By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

When was the last time you had a hangover? Had a balls-out, overindulgent, cutting-loose evening ... with, I don't know, a bottle of warm Sake, for instance, or a nice aged Scotch ... that saw you falling into bed with a case of the spins and waking with a pounding head, blessedly-vague memories of outrageous excess and a mouth that tastes like the bottom of a bird cage? OK, well, if you haven't done anything that humbling lately, surely you remember the last time -- or one spectacular instance; and if you haven't ever been there, then go do it now. I'm not proposing that you become a chronic drunk or strip off your clothes as you sing Karaoke at the local beer joint, which in my case is a little shack called the Mule Lip and is infamous for its bar fights and public humiliations. I'm suggesting that blasting ourselves out of the straightjackets of all that's acceptable and safe, all that we expect of ourselves, gives us valuable information about our humanness. And experience is everything.

Of course, we have to pay attention to what we learn; most people who do something like that tend to put it behind them as quickly as possible, stuff those images and feelings down into their memory basement as a glitch in their norm. Sadly, some others make such behavior their 'new true,' and slowly diminish themselves with substance, more at ease with their uninhibited subconscious behaviors than the tightly patterned conscious ones. Here in the Patch, I'm cozy with a bunch of Alcoholics Anonymous members because they ping on two of my prerequisites for awareness; they're patient with other people's foibles and they try to tell themselves the truth. Because of their sobriety process, they're 'teachable' -- open to self-exploration. Since I appreciate all paths, I see theirs as a somewhat violent but expedient way forward; although they might not agree, given the nature of their regrets. But we get to a productive Now by making sure that Then is mined for all the wisdom it offers, and they're miners for sure. Life is messy; and if it isn't, we're missing out on some worthwhile short-cuts eschewed by those who work toward a mistake-free life (and good luck with that, by the way!)

This was the week that saw the President give his long-awaited speech on healthcare reform to the combined Congress. Televised in prime time, we all got to see the reaction of the Big Three -- Obama, Biden and Pelosi -- to a shout-out from Republican Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina, who yelled "You lie," to the assertion that illegal aliens would be exempt from receiving healthcare services under the new proposals. Our respected Congressional pomp and circumstance fell prey to tea-bagging town-hall'ism and caused everyone, nation-wide, to gasp aloud. Just one of those little Uranian surprises that we can expect more of in the coming days.

The fallout has been spectacular, not the least of which was the immediate 'Mom Glare' from our Madam Speaker that put that 'rollover minutes Mom' in the AT&T commercials to shame. Since, Wilson has apologized to the President (but not the public,) been threatened with censure by the House for breach of decorum, his clueless wife spilled that she asked her husband who the 'nut' was that yelled such a thing, and his son is now defending him from charges of racism by the blogosphere and, most recently, Jimmy Carter. Me, I think Carter nailed it; but since Wilson came up through the ranks of Strom Thurmond's political machine, voted to keep the Confederate battle flag flying over the SC statehouse and reeks of traditional white superiority that will have none of a black president's leadership, I doubt he'll tell us, or himself, that kind of hard truth. Besides, he still insists Obama is a liar.

While we're talking about inappropriate shout-outs, there are a few others to consider. Singer Kanye West made an ass of himself by interrupting Taylor Swift's award presentation at the MTV Music Video Awards, causing the Prez to comment, off the cuff, that Kanye WAS one. Tennis champ, Serena Williams, threatened a line judge at the US Open, having previously been warned about throwing her racquet in anger; her choice of words put the legend of yesterday's bad boy, John McEnroe, out to pasture. What's going on here? Are we suffering an Attack of the Blurts? Are we losing the knack for civil discourse, destined to confront, confound and insult one another? Evidently so, at least for the moment; but this all seems an example of the Christmas Bulb theory. It's not the bulb at the end of the string ... or the most recent event ... that makes the whole of it go dark; we have to track back, bulb by bulb, to get to the one that's burned out and blocking the juice. If we want to understand the cause that prompts our most recent example of dysfunctionality, we have to get back to that initial blown bulb. That was where our decisions were made; and the place where they must be corrected. Nobody but Wilson, West and Williams know where their bulbs are burned; I hope, at least, they're willing to walk it back and take a look.

