Capricorn as Teacher Part II

Time for visualisations, gratitude and affirmation, as the window of opportunity afforded by the new moon in Capricorn closes.

Capricorn is the sign on my natal Fifth house cusp - what astrologers describe as given over to love affairs, children, creative projects and speculative activities such as games and gambling. A house mostly of pleasure in other words.

Can't say such matters have been a barrel of laughs for me. For one thing, Capricorn is ruled by cosmic taskmaster Saturn. And the square between Saturn and Venus (conjunct Chiron) in my natal chart has meant love has required plenty of sacrifice and heartache. Granted, I've grown a great deal from such heartache, but not by choice.

Alright, enough boo-hooing on that score.

In general, as a fairly Saturnian (and Plutonian) sort - my Moon is at 29 degrees of Capricorn at the end of the aforementioned house - the kind of lightheartedness associated with the Fifth was never going to happen for me. Which is not to say that I haven't had many happy or tender moments. Or that the tougher moments haven't taught me a lot. But love, creativity and pleasure have been very much of the Capricorn/Saturn kind: ie. the type that come with a lot of set-backs, disappointments and often crushing self-awareness thrown in.

And now, dear old Pluto's moved in for a goodly time. More hard work in store. Which is okay, I hasten to add since, with my Virgo ascendant and Aquarius Mercury and Mars in the Sixth (not to mention that pesky Capricorn Moon) I need work in order to be able to live with myself. Work brings me meaning, and stretches of too much free time sends me teetering into doubt, despair and severe depression.

But work of the kind that Pluto now promises scares me. The kind that is deep, profound, relentless and pitiless on the weakest links. That kind of work in the area of love, where I so often feel inadequate and vulnerable, is terrifying.

Not to mention, Pluto will be filling out the fourth arm in my natal cardinal T-Square between Saturn, Venus and birth Pluto, and at some point, conjuncting my Moon. What does this frankly unappetising transit bode for the timorous such as myself?

The only response I can offer lies in the virtues of Capricorn. Or rather, only a Capricornian answer seems possible, as dictated by Saturn, that "old devil" planet astrologers used to call the Greater Malefic.

My riposte to the uncertainty of possible trauma and loss ahead is the following:

- I will surrender to and carry out the work necessary without complaint to the best of my ability.

- I will choose to face and willingly assume every responsibility placed on me.

- I will visualise and nurture a positive plan for my future -and be unafraid to cultivate one that might include possible public acclaim.

- I will accept the limitations and obstacles placed in my path without giving in to apathy, despair or self-pity.

- I will freely, patiently and dedicatedly strive to lay strong foundations - however slow the process - to better the lives of others as well as myself, no matter how small such an improvement might be.

-I will commit to becoming the best leader, lover, artist, servant and teacher I can be.

-I will shake off the burdens that are not mine, forgive all enemies and slough away grudges. I will also forgive myself my mistakes.

-I will accept myself, shake off my cynicism and climb the mountain. That above all: I will climb the mountain. And I will do so with a young and unguarded heart.

At this time of the Capricorn new moon, I thank the universe for all the creativity, love, needful risks and new life that is to come my way over the next several years. May Pluto in Capricorn help me to build a truer, purer joy both in my life and that of others.

*****************

For a breezier take on the virtues of Capricorn as Teacher, read one of my earlier posts here.






The image above was taken from this site.

Gergiev and Lepage: Modern Magicians

I was lucky enough to have caught two musical gems - well one was a musical gem, the other a visual gem that had, almost apparently by accident, been paired with musical content - over the course of these past two days.

For two glorious evenings, I pretended I was a well-heeled, intellectually (and financially) patrician New Yorker. In a word, I caught two shows at the Lincoln Centre, the first the reknowned Valery Gergiev conducting the Kirov (Mariinksy) Orchestra and Choir in a performance of Sergei Prokofiev's scores for Sergei Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible and Alexander Nevsky and the second a production of Hector Belioz' La Damnation de Faust whose visual design was created by Canadian techno-wizard Robert Lepage (aided by an able team of light and effects mages, not to mention the superlative acrobats of Cirque du Soleil).

The Gergiev show (yeah, at heart, I'm really a bourg-y philistine) was the most thrillingly annihilating piece of live music I'd heard in a long time. And it really spoke to my obessesion with brooding, powerful, depraved personalities. On film, that is. I caught myself thinking all the while... if a score can so effortlessly convey the conflict between a despot's out-and-out brutal, powerhungry nature and his more patriotic intentions, it is no wonder that tyrannts like Stalin exercised so much control over the arts, especially the peforming arts. They speak directly to that subliminal, primal part of the human psyche that could be used either for mass revolution or mass control.

Other than the barrage of incredibly cinematic music, infused with that brooding, intense, savage quality that is a hallmark of Russian creative expression, I was mesmerised by Gergiev himself, a rough-yet-graceful Pan in white tie and tails, his hands, wrists, arms and shoulders all moving in a melange of circular and sawing motions that made for a totally individual semiotics. A code his musicians obviously knew unto the last flick and sway and with which Gergiev seemingly casually created an awesome array of dynamics.

Particularly hypnotic (though my beloved who accompanied me would have offered 'distracting' instead) were his fingers, which seemed to be playing an invisible fretboard one minute, then flicking phantom raindrops at great speed the next.

The evening also made me silently vow to myself to put Eisenstein's Ivan (thank you YouTube for clips to whet my appetite), and maybe even Alexander Nevsky on my 'to-view' list of DVDs. Given that my paternal grandmother was always reading the Russian literary greats, and my father's family spoke with such nostalgia for the heydey of the arts in Soviet Armenia, I've always felt I should dip into the mighty canon of, at the very least, Russian cinema. Alas, limited time and a somewhat short attention span has hitherto put paid to most of that ambition - though my love for the film version of Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago - admittedly a diluted version of life under the Bolsheviks - directed by Englishman David Lean no less - might have, perhaps, gone some way to mitigating the blame!

If you want a less-salutory but more technical appraisal of the performance, go the New York Times' write-up by James R. Oestreich here.

As for Faust, despite the rather forgettable music, the pleasures for the eye were unrelenting; the high-point for me was the way interactive video technology that was part of the grand, multi-panel, multi-level stage brought the lighting and weightlessness of the ocean bed to life.

To sample some of the production's magic-making, go here.

An afterthought: I almost caught Lepage's one man techno-take on Hamlet - Elsinore - back at the Edinburgh festival of 1996, but his set had some glitch that prevented him from performing on the day I had free to see it. The beautiful artifice he created for Faust that I witnessed last night made the regret of my missed opportunity all the keener.



The image by Jennifer Taylor was taken from this site.

In the Midst of Joy, Sorrow

Proposition 8, banning gay marriage in California has now passed, basically 'un-marrying' all those who had rushed to take advantage of the right to be wed while it still stood.

Bummer for Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi and all those other smug queers, eh? They were getting mighty uppity. Good thing they got put in their place.

Here are the salient paragraphs from the New York Times' reportage today:

California Voters Ban Gay Marriage

By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD and ABBY GOODNOUGH

LOS ANGELES — California voters have adopted a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, The Associated Press reported Wednesday, joining voters in two other states who went to the polls Tuesday to overturn such unions.

. . .

Only three states this year had ballots that included bans on same-sex marriage, compared with 8 in 2006 and 11 in 2004.

The ban passed in all three states — the other two being Florida and Arizona — but its success in California, a trend-setter in so many arenas, was seen as major defeat for gay rights activists.

