Soror Metallum

I seem to have developed a stack of reading material very quickly over the past week. I try to always have a book on the go and usually know what I am going to pick up right after but several people have lent, traded & recommended books to me just in this last week. I just finished George R. R. Martin's A Dance With Dragons a few weeks ago and now I am on to The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell which I picked up over the holidays.

Add to the list: The Female Eunuch by Germain Greer, a gift from my amazing friends Clarissa and Jordan; Jung and Tarot by Sallie Nichols, a lending trade with my friend Ryan for my copy of Robert M. Place's Alchemy and The Tarot; Jaguar Woman by Lynn V. Andrews, a lend from my classmate Amanda; and He, She and It by Marge Piercy, recommended to me by my fellow bibliophile and partner, Simon. Not to mention some of the amazing titles Simon and I have picked up over the past year from esoteric bookseller Three Hands Press which I've only had time to flip through.

I have a fantasy: two weeks off, in a cabin somewhere near the ocean, piles of books, lots of coffee, good food, wine and beer and my favourite person with me. Pretty sure I can make it come true.

Today I found this neat Saturn Return calculator and found out that I am indeed in my Saturn return already (and it ends in October 2014)! Saturn return is something my counsellor and I have talked about over the past year (she's also an astrologer) but for some reason I wasn't expecting it quite yet as I'm not yet 29, which is when it usually comes to pass in people's lives.

Saturn return refers to Saturn's "return" to the same place in your astrological chart that it was when you were born and is typically characterized by challenges, changes, and confrontations about your place in this world. Besides the horoscopic implications, the years before turning thirty are all about expectations that you've got it all figured out. I certainly don't! But I am happy and excited about everything to come. Saturn can challenge me all it wants and I will likely whine and mope about it but I'll come out the other end more confident and happy with my life. I welcome Saturn to destroy all that doesn't work in my life and reaffirm that which does.

The new moon fell on New Year's day this month which I thought was rather lovely and auspicious. I was inspired by The Wild Unknown's instagram contest to do a 13 card tarot reading for the 12 months of the year and  one card for me in the year. It was inspiring and reassuring and I plan to make a tradition of it for New Years to come. The reading opened with the Four of Swords and closed with the Hermit; both cards about turning inward and seeking peace in that which we inherently know.