Truth be told I balk at the blog. It isn't that I don't want to feel the connectivity to be mutually enjoyed by even 1 interested reader and myself, nor is it that I find writing difficult. Whether or not it's my four planets in Gemini and three in Mercury ruled Virgo, I actually find writing very relaxing and easy. I do it every day, at the very least showing up for my three pages of Morning Pages a la Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way". I believe the Pen is mightier than the Sword and have often been told I "should" write a book. Indeed at times I've hustled cash on the side (of playing saxophone) by writing, copy editing and indexing for other people. And the first blog I ever heard of? It was mine. Moist Paula's Constant Commentary, back at the turn of the century when the forward thinking webmaster for my then band Moisturizer, Webmaster Aaron, told me I "should" write a blog on the website. What is a blog? I wondered. It's a "web log", an online diary, he youthsplained. Why would I put my diary on the web? I wondered. But I did, and it was beloved in it's little way. Undertaken under the radar from the cubicle I occupied part time at a New York trusts and estates law firm, I basic html'd my thoughts into the hot pink webpages of moisturizer.tv, (don't follow the link, it's extinct), and uploaded photos taken with digital cameras because nobody had a camera phone then, hardly understanding how it all worked. There wasn't yet a bloggy spot or a pressed word to be found on the information super highway, Tumbler was still spelled "tumbler" and was something you drank out of or in which you polished gemstones, Friendster and Myspace were having their respective hey days and Facebook was an annoyingly named something or other for Amercian college students, as foreign to me as American Pie. I would write the blog in a yahoo email and send it to some magical address that made the words appear on the website automatically. Early adopter, first to fall off.
The blogosphere came and stayed. From time to time, encouraging friends told me I "should" write a blog. I had one for a while called Moist Paula's HornChic about music with horns, a subject dear to my heart, but apart from my sensational post about Kenny G, found it unrewarding. A blog I'm much prouder of but which also felt like it was "going nowhere" revolved around my "Bring A Record Take A Record" idea, which I came up with in the shower (Could it be because I have Neptune in Scorpio that I'm so often inspired in water, or are most good ideas born whilst we bathe?). I was trying to think of a way to curb my record shopping and invited people to my home with the stipulation that they must bring me a gift of a record, in return for which they could go through my collection and take one of mine. I blogged about it on Tumblr. It didn't last long, but I still reminisce fondly about it.
And now here we are in the almost post pandemic future. I've been seriously studying and practicing astrology, making Zodiac Soundtracks, thinking about the business of being an astrologer. Once again, the familiar words appear in my ears - "you should write a blog". This time they're more urgent: You have to write a blog. Should, oughtta, have to are some of my least favorite words. I'm much more on the feel free to, if you'd like to tip. In as much as many of us believe in the power of words and mantra, two resounding phrases were drilled into my psyche my entire childhood by My Darling Mother - "please yourself" and "can't be bothered". These were her favorite catchphrases and only 50 years or so later did I realize how literally I've absorbed them. (In the shower I thought about how "please yourself" predicted a whole cultural movement, the selfish, selfie obsessed, self pleasing "me generation").
So when it comes to writing my Zodiac Soundtracks blog, I often find that even though I know I oughtta, I can't be bothered and I'd rather please myself, which could take almost infinite alternate forms, some of them very justifiable. I might rather read a book, call a friend, watch an astro educational video, or practice the saxophone. The Procrastination Drive (a term and concept coined by my punk rock days girlhood Scorpio friend Polixeni Brennan), might fill me with an urgent desire to vacuum the whole house rather than sit down to that which now that I'm doing it is actually so enjoyable. Why it is so, I don't know.
One thing I do know -- astrologers galore around the world are today unleashing their blogposts about the super duper New Moon which set the scene for this morning's Annular Solar Eclipse at 19 degrees of Gemini (which happens to be the midpoint between my natal Mercury and Sun/Moon conjunction, I'm writing, I'm writing!). Mercury theirself, the ruler of the Gemini Mansion, is in the heart of the Sun, known as the Cazimi (I love that word!), the height and halfway point of their (Mercury's) current Retrograde season, in a square to Neptune. The North Node of the moon is at 10 degrees of Gemini, which is what, in that the arc to the Sun Moon conjunction was less than 18 degrees, made this New Moon an eclipse. Many will espouse the meaningfulness of all this astronomical action within the frameworks of their respective astrological frameworks.
In a nutshell, I'd break it down this way -- all forms of communication are in overdrive (Gemini), reappearances and do overs are to be expected and possibly required, (Mercury Retrograde), and intensity is inevitable (Eclipses).
I've added here three seasonal Zodiac Soundtracks for this extraordinary astrological atmosphere. Sharing these songs with you is the best way I know how to communicate my understanding of the themes of Gemini season, Retrogrades and Eclipses and there's enough music here to get you through to my favorite day of the year, the June Solstice - enjoy!!