A total of $73 million was spent on the race there, a record for a ballot measure on a social issue, resulting in incessant television and radio commercials from both sides. Advocates of the ban played up their belief that without it, children could be taught about gay marriage in schools, while opponents likened approval to denying fundamental civil rights.

The measure came only months after California’s highest court ruled it constitutional, spurring thousands of gay couples to marry there.

“We pick ourselves up and trudge on,” said Kate Kendall, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. “There has been enormous movement in favor of full equality in eight short years. That is the direction this is heading, and if it’s not today or it’s not tomorrow, it will be soon.”

The article may be found in full here. Further coverage can be found at abc local's site here.

Meanwhile, you can sample the sort of viewpoint behind 'Yes on 8', at a blog run by Stephen Black of Oklahoma, a self-professed recoverer from, among other things "sex, drugs, sexual abuse, sexual distortions, and identity conflict in homosexuality".

The post of Black's that I'm referring to - actually an article by the similarly-minded Oklahoma pastor Paul Blair - has the following highlights:

We in America have taken great care for the well being of our fellow man.

We require seat belts to be worn in order to save lives. Cigarette smoking is discouraged because of the increased risk of lung cancer. We even have limitations on vending machines in schools because of the danger of obesity. Yet, if someone dares raise a question about the obvious dangers associated with homosexual behavior, that person is labeled a homophobe. It is more loving to speak the truth in love than to placate those practicing self-destructive behavior.

Homosexuality is dangerous. Homosexuality is sinful. Homosexual marriage will destroy the very existence of the home in America. Never in the history of America is the traditional home facing the threat of extinction as it is today. Christians, we must take a right stand and cast our vote in defense of the sanctity of the Traditional Judeo-Christian Home. There are over 60 million “Evangelical” (political definition of professing believers with more traditional beliefs) Christians in America. We need a Spiritual Revolution and Awakening in America. If we wake up, pray up, show up and vote we can BEGIN to take a right stand for America.

As ever, you can read the whole of the post here.





The above image was taken from this site.

Yes, He Could. Yes, They Did.

I cannot begin to say how much it meant to me to have been able to witness first-hand the election of the US' first Black president from the heart of Harlem.

The above image was snapped in the wee hours of this morning as I perched precariously on top of a small table at the back of the packed 8th Avenue restaurant/bar Londell's, watching and listening to those momentous images and words of president-elect, Barack Hussein Obama. People round me - black and white alike - whooped, clapped and wept openly. I was no exception.

Let the healing begin, and praises to the divine intelligences that be. That's God to me.

Obama, 2012 and the Saturn-Uranus face-off

You may ask, what has Obama to do with 2012 and today's exact Saturn-Uranus opposition, which has been much touted across the Astroblogosphere in the past six months. Here's the connection that I can see - and bear in mind that I don't profess to be an advanced astrologer (though I'm slowly getting there - just took NCGR's level one exam towards professional certification this past Sunday):

Re. 2012 and the dreaded end of the Mayan Long Count, etc: President Barack Obama could be the metaphorical pole-shift which the survivalists are expecting to end this present age on December 21, 2012, according to that ancient Mesoamerican calendar. Except Obama's presidency will only just have got cooking by the time the next election date swings round - November 6, 2012 - only a month away from the fateful Winter's Solstice that the doomsayers have marked down on the calendar as the end of the age.

My guess is that, irrespective of whether Obama gets a second term (since I'm counting on him to make history today) or not, his election will have set in motion a change (Uranus) so profound, that it will not merely challenge the traditional hierarchies (Saturn) of our globalised world, but force international leaders to confront the limitations of power to such a degree that the current patterns of geopolitics will have to shift in response.

Of course, I would hate for the survivalists to be right anyway - just take a glance at some of my earlier posts - on the other hand, the cultural paradigm shift has already begun, given the unique nature of how this election was waged. Check out the following from today's New York Times online:

After Epic Campaign, Voters Go to Polls
by Adam Nagourney

The 2008 race for the White House that comes to an end on Tuesday fundamentally upended the way presidential campaigns are fought in this country, a legacy that has almost been lost with all the attention being paid to the battle between Senators John McCain and Barack Obama.

It has rewritten the rules on how to reach voters, raise money, organize supporters, manage the news media, track and mold public opinion, and wage — and withstand — political attacks, including many carried by blogs that did not exist four years ago. It has challenged the consensus view of the American electoral battleground, suggesting that Democrats can at a minimum be competitive in states and regions that had long been Republican strongholds.

The size and makeup of the electorate could be changed because of efforts by Democrats to register and turn out new black, Hispanic and young voters. This shift may have long-lasting ramifications for what the parties do to build enduring coalitions, especially if intensive and technologically-driven voter turnout programs succeed in getting more people to the polls. Mr. McCain’s advisers expect a record-shattering turnout of 130 million people, many being brought into the political process for the first time.

And so on - you can read the rest here.

Meanwhile, Lynn Hayes, one of my favourite astrobloggers has a great, more technical analysis on the Saturn-Uranus face-off here, and includes some very positive transits for today, too. Not least, a Moon-Jupiter conjunction in Capricorn - which bodes well for the masses (Moon) electing a more inclusive, expansive (Jupiter) government - trined by a supportive, responsible Saturn in Virgo, and sextiled by a compassionate, humanitarian and progressive Uranus in Pisces.

Well, that's the positive spin, at least, and I'm going to erase thoughts of a potential GOP Old Washingtonian (Saturn) last minute victory over the forces of Change (Uranus). Then again, as any modern astrologer will tell you, no planet, symbolically, is all positive or negative. It all depends on how its energy is harnessed. So Uranus is less-than-warm-and-cuddly in its association with sudden 'liberation' from people/situations, whether you're ready for such freedom or not, and Saturn is not-as-limiting as the bad astro-press would have you believe, given his connection to the structures that ground and support us.

Basically, I'm not expecting a miraculous, overnight Shangri-La when Obama takes the White House, but hope, rather, for the best blend of the opposing planets' energies - namely a creative, positive dialogue between the forces of tradition, conservatism and strong government and the powers of innovation, radical change and individualism.

Meanwhile, I'll be glad when today is over and we get the final result.

Et Tu, Europe?

Usually, I try to avoid the smugness Europeans like to pretend they don't indulge in, and had been grateful for the moderately more effective response by the EU towards the credit crisis.

I had also been happier with the greater concern - comparatively - that Europe had shown towards global warming and its related bag of terrors, than some other developed countries.

But I was disheartened, to say the least, to see the following posted on the New York Times website today:

European Nations Seek to Revise Agreement on Emissions Cuts

"BRUSSELS — Fears of a sharp worldwide economic slowdown are threatening a hard-won European plan on climate change that European leaders hoped would set an example for the rest of the world.

At a rancorous summit meeting this week of the European Union’s heads of state, several Eastern European countries and Italy said they might no longer be able to afford to slash greenhouse gas emissions as envisioned under a broad plan agreed upon last year and would need some concessions from other countries in the bloc. That agreement called for the union to reduce such emissions, linked by climate scientists to global warming, by 20 percent from 1990 levels by the year 2020.

The plan — hailed by the former French president Jacques Chirac as “a great moment in European history” — goes beyond the Kyoto Protocol, which requires industrial nations bound by the treaty to reduce the emission of global-warming gases by an average of 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

After the outline was agreed to last year, the countries began working on detailed proposals for how they would reach the goal for emissions cuts, which essentially meant figuring out how much of an economic burden each nation would bear. France, which holds the rotating presidency of the union, had hoped to win approval for a more detailed agreement in December.

