In the Background

While all these little day to day things are happening - getting in the wood, the mail being put in the wrong mailbox - there are all the underlying major transits going on, not to mention progressions which I haven't yet gone near.

For me, the biggie long-term aspects happening now are Pluto square Chiron (third transit just passed, never to happen again), Uranus opposed to Jupiter (just exact retrograde, exact again January 8, 2009, but who's counting?), Pluto trine Venus (exact for the third and last time November 19, 2008) and the dreaded Chiron to the Moon, exact for the last time January 11, 2009.

The first pass of Chiron to the Moon coincided with the first pass of Uranus opposed to Jupiter in March of this year. My beloved Fluff, never a particularly domesticated cat, manifested the U/J for me by running away to join the circus, while Chiron to the Moon became the gut-wrenchingly horrible weeks of putting up posters, setting a humane trap night after night, driving around looking for him, etc. etc. (Sweet Pea is the result of returning the trap to the animal shelter and making the mistake of going to the boys' room to see if Fluff was there.)

I manifested my own Jupiter/Uranus let-me-out-of-here by getting my 19-foot-long ancient Volvo stuck in between the compost and lava-rock aisles in Walmart's garden section, and then having to sit looking as nonchalant as possible while garden man went off to get a forklift to move some of the compost. Felines ten, humans one.


Second pass of Chiron to the Moon coincided with transiting north node in the eleventh, and I found myself going to a beginner's line dancing class at the senior center (!) here in Silver City, NM. Thirty women, one extraordinarily brave man. I had a tenant for two months in the summer who was born eight days after me in 1945, so we had much (by no means everything) in common and it was she, Miss Moon in Gemini interested in everything, who told me about the line dancing classes. On the day the Chiron/Moon conjunction was exact, I was dancing in bare feet, as I'd dropped a large rock on my left little toe while engaging in what is laughingly known here as gardening, and several women I had never spoken to before came up to me and expressed concern I'd damage my feet by not wearing shoes. (Uranus in Pisces is also in eleven for me now.)

With the transiting north node now moving on beyond my natal Moon, it's more and more difficult to get myself to those twice-weekly classes - I missed today but it wasn't my fault ha ha - but I'm doing the best I can, read maybe I'll go on with it, maybe I won't. Like Diana with her face on the tea towels though, I've bought the dancing shoes, so maybe I will.

The second U/J pass a few weeks ago sent a cat I've never seen before strolling across the driveway and a neighbor calling to tell me he'd found a kitten outside his back door, and I sometimes wonder if the third and final opposition will bring Fluff back. I heard so many "my cat went missing and came back after three/six/nine months" stories I can almost let myself think he'll reappear.

When it comes to Pluto trine Venus, my hands come off the keyboard and I sit here staring at the screen. I was fortunate enough to study astrology with Michael Lutin. Along with "Healing the past and living in the present creates the future" and "The slowest moving planet wins", "Read the fine print" is one of the many things he said that's stuck in my brain ever since. Unless I'm falling in love with the Sweet Pea, I think I need to move up to 2.5s.