In August of 1987 a significant number of planets - each in fire signs - were aligned in an exceptional configuration, known as a Grand Trine. This particular alignment was believed by some to herald in a time of peacefulness. The event was referred to as a Harmonic Convergence, and around the world on the 16th and 17th of the month thousands of people joined together in group meditation. I had just met my new boyfriend and had invited him to head up to an old family farmhouse in Vermont with me and my best friend. We were going to go to one of the Harmonic Convergence events being held in the mountains of Vermont somewhere…
Unfortunately, though we drove along back roads and over mountain passes, we never found the event – we didn’t have full details of where it was being held, and finding a group of meditators somewhere in the woods of Vermont at night, is easier said than done! Still, we enjoyed the trip. We stopped at Miguel’s, a popular Mexican restaurant in Stowe, made a few friends we hung out with for the night, and though we didn’t know it then, drove through the very town my now-husband and I would end up moving to and raising our family in.
I recall that first time driving over Smugglers’ Notch in the dark, a place that is now just a few miles from my house, a place from which my family and I have started many great hikes, and a place we have enjoyed when it was snow-covered, while drinking hot cocoa from a thermos. That first time it was dark and the road so steep. I kept my foot on the brake for much of the downhill, maneuvering the curves, staying away from the edge where there was just a token, Vermont-style wooden guardrail. I recall it seemed there wasn’t much of a town here that night – the ski resort was closed and dark (these days it may be as popular in summer as it is in winter). We traveled a narrow wooded Jeep trail to a cabin where our new friends lived. It all felt very remote. Funny to think of now, because soon after moving here – five years later – the warmth and closeness of community quickly became obvious. It has been a wonderful place to live, and a wonderful place for our daughter to grow up.
It’s amazing how fate or destiny works… For 1987, my horoscope (which I still have, cut out and stored in a jewelry box), read “If December 17 is your birthday you are capable of fighting when cause is right, you work extremely well under pressure, you are sentimental, intense, passionate, capable of meeting deadlines…” and “August will be your most memorable month of 1987.” And of course, I met my husband-to-be that August, twenty-four years ago, and under those specially aligned planets, started a new life that has been full of light and love ever since.
* Image: Gary Levine
