Today Mercury enters one of its home signs – Gemini – (it also rules Virgo) at about 7:12 am EDT. This emphasizes the inner twin/duality theme that retrograde Venus and the Sun have opened us up to. As we test the permeability of the membrane between our psychic or internal halves, the sky is asking about the membrane between honesty and lying.
Specifically, the Sun is conjunct the lunar South Node in Gemini (and therefore opposite the North Node in Sagittarius) – and all of it is square Neptune in Pisces.
Earlier this week, we considered Brad Blanton’s practice of ‘radical honesty’, but what good is radical honesty if you’re talking to someone determined to believe lies? Blanton doesn’t really address that psychic posture, despite its prevalence in our culture.
There are a lot of reasons why we may choose to stay in denial, whether about something personal (spouse is having an affair) or something cultural (political lies that perpetuate wars) – even when it’s absurd (Obama is a socialist Muslim who hates white people). We want to be comfortable. We want to avoid feeling ‘bad’ or guilty, and have not found adult tools for dealing with those emotions. We want to avoid conflict or loss. Our fantasies are richer than our actual lives. Maybe we’re just not paying attention enough to be discerning.
It’s convenient to believe lies. Lies give us a way to avoid responsibility, to avoid action – so people become eager to be lied to, and corporations relish the carte blanche this offers them to poison us in myriad ways. When lies get really big – think Fukushima or Sept. 11 – it’s overwhelming. To see the truth in such a situation means encountering a feeling of helplessness. Then what do you do?
How do you move through feelings of helplessness? Are the only alternatives despair or denial? Is the solution actually to believe a lie, which really means lying to yourself? There’s no easy solution, yet deception doesn’t seem like a truly viable answer.
So here we have the Sun, energizing the South Node – our locus of comfortable habits, past-life karma, patterns of behavior and belief and psychic DNA ripe to be released. On the other side of the wheel is the North Node: that sense that there’s something bigger, deeper, more authentic calling to us – like an echo from a future we once knew, but can’t quite pin down in the present. It’s easy to see the familiarity of the South Node as easier. But if we could tally up the amount of energy used in holding on to what it represents, would it really be less than what it takes to release it and try the unknown? Sure, the North Node asks us for a bigger initial push – kind of like using booster rockets to break Earth’s orbit – but is it really more energy in the long haul?
Neptune’s square to these points is offering a challenge to us: to see the lies we’ve been believing for what they are. What might it take to let the Sun burn through the mist? It’s lighting up the South Node so we can see it more clearly in opposition to the North Node. How much do you want to be lied to? How convinced are you of your helplessness in the face the truth? When the Sun shows you what you need to see, what will you do?
“I would assume that Neptune is a likely candidate for being my chart ruler (I don’t know how you figure that out) – I have it at the top of my chart conjunct Mercury in the 9th.” – MandyM
Mandy,
The chart ruler is the planet that rules the sign of the Ascendent. If you have an Aries ascendent, your chart ruler is Mars, a Taurus ascendent would be ruled by Venus, and so on through the signs. Chart ruler = ruler of rising sign. Hope this helps. 🙂
And to live this magic or the bringing into our lives MandyM, should it be itself by a strong Neptune in natal position, or the sign of the fish, or the 12 House, then it is a question of Alchemy between itself and the universe
thank you, Huffy (AGAIN I type Huggy!) for contacting your friend … I can’t get over how perfect this is for me, this NVC. I will find this.
love to you and happy long weekend,
mm.
marymack – I sent an email to my NVC friend last night asking about NVC Skype communities, and he’s just got back to me. I’m afraid he wasn’t able to give me any help – though he’s sure they exist. If I were you I’d really start looking on the net, but also in your local community – I’m sure you’ll find what you need quite quickly. Keep us posted!
MandyM: Earwig up the nose, yuk! No, you didn’t come across as whining at all – if anything it’s me who’s the whiner. I resent so much the huge taxes we have to pay (one of the highest in Europe), and no decent welfare state. But we do have a national health system.
Huffy: BTW, I wasn’t in that tent for too long. I was packed and ready to go in the middle of the night when an earwig ran across my face and into my nose.
