The Pushmi Pullyu

Real life snap of the rarely sighted pushmepullyou taken by Donna Snowden in Scotland last week. Aye.

In the 1920s Dr Dolittle introduced us to the fantastically perplexing creature, the lesser known Pushmi Pullyu. It boasted two heads at each end of its body, each with a mind of its own. Its remarkable form was built on both magic AND on the coordination and cooperation of opposites, requiring one part of the creature to be moving backwards in order for it to get anywhere.

If that notion feels all too familiar even without an rx to blame, chalk it up to Saturn in Capricornia. Throbbing away in his home state, it is one of the heralding energies of this year and requires similarly magical dexterity to navigate.

Saturn is our stern grandfather whose steadiness is grounded in discipline, experience, good clear boundaries and a cracking work ethic. He abhors procrastination, shortcuts and any kind of self serving shit. He ensures and enshrines our toughest lessons knowing they will form the cornerstones of our evolution. And right now he is squaring off with the sun.

This opposition to our shining light always feels heavy. It can plunge us into gloom, hopelessness or despair as we wonder why we must revisit the same old spartan ground. It is simply because the spackfiller we have shoved into the cracks in our foundation stones did not heal the faultlines in our structural integrity.

Saturn's bitter pill is personal responsibility. As he asks questions of the sun, who represents our selfhood, he stares us down. It is a reckoning that we only continue to shirk at our peril. This means peering bravely into our shadows, abandoning the blame game and trading excuses for a new fluency and understanding of the foundation stones upon which we are built.

Now may we learn how to let one evolutionary impetus speak while we still tend its degenerating opposite. Practice taking turns and fledgling steps that seem to be leading us the wrong way or the long way round. Cajoling and cultivating all the wild forces at opposition within us to work together so that we may finally each be seen as the magical mythical creatures we are.

Today - this week and too this year - is built on singing over dem bones.



Words c. Kerrie Basha 2019