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In the Meeting Place of Earth and Sky: this week on the Storyteller's Night Sky

Last week the sky was tremulous as the Earth moved through a wide swath of solar wind, making way for all the terrific phenomena that's happening this week!

The planet Mercury begins its first retrograde of the year on Tuesday, which is Mardi Gras in the Christian calendar. If ever there was a festival that strikes the right mood for this trickster god, then Mardi Gras is it.

Then on Wednesday, the last New Moon of Winter occurs, but not before the planet Uranus slips into the region of Taurus in the tropical zodiac. For astrologers, this is a momentous event. For the storyteller, it brings to mind some magical creation myths.

Uranus is named for the Greek god of the sky, amd Taurus is known astrologically as an earth sign, so right now, as the sky god is moving into an earth sign, it's as though the mighty solar wind has blown them together, Earth and Sky, into a place of sacred meeting.

The Maori of New Zealand described it this way: In the beginning of all things, the Sky was the husband of the Earth. They loved each other dearly and clung tightly to one another while countless years went by. There was neither night nor day, sun nor moon, nor stars. Then came Tane, god of wind-swept spaces, the son of Sky and Earth, and with his strong arms he threw them far away from one another, out of love for all growing things that otherwise had to creep between them.

As the story goes, Tane realized the heartbreak he caused in separating the beloveds, so he draped his Earth Mother in a green mantle, with snow upon her shoulders, so she would always be beautiful, and for his Sky Father, who was cold and lonely in the great spaces, he placed the Sun on his back, the silver Moon on his front, and the stars on his coak, so he could drape it over his beloved Earth wife each and every night.

You can find the full story at this link: The Stars of Maoriland