Why Am I Doing This?

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Having been a ‘qualified’ astrologer for over 25 years, I have never openly advertised as such… until now.

Sure, I have kept my hand in, done numerous charts for friends, family and people at large, sometimes charging, sometimes not. Yet, above all this, I have never thought astrology was working for me. So here, right now, at last I am intending to make it do so.

I have done paid jobs of course, changed jobs several times, worked freelance, tried painting (another hobby) as a sideline, but nothing seemed to satisfy. Maybe it’s the lot of nearly all of us, having to make do with our ‘paye’ jobs without ever feeling satisfied let alone fulfilled. Being an astrologer you might ask, well, ‘couldn’t you tell from your birth chart what you would be best at?’ Well yes I could, I have a prominent, disciplined and vigorous Mercury which allows me to write, to communicate well, so that’s one reason why I’m here. But it also gives me a liking for variety. Also, I do have an artistic and musical side which has found release in painting and playing a musical instrument. But none of this makes a living.

So then comes my second Saturn Return (that gives my age away but that’s another article coming shortly) and that, I believe, is the true catalyst. I need to move on, to start doing the things I really want to do at an age which marks the end of life’s second chapter and, hopefully, a move to better and brighter pastures ahead. If I can help others realise their own potential along the way, then all the better.

So here goes, life’s been a bit rocky of late, rugs have been pulled and doors have slammed shut – but for once I may be heeding the call to a different direction. Wish me luck.

Keck, Cow Parsley, Anthriscus sylvestris

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Where I grew up, which was once part of the Danelaw,  we called it ‘keck’, a common name for cow parsley; some call it wild chervil, or even Queen Anne’s Lace. Well, it sounds like an ancient Norse word, but it could equally be good old Old English. Either way, it is characteristic of this time of year, as spring turns into summer.

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words and pictures ©copyright rp 2016

Simply Bee

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Nature will provide

There’s enough for you and me

Riches all around

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haiku and images ©copyright rp 2016

 

I Don’t Buy Shoes

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The other day I had cause

to open your wardrobe and shoes

fell out like maggots

from a corpse.

 

New shoes

old shoes

blue shoes

broken shoes.

 

A pair for every day of the year

it seemed.

Try as I might

I couldn’t get them all back, for

 

I don’t have your gift

for packing or hoarding. So I

put some in my wardrobe

because I don’t buy any shoes.

poem and image ©copyright rp 2016

Ecclesia 2

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A touching, moving churchyard memorial to some of the war dead of 1914 – 1918.

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Soon after the conflict some viewed WW1 as the war to end all wars. So when this memorial was erected who could have imagined such an amount of horror, suffering and loss ever being repeated again..?

words and pictures ©copyright rp 2016