Apocalypse Now. Definitely Maybe.

"The promise of a recovery of a long-lost Golden Age reverberates through countless myths. The heart-chord it strikes has inspired visionaries and idealists from time immemorial. As well, it fuels a healthy discontent – the flip side of modern anxiety – that refuses to believe that this is the best we can do. It is an indignation, a muted outrage that can be allayed temporarily by comforts and luxuries, that can be subdued, temporarily, by survival anxiety, that is always strongest in the young, and that lies latent in all of us, ever-ready to be roused into a crusading idealism, though often coopted toward the perpetuation of the very conditions that give it rise. It is my purpose, dear reader, to give voice to your indignation and to reaffirm your intuitive knowledge that life is meant to be more."

From "Waiting for the Big One" by Charles Eisenstein, Reality Sandwich

Continuing from yesterday's post, I simply had to draw attention to another really great pick from the web magazine Reality Sandwich, which puts the current spike in 2012 and apocalyptic fervor into perspective.

I'd like to say Eisenstein offers good news. But he doesn't. At least, not exactly. What he offers is hope and a certain 'realistic' or 'grounded' line of approach to what he believes is the inevitable: the breakdown of life as we know it. Which would be pretty darn depressing if he didn't also add the following:

"Today we already can catch a glimpse of the technologies-social forms as well as paradigms of material production-of a future in love with life, which encompasses the love of being alive as well as the love of living beings. They are the technologies of sun, soil, and water, of bioenergy and rhythm, light and sound, word and touch, mind and dreaming, matter and information. All of them arise from and embody a different understanding of self and world. Just as present-day social forms and technologies both spring from and reinforce separation, 21st century technology will be both a cause and an effect of separation's reversal-a very different understanding of the universe articulated on every level from psychology to cosmology. As our crises intensify we will be faced with new choices and new possibilities. Let us recognize the full ramifications and full power of the choices that will soon open up to us."

You can read the full article here.

Oh, and on a not-so-very-related note (my Aquarius Mercury and Mars apologise), earlier this evening I learned (via the excellent NorthNodeastrology blog - checkitout) of a good place to go if you want to do something about the apalling suffering of women in sexual violence-ridden Congo. You know exactly the sort of despicable and cruel acts I mean - rape, mutilation and murder. In light of this ongoing barbarity, please consider going to Women for Women International, which is an organization committed to providing "financial and emotional" support to women "on the margins of hope", either to make a donation or sponsor an individual rape victim directly.

The Capricorn New Moon and Manifestation

The Sun and Moon are now conjunct in Capricorn, the sign of manifestation.

This means we have a two-to-three-day window during this commencement of the new lunar cycle to send forth into the universe our highest aspirations, desires and hopes - not just for ourselves, but for our loved ones and all that lives - all creation in other words, since creation is very much Saturn-ruled Capricorn's realm (though it helps if Neptune's involved, too).

With the powerful Capricorn energy dominating over the next day or so, we are given a particularly potent window of opportunity to channel our intentions for new projects outward and give thanks for what we already enjoy and what we are yet to receive.

This evening, I reminded myself of my most positive aspirations, since I so often struggle with the lowest vibrations of anxiety, depression, fear and negativity. I gave myself licence to remember what I hoped for for myself - to remember, in other words, my highest self.

I looked into my heart and saw a mighty being of light - a light far greater than the terrors that usually threaten to overwhelm it.

I saw creativity, joy and daring. I saw a gratitude mighty as the sun, reaching forth with every action to embrace life and to send out love and healing.

I imagined a consciousness pure of every kind of bias, prejudice and limitation. Of limitless generosity and grace.

No longer a slave to pessimissm, fear and shame, anxiety, insecurity and timidity, I invited my grandest, strongest, wisest, most compassionate self to me.

May the beginning of the new lunar month make us all agents of our highest aspirations, to serve and to love others, regardless of reward, and to help each other manifest our dreams.

Light, love and peace to all.

Natal Saturn and Cutting the Anxious Some Slack

I was thinking, today, that it's so unfair some types are endowed with seemingly endless enthusiasm and self-confidence, while others struggle every day with neuroses, free-floating anxiety, guilt, fear and soul-destroying self-doubt.

What gets my goat even more is that the former usually end up overtly or covertly blaming the latter for perpetuating their own woes. Or, at the very least, end up sounding intensely patronizing when they're genuinely trying to be supportive or encouraging.

"Grow up," or "Deal with it," or "Suck it up," or "Stop being a loser," or "What, you think you're the only one?" or "You're [insert number] years old for chrissake..." or "You're choosing to be unhappy," or "Until you accept [insert person/situation], you're going to feel bad," or even, my personal fave, "Noone can help you, but you".

Before anyone jumps on me for presuming to speak for the less-assertive and self-esteem-possessing, let me be the first to say, right here and now, that I believe experiencing suffering and negativity is a personal choice, and that what happens to us and how we live our lives does depend, much of the time, on our choices and application of will.

But.

I am also of the opinion that, from the point of view of natal Astrology, our birth charts point to inclinations toward positivity or negativity that we come into the world hardwired to manifest in varying degrees. And these take far more application of will, self-discipline and self-knowledge to overcome.

A good indicator of the flavour of anxiety and fear in our lives, as well as the sphere of life it is likely to be most operative in, is the condition and position of Saturn in the birth chart.

In our Saturnian world of order and ego-protecting boundaries, we pooh-pooh (and are deeply threatened by) Neptune's vague and profoundly irrational terrors - all very Twelfth House stuff and, consequently, dismissed in the harsh light of day and conveniently locked up in our astrological house of ghosts.

To my endless chagrin, the Cosmic Taskmaster when I was born was in its detriment in Cancer. Cancer Saturns bode ill for early family life and amplify the desperate hunger for material (and emotional) security. In my Eleventh House of friends, hopes and wishes, it marks an unease in social gatherings or groups, an awkwardness with companions of my own age, and a paranoia about being able to provide for myself or, conversely, a horror of dependency.

The Greater Malefic in my birth chart is also retrograde, which, as Lynn Hayes of Astrodynamics (http://astrodynamics.blogspot.com/index.html) accurately points out, "shows a strong tendency towards self-criticism and low self-esteem."

In addition, Saturn contacts my birth Venus in Aries and Pluto in Libra in a rather trying T-square, and is quincunx vague and illusory Neptune in Sagittarius.

Add to that an ultra-receptive Sun-Jupiter conjunction in Pisces, and Sun-Neptune square and it might be fair to say that it doesn't take much to send me teetering to the edge of the collective abyss.

Lucky for me, my Capricorn moon usually kicks me in the arse and gets me into gear to plod onward, despite the ever-present desire not to get out of bed in the morning, soundly admonishing me for being such a self-pitying mound of jelly at times. It's a masochistic M.O. but, so far, it's one of the few things that forces me to fight the blackness when it comes and not simply succumb to despair.

To be fair, though, having come this far at the grand old age of almost-33, I accept and acknowledge that there really is a personal power in everyone to take control of their lives - even when everything else seems in chaos. Whatever the length of our lifespan and the limitations of our material circumstances, we can choose to face fears, however irrational, and accept the possibility of pain and vulnerability and uncertainty, not to mention responsibility for our happiness and peace of mind.

Perhaps it ultimately does come down to a triumph of the will, if one may disassociate the notion from Nazi documentarian Leni Riefenstahl's film of the same name.

And my Mars-Pluto and Sun-Saturn trines can only help on that score.