Dear Friend and Reader:
The dust and the debris are settling from yesterday’s lunar eclipse, the Mercury retrograde that ended about one week ago and the solar eclipse a week before that, so this was one of those times when eclipses and Mercury retrograde overlap — and they are always chaotic. Economic news is of course the top issue in the world right now, and it’s perhaps the one where the personal meets the political most closely. “Economy” means home. It’s our environment; the place where our energy circulates, and most would say this happens in the form of money. I say it happens in the form of creative energy, because ultimately we run on ideas: that is, if we are doing anything besides exactly what we did yesterday. That need to try something new is the constant demand of business. At what point do we jump into this cycle with some creativity?
I understand that there are extremely serious issues with a banking system that cannot seem to avoid purchasing $1,200 waste baskets for its million-dollar office renovations. (That is the least of its problems, but it reveals the mentality.) Apparently in September there was an electronic run on the banks so serious that the United States was hours from economic collapse; I did not believe it either, but check out the link (sent by Fe Bongolan) and see what you think.
Then you have little things like utility companies raising their rates when people conserve energy. That kind of punishment is sending the message that we may as well crank the heat and leave the lights on. I recognize that power companies have to stay in business too, but you don’t do that exclusively by passing the burden directly to the ratepayers. We need to come around to the conclusion that the ecconomy as we currently experience it is a ripoff. It is a giant machine that harvests our energy. We also need to notice that the way the world does business is not sustainable. If we project a consumption-based economy into the future, there is no way we can sustain this.
On today’s aspect list, I see that Apollo has entered Capricorn, the sign of business, where it will soon make a conjunction to Pluto. Apollo is (on one level) about making the same mistakes over and over again. Martha Lang-Wescott reminds us about that feeling of banging your head against the wall, over and over again. It certainly seems that way. When it makes a conjunction to Pluto in the next few days, we may just notice that’s what we’re doing.
Banks are only part of the economic system. Individual human productivity is the rest. And we are seeing an incredible productivity issue. It is difficult to give evidence, and spot evidence — convincing in writing, because that’s how writing works — is not really proof. How productive do you really feel? Do you relate to what you ‘make’ in your job? Do you use the product that your company makes, or that you are involved with? And what can you do that would benefit people?
Now for the fabulous question — where does the idea come from that the thing that we do that’s the most valuable is the thing that’s needed least? Do we really have an economy based exclusively on feeding addictions? On lottery tickets, beer, coffee, pizza and mindless shopping? How are the pot dealers doing? Are people still refilling their antidepressant prescriptions? If you have any extra money to spend once you’ve paid the utility bills, where are you spending it?
Today’s Chart
Today the Virgo Moon is approaching the opposition of Saturn and Uranus. That is the long-standing aspect (it lasts two years with a long warmup and cooldown on either side). The Moon passes through this as we move through the next 36 hours and the feeling is with us now: it’s the frustrations of getting our emotions (the Moon) involved in the struggle of these two opposing energies, Saturn (structure) and Uranus (that which would change structure). We are in a massive restructuring, also indicated by Pluto in Capricorn. This is VERY longterm stuff, it’s deep and you, personally, have no choice but to participate. Pluto, the king of this whole restructuring thing, is square the Aries Point, and that brings all of us in personally.
Of note, Kirsti Melto informs me that a minor planet in the Kuiper Belt, called Typhon (a god involved with hot, dangerous winds, and cyclonic storms like hurricanes) is blowing through the opposition as well — which gives us a window into the bushfires that have been consuming Victoria, Australia (where we have some readers).
Mars is in Aquarius, and is slowly working its way across that sign, about to aspect the many planets that are there: Jupiter, Juno, Nessus, Chiron and Neptune.
The late Aquarius Sun is in a near-exact conjunction to Neptune, and that is one energy we might be feeling: the desire to deny the whole problem, to numb out or to disappear. Neptune has a profoundly creative side, though you may not think you have access. It involves tuning into the subtler realms of your mind, what some call the spiritual dimension, only the experience doesn’t need to be passive. You can take this as an active challenge.
