Imagine The World’s Most Vulnerable Needs Met in Surrender, Acceptance and Forgiveness

I am enough. There is enough. I trust my journey, my wounds and my process. I’m not a victim, nor a savior. I am here to heal and be healed, to bless and be blessed in the fire of transformation.

Sometimes people in spiritual communities talk about “soul contracts”.  I think they mean prearranged agreements or purposes that we made before birth.  To me, this is tasteless.  It’s metaphysical capitalism to say the soul needs any kind of reason to incarnate, like there is some thing we’re supposed to “get” out of life experience.  Life mining?  Extractive living?  No thanks.

What if life experience is the end goal of life?  That works better for my metaphysical aesthetic.  It’s a process that way.  It’s a circle instead of a straight line.  It’s comforting.  Being here, just to be here, to enjoy my life is enough for me. Life becomes limitless when I dissolve any concepts I have about what I “should” be doing.

If it were true, I would be free to do all the things I really want to do: grow my own food, make a beautiful home, explore widely, have long talks, walks and explore with others.  Like Charles Eisenstien says,

The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible

becomes real to me if I’m not here on some mission of attainment.  I can put down the abacus and really be here, now.

This attitude is problematic in our culture.  We have no cultural practice engaging our sympathetic nervous system and “resting and digesting” in all this accelerated evolution. We need to do this urgently (ironic: relax STAT!!!–but so true).  Also we need to play, we need to love and we need to let our hearts guide our heads more.  Our lives have become too urgent, too much of an emergency.  Keeping on like this is taking us too far from healing, wholeness and balance.  It doesn’t make sense anymore to believe in the old story of lack.  We don’t have to create the way we did before.  You are the forge of creation.  Lead with your heart.  Surrender to what you love.

The March 1 full moon falls in the Vedic sign of Leo.  It tells us to be authentic to our hearts.  Any denial of the authentic self will only deepen the crisis.  Breathe on the fire of your heart instead and dissolve agreements that you made unconsciously.  That was a previous stage of evolution.  We are energy exchange here and now.  “The lesson of Leo, however, is to use this energy generously, sharing it with those around us, not hoarding it greedily. The nature of the Sun is sattvic, and the true potential of Leo is to purify ourselves and then share our divine light with others.” ~ Somya Devi

 

Consider this.  You put one seed in the ground, what is your return on that investment?  Probably something like 1:100 at a minimum. The investment in lack and hoarding that goes on here on Earth is completely nonsensical. It has built a planet where personal abundance has been hijacked by illusion. We believe in lack.  We buy into scarcity. So deep is this dogma that we cannot even see the imaginary shackles chaining us to deficiency when this is obviously not nature’s truth.  Thankfully, this full moon will help us move this bullshit belief.

You might think that it will take some pretty powerful metaphysical laxatives to clear our collective colon, but there again, what if you are deceived? What if the work is already done?  What if your greatest adversaries have been embodying and amplifying the planetary constipation for you?  What if the hard part is over and now all we’ve got to do is believe what our hearts know is true? (Or what if that has been the hard part all along?)

Lucky for us, this full moon falls in Purva Phalguni nakshatra, in the very center of the Leo constellation.  It is symbolized by the hammock or the marriage bed and brings us feelings of luxury, sensuality and beautiful, swaying harmony.  Bhaga, the presiding god of this lunar mansion, is both benevolent and blind; generous to all beings with his abundant spiritual and material gifts.  Venus will transit into Pisces a few hours after the lunation (5:51pm MST) and resume the softer incarnation as the evening star in this sign of its’ exaltation.  Knowing when too much of a good thing starts to drown the giving fire is an important discernment Thursday night.

If Venus is well-aspected, we embody harmonious compromise with people, substances and things. If it occupies a more difficult space, our boundaries may be a little leaky with, well, everything. Here, we board the ferry into the Greek concept pharmakon where it’s a challenge to tell the poison from the cure.  Every concept is 2 things or extremes on a spectrum. What is medicine for one person is deadly poison for another. Dosage is key: all things in moderation including moderation.

Both the Vedic and the western charts are moving toward (the former) or already in (the latter) Piscean waters in March.  The depths there can be hard to navigate without the inclusion of discerning and healing Virgoan influence, Pisces’ opposite sign across the zodiac.  Again, lucky for us, the tropical full moon falls there (all full moons are oppositions of sun and moon). The charts lately are extreme and densely aspected. Even though we have emerged from the kala saarpa imbalance, this travelling stellium of personal planets has all the subtlety of a tsunami.

Here’s the Vedic (sidereal) chart.  The stellium is still in Aquarius.

