I know from my own experiences of freezing up just when I wanted to say something how difficult it can be to speak up. Anyone speaking out is progress in this world, where we’re so persistently silenced and pruned. This is especially true when discussing one’s own pain and struggle. In that respect, whatever it takes. The struggle with silence is massive for many people and any choice to raise one’s voice can feel like a miracle has happened.
Yesterday a friend (who you’ll be hearing from on Planet Waves FM soon) who went from being a record industry PR guy to being an urban farmer, asked me what was up at Planet Waves and in the sky. I told him about the gender discussion happening here and many places on the Internet, and its relationship to Mars in Libra. He asked if there were any new approaches or new models arising in the discussion, rather than just discussion about the problem. That’s a good question. I told him that on the new model subject not yet, that I had seen.
However, many points of discussion that I’ve seen here the past few weeks would lead the way to solutions, because you have to see and identify a problem to solve it. The discussion on Friday’s daily post was a significant step in that direction, as it began to address the struggle people have had with their fathers, and I have seen that just being aware of this material is a step on the road to healing. That is the direction we need to take the whole discussion here — from awareness to healing.
For every hurt or struggle I’ve seen raised so far, I’ve encountered a healing process or therapy tool. We don’t have to live with these struggles. As the poet Adrienne Rich has said, “There are methods but we don’t use them.” We need to be aware of them and we need to use them. Many readers have had success in healing process, and people here would benefit from hearing from you.
Many people in our audience are trained as practitioners, facilitators, midwives and doulas (literally or metaphorically) of some kind. Many others have spent years devoted to self-awareness and study. Many have spent their whole life, or lifetimes, preparing for this moment when their talents and calling would be needed. As we enter the Mercury retrograde, please bring out what you know, what you’ve learned and your vision for how the world can be. If you have an idea for a way forward, please step forward and share that with us. This is the moment, and we are listening eagerly.
Can this thread be archived somewhere so it doesn’t get lost? There is so much valuable information here and as time goes on it is going to be harder to locate the thread. Such an inspiring collective tapestry should not be buried in the relentless march of days in in PW-land.
Wow Colee – that’s some talent you’ve got there….
Ciao bella! Hope you’re well.
Big and deep thanks to Anastacia, Marg (the breath is crucial!) and Liz, and everybody.
Thank you, Lizzy.
You too, DivaCarla. Your work is inspiring.
Yes. I second Divacarla. Amazing work, Marg, and your healing list is truly valuable.
Thank you for asking this question.
I have just come through a weekend immersed in a profound healing modality that could benefit every human on this planet. Part of the beauty of it is that it benefits more than the one person seeking the healing. It benefits each individual involved, as well as the collective systems being addressed….the microcosm as well as the macrocosm if you will. With this work we heal parts of ourselves, our family members, our ancestors and even others who are living out similar patterns in their lives.
Family Constellations.
If you don’t know about this work, learn about it.
The benefits and profound healing of this work have ripple effects that are indescribable. This work addresses patterns that we are each living out, as a result of what has occurred in our lives as well as our ancestral lines. These patterns are energetic and subconscious, and through family constellation work we are able to see them and experience them, in our FELT BODIES and in our HEARTS, such that we carry the experience with us through the rest of our days. This work brings us out of our minds and into our hearts, where we get to EXPERIENCE what it feels like to have a heart open to give and receive love. This work is all about healing through love, about healing the wounds that disconnect us from love. It’s about leaving the past in the past and moving forward with love. When we participate in family constellations, not only are we healing our specific patterns of subconscious behavior, which are playing out in our daily interactions with people and the world around us, but we are exercising our hearts, in order to practice experiencing life, rather than thinking our way through life. We bring a particular story to the table, and we see our family presented to us in a different perspective, showing us that there are different stories available and, even better, that we can let go of creating a story altogether.
This work is beyond words, thus it is difficult to describe. How do you put words to an experience of the heart, and truly convey the depths of its power?
There is profound potential in this work, if only we open our hearts to it 🙂
Thank you Eric, for initiating conversation about HOW to move forward, HOW to heal. Thank you for inviting us to share our own paths. Sharing our stories is only the first step in reconnecting with each other on a soul level.
