The Planetary Alignment Leading Women Forward

Because it will be visible to so much of the world during Women’s History Month, I wrote:

Cosmic Corralling: The Planetary Alignment Leading Women Forward

Orion’s Belt ascends in the East,
The Three Sisters’ ancient feast.
Hubble's eye, from distant land,
Reveals four disks, in nebula grand.

A woman, in bonnet black,
Guides her steed, propels her track.
Her cow, tied up, follows near,
Three Sisters’ pull, they all revere.

Stars lead this threesome on their way,
Crossing a four-lane road today.
The bonnet-wearer, from time of yore,
Steps forth into a future’s door.

Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, Mars,
Uranus too, form a shining arc.
They corral women to move ahead,
Like bonnet-woman’s horse is led.

Her cow, obedient, follows suit,
As women march, in forward pursuit.
The arc of history, slow but sure,
Moves toward full equality, so pure.

The bonnet-woman stops mid-road,
I pause my wagon, join her mode.
We hitch our world to the sky so wide,
As cows, we move with the stars, side by side.

As I was traveling homeward, I caught sight of an elderly woman wearing a black bonnet, steering a wagon drawn by a horse. The woman had tethered her milk cow to the rear of the carriage and was maneuvering to exit a narrow lane onto a bustling 4-lane highway.

Although I regretted not having captured the image, we were traveling at a fast pace, and the sight caught me off guard. However, in the middle of the night, I had a sudden inspiration to create a painting, despite lacking the skill to execute it.

Later on, I discovered that there would be a rare alignment of five planets visible in the sky. That led me to “see” what I wanted to paint but in writing.

The alignment of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Uranus starts on Saturday, March 25 and ends on Thursday, March 30.

This alignment is considered rare because it involves the alignment of multiple planets in a particular configuration in their orbits around the Sun. The last time a five-planet alignment will occur with these specific planets visible to the naked eye is expected in 2040.

Overall, the rarity of this alignment is due to the combination of the specific configuration of the five planets in their orbits and the fact that it will be visible to so many people worldwide.