I’m not trying to play Pisces and make this sound easier than it is — but I can tell you this, panic is not going to get us out of this one and it’s not going to make our lives any better. All that will work are creativity and taking care of one another. We could start by not being so cut off from our neighbors. Sticking together is the only thing that’s ever worked in the long-run on this planet. I don’t think it will fail us now.
carecare7
Thanks so much for all this info! You’ve given me some new ammunition for getting a garden approved, and the timing is almost perfect. This pool has cost us owners $1000’s almost every year to maintain and repair, and hardly anyone uses it.
And the freecycle and barter websites might just be a godsend for me and some of my neighbors. . . can’t believe I’d never heard of them! That is a funny story . . what you can’t give away people will steal if they think they don’t have to pay for something. Human nature; wow.
Don’t know how I could, but I almost missed your reply. So glad I was reviewing some earlier posts and there you were! Thanks so much for taking the time respond.
bk,
Yes! Freecycle is a website you can go to, find your community, get involved and basically list things you want to get rid of and things you need. Sooner or later, someone needs what you have and you find a SAFE way for them pick it up. Or someone has what YOU need and you both arrange a safe way for you to pick it up from them. Everything is totally free, the site, the service and so on. It is local too so you only have to list in your city/town etc. It is at http://www.freecycle.org. I wish more people could know about and so this! It promotes recycling.
There’s also http://www.barter.net, though I haven’t looked at them yet, just heard about them.
We found another way to get rid of things we don’t need. We used to leave them at our curb with a “FREE” sign on them but days would go by and they wouldn’t get taken. So, we put a “For Sale” sign on them in the evening and by next morning, the stuff was gone! People seem to like the idea that they are getting one over on you so they “steal” the same stuff they would not look at twice were it listed as free. I kid you not! It is hilarious. We have laughed about it for years. I guess people value things if there is a price on them more than if they are free.
A good sell for the pool/garden conversion would be the following:
directed toward the owners or managers:
pools take a lot of chemicals and maintenance, this is a cost the owner/manager deals with and could save if the pool were filled in.
pools are safety hazards, especially for small children and need constant safety measures to keep the local children from drowning….or the owners from being sued.
(Yes, you DO have to make it about the money to owners/managers. Sad as it may sound, they will hear that before they will consider it just for the safety of the kids.)
a community garden would be maintained by everyone, thus relieving the owner/manager of the expense. Water capture would offset the cost of watering the garden. (Another savings for the owners/managers.)
directed toward the residents:
community gardens bring the community together, this is something extremely important in these hard economic times; community and personal gardens were what saved thousands of ex-Soviet families from starvation when the Soviet Union broke up and economic times were so bleak. In our own economic times, people will need those gardens to supplement their food supplies.
a garden helps bring oxygen into the area, helps clean the air, helps offset global warming. Pools exacerbate global warming because of their chemicals, carbon footprint (energy use) and their chemical-laden humidity. Gardens need no energy except free sun and free people energy.
gardens are SAFER for the local children than the pool and they teach the children about where their food comes from and about plants, plant life-cycles, and growing things.
the children can be active participants in the garden, which will help them feel responsible for something and give them a sense of confidence. Instead of needing as much constant supervision (that a pool would warrant) the children could be allowed to explore the garden and smell it, feel it, see it.
gardening allows everyone, the kids included, to get exercise in a SAFE (as opposed to the pool) way. It gets the kids out of the house, too.
Gardening lowers blood pressure for those folks that have high blood pressure.
In other words, tell them that instead of focusing on the loss of the pool, focus on the financial gain for the owner and the community unity, safer recreation and learning activities for the children, and food gain for the residents.
I hope these ideas help! If it is ok to put it here, e-mail me if you have any questions. carecare7 at msn dot com (written that way to avoid spam)
No matter how you do it, baby steps are good!
carecare7,
Big Lots I’m familiar with and frequent, but “plug bars” is new to me and, from your description, sounds like something I could (and would) do. I have some CF lighting, but admit the starkness of the whitish light is jarring, so have mixed them with the old fashioned kind. Talk about baby steps!
