Dear Friend and Reader:
IN THE LATE 1970s, a book was channeled that appeared five or so years later under the title
The Starseed Transmissions by Raphael (later revealed to be Ken Carey). It was circulated underground as a photocopied typescript for years, and I was fortunate enough to obtain a copy. Before that happened, though, one summer a friend read me the text on the phone from a tattered copy that she'd acquired.
The source described itself as halfway between a focus of human
consciousness, an angel and an extraterrestrial, but said that technically it was extraterrestrial because his/her existence was located outside the Earth's sphere of influence.
The book vibrated with its source entity's presence like no channeled work I've encountered before or after. The writing infused my cells, and gave the feeling of directly imparting a new level of consciousness and perception. Before and after, my perception of the world was two different things.
Here is a taste of the language: "I come from a time where there is no time but the eternal now. I retain, even in the midst of this relationship, an awareness of this realm and of the Universal Being that inhabits it. I come with a message that will prove to you vital in these final days of your history. My individual identity comes into being only as I enter the context of my relationship with you. When I am no longer needed in this capacity, I will merge back into the Being behind all being. There I remain in unity and fulfillment until the next impulse comes to send me on another mission. In the interim, there is no distinction between me and the Source. I and others of my kind desire at this time to bring humans to this same level of awareness."
We may ask why, rightfully. What right does anything or anyone external to our sphere of influence have to intervene in our events, even a little? The reason is that our little planet is in trouble, and many of us are asking for help. If there are deities or spiritual entities of any kind, we who consider ourselves spiritual would do well to ask how they would communicate with us, or work with us. The entity delivering
Starseed tells us that the goal is to have a few people get the whole message, and then they take that message to the culture by means of their respective special talents.
Starseed describes a global transformation process necessary to raise humanity out of its dark concept of life and take us to a new, less selfish, less destructive level of mutual awareness. In short, our orientation must shift from death to life; from fear to love.
This is not merely an individual transition; rather, an individual has the distinct experience of joining with something larger, and working with it in their individual way. Each person, sooner or later, will have the experience of joining their normal awareness to what we could call cosmic consciousness, thereby letting go of our highly limited, fear-based view of what is possible (or impossible), and directly experiencing far greater potentials; which include taking their role within the greater story of the changes now afoot on the Earth.
While we will feel better as a result of this joining with the greater whole, we'll also help raise society's vibration to the point where we could (for example) stop a war or preclude the possibility of nuclear annihilation.
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Cecelia from the Book of Blue. Photo by Eric Francis.
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In the message's model of consciousness, individual identity is preserved even after the joining. We now have a metaphor to describe the shift -- individual minds would become like computers capable of going on the Internet rather than being stuck in their old limitations. This web of awareness, a human network, that would (and indeed does) surround and protect the globe seemed (and seems) more like a living plasma of consciousness; what the book calls
living information. If you wonder just what truly creative people tap into, that is one way to describe it.
Starseed describes what it calls a
psychological process that anyone involved in this shift will need to go through. It is an individual process that people willingly experience as part of preparing their minds for existence on a new level of awareness. The apparently brick-wall boundary of the ego has to be dealt with, as does its inherently fearful nature.
The heap of debris we call the past needs to be addressed, as do the patterns it holds. The thing about making changes with a primarily spiritual rather than primarily therapy-based orientation is we're allowed to include miracles in the process (a few therapists do). Still, I recommend a three-fold process, approaching personal changes from a therapy standpoint; from a spiritual standpoint; and from a sexual/relational standpoint.
"It is important that you recognize the creative power of your thoughts," it says in this chapter, "a power far beyond your knowledge. As long as you think negatively, Life will only allow you a token share of consciousness, lest you spread disease..."
