Of course I believe -- I'm a Pisces

My lay-led church held a service that invited congregants to write an essay on "This I Believe."

Here's mine.

I believe in astrology as a method of self-discovery.

I have been a student of astrology since I first knew it existed. Like many teenagers, I was confused about my place in the world, in my school, even in my family. Why did I watch so much TV and read books constantly? Why did I wish I were invisible as a freshman, finally find (goofy) friends as a sophomore, become a hippie in my junior year, then fall in love with The Cinema as a senior?

Was there an explanation for why I was a kind and a rude person, why was I moody and adventurous? Why was I born into this family? If I were a writer, who’d read my stories? I loved reading, but who’d pay me to read? Why do I ask so many damn questions!?

There are many who say astrology is a lot of hooey. It’s not scientifically provable. The stars have moved since they were first assigned zodiac symbols, they say, so now I was born under a different sign with different characteristics. There’s no way a hunk of rock like Pluto, that isn’t even a planet any more, that’s at its closest 2.6 billion miles away, has any influence on humans on Earth.  

I’m not an astrophysicist, so it may be true – but I don’t care. I’m a Pisces.

Generally speaking, and this is something I identify with, people born when the sun is in Pisces have faith, not facts. They have a sense that this world is not all that we humans experience in a lifetime. They feel that in spite of everything they see there’s an order and unity to human experience that can’t always be perceived with five senses.

Ironically, some Pisceans are scientists, like Copernicus, Linus Pauling, BF Skinner, Einstein.

But there’s more to astrology than just having a Pisces sun. With tables I found in books I discovered where the planets were the day I was born. They are charted in 12 divisions called houses, and houses represent aspects of personal and public life such as family, partnerships, career, as well as the subconscious – what’s hidden and unknown, the secrets, the shadow side.

This is my natal chart. I learned that the moon and Mars were in the constellation Aries, the Ram. The qualities of those two celestial positions in my 11^th house, the house of associations and groups, indicate many friends, courage, bossiness, abruptness, arrogance, initiative, leadership, foot-in-mouth disease, etc. I can identify with those qualities. But it also means ambition and athleticism, and that’s not me!

To go deeper into the chart – the positions of the planets in relation to each other form aspects that indicate how my Mars courage affects and is affected by the placement of Saturn in Libra – they’re opposite each other. So Mars, the Ram, is opposite Saturn, the planet that represents barriers. I’m ramming a wall. Is this why I’m not ambitious or athletic? Is it why I think: Who would want to read anything I wrote?

Fascinating.

My questions about family difficulties, relationship disasters, and career confusion are presented to me with a perspective that seems to make sense. (Even if it doesn’t make sense, seeming to make sense is a step up!)

And my anxiety about the questions about all the nebulous things I yearn for and the mysteries I chase in my head-heart-&-soul is alleviated by the fact that the skies tell me it’s all quite natural and in fact correct for me to feel this way. It offers me the option to consider that uncertainty is a good thing, fruitful and expansive.

There are many, many variables and combinations of conditions for me to understand fully, and, science or not, there’s way too much math. I will always be a student of astrology.

Carolyn Myss, one of my favorite authors on spiritual topics, has said that if the creator were to provide humanity with a manual for living, where would she put it? Perhaps somewhere that’s accessible to everyone on the Earth, someplace nearly eternal, like the sky. 

It is a wise person who rules the stars. It is a fool who is ruled by them. 

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I grew up in Westwood, Ma, 4th of 6 kids -- girl boy girl, girl (me) boy girl.

Catholic family always scraping by financially. We lived in the same house from 1953 till Mum had to go into a "place" 48 years later.

Dad was born in Boston and his parents were Russian & Polish. He was very devout, very family focused, very overweight.

Mum's parents were both born in Boston, both Irish/English. She was undereducated, struggled with depression, took care of parents then children then husband but not herself her whole life.

My siblings bullied me, my parents neglected me by letting them. As a kid I cried a lot ("nobody loves me!"), was a brat and a tattletale trying to get attention. I read lots of books. In my teens I tried to be invisible -- till I got friends my sophomore year, then became a hippie. (yay!)

Dropped out of Catholicism at 14. Now I go to a Unitarian Universalist church, but that's just for community. My religion doesn't have a name, it's just "mine."

I was married in 1976 when I finally found someone who loved me (I thought). We lived in Norfolk, VA, San Francisco, and New York City. We had a good time for 9 years, then my son was born in 1985 and the real work, the family stuff, started. Lucy was born in 1990. We four lived in NYC, 193rd & Broadway, until 1993, then we moved to the DC area.

Kevin the Pisces/guitar player/narcissist left me in January 2004; Tom went to live with him to be close to his job. Lucy moved in with him that Sept. to go to a better high school. I had to face one of my hugest fears, being alone. I healed.

In 2007 Lucy had a fit and refused to talk to me ever again. She hasn't. My guess is that I relied on her way too much for love after the divorce and she, a Gemini, felt smothered. I say "my guess" because she's never told me why.

Tom and I are on good terms, but it's hard to talk heart-to-heart with him. That might just be because he's a Scorpio guy.

