I just want to note out loud that I missed the obvious in not including Mercury-Uranus in Monday’s column, and its association with a huge mess this morning. There are two factors that I can identify. One is my tendency to look a little ahead in time of where I left off the last piece. I was looking at Thursday’s Full Moon and not at Monday’s chart.
The second is more of a personal matter, which is total exhaustion with the seemingly endless nonstop game of deflect, distract and disrupt being played with our hearts and souls by the government-media-corporate establishment.
We are being constantly immersed in manufactured conflict, which we must either ignore or to some extent get caught up in — a real dilemma for any aware and ethical person.
I feel a lot like my therapist-mentor Joe Trusso felt when I called him up after 9/11 and he said to me: I’m getting sick of this bullshit, which has been going on my whole life (he was born in 1942).
I am sick of it, and feel honor bound to pay attention, and to report what I know, because not only do I carry press credentials that I have earned based on the love of my craft, and built a news organization, I have being a reporter and editor burnished into my soul. And if there was a time when devoted reporters were more needed than we are now, I would like to hear about it. It must have been pretty damned weird (the end of Atlantis comes to mind).
I’ll share my personal story of finding out about the massacre inside the Navy headquarters this morning. I fell asleep to my recording of the Coxing — the stream that runs through the Grandmother Land — and at some point in the morning woke up, flipped on MSNBC and then fell asleep again.
When I figured out that it was Monday morning and once again we were waking up to news of something utterly horrid, my first thought was: more of this crap. They just keep laying it on us. I still hadn’t ‘figured out’ what was happening.
Then I slipped into liminal stage — right at the edge of consciousness, and this confused story became a kind of plot structure for my dreams. I was in an airport mall near the scene of the shooting. Government officials were herding a group of reporters down a corridor and up a flight of stairs, away from the action. I was among them, and when I figured out they were trying to make us (the media) go away, I broke away from the pack and ran down the corridor holding my camera, with the strap around my neck — going my own way. I didn’t fear any reprisal or getting snagged or picked up; I just went the other way.
That was the saving grace — the dolphin of Neptune — doing what I do, the way I do it, I am not a member of the media herd; I don’t play to the advertisers; I don’t fail to ask the questions that someone thinks someone would think would be weird to ask. I don’t worry about being called a conspiracy nut: as an investigative reporter and the owner of all my company’s stock, I take responsibility for what I write and I trust that any judge would at least follow my reasoning that led to my conclusion. So I have my independence from the pack.
That’s all very nice. And I may have overlooked Mercury-Uranus as a kind of protest. Enough of this bullshit. Can we just have ONE calm week in world affairs? Why do we go from being on the brink of a world war on one Monday morning to the very headquarters of the most massive Navy ever created being the scene of a mass shooting one week later?
Floating around in my liminal state, noting the time of the incident, I thought, the perfect title of an article about this incident would be: Honor and Discipline in the United States Navy.
One other thing. Last night, I took out this bit from my daily column, sourced by Amanda to one of our minor planet specialists, Kirsti Melto:
Other mythological sources describe her as representing “violent and gushing waters” with another sea deity representing the calm seas (there are usualy numerous versions of any myth). Yet even still waters have powerful currents; all living water is in motion. We will see what manifestation emerges; perhaps we will get the deep, placid side of Pisces rather than the roaring waters.
I have not missed the ‘irony’ that we are getting some news from the sea the week of the Salacia Full Moon. I know this is a proving moment — a moment when we get a glimpse into what this new planet is about. I’m still watching.
Tonglen is a meditation practice found in Tibetan Buddhism. Tonglen is Tibetan for ‘giving and taking’ (or sending and receiving). In the practice, one visualizes taking onto oneself the suffering of others on the in-breath, and on the out-breath giving happiness and success to all sentient beings.
The function of the practice is to:
– reduce selfish attachment
– increase a sense of renunciation
– create positive karma by giving and helping
– develop and expand loving-kindness and bodhicitta
H.H. The Dalai Lama, who is said to practise Tonglen every day, has said of the technique: “Whether this meditation really helps others or not, it gives me peace of mind. Then I can be more effective, and the benefit is immense.”
Tibetan Buddhist teacher Pema Chodron writes: “Tonglen has to do with cultivating fearlessness. It opens your heart and gives you courage. In tonglen, you breathe in pain; you acknowledge the suffering of the world. You explore the discomfort of the human condition. And then, with every out breath, you open. You connect with your feelings of joy, well-being, satisfaction and tenderheartedness.”
“This practice brings the realization that you can feel both suffering and joy – that both are part of being human. Your heart will open, and you will become less concerned with personal protection. You will cultivate fearlessness and compassion. And that will be of great benefit to others.”
