Celestial Wisdom for Every Year of Your Life: Discover the Hidden Meaning of Your Age

by Zsuzsanna E. Budapest, Diana L. Paxson

Drawing from their combined expertise in spirituality, psychology, astrology, history, and mythology, internationally acclaimed teacher and witch Z. Budapest and mythographer and novelist Diana Paxson have created a guide to the general trends one can expect in each year of a person's life. Organized first by decade, then specific year within each decade, Celestial For Every Year of Your Life gives new insight and helpful prognostications to the total sweep of the human lifespan, from birth and before to 90 and beyond. Each year has a description exploring the issues, challenges, and joys specific to it. Stories of people experiencing life at that age are woven throughout, offering insight and perspective on the dynamics at play. Each age ends with a ritual, blessing, and suggestion for how to meaningfully celebrate it, especially at birthday time. For example, are you about to turn 29? Fasten your seatbelt, Saturn is about to return to where it was when you were born and you are in for a change. The changes could come in the areas of job, relationship, or where you live. The combined cosmic knowledge of Budapest and Paxson says, "Take a deep breath change is afoot--see how that energy of change has manifested itself in the lives of others." For your 29th birthday, they suggest, counteract that "I'm almost thirty and I haven't?" syndrome by celebrating the things you have done. Tape a big piece of butcher paper to the wall. List each year since age twenty and next to it write down what you were doing. Get some colored pencils and have a party. Your friends might just contribute and surprise you. Two pagan powerhouses reveal the wisdom of the ages in an astrological and psychological guide to each year of a woman's life. Budapest and Paxson's combined book sales top two million. Lighthearted and playful, yet grounded in years of multidisciplinary study, this book reveals surprising new insights to the possibilities of each year of our lives.

Genres: Astrology

256 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2003

Reviews

[Krishanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

March 2003: As I awoke on the morning of my 39th birthday, the thought I had inside my head was, "Play today." I knew it was not me speaking but a directive from the Goddess. I, however, had things to do. I had plans for my day and had no intention of not carrying them out. I was busy, you see.

There was work at the studio to be done and more information for a new article to be found, so I got up and began my day.

I took my usual morning bus across town to the art center where my studio is located only to arrive and find I’d left my keys locked in the house. Because it was a day the center itself was closed, there was no hope of waiting around for it to open and asking for my spare studio key. Realizing that I not only wouldn’t be able to get into my studio, but that I also wouldn’t be able to get back into the house until my boyfriend could get away from work, I decided to have breakfast at a nearby diner and then go to a bookstore near my home and do some research for an article I was working on.

Once at the bookstore, I was amazed to discover I had absolutely no writing paper with me at all, an extremely rare occurrence. Once I’d handled that situation by purchasing a cheap composition book at a nearby Dollar Store, I sat down to do some work-- and my pen ran out of ink. You’d think I’d gotten the message by then, but instead I went out to buy a new pen, and fifteen minutes later, I was interrupted by my boyfriend’s arrival-- to take me out for a birthday dinner. All I could do was laugh and mumble: Goddess-1, Krishanna- 0.

I was scheduled to do an e-mail interview for TBP with Z Budapest and Diana Paxson regarding their new book, Celestial Wisdom for Every Year of Your Life, about which I was very excited. I’d been able to work with Z on a number of occasions with the magazine and having read nearly all of Diana Paxson’s work, I was looking forward to having their undivided attention for a few minutes and reading their replies. And as it happens, when we returned home that evening, what should be waiting for me in the mailbox?

As I opened Celestial Wisdom to the year Thirty–Nine and read, I was greeted with this passage:
This year may be too busy for storytelling, but you can make time for it on your birthday. Invite friends with whom you can truly relax and load a table with yummy finger-food. Lounge on cushions in a circle and to each woman pass a goblet or a horn of something delicious. As the horn comes to each woman in the circle, she has to tell a story, preferably something with humor. It can be about herself or about you, or about both of you. What’s the funniest thing that happened to you during the last decade? Laughter is healing medicine.
Translation as it applies to my life: Play today, tell a story and laugh. Happy birthday to me. Thanks, Z and Diana, for a wonderfully rich and different book.

[Min · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable, brief overview of the aspects one might encounter through the ages. I, personally, found it relevant. As with all things, others might gain nothing from it. Budapest's writings do focus on Female Mysteries, although the book is accessible to any gender with some adaptation, as needed. The inclusion of personal stories, and rituals gives it a pleasant touch of interaction in a process that we cannot stop, aging. The decade ending rites, and inclusion of astrology added a dimension to treat this inevitability as a blessing.