Dear Friend and Reader:
It seems like every therapy path and spiritual modality and even diet books are designed to help us do one thing, which is be self aware. And it seems like nearly all foods, mood altering drugs, television programs, alcohol and numerous other products are designed to shut that awareness down.

Today’s astrology is wake-up astrology, on an individual level; but it’s also saying “wake up and figure out you’re not here alone.” The main events all take place in Aries, though two doors down in Aquarius we have similar activity but going in the opposite direction.
Let me explain. In early Aries, where today’s conjunction of Mercury and the Sun takes place, an individual wakes up to the reality that he or she is part of something bigger. That is this odd property that seems to dominate the first 10 or so degrees of Aries.
The spark of self-awareness is also developing in Aquarius, the sign of groups: Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune are aligning for a conjunction that make a close alignment in May and will be in effect all year. Both of these alignments challenge one idea that Western society is soaked in: that we’re in this trip alone; this trip we call life.
There are a lot of people on the planet, and it seems that often, companionship is one of the most difficult things to find. We can look out at the world, and the world is indeed a mostly cold place and mostly concerned with things besides emotional contact; and psychic contact; and creating an actual sense of belonging. In fact sometimes it seems like the whole planet is designed to stop those things.
Not if the planets and the human impulse to grow and evolve get their way.
One tool I found that really helps in becoming self aware is therapy with breathwork. I have attended only one breathwork and it was deeply eye-opening. It is drug-free and not designed shut down the consciousness. Instead it opens things up and allows people to feel and experience deep stuff that we have kept under wraps for so long.
Another “way of the shaman” method is a sweat lodge with the “trust walk” to get there.
The “corn meal ritual” also helps. I was at a women’s retreat for a weekend and at the end of the weekend, each of us stood in a circle and blessed one another with corn meal, saying what we had felt or intuited about one another. We all broke down and cried and realized that we are so used to not allowing ourselves to love who we are. That experience helped a lot of us be more accepting of who we are because we could see the damage we have sustained to our sense of self. We all had so many parts that we felt were unacceptable, that we felt we must hide from others. It was amazing and healing.
All these things are done with other people, because truly, we are not alone.
The title grabbed me as there is a buddhist scholar, Stephen Bachelor, who wrote a book titled, Alone with Others, many years back. In any event, that is way cool M, and E. Today, I had a great experience of patients working WITH me to help them. So cool, even though the person who I was helping and is now exiting called in absent for today, and Monday’s are hard in a healing office what with all the weekend calls to respond to, the day flowed really well. It was long, but everyone helped out, including the woman who called John Hopkins herself to request her records be faxed to me. It’s the small things that really help 🙂
I’m wiped out, but much happier to connect in whatever dimensions with a little more faith that this saturn-uranus-pluto-chiron-jupiter-venus-pallas-mars-sun-mercury setup :):):) will work out just fine in the end! [That’s a little joke… there’s always an alignment coming or going…]
Yeah… today at work during a break a guy I’ve talked with for maybe 2 minutes walked up to me and joyously announced that his oldest son just got accepted into Oxford. I felt this surge of happiness for him, BIG happy wash over me. Turns out this kid is packin’ … he is presently a fundraiser for African clinics that treat women with vaginal fistula, usually a byproduct of clitorandectomy. He is working with The Great Ma’am in ways that are breathtaking in their scope.
I just beamed. The whole planet is starting to pop open like rice flowers on a lake of stars.
m