The Storyteller's Night Sky with Mary Stewart Adams

Last Full Moon of the spring at midnight Saturday ~ the stuff true ceremony is made of

All through the coming month, the planets Venus and Mars will grace the evening sky looking west, though Mars is gradually fading, and Venus is slowing down in her chase.

What to make of Moon occulting Jupiter, Ascension, and New Phase all at once?

Now comes the season of Venus’ greatest altitude, which means the opportunity is at hand for seeing the goddess of love and beauty in broad daylight.

Mercury at inferior conjunction says "be still" while Sun/Uranus at Full Moon call us to the dance.

Old love, new chapter

Venus is beautiful this week, moving up the sky through the starry region of Taurus, joining Pleiades in the evening sky.

Time now for our two great lights to trade places in the celestial hemispheres and open the mystery.

There are three celestial pairings this week that sing into the new season in a rousing way!

Monday is Equinox, Tuesday New Moon, Wednesday Moon meets Jupiter, Thursday Venus, the Feast of Gabriel Friday, followed by Annunciation on Saturday.

In the mid-week, the first heaven will be fully illuminated, for the last time this season.

Venus, Jupiter, and Chiron making promises in the evening sky this week.

A new moon teaches gradualness and deliberation...

Great love is always regarded as the gift of knowing the stars, & this week, they’re on bold display.

Are comets and planets and stars merely masses of elements, speeding along within range of our telescopes?

Comet ZTF is whizzing past the tail of the dragon and on into the mysteries of cross quarter.

January 27 marks the anniversary of Dante's exile from Florence, and his journey to the stars!

The waning gibbous Moon gives rise to dreams when Venus is guardian at the gateway of the gods.

Moving into the first week of the new year with heartfelt intentions toward what’s best.

Destiny is the place where the deeds of gods unite with a human life.

Like the Three Kings, come to the eternal birth of our love

When Mars is blocked by the Moon this week, will its hidden nature be revealed, or its challenging nature amplified?

The ancient celestial beloveds come to opposition in the midnight hour Wednesday to Thursday this week, strengthening the bonds of relationship.

In that great journey of the stars through space, about the mighty, all-directing Sun, the pallid, faithful Moon, has been the one, companion of the Earth. ~Ella Wheeler Wilcox 

This week's meteor shower comes from a cometary dust trail ejected in 1600, when Kepler was sorting out his celestial harmonies of planetary motion.

Mars between the Bull's horns during Tuesday's eclipse means we must meet the day with a deeply meditative mood.

Eclipse season is upon us, which allows for asking the big questions, like what has it to do with me?

We won’t be seeing this ancient goddess of love and beauty for awhile. What does that mean for affairs of the heart?

There’s something quietly spectacular unfolding in the stars this week when Moon sweeps through Taurus, meeting Pleiades and Mars.

October finds all of the naked-eye planets making remarkable moves.

By Thursday the Moon will have "shed her silver seasons four upon the night."

Earth and Sun align in the balance, then Mercury slips in to test us all.

This week marks the anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri, 701 years ago on September 14th in 1321

Mars is closest to Aldebaran, while Venus sweeps past Regulus 

Moon moves through the Sun's secret retreat of light for the next two weeks.

Venus is crowned by the Moon in a deep ceremony of the morning sky

This week in the sky it’s all about time, with Saturn peeking up over the eastern edge of the world just as the Sun sets.

This week's Full Moon on August 11 will diminish an outward experience of meteors, but it bears a unique opportunity for knowing what the hero finds within

As we pass through summer's cross quarter time, we pass under the thickest region fo Milky Way Stars

Our place in space, from astrology, to astronomy, to astrosophy.

The James Webb is orbiting at LaGrange 2, one of five points of equilibrium in Earth/Sun relationship. Can we find such points in human relationship?

Moonlight is the reflected light of all celestial objects, including the stars.

We’re moving furthest away from the Sun just now, and we’re also moving more slowly, which conjures images of lazy summer days and star-filled nights.

What are we inscribing into cosmic spaces this Solstice?

Tuesday's perigee Moon is cozying up for a better look, offering us all a sweet strawberry kiss

Astronomers are predicting a meteor shower overnight May 30, maybe.

