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.: Half Birthdays, Scary Numbers, And Luner Eclipses :.

I was born on December 11. So was my Chihuahua. This means that on June 11 of every year, I celebrate my "half birthday". June 11th is the date when I officially become 28 and 1/2. It's always sort of an occasion to take stock, evaluate how the first half of that particular year of my life has gone, etc.

This year I have viewed the advent of my half birthday with special interest. Within the last six months, I feel as if I crossed some unseen border into a new territory of greater maturity and responsibility. Also, my dog will be turning 6 months old, a milestone in her young life. It has just felt like a very signifigant date to me, for some reason.

Then today, I read something in my favorite weekly column. She had opened the column with an observation of how the whole world seems to be in total chaos and turmoil, how everything appears to be shifting, changing, uncertain...that all the institutions we rely on for comfort and protection and guidance are shaking...then she said:


"As I watch I think of the comment of a friend whose sister lives in an ashram in Washington state. Her swami, a follower of an Indian form of astrology, has announced that June 10 and 11 will be cataclysmic for the world. She called her brother, my friend, to tell him that she loved him. My friend tells me all this and we look at each other and know what the other is thinking: I don't believe in swamis and I don't believe in Indian astrology, but June 11 is nine months after 9/11, and the enemy seems to like nines. We both sort of breathed in and out again. Should we avoid cities on those dates? We live in a time in which we constantly have to try to find the line between paranoia and prudence, between superstition and sensitivity to the weirdness that reigns.

One has a sense of a quickening of history, of a gathering of its forces, of things hurtling toward some unknown end." -- Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal


I feel that, too. It's not something I have been able to verbalize, but this weird pulse of the world around me is hard to ignore - not to mention what has been going on in my silent inner life. And my half birthday is coming.

I wondered what her astrologer friend was referring to, what planetary alignment is shaping up to cause such concern. So I surfed over to my favorite unconventional astrologer to see what he had to say about everything. This is from his weekly newsletter:


Dear Uproarious Spirits, Secret Bodhisattvas, Covert Operators, and Wily Rebels,

For months, traditional astrologers everywhere have been freaking out about the opposition of Pluto and Saturn that came to a head on May 25. Some of them are a little sheepish that no Dire Tragedy befell the world, though to cover their tracks, most want to keep the state of Red Alert up through the solar eclipse of June 10.

As one of the rare, rebellious prophets who rejects my colleagues' addiction to doom and gloom, I am of course pleased that for now the forces of zoom and boom are holding their own. On the other hand, I would never be so arrogant as to suggest that we have permanently dodged a bolt of chaos. Primal, relentless uncertainty is a given about our lives here on Earth! No matter what the astrological aspects are, you can trust that the Goddess is always cooking up some tricky new scheme to freshen up her gorgeous creation with a wrinkle we've never before heard of or imagined.

I say, let's figure out a way to love the uncertainty. It ain't going away any time soon. I would never begrudge anyone their inalienable right to worry about anything and everything, but how about if we start working more diligently to cultivate our inalienable right to thrive on Eternal, Ceaseless Change? In my opinion, it's what the Goddess wants us to do.

Let's also remember that every challenge is a rich invitation to deepen your soul and become more of who you really are. Even if the opposition of Saturn and Pluto did not detonate [Your Worst Fantasy of Global Crisis Here], it may have twisted your personal fate in ways you don't regard as comfortable. But I say unto you: What if that's a good thing? What if that twist is prodding you to claim a birthright you've ignored all these years? -- Rob Breszny, Free Will Astrology


A different take on the situation than Ms. Noonan's Vedic followers had, certainly, but the underlying message is disturbing: the Very Bad Thing might just well happen, but it might be a good thing in disguise, if it serves as a needed wake up call to get those affected to use it as a catalyst for positive transformation.

Sounds like what's been going on in my personal life, again.

So I checked my weekly horoscope on the same site and, ding ding ding:


SAGITTARIUS (Nov 22-Dec 21)

Week of June 6, 2002

It's time for your unbirthday, Sagittarius, that nervous holiday halfway between your birthdays when you suddenly acquire the supernatural power to read your own mind. To celebrate, I suggest three actions: Try to see the world through the eyes of people who are most unlike you; aggressively mess with mysteries that have always threatened to make you feel like a failure; and pull off a ballsy new rebellion against yourself every day. During your unbirthday season, you should ask millions of questions, especially this one: How can you know what you are unless you experiment with being what you're not?


I understand how this applies to my own life perfectly.

Yet...

I am apprehensive. I am waiting for test results to come back re: a medical matter, and the superstitious part of me (and it's a big vocal part of me with a lot of power over my life) keeps whispering to hold off, not to do anything until I get final assurance that I am ok.

Maybe I am challenged to stop listening to it and to do what I feel like I need to do anyway, superstition be damned. I need to move forward.

Finally, about all of these world events...well...I only half believe in astrology, but...what if this is one of those things that is just crazy enough to be true? And while I don't have total confidence in astrology as the ultimate truth, I do believe in the collective unconcious. I think that sometimes astrology is just a method used by people who are highly tuned in to the group mind to pick up and decode messages for the rest of us.

So what is about to happen? Maybe something, maybe nothing, probably not what anyone expects, but I think it's a good time to pray a little more for ourselves and each other...and say one for me, while you're at it.

I'll post more info about this if I find it.

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.: 12:43 P.M. :.
.: Friday, Jun. 07, 2002 :.

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