Friday, September 16, 2011

The Prodigal Blogger

I've been a bad blogger. I've literally lost track of time, since time is the theme of this website. Where have I been? I ask myself. I've been having a Saturn return, I've traveled to Berlin and Calgary and Michigan, I've been excited and homesick and then home.

It takes a while after getting home before I truly land here, before I reoccupy my life. And this blog seems to require stability, maybe because it is about time, about the structure and boundaries of our lives. Although time moves, it also encases us. It's the language in which we write our stories, and language both limits and creates, demands and allows.

A lot has happened in the world, in the seven months since I've written here. Tens of thousands of people in Japan have vanished, swept away by a giant wave. Arab Spring became a longer, harder Arab summer, especially in Libya. And on a day when there were six planets in Aries, the sign of warriors, the U.S. got its revenge on Osama Bin Laden.

The War on Terror continues, a double negative that never ventures towards anything positive. Currently, in the US, both Congress and State Department lawyers are debating "the law of war". Can we rain bombs just about anywhere, or do they have to be aimed at a particular bigshot in an organization that clearly hates us?

There's only one planet in Aries these days, and it's Uranus, planet of revolution. Across the wheel is Saturn, the planet of responsiblity, and it's in Libra, the sign of peace, cooperation, relationship, and law. So war and law are ranged across from each other, vying for dominance. Uranus in Aries pushes for fierce, violent solutions that will put us on top, while Saturn in Libra keeps a cooler head, citing civilized standards.

And then there's Pluto, which stands for the shadow elements in each of us, and in our society. Pluto is squaring Uranus, egging it on. There are enemies everywhere, even if we can't see them. We hack off a head, and another grows in its place, and we have no choice but to keep hacking.

However, the Uranus/Pluto square is going out of orb in a few days, as Uranus retrogrades and Pluto moves forward. This square will form again next spring, and intermittently through the next four years, so we haven't passed through this turbulent time yet. But for now, for the fall and winter, things should calm down a little. The appetite for blood is diminishing.

It helps that Jupiter is now occupying the earth sign Taurus, a sign that builds strong foundations, that resists change, and that is fixated on the status quo. Jupiter in Taurus can be stagnant, but in such a tense time, this placidity is welcome - until next spring, when it leaves this sign just as the Uranus/Pluto square returns.

And for myself? By staying in one place for a while, I create both space and time. I build stronger, more stable moments, and hours that will serve as foundations for other hours.

This is how we survive eras of change. By appreciating the moment, by claiming it for our own essential purposes. I can't promise to suddenly turn from a bad blogger to a good blogger. But I do want to spend a little more time understanding the messages of days and hours, of sunrises and sunsets, of pulse and breath and heartbeat. I want to listen to it, decipher it, and someday learn to speak in the tongue of time.