Advice

May 6 to 13, 2010   

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

Taurus and the Four Gates of Avataric Descent

Bull It’s green, green, green down here on Wright’s Mesa. The quickly melting snows of spring have left us with thick carpets of emerald grass, budding trees and delicate wildflowers. The bright reds of Indian paintbrush are popping out amongst the scrubby sage and desert cactus. Bluebirds flutter and meadowlarks sing, a pair of young bald eagles dip and dive, hunting for prairie dogs, and a lone coyote trots through pinon, looking for rabbits. Mornings are still, the air is cool and the wind at rest. By afternoon, the earth has warmed and breezes start to blow. Clouds morph and shadows shimmy, calves frolic and lambs romp. We find ourselves smack, dab, in the middle of spring.


There are four cross-quarter days in the tropical solar year, and one of them takes place when we are exactly halfway through Taurus the Bull - this week - usually falling on the Julian calendar dates of May 5th or 6th. These four cross-quarter days mark the halfway point between the bi-annual equinoxes and solstices, and are times of strong planetary force and power. The Earth’s polar axis is at a 45º angle to the Sun and electromagnetic pulls are at a maximum. Whether we realize it consciously or not, we are feeling the invisible pressures, will and intentions of the cosmos.
April 29 to May , 2010

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

Destructing and Constructing an Evolutionary New Dawn

TheTower The Taurus/Scorpio Full Moon took place on April 28th @ 4:20 am MDT, bringing to fruition the lunar cycle which began in mid-April with a late degree Aries New Moon. For many, this lunation was intense. I heard rumblings, mumblings and grumblings of irritability and dissatisfaction from personal, private and professional sectors. The world seemed ill-at-ease, restless and discontent, pulling, pushing, yelling and rebelling.

Not only was Mercury retrograde - it will go direct in Taurus @ 4:27 pm on May 11th - but just 36 hours prior to the April 28th Full Moon, the planets Saturn and Uranus exactly opposed each other @ 29º Virgo/Pisces. This was the fourth of five exact oppositions taking place in the time period between the fall of 2008 and the summer of 2010, each one marking a critical balancing and breaking point in our personal, political and professional lives.
April 22 to 29, 2010
Visible Planets: Morning: Jupiter  Evening: Venus, Mars and Saturn

Brule-War-Party The Taurus zodiac month began here in the San Juans with gentle rain, rumbling thunder and magnificent lightning, but this morning I awoke to a world of white. Overnight, the rain had turned to snow. It wasn’t long before bright green popped out beneath Mother Nature’s soft, nurturing blanket - the next few days will paint the pastures shades of brilliant emerald and shimmering jade. There’s nothing like the snows of spring, followed by dazzling sun and blossoming life.

For me, this time of year is a time of memories, emotion and nostalgia. As the Sun enters my 12th House of the numinous and divine, I drift back to those halcyon days of childhood, when the world sparkled, fairies danced and the lands of magic, mystery and intrigue lived in and all around me. My imagination saw witches in babushka-clad old ladies, Indians riding ponies along Cherry Creek and dinosaurs traveling across far distant horizons.

Ted Hoff of Cottonwood Ranch and Kennel has been showing us training sessions and playtime with his yellow Labrador puppy, Drake. This video, shot a few weeks ago when it was still winter at the ranch, continues the training with a real pheasant....

April 15 to 22, 2010
Visible Planets: Morning: Jupiter  Evening: Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn
The World is Flat and the Moon is New

Spaceimages_2099_3472604 The distance and difference between the late degree Pisces New Moon of March 15, 2010 and the late degree Aries New Moon on April 14, 2010 is vast. In late Pisces, we are still vulnerable and trusting, emotionally sensitive and spiritually inclined. We are very near the culminating point of gestation, putting the finishing touches on our amniotic experience and preparing to emerge in the exciting outside world of new, uncharted territory.

By the time we reach the other side of Aries – the April 14th New Moon - we have survived the primal thrust of birth, left the womb-like comfort of illusionary reality and awakened to the power and push of self-propelled action and self-determined movement. It’s all about self-care and self-attention, self-motivation and self-concern. After all, if we don’t take care of ourselves, who will?

It's graduation day for Sam, a young golden retriever who has been training with Ted Hoff at Cottonwood Ranch and Kennel. In this video Ted puts Sam through his paces, emphasizing the necessity for doing the training in a calm atmosphere. Ted also...

April 8 to 15, 2010
Visible Planets: Morning: Jupiter  Evening: Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn

Lunar Waning and Solar Waxing

Cs_baby-lambs-farm The last week of this rather explosive lunar cycle delivers both a waning Moon and a waning appetite for other people’s drama and trauma. We are ready to just ‘take care of me and my stuff’ and put everything else in the backseat as we roll along the journey called Life.

Aries is all about me first and attention me. It’s where we feel the surge of individuality and self-will, the imperative of survival and the desire to fulfill our primal needs. Aries represents the first-born and the newborn. It’s childhood innocence, naïveté and the Buddhist “beginner’s mind.” It is also when and where we rush ahead, initiate and pursue our prey. Primitive and primary, Aries returns us to the rush of spring; baby lambs and newborn calves, fragile foals and fluttering bluebirds, melting snow and sprouts of green – everywhere! 

Cottonwood Ranch and Kennel sits at an elevation of about 6000 feet, nearly half a mile lower than Telluride. So the winters there are typically a little milder than up here in the high country. But there was still enough snow last month...