By Judith Gayle | Political Waves
“Even today there is a dictatorship of a narrow line of thought which kills people’s freedom, their freedom of conscience. This is the drama of the closed heart, the drama of the closed mind … and when the heart and mind are closed there is no place for God.”
— Pope Francis“Should you perceive a problem, you surround that problem with love. You define it in love. You recognize that it is caused by the lack of love that lies behind all problems. And with love, you introduce the understanding that provides the solution.”
–Ken Carey, Return of the Bird Tribes
Well, ain’t we got fun these days, with the heavens full of goads and graces, obstructions defined, barriers readied to storm on one hand and beckoning doors flung wide, on the other? We can always trust Aries to be the sharp point of the spear, now pointing us toward the coming Cross, our opportunity to experience all four of creation’s elements — earth, air, fire and water — at cross point. And just now, even as I write, Venus is conjoining with Neptune in Pisces, joining the water trine along with Saturn and Jupiter, opening up a transcendent path to those willing to reach high enough. If that wasn’t enough, the coming pair of eclipses will bookend this energy nicely, perhaps for the history books.
With weather uncooperative, with violence all around, with obligations (taxes) looming, it’s easy to get carried away by this dramatic soup of energy: the personal, the public, the political. Let’s see if we can sort it into its various vibratory signals, assess where we are as opposed to where we’ve been, and ready ourselves for action. From the mundane to the profound, then, let’s determine if our movement in these last few years is actual progress or just another loop of more of the same. Are we clearing the cobwebs? Or are we creating them? Are we doing the inner work? Confronting the illusions? Telling ourselves the truth?
First, let’s give the regressives their due. The full compliment of crazy is out in force, almost maniacally engaged in nonsense without a twinge of embarrassment, even when they’re proven wrong — or wrongheaded — which is almost always. Eric Holder has been accused of wanting to make gun owners wear tracking devices, a Senate sub-committee in South Carolina wants to extend their Stand Your Ground defense to embryos, and Pat Robertson has publicly petitioned Gawd Almighty to deliver us all from “this president.” True to their austerity ideology (for people, not corporations), the House wasted time and resources by approving Paul Ryan’s most recent budget proposal, which will rid the nation’s health care and food stamp recipients of “paternalistic, arrogant, and downright condescending” assistance from the state. And true to their calling, Limbaugh, Beck and O’Reilly continue to trumpet more hot air to a quickly warming planet.
Taking it to the streets, some crazy lady slipped past Secret Service to throw a shoe at Hillary Clinton’s head as she spoke at a metal recycling convention in Las Vegas. Hil dodged the shoe, and the intent, by asking if the incident was part of Cirque du Soleil, thanking goodness that the thrower “didn’t play softball” and adding that she didn’t know waste management was so controversial. Earlier in the week, she had finally confirmed that she was thinking about running for president, in contrast to Jeb Bush who — identified as one of the GOP’s few credible candidates — has been pressed to run against her. While the thought of a Clinton/Bush campaign season constricts my heart and dashes any hope for actual sociopolitical progress in this nation, I’ll admit that Jeb is the pick of the Bush litter. Still, both parties seem reluctant to commit, and Jeb surely noticed the forest for the trees this week, as his own party members lobbed verbal shoes of their own. In a recent interview, Jeb suggested that illegal immigration is an “act of love” by people hoping to provide for their families. Outrage was immediate.
Now, I don’t want to go all mushy over such a statement, considering that as president, his brother George once told us that, “Too many OB/GYN’s aren’t able to practice their love with women all across the country.” We can’t be exactly sure what ‘love’ means to a Bush, I suppose, but it seems to me that Jeb has a personal stake in this immigration discussion. His wife, Columba — whom he met as an exchange student in Mexico — is a naturalized citizen, and Jeb’s defense of what motivates illegals adds a bit of humanity to an otherwise uncivil discourse. Life is an on-going instruction, and those we marginalize intellectually as “less than” can quickly become our peers and more, even our loved ones, as we recognize our commonalities under the skin. On a vibratory scale, however, Jeb is not resonating with his own. He’s an outlier, a relic from his daddy’s GOP.
