The Balancing of Medicine: Of Owls and Skunks, the Pisces Full Moon and the Victoria Declaration, by Eric Francis

Dear Friend and Reader:

The other day I was walking down the sidewalk with a friend, when I saw a beautiful picture of a baby owl in the trash. Without hesitating, I picked it up and made it my own. I explained to her that my primary medicine is Skunk. To me, that means working with the counter-medicine, Owl — particularly the great horned owl (though any Owl will serve).

She seemed a little surprised at this theory. I explained that when you work with an animal guide, it’s best to work both sides of the equation.

Nearly all animals give Skunk a wide berth. While not deadly or especially harmful, nobody wants to get sprayed. Skunk is attractive to the right people, often identifying one another by scent. Skunk has only one natural predator: the Great Horned Owl lacks the usual sense of smell, so does not mind eating Skunk.

Therefore, if you are are protected by Skunk, you make friends with Owl. That’s a good friend to have: one of the supreme hunters, a bearer of wisdom, and a true master of crossing the realms. Even the most hardened rationalist will be a little spooked or mystified by seeing or hearing an owl.

There is a similar principle in astrology, which seems obvious enough but in the old literature, I’ve only ever heard Alice A. Bailey express it. It is central to her theory of the zodiac: opposite signs contain one another. They are different expressions of the same underlying energy. One of the spiritual or growth objectives of astrology is to integrate one’s opposite sign. This may be why so often, opposites attract (including the rising sign, for example, people with Aries rising attracting Libra Sun partners or some such combination).

The Pisces Full Moon, with the Sun in Virgo

We are now approaching the Pisces Full Moon. The full phase of the Moon happens when the luminaries are in opposite signs, such as the Sun in Virgo and the Moon in Pisces. This event happens at 7:55 pm EDT on Monday (literally, Moon Day), Sept. 20, 2021.

This particular Full Moon is tucked up against the Libra equinox. Maybe I’ve read too much Aleister Crowley, though I have particular respect for this crossing of the Sun over the equator. The current Pisces Full Moon is tucked right up against the Aries Point — the Moon less than two degrees from Aries, and the Sun less than two degrees from Libra.

Virgo and Pisces, being mutable feminine signs, have much in common, perhaps more than any two opposite sign pairs. Both are deeply invested in service. Patric Walker once quipped, “Scratch a Pisces and you’ll find a Virgo under their skin.”

Both signs come the ends of their respective hemispheres, which carries a particularly dramatic sense of completion and movement forward — particularly with Monday’s Full Moon happening in the anaretic (very late) degrees.

The integration of Seemingly Opposite Properties

The Virgo-Pisces pairing integrates two qualities that need to be worked with as part of the same thing, though rarely are. Virgo presents the rational and Pisces the imaginal. This could be said as the tangible and the mysterious; the practical and the spiritual.

Here’s an example of how the two might integrate. Herbalism is thought of as the use of plants for natural healing. Virgo is the pragmatic side of this, which knows where and when to gather the various flowers, roots and leaves, and how to prepare them as medicines. Attributes of Virgo that support this are careful study, patience and dedication.

The other side of herbalism is the relationship with the divas of the plants they work with. This is the Pisces side, which is numinous, ineffable and unprovable. However, even people who work regularly in their gardens make friends with the various divas and spirits roaming around their little patch of Earth.

If you work enough with plants, you know when they have adopted you as their person. They say things to you — often helpful, sometimes funny. A qualified and sincere herbalist works with both sides of the equation: they might be well studied, with an excellent workshop or lab; and they are in communication with the spirit of the plant, which guides them in their work, including when and how to prescribe. (The first plant diva to adopt me was mullein.)

Recently I needed some aloe to treat a skin condition. I have a lot of aloe plants, which I had never harvested. I went to one and asked if I could use one of its leaves. Without missing a beat, it said to me, “You’ve taken care of us for 10 years, of course we will take care of you.” (This was the same odd-looking aloe plant that said TAKE ME HOME one day at Adam’s, my favorite garden shop all those years ago.)

Our Medical Interventions Tend to Ignore This

We are now in the midst of what is being sold as a medical crisis. In a strange way, it’s wrapped up in the toxic side of Pisces: belief without the rigorous work of documentation required by Virgo.

Many people fall for the glamorous photos of “scientists” wearing masks and visors (all of whom are professional models) holding beakers of colored water up to the light, or injecting things into test tubes with their thumb on a delicate instrument. This is known as glamor, a word from Theosophy: attraction to the image of something, regardless of its truth or reality.

