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May Eve and the retrograde dance of planets: this week on The Night Sky

With Mercury turning retrograde later this week, more than half of the planets will be in their retrograde motion, which means they appear to be moving backward (or westward) through the sky. And for me, this is the perfect set up for the mischief you might not know is associated with the eve of May 1st.

 

The days celebrated at the beginning of May include everything from the labor-related May Day to the Mexican Cinco de Mayo to the amusing Star Wars reference “May the 4th be with you”. But these celebrations, even if they’re quirky, don’t just pop up out of nowhere. They’re actually coincident with the ancient practice of celebrating the halfway point in the Spring, which is technically known as a Cross Quarter Day. At Cross Quarter Day we are halfway through the season, and our thoughts turn away from the beginning of Spring toward it’s much-anticipated end in Summer.

 

But it’s the eve of Cross Quarter Day that I want to talk about. That’s April 30th every year, and it’s coming around again this Saturday.  It’s like All Hallow’d Eve, or Halloween, which is the eve of the Cross Quarter Day in Autumn ~ they’re both about mischief-making! But while the Autumn Cross Quarter Day has to do with warding off evil spirits by making pranks as ghosts and ghouls, the Spring Cross Quarter Day is about warding off the disease and infertility that might happen in the Spring growing season.

 

Traditionally, two large bonfires would be built, then the cattle and sheep would be led between the fires, to ‘burn off’ the murrain, a disease that was fatal to them. Then the Cross Quarter Day revelers would themselves run between the fires, to protect and enhance their own fertility.

 

With four of the seven planets doing a retrograde dance at this year’s Spring Cross Quarter Day, it’s as though the forces of the natural world are stepping back and away, to allow the human being to take greater charge of the growth, fertility, and care of the joyful Spring.