Massaging the North Node in Taurus (Mine)

"... You may feel tired of journeying all around the world, or even your environment, to search for a true feeling of self-esteem, currency, empowerment, and self-value. All these things, in your past, came from without yourself, and thus if they were taken away, could give you a sense of dis-empowerment..." Interpretation of the North Node in Taurus

Yesterday was Labor Day in America. I am married to a Class One, real kind, long-time laborer and I was born to a family of labor with a heavy equipment operator (bulldozer) father. It does not escape my awareness, this labor-connection, that led me to partner with a man who knows how to work.

Almost ten years ago Pete and I had finished building a small wagon we imagined was possible and with many details to research and physically put together we had a new beginning. A real home was created. Over those years I have written many, many blogs and blog posts to describe the physicality and emotion journey of life in a wheeled home living with long-term illness. Yesterday, between weeks of smoke-filled skies, a break in the challenges gave us a window of opportunity to re-fresh and re-paint our sweet home.

The quote that begins this post comes from a new writer on the astrology blog ElsaElsa. The writing is one of twelve posts focused on the North Nodes throughout the astrological signs of the zodiac. Regular readers to my blogs know I am a life-time student of astrology and weave what I am learning and applying to life into much of what I blog. 

Massaging the North Node in Taurus is what's happening for me today. The insight and clarity provided in this article is golden. I appreciate the fresh approach to a topic I have long studied. Unlike the study of celestial bodies: the planets, the sun's placement, the moon's placement and the relationship (angles of ease or challenge/aspects) between them; the Nodes of the Moon are a mathematical point. To those of us who study astrology as a life navigational tool, the Nodes offer a spiritual element to growing, and I enjoy the potential that comes from considering the possibilities offered through interpretation.

"What to make of the astrological North Node? First, let’s talk about the technical parts of the astrological North Node. The North Node is not a planet. And, it is not a house, such as the twelve astrological houses that were set up. It is a mathematical point where the moon’s orbit intersects with the ecliptic. The same can be said of a person’s South Node sign. To simplify, your North Node is in the opposite sign, and house, of your South Node." (Click here to read more.)

As we physically walk into the newest September, here on the Prairie Front, a helpful bit of guidance comes my way and I find a place to patch a physical or emotional puka a hole, a tear, a missing piece in my self-worth. It's so important at this stage of our growth to recognize how resource-FILLED I am, how my effort in the everyday builds my esteem. 

Anonymoushermit continues her interpretation on the North Node in Taurus with, "Your confidence, self-value, and ‘currency’, will be better off coming from yourself, and your own hard work, rather than from someone else’s hard work. Someone else’s value cannot replace yours. You are you, and other people can’t compare. This is precisely where your state of mind needs to be. There is a need to realize that although someone may be a faster runner than you, they can’t fix a car the way you do. You need to realize that everyone has value, especially yourself. Even if someone was multi-talented, it doesn’t take away the fact that you are a useful, valuable, human being. You are useful to somebody, a place, or a movement.

Work is a must in this lifetime..."

When we chose to use milk paint from  Homestead House Paint there was so much to learn about finding, using and making adjustments to the process of living chemical-free and toxic-free. The challenges, the learning have tempered me: I had to apply what I researched into practical application. The picture above is the paint mixing (my job) necessary to make Pete's work of brushing the mixture onto the wall flow. Working in slippers (those are my short little toes up above) and Pete in barefeet must have given a grounding effect because the wagon glows golden!

An old Osterizer blender with a thick glass cannister, bags of milk paint stored and toted around with us, a long old bamboo stick for stirring, and a pot of room temperature water, a sunny day, and two long-seasoned makua make the most of Labor Day, 2018.

The wall Pete worked on was the most exposed surface: a wet and wind-swept winter battered this wall, removing almost all the beeswax that was rubbed into a dried milk painted wagon. It was necessary to get a fresh coat of paint, and soon a layer of beeswax on before the season shifts to cold and wet again. A light sanding before Pete painted along with masking the edges of the window trim was part of the prep-work.

This is probably a couple hours later. Pete kept going till all the milk paint I mixed was gone while I took myself out of the sun and into the kitchen to get dinner going.

A clean plate that was filled with beautiful roasted locally-grown root vegetables and salmon dinner with a pot of wild rice and short-grain brown rice stirred with slices of kale, a side of fresh avocado and a freshly picked Italian plum. A hearty meal for the laborers. A meal I loved making.

"I wanna know what you're going to call your restaurant?" Pete asked as we cleaned up from supper.

Without skipping a beat I answered, "The Safety Pin Cafe." 

"Of course," nodded Pete.