"But the moment your thoughts are of Love and Life," it continues, existence will "flood you with perception. You were born to share in [this] creative power. The stuff of which you are made is so charged with the ability to create that everything you touch comes to life -- every thought, every identity, every image. You are the energizing force of the material plane, the bringer of life, the bestower of blessing and the sustainer of illusion. Through you, God is able to enter the very heart of Creation. Through you, God is revealed in material form."
In case you're wondering if this could possibly be true, or if you're up to the task, I ask you -- whose job is it, the Pope? Or are you expecting God to personally stroll down the street and feed the homeless, start an art gallery or write a horoscope column?
Now we come to one of the most challenging ideas contained in New Age thinking, perhaps the most difficult idea that we are meant to grasp in our lifetimes. Difficult because it entirely contradicts the victim consciousness that we were handed by our parents, and that so many have worked for so long to make sure we are so trapped in. Added to this is the idea that we are being called to action by the subtle messages of spirit. Tell me, how often have you ignored these callings, in favor of something less interesting, less daring and less fulfilling?
"You are the creator at this time of your own reality. If you would know the Creator of a greater reality, lay down your thoughts as you would a hoe after a day in the garden. The greater reality calls you now. You are required in its service. Your embryonic period is over, gestation is complete, the moment of birth is at hand."
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Sue from Book of Blue. Photo: Eric Francis.
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In order to respond to this calling with our feelings and through actual choices, we need to rearrange the way we think; and this is what is meant by the "psychological process."
"In fear, you have been led far from your home in a state of grace, and deeply into worlds of elemental forces and bonded energy patterns. Now is the time to leave this prison. You need not leave your physical bodies, but you must leave your interpretations of what those objects and bodies are. Your interpretations and definitions only reflect the distortion of your subjective perspective."
And one last really helpful quotation:
"Interpretations are what stand between you and the clarity of perception that you will need to do the work that lies ahead. You must release them with your thoughts, with your dreams, with your hopes, and with your fears. They may seem to be insignificant, ethereal things, floating gently through your mind, but do not be misled by their apparent lack of substance. They are the stuff that wars are made of, the harbingers of death, the agents of disease and destruction. With the energy you give them through your attention, they have the strength to cripple a planet."
The overall implication here is that we would grow, change and develop as part of an accelerated conscious journey that prepares us as individuals to be part of a new level of shared consciousness; and that this, in turn, would raise the vibration of our culture, perhaps in quantum jumps. We would open the way to collective action in a way that seems impossible today. We all know these leaps happen from time to time, when enough people are ready.
In terms of getting ready, many of us individuals have felt these accelerations or shall I say strongly guided changes happen to us. They are not necessarily comfortable, and they are not necessarily good PR
for enlightenment in a culture where seeking relief from pain is the main obsession. Indeed, growth can be extremely inconvenient. For example, admitting a relationship or career does not work, which can be a crucial pre-requisite for growth, can present us with many challenges and even more opportunities.
Many of these shifts involve clearing our physical and subtle bodies of toxins and debris that has accumulated over years or lifetimes, which is why they so often seem to involve getting sick. They involve letting go of emotional patterns that keep us trapped in old ways of thinking and behaving, ways we may try desperately to change by conditioning, behavior modification and intellectual reasoning. As the old Zen joke informs us, change comes from within. Yet that change coming from within often requires that we change what is seemingly the most difficult thing in the world, our patterns of relationships.
Sometimes these phases are indicated in our personal charts by Chiron transits. They can seem to be triggered by Chiron events, but astrology is offering us a complex image of non-linear time. Others are indicated in the collective astrology -- the transits that we all experience and which I often describe in articles and horoscopes.
I can get the feeling this is what's happening when the events cluster like they did last week, particularly around the Aries Point -- for example, a Mercury station, a Pluto sign change, the Full Moon on the Galactic Core, and the northern solstice.
We can track these events, we can see when they are coming and astrology
gives us a chance to describe some of their probable characteristics. When the weather actually shows up, we have to live through it as consciously as possible. This is more or less easy in relationships, especially as people close to
one another reconcile their ideas about existence and about growth.
