Co Witchcraft Offerings with Michael J. Morris | Blog - Co Witchcraft Offerings

Astrology for Wednesday, 10 June 2020:

6/10/2020

The skies are relatively quiet today. The Moon in Aquarius makes a trine to the Sun in Gemini. Both in air signs, this aspect stimulates critical thinking and the exchange of ideas, offering multiple perspectives in order to develop a fuller view of the worlds we inhabit together. This is also the disseminating phase of the lunation cycle, in which we feel the impulse to share the lessons we have learned and the wisdom we have encountered. Collectively, we are on a steep learning curve as many more people begin to educate ourselves on systemic racism and injustice, alternatives to police and prisons, and the brilliance of Black and Brown people that has long gone unacknowledged and under-appreciated. As we learn together, this will require educating ourselves and one another, speaking up and listening well, and most of all, engaging in meaningful dialogue through which we can generate new knowledge. bell hooks writes in Teaching to Transgress, “To engage in dialogue is one of the simplest ways we can begin as teachers, scholars, and critical thinkers to cross boundaries, the barriers that may or may not be erected by race, gender, class, professional standing, and a host of other differences … Understanding and appreciating our different locations has been a necessary framework for the building of professional and political solidarity between us, as well as for creating a space of emotional trust where intimacy and regard for one another can be nourished.” Today we might ask: what are the resources I can share? What are the resources I need to receive? What perspectives other than my own might I center? And what dialogues—new and ongoing—can be cultivated in order to think across barriers to collective justice?

Astrology for Tuesday, 9 June 2020:

6/9/2020

Today the Moon in Aquarius makes a square to Uranus in Taurus. Revolution that rejects and disrupts the stable ground of what has been is finally breaking through the surface. It makes sense that our bodies will be feeling this disruption and perhaps even unrest as well. What would it take to stay with the discomfort of change, to resist the urge to numb or repress and instead become caring attendants to the revolution that is happening within the microcosms of our bodies along with the macrocosms of our societies? The Moon then makes at trine to Venus retrograde in Gemini. Venus’ retrograde journey is asking us to recognize that how we practice love in our intimate relationships is not separate from the kind of world in which we are attempting to be loving. bell hooks writes in All About Love, “Without justice there can be no love … The heart of justice is truth telling, seeing ourselves and the world the way it is rather than the way we want it to be.” In order to love, we must pursue justice, and in order to pursue justice, we must be willing to tell the truth, to see past our projections, and to engage with one another and our world in practices of radical honesty. We are living through a moment of profound truth-telling at the scale of our societies—naming and protesting the systemic harms of racism and anti-Blackness within the United States and beyond; in order to sustain this movement, we must be willing to practice these same kinds of honesty in how we love ourselves and one another as well.

Astrology for Monday, 8 June 2020:

6/8/2020

Today the Moon in Capricorn makes a sextile to Neptune in Pisces. We may find new opportunities for embodying the worlds of which we are dreaming, worlds in which more justice and liberation are possible. But it may take work to even dream, as well as embody such visions for the future. As adrienne maree brown writes in Emergent Strategy, “Change is coming—what do we need to imagine as we prepare for it? … How do we cultivate the muscle of radical imagination needed to dream together beyond fear?” As the Moon makes conjunctions to Pluto and Jupiter—both currently retrograde in Capricorn—we initiate new cycles of opposing authoritarian powers of domination and committing to long-term, sustainable growth. Then the Moon ingresses into Aquarius, directly into a conjunction with Saturn. Moving retrograde, Saturn is just weeks away from returning to Capricorn. We may already feel the pull to return to old ways of doing things, established systems and structures that we believed kept us safe. But do not forget: those systems and structures not only have not protected us, they were also built upon and sustained by the ongoing oppression and exploitation of Black and Brown people. The Moon’s conjunction to Saturn is a reminder: even as we feel the pull back toward these old, established systems, we must remain committed to finding our ways into the futures of our radical imaginations.

