Saturday, March 17, 2007

New MoonSolar Eclipse In Pisces, Sunday 10:31-43 pm EST, You Are the Miracle We've Been Waiting For



This New Moon in Pisces is a very powerful energetic opportunity to shift our focus from fear to love. The solar eclipse at 28 degrees Pisces square Pluto at 28 degrees Sagittarius provides tremendous pressure to break free of some Piscean paradigm we are personally and collectively holding. This newsletter is particularly in depth as it attempts to explore these themes to guide us through the powerful opportunity.

In order to understand this New Moon, it is necessary first to discuss the collective mind. We can begin to understand it when we look to sub-cultures like family and peer groups. Families are bound by unspoken ideas about reality. It is clear when we look at families, that adherence to this collective mind is necessary for survival. This collective mind is often experienced as a prison, however, and when we’re old enough and have enough external support, we turn our attention towards other groups that seem to satisfy our need to be defined as different from the family group mind. Teenagers rebel against their parents AND they dress alike, use the same slang and worship the same pop icons to demonstrate their solidarity. They are unified by the fashion of their group, whether they are jocks, rebels, brains or stoners.

If we move out into the culture, we notice that we are also bound by the collective mind of a neighborhood, city, nation, hemisphere, continent, a religion, a socio-economic strata, political alliance, philosophical tenet or ideology. If we move out a little further we notice that we are bound by the collective mind of humanity.

What are some of the ideas which bind us?

*A college education is necessary for material abundance

*Thought is superior to emotion

*Adults have screwed up the world

*The terrorists are ‘out there’

*Take care of me and mine

*Anger is bad, emotions are weak

*Think globally, act locally

*God is ‘out there’

*The world is round

*The Sun is the center of the Universe

*It only exists if I can measure it

*We are all connected by a presently unmeasurable substance

One very important thing to notice about the group mind is that it is often very busy defining itself as different and superior from other group minds, creating a boundary between an ‘us’ and a ‘them’ defining separateness. We find that the group mind is often bound together in survival mode, so not much has changed from the helpless dependency of childhood. By now it may seem obvious that there is a sacrifice one must make for the security of the group mind: the Self, the individual flourishing creative spirit. Another thing to notice is that we are often desperately looking for something which will explain it all and save us. The impetus which drives us towards sacrifice of the Self is an underlying belief that this sacrifice is necessary for redemption and that redemption will come from ‘out there’. The other very important thing to notice about the group mind is that it is fluid and changes with the times. There is an evolution of the collective mind which is as measurable and signfigant as the physical evolution of a species.

Maybe by now you are also noticing certain themes emerging:

*Sacrifice-I must sacrifice my individuality to be safe in the group

*Helplessness-I am helpless and dependent on the group mind for survival

*Sensitivity-I feel the suffering in the world and I search for:

*Redemption-something outside myself which will rescue me from the pain ‘out there’ which I cannot protect myself from

*Boundaries-If I merge with the group, then I protect myself from the pain ‘out there’

And you may notice that what binds these themes is fear. You may also notice that these themes represent the glue which has bound us in the some of the major religions of the past 2000 years. It is no accident that Pisces, the fish, represents Christ and Christianity as Redeemer ‘out there’ as we have known Him/it during the past 2000 year Piscean Age. But something interesting is happening as we experience shift after shift in the collective: many people feel moved to shift their focus towards love. And this requires a shift towards individual heart identification in addition to an appreciation of the heart of Christ. In fact, over the past 20-30 years, we often hear people talk about an evolution towards ‘Christ consciousnesses’ of the individual. Pisces is the individual urge for redemption through spiritual alliance. It is literally a thirst for spirit. When it is fear based, this thirst for redemption through spirit can often result in addictions and escapism. I will return to these points shortly.

Neptune, the ruler of Pisces, represents the ether-like substance, like radio waves, which binds the collective mind. It is our ability to ‘feel’ the thoughts of the other. When we’re talking about the 12th house in a chart, this energy represents the inherited collective mind, that of our family inheritance, what we hold in our personal unconscious that we inherit from the family. Each of us also has Pisces and Neptune contained in a house and a sign. We look to the house containing Pisces and the sign and house containing Neptune to understand where we are sensitive to sacrificing the self for the collective mind. For example, Pisces or Neptune in the 7th house might feel extremely helpless and dependent upon the feelings of the marriage partner for their well being and will have an extremely hard time having a boundary from their partner’s thoughts and desires and emotions. They will suffer a lot because this person will have a hard time discerning their ‘Self’ from their partner. Pisces in the 7th represents porousness to the partner that may almost feel like drowning. Wherever we have Pisces or Neptune is where we feel like we lose ourselves and ‘drown’ in the feelings of the other. It is where we have a weak Ego identification, where we are asked in individuation to develop stronger boundaries. The person with Pisces or Neptune in the 11th house will have the same feeling about the community. And again, this is where the individual is challenged to develop a strong Ego…meaning a strong sense of individuality, not separateness. These are my feelings and those are your feelings. So it may become obvious by now that everyone feels they have no choice but to drown and lose their individual identities in some sphere of life and this causes personal suffering.

