Telluride Inside... and Out

Alacazem 2010.03.04

March 4 to 11, 2010

Visible Planets: Morning: Mercury and Saturn  Evening: Venus and Mars

Cocoon and Self-Nurture, Relax and Rejoice

Last week’s foot of snow is quickly vanishing here on Wrights Mesa. In its place are fields of matted grass and frozen dirt, which turn to mud when temperatures rise. Today the skies are clear and the wind is strong. I’m alone in the house with my three dogs, listening to the chimney whistle and the fire crack.

I’m aware that Spring is on its way. I’m comforted that we’re facing the seasons of lengthening days and warming nights. This morning I cleaned bluebird houses and prepared them for the returning pairs, with hopes I’d see them soon. Yesterday I drove to the West End and watched newborn calves frolic in the slanting afternoon sunlight, curious but close to their mothers and the rich milk upon which their lives depend.

The Pisces/Virgo Full Moon of Feb. 28th has come and gone, followed by the very recent [Mar. 3rd @ 9:06 p.m. MST] conjunction of Venus and Uranus, also in Pisces. Issues of camaraderie, inter-connectedness, chaos and creation were balanced with the need for order and organization, work and health. Romantic and financial relationships popped up in new shape and form, themes of freedom and variety ran rampant. We were awakened to the overall necessity for and collective paradigms of unity in diversity and liberty in responsibility.

Alacazem 2010.02.25

February 25 to March 4, 2010
Visible Planets: Morning: Mercury and Saturn  Evening: Venus and Mars

The Pisces/Virgo Full Moon and the Collective Chaos of our Co-Creating Cosmos

“When the gods are crazy, when the world seems to have gone insane, when there seems to be nowhere to turn, we have to look inside our own hearts to find what is true, what matters, and what can never be taken away.” – Stephanie Austin, The Mountain Astrologer, Issue #149 Feb/Mar 2010.

Returning from Mexico and jumping in to the process of “re-entry” here in los Estados Unidos – the United States – I am impressed by the whirling, swirling creative chaos of our current cultural condition and conditioning. Living without a television or an internet connection, in a land of swaying palms and breaching whales, I seem to have lost touch with the fast-paced paradigm of American life.

Don’t get me wrong, I'm loving my DSL, satellite TV and gourmet kitchen. Our humble home feels like a mansion after two months in either a camper or a casita with my XL husband and three big dogs.

Alacazem 2010.02.18

February 18 to 25, 2010

Pisces: The One, the All, the Forever and Ever

Visible Planets: Morning: Mercury and Saturn  Evening: Mars and Jupiter

The Aquarius zodiac month ends on Feb. 18th at 11:36 am MST, when the Sun enters the mutable water sign of Pisces the Fish. The twelfth and last sign of the tropical zodiac, Pisces brings us to a type of culmination and ending, the completion of one full cycle around the Sun.

Characterized by compassion, sensitivity, imagination and other-world creation, Pisces represents that part in each of us that is divine. It’s the mystical and metaphysical, the magical and mysterious, the spirit and the soul.

As I drive through Baja and enter the United States, I’ll be living, breathing and traveling that invisible thread that interconnects and binds us all – land, sea, plant, animal, stellar and cosmic. The One, the All, the Forever and Ever. Where Eternity and Now join hands, where Destiny and Free Will dance. May we walk in Beauty and live in Grace. Happy Pisces!

Alacazem 2010.02.11

February 11 to 18, 2010

Visible Planets: Morning: Mercury and Saturn  Evening: Mars and Jupiter

Chinese Lunar New Year of the Tiger and Manana por la Manana

The Chinese Lunar New Year 4708 – the Year of the Tiger – begins at sunset following the first New Moon after the Sun leaves Capricorn and enters the sign of Aquarius, based on when it occurs in China. In 2010, the Aquarius New Moon takes place on Feb. 13th at 7:51 pm MST, past sunset, so the Chinese New Year will not officially begin until sunset on Sunday, Feb. 14th, Valentine’s Day, giving us a chance to combine fun and festivity with love and romance.

Aquarius is excitement, new ideas and fresh vistas. It’s the season of more direct light and lengthening days. We feel a certain regeneration and rebirth. We have moved out of serious, cautious, conventional Capricorn and into a time of renewed hope and budding inspiration. We are wanting and willing to connect with people we don’t know, do things we haven’t done and try on hats we’ve never worn.

Alacazem 2010.02.04

February 4 to 11, 2010

Visible Planets: Morning: Mercury and Saturn  Evening: Mars and Jupiter

Well, it’s Super Bowl weekend and it’s the last weekend we’ll be staying at Cerro Salado, the magnificent casa we’ve had the pleasure of occupying for the last two months. The Moon is waning, rising later each night above the ocean horizon, shimmering it’s magic upon the Sea of Cortez. I’m feeling a bit nostalgic as the Jan. 15th solar eclipse lunar cycle draws to a close. A few weeks ago, I wrote about the memories and reiterated themes of the Capricorn eclipse in January of 1990, when we were here in Baja at Cabo Pulmo, building a little hacienda of our own. Bush Sr. was bombing Baghdad and I was doing laundry by hand. I had been poignantly aware of being an American gringa in a third world country, concerned about political corruption and the seemingly impossible dream of world peace. 

