We decided to make a short visit to Izamal, near Merida. Izamal was the first of Mexico’s Pueblo Mágicos. The magic of Izamal is not just the beautiful yellow color of its buildings and abundance of plants. Izamal also has Mayan pyramids, historic churches, and a huge public square, complete with horse-drawn cart rides.
The central area’s streets are cobblestone. The cobblestones seem to be set deeper than those in some other historical town I have walked in, so they didn’t poke into my shoes.
Our horse drawn carriage ride took us by each of the four large pyramid sites in Izamal. Later that day we walked to view them. They were not all open for exploration. We climbed the largest accessible structure, though, which seemed enormous. Climbing the side to what we thought was the top gave us access to a large grassy platform, itself the base of a smaller pyramid.
Izamal’s largest pyramid KINICH KAK MOO has a plateau that supports this smaller pyramid.
Though Izamal is as famous as other Pueblos Magicos, it is bound to become better known in a short time. Soon, it will be a stop for the new Mayan train that encircles the Yucatan. I’m glad that Robert and I got to visit it beforehand. We climbed the pyramids and enjoyed a horse drawn cart ride. In the evening, we watched and listened as hundreds of birds flitted about in the public square jockeying for roosting space in the trees. https://youtube.com/shorts/Mi46-s8TYeM?si=iQIafgwk61wVoWLI
When Prince Harry was in the news a while ago, I looked up his birth chart and share here my short delineation.
If I did a cold reading of his chart, without knowing his name, profession or anything about him, here are some things I would notice and remark upon. I would see the Mars in Sagittarius, indicating that he likes to move his body freely, sports would include running, climbing, and any competitive tournaments. Since Sagittarius is a crusader at times, I would advise that he has the capacity to be ruthless in promoting or coercing others to adopt or harbor his philosophy or world views. With this Mars in the eleventh house, he applies this approach to society as a whole or his friends.
Prince Harry Capricorn Rising, Moon in Taurus, Sun in Virgo
Smarter than He Seems
The next planet that I notice is his Mercury in Virgo. He isn’t stupid. Mercury in Virgo is an analyst and sometimes sharp with words. Combined with his Sun in the same sign, he is smarter than he seems, but too focused on details to see the big picture, often getting lost in minutiae, and he may alienate others with his sharp words. The mind here is analytical without vision. However, the position of these planets in the eighth house indicates that he has the capacity to go within, to drop out, to be alone and ponder. Jupiter and Neptune in the 12th house additionally indicate capacity, indeed need, to hide away and be alone. Here they also give capacity for secret philanthropy. Neptune and Jupiter here also expand psychic and emotional energies coming from deep within, can create self-imposed or community imposed isolation and seeking altered states of consciousness.
North and South Nodes
In this short analysis of his chart, I would note that the north and south node positions show a familiarity, though discomfort, with status and career with eventual comfort in home and later in ancestry. The moon in the fourth is a strong indicator of the importance of his mother (and father) in his life and his family in general.
Secret Philanthropy
Because the houses show where we “do” our lives and the planets and signs show what we do, here are my further thoughts:
He would benefit from doing actual secret philanthropy, charity behind the scenes, in institutions like hospitals or prisons. Family life suits him well. When I see several planets in the 8th house in someone’s chart, I often find out that death has made itself known to them in a tragic way. Facing endings, death, is a very hard lesson and the eighth house also asks us to embrace the “what’s next” and to recognize the cycle of life in all its aspects. That is why we associate the eighth house not only with death, but with sex, and recycling, and the renewal of anything by transformation into a new form. This could be a life work for the material, practical Virgo, who isn’t always able to envision the ineffable realities very well.
Seems that Prince Harry is voicing his desire to live his own chart, his written and spoken reality is congruent with this chart I see before me, right, wrong or indifferent, and his Virgo Mercury is doing the speaking.
The quote below is from an unearthed memoir of Edward VIII that intrigued me enough to look up both of their natal charts. Looking at their charts, I easily saw that Edward VIII’s impressions of Ms. Simpson accurately describe a Gemini stellium which is prominent in Wallace Simpson’s chart. (A stellium is a grouping of several planets all in the same sign).