On a grander scale than election politics, we know the government is hard-pressed to manage its homegrown crises, even though it’s putting on a happy face, like the one worn by Sylvia Mathews Burwell. It was announced today that Burwell will replace Kathleen Sebelius, who has become the beleaguered face of the Affordable Care Act. Burwell is Obama’s current budget director, hoped to be an effortless confirmation as Secretary of Health and Human Services. The Sebelius resignation comes as something of a surprise, although not without political angst from all sides. Not that being the moving target of this new social contract has been a cake walk. No, seems to me that representing improved healthcare coverage for the American public turned out to be the nation’s worst rescue mission, and Sebelius, bless her, deserves a medal for lasting this long. Keeping her (considerable) composure for five years of muddled politics, inept contractors, frenzied attacks and outright lies took more strength of character than most politicians can muster.
Meanwhile, secrets everyone figured out long ago are receiving confirmation. A retiring prosecutor for the Obama administration tells us that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is corrupt to its core, its leadership doggedly failing to prosecute mega-banks in hopes of employment opportunities down the line that would offer better pay and perks. I know this shocks you to your core, much as you must be absolutely flabbergasted to discover that the CIA not only lied to Congress and the Department of Justice about how many people it tortured during Bush War II, and for how long, but also ducked out on informing its own Inspector General. Further, the “harsh interrogation techniques” used in this process were based on faulty legal reasoning. Go figure.
A decade too late, this news has reached us when we’re too numb to care or when we’re too preoccupied with life-stressors to magnify it into a useful aha! moment. Timing is everything, they say, so your yawn can be forgiven, but at least let’s celebrate that the confirmation has finally come. As footnote, I hear that Alberto Gonzales is now teaching law at a fourth-rate Christian college. I should also note that last decade’s television hit, “24” — eight seasons of chest-thumping “counter-terrorist” drama featuring clandestine operative Jack Bauer, part military icon, part avenging angel, willing to waste anybody to keep America safe — has been brought back from its timely death by the FOX channel, aimed at satiating those to whom Uncle Dick Cheney will always be a great American patriot. “24: Live Another Day” is currently in production, half-season counterbalance to the nation’s growing disdain of over-the-top nationalism.
So, out there, deep in the heart of the nation and the world, has there been enough increase in awareness in the last decade to say we’ve grown into a new understanding of ourselves? I remain faithful to the thought that we’re getting there, even though I still hear ‘stupid’ spoken all around me. I still shake my head at what passes for entertainment. My eyes still well up at the litany of tragic stories that are the consequence of not caring enough for ourselves or one another. We still resist and posture, still judge and project. Looking around for our halos, most of what I see is our warts.
Still, I think we’ve come a way from those first startled mental/emotional impressions that the turn of the century brought us, bouncing off a wall of adolescent response and sleepy misunderstanding. If pain matures us, then we’ve grown up some these last years. We’ve discovered how many times we looked the other way, how often we believed lies that made us feel good about ourselves at the expense of someone else, and we’ve experienced the consequences of not paying more attention to political realities. Personally, we may feel more vulnerable now than we did when we believed lovely lies about who and what we were in the “good old days.” Still, most of us are making our way, facing our fears and meeting our needs. But have we come far enough to consider ourselves prepared for what comes next, for what the astrological impulses are pushing us toward? Are we ready for [r]evolution?
I suspect not all of us feel ready. We can only do so much, some argue with a shrug. Look around at how stuck we are. Collectively we seem unable to get past the barriers that keep us mired in old paradigm consciousness. And it’s easy to get discouraged, considering the magnitude of our challenges, especially that of climate change, our existential nemesis. Makes our brain hurt to think about, makes our heart skip in fear.
What goes on in our heads seems little help at a time like this. What goes on in our emotional body, our feelings — our heart — is a more reliable compass. The two quotes at the top of this post — one from Pope Francis representing the traditions of the church, which includes Biblical dominionism, and another from Ken Carey speaking for a planet-centric transcendence of realization regarding our connection to all things and beings — essentially ask the same thing of us, to inhabit the dynamic of love in all our dealings in order to “overcome” and remake the world. Neither assumes we’re helpless to impact our condition. Both assume that the power of love dominates all else. Are they right?
