Author: Cynthia Hansen Zehm

Alacazem 2010.12.23

December 23 to 30, 2010
Visible Planets: Morning: Venus and Saturn  Evening: Jupiter

O Christmastime, O Christmas: Happy, happy and Merry, merry!

Amidst all the hype, hustle, bustle, commercialism and chaos of Christmas - and I use the word Christmas, even though it’s no longer politically correct and doesn’t really capture the broader spectrum of the word holidays – there is always the underlying message and meaning of this very special time of year that seems to filter through my mind and senses in to my heart and soul. For me, it really is all about love and spiritual generosity, peace and good will to all. I find myself thinking about the most silly and sentimental times, childhood with my family – going up in the mountains to cut our tree or the decadent chocolate mint pie we made for dessert, struggling to earn and save enough money to buy presents or driving downtown to marvel at the magnificent lighting display at the Denver Civic Center. There is something humbling and graceful about Christmas, something that somehow, some way brings out the best in us – even if it’s short-lived and squeezed between the mumbles and grumbles, stress and duress that we also somehow seem to experience at least once or twice this time of year.

Alacazem 2010.12.16

December 16 to 23, 2010
Visible Planets: Morning: Venus and Saturn  Evening: Jupiter

Calling all Angels....Sinners and Saints

[A total lunar eclipse takes place just past midnight on the night of Dec.20th/21st. Totality is @ 1:13 am MST. For more info, click on these links: Lunar eclipse 12.21.10.] & [Sky & Telescope]

This week is big for all of us. Winter solstice and the last full Moon of 2010 – which also happens to be a total lunar eclipse (visible in all of North and South America) – occur in tandem on Dec. 21st. A synchronistic ending and new beginning - the fruition of the December lunar eclipse cycle and the initiation of winter - take place at virtually the same time this year, heralding a cosmically charged celestial event, an energetic manifestation of ethereal regeneration and rebirth. Old patterns and fresh paths dance in circles of redemption and resurrection, life and death merge in an evolutionary process of energetic re-creation. Out of the ashes, from dust to dust, the alpha and the Omega. Biblical sayings and spiritual teachings, chaos theory and quantum physics, magic and miracles, angels and avatars gather as the shortest and longest days and nights of the southern and northern hemispheres fall in harmony with the exact opposition of the Sun and Moon. Our greatest expectations, most cherished dreams and most vivid memories collide in a process of reawakening and reinvention. We are at once aware of and in touch with the eternal partnership of polarities and are asked to see the inherent necessity, beauty and balance in and of them all.

Alacazem 2010.12.09

December 9 to 16, 2010
Visible Planets: Morning: Venus and Saturn  Evening: Mercury and Jupiter

Ecliptic Windows and the Warriors of Spirit

Here we are, on planet Earth, humans – men and women, boys and girls – walking the earthwalk, talking the earthtalk and living in harmony and disharmony – together. No matter how we cut the cake or divvy up the pie, statistically the male and female species is pretty much in gender balance, numerically equal. But is that the only actual, factual equality between the sexes?

I recently finished reading a powerfully awakening book entitled Infidel, written by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an African woman who after years of political, cultural and religious oppression, suppression and repression flees to asylum in the Netherlands, where she is able to attend college, work and eventually be elected a member of the Dutch Parliament. It is here she fights for the rights of Muslim women and the reform of Islam, awakening the West to the brutal Islamic customs of female sexual mutilation, beatings, forced marriage and honor killings. Born in Somalia into a Third World hotbed of political and social unrest, violence and civil wars, her family migrated from Mogadishu to Saudi Arabia, Kenya and Ethiopia. As a result, Ali was forced to adapt and adjust, learn a variety of foreign languages – including English – all the while observing and experiencing the abject inequality of men and women in the Muslim world – including that of her own family. Her story is riveting, brave, startling, disturbing and ultimately triumphant - an inspirational, courageous journey of heart. And what does all this have to do with astrology?

Alacazem 2010.12.02

December 2 to 9, 2010
Visible Planets: Morning: Mercury, Venus and Saturn  Evening: Jupiter

Todos Santos, Venus and a Sagittarius New Moon

My husband Richard and I – and our three big golden labs – arrived safely in Todos Santos, Mexico, yesterday afternoon under sunny skies. It was 80ºF and breezy. Our 1,000-mile journey down the Baja Peninsula was cool and calm. Not much traffic – we crossed at Tecate – plenty of skinny, two-lane blacktop and a plethora of cacti along the way. We stopped halfway down to visit old friends and retired Telluride ski patrollers Mona and Gerry Wilcox at their Punta Abreojos casa and ended up sharing Thanksgiving dinner with them out at a camp on their favorite surf beach. Rod Martin, another ex-ski patroller, happened to be in the neighborhood – his sons Caleb and Nathan have a place there, too.

Alacazem 2010.11.25

November 25 to December 2, 2010
Visible Planets: Morning: Mercury, Venus and Saturn  Evening: Mars and Jupiter

The Goodness, Gratitude and Grace of Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day. A day to give thanks. A time to pause, slow down, take a look around and count our many blessings. It’s a day of feasting and abundance, a national holiday that honors the camaraderie between the indigenous peoples of the Americas and the European pilgrims who crossed the ocean in search of new life, freedom and prosperity. They arrived in a land of great resource and wild frontier, a land of mystery and magic, a place of magnificent beauty and bounty.  But they were unskilled and uneducated in the ways of survival in this land, and at the mercy of the native peoples who inhabited it. And then, by the grace of a divine force, good luck or a simple act of fate, the Native Americans embraced and assisted the immigrants. They showed them how to hunt wild game and harvest native plants. They showed them how to live and survive. They showed them how to thrive.