While some countries had already begun worrying about how much they were being asked to contribute to hit the emissions reduction goal, the economic downturn increased their concerns."

Read the rest here.

And if you're in mind to get an astrological perspective of the rather gobsmacking changes we're living through, check out the humour, insight and analysis at the wonderful Astrotabletalk blog, run by Dharmaruci.

Another Slap in the 2012 Survivalists' Faces

These days, I'm lucky if I get to this blog once a month. But once again, I couldn't resist posting on a rather wry, witty riposte (actually, more like an annihilation) of the 2012 survivalists' frenzy of preparation for doomsday.

Naturally, part of why I enjoyed Eliezer Sobel's post was the unflattering dosage of vigorous schadenfreude. But then again, we do do that anyway on this blog. Just check out the banner if you don't believe me!

Mostly, though, part of me is now so invested in making more out of my life than merely living till 2012. Some of the dreams are grand, some of them are humble.

I have films to make, financial independence to seek and a family to provide for. Not to mention, greater spiritual and physical mastery to strive for (is that a holographic Zen Buddhist monk I see before me, frowning? "Strive not! Neither resist striving!"). And humility and a greater ability to serve to cultivate...

But back to the Sobel's post on 2012. Here are the opening paras, as ever:

"Don't ask me to cite the source, but I recall Terence McKenna once suggesting that the Mayan calendar calculations might possibly have been off by two thousand years, in which case it is the year 4012 for which we need to be gearing up, not 2012. That gives us a little breathing room to finish wrapping up our affairs and stockpiling Basmati rice, peanut-butter cookies and Power Bars, and if you have a generator, the complete set of Seinfeld DVDs to help pass the time on those long, apocalyptic nights. And lately survivalists are also recommending stashing huge quantities of Benadryl in order to deal with all the new allergic reactions that the end of the world is likely to precipitate. Clearly the last thing you want to be dealing with when reality as we know it comes crashing down is a runny nose.

"Meanwhile, there are many people who remain unaware that we may be getting this 2000-year grace period and thus may have quite a shock in store on Dec 22, 2012, the day after it is all supposed to come tumbling down. There's nothing worse than business as usual when you're expecting the end of the world. Can you imagine the sinking feeling some people will experience on that morning when it slowly begins to dawn on them that rather than toppling headlong into a worldwide collective existential abyss, they instead have to show up for work? It will be reminiscent of those early childhood days of waking to a beautiful, silent, freshly fallen snow, the heart leaping in a Christmas-morning-like rush of freedom and possibility, only to learn that the three-inch sprinkling of powder was insufficient to shut down the local schools.

"And just when you thought you'd be off the hook from all your financial obligations for the fourth fiscal quarter of 2012, instead you end up incurring a bunch of late fees because you had been hoping to slip into the End Times with a few unpaid bills. Rather than hearing the voices of angels guiding our souls to the next station on our way to oblivion, instead the phone is ringing off the hook with creditors who won't take no-or Armageddon-for an answer."

And you can read the rest here. Enjoy!

Debunking Millenial Fears; the Green Perspective

Sorry for the absence (likely to continue due to needs of post-production on a short film) but I couldn't resist putting up the opening to an article which manages to combine two of this particular blog's likes in one: green topics + debunking the end of the world.

Entitled "The Apocalypse Makes Us Dumb" by WorldChanging's Alex Steffen, here are the first few 'graphs:

"In thinking seriously about the negative trends in our future, we're severely hampered by the Hollywood idea of the Apocalypse. That idea, in turn, has deep roots in the millenarianism of monotheistic religions (in which there is an End of Days and it's coming soon) and of 19th Century social movements (there is a Dictatorship of the Proletariat and it's coming soon). Millenarianism has its own problems, not least of which is that people do horrible things to others in the name of clearing the way for their chosen perfect future. But for our discussion here, let's just confine our understanding of the credo to what it has done to our conception of the future.

"Believing in a millennial future, or even frequently telling stories of such futures, blinds us both to what history teaches us about collapses and to what we know about our present moment. It makes us bad at thinking intelligently about the future.

"This is a topic that could use careful consideration from a number of angles, but I have about 30 minutes to write today, so instead let's just list some of the futurist fallacies we tend to embrace because (whether we're consciously aware of it or not), we're applying a millennial lens to the events unfolding around us.

"1) The Apocalypse is coming. There is a tendency to believe that big, catastrophic and singular events are going to come and destroy everything: that the Bird Flu or whatever is going to suddenly happen and immediately life will be hell. (The funniest example of this is climate change in The Day After Tomorrow, where sea level rise is so sudden that water rushes down the streets of New York in great rolling waves.)

"2) The Apocalypse is forever. In disaster movies and such, people seem to lack the ability to regroup and rebuild. Sometimes a hero will -- usually by killing a monster/ warlord/ robot/Tina Turner -- win the chance for one small group to start over, but the implication is usually that the rest of the planet's a write off for the imaginable future.

But naturally, you want to read the rest. Be my guest... click here.

Astrology: A Cosmic Operating System

In my dealings with people, outside of those interactions that are truly prefunctory, somehow I find myself divulging that I am, among other things, a student of Astrology.

Usually, I lead up to such a 'confession' with a lengthy preamble, which touches on the idea of astrology as a cosmic 'operating system'. A sort of Windows or Linux for navigating the abstractions of our lives and, as such, while useful and dependable - limited inasmuch as the person using it - in this case, an astrologer - is limited with regards his/her personal intuition, experience and technical knowledge of Astrology.

Which is to say, I try to phase out the more woo-woo side of things vis-a-vis Astrology when talking to the sceptics - or even with those who are more open to the esoteric side of things.

Does that mean I am somewhat 'ashamed' of my interest in Astrology?

Not ashamed, certainly. But if I am honest, I must admit, at the very least, to being embarassed when talking of my interest (actually, my passion) for Astrology with the more materialist, mainstream Science-respecting folks - i.e. the Richard Dawkins brigade.

And it really bugs me when one of them interrupts me with: "Astrology? You mean Astronomy right?"

Naturally, there is nothing in and of itself 'wrong' with using Science as a first stop when it comes to interpreting the unknown or the hard-to-explain. In my opinion, though, there is much that Metaphysics - and Astrology in particular - can offer a marriage with Science. Perhaps I'm naive or misguided in this. Perhaps I haven't understood the strictures of the Scientific Method well enough and that is why I have fantasies of one day Science and Metaphysics coming together.

Then again, from what little I have understood of Quantum Physics, Chaos and String Theory and the like, it seems that, more than ever before, there is a growing awareness that at the peripheries of Science there are answers to be had for just-emerging questions from unexpected (or downright maligned) sources.

On a related note, one of the astrologers whose posts I read voraciously, Lynn Hayes, of the Astrodynamics blog, currently has a link to a fascinating article regarding how the finance world is discretely employing more and more astrologers in a bid to navigate these intensely unstable times.

Here is the beginning of the article:

Christeen Skinner blinks at the screen of her computer and takes another slurp of coffee. It’s half past seven in the morning and she’s preparing for a crucial meeting with the chief executive of the High and Mighty fashion chain.

Apart from the black cat dozing on her lap, the only clue to Christeen’s occupation as a 21st century astrologer is a copy of an Ephemeris that lies open at a page marked “Mercury March 25th”.