Could it be that the very hubris of our supposed domination over the things of the world has created a false narrative that keeps us splintered, unaware of our own power as part of the authentic whole? Are we just making this harder than it is, millennia after millennia, locked into what we see with our eyes as opposed to what we know deep within? Are we failing ourselves by being afraid to risk failure? Is our determination to inhabit the safety of status and stuff, what is known and comfortable, that which keeps us from making a necessary leap into a new era?
From an interview with author, Ken Carey, with thanks for permission from the interviewer, Douglas Gillies:
The Third Millennium [the book] was a moment when my love had expanded enough to be one with the Earth’s love, and to feel the Earth as a part of myself and to be connected with the planetary intelligence. At that time, there was a lot of talk about incredible pollution. I live in the Midwest along the Mississippi River. And the Earth said in so many words, “You know Ken, all these environmentalists that say it’ll take 500, 600, 1000 years to clean out all the pollutants and the toxins from the Mississippi River. They’re wrong. I can flush out toxins from that Mississippi River belly a lot quicker than people think.” And that was a few months before we had the great floods in the Midwest. If we look at it as something we’ve got to do alone, it’s daunting, it’s overwhelming. We feel disempowered. But we have help from intelligent systems, bio-regions, ecosystems, mountains. Every aspect of the Earth is intelligent and as soon as we begin to do our part, we’ll see things happening that probably today we would call miracles.”
As we consider our options at this point in history — including our ability to discern what is real from what is not — what is mystical seems just as relevant to me as everything I see all around me. In 3D, the surest template for reality is nature, and yet due to the changes the planet is undergoing, even that is not so sure as it was. Perhaps this is that moment when seeing and believing don’t have much in common anymore. Perhaps there’s more under heaven than we know, Horatio. Again, Carey:
Many people have a bad self-image and it’s inhibiting their success in life, so they try to reprogram themselves with a better self-image. To me that’s like replacing the brass bars of the cage with bars of gold. The real challenge is to let Earth and Sun define us, let the planet define us, let the Life Force define us, moment to moment. We are literally hologramatic projections of the Universe and of the Universe’s intelligence. We have the ability to not only monitor that intelligence in the Universal sea of information in which we exist but to bring it through in our language, in our art, in our architecture, in our every expression.
Read the whole of the interview here and add it to your mental/emotional library. Unless we’re thinking bigger and broader, projecting our creativity outside of the box and following our intuition, we are not bringing all of our energy to the opportunities ahead. We — the whole of us — want to open our arms to being all we are, all we can be, in a time of change and miracles.
When we’ve relaxed into that beingness, then the light bends and the world changes, ecosystems are healed and people are healed.
This thread has narrowed down to the essential topics of love and fear, certainly from the spiritual point of view the Gordian knot at the center of the human condition. The rollercoaster we’re looking at is up and down, fast and furious but full of mirrors, like the fun house, giving us distorted glimpses of self, some masked, some authentic. If we can come to love, accept, forgive, embrace what we see — ALL that we see — the ride will be worthwhile.
If the Ascension dialogues are true [thanks be, good, informative link] we are all readjusting ourselves so that we can contribute as our soul blueprint directs us. Can’t do that when we’re still hanging on to karmic clutter and outworn ideas that stop us from trusting these compelling inner promptings. (Perhaps these will come to be known, one day, as the 2012 energies!) As Sarah points out in her Tarot today, “It’s coming up [in order] to clear. It is coming up to clear.” No new wine in old wineskins.
And within that process, from my point of view, fear is a necessary, perhaps frequent, watering hole but not a place to reside (not that anyone who has spent a bit of time there would want to, for long.) Here’s my favorite quote about fear, it was my mantra when I left the corporate world behind, years back, to go on spiritual walkabout:
The Litany Against Fear from Frank Herbert’s “Dune”
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death
That brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me
And through me.
And when it has gone past
I will turn the inner eye
To see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
(Not sure I would have survived without it.)
Blessed be, dearhearts, and thanks for a splendid conversation this week. Let’s do it again!
Thank you all, especially Judith, for setting off this most excellent conversation. I’m on a bit of a roller coast right now, waiting to find out information that may see me plunging down on a path of my choosing, and a plunge that promises to change my future.