In the conclusion of the astrological interpretation that began this post, the writer suggests: "North Node in Taurus may ask you to be practical and realistic. If you do get rich in this lifetime, it will be from your own hands. Take care of the mundane, every day, things. You must learn to love yourself even if you aren’t as tall, rich, beautiful, or ingenious, as others... One lesson of North Node in Taurus is to value oneself, as oneself. Not to change oneself to make others value you more. ‘I am me, nothing more, nothing less.’

I feel that Taurus North Node relaxing into herself. I remember to exhale as I edit this piece, listening to the banging hammer (Pete's) working on the storage shed that needs to be patched before the winter rains. At the same time the South Node in Scorpio is calmed of her natal intensity and I appreciate the work I do here at the keys to paint the pictures of life from that small golden wagon of mine. It's ours, that wagon and the work of making a life from it is equally the work that I do.

A massage, now that sounds good, feels good. Would love a real hands-on one, it's been a long time.


Where is your North Node? Do you consider it in your life navigation?

What is a makua o'o and how do they relate to 'Alala the Hawaiian crow?

“We also observed some alarm calling showing us that these individuals are very aware of their surroundings and are learning to respond to the natural threats that may occur in their environment.”

- 'Alala released into the wilds

What do the Hawaiian crow 'Alala and these makua o'o have in common?

 The fancy definition, and one that I have written about reads:

"The Makua o'o are tomorrow's kupuna, elders, in training today. In the Hawaiian culture, the Makua o'o is urged to be in honest preparation under the tutelage of kupuna now. The o'o (with kahako, accents, over both vowels) is a cultivating tool used to work the ground, weed unwanted growth and prepare for planting. The art of becoming Makua o'o develops as a tailor-made journey of discovery, practice and confidence with that cultivating tool."

 But over time and with life experience, Pete's version is the real stuff.

We were there (back with the steps)

and now we're here being angled in by the makua using his o'o. The wind is building, and there are adjustments to be made on the porch' before dark. Making adjustments to climate change we move the safety pins metaphorically and literally.

We needed to move the vardo a few yards because the forecast is calling for high winds today and tonight. "I guess we have to get used to that (wind on the Prairie Front)." The wheels make mobility, possible. The o'o and the makua do the rest.

New Moon approaches (tomorrow, Thursday October 19, 2017 Po Muku mid-day). We give thanks, and set our intentions for an unfolding picture of incremental mobility -- a little bit at a time. Pete's 'ikaika strength and our adaptability gets us through, with practice. The connection with the Hawaiian crow, 'Alala comes at a perfect moment sometime around 7:00 PM. A recent report of releasing these nearly-extinct Raven back into the wilds is a talisman ... a bit of New Moon magic. We too are looking for just the right timing for our release back into the wilds.

The myth is still in the making!

`Aha Update #11 "Ke ala a ke Ku'uku'u" The way of the spider

This title and post was an article originally published on my old blog, Makua o'o, on September 24, 2012. That blog was my first, written to complement Vardo for Two (the original). Vardo for Two chronicled the building of the physical new definition of "a home"; writing Makua o'o reminded me that the spiritual journey as elder in training--for that is what makua o'o means in Hawaiian, is a constant practice. The practice is ongoing.

What prompted me to revisit Ke ala a ke Ku'uku'u? The events of the past few days, and in particular the experience of living with the effects of wild fire smoke sent me searching for kupuna wisdom, elder wisdom. In some traditions across the Earth, 70 is the age of elder infancy, you know some things but there is still much more to life yet to understand. I went searching for an elder further on the path for something good to chew on. I found The Path of the Spider, and Aunty Betty, the kumu and elder who first introduced me and mentored me.

At almost 70 I am barely an infant elder. I look to the source to find my balance as the sand shifts beneath our feet. We scramble to make adjustments, some illusions have been blown up with the Lunar Eclipse yesterday; no clear alternatives yet. " Illusions destroyed. We think we want something, but we’re totally missing out. Why? Because we have it defined all wrong. We’re shooting at the wrong target. In order to get what will truly satisfy, we’re going to have to blow shit up and go on faith." - Satori

Read the original article "Ke ala a ke Ku'uku'u", and learn a little about kumu and elder my teacher Aunty Betty Kawohiokalani Jenkins. Grandmother Spider is an ancient teacher, I look to her for some clues.

What was the Lunar Eclipse like for you?

Becoming Mauliauhonua (a family intimate with their place)

O ka hua o ke kolea aia i Kahiki

The egg of the kolea is laid in a foreign land

— from Mary Kawena Pukui, ‘0lelo No’eau: Hawai‘ian Proverbs and Poetical Sayings, Bishop Museum Press 1983