“The financial crisis has ensured that I’m busier than ever,” says Christeen. “People in the City need to know what is just around the corner. I can help with that.”

Christeen is one of a growing, albeit secretive, network of astrologers who work for seemingly conservative British institutions such as high street banks, City investment funds and retailers.

Desperate to avoid financial meltdown in the ongoing ‘credit crunch’ and to spot fashions and consumer trends before they start, these institutions have turned to the stars to divine the future.

“Most academics distrust astrology and regard it as mumbo-jumbo,” she says. “The thing is, it works. Nobody’s sure how it works but it does. Most of my clients are businesspeople who are very canny. If it didn’t work for them, then why would they use it?”

One of Christeen’s clients is Judith Levy, chief executive of the High and Mighty retail chain.

“I’m fairly pragmatic,” says Judith. “I will only spend money on an astrologer if the decision I have to take is very important - the kind of decision which will cost me a lot of money if I get it wrong.

“When we launched our Kayak brand a few years ago we used astrology to decide the launch date. Since then, it has gone from strength to strength. It’s one of our best selling brands.”

You can read the rest of the fascinating piece here.








The above image was taken from this site.

Complaining = Disempowerment

Back again, dear readers. And I seem to have taken my sweet time about it. Strange, because I've had mad, hyperkinetic energy to burn of late.

I think I've been caught in the Virgo trap of not wanting to face up to a less-than-perfect body of postings due to the fact that my time and focus for anything non-short-film-related has been shrinking dramatically.

I've been painfully aware of how much could be commented on in this blog re. new memes on the Climate Change scene, my own continuing learning on the Astrology front, my progress in receiving the Munay-Ki rites (and consequent growing interest in all things shamanic)... so much that it has seemed way too much to post on. In other words, I've felt rather less-than-self-confident in terms of taking on the task than my Third House Scorpio Uranus might have had me be.

Still, if there's one thing I'm learning big-time from all the sessions with the shrink re. taking responsibility and choosing positive over negative thoughts, it's that if you choose to see yourself as overwhelmed, that's what you'll experience.

And following on from there... if you choose to complain - which I have done constantly about all the Difficult Stuff in my life in the past, and which I am trying to do less of today - then you voluntarily abrogate your power to fate. You disempower yourself. You stop being, as the shrink says, "the hero" in your life.

I'm working on being the hero more in my life. Like the shrink says, ultimate responsibility for everything that happens to me is mine and mine alone. But such responsibility need not be a byword for blame.

As you can see, changing mental patterns that have long been based on free-floating guilt, dependency, self-doubt and victimhood, are a lot of work to break.

But that sounds suspiciously like a complaint. So I'm going to finish this post right here.





The image above was taken from here.

The Agony and the Ecstasy

So, following on from the earlier post, I thought I'd let those of you faithful readers who've been following the maudlin mimsy of this blog know that my 2012 terrors have subsided, somewhat.

Either I have successfully lured myself into a false sense of security, hoping pole shift and massive die-offs won't occur (despite the unavoidable earth changes we're already witnessing), or time and the work I've done with the shrink and by myself in combating negative thought patterns is helping.

Actually, for the benefit of other fainthearts out there, who may be overwhelmed by the thought of a cataclysm, I thought I might add some websites that address the topic of 2012 and the end of the Mayan long count that are more optimistic.

In general, there's a split between the agony and ecstasy folks regarding this date. So here, without further ado, are the 'ecstasy' leaning ones:


http://www.starchildglobal.com/


http://www.livinginjoy.com/


http://weinholds.org/2012_home.asp


http://www.calleman.com/


I'll let you know of any more good ones as time progresses.

Meanwhile, I don't know about you, but I have a lot of plans for my life - plans that involve a hell of a lot of other people, too. So there better bloody NOT be a pole shift in 2012, or any other time for that matter.

Besides which, I'm far too egotistical to face the fate worse than death of surviving such a scenario. I need people around to angst to.

The illustration was taken from here.

(Pole) Shifting Perspective

Amazing what a little time makes to a person's outlook. I am happy to say, I have more or less moved beyond the 2012-pole-shift-mass-die-off terror. Those of my friends who weathered that crisis (due to my reading an apparently lucid esoteric site dedicated to surviving the event) may roll their eyes on reading this.

"I told you so," would not be remiss a response.

Which makes me wonder, why did I believe such predictions of catastrophe in the first place? My shrink tells me it's far easier to be swayed by the negative than the positive. Also, Mars had just opposed Pluto last fall when I stumbled on the contents of the site, and had entered my 11th house (hopes and dreams) heading towards not-so-mighty-mouse, chicken-hearted natal Saturn in Cancer.

A good combo for that classic "doomed" feeling; needless to say, the friendlies had a field day with that one.

Of course, there is still always the possibility that the 'ascension' of earth in 2011/12 may cause pole shift, in which case, most of us will perish. But I really can't be arsed to muster the appropriate terror. Besides which, doing so would make living in the present rather impossible.

The illustration was taken from here.

The Friendly Ones

Hey people. I'm sorry I disappeared again. I could give you a lot of excuses - some of them legitimate, like evening classes three times a week and meetings for a play that eventually we couldn't get actors for (details in another post) - but mostly, it's due to a lapse in self-discipline.

So, there you go. For an unemployed bum, I can make the time, I just haven't wanted to. Why? Well, you could say I opted to spend the time entertaining the demons - I call them 'my friendlies' (distant cousins of 'the kindlies', which are too much the CEO types to commit to one individual alone), who really don't want to give up a partnership that has weathered so many dangerously happy times. Not to mention, they're very patient and single-minded. And they like to keep me in line.

Even if - O fickle Ninth! - I dally with those flirtatious positive thoughts and apply my will toward choosing a less guilt-ridden, passive outlook - they take me back, every time. They're really the most faithful of self-created entities I know.

Sure, immediately after I've been successfully rescued from those hussies of selfworth and joy and hope, they have to punish me a bit. You know, show me who's boss. But that's fair enough if you think about it, right? I mean, they're investing all this time and effort in this relationship, choosing me over so many others far more compliant than I and still I refuse to completely learn my lesson, toe the line and simply resign myself - and appreciate - what I already enjoy with them, my friendlies. They do so much for me. And to me. How could I even entertain thoughts of ever leaving?

Well, obviously I do. Because I pay good money to a shrink twice a week to help me burn my bridges with the friendlies. To take back my energy and power and self-love and strength and awareness.

As often as I get dragged back into this unhappy union with the friendlies, just as often will I try to break free.

And I'll tell you something the friendlies have tried to keep a secret, but that I am recently re-discovering: I deserve to be free. Ain't nothing worse about me, in essence, than any other living being. Sure, nothing and noone owe me happiness. And sure, I'm carrying my own karmic burden. And I screw up from time to time. But a lot of the time, I'm quite an okay human being.

Still, if you bump into the friendlies, you didn't hear any of that from me, ok?

The illustration is "The Furies" by Suza Scalora and may be found here.

The Niceman Cometh (Back)

Hey guys, I'm back, as promised. Mercury finally went direct this eve, so I have no more excuse not to post. Plus, I missed my cyber audience way too much :)

So, what have I been up to? Lots of intense personal stuff. Sessions with the new shrink aren't particularly easy. Not exactly a cake walk. And that's mostly because my ego always manages to sneak into the time spent with shrink lady behind my back. Once comfortably seated, it sort of yawns, stretches once or twice, then lazily flicks its non-existent wrist to crank up the frustration as the shrink proceeds to yank my chain.