As for work, I studied movies in college, watching not making. I have a BA in "creative and critical writing for film," which was a degree made up for me by a wonderful counselor at San Francisco State. I've been a proofreader/copy editor/editor since my first job at the Co-op City Times in 1980. I've had many jobs and I've been fired or laid off from most of them.

As a kid I wanted to be an actress, a singer, Amelia Earhart, a TV repair person, Emma Peel, a musical instrument maker, a psychic, a detective, an archeologist, and maybe I should mention, a writer.

In 2012, I think, was my second Saturn return, and it was a completely tempestuous year. But that's another biographical chapter in itself!!

What are you longing for?

This is the result of a writing workshop that was held at the Eat, Dance, Pray gathering in Royalston, Mass., on the weekend of July 27.

The exercise was to just write. There were words on a sheet of paper for all to see, and a question that came from a meditation between the dances that day.

“What am I longing for?”

Stream of consciousness. I’m longing for this & that & good health end to bad habits, clean living, honor to my self & help for my soul and I’m longing for the end to curiosity that only satisfies my curiosity I’m longing for what’s deeply held in my soul so I can forward to whatever’s next. I don’t long for any thing except hot sex w/M. and home and freedom from money worries, security, good health in my old age Longing for Balance in how I live on the world and how I could possibly be the divine spiritual being I’m told I am. I don’t want to long for much except fresh air & summer & end of worry times and places in the sun where I can ride my bike without tiring my knees, without getting hot, without traffic – with speed & beauty for all around me and freshness. I’m longing to live alone and with someone. I’m longing for solitude and an end to loneliness. I’m longing for peace & quiet and open arms. Laughter & music & quiet & peace

What else am I longing for – prayers from my heart that are mine alone and to share. I’m longing to dance like nobody’s watching with everybody watching. I’m longing for feast and famine. I’m longing for independence and commitment. I’m longing for outer space and a cozy place to hide I’m longing to be alive/awake & dead/gone. I’m longing for a freedom and responsibility. I’m longing to live with an angel and a devil I’m longing for nothing and for Riches. For connection and freefall. For Stars and sunshine. For ocean & desert. I’m longing for love & release. For sleep and dancing. For wisdom and innocence. Light & Dark. Sweet & Sour. One Thing and Every Thing.

Wondering About Prayer

Ellen, how do you pray?

Not often enough. I feel a bit guilty about that.

At night, before I sleep, I say the Lord’s Prayer, then “Thank you God for another beautiful day of life, love, and light on our planet.” “Our” means God’s and mine, and humanity’s.

Three Hs: “Thank you for my home, my health, and my ex-husband.” It used to be ‘husband.’
Three Fs: “Thank you for my friends, my family, my future.”
Then I go into details: “Thank you for Tom, and Lucy, and Max, and Zen, and all my coworkers,
and … “
I will thank God for my car, my income, my job, etc.
To change the subject, I say: “If it be thy will, in a perfect way through Christ, and for the good of everyone, please …” and I ask for healing light and/or grace for people who need it: Greg, Sal and Linda down the hall, Les, sick/lonely/neglected children, etc.
I ask the universe to bless Tom & Lucy, everyone they come in contact with, and everyone who watches over them.
I don’t know if this would count as prayer, but many times a day I say “Thank you God” for things like the water in my shower, finding my keys, my car starting, a particularly beautiful day or sky, paying bills, etc.
In the back of my mind I practice an ideal that might be a prayer, might not. I got the idea for it in this advice I read somewhere: Before you say something, ask yourself 3 questions: Is it helpful? Is it true? Is it kind? I’ve been working on integrating that into my conversation. I wonder if that would be considered prayer.
I don’t like to ask for things in prayer, except when it’s for other people.  If I were to ask God for strength, I would probably get a real challenge to test my strength.
Instead of asking, I expect, which I learned from Esther Hicks/Abraham. I expect that with help from the universe supplementing what I provide, I will have plenty of money to take care of my bills, taxes, and other physical needs. I expect protection. I expect guidance — and I’ve gotten it plenty of times without realizing it was guidance.  I expect everything will be all right, no matter what.
One more. I do like to say “Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.”

 

 

 

November 8, 1985

 

Kevin told me later he was sure something was terribly wrong with the baby. I suppose I should have been scared, but it never crossed my mind.

And never in my thirty-four-and-a-half weeks of pregnancy did it cross my mind that I’d have a premature baby. When my water broke, I figured it was just one more weird aspect of my baby-factory physique and that Tom/Emily would still appear close to Christmas. First babies were usually late, right? My mother’s and two older sisters’ babies had been.

That very morning I had heard a baby being born, in a room near the room where I was waiting for my obstetrician. While she, at last, was examining me with the stethoscope, she asked me several times if I was feeling contractions "yet." How odd that she should be so confused, I thought. My due date is nearly six weeks away. She let me loose, and I visited friends, did some errands, and by 6 p.m. I was walking from the A train into my apartment at Broadway and 190th Street. I had to pee, of course ...

