Note: See this, first, if you haven’t already.
On the day prior to the New Moon in Cancer opposite Pluto, I gave each of the dogs an unusually large treat, one of those braided hide “bones” that they love to tear apart. However, neither of them had ever seen, much less chewed on, such an enormous “bone.”
I should have known. Hank, the young rat terrier, immediately tore into his, and had it pretty much gone by the end of the day. But little middle-aged Shadow, whose four bottom tearing teeth were removed a few years ago? I soon realized he couldn’t chew on it, in fact he could barely get his jaws around it.
So that began the saga, one we are still milking, for all its worth. The incredible way we humans and dogs hoard and obsess over our stuff, our material stuff. How it completely changes us, from nice and sweet to raving maniacs. I know that sounds extreme, but this was extreme.
Here’s a few photos of Shadow that first day, the day before the Plutonian New Moon in Cancer/Capricorn, with his bone. At first I didn’t think much about the pickle he had gotten himself into, making sure that Hank didn’t get his bone. I found him behind the couch . . .
Later, sleeping next to it.
Note the remains of Hank’s bone in the background . . .
Then, yesterday, same place. Here he is picking up his bone again . . .
Later, he brought it out onto the patio during last night’s Community Dinner —
— where he had to guard it zealously — not to mention jealously — not only from Hank —
— but from dear sweet old Amos as well, who BTW, can barely see. Don’t know if he can still smell. In any case, Amos didn’t even notice the drama going on around him underneath the tables by all the human legs.
Poor neighbor Jelene! She accidentally ran into trouble when she leaned down over her chair to pet Shadow, who growled, ominously. Not at all like the sweet, mellow, loving Shadow she remembered. She was shocked! Until we told her why.
But the strangest occasion of all was later last night, about two hours past the 10:48 PM New Moon, when Dan came home, walked into the dark bathroom — and stepped on Shadow! who, for the first time in his life, was lying in front of the toilet (another Plutonian theme, shit, evacuation, etc. toilet bowls with water that flush down . . .).
Later, when Dan came out of the bathroom after his shower, he found Shadow on the floor in front of his door, but he had laid his giant bone in Dan’s room, next to his bed! What? Shadow doesn’t sleep in that room. He sleeps in my room! And he certainly wouldn’t put the bone down there, knowing that Hank was going to sleep in there with Dan.
Dan surmised that maybe Shadow was wearying of his bone burden. That he needed a break. Or maybe even secretly hoping that Hank would take it from him?
Interesting that this little sub-drama happened not too long after the exact New Moon. Were some of our more burdened humans also getting a fleeting glimpse as to what it would feel like to let their material obsessions go at that strange hour of the Plutonian New Moon? Remember: Pluto is the ruler of obsessive, shadowy Scorpio which itself, opposes Taurus, the most earthy earth sign, fixed, stubborn, sensual, reactive at times, and definitely attached to his or her stuff.
And remember, BTW: that unpredictable Uranus, this past mid- May, shifted from hot-headed Aries into security seeking Taurus, where it will remain for seven years, and make sure we re-member our relationship to Earth, one way or another, for better or for worse.
How many of us are weary of the burden of materialism? Back in my early 40s, I used to practice looking down from above, imagining myself on a mountain top, or even better, a cloud (this kind of visual distancing helped me gain perspective on my own personal dramas). At one point during one of these sessions, I was stunned to suddenly realize that all we humans do on this planet is “move stuff around!” We play with stuff, steal stuff, save stuff, buy and sell stuff, work for stuff, name stuff, fix it, stuff it, unstuff it, put some stuff inside other stuff, compare our stuff to other stuff or other people’s stuff, identify with our stuff, list our stuff, brag, or regret or discuss our stuff, exchange stuff, hoard more and more stuff, or “simplify” to the point where we “own” (or borrow, or steal) only the essentials.”
Money itself, of course, is a further abstraction of the colossal obsession with stuff, that itself, is a man-made scrim upon the real stuff, Mother Nature.
So dear sweet Shadow boy, whose very name reminds us of the shadowy obsession with stuff sitting in the solar plexus of us all, and who is a possessive little Taurus anyway, thanks to the Big Bone that was too big to eat and almost too big to carry around, got totally sucked into his Plutonian obsession, paranoid about others’ taking his Big Bone, and exhausted by the struggle to keep it.
During these days of what housemate Alex calls Shadow’s “existential crisis,” when he is only barely present, when he’s so busy guarding a bone that he’ll never be able to eat, and that might even dislocate his jaw if he keeps it up, I wonder about our existential crisis, too.
One final shot: this one from today, still on guard.
Oh wait a minute. Now that I’ve given this post a “suggestive” title, I might as well tell you that Shadow has a huge penis, and that he takes it out regularly to play with. Sex: another Plutonian theme!