These are the people who assume you they “believe in science” but who have never read a scientific paper; or who say things like, “Statistics? Don’t bother me with statistics.” They are skipping the Virgo part of the story — actually integrating and understanding something. The whole point of science is to challenge beliefs and appearances, and to get to the underlying truth. That takes a lot of thought. For that to work, you need to activate the whole Virgo-Pisces axis, using actual analysis and also awareness of the spiritual implications.

Science itself is cold as a blade. It needs ethics, it needs a spiritual angle to keep it in line — and you can get there from the full integration of both signs as one idea, Virgo-Pisces, the scientific and the spiritual.

Science as a False Idol

We are not seeing so much of this lately. In fact, I’m going half-mad hearing from so many holistic practitioners, Chinese doctors, yoga teachers and health food devotees seeming to forget why they do what they do, and “believing in science” as if it’s an incense-proffered icon.

They are the same people who act like you have committed blasphemy when you question what “a scientist” says. This is to miss the whole point of science, the findings of which are born to be deconstructed, challenged, disproven and otherwise demolished — or verified, through repeated experimentation.

Science has no fixed conclusions, and it’s not a matter of faith. For holistic practitioners to claim to “believe in the science” with no supporting data, and to ignore the holistic principle, is a betrayal — plain and simple. I am not the only observer and holistic teacher to be stunned by this. I am happy not all of my colleagues have swallowed the purple liquid.

People need guidance. That is the role of wise teachers. It is up to those who have invested their lives in studying processes, methods, approaches, techniques — and who are students of humanity and nature — to help us understand those very things. Otherwise, they are joining the allopathic movement that is designed only to crush them, and us, and has done so since the early 20th century.

The Victoria Declaration

There is a new document making its rounds on the internet. It’s called The Victoria Declaration.

At the top is an introduction, where the authors write that “humanity is at a critical juncture because collectively we have failed to grasp the significance of the events unfolding around us and to respond appropriately.”

I could not have said this better, though I’ve been thinking this very thing every day. Many, many people have not only failed to grasp the significance of events, but have turned hostile on those who strive to. This is beyond mere defensiveness. Perhaps you’ve experienced being described as a psychotic murderer because you stay up late at night and read research papers trying to get at the truth.

“There is little argument that governments globally are exceeding their delegated authority,” the Victoria authors continue. “To permit this unfettered abuse of power is to risk losing the natural rights and freedoms that are the heritage of all people and the foundation of free and just societies.”

We are trading away freedom, justice and the requirement that our leaders be honest, for the aspiration to false safety. This never works out well. Ever. That people are so willing to fall for it is well known to those who study us for the purpose of dominating us. The authors correctly state: “History shows that humanity has often been exploited by the machinations of tyrants, opportunists, oligarchs, and oppressors.” They always take a different form. Today they are not in jackboots or military regalia. They are wearing suits and ties and pretend to be infallible.

Let’s Stop Pretending

How many times has this succeeded because people didn’t believe it can happen? Because they don’t want to look at the evidence? They turn away from those who are obviously harmed? They pretended they don’t notice the stench?

Every time a perfectly reasonable alternative version of events comes up, including ones advocated by people who have well earned their MDs and Ph.D.s and serve society and its institutions, a bunch of zombies go on the attack. They attempt to destroy not only the reasoning of even the most grounded and reasonable dissenters, but also their spirit.

Both the commercial media and participants in social media are doing this without the meekest repentance.

As an accredited member of the working press, I would add that we are being betrayed by the very part of society that is designed to help us understand complex events. This is not the first time it’s happened but it is by far the worst.

It would be nice if the big news outlets were only telling “half of the story.” It’s far worse than that: the systematic suppression of all other viewpoints that has resulted in much damage to society, the rise of medical tyranny, and among many who are being ignored, seething rage. Check out this article and Facebook discussion for an unusual example coming to the surface with unusual force and vehemence.

It’s Wake Up Time

The authors of the Victoria Declaration are correct: We need to wake up and see what is happening, and respond appropriately. People can console themselves with “masks work” and “vaccines work” all they want.

But if these measures worked (to protect our health), we would not be today where we were in the spring of 2020. That people who don’t believe the hype are being blamed outright is part of the sickness. And while today you may be pointing the finger, tomorrow it may be pointed at you for asking a single question; for noting one obvious lie.

People need to believe, and to have faith, and to see the world their way — that is the privilege of Pisces. But this comes with the responsibility to share some objective, verifiable version of events, which are intellectually grounded, and subject to question: that is the work of Virgo.

As humans blessed with the gift of a mind, we have the obligation to reason. As humans blessed with the gifts of faith and belief, we have the responsibility to use them faithfully.

With love,