In the old Piscean paradigm, suffering is seen as unavoidable, and redemption was considered to come from ‘out there’…either from a Redeemer God or-in secular humanism-from an ideology or alliance with external power.

So we have a few choices to help alleviate our suffering. We can brace our bodies rigidly attempting to have a boundary from this porousness and sit tight and wait for a Redeemer, our personal white knight. We can satisfy our thirst for spirit in our bodies with substances that take us to the other worldly realms. We can lose ourselves in fantasy and imagination. We can look for spirit within us.

Let’s take another look at Pisces themes and see how we can play with and shift the energies:


*Sacrifice-I must sacrifice my individuality to be safe in the group

What if: I am already safe???? What if: I make an effort to deeply know myself and explore my uniqueness with fascination? What if I value my uniqueness?

*Helplessness-I am helpless and dependent on the group mind for survival

What if: in developing a deep relationship with myself, I find inner strength and fortitude within the group?

*Sensitivity-I feel the suffering in the world and I search for:
*Redemption-something outside myself which will rescue me from the pain ‘out there’ which I cannot protect myself from

What if: I feel the other deeply, but am grounded in my own Self, my spiritual Source, and what if my connection with my spiritual Source provides deep satisfaction, the experience of safety and abundance, an end to personal suffering and deep compassion for the suffering of the other.

*Boundaries-If I merge with the group, then I protect myself from the pain ‘out there’

What if: Fear of being abandoned by God is the pain ‘out there’ that has caused all our suffering? What if: there is an internal drive from Source to develop Self and therefore my desire for alliance with groups defining separeteness is actually a misdirected attempt by a fear based collective to birth Self and healthy boundaries? What if: Self is the Redeemer we’ve been waiting for? What if: my commitment to finding spiritual Source within myself opens me to a connection to the group mind of love?

What if: These understandings free me from helpless dependency with the group and I now bring my whole Self to the group as a free agent, of my own choice, to love and connect and serve and harmonize?

So now, finally I can discuss the possibilities and opportunities of this Pisces New Moon/Solar Eclipse square Pluto in Sagittarius. This is my personal, intuitive understanding, so please check it out and feel its resonance for yourself. I am understanding that this solar eclipse is an opening to release our Solar potential, our Sun energy, the Ego, the individual creative spirit which links us to the spiritual Source of Self. The New Moon allows us to plant new seeds of consciousness. The 9th house/Sagittarius is the area of life where we develop a world view or philosophy which allows us to integrate our personal experiences with universal patterns (1). With Pluto in Sagittarius squaring the New Moon and the Solar Eclipse in Pisces, we have the power of atomic energy to shift our world view or philosophy from the fear based Piscean paradigm to a world view which more accurately reflects our individual desires and personal experiences. Many of you may have already had extremely satisfying spiritual experiences where discovering your spiritual Source provided relief from suffering and in fact, a truly ecstatic life experience. Maybe you’ve been flirting with shifting your focus from fear to love. Maybe you’ve been experiencing that when you are deeply connected to your individual creative spirit, finding your power in your Yes, you also feel a deep compassion and acceptance for other people, and a release from fear.

This is the New Moon portal to explore where you are still bound to the collective mind in fear and to intentionally express your heart desire for a shift to love. Look to your chart to find if you have anything at 28 degrees anything. These are potential release points…meaning there is support to shift your focus from old habit energy that has caused suffering and separateness. For example, with Pisces or Neptune in the 11th house, you might review how difficult it has been to feel the sensation of drowning in the face of the collective mind of community. With intention you may want to clearly state your wishes for yourself and the other in community reflecting your desire for good boundaries and good relations. With Mars at 28 degrees Capricorn, there may be a release of action energy available that may have been bound up in fear, for example. Or Venus at 28 degrees anything might reflect a potential release to harmonize. Allow yourself to feel deeply how this shift in your thoughts affects your emotions. Explore your wishes for yourself and the other until you feel deep calm, compassion without judgment and the possibility of an end to suffering and an invitation to ecstasy. Call on the Goddess Kuan Yin and Jesus Christ to inform you of compassion and to feel this compassion in yourself for suffering.

You are the miracle we’ve been waiting for.

Peace, love, blessings, Helen

(1) The Astrological Neptune and the Quest for Redemption by Liz Greene


Saturday, March 03, 2007

Full Moon In Virgo, Saturday, 6:17pm EST, Manifest your Dreams


February Full Moon Window

by Crystal Pomeroy
http://www.daykeeperjournal.com/aarch02/0202/crystal.shtml


This Full Moon culminates the Aquarian energies of the New Moon cycle with a Saturnian twist, as Maya has brought to our attention. As co-ruler of Aquarius, Saturn represents the difficult aspects of freedom, as well as the possibility to integrate that freedom into our real lives. Also, Aquarius and Uranus, who set the tone for the cycle that began with the current cycle, beginning with the last New Moon, elevate the Saturn potential for law and order to the octave of spiritual law and divine order.