Thanks, Lizzy.
For me, my way forward has mostly centered on the Know Thy Self approach to life and the use of Yoga Nidra as a tool to facilitate self-knowledge, healing and a reclamation of my innate sensual and sexual vitality.
As a long time enthusiast of Yoga Nidra and Somatic movement (I found both at the age of 14), teaching people to engage with and listen to their central and peripheral nervous systems, I have seen countless people strengthen the inner muscle of self-trust as a result of being in better contact with their body-mind; energetically, chemically, and electrically. I have seen when someone trust’s themselves, is intimately acquainted with their values and self-worth, their way forward in most situations is more easily seen and felt. Even if that means a long pregnant pause.
The taboo on Knowing Thyself I feel was propagated so people could be manipulated. I feel in many ways, the Church laid the groundwork for the MAD-Men or advertisers to come along and segue all the programming (particularly around our sexuality) and guilt, festering in our mental and emotional bodies, into consumerism. Every time a commercial on TV & radio or ad in a magazine is in your view, it’s essentially the basket coming down the pew. It’s coming down the pew not for that fiver you have in your pocket, they want the Alexander Hamilton or better yet, just hand over that Jackson you have.
Ultimately, they want your self-esteem.
If I know Thyself, my values and I trust myself, when the unpredictable or erratic comes along I know that a response that is reflective of who I am is inside of me somewhere and, I am less likely to be manipulated by what is being presented to me. For me, the combination of the above also means that I am willing to make mistakes, and I do. I am willing to live with the consequences and results of my mis-takes, my choices, so I can be free to express myself.
As a lover, as an artist, as a teacher. As a human being.
As a child I suffered tremendously at the hands of my Father. As a result of knowing myself, when the nurse inserting the catheter, in the last few days of his life, was hurting him, I gently but swiftly took his penis from her and asked her to walk me through doing the procedure.
A girl friend later asked “how could you do that?” my only answer was “how could I not?”
Shout out to Marg! Happy to see you here! Ago to sexologicsl body work, pelvic release work and other body focused modalities!
One day, while receiving a massage from a new (to me) therapist, he told me that I had chronic pelvic tension that he couldn’t address unless he did some “internal” work. By inserting fingers into my vagina, he could reach some of the muscles that were involved. He was trustworthy, so I asked him to do that work. I immediately felt a comfort and fluidity in my entire abdomen that I never had before. I quit having cramps every month with my flow.
Dancing, skating, and lovemaking became so much more enjoyable, I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t know my body could feel so wonderful. I felt like I was really enjoying being in my human body for the first time. As is common of life-changing healings, it turned out that was just the first layer. By the time that onion was peeled, I had remembered and released the effects of receiving the abuse that had been the trigger for the chronic tension. I became friends with my body.
Through life’s twists and turns, I later found myself helping create a new educational modality that helps others heal: Sexological Bodywork. During the past eleven years, it has developed. Sexological bodyworkers teach embodiment skills, and help others understand their bodies and their sexuality.
Some of the most valuable things I’ve learned on this journey are:
Breath is crucial in healing.
Healing any kind of wounding is easier when you get the body involved.
When we truly heal, we heal on all levels: physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
When the healing originates on the spiritual level and the entire being aligns with it, a “miracle” occurs.
Experiencing your body and sexuality with pleasure, and without shame, is healing. In fact, it’s divine.
I’m in a new world. I don’t yet know how to be here. Or maybe I do. I know how not to be; my life has proven that to me but the same lessons I learned are all confronting me again. I must do it differently this time. I can not be what others seem to want me to be.
I am a Virgo with Cancer rising at 13 Cancer; the grand cross, as just expressed, has profoundly impacted my psyche. I have my Natal north node exact to 6minutes conjunct Uranus at 27 Leo. I must be exactly who I am – I could never do the dance – but being who I am has never been popular. I have found comfort with a specific few others who played the way I really do and we were together, for a time, so rewarded. I have a God sent wife who has come with me on this journey. She is my hope and healing. We are walking together toward the void of the great unknown. We know each other (practice unconditional acceptance) and we are determined to walk together.