Mercury's recent retrograde process in Gemini, which is still working out as Mercury clears its echo or shadow phase, seems to represent one of these accelerations. The dance of Mercury has certainly put many of us through the paces, and to me this is a testament to how challenging it is to establish communication with one another: as Adrienne Rich so eloquently put it, the dream of a common language. That does seem to be the theme. Most of our lack of fulfillment, I believe, emerges from situations wherein we cannot communicate our needs, or our feelings.
Mercury has been pushing us to do just precisely that. Reversing directions twice in Gemini, we are being guided to look at the other side of the story; the other side of our awareness; the other side of every situation in our lives; the other side of who we are.
Many of us are in situations we need to change with desperate urgency, just so we feel better and get our lives out of the stuck patterns they are in. We need love, and many of us are not finding it within the conceptual frameworks that we drag around like a cage with holes cut out for our feet. We need to set ourselves free, so we can actually live. But the usual means are not working; like the latest weight-loss plan, they never really did work.
So we need to set down our frustration and look for another way. There is another way, but we need to recognize it when we see it, and be open to it when it arrives.
Yours and truly,
PS, In honor of Pride Week (which was the past seven days) I wrote an article called What I Mean By Queer. It's
at this link.
By Judith Gayle | Political Waves
IS THE world your oyster? The oyster metaphor seems to affirm that we are in our rightful place, equipped with all we need and protected by an aura of security and wellbeing: revved up and good to go, in other words. Not many of us feel that way at this point.
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Illustration by Danielle Voirin.
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I read a witty article the other day in which the author said, with a bit of gloom, that he usually gets the lollipop with the fuzz on it. I know the feeling. But a lolly is a lolly; maybe that's oyster enough. Maybe that's all we'll need during this transitional period.
When people ask me what I do for a living, I tell them I think out loud. Today I'm thinking out loud about cycles -- about how far we've traveled and how shockingly apparent things, that would have run us in the last political cycle, have become; how quickly things have fallen apart in the last months, how gaping the holes in the system. A lot of people who thought the world was their oyster -- theirs and nobody else's -- are suddenly finding a fuzzy lollipop in their hand and wondering what went wrong. About damned time!
Most of us, of course, are members of the Lollipop Guild. Our oyster days are behind us, as least for the time being. Just about everyone I know is facing difficulties: professional, economic or personal, or supporting loved ones through such struggles. It's a big cosmic squeeze these days just to get through the day. So many of us are facing survival issues our third chakra is dictating our
lives; this chakra is a power center located near our navel.
As we clear blockage in this area, some of us are sporting little Buddha bellies we can't seem to get rid of, carrying the weight of life in obvious ways. If you're nodding in agreement, don't fret; this is appropriate and, hopefully, temporary. As we go through this shift of an era, issues of power are shifting as well.
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Weekly Horoscope for Friday, June 27, 2008, #720 - By ERIC FRANCIS |
This Week in 2011
THE SUN is about to sweep through the cardinal T-square of Saturn (in Libra), Uranus (in Aries) and Pluto (in Capricorn), likely setting off another wave of protests over fuel and food prices. Anyone wondering why people are suddenly waking up need look no further than this triple alignment, particularly the long-term aspect Uranus square Pluto. The square is still building in intensity; we have not seen anything yet. This week's protests are directed at children's issues, with parents seeming to have recently noticed that in the midst of so many changes, we need to be thinking about their future as well as our own. Liquor and beer manufacturers clashed with producers of food products during congressional hearings, with both demanding access to grain. The number of domestic vegetable gardens has tripled in the past year, and community gardens have sprung up in dozens of American cities. A coalition of fundamentalist Christian organizations harpooned a congressional proposal to create a federal garden tax, but lawmakers promised they would be back with the plan again next year. |
Aries (March 20-April 19)
You have a moment wherein contact with some very old source of grief is possible. Now, many people wonder why they would want to make contact with a source of grief, and the answer to that question is to further a healing process. I'll tell you that the issue in question is not entirely your own. It's a complex mix of the material of both of your parents. But you inherited that material, and it influences your life today. You are finally in a position where you can do something about this. You can, if you look, see that the pain and loss of other people can be transmitted from one generation to the next. To heal this, you need to take full ownership of the material now, so you can deal with it in the way that is right for you. Most of the world avoids this journey most of the time. You don't need to any more.
