Transiting Mars, as we all know, will rendezvous with Saturn tomorrow (11:12 am PDT) in the early degrees of Virgo. Pretty much the acme of a hard-workin’ transit, wouldn’t you say? Typically, I’m up to my elbows. We’re leaving at the end of the month for an epic journey to New Zealand, which it occurs to me I might not have really mentioned here. Have I? Well in any event, we’re going and will be gone for three whole weeks. Which means on the one hand clearing the decks of all the work I’ve committed myself to, and on the other hand making hotel reservations and reserving cars and figuring out how to get to LAX as easily as possible and buying luggage and freaking out about the flight, because I am not a happy flier these days. No sir, I am not.
Naturally, I’m bereft at the thought of leaving the cats for so long. Fortunately, doting sitters will be occupying the compound in our absence, so there will be none of those poker-playing, long-distance-call-placing hijinks for which unattended cats are justifiably famous. And they’ll be fed promptly, which is of course critical for Spike who, though he weighs in at a whopping 17 pounds, is quick to alert us the moment his supper dish falls below the half-full mark. He has PETA on speed dial just in case we dawdle.
Interestingly, given my interest in eclipses, we’ll be arriving in Auckland on August 1, the day of the Solar Eclipse at 9.32 Leo (which falls, appropriately, in my 9th house – conjunct my natal Sun and square Neptune). I’m putting together a talk on eclipses which I’ll deliver on August 3 to the nice people of AFI in Auckland… or at least I will be putting it together, when I’m a bit more caught up on everything else. God knows I’m looking forward to talking about something other than weddings and my book for a change (though I’m doing a wedding workshop over there on the 10th just to round things out). The biggest challenge will be overcoming jet lag so that I can deliver the lecture in a semi-conscious state. We’ve scheduled a couple of undemanding days in the wilds north of Auckland to give us time to sort ourselves out before mingling with the other humans.
(Fortunately a friend just lent me a nifty book about the chronobiological aspects of air travel and how to vanquish the dreaded ‘lag. The version she lent me dates from the Reagan administration – reference is made to smoking during the flight; quaint! – but my friend swears by the program. So even though it means giving up coffee for three days before I travel, I’m game to give it a go.)
I plan to post missives from the road, but on the other hand I also plan on relishing the first substantive vacation we’ve had in ten years. I can hardly wait.
Meanwhile, Mars/Saturn are impatiently tapping their dainty toes all over my desk, so it’s back to work. Be well, all, and get plenty of rest over the next couple of days. This conjunction, in the highly strung sign of Virgo, can wear on the nerves.