I’ve been on roller coasters, admittedly small ones, no giants. The last time I realized that it wasn’t so bad, that motorcycling could be just as curvy, plunging, and full of G-forces. That made it much easier actually: I’d been motorcycling for a few years at that point and the shift was easy. Riding a bike of the motorized variety is voluntary of course, you choose the roadway, you choose to turn just so, and you ultimately decide the journey. Coasters are rigid, however, the path is on rails as it goes around and up and down, and so it isn’t as random perhaps. I haven’t ridden in a few years now, and I’m actually looking forward to this cosmic coaster ride.
A special thanks to Marymack: I’m a real Washingtonian by birth, and I’m always having to add “state” as a reminder to those I’m speaking to that there is another “Washington.” So how about “Districtonian” or “I’m from the District?”
I LOVE that quote by Ken Carrey (??) and realize that this is indeed how I am progressing through this life — after initial struggle and/or acrimony, I accept and then embrace my situation and, once I surround me/my life in love, I move on to the next thing. I have not seen “my” process articulated so perfectly, thank you, Judy.
As a born/raised Washington, DC-er, (er, Washingtonian, but everyone knows there’s 2 washingtons, so I try out various other identifiers using DC) I am noooo stranger to politics and the various party affiliations. My parents and close neighbors were red and I was blue and I made my way forward (YEARS and years of acrimony at other — esp sharp during the Bush 43) furious-er-and furious-er with the “others” … until I dropped the labels (I am no longer a dem) and let all that go. I am right here, right now surrounding all of it, Washington, the reds-the rights, the blue in love — no more nasty talk or searching out others who want to write about how either side is the devil. In the love I feel for them, for me (as I reckon it’s all about) there is solution.
Thank you for your piece, Judy.
mary
Beautiful piece, Jude. Thank you. And thank you for introducing me to Ken Carey. Such a beautiful and moving thread, too. As I’ve written often enough here, I really faced one of my greatest fears around this time last year, after I’d lost my main job in December and was unable to replace it for months and months. I faced the fear by really opening up to it and turning towards it and blessing the many good things present in my life. I thought I was relatively fearless after this, but once again have been proved wrong in these challenging astrological times, that leave no stone unturned, and other such expressions! Last week I found out that because of a false economy drive my new (ish) job might be at risk. I found myself plunging into that old panicky state again. However, I was able to cope with it better, because I now have tools to deal with it that I didn’t have before.
And yes, the quotes at the beginnng are so apt, dear Jude. The greatest antedote to fear is love, fear cannot exist where there is love. I find it also helps to acknowledge that our parents and our parents’ parents were full of fear, so it’s like a kind of truth for us, as it’s what we grew up with – so liberating to know that we can choose to live life another way.
all of you who write here are super intelligent and phenomenally real to me. i just wanted to say i agree with the “gps” concept for guns/ and maybe you are on to something with the rising global temps with all the political hot air going on and on and on ad nauseum you help give me a more realistic- grounded explanation to all the twisted “stories” people spin.thank you!
Be, I did roller coasters when I was young, and again when my kids were young. Then at the age of forty I learned to downhill ski. Strange terror and pleasure. Now I love snow shoes. I can see more going slow. My fear is not about the cardinal cross: it’s about a decision I have made to grow and it is pushing all my buttons. Kind of like learning to ski when I am afraid of heights, speed, and falling, not to mention fear of looking foolish. I respectful of the Cross. It is teaching me a lot.
What Len said, verbatim (thank you, Len).
And while I may remain a mere admirer of the high ground, having you (all) there as mentor surely keeps inspiration toward aspiration flowing.
Jude, Len, Diva,
Jude, what you say to Len is so spot on. . .TRUST. You said that this piece took a different turn because your instincts were pulling you in a different direction, and you trusted them. Yours being a mutable fire sun sign probably aids your ability to trust that guidance, for which we are all grateful. However, anyone raised in this and many other societies with the same paradigms will hesitate to “go there” (intuition, feeling) because of its bad reputation. Once we see it works, then works again, and then again, will find trusting it (one’s inner self) less and less of a risk.