Taurus (April 19-May 20)
Surviving is a gift you were bestowed with long ago and have proven over and over again that you can make use of. Yet is human life about survival? It may be, in sub-Saharan Africa. It may be, when an earthquake hits China. But as people living in an advanced culture with many creative and economic opportunities, we need to do better, and you need to do better. I suggest you go on a hunt for where your ideas about life came from. I would propose that most of them are not really ideas -- they are really emotions that pass for ideas, or emotions that you try to explain or deal with rationally. Please, stop explaining and start feeling. If you can do that for a while, you will start to feel like one person instead of one person cut into many parts.
Gemini (May 20-June 21)
You have gained some excellent perspective the past few weeks, and you're gradually seeing from a new viewpoint what you've witnessed at least twice before. Humans depend on familiarity to be able to see, but this is really a process of letting go of the denial that blocks vision so conveniently. The current question involves how you really feel about someone who is either demanding a commitment, or who claims to be offering one. You have learned quite a bit about your relationship environment lately, and those lessons have been truly hard-earned. Do you finally have the confidence to stand up to this person? By stand up, I mean tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? If you keep your mind specifically on what that truth is, you just may have the guts.
Cancer (June 21-July 22)
These very days are a crucial time for establishing balance in your life. You have recently experienced some extremes of imbalance, so you have a good source of contrast. You know what it feels like to be turned upside down and shaken. Now, I suggest that you experience what it feels like to be standing on solid Earth with your feet on the ground. The long-term story of your astrology is going to require you to have solid roots and a grasp on your feelings. Through the rest of this year, the climate of your life is changing profoundly; the intensity level of your relationships is going up; you are having a true impact on others and they are beginning to have an unusual impact on you. Balance -- be it nutritional, social, emotional, or domestic -- is no longer a matter of luxury. It is a matter of the basic stability that you need to live on this planet
at this wildly turbulent time in history.
Leo (July 22-Aug. 23)
Soon you're going to need to change your strategy. For a while, you've been able to run on pure firepower. You have confronted your doubts and conquered a lot of inner territory. Get ready for a more detailed game of chess; for some conditions that teach you quickly that you must think in terms of strategy, and incorporate this as part of your long-term plan. It will actually be easier rather than harder, and you will gain confidence in your intelligence in a whole new way. Before that time comes, it seems like you have to exert one last burst of raw energy. But I suggest you calculate this move carefully; you don't have to push as hard or as violently as you may think. You need to be mindful of your environment, and look carefully for key allies who are much closer to you than you may think; and more willing to help than you may have believed.
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22)
Slowly, you seem to be sorting out your worst fears from your practical concerns. Among your practical concerns is the issue of how your fears have taken hold of your life, and some of them are exceedingly old. It is no help that you know the issues, you have a map to the territory, and you can sincerely say you've seen it all before. I suggest you ask yourself, what will it take for you to feel safe? How much money? What contract? How much reassurance? There are a lot of people right now -- doomsday worshippers, and there are millions of them -- who think they will not feel safe until the first atomic bomb goes off over an American city. You have a more realistic vision, but like the people who are obsessed with the apocalypse, you need to reconcile yourself with the fact that everything you see and who you are will someday change; and that will set you free.
Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23)
You are feeling and living with forces much larger than yourself. Most of the time when humans experience this, they tune it out. I suggest you tune it in. As these days and weeks pass, your psychic radio will be receiving a stronger signal, until finally something compels you to take action. I suggest that it be a decision you make, rather than a decision made by someone else. Your professional life has recently come into the spotlight. You are in some way being recognized for your contribution to the world, and for the sensitive person you are. It would help if you fully recognize this, and also admit that if you're struggling with doing so, it has nothing to do with the world. It's about whether you believe in yourself enough to accept the nourishment of success and recognition -- and to offer those same things to others.
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)
Make sure that your choices in any situation involving your own leadership or authority are fully in accord with your values. Something you thought you moved on from -- an issue, discussion or matter of faith -- has come back into your life. It's not yet at center stage; rather it is waiting in the wings, ready to make an appearance. If you find yourself in a power struggle, or others are questioning your authority, you need to remember what you value the most. You need to take action (and action includes speech, commitments and choices) on the basis of what you know to be true about yourself. Any conflict you may experience most likely involves trying to make a decision in such a way that violates your values. You need to be in accord with yourself, and not play your usual game of internal divide and conquer.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22)
You seem to be feeling edgy. Just when you thought you had your concepts about life feeling rock solid and ready for action, it seems like every old question has come back to the surface. I would put most of them into the category of "questions about existence." These are rarely asked by mortals, despite the obvious issue of mortality pointing right to the question. Now, consider the poetic nature of this, and its depth. You consider yourself a spiritual person, and this is the time to apply that value to all of the most ordinary facts of your life. On this Earth, we are called upon constantly to maintain physical routines, address physical concerns and rivet ourselves to traffic and weather reports. Yet you are being reminded that everything is a work in progress, most particularly yourself. As you make your next set of plans, I suggest you build that fact directly into the equation.
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20)
You may think the only people willing to experiment are actually being reckless. But you need to do some experimenting of your own, and you need to do so in a way that is decidedly not foolhardy. There is a big difference between leaping off of a cliff and jumping out of an airplane with a parachute. Anyway, the real risks are the ones we take with our minds and our feelings. They are experiments with beliefs about what is true, what is possible and what is real. You are in contact with the deeper levels of your needs, along these lines. It's not that you feel safe living with the unknown; it's that lately, you feel compelled or seduced by the unknown, and by that I mean the mystery of what you are inside. I suggest you take this on some level other than the purely intellectual. Go with your feelings; go with your choices. Try doing what you would never do if anyone knew about it.
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19)
People are learning to be direct with you, and you are learning to be direct with them. It's taken long enough. You're still not quite there. You still have some form of the belief that if you close your eyes, everything around you goes away. The companion reality to that involves how you are learning to see in the dark and with your eyes closed, and that skill has served you well recently. Now a certain relationship situation that has been nagging you is about to shift gears. The shift will be in the direction of what is eminently practical. I would say assign the whole thing to an accountant to sort out, but you need to be the one who does the arithmetic, and who secures the commitments of the people around you. Don't rush -- for the next two weeks this situation is going to develop fast. There is plenty to do in the meanwhile, and most of it is going well. Just remember, the success or failure of your life from this point forward involves one thing only, clear agreements that you can stick to, and that you trust others will honor.
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)
Uranus in your sign the past five years has brought into your life some of the onslaught of progress and what feels like never-ending psychic chaos. If you are wondering why you cannot sit still, reflect calmly, or have any sense of what the future holds, you can thank the presence of this big green world personally touching your life. Uranus is a profoundly restless influence, and just as creative. Instability is a necessary factor in any creative equation, as is a measure of structure. Most people use their relationships to structure their life, and this, too, has become a theme for you (though more lately, during the past year or so). The combination of factors is creating some profound contrasts in your world. You crave stability, yet your mind never stays still. This week, Uranus stations retrograde and will remain so for the next few months. We'll come back to the theme of structure versus innovation soon enough -- but for now, enjoy the respite.