The screenshot below captures the intriguing point. View the article which contains the quote at https://mol.im/a/12673407
The essence of a Gemini stellium personality
Now, let’s look at the chart itself!
Planets are grouped in Gemini in Ms. Simpson’s chartEdward VIII also has a grouping in Gemini
Fascinated by the talkative, mercurial Wallace Simpson, Edward VIII’s impressions of Ms. Simpson read like a classic textbook of astrological keywords for Gemini. The interrelatedness of both of their Gemini planets fostered communication, travel, and connections. Of course, some of the travel is because of their position of near or actual exile. History hasn’t been very kind to this couple. Edward VIII’s moon in the first house in Pisces is a position of a psychic sponge and sometimes indicates a quitter or an individual who doesn’t have enough fight in him to see things through to a desired outcome. Though some call the quitting cowardice, I feel that the moon in Pisces often sees the world as an illusion. It wouldn’t be hard to quit something that interiorly seems at times to have so little substance.
There were major and minor influencers in San Francisco whose legacy continues today. I was fortunate to encounter many of them there.
Acid Rock Music and Peace Marches
Returning from Europe in July 1966, after almost a year of travel, I was immersed in the San Francisco vibe. This was the period of acid rock, Be-ins, the Oracle, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and Jefferson Airplane. The venue was the Avalon Ballroom. Our friend, Woody, had a gig as the Master of Ceremonies at the Avalon. Mentioning his name at the box office gave us free entry. During the fall of 1966 through the spring of 1967, we went to the rock concerts weekly, seeing the above mentioned groups and many more.
Peace marches attracted attention with signs and rock groups accompanied the marchers
Besides the rock concerts at the Avalon, there were anti-war demonstrations, marches and celebrations. We attended many of them, mostly by chance, simply by walking into Golden Gate Park or taking the bus to the Panhandle.
I wasn’t in the best of health then, having contracted amoebic dysentery in Egypt. The antibiotics had stopped the virulence of it, but my body wasn’t dealing with food very well yet.
I Made Healing My Focus
My greatest desire was to have good health. So on my “trips” I focused on my body, looking inward, asking what it needed to be well.
My internal and external exploration for healing my body bore fruit. By the the summer of 1967, we were completely living a new lifestyle. Early morning and late evening yoga practice, eating vegetarian food, mantra meditation, and walks to the ocean became a daily routine. The beach below Lincoln Park was relatively deserted in those days. On the beach we often sat patiently to watch barnacles catch their prey in the tide pools.
Time at the beach below Lincoln Park was meditative and healing.
Our path was brightened by the luminaries who lived in San Francisco during that seminal period. Influencers and teachers included A.C.Bhativadanta Swami, Richard Hittleman, Suzuki Roshi, Eknath Easwaran and Sivaram. Many swamis from India taught classes or gave lectures. Timothy Leary was there from time to time. Standing next to him in line one day, I sensed his energy to be nervous and scattered, quite unlike the disciplined energy of the teachers of yogic meditation that were sharing their wisdom with us.
Master Subramuniya’s Influence
There, too, was the relatively unknown yogi, Master Subramuniya, whose ashram was a few blocks from our apartment. While we experienced many in-person classes with several of the important spiritual influencers, we never met Master Subramuniya, though we attempted to attend events at his ashram on more than one occasion.
His influence, though, was through his guest appearances on a nighttime talk show. People called in to ask him questions about their experiences opening the doorways of perception with LSD or mescaline. I remember one of Subramuniya Swami’s calm responses. He explained to the caller, based on the caller’s description of his experience, which chakra was being activated. He explained the psychedelic experience through the lens of yogic states of consciousness.
Explorers in a Strange Land
It’s probably hard to fathom that, in the 1960s, the effects of psychedelic drugs were little known to most people. Like travelers in a land that hasn’t been mapped yet, we were all explorers.
And, while Timothy Leary made the news, others were quietly planting seeds of world views that would bear various kinds of fruit.
Though Subramuniya Swami did not introduce me to yoga, nor was he my guru, I want to acknowledge him in this blog as someone who made reasonable sense out of the chaos of experiences during that tumultuous time. You can learn more about him at the link below.