No allowances for oh-so-sad personal narratives and no letting me spin out the latest angst or tale of doom or fury or self-hatred.

Nah. Not allowed. Shrink lady is there to leap into the fray, shut down the ego's rants by asking pointed (in criminal procedure they're called 'leading') questions about whether said rants denoted positive or negative thinking.

It's infuriating because, obviously, she's leading the session and I'm paying good money for her time so I don't want to waste it by not playing ball. But my ego hates it. Hates, hates, hates it. Really wants to bash away at her or, at least, fight back, using what it likes to remind me is my Superior Intellect. Because really, if we had met at some casual get-together or drinks or whatnot, says my ego, I'd have been eagerly trading views with her on Stuff (stuff esoteric, stuff psychological, stuff anthropological, stuff astrological, stuff theological and so on and so forth, ad infinitum ab nauseam, world without end, amen). And I'd have given as good as I got.

Now just to be perfectly clear: the shrink is not a heavy. I know I've made her sound like John Rambo in a dress, but she ain't - though given the over-active imagination, I profusely wish I hadn't gone there.

She is a very well-educated, obviously intelligent, experienced, strong and (unbelievably annoyingly positive) a person.

She has clients scheduled back-to-back, so she's obviously very competent. And, like I say, I suspect we'd get on if she weren't my shrink. But she is, and my ego hates how it loses whether or not I listen to her. If I pay heed to what's being said, the ego's manipulations, its strategies to keep me a victim and its steady flow of sabotaging self-doubt and anxiety get 86'd. If it doesn't listen and goes mano-a-mano with la shrinque, using intellectual snobbery (or just plain arrogance along the lines of "heard this all before baby, ain't yuh got nuthin' noo?") I waste my time and money.

Did I mention my ego hates this process? It hates it.

Nevertheless, I believe ma psychologue is worth the time, endurance, patience and the moolah. I believe she will help me get out of the negative rut I struggle to leave daily.

When my hackles haven't been rising at soul doc's modus operandi, I've been taking Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL - the British equivalent of TESOL) classes in the evenings, initiating production for a play end of May (more on that in future posts) and signing up to learn the Munay-Ki rites from a local healer/shaman.

In other words, there's been plenty to keep me busy. I even have a job to apply for tomorrow.

As for that upcoming full moon.... I'm hopin' the Virgo lunar eclipse on Wednesday won't rain too much on my parade - to mix my metaphors thoroughly. I'll keep all 'o yous in the loop.



The illustration was modified after being taken from this site.

Revisiting Solo, Or Freelancing the Mercury Rx in Aquarius Way...

There may be hiatuses ahead, good people, during which I may not be able to post some days.

Fact is, Mercury is now retrograde in Aquarius (ie. in my sixth house of, among other things, mundane, busy work), so, despite the good intentions, things like the blog - to which I dutifully try to post each evening - may be put on the backburner in lieu of more merc-in-ret activities: namely reflection, inner 'communication', meditation and a review of projects of yore (memo to self: re-read background materials on a real-live mercurial shapeshifter of the early 20th century, in prep for a future feature script).

Rest assured, the posts will pick up in consistency once the communication deity turns direct. We're talkin' as of February 19.

Meanwhile, I leave you with an article from Mother Jones by Kiera Butler, whose point - that despite its much-touted flexibility and freedom, freelancing from home is ultimately a poor substitute for the needful social stimulation and interaction of the more traditional office environment - I have recently found to be true for me, despite my hitherto staunch conviction that I was happy being a lone wolf forever.

Butler's opening paragraphs for "Practical Values: Works Well With Others" read thusly:

Last October, Rep. Frank Wolf wrote the White House with a radical proposal to promote "environmental stewardship, family values and energy independence." In asking President Bush to designate a National Telework Week, the Virginia Republican evoked the promise of a nation without two-hour commutes, veal-pen cubicles, petty workplace politics, or disgusting communal coffeepots. "Wouldn't it be great," he wrote, "if we could replace the evening rush hour commute with time spent with the family, or coaching little league or other important quality of life matters?"

Yeah, that would be great. Trouble is, when your home is your office, the boundaries between work and personal time dissolve. Distractions (cable, fridge, couch) lurk everywhere. But the biggest problem is social: Without the companionship of office mates—even the Dwight Schrutes of the world—telecommuters and freelancers can feel unmotivated and lonely. Which may explain why the virtual office remains largely hype. The telecommuting lobby claims that 100 million Americans will work remotely by 2010. But in 2004, only 13.7 million did. Of those, only 2 million were working full-time from home.

As shocking as it may sound, we may actually need the office, despite its reputation as a soul-sucking pit of conformity and monotony. In a recent analysis of 40 years of research, Stephen Humphrey, a professor of management at Florida State University's business school, found a strong correlation between the level of social interaction at work and job satisfaction and productivity. He also found that this correlation has strengthened over time—that now more than ever, the office has become a refuge of sorts. "It used to be that everyone could hang out around the watercooler—now we telecommute or spend two hours in our cars on the way to work," he says. "We suddenly start to realize, we miss socializing—and we need it."

I found the article particularly salient given that, wirelessly providing amanuensis-like/communications-type work, is particularly mercurial, and having to rethink the merits of such seemingly liberating (but isolated) labour is very Mercury-retrograde-in-Aquarius.

Indeed, as you continue to read (click here for the rest of the article), the solution to the conundrum is nothing less than a revolutionary re-evaluation of the freelancing set-up, based on reclaiming the benefits of human/societal interaction, albeit in a non-traditional way.

As I say... very Mercury Rx in the sign of the Water Bearer!



The illustration depicts a bust of Mercury and is taken from this site.

Dies Irae

SALIERI: Capisco! I know my fate. Now for the first time I feel my emptiness as Adam felt his nakedness ... [Slowly he rises to his feet.] Tonight at an inn somewhere in this city stands a giggling child who can put on paper, without actually setting down his billiard cue, casual notes which turn my most considered ones into lifeless scratches. Grazie, Signore! You gave me the desire to serve you - which most men do not have - then saw to it that the service was shameful in the ears of the server. Grazie! You gave me the desire to praise you - which most do not feel - then made me mute. Grazie tante! You put into me perception of the Incomparable - which most men never know! - then ensured that I would know myself forever mediocre. [His voice gains power.] Why? ... What is my fault? ... Until this day I have pursued virtue with vigour. I have labored long hours to serve my fellow men. I have worked and worked the talent you allowed me. [Calling up.] You know how hard I've worked! - solely that in the end, in the practice of the art which alone makes the world comprehensible to me, I might hear Your Voice! And now I do hear it - and it says only one name: MOZART! ... Spiteful, sniggering, conceited, infantine Mozart - who has never worked one minute to help another man! - shit-talking Mozart with his botty-smacking wife! - him you have chosen to be your sole conduct! And my only reward - my sublime privilege - is to be the sole man alive in this time who shall clearly recognize your Incarnation! [Savagely.] Grazie e grazie ancora! [Pause.] So be it! From this time we enemies, You and I! I'll not accept it from You - Do you hear? ... They say that God is not mocked, I tell you Man is not mocked! I am not mocked! ... They say the spirit bloweth where it listeth: I tell you NO! It must list to virtue, or not blow at all! [Yelling.] Dio Ingiusto! - You are the Enemy! I name Thee now - Nemico Eterno! And this I swear. To my last breath I shall block you on earth, as far as I am able! [He glares up at God. To the audience.] What use, after all, is man, if not to teach God His lessons?