Huffy: “And until you’re able to support yourself agian, really bless the welfare assistance you receive” Don’t I know it!! I was hoping I wasn’t coming across as whining about that part of it, I know I have so so much more than many right now, and remind myself of that often. As far as my karma, I must have been one hell of a bitch on mag wheels.
LuneSoleil: “can also live magical moments under a square or opposition Neptune conflict.”
I agree completely, which is why I asked this question. I will write of my experience with this yesterday in today’s post.
Amanda: “it seems like most people in our culture are rather more predisposed to the illusions/escapism way of being”. Too true. I saw this last night, it adds to the topic headline:
“Dr. Bernie S. Siegel, author of the best-selling book Love, Medicine, and Miracles, asserts that it is because people are addicted to their beliefs. Siegel says this is why when you try to change someone’s belief they act like an addict.
There seems to be a good deal of truth to Siegel’s observation, which perhaps is why so many of civilization’s greatest insights and advances have at first been greeted with such passionate denial. We are addicted to our beliefs and we do act like addicts when someone tries to wrest from us the powerful opium of our dogmas.” Copyright © 1991 by Michael Talbot – The Holographic Universe
Alexander: I like your name so much I gave it to my son.
“Interestingly, Neptune asks that precise question of everything. It is the ultimate reality tester. ‘Is this thing real? Is it essence? Is it surface (or representation)?” Bingo. Who decides what is real – what is the exact definition, why isn’t essence real? I have synesthesia and it is real to me – there is a smell and a colour when people lie to me, as an example, and I trust that smell and colour more than what I am seeing with my eyes and hearing with my ears.
I would assume that Neptune is a likely candidate for being my chart ruler (I don’t know how you figure that out) – I have it at the top of my chart conjunct Mercury in the 9th. And I’ll tell you one thing about the 9th house – long distance travel can translate into Astral Travel. I’m not sure if it was this blog I mentioned this on before, but I recently read that the Merc/Nep conjunction is viewed by medical astrologers as a sign of schizophrenia, whereas traditional astrologers view it as a sign of divine communication – which confirms what you were saying about Psychological Astrology.
As for your last paragraph and your suggestion of study – I read about the Kaballah and Astrology in one of Carolyn Myss’s books many years ago and for the last year have been kicking myself for giving the book away as I have wanted to review this again.
Thanks so much for your in depth answer!
In a word, MandyM, because of the hegemony of Psychological Astrology over Traditional Astrology. The inner world of the human mind, particularly set in the context of an increasingly complex world, can grasp that while there is internal fog one can still hope to exercise control over oneself. A traditional perspective would be much more comfortable, in fact naturally so, in seeing reality ‘out there’ (effectively outside of the control of the willing active self, apart from the use of volition/action to shape certain aspects of it – say building a bridge) with less influence of the individual in the grand scheme of things. The problem with such, the flip side, is the kind of fatalism that in our era (150 or more years into the psychological revolution) would see that one can feel like a victim of the fates. Psychological Astrology has overbalanced itself since the 1970s and currently there is a pronounced movement back in several quarters to a Traditional outlook. Of course, the issue should always have ideally been one of balance. But we know from G.W.F. Hegel and his dialecticism that this is just the nature of the human drama through history – the inescapable pendulum.
Delusion therefore is something which speaks about the individual’s ability to come to more accurate personal awareness. The divine or numinous *should* be one of the key ‘realities’ that we might expect to be able to impinge upon us independently of any perception. Of course, this is never fully possible because we are perceiving entities – but the arena of ‘outside myself’ is one that the ‘in vogue’ thinking can’t legitimately theorize any control over (though in practice many people who factor in transcendence DO attempt to control it through doctrine and ritual etc).
If you can’t define it, test for its presence and understand it so as to remove all mystery from it then it cannot possibly be real – in the modern mindset. So the whole thing is about control.
Interestingly, Neptune asks that precise question of everything. It is the ultimate reality tester. ‘Is this thing real? Is it essence? Is it surface (or representation)?
