Springtime, and the Word Dragon Awakes

If the first quarter of the year is anything to go by, 2017 is going to be busy, and I'm going to end it in quite a different place to where I started it. January was mostly about being ill, and February about putting things in place. And then March brought manifestation, lots of it. Our builder suddenly had a free slot to do our upstairs renovation, and so after a mad rush on our part to get ready, they started just after Spring Equinox. By removing the top of our house, ready for a new roof, dormer, and loft extension.

At the same time, I won two different writing contracts, as well as finding employment elsewhere as a tarot reader. Suddenly I was writing, writing, writing, working late into the evening, deadlines looming, in the middle of a building site whilst still full time mothering. Saturn time - the hard work of bringing plans and dreams into reality. I've struggled with my natal Saturn placement for years; in Gemini in the fifth house, its conjunct the south node and on the Sun / Moon midpoint so especially powerful, and it has mostly meant that I am very hard on myself and have an over developed inner critic! I read a comment about Saturn in Gemini in the fifth house as being a storyteller, and it resonated deeply. I'm very good at telling myself stories about how hard things are, telling myself there's too much going on for me to move out of my comfort zone. But the planets are ever changing, and this year brings me transits to the nodal axis as well as to Saturn, triggering this whole configuration. Saturn is approaching opposition to its natal point, later in the year, and meets my north node in Sagittarius - opposing the natal south node - later this month. Meanwhile Chiron, the great healer of the heavens, squares my nodal axis, exact for the first time a month ago and with two more hits to come later in the year, and also natal Saturn later this month, and twice more through this year. And so the stories I tell myself are changing. Saturn in Gemini is a disciplined writer - I've written over 100,000 words in the last six weeks or so. Both projects are on hold for now (which is how I'm back here!), partly at my instigation as I was getting so burnt out. Noticing the story of being too hard on myself, of thinking I have to do too much to be enough. If the south node is our comfort zone, our habitual actions and reactions, then by definition the north node is where we step out of that comfort zone, where we grow and develop. Its challenging, as change always is, but the challenges can lead us into a more fulfilled self. Some believe that the nodal axis describes our karma, how we can break out of patterns established over many lifetimes and move towards a more enlightened way of being. There is the Saturn / south node in Gemini story about deadlines and details and stress. And there is the north node in Sagittarius story about finding my purpose in life, and living my dreams.

Sunlight through blossom - stepping into a brighter self

So meanwhile, all the writing. The word dragon has really awoken now and will not be going back to sleep. Whether I am writing for others or following my own creative meanderings, my stories will be told. The image of the word dragon, all the writing waiting inside me, wanting to be let out, has been with me since I did Lucy Pearce's Your Authentic Voice course last year. I was reminded of it recently, as she is running it again and has invited past participants to revisit the material. Maybe its time to do that. I've been exploring a daily writing practice as well, prompted by a friend who needed beta testers for her ebook on writing practice. Spirit, sends us just what we need, over and over again.

And there are always the amusingly literal manifestations of the astrological transits. As I open my mind to writing more than I have ever done in one go before, not to mention being paid to write for the first time, the top - the head - of my house is taken off and rebuilt. My son turns four next week, and for his birthday trip he wants to go on a pedalo on our local boating lake - a pedalo shaped like, of course, a green dragon.