Xel-Ha archaeological site is easy to visit on the way to Tulum from Playa del Carmen. We had a lovely visit to view the ruins and the cenote. I forgot to use mosquito repellent, so I brought home some itchy souvenirs all over my body. Apart from the mosquitoes, the site is peaceful and parklike.
The view of this beautiful cenote was the reward at the end of our walk along the sacbe
We walked along the ancient sacbe, which is a causeway or raised road, which took us to a structure and to a beautiful cenote. I haven’t done the research, but the structure’s proximity to the sacbe caused me to guess that perhaps it served as a kind of “guard house” to screen people or goods coming toward the city on that ancient road.
This structure sits near the path of the sacbe
When we visited Coba archaeological site, we learned that a sacbe connected Coba to Xel-Ha in pre-Colombian times. The sacbe facilitated trade between Xel-Ha and Coba. Xel-Ha provided goods from the sea and shore such as fish and shellfish.
The number of structures that we saw indicated that this was no small village, but a place of substantial population and importance. There are also archaeological remains across the modern highway 307 at the Xel-Ha park. We didn’t see those on this visit, as it is not connected to the Xel-Ha archaeological site.
Altogether the visit to the site took an hour or two.
Arne Trettevik: The star Shaman of South Palm Canyon and his art is the subject of the article linked above.
Several years ago Ann Japenga interviewed me. Ann is a writer based in Palm Springs. She wanted to know about the artist who painted the paintings that I was selling. My response piqued her interest enough that she wrote the above article.
Arne, the subject of Ann Japenga’s article, introduced me to the wonders of Mayan archaeological ruins. Until I saw his slides (photos), I didn’t know much about what Mexico and Central America offered. His seven month journey in Mexico, Belize and Guatemala inspired me.
The gallery below has a small sample of his photos. Unfortunately, my scans of the original beautiful Ektachrome slides are somewhat drab.
Photos taken in 1962: Isla Mujeres, Campeche, cenote at Chichen Itza, unknown volcano, Villahermosa and the PanAmerican Highway,
Shortly after I viewed Arne’s beautiful slides of his unusual (for the times) journey, he invited me to come down to Mexico to see for myself. Without hesitation, I did, and we spent several years together studying and traveling. In those days we climbed the pyramids and often we were the only visitors around.
Ultimately, there is something about being alone in these ruins that expanded our awareness of different cultures and ways of being. Travel, in general, changes the traveler. Here, in the ruins, my sense of connection to nature and spirit was enhanced.
It’s some sixty years later and I am still fascinated by this region. Most recently, I visited Xel-Ha archaeological site with Robert. I wrote a blog post about Coba with photos here. I plan to visit more of the sites. Although I earned my master of arts degree in Cultural Ecology by doing scholarly research on the region, my visits now are strictly for my own enjoyment.
Kitty Boot Camp: a true cat story tells about some of the behaviors that we observed when we built a house near a colony of feral cats and their offspring. I’ll explain the behavior “kitty boot camp” later.
During the 1990s, we built a home on acreage in a rural subdivision in the California foothills. While working on the initial construction, our builder encountered an apparently vicious cat. She was hiding in the air conditioner ductwork. She bit and scratched the contractor when he tried to pull her out.
Busy as we were, working and commuting to our home and the construction site daily, we forgot our contractor’s cat story. But one day my son heard kittens mewing. A somewhat flattened large box, discarded and not yet hauled to the dumps, lay on the ground . It was in this box that my son found the kittens.
Since it was the rainy time of year, we wanted to rescue the kittens from the storms. Robert suggested the perfect place to shelter them. He lined a small cardboard box, placed the kittens in it and put it under the wraparound porch. The momma cat immediately joined her kittens there. We brought milk and tidbits for momma cat and peeked under the porch sometimes to view them. Momma cat kept her distance from us, at first. Eventually, though, she warmed up to following us around the property when we went on walks.
The wraparound porch sheltered the kittens. It was under the wraparound porch that the feral momma cat revealed the food part of cat culture to us.
