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Astrological Befuddlement

Janice said:

“It might be interesting to note the astrological timing of the working. Wasn’t it about 3pm when we finished?”

I recall that early on our odyssey Leanne looked at her emphemeris and noted that the moon was void of course at the moment (it was then about 1:20 PM). She said that the moon would be entering Leo at 2:38. I remember thinking, “It’d be nice to have that projective Leo energy going for us but we sure have a lot of time to kill between now and then.” Well, the time was nicely slain for us by the obstacle course and I do believe that we were into the Leo moon by the time we did our work.

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Notes from Janice

Everyone,

Thanks for the notes on our working. Recall we were met with a bit of resistance several times – distractions and obstacles. GPS drop offs in what should have been clear sight lines to the satellite, Deborah and that cup of muck under the fallen tree along with the shoe concerns we had for her with slipping and being injured, dead-end paths, piles of old, busted-up road with the rusty rebar poking up, the poison ivy, dense brush etc. We also heard the call of a hawk several times durng our bushwhacking trek to the site.

Continue reading “Notes from Janice”

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Notes from Danielle

I don’t have much to add, suffice to say that I concur with the well penned (typed) words of Mark and Leanne. To me, the afternoon was a two-part journey. First, the test, which consisted of a diverse array of distractions and obstacles that delayed but did not derail the train. My usual half decent sense of direction and focusing ability disappeared as we entered the wood. But there was no stress. I found it interesting that none of us were significantly scathed scampering down the steep, rebar-infested, poison ivy covered, slag and rubble field. I never felt unsafe. Then, after reaching our goal and completing the task at hand, there was *the reward* when all the distractions and obstacles melted away quite quickly, leaving heightened clarity and the special ending – the approving glance of Will.

In retrospect, I also had the thought that our woodland journey took us in a large oblong circle where we traveled clockwise, and guess where the circle parted and re-joined? Yep, at the bridge where we saw Will as we both entered and departed. Quite remarkable!

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Visit to the Center

It could have take fifteen minutes to get there. But it did not and, that it did not was perhaps, for good reason.

It was one of those classic Fall days: bright blue skies dotted with clouds, puffs of wind here and there and the trees igniting into brands of glory before they snuffed out for the long cold winter. The five of us: Janice, Deborah, Danielle, Leanne and I, had agreed to meet at the Rockford Park tower at noon for lunch, some planning and, more importantly, to establish the energetic underpinnings of the day’s work.

Continue reading “Visit to the Center”

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We Make Plans to Visit the Center

Wow Danielle! Thank you for your post — I’m certain that we’ll be using some of your knowledge and talents as we proceed.

As Danielle mentioned, we announced at the ASW Retreat this past weekend that we’re opening the project to all interested members of the Assembly. Please welcome Danielle from Moonfire, Deborah from Oak and Willow and Kitty, the acting HPS of Wind Sword. In addition, just yesterday, Keepers voted in a new member, Stacey (whom you may have met at one of the Assembly events that she and her partner Keith have attended over the past year). She has expressed an interest in joining us on our next outing and lending her abundant enthusiasm to the effort. Welcome all! We are so blessed.

As to the outing I mentioned: We plan to meet in Wilmington at a time and place to be announced (off list, for reasons of safety, please) and visit the Triangle Center. This may or may not be publicly accessible — the map shows that it is near the southeastern edge of the Alfred I. Dupont Memorial Hospital grounds. If we can’t get to the actual spot, we can attempt to “triangulate” it by finding three spots equidistant from the center and apply our energy and intent there. In addition, it occurs to me that if we can strongly visualize the spot as a group, we can apply some of the desired effect. More on this later.

Cheers!

Mark

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Danielle Joins the Effort

Hello. Mark was kind enough to extend an invitation to me to join this group, which I find very interesting for several reasons. Thank you for having me. After telling Mark some of my experiences over the past week, he suggested I post them here in the journal.

But first, just a bit of background might be in order. After working in Philly 10+ years, for the past year and a half I’ve been working for an environmental non-profit based in Wilmington. But my main office was in Trenton NJ until May of this year. That created all sorts of challenges for me (commuting distance, unfriendly office environment, etc) and I was really hoping to get my position moved to Wilmington. A variety of lucky factors came together in late April, which paved the way for this transfer on 5/16. Since then, I’ve been happily based in Wilmington.

My new office sits on the tidal Christina just upstream from the confluence with the Brandywine, and I’ve been loving the team spirit of our group of 10+ staff. With this move complete I’ve been able to initiate several new environmental restoration proposals that build on work I’ve done to study the river’s ecology since about 1999. Most of my study sites have been further up, near the DE/PA line where I’ve snorkled the entire bottom for 6 miles. I know less about the land surrounding the river, mainly because it’s so developed and the undeveloped properties sit on wealthy estates that are tough to get access for. But my background has given me a sense of the challenges and opportunities in the watershed, particularly with environmental issues.

Mark told me about the group at the Assembly Retreat last weekend, and I signed up as soon as he invited me. Then, during the week a sequence of interesting developments occurred. First, on Tuesday evening, my non-profit had our annual fund-raising benefit dinner on the banks of the Brandywine at the Hagley Museum (http://www.hagley.lib.de.us/slide-birkenhead.html). And….. a well-connected individual from a major company approached me about wanting to find funding for one of my environmental restoration proposals, which happens to be a big Brandywine-based project that I’ve had trouble getting advanced until now.

Then on Wednesday, I found myself standing in the middle of the Brandywine River just north of Wilmington on a field trip to show some colleagues from Del State Univ how to find freshwater mussels that I work with in my research. It was interesting because weather, high flows and a multitude of other problems had thwarted efforts to get this little meeting of academics together for many months. There had been no prior plan, but soon after reading this journal and thinking about Will, I got a call from the others that they wanted to go, the predicted bad weather for Wednesday didn’t materialize, and we got out there and had success.

So I take these various events as signaling that there are lots of windows of opportunity opening, perhaps having something to do with “fixing” or helping the Brandywine River and watershed. In the environmental world for instance, there are many big things in the works such as removing the remaining 9 dams on the lower river, since these relic dams (many are mill dams) impair natural processes.

So, I’m looking forward to learning more and doing what I can to help. Sorry for the long first post!

Blessings,
Danielle