Whether we want to or not, we dance with the planets

Tour bus reflection, columned buildings all around.

Buckle your seat belts, ladies and gentlemen! The planets are dancing in very rare configurations for the next two weeks. Though the sky has been going haywire for a couple of years already, what's coming up is the kind of planetary dance that packs a serious wallop. What I glean from my favorite astrologers is that life is likely to feel very intense, as if something karmic is unfolding - which is absolutely true, actually, on a societal level.

How many self-soothing behaviors do you have in your tool belt? Best pull out everything you've got, dust off those tools, and get to soothing, please!

At least this is how I plan to meet the exact square of Pluto and Uranus, and the Pluto eclipses, as well as the solar eclipses coming up in June. While my brothers and sisters in the sky square off against and occult each other, I'm going to make mac and cheese, sleep late, drink lots of water. I'm going to breathe my shamanic ass off, you'd better believe it! I will grant others the benefit of the doubt whenever I can, cut those who might annoy me plenty of slack.

My first teacher of astrology told me the planets don't DO anything TO us. She found that language completely inaccurate. I didn't know what she meant, but I'm getting it now at last. As consciousness evolved in our species over hundreds of thousands, probably millions of years, we gazed at the night sky. We watched the movements of the wanderers (that's what "planet" means - did you know?) We took note of the way the sky configures itself in winter, spring, summer and fall. Gradually, over time, we took meaning from these configurations and from the dance of the planets on the backdrop of stars. Human consciousness is inseparable from the dance of the planets. The way we think was forged in conjunction with the sky and the seasons.

That we dance in alignment with the movements of the planets and stars is something I'm sure of. How we describe what's going on is a different story. I know not many people interpret the cosmic dance as accurately as some of us might like. Astrology, my great teacher explained, is a lifelong art to learn. You can't study for two years and think you "get" it. Astrology has to sink into the bones and blood, deep into the brainstem as it did for our ancestors. That can't happen in a few years, even for those who study assiduously. We moderns are quite impatient, though, hence we try to interpret, to articulate the energy as soon as we begin studying. Some are better than others. I have a feeling ancient astrologers were much more precise, in part because they understood it takes time to learn the art.

We are cyclic beings living in a cyclic universe. As above, so below. Buckle up, y'all. Safety first!