Roe v. Wade

ND #136 – Last Total Lunar Eclipse

Posted on by Lisa Weikel 4 Comments
Closeup of the last total lunar eclipse which occurred on 16 May 2022 – Photo: L. Weikel

Last Total Lunar Eclipse

I couldn’t get ‘you guys’ out of my head as I took a walk this evening. Observing the waxing gibbous moon snuggling up to Jupiter, both bright as headlights in the sky, my thoughts turned to the total lunar eclipse we’ll be experiencing at 5:59 a.m. (EST) this Tuesday. This will be the last total lunar eclipse until 2025, which feels significant. Good grief, it’s hard to imagine the geopolitical circumstances under which we’ll (hopefully) be experiencing that celestial event.

So we might as well look up and appreciate this one. For those of you in the eastern Pennsylvania region, here is a nifty link.

 

Waxing Moon Flirting with Jupiter 4Nov22 – Photo: L. Weikel

Momentous

We all know how momentous this Tuesday, November 8, 2022, will be for all of us. Of course, I’m speaking to all citizens of the United States – but I’m especially looking at you, fellow women (and those who identify as female). If we don’t step up now and take responsibility for ensuring our bodily sovereignty by voting for those who will protect and defend our rights as equal citizens, we could easily find ourselves living in a Christofascist hellscape by the next total lunar eclipse.

I can only hope that we learned our lesson in 2016. As shell-shocked and pit-in-the-stomach terrified we felt at the result of that election six years ago, I’m pretty confident few of us would’ve predicted the tidal wave of misogyny, racism, antisemitism, outright cruelty, and insanity that would nearly drown our country in its wake. But here we are.

And of course, the momentous nature of our election impacts the rest of the world, too. “With great power comes great responsibility,” which means our responsibility to not only vote but also stand up for democracy and the rule of law extends beyond our own precious lives. The fate of many hang in the balance of how we respond to the myriad shameless attacks being made against facts, truth, and reality. We are responsible not only for ourselves and our country, but also the myriad countries that rely on us as an ally and role model. Perhaps most importantly, the consequences of our election will impact the very planet on which we all live and depend.

Last Total Lunar Eclipse (May 2022) – Photo: L. Weikel

A Perfect Storm

It’s no secret that circumstances are such that a perfect storm is brewing on both an emotional and ideological level. That’s why the fact that our turmoil is mirrored in the sky takes on even more chilling significance.

There’s the total lunar eclipse (with eclipses often providing jarring, unexpected revelations and reactions).And we’re still experiencing the final ‘pass’ of the Saturn squaring Uranus configuration that we experienced three times in 2021. You may recall Saturn is associated with rules, foundations, and tradition, while Uranus is often thought of as revolutionary, unpredictable, a disrupter of the status quo, and an innovator of lightning-quick change.

Too much of either energy can lead to unintended and chaotic results. And we’re pretty much assured that we’ll experience both, at least in the short term. We can only hope (and set our intentions) that balance can and will be achieved sooner rather than later. We had our warning on January 6th. Shame on us If something similar unfolds as a result of this election. There’s no excuse for us not to see it coming.

Our Best Strategy

As always, our best strategy is to keep our own centers and allow our sense of calm, faith in our system, and peaceful respect for ourselves and each other to ripple out into our environment. When challenged, we need to feel our feet connecting to Mother Earth, reminding us of who we are and why we care. We also need to look up, and remember that while the Earth may be causing the moon to be in dusky, blood-red shadow for a moment, this will pass.

What matters is that we hold firm to our values and the common good of all, including Nature and Mother Earth. We must stand strong for each other, ourselves, and our ancestors – those who’ve passed and those who will inherit the results of our decisions today. Remember to keep looking up, my friends; no matter what. The next seven generations are depend upon us.

(T+136)

Waiting – ND #134

Posted on by Lisa Weikel 4 Comments
Silver Lining? – Photo: L. Weikel

Waiting

We’re all waiting. Waiting for the inevitable betrayal of women in the United States by a radical, extreme, and activist Supreme Court.

We don’t know for sure, but it seems likely that tomorrow (Friday, 24 June 2022) women in the United States are going to experience (via the Dobbs decision) being thrown back to a time most of us have only read about in disbelief. A time when women were second-class citizens, unable to make decisions about our own bodies because somehow we can’t be trusted with such weighty decisions as whether and when to bear a child.

It’s quite likely that tomorrow we will be told that, contrary to what we may have believed all our lives, we are not, in fact, citizens who enjoy equal rights with our male counterparts. No. We are vessels. Mere incubators.

Expendable

We’re also expendable. In many ways, that’s the most chilling takeaway from the potential decision that may be handed down from on high tomorrow. It does not matter one whit whether a pregnancy might kill the incubator. The potential ‘life’ of the fertilized egg takes precedence over the woman in which it may or may not become implanted. She is expendable.

When you think about the stark truth of this attitude, it’s sickening. And it makes no sense.

That’s because this entire issue has nothing to do with the sanctity of life. If it did, there is no way any sane person could venerate a clump of cells over a woman who has lived long enough to at least mature enough to produce an egg that can be fertilized. It’s highly likely this egg producer has dreams, hopes, some education (and perhaps the desire for more), possibly other children already, as well as a myriad of other responsibilities.

