Caroline Casey, an American original, steeped in the radicalism of the 60’s, nurtured by what remains of our vast wilderness, and harnessing and riding the digital wave like an Artemis, has gifted us with an amazing book on the planetary transits entitled “Making the Gods Work For You: The Astrological Language of the Psyche.”
I recently heard Ms. Casey speak at the Northwest Astrology Conference, where she wowed her listeners and brought the usually mellow vibing astrologers to their feet in a standing ovation. Later, in an effort to recapture the amazing insights from her lecture, I pulled out my notes and scratched my head as, perplexed, I poured over phrases like, “metaphoric animation of intelligence in nature,” “Neptune dissolves certainty – certainly a booby prize,” “better a trickster than a martyr be,” and “throw into Pluto’s caldron all resentment and consequent disappointment.” Deciding I needed to take in Caroline Casey in a more linear fashion, I ordered her book “Making the Gods Work For You,” on my Kindle. The confusion continued, however, when up popped an audible rather than a digital version of the book. And I have an old timey Kindle which is a complete mute. “No, no!” I cried, and tried to unpurchase the book. Too late, I was told by the Kindle machine, you bought it and we can’t take it back. Resolving myself to my fate, I muddled my way through getting the audible book from my Kindle to my phone, and was rewarded when chanting and drumming and applause poured out of the speaker, launching me into more of a reading happening than a stolid march through the text. Caroline Casey’s resonant tones emerged, reminding us that “to dream is to make music.” To make music is to invoke the magic of the gods. “There are forces that reside in our psyche that connect us to very real external forces,” she tells us and “there is no separation between spirit and matter, and there is no separation between us and the rest of the world.” She explores the planets as symbols of the gods who reflect the real forces of the world that live within us, and by becoming aware of these forces, we strengthen ourselves. In this work, we become “undercover agents,” “visionary activists,” who can “imagine a more loving world into being.”
Between episodes of mesmerizing singing, chanting and drumming, she explores the nature of each planet and lays out the following tenets:
0: Believe nothing; entertain possibilities
1: Imagination lays the tracks for the reality train to follow
2: Better to create prophesy than to live prediction
3: The invisible world would like to help, but spiritual etiquette requires that we ask
4: The only way the gods know we are asking for help is ritual
5: If something is a problem, make it bigger
6: We only possess the power of an insight when we give it expression
7: Creativity only comes from the wedding of paradox.
Finally, she calls us to affirm the power of each planet and to invite them into our being. We can do this with her by greeting the invocation to each planet with “Ashay,” the power to make manifest, receiving and sending out blessing to the gods who work for us so that we may work for them:
Pluto sizzles, “I am willing to be cooked and transformed in the alchemical furnace of life, realizing that I am an uncover agent for positive change in the world.”
ASHAY
Neptune sings, “Through my infinite and vivid imagination, I am constantly co-creating with the divine the myriad forms of life’s possibilities. I am dreaming the universe into being.”
ASHAY
Uranus invokes, “I welcome the enlivening zap of the revelatory, changing the circle of habit into the spiral of life. Blast me into the place where I can do the most good.”
ASHAY
Saturn intones, “I am aligned with the power of focused concentration, realizing that freedom lies in the other side of responsibility. I will go to the movies after I finish the project.”
ASHAY
Jupiter encourages, “I am filled with the abundant enthusiasm of life force. Open my path before me and grant me the opportunity to be of maximum good in the world.”
ASHAY
Mars exhorts, “I am filled with spirited bold, courageous, energetic bravado and desire, which inspire me to dance passionately with life.”
ASHAY
Venus croons, “I am attracting all the love, beauty, and creative inspiration from my full ecstatic blooming.”
ASHAY
Mercury proclaims, “I am the witty, clear, articulate brilliance of life, which expresses itself through me and grants me the capacity to say the truth with a kind heart.”
ASHAY
The Moon reassures us, “I am safe enough to take the interesting risks in life.”
ASHAY
The Sun cheers us on by saying, “I am always fully radiantly myself, whether I know it of not. I am brave, the divine experiment of my own uniqueness, remembering the world needs my gift.”
And the final message from the gods, the forces within and without? “Love is all we have to hold against the dark.” Ashay.
