“The candles are lighted, the hearthstones are swept, the fires glow red. We shall welcome them out of the night, our home-coming dead.” ~ Hallow-E’en 1917 by Winifred M. Letts The Celtic celebration of Samhain, popularly known as All Hallow’s Eve, is the high holy day of witchcraft, which marked the Celtic new year and is an evening of reflection, honoring the dead and receiving their wise messages from the underworld. Along with magnanimous planet Jupiter firmly placed in Scorpio for the next year, the Sun and Mercury are also residing in the sign of metamorphosis, mastery and regeneration. Heavy,…

When the sky holds a pink hue along the horizon line a few moments before or after sunset, it’s known in stargazer circles as the Belt of Venus. We’ve ushered in Libra season in the Northern Hemisphere with the Autumn Equinox, and much like Venus’s rosy belt, this time of year briefly holds the Sun’s waning glow before we fully descend into fall. For the next month we are asked to dance the delicate choreography of the “in-between” seasons and work on how well we can relate. Dion Fortune wrote about how “the months of the Equinoxes are periods well…

Butterfly that flutters in the morning light, you have known many forms before you ever took flight.” —Jamie Sams and David Carson, Medicine Cards. The last days of summer always contain feelings of bittersweet reflection along with perpetual “back to school” anxiety. For me, summer always meant the freedom to create and to live purely for the moment. Regardless of our fall plans, we are all enrolled in different grades of the school of life. Smack dab in the middle of Lammas season, these final days of summer tell the myth of John Barleycorn, the living spirit of the grain…

What’s in a name, one might ask? My name, Cat, like the animal, was first a happy accident and then a deliberate choice. I tried out Kate, Cathy and Katie, all perfectly fine derivatives of Catherine, but none felt quite right. As a girl, I was always uncomfortable so I tried to make everyone else feel comfortable — except in ballet class. There was something about losing myself in dance that made me find my confidence. My ballet teacher, Miss Kim, was a Leo and one day at the barre starting calling me Cat, first by mistake and then she…

The longest day is approaching, Midsummer, and like the missing girls from Picnic at Hanging Rock, I feel entranced by the seductive and mysterious formations of nature, day-dreaming of nothing more than wanting to escape, escape, escape. Along with the solstice, we enter the mothering, all-encompassing water sign of Cancer ending the week with a New Moon on Friday. Mercury and Mars will also be in Cancer, brave sailors navigating the soothing and turbulent waves of blue. With all this palpable lunar energy swirling around, I’ve been finding myself listening to Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys on a daily…

In Renaissance magic, aeromancy, the act of divining the future by studying cloud formations, wind currents, and all things air, was classified as one of the seven “forbidden arts.” In the sky today, a New Moon is in Gemini and I find myself experimenting with this ancient practice by watching the gray clouds morph as they release what looks like tears from heaven. It’s funny how we try to control and plan our lives around the weather, something we can forecast yet not entirely predict — much like the elusive and multi-faceted nature of Gemini. I think about recent good…

Admiring the cherry blossoms at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden is an old NYC pastime that brings everyone out of their apartments and into the fields marveling at the fleeting pink beauties. Yet all I could think about were my allergies, broken sunglasses, and the one too many layers I wore on this otherwise picturesque outing. It took me almost an hour before I could finally be still. While spring has most definitely sprung and we’ve entered the Venusian season of Taurus, I’m feeling less sensual seduction vibes and more like a bull in a china shop. A New Moon in…

“Loveliest of trees, the cherry now.” – A.E. Housman As we welcome the season of springtime this Monday, March 20th with the Vernal (Spring) Equinox, I find myself craving moments of quiet beauty. The Spring Equinox, also referred to as Ostara, is a time of balance between night and day where we celebrate the promise of beginnings, sweet romances unfurling, and blossoms opening their tender petals. We have also been tangled up in the midst of a very funny Venus retrograde in Aries, the most un-Venetian placement possible. Dear Aries often learns the hard way, leaping first without looking and…

“NOT EVERY WOMAN IS A WITCH. BUT EVERY WOMAN IS A FACE OF THE GODDESS.” ~ JANET FARRAR I’m still glowing with the energetic waves of protest from the Women’s March here in NYC and collectively all over the world. One goddess and asteroid in particular came to me this week in meditations on activism. Pallas Athene, born out of Jupiter’s head, is the virgin goddess of wisdom. She represents creative intelligence, strategy and justice carried out with thoughtful and careful approaches rather than violent action. With the New Moon in Aquarius on Friday January 27th at 7:07pm EST, revolutionary…