WE'VE ENTERED that dramatic period we talked about endlessly in the
90's, that turning time when everything we thought was solid has begun
to melt, that birthing tunnel where the contractions of the process
feels as if we're being crunched and pummeled. It almost feels like we're dying as the things (and psychological crutches) we've counted on to sustain us rapidly disappear. In some ways we are; what is old and no longer workable is certainly fading, even as it may seek to dominate our thoughts and actions and sweep us away for a last long ride.
I'm sure you understand that fear is born of fear -- the government
has held sway with us by igniting our fears for years, and the reality
of dissolution and decay has the very powers that created it running
scared now, as well.
The economy is shifting unpredictably, although
I'll predict right now that we've just begun to see it wobble and
warp. As epidemics go, fear is on the top of the list to bring us to
our collective knees, so we need to inoculate ourselves against it as
best we can. The world doesn't need another panicked citizen -- and
you don't need to become Chicken Little. Besides, that's redundant --
the sky IS falling, running around screaming about it was my old job,
perhaps yours too. Now that we're ALL aware of it, we need to bite the
bullet, go to the next level of activity and comfort ourselves that
none of this is new -- we humans have been doing this since we first
arrived on Terra.
Laying down our baggage, dealing with our old disappointments and
wounds, has been a topic of discussion for awhile -- there was good
reason for that. Our new challenges will require us to be stripped for
action, unencumbered by coloration's from the past. Look at the logic
of that -- the old notions of how to make life in 3D effortless and
pleasant don't appear to be working anymore; ergo, decisions and rules
we made for ourselves based on the old strategies are obsolete as
well. For instance, if every mate you've ever had has run out on you,
and you've made a 'rule' to never open yourself to trust on that
level, you will handicap yourself in the new paradigm energies. Much
of what we've learned about succeeding at life is passé now -- we
can't enter the new by hanging on to the old.
The run-up to this energy change has given us all a highly sensitive
internal gauge for what is real and what isn't -- I call it my
'bullshitometer.' It's become highly dependable for helping me punch
holes in the smoke and mirrors that we get from government and news,
for identifying those playing faulty self-esteem tapes at me, for
allowing me to hear my own ego squeaking and rumbling. We need to
learn to listen to this intuitive bit of hardware we've activated, not
to make anyone wrong but to discover what is trustworthy. It's more a
matter of functionality as opposed to the old concepts of "right" or
"wrong" -- the question to ask is, does this work? I find myself
increasingly impatient with those who insist on old paradigm
discussions and solutions; I have to remind myself to be kind in my
dealings with them, they just haven't realized that nothing they
propose is useful anymore. Still, I have no desire to loop endlessly
in dysfunctionality, I'm looking for the new skill set that will allow
us to move forward. We're entering uncharted territory -- bringing old
rules, old grievances, old rationales to a new game will guarantee
confusion and lethargy. It's in our best interests to let go of what
used to be, used to work, used to matter -- we're birthing a new thing
and the more resistant we are, the more painful the changes will be.
To complicate that, this week the Venus Pluto conjunction may bring
you a bit of reality that you'd rather not have. That's the thing
about reality -- it cuts through our personal mythologies like a hot
knife through butter. Since life is subjective to each of us, we
behave as though what we think is true absolutely is, and when we're
proven wrong we think we've failed, or been failed, on some level
rather than understanding that we're just being informed. The stellium
of planets in Aquarius may help us keep some detachment with that but
it won't be ever with us, so take note of how that can help you now,
to call upon again. Venus is our comfort zone, our intimacy area, and
Pluto always brings up the shadows and underlying potholes so we can
examine them. Since this potent conjunction is opposed to Mars retro'd
into Gemini, I'd expect some relationship conflicts and considerable
dialogue about it. Don't come unpinned -- try for calm, and
renegotiate your social contracts to reflect any new discoveries.
If forgiveness is in order, get to it as quickly as possible. As Anne
Lamott said, in her thoughtful book, Traveling Mercies, "Not forgiving
is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die."
