the day … seems useful to the Big Picture:
“Darkness deserves gratitude. It is the alleluia point at which we learn to understand that all growth does not take place in the sunlight.”
As I watch the dreadful pictures of birds and sea creatures fouled by this latest oil spill, I think of all the kids taking this to heart and making internal contract NOT to allow this into their future.
“There’s no rainbow without the rain” is not a comforting thought during this global deluge of corruption and misjudgment, but as with Beltane’s promise of Spring, we can anticipate its arrival in a new awareness of our responsibilities and choices.
Jubilee — the best word EVER! Happy Beltane, loved ones.
Jude
http://judeshere.wordpress.com/
for the wee ones and the elders….
Summer is a comin’ in, loudly sing cucoo
Groweth seed and bloweth mead
And springeth wood anew
Sing cucoo!
Ewes are bleating after lambs
And loweth calf and cow
Bullock starteth buck to verteth
Merry sing cucoo!
Cucoo, cucoo
Wellst now sing thou cucoo
Oh cease thee never now!
Happy Beltane!
Well, we could travel sideways from those depths, hypnotic…..
I just got home from work and found a 4 foot high cactus (sans pot) hanging out in my bathroom. Given I live in Sydney, Australia where cactus are a tad rare, this came as a rather surreal surprise. I knew my 19 year old son had a party last night – what a result!
But it kinda fit with the strangeness from yesterday when my boss gathered all 18 of us staff together and told us he had just sold the company to a publicly listed corporation and that we would all have to sign ‘workplace agreements’ if we wanted to keep our jobs.
We were all stunned as we staggered out of the 100 year old funeral home that we had come to feel was our tribe and vocation in life. Where the owner of 42 years regalled us with tales of entrepreneurial freedom and railed against the corporatisation of the funeral industry. Wow. Given enough money, any moral standpoint is for sale.
We now have sales targets for coffin sales in our future. Do you know how immoral it feels to do a subtle manipulative sales pitch to a person who is grieving and in shock? And to think only 6 months ago I was asking the guy if we could meet the future by becoming a non-profit funeral home. In my dreams, obviously.
This is a fork in the road. How badly do I need the money? Not that badly. How scary is it to contemplate finding work at age 57? Not as scary as selling out.
Here’s to all of us who may need the courage of our convictions.
Takin’ no shit in Sydney! No siree.
L
my mom told me that she was happy when she knew I was coming. I would make a good playmate for my brother who was just a year old (also a “mistake”). He was suddenly killed in auto accident at the age of 10. She told me it was ‘me’ she woke up and got through the day for. so. sorry to take this thread to such painful depths! haha that’s hypnotic for ya….
love you
happy beltane :p
Thank you.
I am at a point where I must embrace my “precious life” as a “school of hard knocks”. But, on the other hand, I could have offered so much more, and could be so much further than I am right now and I weep. I struggle with that balance between wasted years and “I’m great now because of all my fuck ups”…. :YOu gave me something real to meditate on for the holiday.. and comfort…
blessings all…
xoxo
Hypnotic,
I too extend a hand. Here’s a quote from Al Franken that I’ll take some liberty with:
“Appreciate .. mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons …”
It seems to me that your role in the situation that haunts you is that of ‘Precious Life’.
Embrace yourself! No better time than this.
With love,
Linda
hypnotic,
i ask you to consider not believing that story. i do not believe you were a mistake. Our parents are only part of the mystery.
How lovely Len! I was a mistake.
i was conceived at Beltaine. That’s not just counting backward from my birthday. That’s how my mom recounted it to me. As such, this time of year, more than any other, says “life on earth” for me.
As W.C. Fields once said about sex, so i would say about Beltane “Thare are some things better. There are some things worse. But there’s nothing quite like it.”
Many thanks and blessings to Eric and the Planet Waves Community.