From Peter Shaffer's Amadeus

Illustration taken from a poster for 30 Days of Night owned by Columbia pictures.

"And Cut..."

To his Leading Lady


I may not be much to look at,
at the trendier cocktail parties,
since wit is still no match for what,
despite political correctness.

But once you choose to speak
my lines, to occupy my frame,
you are intellectual property. Each
take is subject solely to my whim.

I cast you, wooed you, would you
move a little further to the left?
That’s nice, and now - repeat.
The lens records, adjust your feet.

How does it feel to know you’re played?

When this is done, and we part ways
if we should meet at yet more soulless
dos, ignore, embrace, gush, praise
or damn me to my face or others’,

we both know how you obeyed
my orders, let me tune you, put
your secrets on display. Laid
open, you were treasured

only inasmuch as your poor
beauty fleshed my dream.



Illustration by Tanner Morrow and can be found here.

Doom-mongering, Eco-optimism and Green Cities

A very interesting debate is shaping up on green and eco-blogs in that warnings of woe and disaster are actually a huge disincentive when it comes to mobilising people to embracing sustainable and environmentally-conscious living.

What is it in the human pyche that is so drawn to the thought of its own doom, yet somehow thrives far better on the hope it so easily dismisses in favour of fear?

I know that I, personally, am functioning a lot better now that I am getting better acquainted with the burdgeoning clean technologies out there, and the willingness of so many different kinds of people to voluntarily re-structure their lives, their hopes for the future and their day-to-day needs to acknowledge the vital interdependence of everything and live more lightly on the earth.

Indeed, optimism and a willingness to see oneself connected to everything - in contrast to surrendering our privileges as part of confronting the exigencies of global warming and climate change - makes for a much more palatable combination, and is, thus, ultimately more of a motivation toward eco-positive living.

Speaking of interdependence, many of the posts at the WorldChanging site are dedicated to green cities and how living in community is better for us and for the environment.

You can't get much better than the unrelentingly thorough analysis entitled, "My Other Car is a Bright Green City," by Alex Steffen, which posits the following, amid weighing up the impact of suburban individualism, mobility and inefficient land use:

"I think whether or not green cars arrive, building bright green cities is a winning strategy: if the cars don't arrive, land-use change is clearly needed to save our bacon; if they do arrive, they might well fit quite nicely into the new fabric of sustainable urban life, and we're all better off for it -- the air's that much cleaner, the grid that much smarter, our economic advantage in clean technology that much greater.

"Most arguments against land-use change presume that building compact communities is a trade-off; that investing in getting walkable, denser neighborhoods, we lose some or a lot of our affluence or quality of life. What if that's not true, though? What if the gains actually far outweigh the costs not only in ecological and fiscal terms, but in lifestyle and prosperity terms as well? I think that's the case.

"I believe that green compact communities, smaller well-built homes, walkable streets and smart infrastructure can actually offer a far better quality of life than living in McMansion hintersprawl in purely material terms: more comfort, more security, more true prosperity. But even more to the point, I believe they offer all sorts of non-materialistic but extremely real benefits that suburbs cannot. Opponents of smart growth talk about sacrificing our way of life -- but it's not a sacrifice if what you get in exchange is superior."

I happen to agree, but then, I would, since I am definitely a city person, despite my love of nature - and I dream of a future in which urban communities are not merely better integrated with their surrounding environment and ecosystems, but which also change our collective way of thinking about life. Towns and cities, in other words, in which the natural world isn't kept at bay, in which people walk, cycle or take public transport from place to place and where neighbours know and look out for each other.

In addition, I dream of an urban simplicity that does not sacrifice technological advances - something Steffen mentions when he says:

Wired urban living might very well soon evolve into a series of systems for letting us live affluent, convenient lives without actually owning a lot of things. If cities are engines for creating social connections, walkshed technologies might be said to make those connections into tools for trumping the hassle of owning stuff with the pleasure of using stuff to get the vivid experiences and deep relationships we crave. If that happens, we'll have a major leverage point to work with.

You can read the rest of Steffen's intriguing analysis here.

Solar Solutions, Green Collars and Eco-(Un)Friendly Takeaways

Time for some green stuff, to satisfy the eco-concerned out theah - which includes me, good people - so I figured I'd do an extra-verdant melange of emerald bits n' pieces tonight.

Being resident again in Cyprus, the island of my birth, after many years abroad, it is a joy to take for granted the abundance of sunshine, light and heat during most of the year (though, right now, we're in the midst of severe drought, so as much as I am a Sol-worshipper, I dread the consequences of our near-bone-dry reservoirs and dams). However, what would please me even more would be even greater investment in solar energy technology on the island.

If we could use solar power for (unfortunately vital) desalination of water, it would add to be a considerable energy saving, not to mention, ultimately cheaper for the tax-payer, since Cyprus has no oil or gas reserves of its own, and must ship them in - a process, in itself, that pollutes the environment, to say nothing of the CO2 emission from the vast amount of power required for the desalination process.

In the US, one individual who is really pushing solar solutions - not merely to promote environmental responsibility in light of global warming, but also to boost inner cities' standard of living and create jobs in "green construction and alternative energy" - is Yale-educated lawyer Van Jones, the Oakland, CA-based human-rights activist.

Byran Walsh's TIME magazine article entitled "Bring Eco-Power to the People" has this to say of Jones:

You couldn't create a better advocate for the green-collar movement than Jones. A Yale-educated lawyer who founded the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, the magnetic Jones moves easily between worlds, at home preaching to inner-city high school students or mixing with Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. But everywhere Jones goes, he repeats a simple message. "Give the work that most needs to be done to the people who most need the work," he says, and solve two pressing problems--pollution and poverty--at once.

For the environmental movement, embracing Jones' message means recasting global warming not just as an existential threat but as an enormous economic opportunity. It's a narrative that is particularly resonant with low-income workers who are likely to bear the short-term economic burden of cutting carbon only if they believe there will be a personal payoff for them in the long run. Says Jones: "They need to see green in their pockets."

The rest of the article can be read: here.

On a related note (well, 'related' in the sense that it's another area in which to heed the need for green) just how environmentally sound can we grade our takeout or takeaway receptacles as being?

Elizabeth Gillian, writing for chow.com broaches the topic thusly:

Your food can’t go everywhere exposed to the elements; it needs packaging. Unfortunately, that packaging often takes massive amounts of energy to create, and much of it doesn’t properly decompose. We’ve rated some common carriers on a scale from 1 (bad) to 5 (good).

The usual suspects follow with their pros and cons re. eco-friendliness, with some (styrofoam) being predictably on the more culpable or virtuous (edible containers made from food) end of the scale, while others (aluminium foil) falling surprisingly somewhere in the middle.

For those of us who, for a range of reasons, consider dinner (or lunch - or even breakfast) prep to be speed-dialing the nearest Thai place for some green chicken curry delivery, the green-or-not low-down on transporting eats to your home in all its depressing glory can be found here.

Farewell Heath Ledger

UPDATE: Lynn Hayes of the Astrodynamics blog now has an insightful delineation of the ill-fated Ledger's birthchart, putting his passing into clearer perspective. I was not surprised that the short-lived Aries Sun had many Pisces planets and the Moon in Cancer. Such sensitivity allowed him that magical quality to slip, chameleon-like into his more recent, dark, troubled roles, including a tormented gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain, a charismatic junkie in Candy and a psychotic trickster in Dark Knight. Marvellously equipped to 'disappear', he was, alas, unable to allow the power of his Aries Sun (in the first house, no less) to combat the 'self-undoing' that is also the hallmark of otherworldy Pisces.

