At age 35, Jennifer Flewellen was put into a medically induced coma after crashing her car into a pole. Doctors soon became certain she would never recover and encouraged Flewellen’s mother, Peggy Means, to take her off life-support.…
Virgo Full Moon: Perseverance Pays
“Newton was sitting under an apple tree when an apple fell on his head and he discovered gravity. And we here are living in darkness and tragedy, and rockets are falling on us, therefore I thought of creating light.”…
Aquarius New Moon: Moving On!
There’s no place so identified with car culture as California. Once the fourth-largest crude oil producer in the U.S., my home state’s abundant fossil fuels and balmy weather helped birth a culture of iconic cars, highways, drive-in theaters and restaurants.…
Leo Full Moon: The Thrill of Creation
Martha Graham’s provocative dance, Errand into the Maze
In the mid-1940s, legendary dance choreographer Martha Graham was on a flight to Iran that got caught in a brutal snowstorm. As the plane was tossed about, everyone onboard went into a panic – terrified that they were going to die.…
Capricorn New Moon: The Real New Year
“Relax” is my word for 2024. At first I was annoyed when I drew this rune from a bag. What do you mean, relax? That’s all I’ve been doing in 2023!…
Cancer Full Moon: Soft Power
When Time Magazine asked Taylor Swift to pose for the cover as their Person of the Year, her response was, “Can I bring my cat?”
That’s how Swift and Benjamin Button (one of her three cats), ended up on the Dec.…
Sagittarius New Moon: Revive and Regenerate
When legendary photographer Sebastião Salgado took over family land in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, instead of the tropical paradise that he remembered as a child, he found a barren landscape devoid of wildlife.…
Gemini Full Moon: Boldly Go
Last weekend, as the Sun ganged up with combustible Mars in Scorpio, the second SpaceX Starship test flight took place in Texas. Unlike that of its predecessor in April, this iteration’s liftoff was perfect.…
Scorpio New Moon: Be Yourself
Mary Moody Emerson was an original. The eccentric aunt of Ralph Waldo Emerson, she had a great influence on the man often considered to be the greatest thinker of his time.…
Taurus Full Moon: Out of the Shadows
A few years back, I built an altar for Dia de Los Muertos to honor my parents. We have no Aztec or Spanish blood in our lineage, but I’ve always loved the tradition.…
Libra New Moon: Trust Your Instincts
An inspirational tale for the “ring of fire” solar eclipse! Composite image by April Elliott Kent.
One cold day in 1936 a stray tabby cat crept inside St. Augustine’s Cathedral in London, seeking food and warmth.…
Aries Full Moon: Light My Fire
On a sweltering May afternoon in 2015, D’Arcy Downs-Vollbracht heard an unearthly scream. She ran out of her Bullhead City, AZ ranch house and saw three neighboring dogs viciously attacking her pet goats.…
Virgo New Moon: Claim Your Turf
When staff at the Meadow Brook Medical Care Facility in Bellaire, MI arrived one recent July morning, they were astonished to find a dog curled up on the couch in the waiting room.…
Pisces Full Moon: Capture Your Dream
About a month ago, during her summer vacation, eleven-year-old Esma Gljiva from Sarajevo, Bosnia, started creating folklore-style Barbies with Balkan costumes like headdresses and decorative aprons.
The timing was interesting, given the enormous success of the new Barbie movie, released in mid-July.…
Leo New Moon: Reclaiming Pleasure
Oakland-based Yeye Luisah Teish is a Yoruba priestess and a daughter of Oshun, the African Venus. When I first met Teish in the mid-80s at the Council of Feminine Fire in Ojai, California, she blew me away.…