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Kinship
Ah, not to be cut off,
Not through the slightest partition
Separated from the laws of the stars.
The Inner – what is it?
If not intensified sky,
Hurled through with birds, and
Deep with the winds of homecoming…
–Rainer Maria Rilke
I love how Rilke weaves together these realms of earth and stars for us, particularly in the vein of the prevailing Aquarian Air element, invoking birds, and the ‘winds of homecoming.’ Ever since the early pandemic slow-down, when author Jenny Odell pointed out in an interview about her book, How to Do Nothing, that the birds we see around us stay within proximate range of our homes, I’ve been delighted to know that these feathered beings are truly my neighbors—indeed, my family.
Since then, I have only been deepening with my winged relations. Working in my garden at dusk, I have been overrun by a conference of 10 chickadees —each excitedly chirping and flying criss-cross just inches from my face. (The chickadees are the most intrepidly relational of all, I find.) Or, from my kitchen sink window I have watched regular visitations of my marvelous mob of tiny bushtits as they eagerly assault their suet feeder. No rugged individualism for these little tweets! Other times, it’s the curious titmice cocking their heads and playing peek-a-boo, disappearing into their nests inside tree holes. Once, while pruning a rose vine, I was star-tled when a Stellar’s jay momentarily lighted on my head en route to a nearby tree! Stellar (of the stars) indeed!
This week, I was moved when my usually solo red house finch brought along three scarlet-feathered kin. I watched, captivated, as the ruby foursome feasted together on one twirling feeder while nearby, the regular crowd of lemon yellow lesser goldfinches breakfasted at their feeder. Is this not as miraculous as the twinkling of stars in the night sky?
Here was mama last year, feeding her youngens perhaps before their feathers went through the reddener!
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Aquarius: New Ways of Thinking and Being
Some of us can find ourselves as taken by these winged wonders as we are the stunning galactic images provided by the new Webb telescope. Perhaps because birds symbolize a type of freedom we all long for at heart—invoking the Uranian note of the Aquarian archetype. Or, as Emily Dickinson says, Hope is a thing with feathers. Hope, dreams, aspirations—these too being very much of the Aquarian sphere. Also the very fact that we have a deeper view into the galaxy thanks to the Webb technology is an Aquarian arrival.
Other concerns of this archetype include engagement with community, and an embrace and celebration of the diversity and equality of all life—human and not-human. Moving on from the notion of the individual hero’s journey, this “out there” archetype prompts us to expand our awareness of our interrelatedness with the Whole, the Oneness of all life.
With the conventional headlines grimmer and grimmer—‘collapse’ underway in many realms, particularly ecological—it’s high time we finally make a U-turn from Western culture’s preoccupation with individualism, along with its insidious greed and self-centeredness that is destroying the planet, to embrace a wider consciousness of the vastness and mystery of Being, whether from striking and ‘non-conformist’ slime molds* and fungi (such as the rosey Witches Butter below), to the expansiveness of the cosmos.
(*Even if you don’t fancy yourself ‘slime-mold curious,’ trust me, you’ll want to see the stunning opening photo of the article linked above —when I first saw it, I thought, pearly moons appended to thorny branches—such cool Earth-Sky artistry in PhotoShop!! But no – it’s slime mold!)
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Kinship With All Life
Kinship with all life is the title of a book I was given by friends long ago. I lost track of the book, which was primarily about our beloved pets, but the title has endured, stamped in my veins. It’s a message more broadly afoot in these times, particularly from our indigenous elders and teachers who have never forgotten our inherent interrelatedness. David Hinton, poet and author of Wild Mind, Wild Earth, speaks eloquently to this idea of cultivating a different way of thinking about and perceiving the world, one of reweaving our consciousness with landscape and its denizens, all of which he sees as “the generative tissue of things.” He writes, Togetherness is a primordial value, deeper and more ancient even than self-awareness, let alone philosophizing. It inheres in the body itself. We instinctively need togetherness; and togetherness requires kinship. Indeed, this goes so deep that it challenges our assumptions about individual identity—for without kinship and togetherness, what are we? We curl up together and sink into that primal mystery called sleep…We inhabit a single tissue of language (or it inhabits us.) We are positively interfused and adrift in it—and in family, community, culture, civilization. And why would it stop with our species? For my part, I know in my bones that my birds (as well as all aspects of the natural world around me) are in active, relational kinship with me. This is founded in my belief and trust in that interrconnectedness. From there, I only need to speak and think, laugh, and stand in awe with them, and we’re right there, together. |
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The Great Conjunction: Saturn-Jupiter, in Aquarius
The “glyph” or symbol for Aquarius 
invokes its association with the Water Bearer. For although an Air sign, Aquarius in its highest manifestation represents the libation of a spiritually-funded, inclusive and loving vision, poured abundantly into Life. One could see the bottom line representing our individual gifts of genius, and the top, our interpenetration with the flowing Macrocosm.