I have to speak about the things I experience – but even to a group of seekers which I belong – I seem to be more of a disturbance than anything. My inability to wear a mask has me challenging the group concept of happily accepting now. I do feel peaceful now but I don’t have joy as my only expression. I feel the slightest discord among people but find myself rejected when I try to point out the subtle shift of consciousness being called for. Everyone seems to simply want to pretend. I rarely feel connected to the larger group. I still can’t do the dance.
I didn’t come here to learn a dance. I came to expose the dance. That is not accepted well among any group, no matter how evolved they believe they are. It’s always just another dance. Every other dancer either has advice on where I am missing it or anger toward my presumption that we are just dancing. I don’t dance well and dancing well seems to be the only quality honored by the collective. Even though, I am compelled to do the dance I came to do – but it doesn’t feel like a dance to me – though I know it is; its just mine and I’ve always feared the utter rejection of me.
I am truly doing my dance as best I can lately – but I know I must share more of it – regardless the cost. It is my challenge I am facing. Jackson Brown’s “For a Dancer” makes me cry as the fearless truth is exposed in me. We all have a unique dance to share but we can’t just do the steps allowed by the collective dance. I only want to see the other dance honestly, fearlessly. I must do it myself fearlessly. I am unable not to anymore. I don’t know how to let go just yet but I will; I must.
My natal Mars is at 9+ Libra with point of fortune at 10 Libra. This past mars retrograde hovered over that spot for weeks and weeks. It is the center of yod formed by my Sun/Pluto at 9 Virgo to Neptune at 9 Scorpio and like an archer it is pointing at Eris rx at 10 Aries. Uranus has been hovering over that territory for years it seems. The Mars transit has flipped a switch in me which I am struggling to accept. I must speak with authority now – with no conflicting perspective – but I have no audience anymore.
It’s me I struggle with and it’s an exact mirror of what I sense so strongly in the others – to quote something Susyc wrote in this forum:
“So funny, today I was going over my “sins”; my desire to be the smartest, the best, the center of attention; how I pretend that no one has anything to teach me, how afraid I am of being vulnerable, how I love being a giver and fear being needy, how I can’t share my pain before I understand it completely myself so that when I share it I have my story, my explanation for it that I came to with nobody’s help, and then I wonder why I feel lonely. Everyone who really knows me knows all this about me, but 85% of the time I pretend they are buying all my bullshit. In spite of all this, I love me. I love all the little bits of me in all their different ages who put me together this way so long ago. If this is not how I seem to you, it’s only because I hold all these bits of me so close. Those of you who know differently, you know who you are…”
It is the greatest challenge; how to be vulnerable without getting hurt. This not a new trip for me – just has arrived at a very sensitive place for inner self. Trying to walk fearlessly but fear so very near. Unable to question myself anymore; What will be?
Thanks everyone for your insights.
I’m definitely not a trained practitioner but I was one of the people who wrote about my father in Friday’s post. I let myself go with the comments instead of monitoring them and what came out wasn’t exactly what I intended. That action was a healing experience for me. I actually see myself and some things in my life differently now.
I’ve noticed in the past few years that when I tell other people about something in an honest way the more I am able to see it clearly. And the more public the space the better. I can’t imagine that is for everyone, but it really works for me.
