Unraveling

The Sun enters Virgo today, and as it does so it will come face to face with Neptune casting its spell across the zodiac, from the sign of Pisces.  And they are both at the bending of the Nodes.  Sun in Virgo season is usually about attempting to create some sort of organization in our lives, to learn useful skills or discover gadgets to make our jobs easier or more streamlined, to create a routine or schedule we can live with, or a health plan or diet of freshly harvested vegetables, and clean living that will promote a healthier lifestyle.  Well, good luck with all that!  Neptune in Pisces is the epitome of distraction and unraveling.

Number one, who knows what to believe with Neptune squaring the Nodes in the signs of communication, the media, and the news!  Etch-a-Sketch has nothing on this configuration.  Today certain people believe one thing, tomorrow they profess another.  “There are no words for this -” stated Dr. Michael Greene from the University of North Carolina, “it is just nuts,” when referring to Todd Akin’s ignorant and offensive remarks on “legitimate” rape, that women do not get pregnant if they are ‘really’ raped.  Paul Ryan, who’s platform up until a few days ago agreed with Todd Akin, and only supported abortion if a woman’s life was at stake (the VP nominee co-sponsored a bill with Akin to redefine rape in 2011), has suddenly changed that position, with the backlash against Todd Akin.  Now he and Presidential candidate Romney, in an attempt to distance themselves from this sophomoric junk science, suddenly now support abortion in the case of women becoming pregnant as the result of rape or incest.  Yeah, right.

Meanwhile forecasters are keeping a wary eye on wet and windy (think Neptune in Pisces!) Tropical Storm Isaac that poses a potential threat for next week’s Republican National Convention in Tampa next week.  Of course there’s no telling which way the wind will blow with hurricanes (or the GOP), especially with Neptune at the bending of the Nodes.  Thousands of Republicans are planning to gather in Tampa in order to nominate Mitt Romney for the GOP presidential candidate... better bring your galoshes teabag people!  Talk about a tea party!





For the rest of us it feels like our lives are unraveling even as we are busy tying up loose ends and trying to create order in our lives.  The visuals I have in mind are shoveling snow in a snow storm, or feeling overwhelmed by a tsunami of details and paperwork, or a neatly wound ball of string incessantly unraveling (kind of like the GOP).  But mostly it brings to mind this wonderful quote (originally shared with me by MBSR teacher Elaine Retholtz- thank you!) by James Gordon Gilkey: 

Most of us think ourselves as standing wearily and helplessly at the center of a circle bristling with tasks, burdens, problems, annoyance, and responsibilities which are rushing in upon us. At every moment we have a dozen different things to do, a dozen problems to solve, a dozen strains to endure. We see ourselves as overdriven, overburdened, overtired. This is a common mental picture and it is totally false. No one of us, however crowded his life, has such an existence. What is the true picture of your life?

Imagine that there is an hour glass on your desk. Connecting the bowl at the top with the bowl at the bottom is a tube so thin that only one grain of sand can pass through it at a time. That is the true picture of your life, even on a super busy day, The crowded hours come to you always one moment at a time. That is the only way they can come. The day may bring many tasks, many problems, strains, but invariably they come in single file. You want to gain emotional poise? Remember the hourglass, the grains of sand dropping one by one.

The good news?  Right after the opposition to Neptune, the Sun will prepare the way for the  therapeutic and healing Full Moon in Pisces on the 31st of August.  The bad news is that Mercury will enter Virgo and then oppose Neptune that same day... So hold on to that vision of the hourglass... the grains of sand dropping one by one, and tend to each problem, each task, one at a time.  Think of it as the zen of organization.