Alacazem 2010.01.28

January 28 to February 4, 2010

Visible Planets: Morning: Mercury and Saturn  Evening: Mars and Jupiter

Unity in Diversity and Love with a Generous Heart

“We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied to a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one affects all…”
                                Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Jan. 29th Leo/Aquarius full Moon takes place at 11:18 p.m. MST @ 10º14’ and brings to fruition the late degree Capricorn new Moon solar eclipse cycle of Jan. 15th. This promises us a powerful lunation filled with plenty of social interaction and charismatic attraction. Leo/Aquarius full Moons – one in summer and one in winter – are the year’s two most flamboyant “party” moons as the romantic, courageous heart of the Lion pairs up with the wild and crazy, inventive spirit of the revolutionary rebel, Aquarius.

This year, however, we are under the spell of a seductive Pluto/Saturn square that is forcing a shift in perspective via uncontrollable, inevitable natural forces. Governments, politics, economies - the powers that be - including the weather, i.e. global warming and climate change, are all raining and reigning down upon humanity as a whole. We are no longer alone in this, not as a country, class or individual. Therefore, expect this week’s parties to carry a more serious tone, a collective spirit that somehow winds us all together as “one world” and “one heart”.

 

Alacazem2010.01.21

January 21 to 28, 2010

Visible Planets: Morning: Mercury, Mars and Saturn    Evening: Jupiter

Aquarius, Uranus, Creative Crisis and Catharsis

The Sun entered Aquarius this year on January 19th at 9:28 p.m. MST, shortly before the Moon came into a conjunction aspect @ 23º Pisces with Uranus, the Aquarian planetary ruler, paving the way for a highly charged zodiac month of sudden change and rapid developments, when we’ll be feeling awakened, excited and pretty much in on-and-off creative crisis or catharsis the entire time. And, believe it or not, this is good!

Surprised? Well, that’s both Uranus and Aquarius. Expect the unexpected, think outside the box, try something new, change your patterns, do it different. Aquarius is the traditional revolutionary influence, the part of us that wants freedom, liberation and the right to pursue our heart’s desires. It’s where we are truly individual and where we seek out other individuals with whom to share our wildest dreams, highest hopes and most idealist visions.

Alacazem2010.01.14

January 14 to 21, 2010

Visible Planets: Morning: Mercury and Saturn
Evening: Mars and Jupiter
A New Moon Solar Eclipse and Doing Laundry by Hand

On Jan. 15th at 12:11 am MST the Sun and Moon come together at 25º01’ Capricorn in the exact conjunction aspect of a New Moon solar eclipse. This is the first eclipse of 2010 and one that reiterates energies from January 1991, when that year’s first solar eclipse was very close in zodiac degree to this one. Eclipses take place four or five times each year, but each and every eclipse repeats the theme and near exact degree of an eclipse occurring almost exactly 19 years prior to it.

This year, my husband, our three dogs and I are in Baja California, Mexico, staying at a friend’s house on the East Cape of the Sea of Cortez, about 30 miles north of Cabo San Lucas. In 1991, my husband, our two dogs – both now deceased – and I were building a house in Cabo Pulmo, just 10 miles north of where I am today.

Alacazem 2010.01.07

January 7 to 14, 2010

Visible Planets: Morning: Venus, Mars, Mercury and Saturn
Evening: Jupiter

Magnificent Sunsets and the Quest for Capricorn Control

Last night I saw one of the most beautiful sunsets of my entire life, and - I have to admit - I’ve seen countless sunsets of magnificent beauty and awesome color. From those early years of childhood in Denver, when the Front Range framed shimmering Venus kissing a delicate crescent Moon, to the picturesque western horizon of the La Sal Mountains in Utah to the rugged terrain of the Baja desert, I have been a huge fan of the setting sun and its magical hour of twilight.

2010 has begun and the eclipse window has opened. The New Year’s Eve lunar eclipse showered the world with Capricorn – realistic, practical, rules and regulations. Governments, goals and gifts, social structures, the economy, jobs and unemployment. We are thrust into the actual, physical realm of money and material, products and production, success and failure.

Alacazem 2009.12.31

December 31, 2009 to January 7, 2010

Visible Planets: Morning: Mars and Saturn  Evening: Mercury and Jupiter

Feliz y Prospero Ano 2010!

This year, I’ll be watching the Full Moon rise over the Sea of Cortez, thinking about everyone back home in Colorado – the snow, the crystalline ice and the cold, cold air. Wishing you all the very, very best in this second decade of this New Age Millennium!

2009 draws to a close with a super-powerful “supermoon” lunar eclipse @ 10º 14’ Capricorn/Cancer. Full Moons, and especially eclipses, call us to release what is no longer serving our growth. And they have a fabulous way of illuminating exactly what we need to let go of. Cancer deals with emotions and emotional reactions. It’s how we instinctively react to life’s circumstances and experiences. Cancer is the little baby, the child, and the part of us that wants to be protected and feel secure. Capricorn is the adult, the boss, and the mature wise one who holds the scepter and is in control. It represents our wisdom and maturity, our ability to accept responsibility and take realistic, practical action to resolve problems and accomplish goals. Capricorn is the protected and Capricorn is the protector.