I live in a condo, part of a series of bldgs. hooked together that used to be apartments, and we are converting to the in-line shut-off valves you spoke of. The owners (and renters) here share common lines for water and gas, and when somebody needs to turn off the water for repairs, we all have to plan ahead or skip the shower. These shut-off valves would be a blessing for the residents as well as Mother Earth.
I will also speak to the board (of directors) about purchasing “water capture” barrels too. Frankly, I’ve been hoping (and secretly planning) to sway enough folks here to fill up the swimming pool with dirt and create a garden instead. Tough sell ’cause most of them bought their units b/c of the pool. Some luxuries are harder to give up than others, huh? Also, in a previous post you mentioned “freecycle”, and hearing this word for the first time (I live under a rock) am assuming that is a play on “recycle” except stuff is free. If I’m wrong let me know. Love this and practice it, and also love the idea of bartering for services and goods.
So thank you and all the other people who have made incremental changes in living habits that contribute to the healing of our planet, and thanks for sharing your ideas.
st. brigit,
Ah, the feeling of knitting in my hands is bliss. I have been knitting and crocheting up a storm of hats, scarves, afghans and such for a year now. I donated many of these to local charities because I live in a wintery place. I get the yarn at bargain prices at the local second-hand or Big Lots stores. The feel of creation in my hands is wonderous and keeps me from eating late at night!
bk, I so agree, we don’t eat fast food either. Cooking from scratch is almost a religious experience for me. My next goal is to be able to have enough time to bake our own wheat bread, preservative-free. We also stopped eating beef six years ago and are moving ever closer to a vegetarian diet.
One of the things we started doing back in 2000 was slowly, little by little as we could afford it, changing every light bulb in our rented home to compact flourescent (CF). We moved four times and every time, we took our CFs with us, replaced the bulbs in each new rented home with them, and stored the other lights. By now, all our lights are CFs throughout the whole house. It took us several years to afford all of them, but they do last so long and it is a good feeling. We also got plug bars at Big Lots (the local seconds cheap store that used to be called Pic-n-Save, then Mcfrugals, now Big Lots) and have plugged all our electronics into these so we can turn them off when we are not using them. No more TV or stereo etc on standby, sucking up energy. They are shut OFF. We have in-line shut-off valves in our showers (yes, we had to remove and reinstall with each move) that allow us to set the water temp (buckets to catch that extra while we set it) and get wet, turn off, soap up, turn on, rinse off, turn off at faucet. It saves us a ton of water. We added water capture barrels on our house to catch run-off from the rain on the roof for the garden. It has been slow and steady for us but every accomplishment feels like a thank-you to our Mother Earth for Her bounty to us. Best of all, it is teaching the kids a different, less consumptive way of living. If we could afford to, we would also buy some land and build an earth ship house but we just can’t so we are doing our baby steps.
st. brigit,
So that’s the “inner Venus” making all that racket! Another clue that I might be on track is that I’ve not succumbed to the siren song of fast food for about a year now, and in fact, it no longer seems to have any attraction. I’m inclined to credit natal Ceres and Chiron conjunct my Sun for a lot of that though.
You must get great joy from giving new life to old furniture pieces and creating your knitted pieces. What a blessing to be aware of and use your talents in the name of beauty and love. You inspire me!
Hey bkoehler!—thanx for your note—Yeah–the “inner Venus” is Pinging loudly and wildly!—-So many people are starting to resonate to the deeper values of simplicity,beauty,and the pure elegance of nature these days—-sounds like you are awake to the Ping of Venus as well!!!!—-I try to buy artisanal breads,cheeses,chocolates,soaps—-I hand-craft salvo-art furniture pieces and hand-knit woolens—–and gather fresh wilde flowers and branches—-I live and breathe Art now—–
“In fact, wouldn’t it be a work of wonder if everybody here contributed one or more personally transforming experiences and then Fe, Eric, Rachel, Genevieve and all the other writers/editors at PW could compile the best of them into a book to sell to the many others out there struggling and looking for direction. I would buy one or even more. You know, as birthday gifts or whatever!”
bkoehler – I concur! Just reading about everyone’s constant, continuing, transformations heartens, and inspires me. I’m starting to look forward to reading the blog entries almost more than the “official” PW posts!