Control is an illusion born of insecurity. Neptune is always pushing us to see that and it is implicit that that mechanism when considering ‘that which transcends’ may apply equally to other individuals, society at large, or God – whether that be transcending my psychology, my physicality, my power to act on the world. So it is all in the mix but the current predilections mean ego piercing the illusion will always give a greater sense of control – itself an ego expression.
Great question all told. You may wish to make a study of the sequencing from Saturn right through Pluto to get a sense of how developments parallel human evolutionary momentum and potentials. There is a relationship between Astrology and Kabbalah here that you may wish to dip into – and that addresses just such schemes of contextualizing the individual thoroughly. It’s not my preferred route but it is interesting to dip into.
True MandyM, can also live magical moments under a square or opposition Neptune conflict. I also experienced a kind of return or reconciliation that could not be otherwise. This concentration on the South node points which come from the past. What was not understood, down, disparaged… ect… which gives access today has another Bell sound. Universal love may be in, forgiveness for past errors. This return of the past in a growing phase of the moon can be demonstrated as a second chance is given, we must not remain on the resentment, should be and unable to live in the moment of this miracle of life that it was hoped both and that was before. …
And was thinking Mandy – you’ve got a bestseller book in your life story (is that the book you’re writing?) – time to move over ‘Eat, pray, love’!
great question, mandyM. and while this thought may not apply as much to PW readers as to the general population, it seems like most people in our culture are rather more predisposed to the illusions/escapism way of being. and i think that can make it hard for the divine to get through.
but for sure — presenting both sides of the neptunian experience is a great idea. hmm… i wonder what one of our more experienced astrologers might have to say about whether certain aspects to neptune tend to come through as one or the other of the ways you’ve mentioned?
MandyM, aword – you gals have been trhough hell fire and back! I take my hat off to you both for your immense strength, humour and courage.
MandyM – that’s some karma you’ve got there! I reckon you could do anything you laid your hand to, and don’t think you haven’t got the skills any more – that’s absolute tosh! And until you’re able to support yourself agian, really bless the welfare assistance you receive – I live in a country where there’s no such thing.
Much love and luck to you both. xxx
“Neptune’s square to these points is offering a challenge to us: to see the lies we’ve been believing for what they are. What might it take to let the Sun burn through the mist?”
Question: why is this interpreted as ego piercing through the illusion, rather than Divinity piercing through the ego? Maybe it’s both. Why do many astrologers warn about delusion every time this planet comes up, rather than tapping into the Divine aspect?
Yesterday I made dredged on Facebook is not the first time, but the global game implemented I knew was what me be. The man continued to tell me lies that I recognized and I did not want to return to his game. 8 Years ago Venus was retro in Gemini very close to March but there have never been conjunction. I remember as it was yesterday, the romantic complications of a woman for a man she had met under retrograde Venus. Then Venus was opposite Pluto. To return a my history I knew that it was already lost in advance, retrograde Venus does not leave to take in the arms of a stranger, it is impossible or what made and with Neptune to the square of the Sun and mercury, I rigolais in my corner. There was something strange with his date of birth on the same day that the date of my cycle progress… not I no I am not left not take in the fisherman’s net. This kind of coincidence neptunian I know it is just to fool your mind. With the risk that the date is wrong. Today I sent him a walk, it was more useful to write my article that losing my time with a liar, there were other women on the list. At this time I find that I am more approached by strangers. Photos giving the impression of photos from magazines, it’s too seeing…
This is my experience of Neptune, I it have not missed
Thank you Planet Waves …
BTW, to add to the “Karma” of the moment — a copy of my dad’s new book arrived for me in the mail moments ago.
Oh meohmy! Much much letting go to do. A Bookload.
;}
LOL MM!! Good belly laughs out loud! I too, have been given time to rest. Raising my kids, but rest nontheless.
I intend for the Rest-Full-ness to continue onward! But like you, much prefer focused diligent work/play to having nothing to do/focus on. If I was meant to have the “do nothing thing” then I still have not fullfilled my orders for the past decade! 🙂
Onward then!