Rabbi Brad Hirschfield wrote a recent article that proposed that our blurters think that everything is all about them; he's talking ego the size of the Washington Monument, and he's right, in part. All three of these people are ambitious in their own discipline; their subjective needs are paramount in their personal life-script. Ego is the part of us that will always rationalize our behaviors based on our good intention, our passionate conviction and, of course, some personal quest to right a grievous wrong; without, of course, noting that there's something else in the shadows -- insecurity that requires a constant barrage of winning scenarios to soothe our unexamined fears. So ego is quite probably at work here, but let's add the instability of the times that has us all exhausted, the deep polarization of our belief systems that brings up clear and disturbing pictures of our psychic rifts especially during this Saturn/Uranus opposition -- along with a Mercury retrograde that is adding a steady beat of tension and frustration and Pluto's turn into direct motion at 0 degrees Cappy -- to the mix. This is all a potent brew that puts us in the direct path of a morning-after experience that will offer lessons in humility, and perhaps hearken back to that first darkened bulb. With the Leo Venus opposing Chiron this week, the Healer became available to those willing to surrender their pride, consciously or un.

I'm not going to hold my breath on that, of course; there's a thick thread of belligerence in all this that reminds me of Richard Bach's quote from Illusions: Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah: "Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they're yours." The number of those who are arguing for political limitations is not so large as we've been led to believe, but due to our legislative system, their voices are unduly represented; and mainstream media gets more bang for their buck if they quote them incessantly, pitting us against one another. Obama made a revealing observation about journalism at the memorial for Walter Cronkite recently, decrying the loss of hard news and investigative reporting. "'What happened today?' is replaced with 'Who won today?'" said our thoughtful President. There it is, there. Facts matter less than the firestorm of opinion that can be provoked, and many of us don't even notice how we're being manipulated into a ride as dizzying as the Loop-de-Loop. No wonder we're in so much turmoil.

Marcus Aurelius, the Emperor and Stoic philosopher that reigned over Rome during the last period of the Pax Romana, gave us this advice for a successful life: "The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are." The second rule is more likely to happen if we can nail the first one, as it takes some courage to stare down the facts without jumping to unsettling conclusions; and the first one is the work of a lifetime. But how can we fix anything, change anything, correct anything until we've truthfully assessed it? To know something for what it is requires a level of attention and self-honesty we're unfamiliar with in this nation.

I was satisfied with the Democrats' handling of the supposed cause in Mr. Wilson's improbable blurt -- they went to the proposed legislation to check it, and they even made the rules less ambiguous to leave less wiggle room. Many of us understand that it wasn't immigration that prompted this outburst, anyhow; the cause was obstruction that will deny this President any success that would lead to reelection. The Republican base ran to their checkbooks and gave a cool million to Wilson's campaign fund, gleeful at his outburst using the very language that they espouse. This was countered by Dems giving an even larger amount to his opposition, by the way.

Let's go back to the morning-after scenario for a moment; depending on the amount of misadventure we may or may not have produced during our revels, there is a kind of doppelganger energy connected to us that doesn't let us forget our experience. Yes, that WAS us that laughed maniacally while throwing back the last Kamikaze that put us on the floor; or something similar and hopefully not too destructive. We can feel it in our aura, which seems to be still attached but about two inches away and no longer in sync with our physicality. We can't move too quickly because of a pounding head and our out-of-phase energy. Any rationalization we offer ourselves during this period will be met with the unspoken knowledge that we're fudging facts to make ourselves feel better. Harsh reality, instructive and an enormously aware state that we would do well to remember; we have, in essence, our own built-in lie detector and we need to learn how to use it. Chronic drinkers learn how to ignore this ability; those who rescue themselves learn to embrace it, as did a friend who told me that when he drank, his brain became a liar. Indeed.

There is little offered in political media today that is not slanted, or in the mildest terms, a mistruth or misrepresentation; let's call it "perceptually challenged" information that panders to the nation's emotional and patriotic bias. Much of what we hear is incomplete enough to be called a lie -- and I'd suppose if we follow that logic, we're drunk on this information glut: cultural, political and ideological. But never fear, that same auric imbalance we're speaking of, when snapped back into place, has the power to tell us what is, and is not, based in truth; it's instinct, it's intuition, it's more. If you've already shaken hands with this part of yourself, then you can forego the drinking game -- or not, as you choose. Just remember, a little too much is an entertainment; a LOT too much is the equivalent of snake-bite medicine and for God/dess sake, walk home or take a cab.