The current of the thinking, the discourse, affirms my feelings and intuition that we are truly (and conscioously, here) being ground through the wheels of a major consciousness shift. With people only fed by the regular news (I don’t watch) full of fear and doom – I can’t adequately explain my joy and excitement at all the changes I see (seeds from the ’60s blossoming; the move to look out for each other, as people did in the ’30s; astounding technological advances in sustainable energy and living on the planet; greater consciousness about food and food sources, etc., etc….and consciousness and magic and synchronicity just increasing expontially, it seems)!
Not to say that there isn’t bad shit going down, on this planet, but I am hitching my wagon onto the next paradigm, and looking forward to the ride! Wondering, and looking forward to finding out, how much of the bad shit will get transmuted before I have to leave (as you say) 3-D. (I’m 58 now.)
blessings
AnnaT
From the time I was a small child, I could not understand why people charged money for “things”, rather than freely giving. All my life, I have dreamed of the return of the WOMB “World withOut Money or Bombs”. People simply have no idea what a paradise this earth is and how absolutely Divine life would be if we loved one another enough to get rid of money. Now I see the fall of the “Roman Empire” so to speak and anticipate with joyful hope a world where we re-create (life is meant to be a recreation) the WOMB. Natal venus at midheaven (conjunct galactic center), moon in virgo and 27 pisces ascendant, aquarius north node.
VL: “Baby steps are better than nothing though.” Yeah, those show up in your spine too! I know that my own tendency is crabwalky –incremental transformation– but sometimes life just bolts out and knocks you into the New.
We have a tornado watch here tonight. 18 month drought (I thought it was 8, but noooo), and now *dry* tornados. Oh joy.
Gardener,
You may already know this but – speaking of kids and coal mining – there is a program on ABC this Friday (10 pm est) called “A Hidden America/Children of the Mountains”, the mountains being Appalachian, and it was filmed here in Kentucky. Diane Sawyer, who is from Kentucky, will host it. I think a lot of people who watch it will be shocked by what they see. Maybe they WILL learn a “darn thing” since we are all part of this transformation going on. One can hope.
mystes~making baby-step progress to getting off the grid. Sometimes I get frustrated…seems like I need more money to get set up to live off of less money. I would love to ditch the job, move to location of choice, build a eco-friendly, sustainable dwelling from scratch. Baby steps are better than nothing though.
I will bite on this one, Eric. What if the money WAS being taken out in real time wire transfers electronically….by the very folks that were screaming for the bailout? What if a ton of them (independently or together, who knows) felt that they would best benefit themselves by creating the crisis? Taking out their money and then making the taxpayers recover the banks afterward makes damn sure they get to keep THEIR money in a bad banking economy. What better way to save your own ass-ets than by taking them out and then claiming “it’s a run on the bank, HELP!” to get taxpayers to help you? It also covers the fact that they took their own money out AND keeps the Fear Machine (TM) going.
Or am I talking out my ass without knowing what the hell I am talking about? I am a novice at this banking and finance stuff so excuse me if I am sounding ignorant. Can someone enlighten me? Is this even a possible explanation for what happened? Where DID all that money go and WHO took it out and WHO (or where) did it go to? Those are the questions to ask.
aword, sorry to hear about your situation. Did any of you read the news story about the 90-odd year-old man that froze to death, slowly, because the utility company turned off his heat? He hadn’t paid a few month’s bills because of dementia, yet no one looked into his situation, even though he had paid his bills on time for over 60 years at that same residence! Your utility company probably didn’t even compare your addresses. People are just invoice numbers now.
nance. . .I see what you’re saying about how all the “crisis’ are connected” . .and don’t forget the water crisis (getting it and keeping it uncontaminated) . .and they are all part of the transformation, right? And it’s the whole globe too. Sort of the hip bone is connected to the thigh bone, in that what happens on one side of the world affects the other side of the world. So this could take a long time . . .unless “we” all have an instant and radical awakening.
aword . . . Can’t believe you got so ripped off by the utility co. Surely the bastards could drop the deposit charge since you were a good paying customer previously. Monopolies. I hate’m.
carecare7 . .obscene – a CLASSIC! I love it too. and speaking of classic. . .
mystes . . “I swan”? Haven’t heard that phrase for 40 years! Thanks for the journey back!