Here’s the  Western (tropical) chart, with the stellium in Pisces.

I plan to get more involved  with the Pisces stellium later when it happens in the Vedic chart (one reason I take a both/and approach here–I get two chances to understand). There’s a few things to keep in mind: Chiron in Pisces represents the spiritual wound of the Piscean age AND this is super positively aspected, so healing of this “wounded and lacking” mentality may be available in a new way.  There may be a high level of psychic attunement available and creativity is on the rise.  While we are purging and cleaning (Virgo) some amazing new ideas may come.  Being open to connection is great, but overexpansion can happen.  Inflation of ego and delusion are possible.  Trust your intuition.  Be skeptical.  Double check the details.

Pisces is the Omega, the end, the dissolution of certainty, structure and foundation.  The boundaries are washed away with Neptunian depth.  He’s not fond of your fixed identity and will flood the foundations of things you trust.  He will also test your honesty and integrity. This weekend is going to be a soul cleansing process.  Let it happen.  Release the old trauma.  It’s safe to relax in the mystical polarity of Virgo and Pisces if you can keep it in balance and ground yourself.  There is a beautiful spiritual connection on offer, but the absence of connection is also there.  This is an important time to center and align body, mind and spirit with what you really feel is the source of all life.

The insight I keep returning to is that these cycles help uncover our true nature: any denial of our authenticity will deepen the crisis. Over-identification with either victim or oppressor archetypes will cause contraction, not the needed expansion.  The collective spiritual wounding of Chiron in Pisces is that millions died for their beliefs in the past, but we still have to find a way to believe in the present, or we carry the perpetual wound of the terminal centaur (Chiron shot himself in the leg with a poison of his own creation and could never fully heal it).  Watch the extremes here in the “axis of sacrifice”.

Final words on trauma (for now).  Trauma is a story of the past.  Left unchecked, revisiting the same story repeatedly has been shown to literally drag our cellular body back into the same parasympatheic response (fight or flight) that was experienced in the original wounding.  Neural pathways support this recidivism by literally carving electrical routes in the brain. Despite all that, you are not your experiences, just like you are not your happiness or your sadness.

While it is not easy and it is (IMHO) the spiritual practice of a lifetime, we must alter the patterns of  past pain if we are going to bless this world with our presence in the present. My only power is here and now and this is the only place where I can evolve beyond what came before.  Abuse and pain are not good teachers.  Their time is over.

We can chose to be good conduits for another kind of learning.  We can hear and validate the story of trauma in order to release, heal and transform it. Those of you who attend lunar yoga know that I believe the breath and bodily movement not only develop our strength and capacity, but they move trauma lodged in the body into the earth, where it can be properly recycled.  But it needs to be heard and validated, not stuffed down and ignored.  Taking the time to be with our feelings is a wisdom that all tantric arts teach, yoga is just one of those many arts.

There is a beautiful spiritual connection to Gaia becoming available through this full moon that can help us heal and transform traumas effecting our our own personal past and our ancestral stories that are still with us.  The old story that tells us spiritual evolution yields catastrophe is ripe for challenge and it may set your personal creativity on fire.  To the purifying flame.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Drumbeat Sound of Time

“In the space between chaos and shape there was another chance.” ~Jeanette Winterson

Without the sun and the moon, there could be no life on Gaia.  Our two luminaries are  our wealth as organic beings. We are a part of a circulatory, orbital process so precisely organized that if the dance changed even a little the only organic life in the whole cosmos would end.  Life is too aligned to be random, too fortunate to be chance and too uncanny to be accidental.

The recent partial solar eclipse was another reminder of this phenomena.  The sun, moon and earth lined up exactly in 3 dimensional space on the same elliptical plane. During the solar eclipse we can notice that the sun and moon appear to be exactly the same size from our perspective on Earth. There’s roughly 108 suns between the earth and the sun, about 108 moons between the earth and the moon.  We notice this during eclipses because our planet sits at just the place where we can (Sam Geppi Yoga and Vedic Astrology).  That’s a lot of coincidences all at once.

This most recent solar eclipse occurred on February 15 2018 at the new moon in Vedic Aquarius in the nakshatra of Dhanista represented by Shiva’s drum.  The sun, the moon, the process of time are like a drumbeat or a heart beat or the movement of a tide.  Take these images and symbols inside and feel the body’s circulatory process with the heart like an amplification device all part of  the one cosmic rhythm. New moon to full moon, solar revolution, lunar revolution, day and night, spring and winter, inhale and exhale; within and without you, above and below you. You are the wholeness in all these pairs of opposites.