Just recently posted to my Facebook page the following notes:
So funny, today I was going over my “sins”; my desire to be the smartest, the best, the center of attention; how I pretend that no one has anything to teach me, how afraid I am of being vulnerable, how I love being a giver and fear being needy, how I can’t share my pain before I understand it completely myself so that when I share it I have my story, my explanation for it that I came to with nobody’s help, and then I wonder why I feel lonely. Everyone who really knows me knows all this about me, but 85% of the time I pretend they are buying all my bullshit. In spite of all this, I love me. I love all the little bits of me in all their different ages who put me together this way so long ago. If this is not how I seem to you, it’s only because I hold all these bits of me so close. Those of you who know differently, you know who you are… 😉
I ran across this shortly after writing the above, and for some reason they seem to go together:
“And since consciousness precedes reality, when we don’t challenge ourselves, we feel ashamed. Because in every moment, we are either stepping towards growth and light or stagnancy and rot — towards life or towards death. It’s healthy to want this biological life, but at the expense of not living it for fear of losing it, is to suffocate the soul. And since biological life is predeterminately brief, when the soul suffers, it seeps out so that Spirit may steal it away and deposit its essence in an account that can bear to give it life.” ~~ Sebastian Siegal
6/9/2014
“…even the best of us are imperfect. I used to think that anyone who tried to help me, get close to me, had to be perfect because I was so broken. Of course, this kind of thinking only perpetuated my tendency toward separation and loneliness. Luckily, some people were willing to hang in there with me, and not just for the money (a wonderful counselor), who taught me that it’s my imperfections and vulnerability that allow people to get close to me, and that people don’t have to be perfect, but the ones who will confront me in my error and allow me to confront them in their’s, AND STAY to work it out, are the ones worth hanging onto.” Susy’s Monday Vibe
“…learning to love ourselves first” – yes, you’re so right, Amanda – the most fundamental part of the healing process.
So many beautiful comments here. Such a great idea, Eric.
Great question. Thank you for asking. I hope you find these ideas both inspiring & practical.
Truth is a way forward. We are lacking in deep, complete, vulnerable internal acknowledgement and external expression of truth. Correct this, find out what is true and so many other things will follow.
“Most people seem to me, in my cynical moments, to keep things stabilized at about the discomfort of a dislocated shoulder or a tooth about to abscess. They trade honesty off in small chunks for pleasure, and wonder that their lives hold so little joy. Joy is incompatible with tensed shoulders and a stiff neck.
You become uneasy with people in direct proportion to how many lies you have to keep track of in their presence.”
(To read the whole inspiring story, go here: http://www.baen.com/chapters/W200011/0671319744.htm)
The cleansing effect of truth is transformative (and you don’t have to live with my Sagittarius stellium in the 9th house or with my Pisces ascendant to benefit from this).
Sondra Ray, one of the major breathwork teachers and author of many books on relationships and spiritual growth, used to say, “Tell the whole truth faster.” It brings awakening and clarity, which can take us anywhere we want to go. In truth, where we want to go aligns with ease and joy. This is definitely a subjective truth, not something objective we can all agree on and point to, although people tend to sense the same truth often. It is an internal sense of truth, the kind that brings tears to your eyes and chills all over. Frank Herbert described it in “Dune,” and called it truth sense. It’s a big deal. We all have it.
If you ask me, the way forward is to learn to follow this expansive sense of truth and not the contractions and tense, stressful lies we tell ourselves all day every day. There is no need to try to force ourselves to stop the lies. We can’t force that anyway. What we resist does persist. But when we question deeply with curiosity and openness, lies have no place to stick. We become Teflon to them.
What lies?
Oh, you know, just the little ones. 😉 Byron Katie, author of “Loving What Is,” has a sheet of 65 Universal Beliefs, none of which are true in the sense I’m describing, but all of us believe them at one time or another. Here are a few of them:
I need to know what to do.
I don’t know what to do.
I know what is best for others.
I know what is best for myself.
It’s possible to make a mistake.
I need more money.
Life isn’t fair.
I need to do it right.
The world isn’t a safe place.
There is a purpose to my life.
They should agree with me.
They are wrong.
I am right.
Untrue. Every one of them. Don’t believe me! There are ways to check for yourself. Meditatively check inside. Roll one of these thoughts around in your mind while you check your body to see if you feel expansion or contraction.
Truth is expansive. Lies are contractions.
This is an excellent personal internal barometer of whatever you may be doing or saying or thinking. If you like, and you want to go deeper with them, ask Katie’s 4 questions and create turn arounds:
Question 1. Is it true?
Question 2. Can I absolutely know it is true?
Question 3. How do I react when I believe this thought? Make a list.
Question 4. Who would I be without this thought?