A Balance of Nature
At that time, where we lived, there was not an overabundance of cats. Coyotes, mountain lions and other predators roamed there. There were foxes. And there were mice and rodents. The subdivision wasn’t completely built out yet, many lots were empty. The lots themselves were large, up to 5 acres, and some had springs of fresh water. There was a kind of balance of nature. We hadn’t gotten acquainted with the cat as an individual pet, as we later would with her descendants. She was a part of the wild ecosystem that established itself before we moved there.
But I couldn’t resist playing with the kittens and feeding them. The kittens were so friendly and adorable. After a while, I was the “cat lady” of the area. Nearby neighbors often asked for a cat for their own place. Everyone needed a good mouser around their property. Some of our porch kittens, though, stayed, grew up near our house, and had kittens of their own.
This kitten became a valued part of our home.
Although it is hard for an urban dweller to imagine a place where there are not enough cats, cats were in demand in this area at that time. With so many predators thinning out their numbers and many rodents roaming around, cats were valued and useful.
Male Cat Bonding
Two of the cats stayed for years on our property. One cat was the daughter of the original black feral female and the other was a male black cat who apparently was the progenitor of many of the cats in the colony. The old male had a peaceful personality. We would encounter him sitting on a log, just so calmly. We never fed him, he was completely independent and lived off the land. In later years, his grown-up son, who had become somewhat of a pet for us, could be seen sometimes calmly sitting at the old male’s side. For us, this non-confrontational behavior between the elder and younger cat was unbelievable. We didn’t know about what we now call “cat culture”, because we had only ever known city cats, who are often stressed about territory.
Boot Camp for Kittens
A survival aspect of the cat behavior of our “tribe” of cats was what Robert referred to as “kitty boot camp”. The mother cat and her kittens lived in a cloth lined cardboard box on the porch. She nursed them, cleaned them and then went off into the brush for a while to hunt and bring back tidbits for them. When the kittens were about 6 weeks old or so, mother and kittens all disappeared. In about a week they came back.
A vivid memory from those years is of a day when the cat we named Rascal came up out of the brush followed by her nine proud kittens, single file, all with their short fat tails pointing straight up to the sky. The tiniest of them was the last in line. They marched up to the porch and climbed into their “nursery” box. They had successfully returned from a week of “boot camp”, where, we surmised, mother cat taught them to hunt and survive in nature. The “boot camp” with the kittens was repeated with each litter and was common for all the mother cats and kittens that grew up on the porch.
Arranging the Catch to Entice the Kittens to Eat Solid Food
The first cat we became acquainted with, the feral female, revealed how displaying the catch was part of a cat culture ritual as well. As this was the group of kittens we rescued from the big refrigerator box who sheltered under the porch, we easily observed them. One day Robert went down to peek at the feral cat’s kittens and came rushing up to tell me “you have got to come down right now and see this, she has a kitten cafeteria there!”
I went to see and what I saw was three mice, a couple of lizards and a few large grasshoppers laid carefully in a row from largest to smallest as if an imaginary line marked the bottom of the display. The mother cat had so neatly arranged the catch to display to her kittens, that it looked like a human cafeteria display. The cat’s remarkable natural talents included food arrangement and we were very impressed!
They Moved with Us
When we sold our property we took the cats with us. By then, the tribe had become domestic, tame kitties, ready for city life, vaccinated and “fixed”. There were six of them who moved with us to the city and stayed with us for years. The last to leave us, at the age of 19, was the beautiful Siamese pictured here. She, also, was a descendant of the old, friendly feral black male.
We named this cat Dali. She came with us when we moved from our rural property to the city. At our property, she displayed the same traits as the rest of her relatives described in Kitty Boot Camp. As a city pet she was an honored member of our household.
Coba Archaeological Site was our choice for our third day trip in the rented Nissan March. This important Maya site was not new to me. When I worked on my master’s thesis in Anthropology, years ago, I read many journal articles about Coba and the findings there, particularly in regard to Coba’s food crops and its urban settlement patterns. Robert and I then visited Coba shortly after I finished my thesis in 1990. During that visit, my memories of what I learned were very fresh. Alas, my recollections were not as clear this time.
View from top of pyramid on our 1991 visit to CobaYou can see how spread out the ruins are in the photo taken in 1991
At the site entrance, we hired a guide!