But to be fair, the clump of cells could become President someday.

The carrier? Meh. She’s expendable. (God forbid she might become President someday.)

Power

Don’t let anyone tell you this issue is about cherishing ‘life.’ We know the truth. All we need to do is look around and see the disdain and disrespect accorded women attempting to raise children on their own. School lunches? Feh. Moochers. You say you need help paying for daycare so you can work? Stay home and take care of your kids, bitch. Why didn’t you keep your knees together if you knew you couldn’t support a child?

No, removing a woman’s right to determine exactly what she can do with her body whenever she wants to do it is all about power. Power over. It’s about other people telling you what you can and can’t do with your own body.

And since this is an issue that fundamentally comes down to power, then it’s time for women to wield the power they have. Is it our ‘fault’ for getting pregnant? Then perhaps those who are equally responsible for creating a zygote need to discover women still (as of this writing) have the ability to say no. They have the ability to stop. having. sex.

Yeah, sure, if engaging in sex and the expression of sensuality, affection, and perhaps even love, by indulging in that activity, is pleasurable to you, swearing off it for a while would be a sacrifice. But wow – if we’re going to take a stand and abstain from something, surely reclaiming (or perhaps in truth finally claiming) our equality is the best reason to do so. You know: until there’s either an amendment to the Constitution explicitly stating that women have exclusive authority and autonomy over their own bodies, maybe we don’t need to share those bodies with anybody else.

Or maybe, given this whole insane Second Amendment guns-have-more-rights-than-people-do-to-life attitude of the Supreme Court, we need a re-do on the whole Constitution.

Threat

People think it’s hyperbole to state that once Roe is overturned, the Radical Right will go after contraception, miscegenation, gay marriage, and a whole host of other rights. They used to think that about Roe, too. “Oh, we’ll never go back to those Dark Ages.”

Yeah. Right.

Perhaps you assume this whole thing doesn’t apply to or affect you in any way.

If you’re not a white Christian male, just wait. Once Roe falls, you too will very shortly enjoy the prospect of having rights you’ve always considered inalienable stripped away. And yes, even white Christian women. You may think you’re safe, protected by your men and your God. But just remember: you’re only safe as long as they deem you worthy of their largesse. You’re only safe as long as you don’t pose a threat.

And the greatest threat to weak men is the prospect of living amongst educated women with sovereignty over their own bodies.

All I know is, I will not allow activist judges on an illegitimate Supreme Court tell me I am not equal to men. Nor will I passively remain silent and allow them to tell that lie to anyone else.

(T+134)

Take Shelter – Day 1025

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Before the tornado warnings – Photo: L. Weikel

Take Shelter

Well. I’m not sure where to start this evening. At the moment, the small, barely noticeable creek across the road from my house sounds like a roiling cataract. Sirens plaintively called out a couple of times tonight – a worrisome sound any time (especially when one lives out in the country). But they sounded especially lonely and dire as our cell phones simultaneously bleated out tornado warnings – entreating us to take shelter below ground, if possible.

I’m sorry. Where do we live? Last I looked, it was amidst the farms, fields, and woodlands of Pennsylvania. Not Kansas or Oklahoma. Yet here we are. From what I can tell, it sounds like there may have been two or three tornadoes touching down in our area earlier tonight.

Here’s a snippet of an astonishing video of a tornado winding its way up the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River just tonight. Is it because we usually see videos of tornadoes touching down and moving along vast acres of flat land that we have a distorted sense of how fast these beasts actually move? Watching that video feels unnatural.

Quite honestly, it feels like everything – not just the weather – is totally askew and out of balance.

Photo: L. Weikel

Speaking of Catastrophic Events

In addition to my profound concern over everyone who is impacted by the torrential rains, the terrifying and devastating tornadic activity, and the current and impending flooding that will only get worse over the next few days, there’s…Texas.

Honest to goodness, the complete disregard of the Constitutional rights of women in Texas makes me want to throw up. Inelegant, I’m the first to admit. But the unbelievable cruelty of empowering vigilante-citizens to essentially hunt women for a $10,000 bounty is insane. Add to that the American Taliban’s* determination that anyone aiding any woman who may be seeking an abortion beyond six weeks gestation can also be sued?

It is no wonder we needed to withdraw from Afghanistan. Good grief. We have our very own American brand of dehumanizing and debasing women, thank you very much. Perhaps we should mind our own ability to treat women as sovereign citizens with equal rights before we preach it anywhere else.

Not a creek, not a stream – Photo: L. Weikel

Crumbling Foundations

Remember how I’ve commented a number of times in the blogs of 2021 that this year is all about navigating the astrological phenomenon of ‘Saturn squaring Uranus?’ The old paradigms being shattered by sudden blows to their foundations? Unexpected transformations of traditional ways of being and ‘the way things have always been done?’

Well here we are. We are receiving absolute clarity on two major issues facing our country and the world:

Climate change is real.  And oppression and subjugation of women is an agenda paramount to the (not my father’s) Republican party.

The time is now to save ourselves. And it’s stunningly clear (if not a sad commentary on what we all knew if we’ve been paying attention) – we cannot rely on the Supreme Court of the United States to enforce the rights of women.

Think about the ramifications of that statement.

If we don’t take action now to defend what we know is right and true, more than the foundations of our homes will be swept away.

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(T-86)