Every soul is a celestial Venus to every other soul.~RW Emerson, on Love

First there was a partial solar eclipse, followed two weeks later by the total lunar eclipse, and in the midst, Mercury started its seasonal retrograde.

Eclipses come in stages, like fairy tales, or trials of initiation

At solar eclipse, we let off steam; at lunar eclipse, we receive further forces of destiny. And this week, we're in between.

The poetry of the morning sky is undeniable this week, as the Moon descends through the dawn in the spectacular company of Saturn, Mars, Venus and Jupiter.

The Lyrid Meteor Shower kicks off International Dark Sky Week 2022. Get outside and let your soul bask in the radiant song of the stars

The planets have lined up to watch Sun and Moon trade places in the hemispheres and perform their cosmic contradiction this week.

The exciting celestial event that has the astrology community all a-buzz: the meet up of Jupiter and Neptune.

The Moon's position this week provides an optimal moment for something never attempted before: a photograph of the people of the Earth in infrared.

The Sun has returned North of the Celestial Equator and the planets are hanging around to see what path we'll take, before the first Full Moon of the season gets here.

If we still used the Julian system, then this week’s Full Moon on March 18 would be the “ides of March” a notorious date in ancient Roman history.

The configuration of planets and stars in the morning sky this week suggest that we’re in a “threshold crossing” moment.

Venus and Mars meet Pluto this week ~ what narrative in these meetings among the stars?

Aquarius season each year is the opening line of a fairy tale

It’s a week full of love, not just because of the date on the calendar, but because of what’s happening in the sky!

Each of us sailing to rescue our own individual dawn.

Though New year is Jan 1 in the Gregorian calendar system, cultural observances around the world vary widely

Astronomers thrust Webb into position; Paul makes a miraculous turn; Mars gazes on Venus.

Make it a new year of setting aside time for simple ceremonies of the cosmos in the everyday, and be sure to celebrate the Moon

What’s better at the dawn of a new year than an epic love story, etched across the sky in starlight?

What better way to end 2021 than with Dante and Venus?

Winter Solstice begins this week at 10:59 am on Tuesday, December 21st, when in the relationship between Earth and Sun, a mighty pause takes place, as though the Sun waits on Earth, who is tucking herself in for the mystery.

Rudolf Steiner's Stars Spoke Once to Humanity verse and Comet Leonard. 

The Moon moves up the western sky passing the evening planets as though she were running her hand through a strand of pearls this week

The experience Venus' unveiling at eclipse is a sacred process of initiation into a deeper understanding of the force of love in the world

On the eternal struggle toward the higher nature of being human.

This week's lunar eclipse at Pleiades stirs an ancient mystery of the stars in the human form.

The waxing Crescent Moon has some spectacular encounters this week

Moon, Mercury, Uranus and a whale, conspiring to offer us all an experience of the strange, new, and wonderful.

Orion returns, and now we can be "drawn through the space between worlds, by incense and candlelight.”

Pegasus comes highest as the season of the dead approaches. What's up with that?

From chaos to cosmos in the slow turn of the planets.

The shepherd has taken the West wind gently in hand while the king stands guard over the dragon, where that beast stirs in the North, its stoney sleep troubled by the princess...

Untroubled night, they say, gives counsel best.

This week marks the 700th anniversary of the epic poet's death, and the Moon activates his axis among the stars

New Moon, Venus and Spica, an endless fountain of immortal drink.

There’s a discernible pulse, like a heartbeat, sounding out in the star picture this week, when the Moon meets the star Regulus at dawn, and Venus meets the star Spica at dusk.

The Summer Triangle sweeps over the top of the sky, a portal open to receive all your best rhymes and tales.

There’s a True Blue Moon headed our way, which is not just the second Full Moon in one calendar month.

The falling stars are like seeds of the new year this week with the Perseid Meteor Shower.

What does Harry Potter have in common with Shakespeare's Juliet?

The delta star is the fourth brightest star in a constellation, and this week it lends its name to the wishing stars falling through the summer sky.

The July 23rd Thunder Moon flings open the doors on last year's rare meeting of Jupiter and Saturn.

The active principle of Mars infuses the love principle of Venus with mighty forces when they meet this week.

Mercury at greatest elongation, Earth at aphelion, and Moon at apogee, all on the self-same day!

