2026 Check in

Review/Renew/Recharge/Revolt

I’ve added birds to my theme if you haven’t noticed. Birds are about as related to Hermes than any other animal & this place is a temple for Mercury. Birds come to me in real life and in the dream, so it made sense to perch on birds as a recurrent theme for my astrology practice.

This is my 2 year anniversary on SubStack(or it was a week ago) and I remember the first few toes that I touched into these writing waters. I just dipped my big toe in and announced that I was here, mostly to myself since I didn’t have an audience yet (12 views on that first post <3). I grew to write reflections of what my days were like then which was visiting my hometown of Savannah, GA. I was helping my parents with things that are helpful to aging folks which included going to our family’s grave site to clean the tombstones, rake the Spanish moss off of the grey sandy soil & place new greenery. We removed the holiday wreaths that were laid at the feet of my ancestors and took them back to my parents’ home, the house that I grew up in. Their home is under a tall canopy of trees along a salt marsh & tidal creek. I couldn’t stand to see the wreaths thrown into a trash bin at Bonaventure Cemetery, it was all sorts of wrong. I took the wreaths and laid them along the edge of the creek on my parents’ property and allowed them a natural burial under the tall oaks & pines.

This creek was my childhood landscape of fantastical creatures: alligators, alligator snapping turtles, possums, raccoons, wild boar, foxes, great blue herons, water moccasins, rat snakes, fiddler crabs, blue tailed skinks, egrets, red winged black birds & all of the fish that are brought into the creek when the tides rise and flow back out to the ocean when the tides fall. As a kid, I would wander the small thread of woods along the creek to where a small peninsula jutted out into the marshes and would climb the biggest tree to sit. I would see the veins of water fill into the grasses of cat tails, alligators and pelicans below. I saw a cloud whisper, that I am still certain was an angel, floating over the grasses. Her face turned and looked at me as she faded like vapor. She floated from the Carmelite Monastery, 2.3 miles away (as the heron flies) and I would ride my bike the 5 miles through the neighborhood to sit along the edge of the monastery, often in another tall tree, to watch the nuns walk around their sanctuary. The cloud looked like a nun.

I am a middle child, so hiding in plain site is a part of our camouflage. Sitting along the liminal edges has always been a comfortable space for me and Hermes, who prefers to sit in the 1st house, where it has come up from the underworld, fresh with chthonic memory but can see the overworld with its solar brilliance.

I wonder how decomposed those wreaths are now, having gone through a few hurricane seasons and the humid coastal south’s summers. My own words from around that time I’m also sure have been the composted fuel that keeps my own writing growing. I am not in the habit of apologizing for whether or not I am here sending you words, if my natal Taurus moon helps me find confidence in anything it is that everything in its own time. We are not robotic vending machines of words, built on a schedule based on linear time. We are a growing and composting body of intelligence whose tides go in and drag out. Currently the tides are creeping back in & I wanted to share here, in this liminal space of the internet, from my trees, viewed over the landscape as I see it.

The literal landscape right now is barren. My family & friends in Minneapolis are struggling with the terror that is being inflicted upon them, for what simply seems like for cruelty’s sake. The rest of the nation mostly waits for it to arrive in their own streets, ready with whistles & signs fighting back against the unlawfulness of the unAmerican actions by masked, facists thugs. And as the universe acts in a natural balancing organism, the Walk for Peace monks are drawing the attention, the hearts and the inspiration for thousands of others as they travel from Texas to DC. I, myself, am making the drive to go visit their pilgrimage myself. Tides.

The moon is new today, in Capricorn, an austere, astringent and practical place. For Scorpio risings, like myself, the moon is in her house of Joy (3rd house) and what I have been diligent with these past days is cleaning and cleansing my home. I didn’t do it “on purpose” but “with purpose”. I named my home and have been treating her like a temple for our family, our ancestors, our magic, our spirits, for the animals who live inside and outside, for the trees that protect us and for the earth that supports us. The space that we live within, is our temple and our call to steward, with peace & nourishment, with joy & spirit. With that, I have been doing a daily tending to one part of our home-temple, wiping things down/clearing old energy, donating things that have purpose but not with us anymore, and rearranging what remains to create a lively new space. I have been doing this since the beginning of the year and I will continue for another month. The lunar new year on February 17, 2026 is approaching and I want my temple to be shining and ready for what this fire horse year will stampede towards. This is 3rd house work, the moon finds her joy in these mundane & quiet ways of magic.

I have also been practicing a financial austerity, which sort of naturally comes from going through what you have: you find gratitude in all things plus you find things you forgot you already had. Buried Treasure! Austerity also in the kitchen, eating the foods that we’ve had stored & simply reducing the volume that we eat. (I’ve lost 8 lbs just doing this! Oh and daily yoga with Adriene #iamstrong) I have been digitally cleaning where my attention has been directed, unsubscribing like Kali on the battlefield, what wildflowers return will be now be fire stratified. All of this in theory will create a new field for me to create, to craft, to practice. For 2026, I will primarily be an astrologer, something I’ve never primarily been in my professional life. I have, up until now, filled my time with side gigs (house cleaning mostly) that put cash in my pocket to support our life, but a sharp lesson has been unfolding for me.

My MC & my North Node are in Leo, in the 10th house, what I do for a living, for a career, is inextricably related to a profession that has public recognition and respect. Being a house cleaner, as much as I honestly love the work, is not a respected job. I never wanted it to be my career, but it was an easy thing to fall on because I am good at it, it comes easy, is recession proof etc… but when I put on gloves, people treat me less than. I can see it in their eyes. I am forgettable. They value me a little bit less than they did before and it wouldn’t often bother me, but it also never goes away. Even from people “who mean better.” This is not what Leo MC demands, so I am changing it. I am taking the risk. And this is my lesson with choosing to be an astrologer, primarily, in 2026. Not that Astrologers have broad respect as a whole, but they do more than manual laborers.

So, you find me here and all of the other places that I exist. I write about astrology, I read for people about their own experience with astrology and I collaborate with other astrologers to build supportive community around this work.

With that, I hope that this new moon allows you time to do whatever it is you need to do: nourish, rest, revolt. Love to you and yours, to your own temples & sanctuaries. Let today be your peaceful day <3

\Christa