Readings | XVIII The Moon

XVIII

The Moon

Mystery, fantasy, imagination, dreams, uncertainty

Upright: Difficult period. Insecurity.  Mental confusion and anxiety due to the unknown.  Mysteries.  Insomnia.  Illusions and dreams. Secrets unveiled.

The Rocket Man

(1951)

Every military spouse of family member can relate to this story and the waiting for their loved ones to return.  A mother and her son wait three months at a time to have three days with the father who is a pilot on a rocket ship.  When he is away, he wants to be home and when he is home, he wants to be back in space. 

"When he went off into space ten years ago, I said to myself, ‘he’s dead.’ Or as good as dead. So think of him dead. And when he comes back, three or four times a year, it’s not him at all. it’s only a pleasant little memory or a dream. And if a memory stops or a dream stops, it can’t hurt half as much. So most of the time I think of him dead—”

 “He’ll come alive again, then,” I said.

“Ten years ago,” said Mother, “I thought, what if he dies on Venus, then we’ll never he able to see Venus again. That if he dies on Mars, we’ll never be able to look at Mars again, all red in the sky, without wanting to go in and lock the door. Or what if he died on Jupiter or Saturn or Neptune; on those nights when those planets are high in the sky, we wouldn’t want to have anything to do with the stars.”

The message came the next day. The messenger gave it to me and I read it standing on the porch. The sun was setting. Mom stood in the screen door behind me, watching me fold the message and put it in my pocket.“Mom,” I said.“Don’t tell me anything I don’t already know,” she said.

She didn’t cry.Well, it wasn’t Mars and it wasn’t Venus, and it wasn’t Jupiter or Saturn that killed him. We wouldn’t have to think of him every time Jupiter or Saturn or Mars lit up the evening sky. This was different.

His ship had fallen into the sun.”