The Moon scoops Venus and Mars into its arms, then comes thundering to Full phase at the Great Conjunction point, all against the backdrop of summer meteor showers.

Venus and Mars make their once-every-two-years conjunction this month, granting grace and eternity to all the best love stories.

This week the Sun changes direction, Mercury changes direction, the Moon comes Full, and the starry crown comes highest.

Hercules, Shakespeare and the stars of June

This week, there’s an annular solar eclipse on June 10, 2021, and the fairy tale of “The White Doe” is perfect for imagining what the eclipse brings. Find story link and eclipse information at www.storytellersnightsky.com

The June 10 annular solar eclipse will cast its shadow right over the North Pole, at the very top of the world.

Depending on your location, you may be able to catch the Sun over the horizon at the same time that the Moon is moving through eclipse Wednesday, May 26. It seems to ask: what allows you to see in the shadow?

On Thursday this week, the planet associated with Mercury, Hermes, and Thoth can be seen beside the crescent Moon, about 40 minutes after sunset looking west.

Claudius Ptolemy is credited with describing how the gods caused the stars to fall because, out of curiosity or boredom, they occasionally peered down at the Earth from between the planetary spheres, and the stars could slip through the gaps.

The West wind brings the light of the spring; Eos, mother of the West wind, brings the dawn; and this week’s Full Moon brings the season’s first blossoms.

Don't miss the poetic harmony of meteor showers and the spring this week when the Lyrids peak overnight, April 21st, heralding the season of warmth for the northern hemisphere.   

After passing the bull’s eye star Thursday, the Moon encounters Mars between the bull’s horns on Friday. This is a very interesting place, between the bull’s horns, so what might it mean for Moon and Mars to be there together?

April's waning Moon means it's International Dark Sky Week, which means it's also the perfect time to stimulate the imagination by going dark. 

The Full Moon happens Sunday, March 28th, and though Full Moon happens nearly every month, sometimes twice a month, this particular Moon is exceptional in the cycle of the year because it marks the time when the Moon trades places with the Sun in the celestial hemispheres.

I had a terrific time at Spring Equinox taking a deep dive into everything under the stars with Adam Sommer: astrology, astronomy, astrosophy, Mother Goose and more! Check out Adam's site at www.HolestoHeaven.com

In the early Christian centuries, and well into the Middle Ages, there was a date on the calendar that marked the actual beginning of all that is, and that date was March 25th. So no surprise, then, that in settling the dates for honoring the feasts and festivals of the year, March 25 would be reserved for something significant.

The constellation of Taurus is connected to the organs of speech in ancient astrological tradition, while Mars imparts the capacity for speech ~ and this week, they're together in the evening sky. 

The Queen of the Moon can be seen wandering through her snowflake palace this week when she dons her gibbous gown and passes through the asterism of the Winter Hexagon.

Nearly 50 years ago this month, the Soviet Venera Mission approached the planet Venus and later landed there, sending back the first color images of the planet’s surface, unveiling the goddess of love and beauty for a new generation of poets and dreamers.

On Thursday, February 11, we arrive at the time of the New Moon, or the “Neomēniá,” which is a term used to describe both the festival of the Moon or simply the beginning of the lunar month.

This week we come to Winter’s Cross Quarter Day, which means we’re halfway through the season, so does that mean the warmth is already returning in the Northern Hemisphere?

The Wolf Moon occurs this week on January 28th, 2021 so I’d like to talk about the spiritual mystery of what I’ll call a “wolf initiation” as it can be imagined through the Russian fairy tale of the Firebird.

The Moon sweeps past Mars and Uranus above the ocean beast Cetus this week, drawing impulses out of the collective unconscious for either chaos or miracles.

The first New Moon of the New Year happens this week, overnight Tuesday to Wednesday, but not before shedding its old light into the lap of love as a way to make ready for what lies ahead.

The poet died in 1321, 700 years ago this year, and just one year after completing his magnum opus "The Divine Comedy," each canticle of which ends with the word "stars."

As 2020 comes to its grand finale, I'm looking back at the planetary culminations beyond the Great Conjunction, and that includes what Venus did six months ago in June.

By Friday this week we’ll all be able to look back with hindsight on 2020, and in the world of the Storyteller’s Night Sky, that means looking at what the planets and stars have been up to.