Aword: for goodness sake, yes let the trumpets sound for your son!! Sounds like heavy duty training for his destiny. What does he intend to pursue?
I have no problem with losing everything. It was wonderful really. All of a sudden I wasn’t a wife, mother, daughter, sister, the dog groomer – all those lovely identities. As for the ex, it was a past life that needed to be cleared – and considering in the last one he murdered me, we did very well and are actually good friends where each of us knows we will be there for the other if needed.
I completely understand why I am where I am now. Being Capricorn rising, it’s been very difficult for me not to work. It’s not another identity I am looking for, it’s a purpose. It’s not materialistic pursuits I’m looking for – I never have (I started my business with 2 shops on the go and closed one down because it took too much time from my kids). And you are so right, it will be a new world when I finally reach air. I think a lot of my concern is in trusting myself – this has been lifelong for me – will I recognize the signs, make the most appropriate choice, stuff like that.
It’s almost like for the last number of years God said “Hey, I need you to do some stuff.”
I said “Ok.” Mission accomplished, so I ask “Now what?” S/He said “Rest”. I said “Ok”. My rest period is concluding so now I am asking “Now what?” and this is where I seem to lose the thread. It almost like the conversation is this:
Me: Now what?
G: Well, what do you want to do?
Me: I want to do whatever it is that you want me to do.
G: I want you to do whatever it is that YOU want to do.
It is this space of freedom, right in front of my foot, that I think I am having a hard time with. My perceived limitations of the past are the illusion. I know my 3 lower chakras are getting a work out and I really have to work at keeping grounded right now. I have always worn pants and I can’t tell you how wonderful the last month has been for me because I am wearing summer dresses – the sense of freedom, lack of confinement, just feeling my legs rubbing each other, no waistband – such a seemingly simple thing created an incredible expansion – wow, a new comfort zone. And thank you so much for your comfort!
What Huffy said first off! When I read the radical honesty piece I wanted to ask that question – what about when you are talking to someone who is happy with their lies? And what about those who refuse to enter into that dialogue? The thrust of my (Scorpio) life since the last Venus transit has been honesty. The more you do it, the more people you encounter who prefer the lies and call you all sorts of unpleasant names. And the balance in important relationships shifts and they don’t always survive. And of course you have to face up to the lies you tell yourself too! It’s been very discouraging (that’s an understatement, really there have been times i’ve just wondered what the point of anything was). But these last few days there has been a palpable shift in the energy. Honesty, even when it’s hard, is always the best policy – I think maybe you just need the perseverance to see its consequences though.
oh that’s too funny. Chiron and Pholus on natal Pluto was in the 1994 chart I was looking at. oops. Well – maybe Chiron was bringing on some healing back then that is coming to fruition now!! As for Pholus, yep – I got Hell all at once! 😀
Oh MandyM darlin’! Just scrolled, only scanning, not reading, have only one thing to add to your whine…..I had earned the gorgeous home, birthed beautiful children had a great “career” etc etc etc…….but woke up “one day” realizing I was living out of my car and my storage unit….not because I was so busy (which I was) but because I had chosen an abusive psyco-path as a mate. He took me for everything EXCEPT my personal honesty, my Self (the fragment that was left — which can take on roots and grow back nicely, I might add) and my Kids. You know, the Stuff that Matters.
So – my son graduating high school today is a mile-stone fer sure…..he walked away from his father of his own volition 4 years ago….that little Scorpio new baby who I nursed in the street during the northridge earthquake, who survived a terrorist attack at his nursery school summer camp who survived his father’s rage and kidnapping and murdering his dog etc etc etc.
Girlfriend. WHINE away. Have at it. And when you come up for air the world is going to look a whole lot different.
xoxo!
“Is it really more energy in the long run?” For heaven’s sake, THAT is the question of the day!
I am aware that it has taken so much more energy to keep the truth under wraps, to be willing to swallow the lies and keep myself in the dark about what I know to be true. Today was a day when I let the lid off something that I’ve been holding back. Honestly, the force of it pushing up was no longer able to be contained and I let it come through. Two hours of primal scream work, and I didn’t disintegrate, but the truth (or as much of it as I could let through today) is up and out.