Diva, I haven’t been on a roller coaster for over 50 years but I have no problem recalling the sensation! It scared the bejezus out of me but I did it more than once because I was young and didn’t want to be seen as a coward. I learned after the 3rd (and last) time that there was no shame in being cautious, but I must also admit that it was a thrilling experience not requiring repetition to remember. The difference between riding the roller coaster and riding the cardinal cross is choice. We all made the choice to ride the CC before we were born and fear of it is not abnormal. I agree that fear doesn’t go away, but I am 99% sure it can be overcome when we must face it. Don’t all heroes feel fear? There is something very pleasurable about being one’s own hero. Thank you so much for noting the blowing winds since 2012, I’d not made that connection, but it is quite symbolic don’t you think?
Len, what Jude said, especially “you’re doing it you just don’t know you are doing it”. What you provide us with is so unique and so Aquarian I can’t imagine life without your observations and conclusions now. It is not arrogance to recognize one’s gift as vital to the well being of others. (Even the new Pope knows that 🙂 )
Another of my favorite writers is Karen Bishop and here is what she wrote just a couple of days ago which seems to fit today’s conversation (at least for me!)
http://www.gamabooks.com/4.10.2014.html
be
Thank you for Carey, Jude. You may quote him henceforth far as I am concerned. Gosh! What a mind-blowing insight…we do not have to do it alone. Nature will take care of herself. We humans may suffer because our poor boundaries and hubris. The intense weather may be the cleansing. There is so much wind! Ever since 2012. More wind. I needed what he said about love and problems. Be I hope you find roller coasters fun. I do not, though my life is running on fear. Received a teaching that fear does not go away. If that’s the goal… If it does go away, then one is in retreat or denial. Nothing changes from denial, retreat, comfort, safety. Fear is a sign you are on the right track. Dayum!
Oh golly, Len. “What you see” when you study a chart is a gift that informs and inspires all those who trust your integrity, gentleness and harmlessness, as well as your considerable skill. THAT is vibration, dearheart. You add to OUR library with your impressions and that’s part and parcel of YOUR intuition, in service to the whole. As to that which you don’t think you know, let’s just say you’re doing it without knowing you’re doing it. Only one piece of advice, then: TRUST YOURSELF. Protocols come and go but Light keeps shining, no matter what!
Jude and be: Once again you leave me utterly humbled and very grateful. As an astrologer, my practice is to constantly ask myself “Is that the way it is, or just how i see it?” Evidently, both of you have evolved past such protocol to both an intuitive and intellectual high ground i am not familiar with. i bow to you both as manifestations of that to which i would aspire and serve. Thank you.
Wonderful to know this arrow found its target, be, (I know, a very Sagittarian thing to say) because the piece took a last minute turn. I had originally thought to take more time with the spiritual aspects of Carey’s message, do right by him in a fuller post — regarding the elemental kingdom, for instance, his commentary in the article about our being made of “starshine,” if you will, and the de-mythification of the spiritual path as opposed to the natural experience of relaxing into authenticity — but as I was writing this week, I became aware that someone out there (or some ones, plural) needed to hear that voice of encouragement and hope NOW.
I’ve become used to following my instincts when they pull me in a specific direction, but it can be nerve wracking — you just have to trust how things will work out, especially “in service,” as Len likes to say. Still, everything is so stressful, these days, every little bit that neutralizes the level of anxiety is blessing. Nature, meditation, creativity and encouragement of all kinds … all those things money can’t buy … help to keep us going. The intangibles are the real majik. So thanks for mentioning that you were one who needed to hear — in truth, so was I.
Your comments on the rollercoaster made me laugh, kiddo. It IS like that, especially if we’re dreading that first fall as disaster rather than anticipating it as adventure. This reminds me of the Abraham/Hicks “emotional set point” dialogues, which direct us (if we wish different outcomes) to identify the emotional level we’re working on, moment to moment, and seek to raise our vibratory rate. Of course some of us like the Drama Queen game, invested in remaining scared shitless to the bitter end, milking the experience for sympathy and further chills and thrills, yadda. It always depends on what we, ourselves, bring to the party, doesn’t it?
