Planet Waves is copyright 1999 by Planet Waves Digital Media, all rights reserved. Would you like to see Planet Waves run in your locak area? Please tell your local newspaper or magazine (daily, weekly or monthly) about Planet Waves -- they may want to publish the column. Or, please send a copy of your local publication to: PO Box 208, Woodstock, NY 12498 so we can approach them directly. Photo above: The beloved Comet Hale-Bopp, couutesy of Astronomy Picture du Jour.

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As the eclipses of 1999 approach, and as a variety of other planetary influences go to work on our psyches, emotional bodies and those of our friends, we stand in an intense, beautiful and potentially confusing, chaotic moment. Needless to say, all individuals will experience this differently, though less obvious is that different communities will experience this differently -- including those micro-communities known as relationships. I recognize that this may not be an especially easy time for many of you, though there are those for whom this is one of the most exciting moments in their lives; perhaps you are one of them.

We are in a collective gateway in which change is inevitable. We are in a time in history, and personal history, in which much that we have taken for granted is being questioned. The New York Times may not be writing long, eloquent articles on page one about how history is being written and re-written in this moment, but that does not deny the undeniable. Besides, the mass culture has a way of squelching out and belittling the individual experiences of life that life is really about, and the community experiences with our friends, families and lovers which are the main stage upon which our personal dramas and evolutionary processes are experienced.

If you're experiencing fear, now is a good time to question fear, and to get to its roots. Fear is usually about holding onto something. You might want to conduct a personal investigation into what you're holding onto; if you do that, you might find it convenient to make some changes that allow you to release the causes of your fear. The only moment in my life I remember that was charged with such a great sense of personal and collective change was the Harmonic Convergence on August 16 and 17 1987. At the time, I was living in a Course in Miracles community in New Jersey, where a beautiful Sufi celebration had moved into our space, and I remember waking up at dawn that morning and going down to the main room with my then-lover Ginger, and over the sound system was a chant sung by children, over and over again, that rang and wafted in the foggy morning:

Opening doors, closing doors
I'm not afraid, it's only change...

Opening doors, closing doors
I'm not afraid, it's only change...

In times of change, no matter how visionary we are, there comes that moment when we must go with the flow, literally, surrender to the flow of life and see where we end up. In such times, for all people, communication is paramount. If you are feeling isolated, do what you can to come forth from that isolation and communicate with other people about your experiences and feelings. Do your best to be an attentive listener. This will serve more than any other tool; it is the essence of healing.

If you are among the people who have been in preparation for leadership for years, possibly many years -- for example, attending workshops, learning healing technologies, engaging in long-term recovery or just living consciously -- I believe that you stand at a moment in which your learning will be called into practical application. Be available to people, and remember to attend to your basic personal needs for creature comforts, companionship, sex, and emotional and physical touch.

We are in a great moment, and we are not passing by this way again.

Now you are going to dare. Not because I am saying so, not because you won't live a long and exciting life and have many opportunities for many things, but because you know you will never have this particular opportunity again. I would imagine that you know exactly what's on your agenda, and are fully aware that the only thing standing between you and it is a thin veil of lace onto which have been projected all the fears and paranoias of whoever and whatever may have influenced you in the past to withdraw your energy rather than expressing your energy; to live avoiding the most delicious risks instead of plunging into them; in essence, to hold onto a little darkness and define that as reality. More to the point, how would you live if you decided it was okay to simply be bad in your own great way?

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If you tune into your deeper sentiments, you might notice a sense of total security overlaid with a quivering uncertainty about what it is you are doing. This is a great time for a little exercise in getting to the deeper layers of who you are, and not being bothered by doubt, that funny thing that can take your most brilliant revelation about life, love or yourself and turn it into a misgiving. This is no time to let the nagging voices of supposed past failures influence the astonishing awareness you now possess about the truth and justice of who you are.

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Forget about wit and intelligence for a brief moment; all you need right now to illuminate your soul is compassion. The mind, that living synthesizer of thought and identity that we usually think of when we consider what makes us "human," does not thrive on information nearly as well as it does on kindness. There are many places in this world where treating people gently has a terrible reputation. Many thrive on how caustic they can be toward others, particularly those weaker than themselves. Remember, people who appear to be more powerful or authoritative than ourselves are often in pain and operating at great disability. You are now in a position to be a leader in conscience.