I read about a study where rats fed puffed wheats died within two weeks, yet rats fed only water survived for 1 month. Rats fed whole grain oats and other grains lived for 1 year.
It’s all gluttony, eh Nance? I recently saw a slide show of the young kids mining coal before the labor laws were passed in the United States. Other countries still use a lot of child and adult slavery.
Seems like nothing is new under the sun, and the worst part is we haven’t learned a darn thing. Yet….the indigenous peoples world-wide seemed to blend with the earth just fine…. but who wants to blend?!?! Like my cousin said when she had to come to our house for two weeks every summer when we were kids – “what is there to do besides break beans day and night?”
Oh we are never happy are we?
thanks victoria for the kindness. i know there’s some good things going on but even sometimes people with good things going on in some areas seem to be willfully blind in others. so i vent some frustration 🙁
i’m not totally with the doing things thing though. yes it’s good to be active and to be sharing in the interconnectedness and helping but there’s also a need to kind of stand back and find some clarity before (or instead of) just doing. at least for me, i guess there are different phases and different people are in different places and there are different circumstances too.
i kind of do also worry a bit about the faith in astrology. i’m kind of new to it, introduced by rob brezny, and when i get more than one horoscope (from different sources) pointing in the same direction i am at least reassured that there is some basis for what’s being interpreted …. but i do find myself sometimes only half-reading the astrology of things and just more generally being interested in the priorities being modeled in terms of what gets attention etc. and then i like to make connections with some trends i feel are important.
back to the obama (i can’t seem to leave it alone) i found a lot of people on this site seem to be pretty bought-in to the rhetoric and find that worrying. you know, the new age spirituality (lite) mixed with the opiate for the masses through feel-good politics (not that i am saying that is all that’s here but i find that a worrying trend in general). when i see obama appointing conservative warhawks and people entrenched in an economic system i see as being very problematic, and then seeing how they’re just making it up as they go along but look to be giving the major thrust of their intervention towards shoring up the banking and investment industry, i don’t look at it as some massive bait-and-switch (i’m not that optimistic 🙂 but instead as maybe an indicator of what they’re really about ~~ there’s the pre-election rhetoric, then there’s the action they take once they get in….
i also am a bit wearied of this talk of waking up. yes i want to wake up but perhaps that is the inordinate amount of times i’ve heard the message that we need to wake up (individually, collectively, etc) … perhaps i’m being put too sleep being made to think i’m not awake?
yes personal action is good but really we need collective solutions and when the government is not collectively controlled (but rather beholden to big business and the money industry) then we need to do some thinking around that problem.
as for economies of scale with green energy, i was just reading how what would work well is if the government was to purchase solar and bring down the price substantially (the price goes down 20% for each x amount of panels manufactured) which is the same model as how computer chips came to be so affordable (the government purchased in bulk for the space program, and a few years later we were all able to afford computers)
something else i just read was about ecuador and how they just said they’re going to default on their external debt. not that they couldn’t pay, but that the debts were immoral and illegal and they were going to put people first before debt …. another thing they did in ecuador is enshrine in their constitution rights for the natural world, the first time any country has done that for any rights other than human rights. inspiring stuff.
Another way to look at the ‘economic crisis’ is to view it as an economic transformation.
We are watching the old ways and needs die, and birthing a new way of being in the world. This whole process is increasing awareness around money and how we spend it. This is a very valuable process. Our current way of life is unsustainable. There’s lots of talk about the economic crisis, health crisis, environmental crisis, and yet no one talks about the food crisis (mainstream food is mostly sugar and other toxic substances). It’s all connected.