As regards the June 2012 chart, Carey said — in one of his trilogy, can’t remember which — that 2012 was the “due date,” and that’s how I’ve looked at it all these years. The “new beginning,” the birthing moment. I would think the chart indicates the conditions of the birthing, the environment into which the new consciousness arrived, frail as yet but fully formed and ready to bloom. What we feed it will tell the tale and I can’t think of better “formula” to nurture the possibilities than the realization that we’re all of a piece — not just humans responsible for bringing a new era into manifestation, but an orchestrated intent by the whole of the cosmos and the hierarchy of intelligence that supports and sustains it.
Hugs and blessings to the blue grass today — be well, and thanks again.
1+ Pisces on the MC (left that out of last paragraph!)
Another great and uplifting read Jude, especially grateful for the Ken Carey quotes. I admit to being up to my ass in alligators these days but I can count on you to recharge my soul’s batteries, and there are just a handful like you that can do that (for me). As to being ready for action, well, how ready are you when you arrive at the top of the highest hill (so far) of the roller coaster? Are you prepared for a thrilling ride; prepared to face your fear bravely? Are you braced for being overwhelmed or anxious to experience a rare sensation? Seems to me that’s the way the astrology (to those aware of it) feels; building, building until you just want to scream.
I admire Kathleen S. Boy, what a trooper she is, and Hillary. . .a Scorpio talking about recycling anything tells me she is on point. I bet these ladies aren’t white-knuckled on the roller coaster, but they are well strapped in and emotionally prepared for the down-hill rush. Not denying the problems (fears) but coping with them and maybe even getting a thrill at being challenged to do the impossible. We may think we know if we’re ready or not, but until the ride is over we can’t know for sure. That’s where the wisdom of feeling becomes a source of strength. Ken Carey says “Every aspect of the Earth is intelligent and as soon as we begin to do our part, we’ll see things happening that probably today we would call miracles.” Not everybody knows this but if we can understand and accept that we are not alone at this time; that there is purpose in the obstacles to be overcome rather than believing it is some form of punishment or somebody else’s fault, we will use the energies more wisely. How well we cooperate with others in a crisis, how willing we are to support others who need help coping, will only strengthen us, not hinder us.
I’ve been spending some time getting to know the chart of the 1st (of 7) squares between Pluto and Uranus, suspecting (feeling) the “purpose” or “goal” of this series of challenges is woven into its details. For example, the ascendant – when set for Washington DC – is 24+ Gemini. That was on June 24, 2012. Ed Snowden’s Mars (action) is 24+ Gemini conjunct his north node (opportunities for growth) at 25+ Gemini. The story of his deeds broke on June 5, 2013, one year after the 1st square between Uranus and Pluto, when transiting Jupiter was at 25+ Gemini. Also in the chart for the 1st square between Uranus and Pluto, with Gemini rising, the ruler of the chart, Mercury, was at 27+ Cancer – opposite the U.S. Sibly Pluto at 27+ Capricorn – in the 2nd house of values.
There are other indications of what things will happen during the period covered by these Uranus-Pluto squares, such as the missing plane’s takeoff chart had the Moon at 7+ Gemini which is where Venus was in the June 2012 Uranus-Pluto chart. She was in the 12th house square Chiron (make aware) in Pisces (feeling) in the 10th house and sextile Uranus (unexpected) and Pallas (planner) in Aries (awakening) in the 11th house. Venus was also conjunct the south node (release) in Gemini (multi) and quincunx Pluto (depth) in Capricorn (establish) in the 7th house. If time were available to study these aspects, a greater understanding of the why’s and wherefores of this event would likely avail themselves.
I bring this up because if this June 2012 chart symbolizes the whole purpose of the series of Uranus-Pluto squares, it should be noted that the 10th house, “the outcome” has 1+ Pisces (when set in Washington DC) and Neptune at 3+ Pisces retrograde, trine the Sun at 3+ Cancer (which conjuncts the U.S. Sibly Venus) in the 1st house. I look at it (the series of squares) in its positive light as generating compassion (Neptune) and a spiritual sensitivity (or negatively as deception and dissolution) in government (10th house) while facilitating (trine) consciousness (Sun) of the country’s positive self-image (1st house) through renewal of its original values (conjunction to natal Venus). This concept encourages me to believe that in a few years from now the U.S. will overcome some of the most deep-seated ills that have caused breakdown in function. it may take many decades to achieve total well-being, but if Ken Carey’s axiom holds true we can expect to see miracles too.
be