We hired a guide for a two hour tour and slowly walked the path from one pyramid to the other. Coba archaeological site is big and the featured pyramids are spread about. Though we walked with our guide to the furthest of the ruins that we planned to see, our guide encouraged us to hire a pedicab for the return to the site’s entrance. He told us that the fares for the rides help his ejido. So we rode in a pedicab back to the starting point at the entrance to the site. You can enjoy our view from the pedicab here!
A view of Coba’s lake from the road leading to the site entrance
During the walk, Robert asked if we could see the lake from the path. The guide led us to a spot where we had a glimpse of the lake. Robert remembered viewing the lake on our visit to Coba in 1991 from the top of the pyramid.
Our guide told us that since the last big hurricane the lake has had crocodiles, which washed in with the hurricane’s waters. He told us that prior to the hurricane, the lake had no crocodiles, so the people of the ejido used it for swimming, but now it is dangerous.
The top of the pyramid offered a glimpse of Coba’s lake 1991
During the walk, our guide showed us copal trees and how the sap is taken and processed to make into a hard resin. Copal is the incense of choice for all the ceremonies around here and was during pre-Colombian times, as well.
Mayan Bees Are Tiny!
Our guide pointed out the Mayan bees on one of the trees. I read about these bees when working on my thesis, but I had never seen one close up. The tiny stingless bees make honey that is more syrupy than the honey of European bees. They live in trees. I was fascinated to see them up close. Later, at an store at the site’s entrance, we purchased a tiny jar of it!
The surprise that I enjoyed on this visit was the opportunity to walk among the trees along the path. The heat of the August didn’t seem to penetrate the canopy of foliage. It actually felt comfortable. Out in the sunlight, away from the cover of trees, though, it was challenging to stand and look at the archaeological ruins! A couple of days before, during our drive through the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, I had been disappointed that we couldn’t really walk through the forest. Here, we did walk and it was surprisingly pleasant. In the photos above, which are scanned from slides that Robert took in 1991, you can see how dense the foliage is in this part of Quintana Roo.
What do the transits really do? Recently, I received a message from an astrologically aware friend. She wanted to know what my reaction was when Venus was Cazimi the Sun in Leo. She thought this transit was significant because it made an exact sextile aspect to my own natal Venus conjoined Ascendant. The sextile is considered to be an opportunity. At first, I couldn’t remember anything in particular about that day.
The transit coincided with an opportunity to become peaceful!
But something did change that day. On that day, I realized that I had been creating a battle of sorts with my husband for a couple of months and I decided to make peace with myself. The truth is that he wasn’t engaged in battle with me. Our trip to California in the hottest week of the summer left me tired and out of sorts. I simply wasn’t letting go of the mood. So this gentle transit sextile marked a decision that I made to be peaceful, as it revealed to me my own attitude quite clearly. The sextile provided the ease to change, to be in a loving and open state of mind again.
Transits Affect Multiple Planets
I feel the transiting Saturn conjoined to my Moon much more strongly. Saturn is a slow moving planet. Lately, it has be conjoined to my natal moon. My natal moon is the focal planet of a natal partile yod, involving the Sun and Neptune both quincunx to Moon, while natal Moon opposes natal Mercury. Moon is square natal Mars. So when Moon experiences a challenge it sets off multiple reactions.
I feel sadness on and off as Saturn’s apparent motion moves forward and retrogrades back. The energy remains consistent whether the aspect is exact or a few degrees off. It feels as if I am at a happy get together (my own normal internal joy and outward life) but a stranger is the room. This stranger, Saturn, is the room and I know he’s there. When Saturn is in closest aspect to Moon, the dark stranger seems to be shaking hands with me and he is bringing tears to my eyes. Even when the transit conjunction is a couple of degrees from exact, I still see him in the room. And I know he’s going to walk up to me again. What is his message going to be?
Transits to my moon “trigger” other planets in my chart.
Like in a game of pool, the transit affects all the other planets in play (within orb of aspect).
Some transits are felt throughout the chart!