Astrology for Sunday, 7 June 2020:

6/7/2020

Today the Moon in Capricorn makes a trine to Uranus in Taurus, inviting us to embody our revolutionary potential within the context of the most established structures of our society. How do we insist on being and becoming bodies differently when we are living within sedimented systems that have long determined what a body is and what it means—especially when the significance of bodies is structured by violence against some bodies more than others. Sara Ahmed writes in Living a Feminist Life, “Some bodies are in an instant judged as suspicious, or as dangerous, as objects to be feared, a judgement that is lethal. There can be nothing more dangerous to a body than the social agreement that that body is dangerous. We can simplify: it is dangerous to be perceived as dangerous.” Revolutionary embodiment for Black and Brown people might involve insisting: my body is not dangerous. For white people, this might involve asking: is my body dangerous? Does my whiteness create conditions of violence for people who are not white? The Moon then opposes Mercury in Cancer, which may confront us with opportunities to name and articulate our experiences of radical embodiment. How can you describe what it would mean to be a body—your body—differently in a world of more justice and liberation? Finally, the Moon makes a sextile to Mars in Pisces, emboldening us to take courageous, decisive action, to be motivated and animated by our radical realizations and words.

Astrology for Saturday, 6 June 2020:

6/6/2020

Today the Sun in Gemini receives a square from Mars in Pisces. Mars is in the superior position, making this a condition of maltreatment, an assault on life and livability, on our insistence to show up and be seen as we illuminate the world around us. We may feel our very survival is under attack, or we may finally be coming into consciousness regarding the ways in which the lives, livability, and survival of Black and Brown people have always been under attack in this country. Today is a day to struggle on behalf of survival. Alexis Pauline Gumbs writes in “The Shape of My Impact”: “Survival has never meant, bare minimum, mere straggling breath, the small space next to the line of death. Survival references our living in the context of what we have overcome. Survival is life after disaster, life in honor of our ancestors, despite the genocidal forces worked against them specifically so we would not exist … My survival, my life resplendent, with the energy of my ancestors, is enough.” What actions can you take today to ensure life after disaster, in honor of all those revolutionary ancestors who make our lives possible today? The Moon then ingresses into Capricorn, the sign of its antithesis or detriment, without reception from Saturn. We may feel depleted, exhausted, or alienated from the resources we need in order to be well. Remember, rest is part of the revolution. Recovery is necessary to sustain the long-term labor of change. You may need to slow down and rest in order to get back into the struggles ahead.

Astrology for Friday, 5 June 2020:

6/5/2020

Today Mercury in Gemini makes a sextile to Uranus in Taurus. It is a time for articulating revolution into countless forms, for speaking radical change into being, and also for listening deeply to the words that are being spoken—especially by Black and Brown people—that have the potential to unsettle us, to shake us, to disrupt what we thought we knew. The Moon in Sagittarius makes an opposition to Venus retrograde in Gemini before coming into opposition with the Sun, perfecting its penumbral Lunar Eclipse. The opposition to Venus ties this lunation into the process or reflection and review that the Venus retrograde has been describing. The eclipse occurs in a T-square with Mars in Pisces. This has the potential to describe an intense severing or separating, conflict, or struggle, particularly in ways that may feel unsupported. Where do you need to separate and step away, bring things to an ending, because what you are coming to realize as truth is not being supported there? Sagittarius can describe a burning need for freedom and movement and change, which may require cutting something off or separating from what has kept you limited in your motion or mobility. This reminds me of Fannie Lou Hamer saying, “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.” Use this time to consider how those around us—Black and Brown people, trans folks, queer folks, women and femmes, disabled folks, poor folks, undocumented people, incarcerated people, etc.—are not yet free. Face the ways in which you and I are contributing to that lack of freedom. As the Moon moves into a square with Neptune in Pisces, we will be challenged to dream new ways of creating freedom for more people.

You can hear more about the upcoming eclipses in June and July on this episode of the home|body podcast on which I appeared in June.

Astrology for Thursday, 4 June 2020:

6/4/2020

Today the Moon in Scorpio makes sextiles to Pluto and Jupiter, both retrograde in Capricorn, before ingressing into Sagittarius. Then the Moon makes a sextile to Saturn retrograde in Aquarius. These are all helpful aspects with potentially challenging or challenged planets. The Moon is fallen in Scorpio, a depression that has the potential to intensify or transform as it connects with Pluto. The sextile with Jupiter is like a supportive gesture from a friend who is also going through a difficult time. The Moon’s entrance into Sagittarius lightens the mood, but without reception from Jupiter. The sextile with Saturn encourages us to imagine new possibilities for what we mean by safety and security, and how we might cultivate more open responsibility for developing new approaches to organizing our communities and keeping people safe. In an essay entitled “Building Community Safety: Practical Steps Toward Liberatory Transformation,” Ejeris Dixon writes, “The crucial questions are: What can you help build? What conversations can you start to increase the safety of your community? What new structures or collaborations will you create to decrease your reliance on the criminal legal system? … No matter how small they are, our experiments should aspire to center the experiences of the most marginalized folks within our communities.” The creation of a world without police or prisons will require large-scale change, but it will also require small experiments in our local communities and intimate relationships in order to build new systems of safety. How can you begin or continue this work today? Consider reading Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement, edited by Ejeris Dixon and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha.