Thanksgiving is a holiday that is quintessentially Sagittarian. Its philanthropic essence and unbridled spirit of generosity resonates with the over-the-top grandiosity and big-hearted giving the Archer is famous for. It’s a time to share the wealth, focus on the positive, recognize the goodness in ourselves and others, cultivate attitudes of gratitude and simply have faith. Gracious and loving, hopeful and hearty, let us give thanks to our angels and keep our eyes to the skies. Happy Thanksgiving!

Alacazem 2010.11.18

November 18 to 25, 2010
Visible Planets: Morning: Venus and Saturn  Evening: Mercury, Mars and Jupiter

Scorpio/Taurus Full Moon: Gifts of Gratitude and Grace

I don’t know how many of you get up early enough to see the magnificently brilliant planet Venus rising in the predawn darkness as a morning star. But what a blessing for those who do! And for those of you who haven’t witnessed this stunning celestial sight, it’s something you should really, really, really try to see. This week Venus - the Earth’s closest planet next to its satellite, the Moon - is riveting in its beauty, exceptionally bright in magnitude and so big, it looks like a UFO. And there’s also something magical about rising before dawn, watching the eastern sky grow slowly turquoise, pink and crimson. The quiet peace and tranquility, the twinkling stars, the phenomenal cosmic world - before the hustle and bustle of cars and trucks – it embraces the spirit and centers the soul. Great way to start the day - in synch with the Universe.

And once the day begins, the people move, coffee brews and we get ready for our daily tasks, routines and responsibilities. And it’s good. It’s Thanksgiving week and the Moon grows full - we are bringing another lunar cycle to a close. Reaching fruition on Nov. 21st @ 10:27 am MST at 29º18’ Scorpio/Taurus, this is the second of five Full Moons in a row that form at the last degree of a sign. And just as each of the 12 signs of the zodiac represent a universal cycle of development, so do the 30 degrees of each sign. Early degrees are similar to the zodiac’s first signs and symbolize birth, initiation and new phases of development. Later degrees resonate with the energies of completion, evolution and resolution.

Alacazem 2010.11.11

November 11 to 18, 2010
Visible Planets: Morning: Venus and Saturn  Evening: Mercury, Mars and Jupiter

Venus Peace and Libra Harmony, Inside and Out

Venus has returned as a morning star, and for those who rise before dawn, it’s a magnificently beautiful celestial treat. Currently retrograding  through the late degrees of light and lovely Libra, we are being briefly shimmered with vibrations of sweet balance and heavenly grace. It’s an energy that encourages us to find the common ground, shared intention and mutual benefit in our relationships – for the good of all concerned – cultivate tranquility and promote peace.

But out in the world, we discover this to be more fantasy than reality, a seemingly impossible ideal and vanishing species amongst the chaos and contention of political polarities, the distinct layers of economic and social strata and the age-old power plays of ego and self-interest. It’s both challenging and difficult to float upon the calm waters of inner serenity when the waves are choppy, the ocean rages and tsunamis threaten. Venus in Libra loves harmony, seeks justice and emanates equality. It gravitates toward beauty and art, glorifies cooperation and finds comfort in solidarity. How then, can we embrace and manifest inner and outer peace amidst the raging ideological battles and social, political, personal and religious wars running rampant on the planet?

Alacazem 2010.11.04

November 4 to 11, 2010
Visible Planets: Morning: Venus and Saturn  Evening: Mercury, Mars and Jupiter

The Birth and Rebirth of the Scorpio New Moon

This morning I awoke to a deep, blue-black sky, the twinkling lights of our tiny western cow town glimmering beneath the almost invisible horizon of the eastern San Juan skyline. Above and west of zenith, Sirius - the faithful “dog star” of mighty Orion the Hunter - shimmered its bright-white light like a beacon from heaven to earthlings below. In the north, the arcing handle of the Big Dipper pointed gracefully to stellar Arcturus in the east, rising above the thin, mountain horizon-line of dawn.

I put on the coffee and walked outside. The thermometer read 40º, which was noticeably warm for early November at 6:00 a.m. And then, I noticed the newly risen Moon. A brilliant, delicate slip of a slender crescent was cusping the faintly shining lunar ball as sunlight bounced back  off Earth, hanging like an ornament on an invisible celestial tree. The sight was so phenomenally simple and serene, and yet so stunning and magnificently beautiful, I found myself feeling blessed and humbled, awed and inspired. How can an astronomical event that takes place each and every lunar month, costs nothing and is free to all, be so rich and rewarding, deep and divine?

Alacazem 2010.10.28

October 28 to November 4, 2010
Visible Planets: Morning: Saturn  Evening: Mercury, Mars and Jupiter

Spirits Cross & Witches Fly...Happy Halloween!

Again and again, I am captured by the colors of autumn. The blush of peach, the deep reds, golden yellows and luscious greens quicken my heart and take me to a place of grace, gratitude and humility. It’s somehow connected to the thin line between life and death, the world of spirit and the heavenly, ethereal celestial sphere — the metaphysical mysteries that taunt and haunt, intrigue and entice me, fill me with wonder and tempt my imagination to explore and travel in the worlds beyond.

October is a month of metamorphosis and transition. It begins with the glorious, dramatic beauty of Indian summer —the magnificent colors and bounty of harvest — and ends with skeletal silhouettes and swirling leaves, icy mornings and crackling fires. Spirits fly and witches cast spells, pumpkins are carved, potions concocted and costumes created for the fun, frolic and festivities of Halloween — the most mystical and magical holiday of the year.