Throwing the baby out with the bathwater may, or may not, be called
for -- only you can know, but don't drink the poison and complicate
the situation. In fact, let's make that broader still; like we
sometimes "forgive" the debt of an entire nation, let's forgive the
past, the list of grievances, the suppositions of failure, the
self-judgment. That easily -- that quickly. Haven't we let them define
us for too long now? Haven't we plumbed their depths by now?
The message we get from our old baggage is that life sometimes
victimizes us, and what we brood over is destined to repeat. We drag
this old junk behind us at our peril. Let's clear the table, forgive
our debts and debtors, use our 'bullshitometer' to discern who's
unable to let go of old thinking and surround ourselves with those who
can help us move into the new energy. Everything around us appears to
be vibrating at a high-pitched fear level -- switching our intention
is a first step in changing our 'homing signal' and attracting the new
possibilities and options we need.
There are other steps that I recommend as well. When I was doing
spiritual training years ago, I was told that the most important thing
I could develop was the ability to center myself instantly. I was to
practice centering until I could accomplish it with a snap of my
fingers. Centering is a bit different from grounding, which is another
prerequisite for keeping you psychically sound. There are a number of
traditions for grounding that align your causal bodies and bring those
scattered portions of 'self' back into 3D; grounding is a basic skill
required for dealing with overwhelm. I'm not much on ritual, so for me
grounding is a matter of noticing I need it, eating something dense
like a bit of meat and visualizing myself anchored to the center of
the earth with a ribbon of light, or standing barefoot in the dirt,
calling upon Gaia to pull me back into alignment with my physical
self. The more psychic you are...and of course, you are...the easier
it is to become ungrounded; in this remarkable time of constant Shock
'n Awe, we need to keep grounding ourselves continually.
Centering is different in that it moves you past your desires, your
concerns, your conflicts, and aligns you with your Higher Self. Course
in Miracles calls that energy Holy Spirit -- I call it HS, which is
both and the same. Since Capricorn has taken 'worry' to an art form, I
highly recommend that you develop this skill. At our center we are
beyond ego need, attack/defend and judgment. The HS has our life path,
our blueprint, in front of it and it has no worry that we cannot
accomplish what we've set forth to do, it defuses fear because fear is
an earth emotion based on old learning and experience; babies are
fearless, aren't they? It takes us awhile to achieve our parental duty
of making fraidy cats out of them. HS comes to us with calm and peace
and a sense of confidence we may not recognize as our own, but it is
our own; its the You who you actually are. We are so much more than we
think we are, so much more important to the whole than we understand,
so much more powerful than we dream -- and learning to tie into that
energy with a snap will make your journey here less a nightmare of
circumstance and more a celebration of possibilities and choice.
If you have to prove that to yourself before you can appreciate the
power of centering, than drag out your paper and pencil again. Make a
list of your achievements over the course of your lifetime -- you're
going to surprise yourself. Review your skills, your talents, your
strengths, your abilities -- note how often your ingenuity has
assisted you, and look for those times when your intuition served you.
We will be relying on all these things in the coming months, so
knowing that we already have an impressive track record will make the
prospect less daunting. Fear may swirl around us everywhere we look,
but if we stay in our center, we can become part of the solution
rather than adding to the problem, we can begin to turn the tide of
the epidemic that threatens to drag us down into unnecessary levels of
discouragement and despair.
In quiet time, in meditation, you will recognize that you've been in
situations like this before, that you survived them, that you
surmounted the challenges -- you may discover that this only seems so
dark because we're healing our ability to trust ourselves, our
essential goodness and that of our brothers/sisters. We're leaving
'should' and 'have to' behind as worn out concepts; we're developing
new ideas about what life will look like. We're birthing that new
thing that has no baggage to drag, that's fearless in its
determination to create in beauty and peace and equality. It's asking
us to lay down our old self-definitions and step into our power and
potential.