At the New Moon, we began opening to a new level of consciousness and inner freedom to follow our bliss. Now, the fullness of our freedom can manifest as we make an extra effort to face the demands of our highest calling and aspirations, imposing upon ourselves those limitations and disciplinary measures necessary to ground the search for our bliss, so that it doesn’t remain in the celestial realm as something we once sweetly dreamed, but actually becomes integrated into our real life habits and experience.

PART I: SYMBOLS OF THE ELEMENTS FOR THE FEBRUARY FULL MOON CYCLE

The new moon cycle suggestions are still relevant, with some new additions for the full moon.

  • The earth element can be present as a coin or coins in honor of the Goddess Juno, lapiz lazuli, aquamarine or amethyst stones, or any object that evokes the extraterrestrial. Also: old wood or old-looking wood carvings, onyx, obsidian, arrowheads, lead, and medieval looking objects, such as a sword, dagger, goblet, etc. with the energies of this Full Moon.

  • You can use melted snow, rain or spring water in an attractive vessel, especially a medieval-looking goblet.

  • Timely symbols of fire could still be lit in your hearth, in an oil lamp, and yellow, and/or white, silver candles.

  • For the air element, you could ring wind chimes, or play New Age, celestial or extraterrestrial music. At the full-moon, combine with chants, such as Gregorian, Tibetan, Aborigine, or your own chants—intoned from your favorite spontaneous inspiration, sutras, etc. You might also chant your Full-Moon prayers, singing them in monotone to evoke the ancestral, Saturnian power of chants in the collective unconscious.

PART II: GUIDES AND HEALERS

Those who wish to call on guides and angels at this time to assist in prayer focusing, may choose to include any of the following:

Cronos
Saturn
The Angel of Manifestation
The Angel of Self-Discipine
Archangels Michael and Faith
(guardians of freedom)
The Angel of Freedom
Juno
(Chief goddess of the Roman pantheon, derived from the Greek Hera. Juno was traditionally celebrated repeatedly in February. Also, the Roman Pantheon connects with the Saturnian energies at this time.)
Juno Luna (to invoke her for lunar magic)
Hera
Archangel Zadquiel and Amethyst
(guardians of prayers, and of Atlantis, submerged area still in need of planetary healing that include the seas around New York and Florida)
The Divine Mother
Guadalupe
(Originally Tonantzin—Mother of the Gods and Goddesses in Mesoamerica, Divine Mother of the Americas— expression of the Divine Love Principal which is currently working to harmonize the mental vibration of the US.)
The Christ Mind
Jesus Christ
The Buddha

If you wish to summon such helpers before beginning your own prayers and meditations, and/or your own angel(s) or guides, and any other beings "of the high white light alone" (a good phrase for protection when summoning spirits or guides, especially during this season), you may call on them out loud o0r in writing. You might say or write something like,

""I greet you and bless you for your work of divine service and guidance, and request your assistance in grounding my original pathway, and have the persistence and dedication to bring my bliss into manifestation."

PART III: MEDITATIVE EXERCISES AND DECREES FOR BRINGING YOUR BLISS INTO THE PLANE OF MANIFESTATION

A. Bring your most joyous calling into focus again by going over the exercise you wrote on or around this month’s New Moon. (If you haven’t done the New Moon Cycle meditation already, we invite you to do so.)

B. Now write a list of all you can think that you would need to do to bring that dream into manifestation. Your answers can contemplate activities and initiatives that are both inner and outer, such as: carrying out a new prayer or visualization campaign, or making treasure maps, to setting aside a certain period of time each day to work on your endeavor, a course of study to hone your skills, getting in touch with a key person or contact, contracting services, attending a twelve-step group, etc.

B. Now write a list of what you need to stop doing in order to be able to do what you need for manifestation. As one author puts it, you can do whatever you want to, but you can’t necessarily do everything you want. Now is an important time to focus on what you most want, describe an activity or situation which include those most important elements and coldly (Saturn style) eliminate whatever is sapping your time and energy, keeping you from what you need to do to manifest your bliss.

Some of extraneous activities may seem urgent. As Steven Covey (see below) conveys, don’t let what seems urgent keep you from doing what’s important to your long-term vision. Other distracting activities or habits may stem from trying to please others. Still other wastes of time and life may be just be automatic behaviors you exhibit without really doing an inventory of the leak they represent in energy available for creating the life you truly long for, doing something that gives you a sense of meaning, or truly enjoying the blessings you already have.

Most of our life experience and progress is the result of habits, now is very important time to boldly weed out those habits which could hold us from our grounding—not just imagining—our bliss.

In general, I tend to be pretty focused on my goals, but when I did this exercise, I discovered that I needed to stop staying in bed with my baby in the morning while he sleeps in, and stop spending time conversing with my sister-in-law when she comes once weekly to baby-sit, so that I can take advantage of her assistance. Also, I need to refrain from talking just for the sake of participating in conversations that really don’t interest me, or are negative.

What comes up for you?

C. Chant, sing or simply repeat aloud the following decree for manifestation:

The vital awareness of Spirit illuminates me to see clearly those limits and efforts I need to apply in order to manifest, express and experience my bliss. I am the strength and sobriety I need to carry out my own true calling.

Repeat this decree for at least two weeks, or throughout the remainder of the current Moon Cycle.