Focus on the birthing.
aWord… “And not in a fun way…” Every now and then one hopes that ‘deregulation’ would have the touted effect of giving you the opportunity to tell the rat bastards to take a hike. *Two teens* and no space? Check behind the eyeballs. But then again, my own kid stopped meditating after his voice dropped. Still, after I’ve carried out a retreat, he walks into the house and says: Hey mom, am I shrinking or did this place grow?
I have another friend who dropped in from some other airport of existence who can get her gasguzzle to go 50 mpg if she spaces out just right. Things can be bendier than they look…
I recently moved into a smaller apartment (much too small to accomodate two teenagers and their mom comfortably) simply because I couldn’t afford to pay both the ever increasing rent and ever increasing utility bills any longer.
So what did the utility company do? Despite the fact that my move was into another unit WITHIN THE SAME APARTMENT COMPLEX they took the position that this was a NEW ACCOUNT and thusly charged an exorbitant deposit just so I could have the priviledge of continuing my saga of not being able to afford to pay for heat once again.
Oh. And the amount of the deposit was based on the PRIOR TENANT’S usage of their air conditioning over last summer.
Yep. Fuck the utility companies. And not in a fun way.
Hey VL…”I would rather pay more for energy (and use less) because it means we are all living healthier (including our planet)”
At some point doesn’t this scale differently? My household is on Green Choice, renewable fuels. When we first hooked it up 10 years ago, it was 7% higher than conventional. Last year when fossil fuels shot up, we were about 12% lower. Now we are back at about 3% over conventional fuels. As I understand it, the surcharge is to create more capacity for renewables, which is part of what the citizens advisory committee pushed into place.
Karma (or freedom from it) doesn’t factor on the monthly bill, but I swan there’s a different feel from that extra 20,000 lbs/yr of greenhouse gases. It shows up in your spine.
st. brigit~ I’m with you. A few years ago I started feeling “sick” whenever I was walking around a hyper-mart…such a nasty vibe.
Utilities charging more because people are using less and they need to keep their profit margins up (or something like that): really does make you want to scream and/or cry. The thing is, instead of buying into their scheme (as in, “I might as well use more since it’s less”) we need to stand together and stand firm and just not buy into it. I would rather pay more for energy (and use less) because it means we are all living healthier (including our planet); same goes with spending more for hand-produced goods/food instead of lining the pockets of those greedy supermarts.
$550 Billion Stuffed into Mattresses?
As some of you know, I have a few excellent sources with connections to the banking and investment banking industries. One of those sources saw this video and did not waste any time writing to me. Here are her comments, verbatim and in full:
====
My impressions of the video: either Kanjorski is spreading fear or he was put into a state of fear. His facts don’t hold up. If he was informed at 11 am, then all those withdrawals were most likely not in real time. There are 2 ways to make money market withdrawals; by checks and wire transfers (can register in real time). Some of those transactions would have been cleared from the night before. He gives the impression that the events were in real time and over a two hour window. Perhaps he doesn’t understand the process.
The question to ask yourself, is where would the money go? Yes, some might have had a mattress stuffing party but do you really believe that all $550 billion would be stuffed into mattresses. No, most would have deposited the money into a bank. The bank could just as well turn around and deposit the money into the same money market accounts. Who can know???
Another thing to keep in mind is that the funds themselves can halt the withdrawals by putting a freeze on redemptions. Or if the funds suffer enough losses and it can’t return investments at par value ($1), then the funds can return less than net asset value to an investor. This is called breaking the buck.
No, I don’t believe that anyone could know what would have happened even if the money market withdrawals were happening at that rate. One could only say that the situation was critical.
Rep. Kanjorski claims don’t pass the smell test for me. The fear continues to be spread like manure.
See? Now here’s two stories already . . thanks for yours carecare7 and more from mystes too. These life-changes honor the true self (as well as the planet and mankind)and are varied enuf to hold the interest of others who would like to start or learn how to start changing their own. They are adventures, you know?