I, myself, continue to hold myself to the standard of being unwilling to tell or take in lies and, it is no small feat, to change the patterns, but with the upcoming Venus Transit, the work of preparing for the light is well worth it. Too bad that not all the relationships in my life will survive the scrutiny of lighting the way with truth, I can already see which ones are shrinking from the light and working to stay in the shadows of deception and addiction. Tolerating that, too, has taken far too much energy and I am ready to reclaim that energy for my own creativity, not just the creativity it has taken to stay in denial. There is a better source for that energy to be directed.
My son graduates high school today. Something that began in 1994 that is coming to fruition! lol.
Sun/SNode squaring natal Sun (on the transiting Neptune side). Which for me also means Sun squares natal Pluto/Zeus on the Virgo side of the wheel. (Thank goddess transiting Chyron’s there?! But then Pholus is sneaking up for a conjuction too….eekies)
That’s a Sun/SNode sextile to my own SNode which resides on my MC conjunct that little lady mentioned by Eric yesterday, (natal) Sulamatis. What’s she doing there?, I thought…
…Then so much hit me as I read today’s article. I have mentioned before in this space a negative energy that I have been working with for years that I long ago named the Taurus Syndrome because Taurus as an astro sign seemed to be reflected in all the crap whether it be the sun sign of negative people (what a flurry of them during my Pluto Square!) (Pluto had moved beyond my IC but was still going back and forth in Scorpio in 1994.) In fact, May 1994 saw transiting Jupiter, Nessus, North Node, Pluto, Ixion, Quaoar all still making their way out of Scorpio/4th house (my IC/Jupiter/North Node/Neptune stellium).
Oh, did I mention that Hades is up there on my Taurus MC with Sulamatis? (and the company of Vesta, Sedna and Pallas not far away?) Anyway…moving along….
So…I’m already losing my own train of thought here – point being – there is a whole lot I can track from this time in ’94 to now — and it all does in fact have to do with learning to hear the Truth and Not Go Along For The Ride Once I Have Raised My Awareness. (Which I never have done – even as a kid – my “mistake” was my inability to hear – or my deep training not to – and wow have I paid Hell for um, Honesty. And I don’t mean the kind where you see the positive side, not the negative. That’s piece of cake.)
And I believe that I have just had a revelation of some kind as it relates to letting go of that Karmic stuff on my MC and realizing what great gift I have been given when I look at the IC. Must go off to work with this……
OK then. Thank you for your time, your love, your awareness, your insights PW!
xo
I’m going to read this a few times today. Thank you. There is a lot in it for me – and I really want to get to the bottom of it, I truly want that Sun to burn through the mist. At the moment I am feeling helpless and have been for some months – Saturn square my A/C, Neptune on my Jupiter and Jupiter now on my Moon/IC is not helping (ok, yes it is, they are there for a reason). Hopefully, Mars on my Pluto is going to give me that rocket fuel.
If you will all indulge me, I am going to whine a bit – only so that I can read it after to try and discover the self deceit.
I had a wonderful career for 25 years. 10 years ago I retired my business. At the same time, my ex (who had an addiction to money) gave our life savings to an investment and lost it all (without telling me) while he zoomed up the credit cards. He couldn’t handle it, snapped and became violent. I left with my vehicle and a suitcase. I had been planning on going back to school (I have grade 9 education) as I am a career person, not a just-a-job person, but at that point I needed a job. I’m not going to go into detail about the 3 jobs I have had but they were each horrifying (a factory where I found my supervisors drinking, resulting in 9 months of threats and harassment – too much in my 7th, it follows me wherever I go). I have concluded that I need to be self-employed.
The last 12 years have been 1 step forward, 5 steps back. There were times I was reduced to living in a tent, a woman’s shelter (what a blast! a bunch of women all stressed out PMSing at the same time, I haven’t laughed so hard in my life!!), a boarding house where the girl next door was smoking heroine at 9 am, or asking friends to take me in.
