Getting Cozy with the Cosmos

If you’re an astrology skeptic like me, you’re probably rolling your eyes right now.

As a person with lots of science training, and professional credibility in my career, and a deep experimental ethos, I feel you.

However, what I’m finding to be more true is that time isn’t a linear concept (anymore) for me. In fact, when I view my life and the world more generally as a set of interlocking cycles, spirals, and constant movement, something opens up.

Listening to Richard Tarnus’ Cosmos and Psyche via Audible in 2023 and noting the documentation of centuries of historical cycles, I realized that planetary dynamics went far beyond my first natal chart reading in 2022.

My goals in life started to change. Rather than hoarding for a mysterious phase of life that most people dream of never having to work again, I plan my next pivot. It’s feels a little unnatural to spend our lives planning for a multi-decade “vacation” in which our bodies may not have the same capacity to enjoy the fruits of our labor.

My father-in-law told my husband a few years ago before we were married that he should travel while he was able-bodied and could enjoy it. We were traveling to fun locations, a side benefit to my frequent flyer miles for work. Of course, saving some money for a rainy day (or a rainy few years) is important. We all have different levels of comfort and safety with savings. I prefer Dana Miranda’s notion of a comfort fund to “emergency” savings. Not working is NOT an emergency.

I’m approaching the age that one of my grandmothers passed away. The other one lived to be 101, but I am also aware that there are never any guarantees.

What I want is is live the life that I have now in a way that’s fully present, engaged, and satisfying. That might mean forgoing designer clothing, or shoes, so that I can get out for a daily walk. Have I missed out? Perhaps. But I just can’t get myself to care about a brand label.

Unless we are talking writing journals. I’m a Leuchtturn1917 girl these days. But that might change someday. I’m open to it.

I started following the lunar cycle with my friend Patrick1 back in 2023, I realized that every single month, the moon moves through all 12 astrological signs. About every 2.5 days, this luminary (reflecting the light of our sun) not only moves from new moon, to full moon, and back again, it touches every single “theme” of our lives every single month.

🤯 Whoa! Really?!

As someone who can be forgetful about chores I don’t particularly like, hoping someone else will do them (my husband tells me to ask; he can’t read my mind), this is much better way to schedule tasks.

For example, I typically pay bills when the moon is in my 2nd house or my 8th house. This may be inside baseball to the non-astrologers out there, but it’s a pretty reliable way to make sure I’m not late on anything. You might do this every other Friday, and that’s also a fine way to plan.

But there’s something about knowing a particular theme is built into the rhythm of the system that helps me relax. Everything will get done, and it doesn’t ALL have to be done today.

Sigh…

When Mercury Retrogrades roll around, the world panics because they wonder what will be delayed. I just relax. Great time to review my systems, correspondence, and plans. No need to panic. This is going to happen 3-4 times a year. It’s not a fiscal quarter, but it is a regular and reoccuring pattern.

One of my favorites, the Saturn cycle, takes about 29.5 years. This means, unlike a lunar cycle, we have 2.5 years (not days) to explore a particular theme in our lives. We aren’t going to “get” the lessons overnight.

Some things take practice and repetition. But whatever we don’t pick up the first time will come along again. Maybe we will be in a place of deeper engagement for that theme in our lives. Instead of making the same relationship mistakes again and again, we might begin to observe a pattern. We realize what’s in common in all our relationships is us.

Oy! Sometimes that doesn’t feel great. Blame can feel easier than responsibility.

The Sun, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and the outer planets all have interlocking cycles stories as they move through the cosmos as well. If we are very lucky, we will have multiple times through each to know what lessons might be up ahead, and to prepare accordingly.

This might involve receiving therapy, or coaching, or some other healing modality that allows us to view our parts with compassion. We all contain multitudes, and there’s no way to know exactly what’s in store for us.

When we are able to forgive our human tendencies and patterns, we can breathe more deeply. We can see others in our lives (or maybe even on the world stage) playing roles that allow us to grow. We extend kindness when we may only see the external behavior, not the internal challenges present.

Whether or not I agree with a particular perspective, I understand there are larger cycles that influence the evolving consciousness of living beings. When I ignore these energetic cycles and “push through” no matter what, I find myself burned out, injured, or met with strange new obstacles.

Programmed in a world of colonial capitalism and an extractive economy, at first I rebelled against the notion that I can rest when I’m tired.

Isn’t that what caffeine is for?

There are full moons and certain annual seasons when I’m full of energy and firing on more cylinders. But energetically, these times feel less effortful and more generative.

I don’t ignore my body anymore. And I don’t ignore what’s happening with other planetary bodies. I’m hip to what capitalist consumer culture wants from me. I can push back, and I often do.

If you’re a curious skeptic too, and you want to know more about the energetics of the constellations, Patrick Geary✨ and I have begun to offer a learning path via a paid Substack newsletter called Loving Astrology. I know it’s not for everyone. But if you’d like to hang out with us, we’d love for you to try it out for 90-days and let us know what you think2.