(another)Good one mystes, and I hope you are right about the over-consumption not just being stupid for stupid’s sake.
fluidity, you might be right about USA being brainwashed, and you would not be alone. I have this sense that Pres. Obama is “biden’ his time” (I thought it was funny!) sort of like fishing, when you let out more line so the fish run with the bait. Then you yank that puppy when the fish takes the bait and reel him in. Makes me sick to say it and think of it (poor fishy), but if you need a fish for dinner, that is a tactic to get one. I think it’s possible that he wants the Washington crowd to just think it’s (almost) business as usual so’s they will let down their guard. Then, when the time is right, he will yank them and bring them on home to pappa. God I hope I’m right!
victoria, I agree with you; there’s is more to tap. Besides Pres. O didn’t give anything to the banks yet, did he? I mean, I know that’s the plan, but he hasn’t given any $$ out without restrictions yet has he? (Sometimes I just have to tune out the news, so I could have missed something)
fluidity, there’s always more to tap? There’s us?
“We need to come around to the conclusion that the economy as we currently experience it is a ripoff. It is a giant machine that harvests our energy”
you said it. and yet the economy as we currently see it has the most popular man in the world completely backing it and ripping the rest of us off, while everyone is talking like it’s ‘change’
people in iceland know what to do
people in argentina knew what to do
europe is beginning to rise up (greece, france, …)
and america is brainwashed into believing their votes for Obama were all they really had to do
meanwhile he’s giving away the farm to the banks, so there won’t be any public wealth left by the time people get upset enough to organize, mobilize and agitate
bK… I am in the process of shifting from an artwriting identity (using a pseudonym) to an tantric-writing identity (using a verinym, I think). The ground keeps rolling beneath the books as the situation with my principle consort morphs all kinda which way. We had spent 2006-2008 restructuring the architecture of a female buddha who turned up while I was writing about colombian erotic figuration (in 1993). I am having to sit with subsequent events a few months until the dust settles (still settling). But the work is on the way.
The point of my sitting-post was that although there is still great value being produced by our cave-dwelling sorority (MayMag lived in a cave for the last 40 years of her life, as did Cybele of underground sun fame, and some hundreds other contemplatives), this particular historical configuration calls for *doing* liberation, not merely sitting it. This is why I am spending time thinking about Shabana, the Kashmiri dancer murdered last month by the Taliban. She was an avatar of a particularly *active* stripe of Awakening. (cf the Janes/Gardener orthogonal shift a few weeks ago).
As for consumer-guilt, honey, I don’t buy it (hah). I think we got here because we wanted/needed to get here, and that there is something immensely intelligent on the other side of this apparent ignorance. But that’s the Tantrika talkin’…
I forgot, one element that is coming out of this financial mess is that more and more people are using freecycle and bartering. Now that’s cool!
Way back when it wasn’t a buzzword, my husband and I downsized our lifestyles. We had just had twins and found that neither of us were willing to put them in the back seat so we could pile up the cash. In other words, I cried after my six-week check up when my doc said I could go back to work. What? I tearfully asked. Hand these precious ungrown souls over to a low-paid, undereducated stranger so I could go make money? That stranger wouldn’t care as much as I, wouldn’t hold their souls as precious like I would, had no invested interest in their emotional well being and psychological well being like I did. The caregiver would not know just how important their little souls are. I could not entrust the wonder that they were to anyone else so I stayed home and we began a buy-nothing lifestyle right then.
::::disclaimer::::This is not to insult the millions of working moms that could not do that due to financial obligations. We were renting, had no real big financial debt at the time and I had not been working for months due to the high-risk pregnancy so we had gotten used to living on one income.
Fast forward 16 years later and we have four kids (yes, we could afford them when we had them) and we still live a frugal life. We have taught our kids that sticking together is the way to live and that having family time is better than having things. All of us try to help at least one person every day, even if it is a minor help like picking up something dropped, giving directions, or listening.
