Astro-Journalling Retreat, Day Four (final day)

My Walking in This World task today was to begin to sketch things, to casually draw things that I see whenever I feel like it.  So the big ceramic teapot is now immortalised in my journal, just a hint lopsided but a visual encapsulation of a moment.  When I look at this drawing in the future, I’ll remember the morning that I watered the plants on Bev’s back deck before sitting down with a pot of tea, some astrological texts, and a notebook.

Astro-journalling in the morning was entitled “Prioritize Self-Care – Have a Home!”  In other words, where is my place of self-care (my nest) and who are the people who mean “home” to me and who nourish me?  Moon in Cancer in the 7th House really mirrors how I experience these things.  My self-care places are my home — our dining area, living room, kitchen, balcony, and bathtub, places near or on deep water — Toronto Islands, Lakeside Retreats, the West Coast and its islands, and deep places such as the nearby Don River Valley and its ravines.

My supportive, nourishing web of people includes:

• those who enjoy food and drink (so many times at rituals, classes, & other gatherings, people have said, “It’s really all about the food, isn’t it?”, then laugh)
• friends, students, and clients who relish intimacy — one-on-one conversations and small group experiences
• home-based folks.  People would rather gather in my living room or around my dining table than in some “official” space.
• trustworthy people who are deeply feeling, psychic, warm, and helpfully mothering.

So many lovely “Moon in Cancer in the 7th House” moments in my life come to mind: weekly post-rehearsal dinners that Steven and I hold in our home, the recent meet Julie Cuccia-Watts pot-luck dinner, the meet Mary Greer party a couple of years ago, monthly tarot gatherings in our space, tea and bikkies for clients and students, afternoon tea with Mary or Clarissa, walks and dinners with Renato, doing tarot consultations at the dining table, our friend Maggie who always returns home to London from our place feeling restored on all levels.

So, as I align my work and destiny, I can take care of myself by enjoying intimate meals, walking in valleys and ravines, spending time beside deep waters, sharing conversation (my Moon is conjunct Mercury) in small groups or one-on-one, enjoying friends at home, snuggling closer to my partner, sipping warm beverages (good old tea!), and experiencing the safety of small spiritual groups.

This afternoon’s astro-journalling time was devoted to “Identify Your Power, Your Passion”.  Another way to say this is to ask, “What are the deep reservoirs of primal life energy and renewal that bring me the passion and power to support my dream?”  Both Pluto and Uranus in Virgo in the 8th House inspire these ideas:

• I’m renewed through regular sex with reliable sexual partners.
• I get a charge of life force from shared spiritual systems.
• The “battery pack” for my dream is my service to the unseen Whole, my dedication to the unconscious or shamanic realms.
• My deep reservoir of power is the liberation of the psyche through expressing truths about how I see the nature of the Whole/gestalt.
• Being a transformative bigmouth for the liberation of spirit, psyche, earth, health, and sex (and how they’re all one) gives me the supportive rush I need.

I can certainly see and sense the truth of these statements.  Expressing sexuality and spirituality in my own way is freeing and exciting!

My tarot card for the day is the Queen of Swords, upright.  It tells me that I have this retreat routine down pat and that this experience of learning and writing comes to its fullness.  A peak experience with regard to learning.  Being a top-notch student (and/or teacher).  Communicating with expertise and competence.  A more thorough understanding of certain ideas and of my own mind.  The trip comes to a culmination.

Tomorrow, I’ll head home to Toronto.  This getaway has been extremely beneficial to me.  There’s more to do yet; the eighth chapter of Intuitive Astrology still has five more activities for me to accomplish.  When I reflect on all that has been discovered, expanded upon, affirmed, and yet to come, I wonder if it could perhaps be summed up in the words of Rumi:  Let the beauty we love be what we do.