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Author: Cynthia Hansen Zehm

June 4 to 11, 2009

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

Full Moon lunation: June 7th @ 12:13 pm @ 17º 07’ Gemini/Sagittarius

DSC01295 “Tibetan Buddhists, shamans around the world, and other spiritual practitioners observe New and Full Moons as windows or portals in time/space, where we can more easily see beyond the constraints of material reality. Veils part, clouds part, new realities are glimpsed as our awareness of higher dimensions expands. The days immediately before a New or Full Moon are especially potent for releasing the physical, emotional and mental blockages that prevent us from perceiving the greater truth of our being. The peak of this Full Moon coincides with Saga Dawa, the Tibetan celebration of the birth, enlightenment and passage of the Buddha, one of many great figures who taught that each of us is a Buddha, a Christ, an expression of the Tao, the Great Spirit, the Cosmos.”
          -- Stephanie Austin, The Mountain Astrologer, June/July 2009

As an astrologer, I often wonder whether or not I perceive the world as “cosmic” because I want to. My Mother and Grandmother introduced me to this divine science as a young girl, and it stuck. Over the years, I have been astounded, humbled and awed by the way celestial events coincide with, resonate to and actually constellate what I’m experiencing here on Earth.

04 June, 2009 /

May 28 to June 4, 2009

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

Sc001148d1 As the Moon waxes toward full – growing larger each evening – tap in to your inner goddess, feel Mother Nature’s rhythm and intuit your path. Connecting with natural cycles and “going with the flow” is not just an airy-fairy, New Age idea or adage - it’s a genuine, time-honored process of self-discipline and awareness practiced by sages, gurus and avatars for millennia.

The Gemini lunar and solar cycles encourage curiosity, communication and thought. It is the celestial zodiac’s first air sign and therefore deals with primal thinking and skills of cognition – using the mind to perceive, identify, reason, deduce, categorize and prioritize. This sounds simple and basic, and it is. But, in today’s world, we have a tendency to be over-amped when it comes to mental and sensory stimuli and activity, therefore reducing the quality of transmission and turning mega-bytes of data into static. Our brains can feel like over-saturated sponges with no more room for water.

29 May, 2009 /


May 21 to 28, 2009

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

The Gemini New Moon and a Rare 3-Way Planetary Rendezvous in Evolutionary Aquarius

Sc000e6559 The Mother Earth and all life upon it experience an unusual and verifiable “new age” planetary event this week. As the Sun and Moon conjoin at 03º 27’ Gemini on May 24th in the aspect of a New Moon, a rare three-way rendezvous between Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune is taking place in the cosmos at 26º Aquarius.

Jupiter represents expansion, opportunity, exploration, discovery, foreign affairs and all types of growth. Neptune is the planet of mystical, spiritual and out-of-body experience. Chiron is an asteroid/planetoid – discovered in 1977 – that rules alternative medicine, holistic healing, wounds of all kinds and anything with the root-word “chiro.”

23 May, 2009 /

May 14 to 21, 2009

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

Edward Abbey, Sky Islands and Magnificent Western Sunsets

DSC01049 The Sun is now setting directly behind the Upper La Sal Mountains to our west in Utah – the “sky island” so revered and ultimately made famous by the great American naturalist, Edward Abbey, when he was just starting out as a park ranger for the USFS in Arches National Monument in Moab.

The perfectly shaped, relatively small mountains are so familiar to me now that I rarely sit in awe of their grandeur. But when we first started looking for property on Wrights Mesa in the early ‘90’s, I was adamant about finding a piece from which we could see them. As the Universe would have it, we ended up buying acreage with amazing 360º views – we can see all the way to the Cimarrons above Ridgway in the east and to the Blues and Henrys above Cataract Canyon to the west.

15 May, 2009 /

May 7 to 13, 2009

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

Illumination and Manifestation: the May 8th Taurus/Scorpio Full Moon

DSC00434 Full Moons are times of illumination, fruition and manifestation. Unlike new Moons, which occur when the Sun and Moon are exactly aligned – in the same sign, at the same zodiac degree – full Moons take place when the Sun is exactly opposite the Moon and they are in opposite zodiac signs.

The conjunction aspect of a new Moon is a point of energy collection, focus and concentration, [the last new Moon took place on April 24th @ 05º03' Taurus], a time when we feel the powerful imperative of a new beginning, a beginning coming from the inside out. It’s a time to be "in synch" and at one with the Universe - we are somehow connected to and a piece of the greater collective whole. Something cosmic is in the air - a feeling of innocence and hope, initiation and rebirth - and I always feel instinctively optimistic at new Moon times, as if I am on the brink of a new precipice, facing unknown opportunity and embarking upon fresh territory.

10 May, 2009 /

The last weekend in April is a wild time to go visit neighboring Utah – Moab, Utah that is. Every year at that time hundreds of motor heads, bikers, kids, teenagers, moms, dads, hot shots, hot rods, antique, vintage and classic cars descend upon this...

03 May, 2009 /

April 30 to May 7, 2009

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

Many tulips March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb, and April showers bring May flowers. In our yard, the lilacs are starting to bud and the golden currant bush near the front gate is a mass of fragrant yellow. Bright red tulips have popped up and bluebirds are building nests in the wooden boxes we built for them several years back. The mesa has turned a vibrant green and the skies are deep electric blue. The shining San Juans shimmer white in the distance while irrigation water gurgles in the ditches.

It’s May, the lusty month of May - May Day and maypoles, Cinco de Mayo and Mother’s Day – a month of flowers and frolic, fun and fiestas. It’s time to get outside and touch the earth, honor fertility and appreciate the beauty and bounty of nature. The ancient cross-quarter holiday of Beltane – which marks the beginning of summer in the pagan year - takes place this week, and throughout many northern European nations, dances will be danced and festivals held to celebrate the coming of the northern hemisphere’s most sensational season.

02 May, 2009 /

April 23 to 30, 2009

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

VenusMoon Yesterday morning I got up at 5:05 am and headed downstairs to see if Venus and the Moon had risen. It was the day of the occultation, and I didn’t want to miss it. I looked out our big east-facing kitchen window and saw one of the most beautiful sights I’d ever seen. There, hanging low, above the black horizon, was brilliant Venus - dazzling and magnificent - so close to the slender crescent Moon that they were almost touching.

I wondered if I’d be able to see the occultation at our southwestern latitude and longitude. Would I actually see the Moon eclipse Venus?

25 April, 2009 /

This morning I rose to watch the "morning star" planets: Venus, Mars and Jupiter. Venus, of course, was easy to see and identify as it is the bright, bright point of light directly east above the horizon. Jupiter was also bright - though much...

22 April, 2009 /