Meditation is good medicine for a culture with too much monkey mind. Sorry about the commanding series of words I used. Only suggestions.
There are other actions one can take, wandering_yeti. There is a Buddhist meditation in which one inhales the sufferings of the world and exhales peace, healing, forgiveness. In a book about the Dalai Lama, the author describes watching the Dalai Lama meditating one morning. At one point, he reaches over and turns on the radio and lets the news play for a while, still meditating.
Even if you don’t see the difference in the world if you do such a practice, even if you think it’s ridiculous hocus-pocus, if you do this meditation, you’ll certainly feel better afterwards.
Sick of it…yeah. The old guard has been at this game for at least 6000 years and now its game has swallowed the planet. Tooooo much monkey. Or has it swallowed the whole planet? It seems like it has when you look through the lenses of electronic media. Then there’s the crows, the squirrels and the spiders that never make it onto the news.
I can’t watch the news like you do. It makes me sick and angry with a constant vibe of righteous indignation. That kind of thing burns your internal organs up. While I appreciate what you do here, maybe delegating hours of news so that none of your team has to take more than an hour a day? The news is a warped perspective. It ignores everything that works, every act of kindness, every ingenious breakthrough that happens outside its camera lenses. So many people plugged into it just ups the volume on all the fearful energy, a self fulfilling prophecy, a closed loop of freaked out entropy.
I hear there’s trees in upstate New York. They can only do so much for you until you give them permission. They can take emotions and render them neutral, grounding them to the Earth. Don’t you have a dog? Turn off that idiot box, please and spend some time with critters who don’t have the curse of toooo much monkey.
The “… seemingly endless nonstop game of deflect, distract and disrupt being played with our hearts and souls by the government-media-corporate establishment…” is the old guard building and re-building the energies of fear, confusion and blame. As a journalist or activist or rational person who wants to stay informed, each of us is exposed to these things. And it’s hard not to get sucked in. The “establishment” is very good at this level of manipulation. They’re acting out of fear, and trying to perpetuate it because a future without it holds little of their usual rewards. In fact, they don’t know what it holds, which is even more scary to them. (Please read these words inside your head as facts not approbation.) It can be scary to those of us hoping for our view of a better world, too.
The only thing we can know about this future is that it grows out of the seeds that we plant, and have been planting.
When I see something happen. like yet another shooter, killing others and being hunted down and shot himself (so far, all male, right), I wonder what are they working out. Are they embodying the internal rage of our society? Maybe. If that’s the case, then when a military man does this, maybe he’s embodying the rage of Warriors who find themselves fighting and killing for motives that aren’t noble.
I’m looking forward to hearing about who he really was, from people who loved him and his natal chart and transits, rather than the stories that will (no doubt) explain what was wrong with him and all the bad things he’s done.
Sick of this bullshit. . . oh, too true. It is a seemingly never ending tsunami of bullshit, all to what end? I can only wonder if humans have always acted this way, and it is only that we have such instant communication that we are now aware of such heinous behavior. Certain, the reporting of what happens is distorted, both intentionally and unintentionally. The unintentional distortion is in the instantaneous aspect, where “information” is broadcast around the globe in a nanosecond, without any time taken to reflect or absorb or even choose appropriate language let alone verification. The result? As noted by Fe in another post – “we are forced to numb ourselves out.” And once we do that, go numb, how shall we ever evolve beyond this? How can we create something different, a “new planet”? Have we gotten to the point where we no longer care about what happens to anyone else, that our hearts and souls have already left the planet? Is this one of the intended consequences of the constant distractions and crises?
For me, I was outside yesterday morning in my garage with two friends, sifting through mouse turds and other detritus, hauling it to the curb for the trash haulers and scavengers to take away (recycling, of course). I came into the house in the early afternoon to hear the news. My own reaction was almost non-existent, and my almost non-reaction engendered a reaction. How much can we take? How long can we take it? How do we stop it? I don’t know any answers, but am praying for guidance from the stars, from the gods/esses.
Why do I have this sinking feeling that humans do not deserve to be on this planet? Passing thoughts, these, as the waves keep coming.
Thank you, Eric, for posting your experiences. Thank you for your keen perspective on these never ending assaults, for reporting them, for the astrology that sheds light on events, as well as providing us the opportunity to be aware and to consciously choose how to work with the energies.
