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Author: Cynthia Hansen Zehm

October 8 to 15, 2009

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

DSC02066 A little fat-cheeked, healthy baby came to visit me last weekend. My brother Jeff’s daughter, Devan, my older sister, Pam, and her husband, John, packed up the essentials and made the journey from the Front Range to our home here in the wild West End.

 Autumn is a great time to travel. Fall colors in Colorado are notoriously brilliant. Seasonal changes evoke inner transformation. The dancing leaves, the cooling breeze and the still warm Indian Summer sun excite the senses and ignite physical, mental and emotional fires. The conscious and subconscious delight in the visual and sensual - stimulating memory, creating thought and birthing inspiration.

09 October, 2009 /

October 1 to 8, 2009

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

Blessing the Beauty and Bounty of the October Harvest Moon

1 Yesterday the wind blew so hard it lifted the roof off one of our loafing sheds. And on the way up and off, it hit and snapped the electric power line running above it. My husband and brother-in-law were sitting at our kitchen table when it happened, having lunch. The tall power pole outside the kitchen window suddenly bent and swayed. They knew something big was “in the wind” and rushed outside to find a live power line that had been cut in two and was lying red-hot on the highway. In its journey down, it had sparked a fire in the tall grass growing along the roadside. The roof to the shed had flipped over and was upside down between the road and the shed. My husband went in to call 911, the Fire Department and San Miguel Power. His brother and the two guys working with them that day digging trees ran out with shovels to start tamping the flames. Wow!

02 October, 2009 /

September 24 to October 1, 2009

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

Autumn and Telluride's Magical, Metaphysically Magnetic Mountains

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The first full week of Autumn delivers the characteristic Colorado weather we know and love this time of year. Cool, cool evenings and brisk mornings awaken us to the season of changing colors, morphing landscapes and freezing temperatures. Frost is on the pumpkin and fruit is on the vine. Fires are kindled and quilts once again find their place on laps and couches.  Coats come out of closets and hats are put on to brave the chill. Water is on for tea.

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Last week, the late summer Telluride Blues & Brews Festival delivered pouring rain, inches of mud and, eventually, crystalline blue, cerulean skies. It was Telluride in all its pain and glory. Suffering in an on and off deluge of rain, sleet and hail, my husband, Richard, and I stuck it out every single evening to see and hear Joe Cocker - the very best of show! - Buddy Guy, Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal. We saw a lot of other fantastic acts as well and plenty of good old friends and allies. Then on Sunday we were blessed with one of those blue ribbon Colorado days - the magnificence of autumn in the Telluride valley was stunning. I was once again - after over 30 years of living here - struck by the awesome beauty of these magical, metaphysically magnetic mountains and their undeniable power. Wow! I am humbled and blessed.

Happy Autumn blessings for All.

26 September, 2009 /

September 17 to 24, 2009

Visible Planets: Morning: Venus and Mars    Evening: Jupiter

1 The September 18th Virgo New Moon closes the door on our summer lunation cycle and opens the door to the Moons of Autumn.  Colder nights and crisp mornings awaken us to the glorious season of brilliant yellow cottonwood, golden aspen and crimson oak. Spring’s verdant green fields are tinted with blonde and streaks of platinum, ash and auburn dance in the swaying grass. Coyotes howl and bears prowl, it’s time to gather food and collect wood for winter.

1 I love this time of year. In Telluride, it’s Blues and Brews. In Delta, it’s the Ute PowWow. In Taos, it’s San Geronimo Day, and in Santa Fe, it’s Indian Market. On planet Earth, it’s the time of Autumn Equinox, when we reach a cosmic state of equilibrium, balance and harmony. Day and night are of equal length, the Sun is above the horizon in 12 hours of light and below the horiozon in12 hours of darkness. This year Autumn begins on September 22nd @ 3:19 pm MDT. May we experience the grace of peace and blessing of balance as we entrain with the cosmos and welcome this very special day and season of Harvest. God bless.

18 September, 2009 /

The next few mornings of predawn skies gift early risers with the graceful, delicate pairing of a slender crescent Moon with the dazzling planet Venus - it’s a magnificent sight to see and one this dedicated stargazer looks forward to whenever Venus does her...

15 September, 2009 /

September 10 to 17, 2009

Visible Planets: Morning: Venus and Mars   Evening: Jupiter

Revisit the Past and Prepare for the Future in the Present

Well, it’s Virgo time and time for me to do the Virgo thing – seriously! – clean and organize my messes and piles. “Stuff” that this Libra Sun, Gemini Rising, Cancer Moon moonchild has so lovingly and craftily collected over a lifetime. Right!

