28
Laura Campagna
Did you have previous associations with this number before making this work?
As an astrologer I'm used to thinking about time in cycles. Saturn is the slowest moving planet visible to the naked eye, and takes nearly 3 decades to cycle the zodiac. When Saturn returns back to the place where it was when you were born, it triggers a cycle called the Saturn return. For most people this occurs around the age of 28. The Saturn return is characterized as a time of challenge and lessons when we face trials and come to maturation. In many ways the age of 28 is a portal that we enter and on the other side is full adulthood. There is a loss of innocence and also a coming to know one's strength and mettle. Additionally, Christmas is observed in December because of the Roman holiday Saturnalia, in honor of Saturn, and not because this is when baby Jesus was born. Jesus was probably an Aries or Taurus born in the Spring.
What inspired you to make this piece?
In reading and teaching tarot, there are archetypal associations with numbers. In the tarot Major Arcana, 2 is The High Priestess. She is the gateway to the divine feminine and a portal into our intuition and psychic gifts. So it felt like portals were emerging as a theme as I sat with the number. The Strength card is number 8 in many decks, which is a woman taming a lion, or, so in her gifts, that she's achieved a state of oneness with the lion. We can interpret this as a balancing of the lunar and solar. Lions are bravehearts who defend their pride. I was raised Catholic and there is the association with the sacred heart of Mary. I wanted to give a nod to the Christian tradition that this digital advent calendar emerged from, while acknowledging the pagan origins of the ancient mother goddess.
I included both Saturn and Jupiter because the great conjunction just happened in Aquarius, which in and of itself is a portal that we've all just passed through. May we reap the best of what we've sown in 2021.
Aside from a response to this number, what does the work say to you now that you've made it?
It was a reminder that things can be sacred and playful. It's important to have fun, especially now, especially with God/dess. Creativity is joyful and joy is an act of resistance.
Laura Campagna is a radical queer feminist witch from Boston, MA, who’s been reading the cards and gazing at the stars since she was 13 years old. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College, and publishes on the connections between social justice, astrology, and witchcraft on a number of platforms. Laura believes that a spark of divine magic resides in each of us, and that we all play a vital role in the grand cosmic awakening.