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By now you are quite likely to be figuring out what you're made of, or at the very least, you're likely to have a decent collection of evidence. Isn't it strange that it was possible for you to live for so many years without having a full understanding of the depth and quality of who and what you are? Isn't it strange that it took so long for you to begin a formal inquiry? Pay attention to the strange ways in which the new lessons come -- the things you observe when you're not really looking, the bits of information you glean from miscommunication and misunderstanding, and what you discover when you tune into what I can only describe as the hormonal dimension of reality.

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In continued preparation for the once-in-a-lifetime Leo total solar eclipse of 1999, I suggest a simple test to determine whether you're synchronizing with the energy. If you are totally psyched about life and its possibilities, if you are all charged up about who you are and what you are becoming, if your journey is a brilliant adventure, then you're right in step with the energy. If you are scared, lonely, pessimistic, afraid of people, or if you feel like a prisoner, then you're fighting some of the most amazing creative tidal waves to come your way in many years. If you fall into this second category, I suggest you get trusted help, and consider doing something very different with your life.

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Your world may be thundering with revelation, pouring in through every possible channel from dreams to premonitions to a wide assortment of visionary ideas both for yourself and the wider culture. It would be easy to dismiss all of this as an overactive imagination, but in fact you are getting the world's number -- you are aware what's up at this particular juncture in history, and I would propose that your ideas about how important this moment is are right on point. The important thing now is to sort through the information you are receiving, and to put it to work. Much of what we face in our civilization is a gross over-abundance of data, and a shortage of practical uses for it.

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Prepare for change, and, I would add, change that will be of a very different nature than the inevitable shifts and rearrangements of the lives of people around you. It is true that the total solar eclipse is at hand, and we can presume this great wave of energy to be associated with everything we see, feel and experience in the coming weeks and for long after. Yet what appear to be outer shifts of direction and changes of mind are in truth part of a much deeper process that is far more personal to you, and deeply associated with the idea of your ultimate release from generations of servitude to secret belief systems to which you are now not only capable of defying, but dismissing entirely.

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Consider the phrase, "assuming" power." In the taking and use of power, there is an "assumption" involved, which is different than, say, action that is based on the facts involved in any given situation. In your life, you are the one who judges the situation and makes your power move. I suggest that you start by making a clear distinction between the power you hold in personal relationships and the power you may hold in professional, creative or political situations. Do you handle these different aspects of life differently? In which do you assume power more assertively? Look honestly, using your past failures as a map to what you can now accomplish, remembering that the greatest power we can assume is that of communication.

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You don't need six years of primal scream therapy to deal with your long-repressed emotions. There are other ways to do it, and most of them begin with creating new ideas about "self" that recognize the self as something that is already perfect and already connected with any and all of the higher realities described in the mystic texts and self-help books. I believe that the main problem we face in personal growth is self-judgment. We are taught to hate ourselves in ways subtle and not-so-subtle, and then use all the small errors we make as the means of proving that this self-hatred is justified. It is not; it is not even real; let yourself be who you are.

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I strongly suggest that you take a close look at the ways in which values are exchanged in your sexual relationships. By "values" I mean specifically, what you value, your idea of the meaning of life, your ideas about who you are, your sense of freedom in the world (or, conversely, your sense of being possessed and controlled in relationship). Once the situation becomes sexual, whether in action or desire, then what happens on the level of your values? How do you feel about who you are? What are you willing to compromise, and to what extent are you willing to make real demands designed to meet your real needs? Take a good look.

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Something very obvious should become very different in the coming hours and says, as if a phase of life you have always been waiting for has begun. This will especially hold true in how clearly you are suddenly able to see other people for who they really are, and see yourself for who you are using your relationships as mirrors. This theme of mirroring is now so powerful, and the perspective so unique, that you may discover that physical mirrors of glass take on mystical properties and can show you things that you've never seen before. But metaphorically, you might want to hold every idea and situation "up to a reflection" and see what new meaning it takes on (Tarot cards, therapists, and writing fiction all count as possible reflections).

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There is a little thing in the Universe called Neptune. Most people are oblivious to its reality, but I rather doubt that you are one of them. The basic idea of Neptune is compassion, which is another way of saying an understanding of the human condition so deep that judgment becomes impossible. Neptune is called the "higher octave" of Venus, which in Western astrology is considered the star of love; Neptune takes the personal love aspect of Venus and creates or allows a condition of cosmic love. And it turns out that this is a pretty good basis on which to build your ideas about human relationships. After all, we are together here in the cosmos. We don't know who or where we are; a lot of people are inherently scared; you are unlikely to be one of them.

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