I managed to get myself into college (government funded, thank you!) – it was a fast track course for graphic design, I was computer illiterate to begin with so it wasn’t easy, but I was impressed with myself (this was just following the death of my Father, Brother and Mother). When the course ended, I knew I would have a difficult time getting a job – a five month course will not get your foot in the door easily and my confidence is ridiculous because I know I don’t really know enough.
I did get a job that seemed perfect, but after a year I had hardly done any graphic design (more administration) and I was losing my skills – I couldn’t remember how to use the programs.
Then everything hit at once – my daughter pregnant and me supporting her, hours cut at work but more work piled on, catching my supervisor slapping a summer student and the manager telling me “We can’t let him know he has a case……”, the supervisor harassing me, I started menopause without realizing it, my teeth were abscessing – something had to go so I quit the job.
I had budgeted for a few months while I regrouped, but then my daughter bailed on me leaving me with a rent I couldn’t afford. It was at this point that Pluto came calling again, so after a couple of months of romping with him I am once again on welfare and living in a storage attic with no heat (thank God it’s spring). I have used the last 9 months to heal physically/mentally/emotionally/spiritually – mainly from my Pluto encounters that lasted 5 years. It is now time to move forward and I feel completely stuck career wise. I am limited in the type of work I can do physically, so I spent much time deciding on a new career that would fulfill me. I would not be able to handle the fast-paced pressure of working for someone in this industry (not that they would hire me over someone with talent), and I just do not have the skills anymore for starting my own business.
At the end of next month welfare will be kicking me to get a job, any job. They will not pay for re-training. I want to leave the community I am in, it’s a 20 year part of the past that needs to be left behind. My car will not handle a commute (if I got a job in the new community first), so it makes sense that I would need to move to the new community first. Welfare gives me $377/month for rent (the most a single person can get) and will only offer an extra payment towards moving for last month’s payment. It’s pretty tricky finding a place for $400/month and who would pick a welfare case as a tenant when you could choose someone else?
And at this point, I am just not into dealing with living/sharing a house with strangers as I have had more than enough of the 7th house crap. I don’t know how to afford the gas to get back and forth while I find a place. Blah, blah, and more blah.
Now, I’ve never been a ‘limit’ person – where there’s a will, there’s a way. I know these perceived limitations are all in my mind (some are real yes, but I’m sure they are there for a reason) – it’s like my options are so narrowed to highlight a specific path. I’ve been trying to write a book but it’s not going anywhere (it’s the Pluto experience, and I still don’t understand all of it and when I try to I just get deeper in the rabbit hole, more dots to join, more loose threads and it just gets overwhelming).
My Guides are quiet – they like to do this often – I can imagine them all sitting in front of a big screen Mandy tv with their popcorn saying “Let’s see how she handles THIS one!”
I am sensing that the next few weeks will create a major shift for me and it is absolutely crucial that I am on the ball. My dilemma is in what action to take. It’s almost like I have two choices – I can take action and create what I think I should be doing to expand my world and rise up (my Will) or, just stand still and rooted, open to receive and allow the Universe to reveal it’s Will for me, to me. Maybe there’s something in the middle ground in that too.
Thanks for listening everyone! It has already been most helpful to put all this out there. And the Sun just came out 🙂
ramcrab, what a great comment. Awesome news, and kudos!
Hugging Scorpio, I concur, I can’t see what’s on the other side of the door but there is a palpable sensation that its finally opening. When I first found PW 2 years ago, I was ending a relationship with “someone determined to believe lies”. I was broken by the manipulation and lost in the deceit. Life seemed hopeless and I felt helpless, yet I couldn’t walk away. Finally, the stars forced my hand and I started down the long road of recovery. It has been a grueling exercise in self awareness and cognitive pattern breaking. I learned to stop being impatient for tomorrows change and truly recognize the beauty right in front of me in the moment. In the foggy realm between sleep and wakefulness I have learned to say, “Everything is ok, it’s going to be a great day.” The concept of “not taking things personally”, although I heard it a million times before, was a new revelation. Compassion replaced the anger and I began to create my own happiness. To my amazement, I am happy and free, without a partner. I craved loved but didn’t realize, love is all around us. Love is smelling a beautiful flower, love is sharing a smile with a stranger, love is helping a friend, love is everywhere all the time. I just had to be radically honest with myself and open my eyes! Undoubtedly it took more energy to break the patterns and work through the confusion, but life is better than it ever has been, and that makes it all worthwhile. I would do it again in a heartbeat.