I was dismayed to hear that Heath Ledger, the highly talented screen actor, was found dead this afternoon in a Manhattan apartment. While speculation about cause of death had initially brought up the possibility of suicide, it is now believed Ledger died of a drug overdose. He was 28, and had one daughter with former partner, actress Michelle Williams.

Despite his pretty-boy good looks, Ledger was a charismatic and highly-gifted actor, and I am very sorry I shall never see what would undoubtedly have been even more golden acting in the years to come. I always thought the best actor Oscar would have eventually been his - it was only a matter of time. In my mind, he will always be the soulful, tormented cowboy from Brokeback Mountain.

You can read more about this sad event here.

Noting his age, though not knowing his birth details, I wonder how close transiting Saturn in Virgo was to conjuncting his natal Saturn - Ledger, at 28, being in the midst of the infamous Saturn return. Additionally, given that drugs are the believed cause of death, I also ponder what transiting Neptune (notoriously linked to all matter of mind-altering substances, imagination, self-undoing, illusion, and transcendence) was doing at the time of the actor's passing.

Actually, Lynn Hayes of the Astrodynamics blog today had this to say (albeit in a post unrelated to Ledger's passing):

"Today we have Mercury conjunct Neptune in Aquarius, where our most visionary (Aquarian) ideas can become fuzzy and incomplete under the thumb of Neptune. Neptune can erode our confidence, or it can entice us into a dreamland of imagination and creativity."

No doubt the astrological community will come up with some very illuminating posts soon enough.

On Death, Dying and the Way of the Shaman

One of the things that obsesses me is death and dying. Even as a child, while I was very aware of the liminal realm, it wasn't the thought of a spirit world as much as the process of dying that gripped my imagination.

In the West, we know so much about keeping the body alive with our various medicines and surgical advances, but how many of our physicians can truly partner those of their patients who are beyond their pills and scalpels?

Indeed, how many Western doctors - other than the rare few who are born with an intuition and sensitivity that mainstream medical schools seem unable to teach - can actually offer practical aid and ministering to the dying?

For the most part, in the developed world, this realm of life (and yes, dying is a part of life) is still the quaint domain of priests who, incredibly, in our overly-sceptical (and spiritually ravenous) age, still have their (ever-diminishing) niche in officiating over those human milestones that modern society has not fully managed to wrest from the numinous.

But even our priests in Western monotheist traditions, with their dualistic view of the Good-versus-Evil universe, can only offer so much comfort.

It is to the East that one must turn if one is particularly 'called' to investigate practices that embrace the dying process and offer guidance to the soon-to-be-disembodied soul.

Imagine if we were taught such vital knowledge (and I know the scientifically-inclined among you will cringe at my use of 'knowledge' in this context) at school. How much more precious would our lives be?

Naturally, materialists will argue that holding death to be the 'Great End' itself bestows on life a preciousness and reverence. In other words, the thought that we only get one shot is precisely what helps us live richly and fully.

To them, I say: have you taken a look lately at the world we live in?

The fact is, we are petrified, paralysed and rendered impotent in the materialist West by the notion of death. And yes, while there are stories of grateful cancer survivors who live richly post-treatment, as if 'every day were their last', there are overwhelmingly more stories of people's lives that are ruined or lived out-of-control in the desperate attempt to stave off the physical end by acquiring more, experiencing more, attaining more - simply because, this life is all you get folks. And when it's over, it's over.

According to American Buddhist nun, Pema Chodron in When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times, our deepest-rooted mara (loosely translated to "familiar ways in which we try to avoid what is happening") is Yama Mara or "fear of death".

And our collective neurosis in the West, it seems to me, bears staggering testimony to this primal terror. Why else would the hysterical allure of apocalypse return and return to our developed world narrative every decade or so? Why would the 2012 prophecies of planetary doom and species-death wield such power in the face of climate catastrophe?

If we were taught a way of our sacred connection to life and how we continue - not merely in a spiritual, transcendent sense, but also in the plants and animals and seasons around us - how much fear we could dispel. What a dawning of a new understanding there might be. And what a peace and love and fellowship with life could be ours.

Lately, I have been more and more drawn to the energy work of the Mesoamerican shamans, particularly as I am reading the fascinating Shaman, Healer, Sage: How to Heal Yourself and Others with the Energy Medicine of the Americas by Antonio Villoldo (the Amazon link is here).
On journeying to "the roots of the Inka civilisation", Villoldo's website notes that:

"What I [Villoldo] discovered was a set of sacred technologies that transform the body, heal the soul, and can change the way we live and the way we die. They explain that we are surrounded by a Luminous Energy Field (LEF) whose source is located in infinity. The LEF was a matrix that maintains the health and vibrancy of the physical body.

"Today, I have come to understand that the experience of infinity can heal and transform us, and that it can free us from the temporal chains that keep us fettered to illness, old age, and disease. Over the course of two decades with the shamans in the jungles and high mountains of the Andes, I would discover that I am more than flesh and bone, that I am fashioned of Spirit and light. This understanding reverberated through every cell in my body. I am convinced that is has changed the way I heal, the way I age, and the way I will die. The experience of infinity is at the core of the Illumination Process, the essential healing practice we teach in the Healing the Light Body School."

Also at the same site, which describes in much detail the training offered by Villoldo's shaman training curriculum, there is the following about the dying process:

"Life ends with the last breath, just as it begins with the first.

"As the physical body returns to the Earth, the soul prepares for its great journey home. When the brain shuts down, the electromagnetic field created by the central nervous system dissolves, and the Luminous Energy Field disengages from its former home. As this happens, the Luminous Energy Field grows into a translucent, egg-shaped torus that contains the other seven chakras, which continue to shimmer like points of light for the first few hours after death. If all proceeds smoothly, this luminous orb, which is the essence or soul of the individual, then travels through the axis of the luminous body, to become one with Spirit again. This occurs very quickly once the Luminous Energy Field is free from the body. The torus of the Luminous Energy Field squeezes through the portal created by its central axis, like a doughnut squeezing through its own whole.

"When a dying person retains his awareness after death, he enters the light easily. My mentor compared this light to the dawn breaking on a cloudless morning, a state of primordial purity – immense and vast, defying description. The blackness of death, caused by the collapse of the senses, recedes and is dispelled by the light of Spirit.

"My mentor prepared all of his life for this journey. Shortly before he died, he explained to me how the steps of the journey were different for him as a shaman that for someone who was unprepared to meet his death. He fully expected to attain the freedom that is possible at the instant of death, during the dawning of the light of Spirit. At that moment, he explained, you perceive the dawn as if from the top of the world itself. You are taller than the highest mountains. Not only is the breaking dawn occurring outside you, but you simultaneously feel the sun rising in your belly and all of Creation stirring within you. You recognize that you are one with the dawning light. You surrender to the luminosity around you, are enfolded by it, and become one with it. During this stage you encounter luminous beings, medicine people who assist you in surrendering to the light. Inka legends say that we are all star travelers, and at this point in the dying process we can re-embark on our great journey through the Milky Way."

If you would like to read further about the process of dying, the full post can be found here.

