Welcome to the final third of our summer season in the Northern Hemisphere. For many with school age children, or those who work in education, the beginning of Virgo season may bring tangible indications that summertime is rearing to a close…
…I too can feel the shift quickening. Breezes are once again picking up, rustling the leaves and ripe seed pods in the great Northern Catalpa tree outside my window. And still this half of the globe holds warmth close to it’s chest for a spell longer.
Wherever, whenever, and however you can, make time now to sway between the ebb and flow. There is much happening earth wise everyday that could take us down into the spiral of overwhelm, but we can’t let the massive shifts which are unfolding keep us down. We can remember our inheritance as warriors for balance between tender rest and wild relish for life.
If being a warrior feels like a heavy lift today, just remember the diligent dedication of Spider. I have a lovely brown garden spider who has set up her web between a potted begonia and a full moon night light at my kitchen table. Sometimes when I am sitting near her web and busy at work with preparations on my plant medicine offerings, I forget she is there and accidentally knock her web over. But she just waits until I am done stirring in her corner, and she begins to spin a fresh, new web for herself. With indifference for the work it takes to rebuild, she carefully dispenses her silk one row at a time. She zen, meditative diligence me think of the Eight of Pentacles, the card of apprenticeship towards mastery. The Eight of Pentacles is also assigned to the first decan of Virgo, Sun in Virgo, which is the 10 days of the year where we dwell presently, August 23 to September 2.
Spider first showed up in my dreams over eleven years ago just before I first started stripping. She was a mischievous trickster, flying and dropping like a yo-yo toy from the hanging sculptures I had suspended from the ceiling in my combination bedroom and studio space. I learned from her big, furry presence how to stop being afraid of every spider that crossed my path, and started making space for her in every home I’ve lived in since. So far, I have seen the spider in my kitchen shed two exoskeletons. What an honor to witness another being become a new version of themselves!
Right now, I’m meditating more, and also allowing myself to indulge in the seasonal guilty pleasure of a Hostess pink Snoball. I’m making room for spacious breath, and room for minor hedonism. Space to feel compassion, empathy, and grief for all those who have lost homes or lives to climate crisis or conflict. We make space to remain in the body during overwhelm. Space to be in the present moment, and respond from there with love, pleasure, joy, gratitude, and humility.
It may feel heavy for me to acknowledge this as we thunder into our Thursday morning routines, but we don’t get out of this life alive, so we might as well live as fully and bravely as possible while we still have air in our lungs. Let gratitude fill you up today. Give more hugs. Acknowledge doubt, and dispense more laughter and irreverent wonder anyway.
Invite the sun to kiss your forehead.
- Artemis Divine -
August 24, 2023