This means that the meltdown affects us way less because we have always had less. We don’t have any stocks to lose, we still rent (from an owner that had no mortgage on the home) and we use a credit union for paying bills. We have never been middle class, we have always recycled by donating unneeded things to charities and buying needed things at thrift stores. Pretty much everything we have was used when we got it, including this computer. We have always lived on so little that we found ways to live without the excesses our neighbors have been accustomed to. Yet we look so middle class and act so middle class…..except for the fact that we just have less “stuff” and don’t own a home. We are living proof that people can live without all that stuff and still enjoy life and be happy. And we have more time to pass on that happiness to others.
Someone once said to a rich corporate owner; “Instead of asking how much more profit can you get this year than last year, ask how many people you can help more this year than last year. Imagine if everyone did that.” I don’t know who said it but it is so appropos to our time.
Oh and bk? I like the word vulgarity too, but my favorite is “obscene” as in “There was an obscene amount of Christmas presents around the tree.” Or, “CEO’s make obscene amounts of money compared to their workers.” I just love that word in that context.
mystes, didn’t see you there when I posted. Please write a book for us with all your fascinating experiences and the wisdom you have accumulated. In fact, wouldn’t it be a work of wonder if everybody here contributed one or more personally transforming experiences and then Fe, Eric, Rachel, Genevieve and all the other writers/editors at PW could compile the best of them into a book to sell to the many others out there struggling and looking for direction. I would buy one or even more. You know, as birthday gifts or whatever!
Eric. . you said it! That sticking together (neighbors et al), in times of crisis especially, is the most dependable way to survive. Look at all the movies made with that theme. It ain’t new, but it works.
And that observation (thanks) about the (Virgo) moon getting involved in the opposition struggle of the 2 big boys. . . the restructuring, really hit home. Called my bank yesterday with a minor question and wound up applying for a consolidation loan that would free up hundreds of $$ for me every month. If it’s accepted. If I’m approved. Geez, I never would have done that consciously, what with the eclipse and all. But now it’s in the works. Even with a partial approval (say half the debt) it would still be a godsend. I could buy a new refrigerator with cash as the one I have now is at least 25 years old! Will know something later today.
victoria. . .so glad to find out that your two posts were made back to back today. I was afraid you had had TWO freaky days in a row. Been having a bit of that “but it’s not Mercury rx anymore” problem too. Is this part of that shadow stuff?
st. briget. . .I liked the way you worded that post-wasteful spending period description. Especially “the vulgarity of it. . “; may I steal that phrase from you? It so describes my opinion of my own financial behaviour for the last 10 years. What a shame. Hope to follow your (and the numerous contributers here) value system and way of life. Have been trying for several years to reduce the spending, but I guess it took getting the rest of the world involved too to make me finally change my bad habits. Tell me more about the hand-crafted items you make.
Darlings… When I was 15 years old I built an eight-sided casita in the woods, dragged a cushion, a couple of books and a blanket in with me. Outside was a small campfire, rice and water. I sat down and said: I’m not getting up until I am Awake.
So I sat there for about 5 days. Day came, then night – at first overhead, then around me. The woods hooted and hummed. I sat, I slept slumped over, I bestirred myself sitting/sleeping, and sat some more. The only mantra I knew was the gayatri: gate, gate, parasamgate, bodhi swaha. I said it, hummed it, sang it, growled it, snored it, spat it until the inside of my mouth was made of sanskrit.
The sixth time I saw the sun (maybe it was the sixth day), my futureself crouched alongside me and whispered: “I’m not here.” “What you mean ‘not here,’ Tonto? Where else would you be?” “I’m in the world this time. You have to get up and go back to the world. Come find me.”
So I did.
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I jumped out of the consumer-driven, Mall-addicted, feeding-frenzy a couple of years ago—-the vulgarity of it was starting to screech on my inner psyche—-Now my life is pretty much in a Zen vibe—simplicity-nature-beauty. I now buy or make hand-crafted items that carry the essence of quiet,natural elegance and dignity——–a much more artistic way of life that feels holy.
Crap, this is going to be a challenging day. Couldn’t even get my post to the right place. It landed in Rachel’s court. High force winds are a blowin the trees back and forth as my computer storage space exploded and spewed its guts into the world. All my clutter I share with fellow citizens of the world. Who knows, maybe it will bring pw some new subscribers. I saved them all.