Thanks PW, you’re a life saver!
MaryMack, the metaphor about the headlamp just got a huge WOOT from my soul. I recognize how this blog has been the same for me. Today’s oracle as well. Hugs to all PW gang!
ps: this upcoming full moon/eclipse happens in 4th house for me, conjunct the only planet I’ve got there — Vesta. I’m feeling as if on a a spellunking mission to unearth my sacred space and uncover my own personal truth. using this blog as my metaphorical headlamp.
mm.
this is such juicy stuff for me … pulls me out and lifts me up to a new place. thank you for the perspective and invitation to move into new space. this part of me (only wants attachment — my scorpio moon I suppose) was stuck in this dance with family in which I was labeled crazy and/or emotional … and wouldln’t you know it but I became increasingly unhinged. Why do we tell lies? I just wanted attachment and found a way to know the other’s truth more than my own.
it’s a new day and I’m coming to know my own truth and letting go of the need to attach with others who can’t/wont accept same. freaky and fun stuff.
mm.
Great article and discussion. Thanks PW!
Huffy, I completely resonate with the quote you pulled from the article. Kind of dealing with that with a friend right now. Someone who tells the truth to the detriment of (good) relationships but doesn’t want to hear the truth herself. Amanda had some great insight into this on yesterdays post. Love all the great thought sharing on here!
indranibe, I like your term and explanation of the “softened” version of the truth. Trying to get away from that. Feels like running through waist deep mud most of the time.
And not on topic at all, but I thought Seth Meyers finally cleared up the Obama debate on SNL last week: “In an interview with ABC News on Wednesday, President Obama said, ‘It is important for me to affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.’ OK buddy, we get it, you’re not a Muslim.” Well, I thought it was kinda funny. 😀
And I can’t resist, also from Meyers: “Rush Limbaugh criticized President Obama’s support of gay marriage, accusing the president of leading a war on traditional marriage. And Limbaugh wants it to mean something if he ever gets traditional-married for the fifth time.”
I wanna traditional-marry that guy–Meyers, not Limbaugh! 😛
indranibe – from what I’ve observed, people who lie a lot and are manipulative, tend to come from families that do this -it seems to be a generational thing, a survival tactic. it’s the only way they’ve been taught/have learned to cope. That’s why it’s so hard to deal with them head on.
Hugging -it’s pure alchemy… No time to write more right now – but you’re inspiring. xx
What Huffy said, me too!
Huffy, yeah it’s been a long haul and it aint done by any means. But we have all had so much life happen to us each. Having gone through that immense challenge, I have been able to relate to people on such a deeper level to say with them, “I know exactly what you mean! I know how you feel or how that feels.” And that it’s not a bullshit statement. The magic that happens at that point is a mutual exchange of perspective which I trust simply because of being a part of the growth process.
Sometimes I wake up thinking I’m broken, that I never thought I would have face such a situation about myself, that I should have stayed a monk, happy celibate and immersed in my solitary life. But I feel more alive now, so I think that’s a clue.
Just wanted to share too that since Sunday’s eclipse, I’ve been feeling like for the first time in a long time, I am walking through an open door. There is a fresh breeze. A genuine feeling of release. I know there is always work to do, but my “mom issues” have settled down for the most part, along with the mess I was dealing with re taxes (a form of psychological bondage that manifested as a result of our confused relationship – 8th house Gemini Eclipse for sure!) and deeper internal structural definition has taken shape. I think I can build on this. I’m sure I’ll be tested soon enough.
So honesty is a funny thing. You think you can’t handle it or articulating it, that you don’t have the tools and resources, that you’ll be condemned. I just had to take one day at a time, one truth at a time, on piece of the puzzle. But the right people just seem to pop up at the right time once the process starts. I have so many to thank, I’ve lost count.