It’s the still time of the year. Sun and Moon have had their last meeting and it was exact, causing a total solar eclipse. Jupiter and Saturn come to their great conjunction, and it's exact, their closest approach in the last 400 years

The moment of Winter Solstice arrives 12.21 with a great conjunction of planets that's like a divine clue.

The biggest news this month is the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn that comes at Winter Solstice, but we shouldn’t overlook next week’s Total Solar Eclipse, even though it won’t be visible to us in North America. The mystery of this eclipse at this time is still important in the unfolding narrative of 2020, which is now in its final chapter.

There was an eclipse in the early hours of this Monday morning, when the Moon came to Full Phase among the stars of Taurus and slipped into the outer edge of Earth’s shadow, which begs the question astrologically: which is easier to deal with, a full shadow, like at total eclipse; or the barest hint of shadow, like this one?

Venus and Spica grace the dawn with love and abundance this week of our reaping what we have sown.

There are three active meteor showers remaining for 2020, bringing the magic of more celestial light to the sky while greater darkness settles in across the northern hemisphere.

In the medieval legend of Parzival, the hero comes to be known as the Red Knight, so this week, we’ll consider him Mars. He also has several significant encounters with his cousin, Sigune, whom we’ll consider Venus. This week, the two of them are dramatically opposed in the starry heaven.

The Moon is carving an interesting path through the sky this week, calling to mind a significant event in history, both in the Christian world and in the world of astronomy. 

With a Blue Moon at Halloween, followed by a Friday the 13th next month and a Total Solar Eclipse after that, it’s time to take a look at cultural superstitions in relation to the stars.

The meteor shower of the giant Orion peaks overnight this week, especially in the early morning hours of October 21st, so let’s take a look at what’s tucked in here.

From my seasonal article for Northern Express news magazine

This episode is from the recent archives, but contains engaging imaginations about the course of Moon and Sun after Autumn Equinox each year. Full audio and video at my website www.storytellersnightsky.com

Each month until the end of the year, the waning crescent Moon sweeps past Venus in the morning sky~ time to cast poetry and flower petals to the dawn as a way to prepare for the goddess of love and beauty when she's unveiled at eclipse. 

On Tuesday the planet Mars will be closer to us than it will be for another 15 years, so the question is: will we be inspired by the red planet’s genius or its demon?

The Harvest Moon rises Thursday, October 1st, and this year, it’s the first Full Moon of Autumn, and the first to appear above the celestial equator. This matters for us in the Northern Hemisphere because it means that from now until Spring, we will experience more moonlight than sunlight.

The third and final of three ten-minute episodes on Equinox 2020 ~what's in store for us with Harvest Moon, Mars opposition, Blue Moon and the Great Conjunction of Jupiter with Saturn?

In this second of three ten-minute sessions I explain the fire trine happening at Equinox. If you would like to see the video component, visit my website  at www.storytellersnightsky.com

In this first of three ten-minute episodes, I share the cosmic picture of where we've been and what it can mean for Equinox 2020

The waxing crescent Moon is in the sign of Sagittarius at Equinox 2020, forming a trine to both Venus and to Mars, while each of them  occupy what are known as the “fire signs” of the zodiac. 

Audio-only recording of my online webinar regarding Summer's last New Moon September 17, 2020 and our engagement with the elemental forces, by the light of the Moon. Full program with video at my website www.storytellersnightsky.com

The Hebrew, Chinese, and Arabic calendars all observe New Year in harmony with the rhythm of the New Moon, while the Gregorian calendar is rooted in the rhythm of the Sun.

As we turn toward the final weeks of the season, my imagination as a star lore historian turns to the German folk tale of the mischievous gnome Rübezahl, who sought to entrap Summer’s beautiful princess and keep her in his love palace beneath the Earth forever.

The Full Moon closest to Equinox is the Harvest Moon, and this year it happens in October, which means the September Full Moon gets the name the Wine Moon.

Moon and Spica assume their role as guardians of the evening twilight while Venus gathers up the dawn and the star Vega reaches the zenith this week. 

This week as the Perseid Meteor Shower achieves its peak, I imagine that the thrill of seeing a falling star and making wishes comes from a deep soul memory of being in the presence of the divine, which was understood in former times as the presence of the “hidden god.”

It takes time to realize you might be caught in a love encounter that’s being cooked up by the gods!