Astrology for Wednesday, 3 June 2020:

6/3/2020

Today the Moon in Scorpio opposes Uranus in Taurus. The Moon is fallen in Scorpio, and from this challenged place, it comes into direct confrontation with the planet of revolution and. It is from the lowest places, from the lived, embodied experiences of the most marginalized, that we must mobilize revolution, building from the bottom up by primarily addressing the needs of the most oppressed. The Moon then makes a trine to its ruler Mars in Scorpio, lending assertion and direction to struggles that may feel submerged beneath depths within which it is difficult to navigate. Venus moving retrograde in Gemini makes a conjunction with the Sun—a condition called cazimi, as Venus moves from its place as an evening star to a morning star. The cazimi is a moment of clarity and purification within the retrograde cycle. Today we may suddenly recognize some part of what these weeks are teaching us. In Gemini, such lessons may center on the vitality of difference within the relations that constitute us. Audre Lorde writes in “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference”: “Certainly there are very real differences between us … But it is not those differences between us that are separating us. It is rather our refusal to recognize those differences, and to examine the distortions which result from our misnaming them and their effects upon human behavior and expectation.” How might we come into more ethical and loving relations by recognizing and affirming our differences, not as that which separate us, but a dynamic force propelling us toward more possibilities? Finally, the Moon in Scorpio makes a trine to Neptune in Pisces. This aspect invites us to rest as part of the revolution, to dream as strategy for making demands of our collective future, and for feeling that we are part of a movement that is larger than any one of us.

Astrology for Tuesday, 2 June 2020:

6/2/2020

There are busy skies today. The Moon in Libra makes squares to Pluto and Jupiter, both retrograde in Capricorn. These are potentially challenging aspects, as our embodiment of collectivity and solidarity may be at cross-purposes with the authorities established within the systems we inherit. The Moon then ingresses into Scorpio, the sign of its fall or depression, but with reception from Mars in Pisces. Defenses may arise as we are pulled into the churning tumult of emotional tides, the force of which comes from our most vulnerable places finding resonance with collective rage. Audre Lorde writes in “Eye to Eye: Black Women, Hatred, and Anger,” “My Black woman’s anger is a molten pond at the core of me, my most fiercely guarded secret. I know how much of my life as a powerful feeling woman is laced through with this net of rage. It is an electric thread woven into every emotional tapestry upon which I set the essentials of my life—a boiling hot spring likely to erupt at any point, leaping out of my consciousness like a fire on the landscape.” If you are not Black, if you are not a Black woman, if you haven’t not known this molten pond of anger, now is the time to listen deeply and allow yourself to feel with those for whom the boiling hot springs are erupting in this time. Venus retrograde in Gemini makes a square to Mars in Pisces. We may be asked to return to sites of injury in order to do the relational work of repair; if we do not, the relations may be severed. Finally, the Moon makes a trine to Mercury in Cancer, reminding us to remain sensitive to pain that is not our own and to amplify the voices of those whose voices are not being heard.

Astrology for Monday, 1 June 2020:

6/1/2020

Today the Moon in Libra makes a trine to the Sun in Gemini. Libra cultivates cooperation, collaboration, and mutuality that fosters raising us the needs of those who are most marginalized and oppressed into greater equity and equality. The Sun offers its life-affirming brilliance to our embodiment of such collectivity. adrienne maree brown writes in Emergent Strategy, “Do you already know that your existence—who and how you are—is in and of itself a contribution to the people and place around you? Not after or because you do some particular thing, but simply the miracle of your life. And that the people around you, and the place(s), have contributions as well? Do you understand that your quality of life and your survival are tied to how authentic and generous the connections are between you and the people and place you live with and in?” Can you be in the radiant realization that your miraculous life is a source of life for others, just as your survival and quality of life depends on others as well? In the midst of struggles for freedom and justice, can we center these generous and authentic connections that allow us all—including those who are most oppressed—to live well? The Moon then makes a trine to Venus retrograde in Gemini, reminding us that love is part of the work for justice. bell hooks teaches us that “there can be no love when there is domination.” Thus, in order to create a world in which love becomes more possible, we must oppose and dismantle systems of domination that structure our lives, inside and out.