Television is a form of mesmerism; we should only enter into it as long as we keep that aware portion of ourself FOR ourself. Every commercial is an enticement for us to open our wallet for things we probably don't need. Every news broadcast has an infotainment basis that urges us to take its Magical Mystery Tour of the day, drawing conclusions that may not be true but will hook us into thinking we're hearing gospel. Every reality show has been scripted; and every scripted show is pitching a point of view. Even many cartoons have a level of violence or sexuality that imposes a tone. What we allow in is up to us, but it's best to remember that our subconscious is like a giant blackboard -- be aware of who is writing on it, and what. The more in phase with our auric presence we are, the more potent the filters that keep junk at a minimum; the more cleared and aligned our chakras, the more sure the flow of pertinent information.

"The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are." Another quote we hear often but seldom dwell on is John 8:31, the passage that tells us, "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." I don't think of that in religious terms as much as philosophical; I suspect that if we were really free, we'd evaporate in an eye blink, on to bigger adventures. But the freedom of our authentic Soul purpose and talent awaits us, and if we do not attend to what's being written on our blackboard, we have no hope at truth, no possibility of keeping an untroubled spirit. If anybody is going to do the writing, it had better be us; and we need to get busy erasing, as well. We won't use too much chalk with the truth we know now; but there's infinitely more available, flooding in.

As political truths go, the Right has it that everything's fine, it just needs a little fine tune to the Free Market and Wall Street, maybe the healthcare insurers. If you listen to the Left, we have systemic emergencies with every corporate entity and government agency that has rendered us a serfdom to those who skim the cream off the American coffers and wheedle for more, while sucking us dry through the fine print. It would be a wonderful thing if that was all we had to deal with; if we didn't have millions of opinions mucking up the conversation, twisting and turning it into emotionally charged rhetoric, creating raised hackles across the nation and pitting us against one another. The more protracted this conversation, the longer it will take to right this topsy-turvy nation, to come to the aid of those in dire straits. That's where you come in; the world needs your sanity, your thoughtfulness, it needs your wholeness. It pleads for your steady dedication to truth and justice, kindness and lovingness.

If you think you're not prepared for such a challenge, realize that you already give yourself away with every glance, every smile, every action; people reach out into your energy and read everything on that blackboard. We reflect our truth; and those we reflect it to are tuning in. As ambitious as it seems, we're coming to the end of the era in which we protect ourselves against one another's energy; or need to. We no longer have to hide ourselves from others; it will become increasingly difficult to do so. We are becoming visible, transparent, and lies are going to be easy to identify; they are now, if you'll practice palpating incoming energy to discern its content. As we enter the end of separation, our connectedness cannot be denied. The energy of We is not just emerging politically or socially, it's organically true ... and it's here. The channelers propose that our bodies are reconfiguring themselves for telepathic communication; just sit with that a while and see how it feels. Perhaps you've already noticed a bit of that from time to time; perhaps that's not so much of a stretch as it seems.

I suspect that we'll look back on this period and think of it as a kind of drunken excess, an emotional catharsis of fear and ego and delusion; a time when many of us humiliated ourselves, some of us recognized that we were out of sync and others of us began to depend on our innate spiritual resources. This is all in the flow of the 2012 Wake Up, there's method in the Cosmic madness if we trust ourselves and refuse to deny the spark of Divinity that is also informing our brothers and sisters on their path; we cannot cut them off without hurting the body of humanity, as ourselves. Have some confidence in this Shift, knowing that all that's hidden will come to light to change even the hardest heart; be assured that each of us came into this lifetime with everything we need to make a difference, to help this project along and satisfy the longing of our own hearts.

Most of all, have a little fun with it. If you find yourself tipsy anytime soon, or even more than that, take advantage of the moment to explore some of what we've talked about here; everything we take in, whether it's entertainment or spirits or information, has transformational ability if we partake of it consciously. And if you still have questions about how all that works, I'll see you this evening at the Mule Lip. It's Karaoke night -- you don't want to miss that!