It  was a Friday night, the eve of my second Lamaze class. We were to drive to Providence after it, to my baby shower at my sister Joyce’s. But there was all this water! Too much water! What do I do? “Joyce!” My sister, a pediatrician and pregnant herself, could advise me. “Hmm, looks like no baby shower for you this weekend! Call your doctor. Call Kevin!”

Kevin, at NYU, the opposite end of Manhattan, was working in a school recording studio on the Fairlight. “Oh, Ellen, I just got set up.” I tried reasoning with myself—labor takes a long time.  I’ll tell him he can finish up, then come take me to the hospital. “Come. Home. Now.” I gasped. “Call the doctor,” he said.

I felt a tightness in my back, as though my period was coming. (My period?) I had lent my my book on childbearing to my friend Cal, who was also pregnant with her first. “Cal! Tell me how to breathe!”

Her husband put me on a conference call with Cal’s sister—she was pregnant too and she’d know how to breathe. “Ellen! Call your doctor!” urged Cal.

My own doctor was not on call, an unfamiliar member of his group was. “Well, call me back when the contractions are six minutes apart,” he yawned. I was on my hands and knees huffing when Kevin arrived at about 7:15 p.m. 

 

 

Fordham Road, the Bronx. Not a pretty neighborhood, even without construction barriers that closed lanes and clogged traffic. On this temperate Friday evening the neighborhood was clogged with shoppers, teenagers, fast food, slow cabs—and scared Kevin.

“Hold my hand!” He reached for me between the two bucket seats of our Jetta. I was lying across the back seat while a giant rolling pin tried to flatten my doughy body into pie crust. “I ... can’t!” In that 40-minute trip to Albert Einstein Hospital there may have been 30 seconds when I wasn’t feeling a contraction.

I couldn’t see too well, but there was a wheelchair ready to lurch into. “When’s your due date?” asked the admitting nurse. “12/17,” I said, then wondered why I didn’t just say December like a normal person.

In the delivery room Kevin was surprised at me for just dropping my clothes on the bathroom floor when I changed. “I want to throw up,” I told him and the nurse. “You must be six centimeters dilated,” the nurse responded. Kevin went to change into scrubs. “Oh, Baby!” I shouted. “Give me something for the pain!”

“Too late,” they said, as I was hefted, groaning, onto a gurney. “Can I push now?” I was in the labor room; no one said No, don’t push, so—once, twice—“It’s a boy!” The boy cried. The boy peed. “Well, at least two things are working,” said Kevin, awestruck.

“Thomas Edward. That was so quick!” I repeated, dazed, relieved.

Someone was shouting, “You forgot to call me! You forgot to call me!” It was the sleepy obstetrician. A resident had delivered the baby; we ignored the intruder.

“He’s got the chin!” crowed Kevin. The Cosgrove family’s dimpled chin. “Thomas Edward,” I sighed. “That was so quick! I want my mother.”

Five pounds, one and a half ounces. “I have a Son,” breathed Kevin. A champion, a star. It was 9:41 p.m.

 

 

Here's a story.
Years ago when Virginia was wilderness, long before the War for Independence, a trapper decided he needed the companionship of a woman, so he played cards and won a young Indian girl. Together they lived in a cabin far from towns and far from her village. He'd go for weeks into the forest, hunting and trapping animals to trade. He was very good with a rifle, and he was strong, able to walk for miles, and he was always safe in the woods in spite of the dangers of bears, snakes, renegades, weather, and just plain bad luck.
He enjoyed his times with the young woman. Even though they were so different, they made each other very happy. She was always glad to see him return, and made their home comfortable and fed him well. Their intimate times satisfied them both. She bore him a daughter whom he treasured.
But one terrible time when he returned, he found them both dead. Marauders had found their remote cabin and killed the woman and her child.
The trapper's heart was broken. He kept to himself for the rest of his life, mourning the cruel loss of his family.

(That story was from a bit of inspirational writing on the question of What karma do a certain man and I have together?)

September 24

In the autumn I think of Dad.
When baked oak leaves turn brittle and brown.
Sweet maple trees in variegated colors flame a glistening blue sky.
Crispy, papery leaves crinkle around my ankles, sounding like taffeta petticoats.

"The bus is coming down Nahatan Street!" is the morning cry,
and I carry Daddy's love in a paper bag to school.

Nighttime comes early in winter, earlier than Dad.
I still smell the wood of the windowpane, see the steam of my breath on the glass,
and I smell Mamma's cooking when at last I hear
"Daddy's home!"
I come running. "Did you bring me anything?"

In the springtime, we'd drive to the Dover Dump down the bumpety road
and to Norwood for Saturday errands.
We'd drive to Dorchester to visit Gramma on Sundays.
We'd drive to the library on Tuesday nights.
The Bomber, the Lark, the Studebaker wagon, the Chevys.
I'd scramble in the back seat. The scents of the spices he sold were heavy in the cars.

In the lingering summertime dusk I think of Dad.
I hear the backyard crickets, spot fireflies, recite to the first evening star.
Tomatoes were planted that day,
or we all returned sunburned and sandy from Cohasset Beach.

My dad makes me laugh. My dad thinks I'm beautiful.
His love lives in me still, every day.

--Sept. 27, 1985