In addition to the conjunction, there is a “game of pool” type of energy around my chart that gets activated by any planet conjunct my Moon. When Saturn bumps the Moon, the Moon sends its energy to Mercury, to the Sun, to Mars and to Neptune, all sitting between 0° and 4°. So Moon’s issues trigger anger (Mars), mental agitation (Mercury), a longing for spiritual oneness (Neptune), and a longing for a creative role (my Leo Sun).
And I’ve noticed that when the slow moving planet walks into my 10th house, it affects me greatly. I’ve worn so many hats through my life, used a variety of talents. I’ve enjoyed putting on different occupations, different roles, so when the slow moving transits occur in my 10th house, initially, I don’t know what my role should be. I don’t know how I can most be of service to others and to myself. It is really disconcerting to flounder, in my sense of my outward role. I know I am Spirit-Soul (Moon in Pisces). But what does Spirit-Soul do in the outer world? The 10th house is not about money. The 10th house is about our place before the public, career, how we identify when we are asked upon being introduced to someone new “so, what do you do?”
Looking back
Months have gone by since writing the above blog article. Saturn has moved way past the interactions with my Moon, Sun, and Neptune. I’ve got a habit tracker app. I listed all the things that I think are important for good health in the app. Things like breathing exercises certain yoga practices using eye wash a lot of health practices and spiritual practices that I did many years ago are on my new list. My list even includes reminders to call my friends or contact people or write in my blog. So Saturn had the effect of making me feel empty and kind of structureless, career-less and friendless. The healing response is that I have put a better structure in place. It’s working! And as a result of having this structured list I have created space in my life in my days is to write, to talk, and share what I know. As a person who has spent her whole life studying, teaching, and learning, I will continue doing what I have always loved.
Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve day trip from Playa del Carmen was our first day trip since moving to our apartment here in Playa. Though we had other places in mind as well, the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve topped our list. Up until recently, the comfy buses were great for travel between cities and withing cities, but we knew we would see more if we rented a car. The car we rented was a Nissan March, a smallish simple 4 door hatchback. Robert did all the driving.
From Playa del Carmen, we headed south to Tulum. The main beach road in Tulum, Avenida Coba, is also the highway that heads south into the biosphere reserve. Robert’s goal for our day trip was to get as far as the Boca Paila bridge.
Sian Kaan road sign
The unpaved road was a bit rough. Since the car was small, Robert drove slowly and very carefully. That way, he managed to avoid bottoming out in holes, ridges or gullies on the road’s surface. The road obviously had endured some rainstorms since the last grading, but recent days had been dry, so it was a perfect time to explore. Although it isn’t that far from Tulum, it took about two hours of driving on the unpaved road to get to the bridge. The foliage of the reserve is beautifully green, deep and dark. I would have loved to walk a bit in the forest. It appeared to me that the plants were bigger there, the fan palms had enormous fans, the pinnate palms were tall with deep green fronds.
The fan palms seem enormous in the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve!
Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve is not exactly as I expected, but lovely nonetheless!
I expected a park where we could get out and walk among the trees along the road and access the beach. But through most of the zone, at least as far as the Boca Paila bridge, there was fencing near the road. The fencing demarcated private or off-limit property, so that we could not access the beach on the one side nor the lagoon on the other. Some of the properties had signs indicating they were lodges or guest houses of some sort. There is a rustic restaurant in the reserve a few kilometers from the entrance. We did go there. At the restaurant, though we didn’t access the beach, it appeared that we could have walked down to it. The picture below is of the beach from the dining area.
A simple restaurant near the entrance overlooks the ocean
Since we had planned only a day trip, I hadn’t done research on staying in the Sian Ka’an biosphere reserve. We do plan to visit Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve from Playa del Carmen again, but not for a day trip. We will stay at Punta Allen, the end of the road settlement that offers various levels of lodging to visitors. Next time, to get there, we will take public transportation, a tour, or rent a much sturdier vehicle.
View from the Puente Boca Paila (Boca Paila bridge)
The PuenteBoca Paila was the turnaround point of our day trip. We stood on the bridge and took some photos. It was a very hot afternoon. Although Robert would have gladly walked to the ocean on the nearby path, it was too hot for me to attempt it and waiting in the car would have even been hotter. Next time we hope to choose a cooler day for our visit!