Another great book on this topic, is The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Tibetan lama Sogyal Rinpoche. It's a little weightier and dense than Villoldo's book - and is more like a guide for Westerners of the principles laid out in the Tibetan Buddhist classic The Tibetan Book of the Dead - but still written with immense wisdom, compassion and humour.

Putting Money Where The (Hungriest) Mouth Is, Or How Athens Is Feeding Her Poorest

I am happy to be able to post some very good news today from Greece, which actually cheered me up immensely: basically, a scheme has been initiated enabling the poorest in Athens to be able to shop for the necessities of life - all for free!

I actually heard about it on the BBC news this afternoon, but am happy to post the opening to an online story "No cash, no cards? No problem" on the subject by Kathy Tzilivakis for the Athens News:

At first glance it looks like any other supermarket. Housewives, senior citizens and couples with young children busily browse aisles stacked high with brand-name products, filling their shopping carts with cornflakes, fresh milk, eggs, canned foods, frozen vegetables, soft drinks, diapers, shampoo and cleaning supplies.

But look closer, and you'll spot the difference.

There are no cash registers. Not even a debit card machine. In fact, all money transactions are prohibited.

"You can't buy anything here with money," said the store manager, Panos Lendaris. "We're not allowed to take any money."

Thanks to a joint corporate social responsibility venture between Europe's largest retailer, Carrefour, and the municipality of Athens, some 200 jobless and working poor in Athens are now doing their weekly grocery shopping for free at the new Sofokleos St supermarket. The products lining the shelves are surplus stock that have been provided free of charge to Carrefour from its suppliers.

"Caring for those people who are deprived of even the basic necessities of life is a central pylon at the municipality," said Athens Mayor Nikitas Kaklamanis. "The creation of this new grocery store is evidence of the benefits that can arise when local government cooperates with the private sector and when the guiding principle is social welfare and progress."

The 200 recipients are entitled to shop for between 100 and 350 euros' worth of products at the Sofokleos St supermarket every month. The amount, which has been set by the municipality's social welfare office, depends on the recipient's financial situation. Low-income families with three or more children, for example, are entitled to spend the maximum 350 euros each month.

You can read the rest of this heartening - yes, heartening, you read that right! - news story here.

Peripatetic Pix

Valediction Forbidding Mourning

"Fare you well, people of Orphalese. This day has ended. It is closing upon us even as the water-lily upon its own tomorrow. What was given us here we shall keep, and if it suffices not, then again must we come together and together stretch our hands out to the giver. Forget not that I shall come back to you. A little while, and my longing shall gather dust and foam for another body. A little while, a moment of rest upon the wind, and another woman shall bear me. Farewell to you and the youth I have spent with you. It was but yesterday we met in a dream. You have sung to me in my aloneness, and I of your longings have built a tower in the sky. But now our sleep has fled and our dream is over, and it is no longer dawn. The noontide is upon us and our half waking has turned to fuller day, and we must part. If in the twilight of memory we should meet once more, we shall speak again together and you will sing to me a deeper song. And if our hands should meet in another dream, we shall build another tower in the sky.

"So saying he made a signal to the seamen, and straightaway they weighed anchor and cast the ship loose from its moorings, and they moved eastward. And a cry came from the people as from a single heart, and it rose into the dusk and was carried out over the sea like a great trumpeting. Only Almitra was silent, gazing after the ship until it had vanished into the mist. And when all the people were dispersed she still stood alone upon the sea-wall, remembering in her heart his saying: 'A little while, a moment of rest upon the wind, and another woman shall bear me.'"

From The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

Welcome to the Dungeon, We've Thrown Away the Key. Natal T-Square of Saturn, Venus, Pluto

Occasionally, when the fear zombies strike, their fetid phantom breath filling the air and their invisible talons opening up wounds that only mostly heal, I get to thinking about my natal Cardinal T-square: Saturn in Cancer squaring an opposition of Venus in Aries and Pluto in Libra.

Can't say I'm overjoyed at this combo, but I've done enough reading on metaphysical topics to be open to the idea that I chose to incarnate with the potential this particular T-square symbolises.

So, just what does it indicate amid the unique cocktail of energies that help make me, me?

At the 'low vibrating' or 'negative' side of the scale, it can mean intense fear. Fear, fear, fear, and more fear. Obsessive, unshakeable, overpowering fear. Particularly as the intense passion-annihiliation-resurrection implied by the Pluto-Venus stand-off gets that extra edge of paranoia from boundary-lovin' Saturn's unhappy location in the sign of moody moon-child Cancer.

Basically, relationships are life and death to me - especially with a Seventh House Pisces Sun. I'm set up to 'merge' with a significant other - and such opportunities have indeed always been pretty all-or-nothing in their manifestation.

Also, as a card-carrying member of the Pluto in Libra generation, relationships are the realm of life where the deepest spiritual transformations are going to be taking place for me in this incarnation.

So, intimacy and relationships was always going to be somewhat chthonic in kind.

Now, when you factor in an opposition by Libra Pluto to passionate, me-centered Venus in Aries, things start to get very interesting. An obsessive need for the beloved manifests. One's own self-worth and confidence become as nothing in the face of hanging on to the (often provocative, inevitably Plutonian) beloved and avoiding rejection. One's desire for happiness and love regresses into a crude need to emotionally (and psychically) 'survive', being dependent on the good will (or lack thereof), attention and devotion of the love object. And without fail, my deepest love relationships have always had this dynamic at work.

And when you bring in a needy, dependent, security-driven Cancer Saturn to square Aries Venus (further undermining self-confidence and amplifying vulnerability), also forming the same difficult 90-degree-aspect to Libra Pluto (creating a near-pathological terror of letting go or undergoing change in the area of relationships), you end up with an individual who often self-sabotages or short-circuits, falling short of harnessing the mighty, initiating Cardinal power promised by this particular planetary trio.

What I am working on now - and I'd imagine it's to be a lifelong work in progress - is confronting that self-destructive dependency and insecurity by investing in self-mastery. Confronting the things that scare me to death while trying to do things that nurture my soul.

Perhaps if I, or, as is more likely, my beloved could "plutonify" (in the words of astrologer Steven Forrest) my natal Venus, then doing so might trigger "the emergence of unconscious or wounded material connected with [in this case, Venus], challenging it to grow and to implement the soul's healing intentions."

In other words, if I am open to the process, those sharing my inner-most thoughts and feelings could move me to burn up all the manipulativeness, self-destructiveness and lack of self-love that I express or experience, thereby transforming my relations with others and, more importantly, myself, into something harmonious, beautiful, transcendent.

Even more importantly, if I could overcome the need to be a timid, inept and incompetent child (Cancer Saturn squaring Aries Venus) and face head-on my feelings of despair and helplessness in the view of what seems to be the neverending threat of traumatic change (Cancer Saturn squaring Libra Pluto) I could put all of that initiating Cardinal energy into refining my interactions with family, friends and wider society (Cancer Saturn in the Eleventh), my values, relationships and reasoning (Libra Pluto in the Second) and other people's creative resources of material, spiritual or psychic kind (Aries Venus in the Eighth).

Interestingly enough, my beloved one's (Libra) Sun-Pluto conjunction falls exactly on the Lord of Death's position in my own natal chart, while also opposing my birth Venus.

In other words, the two of us have the potential either to become catalysts for initiating a new level of emotional and spiritual self-awareness both in each other and ourselves, or to end up embodying the very real, very deep-rooted fears of rejection, trauma and abandonment that haunt us both.