1 Columns and stories I’ve written over the years, magazines with amazing authors and articles, beautiful photographs and pieces of artwork, leather for making vests and chaps, fabrics for clothing, quilts and pillows, crystals, family memorabilia, cards to and from my Mother, wedding presents I’ve never used, shoes and sports gear…things like that.

Some people are better than others at cleansing and purging, discerning and discarding, prioritizing and criticizing. Not me! I hang on to things from Grandma and Grandpa, Mom and Dad, nieces and nephews, brothers and sisters, friends and lovers, etc. Sound like an emotionally attached Cancer Moon?

11 September, 2009 /

September 3 to 10, 2009

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

The Virgo/Pisces Full Moon Polarity: Working to Make Dreams Come True


1 The Virgo/Pisces axis of the September 4th Full Moon illuminates the polarity between what we dream about and what we do. Hopes, dreams and visions, fantasy and imagination are all subjects in the Pisces kingdom. And across the deep, shining sea lies the land of Virgo – terra firma upon which the workers work to build the dream and manifest the vision, one day and one step at a time. 

 Pisces listens to celestial music, floats on clouds and swims in oceans of emotion while Virgo hears the hustle and bustle of progress, critiques the process and improves the product. Virgo is the sign of analysis and logic; Pisces is the sign of intuition and mysticism. Virgo corresponds to physical embodiment; Pisces relates to spiritual transcendence.

Throughout the Virgo zodiac month, we are called upon to focus, simplify and consolidate. We are asked to discern and sacrifice, take responsibility, cut the fluff and eliminate excess. It’s all about cleanliness and organization, self-esteem and self-improvement, good deeds and nutritious diets. Health is wealth. It’s a time to show up and get the proverbial job done.

04 September, 2009 /

August 27 to September 3, 2009

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

America's Most Accomplished Senator Enters in Dreamy Pisces and Exits in Virtuous Virgo

250px-US_Capitol_dome_Jan_2006 Ted_Kennedy,_official_photo_portrait_crop "For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die." - Senator Edward M. Kennedy

One of our country’s most famous, accomplished and influential politicians, Senator Ted Kennedy, passed from this world to the next in his Cape Cod home last Tuesday, Aug. 25th. Born Feb. 22, 1932, he died on a day when the Earth had reached a point in its yearly orbit around the Sun that was almost exactly opposite his own natal sun-sign degree, a point long ago associated by astrologers as a critical degree in one’s annual birthday to birthday solar cycle.

Today, modern astrology pays less attention to physical predictions of doom, gloom and possible death than it does to the more psychological, spiritual and emotional manifestations of planetary positions and aspects. One thing is certain, however, about Sun opposition Sun transits: we feel a certain amount of tension and pull, we are awakened to life’s inherent polarities and we are called upon to balance our perspectives, opinions, tendencies and behaviors with opposite views and forces. It’s the classical reflection of the internal self in the mirror of external relationship, the dance of inside with outside.

28 August, 2009 /

August 20 to 27, 2009

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

A Leo New Moon and the Courageous Quest of the Lionhearted


1 The 27º 31’ Leo New Moon @ 4:02 pm on Aug. 20th is the first lunation in quite a while that is not an eclipse. Can you feel the less stressful energy, the lessening intensity of this New Moon? Can you finally take a deep breath and know in your heart that something is “over” and you’re on the flip side of trauma and drama, headed toward health and healing?

That said, this lunation is still one of great strength and force as it is the fourth of five “supermoons” this year – which is when the Moon is at perigee (its closest approach to the Earth) and syzygy (a New or Full phase) – and gravitational pulls on tides, tectonic plates and physical bodies reach record highs.

21 August, 2009 /

August 13 to 20, 2009

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

1 We passed the cross-quarter mark of 15º Leo on August 8th and reaching the point of mid-summer. The sizzling season of hot and heat is on the wane. The first yellow leaves of coming autumn are starting to appear and the rush of school is in the wind. Peaches, tomatoes and apricots fill Farmers' Market baskets and we notice a crisper coolness in the nighttime air.

The last week of Leo brings memories of love and romance – it’s all about the heart – candles flicker and cakes are cut in a sentimental dénouement to the Lion’s annual birthday month.

The Moon also wanes this week as we prepare for the upcoming late degree Leo New Moon on Aug. 22nd. The night skies are filled with sparkling diamonds, the Perseid meteors fall and we breathe deep.
Happy Birthday to the Roadhawg. May your next decade be filled with the peace, love, joy and happiness you deserve. Mighty fine…

14 August, 2009 /