This universal connection that you and I inherit calls us to a universal service. This is the Aquarian archetype in it’s highest form where it innovates to protect and serve all life. It asks us to balance and adjust the values, structures and technologies we inherit to evolve a unique and relevant biopsychosocial state to serve the needs of future generations as best we can. This partial new moon solar eclipse found both the sun and moon in Vedic Aquarius, ruled by the evolutionary revolutionary: Uranus.

Because this new moon finds us at the crossroads (or just plain nailed to the cross) of so many extreme dualities, this is a time for releasing identities, ideas and beliefs that no longer serve our current crisis.  The magic at the crossroads is the choice.  It’s an important time to come closer to what we really value, just like a tree pulls the sap in from the branch in winter abandoning the sensual reach of summer.  The dark side of Aquarius is extreme apathy, so if we can use our apathy as a measure of what to prune.  Don’t care?  Jettison it.

This is the tropical chart of the eclipse.  You may notice it’s imbalance.  The Vedic chart looks the same, except the planets are about 23 degrees behind. All of the planets are on one side of the zodiac. In Vedic Astrology this is called kala saarpa yoga and it denotes a time where shadows and old karmas being brought to light to be dealt with finally.

This process of purification will continue in the waters of Pisces in March, but without the massive imbalance and the extremes we have been seeing around the structure and security of our institutions (Ketu–the north node of the moon–in Capricorn) versus the heart, trust and openness (Rahu–the south node–in Cancer) of the individual.  More on Pisces season in the next blog entry.

For me, the message of this solar eclipse was that any denial of my authentic self would deepen this crisis.  The download for me was to forgive myself and others because the moment I blame someone else I create and enforce another separation.  These false dichotomies litter our mental landscapes and limit our thinking.

Blame and guilt are mirrored back to us and create opposite conclusions based on the same information.  (See it when two people are debating over one thing that has 2 possible interpretations.) This eclipse really brought the kala saarpa home to me as I tried to keep my heart open while I felt embattled with the world outside.

The projection of polarization or outpictured separation is an illusion.  Yes, the sun and moon are different objects, but they are part of one whole system that supports all life.  It’s important to remember that most natural systems self-regulate.  A state of imbalance is the precondition for balance.

Whether we can actually do it or not, the invitation is here now to lose the sense of injustice and deadlocked disagreement.  On the smallest level matter can be neither created nor destroyed so there’s really nothing to be attached to, indignant about or fighting against.  It will all be recycled by the macroprocesses. The easiest way to diffuse the crisis and assuage the pain is to surrender to the alignment of the cosmic rhythm found in nature and let that be the guiding principle. Something larger beckons, if only the ego will allow it.

I like to think of my ego one emotion at a time.  There is no way I can catch every thought and evaluate them individually, but I do try.  When unchecked negative thoughts accumulate for me, I get tsunamied by emotions. So, I know I need to sit and meditate.  That’s what my yoga practice is for, to get my body circulating enough that I can actually sit until I can still my thoughts and process my emotions non-reactively.

Here’s my latest thing I am doing when I don’t have time to do yoga and meditate, to be more present for the processing of emotions (they are NOT for hoarding IMHO):

• Identify and speak directly to the wound, trigger, violent or unwanted impulse.                                                                                                                                     “This discomfort feels like the way I was disrespected in the past.  I feel    tightness in my throat and my ears are burning (for example).”
• Name and own the emotion aloud in words.                                                                   “I own and allow my resentment (for example).  I hold you with my breath, my love and my acceptance.  You are allowed to be here.”
• Thank awareness for bringing this to consciousness and the body for helping you breathe it through.                                                                                                    “Thank you, I accept this Grace. Thank you, body, thank you mind, thank you heart.”

After all, our influence only extends to the boundaries of our bodies, we can only control who and what we are and realize that the highest expression of Aquarius is the sadu in the loincloth; knowing this is all a game and there’s nothing to be attached to since everything is you and you are everything.  When we don’t like what we see outside it may be time to get a hold of the inner process and take the ego to the woodshed.

 

 

Mind your heart, Yoganauts.

 

OK, so it’s going to be a fire cock. Turns out they are worse than cave trolls. Chinese New Year 2017.

“In Vedic Astrology, this new moon is close on the heels of a crucial karmic reboot; Saturn‘s shift into Sagittarius. This once in 30-year occurrence triggers the notorious degree called the Abhukta Mula, a rare and turbulent influence that destabilizes social structures and triggers reform.  Read more about Saturn’s position here.  

The new moon will be in the area of the sky known as Shravana nakshatra.  This Vedic lunar mansion is also called “the ear of God,” as it magnifies the power to hear and absorb knowledge.  Shravana offers the supportive blessings of Lord Vishnuwho sustains order and peace.

