“Space is hard. Space is dangerous. Space is exciting.”

—Neil deGrasse Tyson

The first Space Witch column went to print near the “spicy” Aries Supermoon of 2016. Now, on the heels of the 2018 Aries full Moon, I’m hanging up my weekly witch hat. Seems like a proper stopping point. When former Seattle Weekly editor Mark Baumgarten asked if I’d like to pen an astrology column, I didn’t understand why he was asking me, a spiritual punk poet who (at the time) made full Moon YouTube playlists for my Hit the Deck Tarot page. But I said yes.

Over the next two years I tried my best to forge a format in which poetry, puns, music lyrics, pop culture, and personal experience all helped explain that week’s sky story. I wanted to offer an astro report that readers could relate to and understand, regardless of how much (or little) they knew about astrology. While taking the pulse of the planets, I tried to strike a balance between sugar-coated and doom-and-gloom forecasts. I thought Space Witch should be a place where readers would feel reassured that emotions rise and fall, and that it’s acceptable to feel a lot all at once. I’m grateful to Seattle Weekly for giving me the freedom to figure stuff out as I went, and for trusting me with such a loud microphone.

I’m grateful for your eyes, feedback, and support, dear readers. But my take on the planets is just one person’s interpretation of Western astrology. There are so many ways of viewing and translating the sky, so many wise voices.

If you’re searching for astrologers, I recommend:

• Nadiya Shah, Chani Nicholas (obviously!), Michele Knight, Anne Ortelee, Stormie Grace, Empowering Astrology (by Katie Sweetman), and MissTANGQ.

• Local astrologers include Rick Levine, The Hoodwitch, Meagan Angus, and Amanda Moreno.

How will we stay in touch in the future?

• I’ll be launching the monthly Space Witch podcast soon (once I get a grip on equipment and editing), which will be found at spacewitchastrology.com.

• I read natal charts and tarot cards (even over the phone) as Hit the Deck Tarot (facebook.com/htdtarot, hitthedecktarot.com).

• My Twitter handle is @ElissaBall, and my public Facebook page is @ElissaBallWriter. There’s elissaball.com too. (I don’t do Instagram.)

Though some of my sites are still under construction, try checking back later on.

Thank you for the love you’ve shown me, Seattle, WA (on unceded Duwamish Territory). This damp city is teeming with witches, and I hope you support them (Edge of the Circle Books is my favorite local resource for magical goods).

Thanks to everyone who has ever shared this column or written in with a comment or question. Thanks to Kelton Sears for designing the Space Witch logo with me, and thanks to artist Taylor Dow for creating that black-and-white sunglasses cat on Saturn!

It’s been a wild broom ride. I’m going to devote myself to my next poetry manuscript now. I’ll “see” you on the audio side, after a couple months’ rest. Best of luck during the coming Venus retrograde. Protect your hearts.