Apologies are extended for this column’s prolonged absence, and for my own. My sojourn to the path of eclipse totality was longer than anticipated. Some probabiy predictable delays played a part. A possibly preventable bout with illness further postponed a return here until today’s first quarter Moon in Sagittarius.

The week following a New Moon and total solar eclipse in late Leo has been more than simply interesting for more than just yours truly. No doubt you have observed what goes with emergence from what one may plausibly call a celestial rabbit hole.

Speaking of rabbits, the name of a certain hurricane is worthy of note. Way back in 1945, American playwright Mary Chase received the Pulitzer Prize for a little play named after its imaginary character, Harvey.

As conceived of by Ms. Chase, Harvey was a very tall, talented bunny ostensibly existing only in imagination — at first. Artfully, the development of both the human characters and plot ultimately leaves it to the audience to draw its own conclusions regarding the nature of and relationship between supposed delusion and observed reality.

Some may be inclined to dismiss the timing of hurricane Harvey out of hand. It would be entirely rational to do so. Yet, as none other than Emmanuel Kant took pains to point out, even reason is subject to critique.

Indeed, one thing that distinguished another great thinker (Albert Einstein) was how he embraced imagination to overcome reason’s limits. It would even be fair to trace much of your present-day tangible reality back to ideas which (at first) were every bit as dubious as an outsized cottontail.

All of this is not to minimize and detract from the genuine hardship inflicted on real people by hurricane Harvey. The purpose here is to explore how coinciding events fit into a bigger picture.

With the Virgo Sun now approaching an opposition to astrology’s ambivalent emblem of both destructive delusion and creative imagination (Neptune), it is simply implicit to do as Mary Chase did.

It would be appropriate for all of us to be creative. Furthermore, it could even be imperative to eschew easy conclusions and judgments in favor of cultivating an open mind or two.

Just because a tropical storm became a major hurricane overnight immediately following a set of eclipses does not necessarily mean anything. The serendipity of the hurricane’s name alone does not support any solid conclusion or judgments either.

Neither, however, is it an appropriate time to dismiss any perception outright. No two of us have had exactly the same experience over the past week. Nonetheless, all of us were present for a precise cosmic alignment that preceded it all. In that common experience we have a reference point.

In your consideration of both events and people between now and the Full Moon on Sept. 6, take that reference point into account.

For a brief moment all of us were there, standing under an extraordinary eclipse together. Would it not be a literally wonderful thing if we could all do our part to leverage that instant to support greater understanding?

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