For the first time in a decade, five of the visible planets are above the horizon at the same time before dawn.  Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury are all across the sky this morning, or will be shortly. Only the Sun and Moon are below the horizon.

Accordingly I went outside to fetch the trash bins, and to look up and see four of the five — Mercury was still likely to be below the local horizon. And then I did my morning tai chi — four iterations of the form — and then  set seven candles alight. I recited all of Thomas Taylor’s Orphic Hymns for the Planets, and my own Neo-Orphic Hymns.
We’re none of us completely immune to candlelight and incense, to softly-spoken words in the cadences of prayer or hymnody, to the idea that powers in the service of the Most High are watching out for us and wishing us well. May you find your own way, in the next month or so, of honoring the forces of creation which have brought you safely to this time, and given you leave to join them in the work of creation.

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