And greatly multiplies whatever we have to offer at ceremonies of the harvest ~ take heed!

NEOWISE is visible in the evening sky this week, drifting up under the belly of the Great Bear as it gets higher each evening. NEOWISE will be closest to the Earth on Thursday, July 23rd, which will make it easier to see, but it’s moving further and further away from the Sun, so it’s getting dimmer as it goes.

This week, in that sacred place where the dark of night surrenders to the dawn, a mighty council of stars is taking place, as if to say: “O, humanity, if you seek remedy to your current trials, lift up your thoughts to the stars, for the powers that wait on your noble deeds have gathered and await your participation.”

So maybe you heard there was an eclipse last weekend. Did you see it? Or did you go out to look at the brilliant lunar light and wonder what everybody was talking about? Sometimes it’s like that.

The Moon is building toward a mighty crescendo this week but will then perform a sleight of hand when it arrives at Full phase and slips invisibly into eclipse in the midnight hour July 4th to 5th.

When Regulus was close to the Moon, like this week, it was understood that not only would there be qualities of true leadership, but leadership imbued with love and devotion, as opposed to leadership through power and authority. The Moon near Regulus was believed to bring out humanitarian concerns.

The word Solstice derives from the Latin sol  for ‘sun’ and the verb sistere ‘to stop, or be stationary’. In the cycle of the year, Solstice marks the two points when the Sun reaches its highest or lowest point in the sky at noon ~ and this year, both of these moments, Summer Solstice in June, and Winter Solstice in December, bring rare celestial phenomena.

Each month the Moon passes the two gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn, always at a different phase in its cycle, and always shedding either more or less light into the sky as it passes them by.  So here’s a thing to ponder while we head toward their Great Conjunction in December 2020: what’s happening each month when they’re met by the Moon?

When the goddess of love and beauty stands in square to the god of war, her would-be companion, you might think that things could get deeply challenged, but the astrological omens regarding this are that the speaking of a people or a nation can take on an enhanced quality of soul at such a time.

This last week of May, 2020 is also the last week of the year that the planet Venus will be visible in the evening sky, because she’s in her retrograde motion now and quickly falling into the arms of the Sun.

So what’s the difference between astrology and astronomy? Astrology refers to the ‘astro-logos’ or star word, that the ancients experienced in the movements of planets and stars around the Earth. The 'astro-nomia' of the scientific revolution concerned itself not with divine spiritual beings, but with the physical properties of celestial objects, and things like gravitational force or the distance of objects and the speed of light, and our physical, rather than spiritual, origins.

The early 20th century Austrian philosopher and scientist Dr. Rudolf Steiner once likened the cycle of the Earth’s year to a breathing process, with an inhalation and exhalation happening in the same rhythmic regularity for the Earth as it does for the human being. The full-in breath he likened to the moment of Winter Solstice, when it appears as though the Sun stands still furthest south on the horizon, and then slowly, by degrees, it begins to move north again, restoring light to the northern hemisphere.

Before coronavirus, there was Comet Atlas and the dimming of the brilliant star Betelgeuse, which marks the giant's shoulder. 

In January 2020 there was an unusual line-up of planets at one place in the zodiac that included the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Saturn, and Pluto. Since then, they've all moved on, but due to the varying speeds of the planets in their orbits, it will appear to us that they all make a retrograde or backward motion, which will result in another meeting of planets in the same degree of the zodiac as in January, only the players will be slightly different. This time, it will only be Jupiter and Pluto.

Mercury met the Sun at superior conjunction on May 4th, on the other side of the Sun from Earth, then the Eta Aquariid Meteor Shower peaks toward dawn on Tuesday, May 5th, followed by Full Moon on Thursday morning, May 7th. So, what happened for you that week?

Venus was at its brightest for the year the week of April 27, 2020, which brought Alfred Tennyson to mind for the Storyteller’s Night Sky: Her constant beauty doth inform stillness with love, and day with light.

Three of the five naked-eye planets begin their retrograde motions the week of May 10th, 2020, beginning with Saturn on Monday, followed by Venus on Wednesday, and Jupiter on Thursday. What's that all about?

There’s a New Moon on Friday May 22, 2020, and on the same day, the planets Mercury and Venus will join one another in the same region of the sky, looking west after sunset.