In the trinity of Hindu deities, Brahma is the creator, Shiva is the destroyer, and Vishnu is the great preserver. 

Use this stabilizing and protective energy as an opportunity to observe yourself and the world. The silence between words offers insight into infinite wisdom and clarity.

In India this new moon also has the special significance of Mauni Amavasya (Mauni=silence/Amavasya=dark moon).  A vow of silence is sometimes taken on this new moon to support self-reflection and increase receptivity.

 that voice of pain? it’s not who you are. love yourself enough to know it, love yourself through the pain. ~L

 

On the lighter side, Venus (the planet of love) will shift signs on this new moon.  On Jan 27 (6:46 am PT) Venus will enter Pisces for a rare four-month transit that will include a 5-week retrograde cycle in March. The romantic influence of Venus will strengthen the human spirit against adversity and give an extra charge of hope to the world.”

© Kari Field, Anandashree Astrology, 2014 – 2017. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Kari Field and Anandashree Astrology with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

“New Moon 27/28 January 2017 at 8º Aquarius Decan 1 Aspects: None.  Fixed Star: Alpha Tucana In the Toucan.

---

The needy embryonic Moon is not comfortable in a decan that is so much about cutting the umbilical cord to freedom. It is also one that will tend to rebel against its mother country and feel at odds in whatever home they find themselves. The Moon here is continually searching for the ‘Promised Land’ but rarely finds it. This New Moon Aquarius 1 is so idealistic, that it finds squaring its high expectations with earthly domestic reality extremely hard.

By the end of the month any alienation that is felt matures into great self-sufficiency. The ability to look after oneself then is in turn bestowed upon the various waifs and strays that this New Moon can attract. At this time we might find ourselves providing temporary accommodation for those making difficult life transitions. A cosmic home is found amongst other outsiders.”~DarkstarAstrology.com

Healing the rejected feminine, the part of us that is connected to the planet and the sacred.   Pull back together the things that have been separated, the masculine and the feminine unified in the new Aquarian wholeness.  In you.  In me.  Here and now. ~L

“The new moon in Aquarius take place in the evening on, Friday, January 27th. This is a potent new moon in that it’s unaspected.

The ruler of Aquarius, Uranus, is in the warrior sign, Aries. Consequently, I see this new moon as if the universe is throwing down the gauntlet. It’s a challenge to reinvent yourself (sun) and your feelings (moon). “~Elsaelsa.com

Choosing sacred existence, restoring the compassionate, empathic plan for all beings on this jewel of a planet. ~L

 

“There’s an anxiety you can feel during this phase of the moon. Perhaps you have visions of how your life can look better, how it will change. Or need to change. But you can’t connect all the dots. Everything feels a bit murky. Become okay with that.

Your task during a balsamic moon is to drop the belief that you can even connect all the dots now. You likely can’t. Or if you could, you’d probably connect them in a way that’s based on stale info. There’s a faith-building and surrender that comes at a balsamic moon that’s necessary and sometimes just hard to do. Content yourself with the visions and clearing away what could block your intentions and blessings.

Balsamic moons are notorious for feeding hard-headedness. We’re sure what works best for us. Even when something clearly isn’t working. Check in on your own hard-headedness. Yes, ask yourself, “What am I holding on to that’s not helping me?”

You’ll have room to breathe in new possibilities and inspirations once you’ve cleared that space. Then you can better appreciate Mars moving back into Aries, his home sign, on Friday. He’ll arrive like a brawny guy with a U-Haul van, ready to help you move and fill that space. That’s perfect for Chinese New Year.

Happy Year of the Fire Rooster!”~http://unlockastrology.com/horoscopes-1-23/

“Just when you thought things were ready to calm down: supriiiiise, they’re not! This week there’s a New Moon in heady Aquarius. New Moons are usually a wonderful time to open up to possibility and mark the start of a new cycle. This one, not so much. Tenderhearted Venus will take a swift kick in the gut from hardheaded Saturn, and it’s likely to make for some defensive and sad feels. This is a great time to get clear about what you are and what you ain’t, and gurl, if you’ve been letting someone else define you, it’s gonna hurt.