Saturn has been in Aquarius since December 2020, when it conjuncted Jupiter at the powerful 0° point of Aquarius. A conjunction marks the start of a new cycle, and the Saturn-Jupiter one, dubbed “The Great Conjunction,’ for its strong impact on cultural trends and more, lasts 20 years. Because this marked the beginning of a period of Saturn-Jupiter conjunctions in Air signs that will last 140 years, some astrologers have heralded this particular Great Conjunction as the official entry into the cusp of the Aquarian Age. Given that an astrological age is roughly 2100 years long, it’s not possible to denote an exact entry point. But this important shift into Air signs, beginning with Aquarius, certainly presages a course change to the Aquarian impulse.
While Saturn has been transiting through Aquarius these past two + years, we have gone through deep changes—some quite difficult, much of it internal. A prolonged phase of whiplash ‘lock downs’ of varying degrees has finally yielded to an opening back into life that seems finally not so strapped by pandemic restrictions. I for one am somewhat shaking my head in wonderment at the fact that there is ‘life’ still out there in the human community, after all this time in relative isolation. Many of us may be asking, What’s next? Where is my new belonging? How can I serve what is emerging? (Not that we necessarily have much of a clue what that is yet.)
In my circles there has been much focus on gaining new tools and perceptual lenses for Resilience, for what will undoubtedly be rocky times ahead. One such tool is the Aquarian capacity to detach from outcomes, to be ever ready for divergence from plans, and to be working with structures (Saturn) that are open to change and innovation, rather than rigid expectations of the same pattern. So if we’ve done our work, we’re hopefully ready to move on into the next Saturnian archetypal journey, through the sign of Pisces 
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Pisces New Moon - Seeding Intentions
Coming up Feb. 19 at 11:07pm PST is the New Moon at 1° Pisces, followed by Saturn’s ingress to Pisces on March 8, where it will remain for roughly two years.
Saturn’s impulse is to set goals, to take responsibility, and to methodically ground and prioritize the realms it touches. The Water sign Pisces prioritizes service and healing, psyche and spirit, and compassion. This last of the 12 zodiacal signs furthers the Aquarian urge to surrender the individual self, move beyond fear, and claim the attitude of Faith.
So in its centered expression, Saturn in Pisces offers healing of mind and spirit, a willing sacrifice of over-sized material ambitions, and an infusion of heightened consciousness into ordinary life realms. The lower octave expression of Saturn, however, easily drifts towards fear of all it might need, want, or feel it ‘should’ accomplish in the worldly realm, and in Pisces, could stray into escapism through addictions, self-doubt, or self-sacrifice, or trying to hold onto ego control at all costs through outworn methods.
The New Moon is traditionally a time to sow seeds for the coming month. Perhaps we want to set an intention to hold Compassion for self (put your own oxygen mask on first!) and others, and to keep an awareness of the Whole in mind—not just for this four-week Moon cycle, but for the entire period of Saturn in Pisces, so as to help nourish the seeds of higher consciousness.
The Saturn in Pisces invitation is to surrender outer control to the flow of our deeper, more watery and less graspable parts (Pisces), while remembering to retrieve, and find vehicles to contain and ground (Saturn) our gleanings of unity from these realms. Further, we do well to infuse them into the culture at hand—whether the culture of family life, community, or the wider web of life. This is not easy work, as Pisces is elusive at best, and Saturn likes concreteness. But the realms of the subtly and divinely felt are what need to come forth and inform what wants to emerge. Our inward focus is much needed at this time.
Just ready to ‘go to press’, a friend shared a beautifully potent and timely podcast interview with New Zealander Vera Austin on the theme of Water as Source, which I find entirely relevant to the vibe of the deeply soulful Water element that is upon us astrologically. Perhaps I will summarize some of the many themes in my next writing, but for now, enjoy!
All photos copyright Diana Badger 2023
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