Lucy McCall dives deeper
LUCY MCCALL IS LEGENDARY in Taos. A teacher at University of New Mexico-Taos in Holistic Health and Healing Arts, McCall also hosts an occasional radio show on KNCE 93.5, draws, paints and gardens, and makes the incredible herbal tinctures and tisanes she’s known for, for miles around.
Arriving in Taos during the hippie heyday, McCall found her place and stayed.
But before and after hippiedom, there was her interest in magic. There was always magic in her life, replete with a Hogwarts of sorts – a boarding school for girls, in Newport, Rhode Island, where she was sent “for all the usual reasons,” she says, but clearly, the experience had a huge impact on her.
After returning home to Dallas, and after a series of very rock ‘n’ roll adventures along the way, she finally landed in Taos in the early ‘70s, where she worked for Dennis Hopper at his gallery for a time, before making her own way in the community.
Along with a formidable knowledge of astrology, she has a true and deep understanding of the healing properties of nature’s medicinal bounty.
“My forever mission has been to help people and pass on as much useful healing information as possible,” she says.
Tempo posed a few questions to McCall regarding the New Year and her answers follow.
Where are we headed in 2021?
To backtrack a bit, the lineup in Capricorn has been considered oppressive. There was a feeling that this would happen last year, astrologers were talking about how difficult 2020 would be. Astrologers learned much from the pandemic; when we look to history, the pandemics have followed a Saturn/ Pluto conjunction and that’s what we just had [happens every 35 years, and the last one was AIDS).
We have had Moon’s North and South node square Neptune slowly happening since September, and this eases out in March. This adds confusion to the world as well as a face-off to addictions. Many modern astrologers consider Neptune a bringer of epidemics. This Neptune-node square is peaking now through January. The Jupiter/ Saturn conjunction is taking us out of the forced complacency of our survival mode. Where we are going now in 2021 is a Saturn-square-Uranus all year, and it’s going to be more focused in February when most of the planets will be in Aquarius.
There is a Mars/Uranus conjunct square to Saturn around the time of the presidential inauguration, on into February and later Mars square Jupiter. This is intense. We’re going to have Saturn square Uranus again strong in May when Uranus conjuncts the Taurus spring planets. This signifies great rebellion around farming techniques as well as serious rage about housing. People will be standing up for their rights. Were going to have a lot of that starting in January and all through the year, but I would say the focus will be in February and in May, August and November.
This portends concern for government oppression and contention all over the world. The positive side is that people will be expressing their needs and championing causes.
We also might be concerned for our own personal and family welfare, because we could not be as clear as in other times regarding communication, and can have a lot of anger come up, so we are going to have to watch it. There will be lightening up from the general difficulties in March, for a little while the new moons and full moons are nice with a lot of Venus, Neptune and Chiron energy, and still in the background there is a Saturn square Uranus going on still, and that is basically a struggle between the powers that be.
The conflict is with Saturn people who want to control and oppress, and the Uranus people who want to change things. The good news is 2021 is not a boring year. We won’t be sitting around waiting for something to go away. (I’m hoping the strong, good-hearted people who worked like crazy to keep things in useful order during 2020 will receive more rest and pay).
April looks better but there are definitely aspects to Uranus so the desire to fight back any oppression will be strong and this continues on year-round. There are sweet aspects in May amidst squares to Saturn and Uranus. There are sweet aspects and wild, woolly aspects to the eclipse in May and June. There is a collective desire and effort to change things in June and July and our people will not let government oppression take over in August. It looks like we might be able to relax a little bit, kind of, but there are so many Uranus aspects this year I would say it is a time of great change and shaking up.
Humans seem to need a lot of shaking energy to get moving. 2022 we will finally have our Pluto return to the United States – the first time since the inception of the United States government. After that there are some really lovely compassionate aspects going on in 2022, but this year now coming 2021 – is definitely a year of change. Challenge will be to hold on to the real compassionate change more than we tend to hold on to trauma.
What advice do you have for those swept under by COVID-19 – struggling with fear, grief and ill health?
Protect yourself and that is the mask, the washing of hands, virtual hugs, social space and of course, I’m a strong believer in taking a lot of immune herbs and vitamins. Redundant information: zinc, vitamin D, CoQ 10, Quercitin, vitamin C. Herbs oreganos (all sorts), thyme, garlic, lovage, osha, licorice root, yerba mansa.
As for the grief – well everybody I know has lost people this year – maybe not all to COVID-19, but there just seems to be a lot of people leaving their body at this time. I say have a good crying jag and then take things for the heart chakra. A good one is to put rose quartz over your heart, another is to drink warming teas of cinnamon, ginger and turmeric, nutmeg, garlic, which also boosts the immune system. Exercise! Sing, dance, deep breathe. Good feelings help. Talk to God or the Goddess the way you do. Receive the nurturing energy where ever you are. Earth energy from below and infinite energies from above.
What can nature teach us now and why is it so important to listen?
I think nature is telling us that there are always problems in life: amidst nature’s spectacular beauty and love. In these times, when fewer cars were running and the reduction of airplanes flying, we had such an increase of healing on the planet with less pollution. Doesn’t that tell us we need to really reduce carbon? We’ve all known this for a while, but since there was such quick healing of the earth it tells us that we really ought to get on the case with that.
There are technologies we could use since we all love our electricity. We need to go back to them. Nicholas Tesla is someone we need to go back and look at his information as perhaps he has some answers regarding energy without the pollution. Because of the loss of species and the increase of cancer and other diseases, we need to be less arrogant and not waste the planet this way. I’ve been concerned during the epidemic how very sad it is that we feel like we had to go back to extreme plastic usage. I think we better rethink that now, right now and do less plastic.
There are a lot of easy things we can do like make our own laundry soap, use shampoo bars so we are not using big plastic bottles, just get away from plastic packaging as much as possible. It’s appalling how many things are doublewrapped.
In the beginning of the pandemic, people were afraid to use canvas bags but now’s the time to go back to them and we can also use the boxes that are just left around. Boxes are great for fire starter and gardening. We need to compost. Some people don’t want to because of bears around here but rethink that and try to figure other ways to compost your food. These are good times for us to change.
Take care of water! Planetary aspects tell us we need change. If we haven’t been changing Uranus will do it for us and shake it up, so get ready for that also. I would not be surprised if there are more intense earth changes that we even had this year with all the Uranus aspects.
And another thing to consider is that the moon’s North and South node being in Gemini and Sagittarius [respectively] and also the Mars square Pluto, that we are dealing with at the end of this year going into next year, brings about people getting really arrogant about their belief systems, so we all need to stand back and listen to each other. If you don’t like it just leave, because I don’t know if you can really change anybody’s ideas. They have to go through a life-changing experience usually to change their core beliefs, but it’d be nice if everyone gives each other a little room; and those who want to get up in someone’s face to express their ever-so-important thoughts, wear a mask, even if you think there is a mask conspiracy, be respectful to each other and the earth where we all spring from.
We all need to stand back and listen to each other. If you don’t like it just leave, because I don’t know if you can really change anybody’s ideas. They have to go through a life-changing experience usually to change their core beliefs, but it’d be nice if everyone gives each other a little room.