By the time Mercury catches up with Pluto, you’ll have plenty to obsess over, but whatever you do, don’t pick fights. The energy from the 27th-1st is going to be too wild to tame, so investigate, gestate, and meditate for best results. Ask yourself if the reason you’re pressing for answers is because you want to avoid the stress of sitting with things as they are now or if you actually think you can change things up. When in doubt, wait 72hrs before saying your piece because this week, motive means everything. Keep yours squeaky clean, bbs.” ~ http://www.lovelanyadoo.com/

  

So many people MIA or WAY too present, so much polarization, so much judgement, change, fear and intimidation.  The good news is that something amazing is being born and something horrific is dying.  The bad news is that something beautiful is dying and something wicked is gaining ground.  It’s a time for patience and a determined return to your personal vision and inner knowing. 

The moon is about listening inwardly to the truth you KNOW. Collective patience, deliberate building and careful construction of a new world.  Discipline, integrity and a commitment to doing the necessary work as the moon sextile Saturn demands.  Do the work willingly, or as willingly as you can.  Thank the nudge, shove or pitchfork that is helping you make the changes. It’s all about the changes.  The pitchfork? The most unfair thing?  The oppression?  No matter what it looks like, that is the thing that’s being cleared.

We are at the halfway point of the Venus Saturn Square that started in October and will peak in April.  Find your feet, commit to going on, what else did you have planned anyway? You CAME to stand in your integrity, in the light of your truth.  Chop wood, carry water and call your elected officials.

We are clearing those stagnant energies and purging the things we don’t need.  It’s going to take time. Let’s remember, we are Yoganauts.  We know this music.  We have been working on changing the patterns of dualistic thinking in our minds for a more than a year now.

We know from experience that the shadow does not go quietly.  But bit by bit, moment by moment, the awareness can be brought to the wound and it can be healed with love instead of rejected and spurned with hate.  In the end, even the darkness serves the light.

It  is dark, you can tell it’s underground and it would be easy to panic or give up but remember: it’s a tunnel, not a tomb.  It’s only a tomb if you stop going forward.  The blessing of Aquarius/Capricorn is detachment. Detachment without trauma requires an awareness of wholeness beyond the appearance of dualism.  The moment of transformative awakening is at hand. Good thing you are preparing and have an amazing team.  You got this.

It is impossible to say how grateful I am for the presence of this forum in my life and for those of you who have reached out to help me with travel and encourage my writing. 

Mind your heart,~L

Welcoming the Overwhelm Mid January 2017

When you are free from your external circumstances, who are you?  When there are no bills to pay, new vistas to explore and you can do whatever you like do you prefer to head out or stay put? Both and?  Have you ever considered who you are when things are really desperate: “no phones, no lights no motorcars, not a single luxury”?  I like to remember that we come from people who did all that we are doing and more without much more than their bare hands and wits.  They did not drop the ball.  Maybe we won’t either. I call upon the ancestors.  I honor the ancestors.  I ask them for their wisdom, I ask them for their power.

“What you are aware of you are in control of; what you are not aware of is in control of you.”

-Anthony De Mello

Astrology with Betty Published on Jan 10, 2017

“The Full Moon at 22 degrees of Cancer opposing the Capricorn Sun illuminates some intense dynamics in our lives. Pluto is at 17 degrees of Capricorn along with Jupiter at 22 degrees of Libra opposing Uranus at 20 degrees of Aries forms a Grand Cross. This powerful energy can make us feel as if we are being pulled in all directions to the point of exhaustion. The lights are on and we are suddenly forced into taking a realistic look at the clutter and chaos swirling about in our unconscious.

The Pisces stellium will bring up past (life?) baggage and feelings of deception and loss. Utilize the North Node in Virgo to sift through all of the muck eliminating what is no longer needed, pain, resentment, judgement, anger, depression, etc… Take the highest lessons from all of our encounters and experiences allow them to work for you instead of using them as an excuse to stay stuck.

Transcendence and forgiveness will free us to eliminate waste and inspire us to new heights! This energy will lend amazing inspiration to artistic endeavors, use personal creativity as an avenue to purge and heal. Be kind to yourself and patient with others as we navigate this bumpy terrain.”

“Please listen to John Lennon’s “Instant Karma”.   It kept coming to me as I was preparing this weeks video. It just about sums up the energy and the flavor of what I am saying here.”

http://http://astrologywithbetty.com/
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https://twitter.com/StardustBetty
888-23-ASTRO”

So, I gather from Betty’s offering that it’s a good idea to be really deliberate when dealing with the pain that this full moon may bring up.  Whether I suffer in vain or not is up to me.  Am I willing to make this difficulty into something useful and vital?  (No, I am fucking NOT, but I will get there!)  I am really ready to get my house in order, no matter what I am seeing within or without?  Let’s just say I am aware of the possibility and that is a start. “Take the pain and make it art.” was Carrie Fishers’ advice.  It’s timely.  Art, right now, can give voice to the things we cannot say. Art can give a place for the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.