JannKinz
PS: Great recording of the Coxing. It will be a new favorite for listening, right along with waves on the Great Lakes and ocean waves. Thank you.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different reaction. Most times I don’t know what to think anymore, is it wise to watch/read the news? Be besieged by the hate and meaningless violence? What will that change? I understand depression at a very intimate level and with that PTSD as well. Yet even in my most deepest darkest moments I do not for an instant think I should inflict pain on someone else so I can be taken out of mine. Is it a coward who thinks he can let another do what he alone cannot? There are too many questions I cannot answer, but I have always come to Eric’s writing for a possible glimpse of understanding. I’ve walked with him in Spirit through the Grandmother lands, laid in the sunshine musing at the thoughts provoked by the erotica, sat in meditation in the Temple of Delphi while he works the Tarot, and stretched my mind to try and understand the stars and their meanings. When darkness came the day my teenage son came home as a Goth, I turned it into art and learned I had a creative eye that could be visioned in photography. I also learned that he and his friends found the art of being my Gothic models more fun than a road into a dark lifestyle. How in this darkness now do we find our way to the light in the midst of daily violence and the ever increasing of show of mans inhumanity to man? I sadly do not have the answers, but I have hold of Eric’s hand (metaphorically) as he leads the way and focuses the flashlight of exposure and understanding. Be it through the brutal honesty of his journalism or the insight to the starry night sky. I am grateful for his personal sacrifice, be that sleep or peace of mind, to bring us together human to human and heart to heart. V~
The photo selection of sailors on the deck of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is not missed.
In 2004, the USS George Washington was on station in the North Arabian Gulf in support of Operation Vigilant Resolve, the largest combat mission since George Dubya declared the end of “major hostilities” in Iraq. Its aircraft dropped 500-pound GBU-12 laser-guided bombs and 20-mm strafing run on insurgent positions in Fallujah. The First Battle of Fallujah marked a turning point in public perception of the on-going conflict because insurgents, rather than Saddam loyalists, were seen as the chief opponents of U.S. forces.
In 2008, the USS George Washington arrived at her new homeport of Yokosuka, Japan, the largest strategically important U.S. Naval installation in the western Pacific. Part of the Seventh Fleet, the United States Navy’s permanent forward projection force, it would be used would be in case of conflict in Korea or a conflict between People’s Republic of China and Taiwan in the Taiwan Strait.
The United States’ only permanently forward-deployed aircraft carrier, the USS George Washington departed Yokosuka on Friday, September 13, quite obviously for a timely patrol.
In regard to Salacia…this Pisces has been struggling a lot lately with the strong desire to dive away into my piscean deep, placid state not only because of the rushing water of conflict in the world, but also the constant immersion into waves of crazy conflict in my own life that seems to happen from simply being in the world around so many upset people. I have used the phrase, “I am sick of it,” a good deal this week and I am continually trying to figure out how to maintain a balance of sanity, my inner peace, in the midst of it.
You did the right thing, in your Full Moon astrology post, Eric, no misteps, as I commented there. I value your gift and the sense of responsibility you bear to keep us informed, and to present the news of events through an unadulterated lens. Mars, Mercury, and Uranus may be creating the headlines. but Venus and her aspects with Saturn, Chiron and the Full moon in Pisces are a reminder that LOVE is in charge, no matter what.
http://planetwaves.fm/united-astrology-conference/ particularly for Dale O’Brien and David Tresemer interviews right now.
After listening to these interviews, I had to look up Eros. He’s been conjunct Mars in Leo, accompanying those volatile transits to Uranus and Saturn. Over the weekend Mercury was the corner of a cardinal square, anchored in Cancer more precisely by BML than Jupiter, who is still in the picture opposing Pluto. The trine sextile action between Saturn, Venus, Chiron and Pluto on the other side of the wheel feels like transforming love to me, even in the midst of the ultimate transformation–death.
I love the part about falling asleep listening to water.
And I love that you love your craft, have built a news organization, and have being a reporter and editor burnished into your soul. I love what you do and the way you do it.
Thank you for asking questions, raising the bar and setting the example to live authentically, apart from the herd.
Dear Eric
You and your work are deeply appreciated by oh so many people here. I feel like I want to say ‘give yourself a break please’.
This is a great article, thank you
I feel mighty grateful to live in a country with an insignificant number of guns in private ownership and a mainly unarmed police force.
Much love and a big hug
would that I could, I’d send you some sleep in exchange for your astro-abilities 🙂 … wonder if those press creds are the container you are encouraged to dive under … I am sorry if that’s woefully inadequate thing to say, but I’m such a fan of your work, regardless of one issue or blog.
hugs, love to you during these challenging times,
mary
“I am sick of it, and feel honor bound to pay attention, and to report what I know.” Yes. I understand this. I woke up yesterday and in my own liminal state, before logging on or turning on the lights, understood that I need to step back from the news for a while. Bearing witness has worn me down spiritually. Thank goodness spirit is ever regenerating. I get so deeply what you’re talking about, Eric. Thank you for the work you do. Wishing you peace and comfort.
Lot’s of love to you Eric, thanks for all you share.