I spent the day ugly crying at Instagram where seemingly the entire nation in unison was mourning Dolly, who passed yesterday at the age of 80, and singing her songs. 80 is a good long life, I’m told. It should be enough time with someone. However, we all seem to agree that it wasn’t enough time with her.  We all seem to feel that she still had more to teach us. We weren’t done basking in her presence and taking notes.

Normally,  I don’t write about astrology here, or tarot, or ancestor work, although they are all incredibly important parts of my life and have been for years.  In honor of Dolly, I’m changing that.  I’m done trying to come off as dude-coded in the hopes of…what? Being taken more seriously?

Just a couple of Dolly’s most important lessons were:

Femininity- being « girl-coded », if you will- can be your superpower if you claim it and make it your own.

And

Never be ashamed of or embarassed by who you are and what you like.

So, good student of Dolly that I am, I’m going to speak my girl-coded truth here. If you don’t like astrology, you don’t have to read it (said with a wink and a 1000 watt smile). 

In early 2026, Saturn, the planet of discipline and structure, and Neptune, the planet of the dream realm, the unconscious, and the spirit, met at 0 degrees of Aries, the warrior. This is a cosmic reset.

Together in Aries, Saturn and Neptune represent a paradox: How to turn formless spiritual ideals into something tangible and lasting- towers and weapons, foundations and oases that exist in the real world where we need them. 

Starting with this conjunction, Astrologers have dubbed 2026 the introduction of the era of the « spiritual warrior ».

Which brings us back to Dolly.

I have said many times in my life that the closest thing I have to a true native religion- a bone deep, pre-conscious religion- is Music, and to some degree specifically American Music. What do I mean by this? I mean that my nation is composed of the descendents, mostly, of wounded people (Dolly’s ancestors came from exploited, extracted, crushed and brutalized Wales- to Appalachia where they experienced pretty much more of the same). Virtually every American is walking around with some kind of trauma, some profound wound that our ancestors passed to us, either by virtue of what they experienced on this land,  or what they experienced somewhere else that led to them migrating here (or being brought here against their will), or both.  They passed us the wounds of sins that were committed against them,  and in many cases the deep spiritual wound of sins they themselves committed against others. We are wounded people. I believe that this woundedness is our defining characteristic as Americans.

It is in our music- most powerfully, and perhaps only in our music- that we become not just wounded people, but wounded healers. American Music is spiritual alchemy. It is ritual. It is collective transmutation, transcendence and communion. It is powerful, and it is healing.

Dolly was a priestess of American music, and she came by her vocation honestly. She came up in East Tennessee, in an Appalachian holler in a one room cabin with 11 siblings. She was raised on faith, love, and music. Music was the gift that connected her first with millions in her country and throughout the world,  but Music was not her only gift. It turned out that once music opened a connection so that she could be witnessed and heard by the world,  Dolly had many other lessons to teach us. Here are the things she taught so powerfully by example that I believe make her a beacon, a true north to guide us in the era of the spiritual warrior:

Kindness. In her 80 years, not a single person has said she was ever unkind. Imagine the spiritual discipline it takes to always be kind,  even when,  as she was, you are mocked for your accent, your appearance, your « hillbilly » upbringing. When people constantly say or imply that you are dumb or trashy or uncultured. How difficult it must be to smile warmly, as she did, and explain with so much humor, warmth and grace, that you are who you are and you like what you like, and you’re not sorry.  She would smile and explain that her illiterate father was one of the wisest people she’d ever known,  and that the people she came from in East Tennessee were intelligent, resourceful, loving, hard-working, faithful, joyful, funny, and worthy of appreciation and respect. She would never humiliate or lash out at her interlocutor, but she also would never abandon or betray herself, her family and community,  or anyone else (the LGBTQ community for instance) who she felt was being unjustly stereotyped, excluded, or maligned. Her kindness and the discipline with which she applied it is a master class.

Dolly was a spiritual Jedi of Humility- insisting, always, that she was not in a position to judge or place herself above anyone. Generosity. Curiosity. Courage. Humor. Loyalty. Joy. Those were Dolly’s weapons.

Dolly was born with the sun on the cusp of Capricorn and Aquarius (January 19). Capricorn is ruled by Saturn and is generally understood to be the most conservative sign. Capricorn is about building and preserving the value of what came before. Aquarius is in many ways the  opposite- it represents innovation and experimentation, the weird and the wacky, the eclectic, electric, collective future. Dolly picked up that good old American music- the music of religious revivals and holler fiddle tunes and slave work songs and spirituals and all the combinations that had come from Africa and the British Isles of her own ancestors, as well as from Native American musical traditions, and which had flourished for two hundred+ years in the mountains of east Tennessee, and she carried it into the 20th and 21st centuries.  She took it on television and onto the internet. She laid it at the feet of the whole evolving, changing,  dynamic world,  and found that yes, it still has power to heal people and bring them together.

Dolly was born with her moon on the cusp of Leo and Virgo. Leo the performer, the proud, gloriously sparkling lioness with a spellbinding voice and a powerful charismatic aura. Something deep inside her was certain that she was born to be a star. She always seemed at ease in a spotlight, on a stage. She knew she belonged there- but she also had the heart of a servant, which is the mark of Virgo. Attention to details, attention to the wellbeing of others, a desire to do right, and to do it well. A desire, in a strange contradictory twist, not to draw attention to yourself.  I think this dynamic natal moon is what allowed Dolly to be so sparkly, so larger than life,  without ever attracting envy or bitter rivalry. Even when she was on top of the world, she would always be the first one to share whatever she had,  including attention, glory or accolades, or to get down in the dirt and lend somebody a helping hand. 

Dolly said, « if you see somebody without a smile,  share one of yours ».

Sing a song.  Tell a joke. Give someone a compliment who maybe hasn’t heard one in a long time. That’s one way to honor Dolly.

Defend someone who is being unjustly attacked. Include someone who is being  excluded. Remember that all the children are our children, and they all deserve attention, resources, respect, inclusion, and love, as Dolly did when she built the imagination library.

As for me, one of these days I’m going back to my favorite karaoke at the Mel-O-Dee bar, tucked into a strip mall next to the Trader Joe’s in el cerrito plaza. In a room full of every kind of person you can imagine- a room in the United States of America- I’m going to do my best to sing Jolene through my tears. I’m going to take myself to the river, and in honor of Dolly,  I’m going to pray.