Creative Outlets
TGIF #37 : Your participation is requested. Learning your body’s dashboard lights & embracing the maintenance schedule.
Communications are stabilizing.
Mercury has moved into Taurus, nearing the Sun.
Pluto in Aquarius has begun to retrograde, leading toward a Trine with Uranus (Gemini).
Last night, I was saying goodbye to a poet friend who is about to leave New Orleans. While hanging out with other writers, I was sharing how this project has been sharpening my focus on the questions I continuously pursue. While discussing “Artificial Intelligence” a couple of weeks ago, I noted that Uranus’ 7 year journey through Gemini will see us learning to ask better questions. I imagine we will soon see the word prompt become a new household term as a discussion stemming from an AI response will lead others to wonder “What was your prompt?” The word’s definition from half a century ago as a “message given by a computer requiring or helping the user to respond” has developed the reverse meaning. Its Latin origin means to make apparent by bringing forth, with the pro- relating to forward. As the actor calls for a prompt to bring to light her next line, our global sense of connection may also be hinting at something refreshing.
As I was on the porch listening to what captivates others’ imaginations, motivating them to put pen to paper, I felt solidarity with the writer’s tasks of learning what and how they like to learn. Connective conversations encourage us. The back-and-forth of a dialogue quickly untangles our fears of rejection or humiliation by weaving a supportive net around us. We are able to offer up nodes of what we think and feel and watch as someone else ties a thread around it, linking it to a star from their constellation of ideas. I kept coming back to my evolving interest in open source projects. In “Time as a Story (TGIF #24)”, I call astrology a peer-reviewed chronicle. As the night sky is available from every corner of the round Earth, it serves as our oldest example of the open source form. As a tool, we have used it for navigating both our external and internal world. It has emerged as a living system, born of diverse contributors across time & space, that continues to offer entry points for new participation. We are invited to plug into the Universe through story.
Over the last year, I have been learning about electronics and mechanics. In brief, electronics receive an input, processes it according to a code of logic in order to output a response. Your furnace turns on (output) once the thermostat senses (input) a temperature threshold (logic) has been crossed. The machine can only perform by design when the entire signal chain is in stable condition. A car’s dashboard lights alert us to a fault in the system: something has cracked, a connection has broken. A pothole may jostle a frayed wire out of position, but it didn’t fray the wire. Some time ago, perhaps, a simple retaining clip may have broken, which held a part in place so that it wouldn’t rub against the wires. The pothole, though, prompted the signal to light up, alerting us of needed maintenance.
A dead tree or rotting fence may remain upright by habit until a storm’s wind pushes it off balance. The hurricane purifies the environment by identifying weak points in the system, so that it can be refreshed. By clearing a section of the forest’s canopy, sunlight can reach a sapling, strengthening it into maturity. Likewise, a retiree makes room for others by allowing more resources to flow toward a developing worker, supporting their professional growth. Astrology is told by the transits of planets and how their shifting relationships with one another may reflect something about our own interior workings. Which part of your Self is lighting up as you read this? Does it feel weakened, supported, threatened, relieved? Pause here to check in with your authentic feelings.
The twelve-step idiom to help identify a source of irritation—H.A.L.T.—keeps you from mistaking that the person in front of you is responsible for your current situation. By tuning your awareness on whether you are Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired, you become capable of improving your circumstances. A lot of my anxiety stems from ambiguity, from the flood of possibilities seeping away from the present. Narrowing my focus by committing to a single plan of action has an almost immediate calming effect. The volume of my thoughts and feelings can be lowered, like a radio playing softly in the next room, while I relax into the flow of a chore.
A prompt stimulates us to create, to remember, to act, to begin. It triggers our imagination. That’s what divination of any kind offers. By allowing ourselves to follow a train of thought from one station to the next, we chart a map around the patterns of our lives. When have you experienced the night sky with the least amount of light pollution? Did you notice how many more clusters of stars were visible, creating greater variation of density? Like points on a blackboard connected to illustrate a story, the constellations allow us to be like toddlers who make up lavish tales from their picture books before they can read the words. Take something that feels right to you and run with it. Another trait of the Uranus (innovation) into Gemini (two-sided) transit is to prioritize developing our intuitive nature as much as we do our logic.
Hunger and food is associated with the Moon as the Nurturer. Bodily awareness signals a need for physical nourishment. Anger is closely linked with Mars as the Fighter. The rush we feel after a boundary crossing energizes us to to defend a breach. An insidious violation that we allow—consciously or not—often erodes our tolerance of more superficial irritants, leading us to snap at a colleague or lose patience with a loved one. When the Mars light comes online, use it as an opportunity to take a moment to check if your defence mechanisms are too tight or need some cleaning. When we are Lonely, we feel disconnected or like we don’t belong. Jupiter supports our ability to expand, encouraging us to reach out through our social networks. Loneliness often stems from pride. A conversation with someone who lifts your spirit is comforting. This can help us loosen our grip on our attachment to our personal greatness, relieving us of our main character syndrome. When instead of correct, we become curious, we open ourselves to experiencing the wonders of others, becoming awed by the natural world. This illuminates how we see our role in a new way. When you have had too much of other people and need to reconnect with your Self, you might feel Tired. Saturn’s rings remind us to keep a layer between us and the world. We need personal space to recharge in a secure environment. Tending to our personal system is how we take personal responsibility for our contribution to the fractals of systems within which we reside.
As we witness unending cruelty and deceit in the world around us, we are called to trust our inner authority by becoming evermore honest with ourselves. This requires us to take a risk, to let down our shields, not only our weapons. Even in an age of plant & computer consciousness, we are still human beings. We still fear humiliation and dazzle by enchantments. The antidote to this is not isolating ourselves, to disconnect from the system entirely. We cannot starve or burn ourselves out. We need to learn to peel back some layers, to let go of the facades, to start to connect the dots so that we can relearn our cultural images. We have developed logical defences to many words and phrases, so we need to revitalize speaking to the heart. Self expression communicates our authentic self. We can imagine differently together, again.
