Newsroom

A Lunar Return, And The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker

A regular client of mine recently told me that I don’t reveal much about my feelings or personal life. I think that’s the way it should be. If I’m doing a reading for you, I’m looking specifically at your life, not mine. She said that includes things I write publicly. I go by the same principle with my writing, perhaps even more so. But today I’d like to show my hand just a little, to illustrate the effects of the lunar return.

The lunar return is often a time when emotions come to the surface more readily. Depending on the Sign placement and the aspects, not to mention what current state your life is in, the lunar return can be a happier or sadder, or more anxious or less anxious, time than usual.

So if you know much about astrology and I tell you that I was born with the Moon in Cancer exactly conjunct the ascendant, you will understand why I hide from the world for a day or two on my lunar return.

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Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been fascinated with reading about animals and observing them. I’ve always taken a particular interest in the ivory-billed woodpecker. I remember reading as a child that it was “probably extinct.” This always bothered me. Probably extinct? Probably? If something is probably extinct there is always hope that it will turn out that we were wrong and there are still specimens alive and well out there that we simply didn’t see.

The ivory-billed woodpecker was once common in the United States. Unfortunately due to a loss of territory from human land development, the numbers shrank. The last sighting in the wild in the United States was in 1944. Occasionally someone would find evidence that the ivory-billed woodpecker might still be out there, but nothing conclusive ever turned up.

Probably extinct. Probably. But there was always a slim hope that the bird prevailed. There was always hope they were just waiting to repopulate some of the land set aside by more recent conservation. C’mon, little Matthew, don’t give up hope!

And yesterday, as my lunar return began, I saw in my newsfeed that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had officially given up hope on the ivory-billed woodpecker and declared it extinct.

Extinct. Dead and gone. Extinct.

Goodbye, ivory-billed woodpecker. We shall never meet.

I won’t go into detail about how I reacted to this news. But I can inform you that my lacrimal glands are fully functional.

***

Some of you may need to hear this, but it’s okay to have strong feelings about someone or something. And it’s okay if that someone or something is of no interest to anyone else. And sometimes it’s good to admit this, or even dare to say it publicly. And I suspect that’s what someone out there needs to hear today.

And if that’s you? I’m glad you dropped by and read this.