HS
I saw the George Clooney film recently, “Good Night and Good Luck” and thought this was relevant to the discussion:
“Most truths are so naked that people feel sorry for them and cover them up, at least a little bit” – Edward R. Murrow
I think that’s about a good a theory as any – at least from a “compassionate” stance. Unfortunately, sometimes Emperor does need to be made aware of the true situation, and as the other cliche goes, “who will bell the cat?”
I think the problem with the “radical honesty” theory is that it assumes people don’t know the truth. People usually do know, and for whatever reason, choose to live with the “softened” version, and other times, people simply don’t know because they don’t have the technical knowledge or means to find out. But few people enjoy being lied to, and I can’t think of too many who choose to adopt the lie once they learn the truth.
As I’ve said elsewhere, sometimes they don’t know what to do with the truth because the “truth” tends to raise all sorts of “problems” and “complexities”, but I think it’s wrong to assume that people don’t know or don’t understand. They may not act on it – for whatever reason – but people usually understand.
Cheers.
What Huffy said !
Wow, how interesting. Thank you Eric.
I’m quite interested in this propellent-of-the-rocket-versus-holding-to-what-we-know issue.
Hi Eric,
I think we’re definitely getting there with regard to developing “tools” to deal with “lies”. As the species (that is, us) evolves and develops, so does our awareness and understanding of things. When we are dealing with stuff like Fukushima, that stuff’s more often the result of expediency than anything else – industry wanting to cash in on technology that’s not properly developed – politicians who think it’s a good idea – and then, ‘bang’ it takes something like this to get people to start thinking. So I don’t think we should be quite so disheartened just yet – vigilant, definitely. And there are many of us who are doing our best to be “grounded in truth”, but people are carrying all sorts of wounds, and also the effects of generations of conditioning so these things take time – we’re dealing with layers and layers and layers of stuff. So, certain things haven’t been critiqued as much as others. I also think that people put up with “lies” (eg, the spouse having an affair etc) because they are often stuck on what to do about it. If you’re not used to being bold – if you’re used to hangin’ with the pack, then, to do something for yourself takes is a bit of a ‘radical’ step – and a lot of courage.
We are definitely not helpless – countless social movements (and individual actions) over the years show us that, but we’re not taught to stand on our own – that’s a new development.
So hang in there, and keep up the great work – love what you do – makes a huge difference to me!
😀
Well, I’ve often wondered about that transiting south (and north) node, since everybody is experiencing the same type of energy, if not necessarily in the same way (house). I mean, it’s not like our own personal south (or north) node. . our own destiny per se. This transiting node is a world-wide symbol for all of humanity; the south node’s patterns of behavior “ripe to be released” in order to make room for the new experiences symbolized by the transiting north node in Sagittarius. I think the way I’m experiencing it is through copius amounts of data; old letters, pictures, memories, etc., and my brother! I have a friend who is going through the process of watching her father die (he’s in his 90’s) and she is having a very strained relationship with her mom. It has brought up many memories (mostly the bad ones) I had with my mom and I must admit that when I talk to my friend about these things we have in common, I feel a release from the past. I suppose I’ve forgotten those bad times for the most part, remembering only the good times. Yet during this period while I sympathize with my friend, I realize I still have old anger buried deep. Releasing it and forgiving my mom is a way to be honest and to make room for the future. Having the Sun on the south node is allowing it to become conscious and I think too that since Juno has been so close to the north node for a while, she has acted (through my friend) as a stimulus to let go of buried anger and hurt feelings.
The transiting south node has been on or near America’s natal Uranus at 8+ Gemini in the 6th house but almost conjunct the 7th house of equal partners. That could be part of the reason we have had to deal with so much political nonsense about women’s rights lately. It was definitely shocking (Uranus) to have to be discussing birth control again after 50 years of The Pill and legalized abortion. I bet it is why there is talk of cutting back on the postal services too!
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“what good is radical honesty if you’re talking to someone determined to believe lies?” Yes, yes and yes!! Thanks so much for this wonderful blog – may the sun burn through all our mists!