Turn it around (to self, other or an opposite) and see if the opposite is at least as true.
Find a few opposites and then prove each one of them at least 3 ways.
There are other methods. This is just one that I, personally, like to use. Meditate, of course. “Enlightenment is an accident. Meditation makes us accident prone.”
Lies are obstacles in our path. Clear those out and the way forward is clear.
I love (and kinda hate) the challenge of trying to be concise with my vision and what I do to try to help manifest that vision. Thanks for opening some space for this. I’m currently really working on the discipline piece, so outlining ideas here is helpful with that.
I believe that we have the opportunity right now to imagine and implement sustainable ways of existing on the earth – moving from a destructive model to a life-enhancing model. In order to do that, I believe we have to go into our grief/rage/pain for what’s happening to the world, feel it, and then let it go in order to see clearly and move forward. We spend so much energy repressing, and we need to free that up if we’re going to get ourselves out of the mess we’re in. It’s the typical Descent-initiation-return theme, and I wrote a whole master’s thesis on ways astrology and ritual can help us to deal with apocalyptic rites of passage (individually and collectively) so that we can engage the creative part of the cycle rather than getting stuck in the descent and dismemberment part.
At this point, I’m passionate about trauma and grief work for myself and others, and I think it makes sense to have access to as many modalities as possible to try and heal these wounds – cuz we’re all different. I believe that one of the most transformational things that can happen is to have spaces where people can feel held, witnessed and validated as they access and process grief and trauma at the somatic level. I am particularly fond of anything that takes me out of head space and into the physical and emotional bodies. I am really good at holding space for these kinds of experiences for others, and am primarily focused on two modalities (that I supplement with lots of other modalities ☺ ).
First up – Therapeutic Astrology. I believe that the process of astrology, in this sense, is more important than the natal chart and that listening to what a person is saying and then orienting to their story based on what I see in the chart is more helpful than any kind of predictive work. Astrology is especially powerful because it essentially allows for an individualized spirituality within a collective context. I work with Evolutionary Astrology because the first time I came across it (at age 30) was the first time in my life that I’d encountered anything complex and sensitive enough to help me contextualize the weirdness of my own experience, and because it allows for perspective as well as depth. The karmic perspective makes sense to me, and Evolutionary Astrology helps to illuminate the progression of the soul over long periods of time, the trauma that has been experienced, the ways these themes have been playing out, and ways the person can begin to re-access the authentic power at their core. So in that sense, I use astrology as a way to identify deep currents within the soul, and then invite my clients to open up and share with me the ways these currents have been active – always listening to where they’re at, and trying to help them access whatever is trying to emerge. Learning about and then shrugging off conditioning seems so very important if we’re going to get through the period we’re in.
Second – I practice a modality called Deep Memory Process. I am absolutely in love with it, and I use it in conjunction with astrology. In DMP -which is essentially cathartic past life regression work that combines shamanic soul retrieval, Tibetan bardo work, Jungian analysis and psychodrama -we’re able to access “memories” that have been carried with the soul and that have contributed to physical/emotional/mental complexes in the current life (“I always have to do it alone,” “I know she’s going to leave me,” “I never have enough” – or chronic illness, body pain, etc.) so that flight/fight/freeze responses can be completed and physical emotional catharsis can happen in order to heal the various etheric bodies, resolve or pop the complex (bardo bubble!) and then allow for integration of the fragmented parts of the psyche/soul can occur.
I guess in summary…feeling, witnessing, letting go of judgment, and learning to love ourselves first…all seem like such important steps.
Introspection, speaking out, voicing the question and living through the pain, are tools for healing certainly have been for eons in therapy. But as far as your client’s question and the discussion here as to the methods and solutions of actually getting to the other side, ‘in action’ of healing, I think we also have to ask it’s source from our current perspective, and not just in history. What is the other side of healing, or literally what that might feel and look like now. This is probably one of the reasons I am so drawn to Esoteric Astrology.
As far as current source, I am starting to understand the internal patterns of energy and of light have to be shifted in me, in practice now. Recognizing there may be deeper patterns we experience that exist, of course personally of foundations from within this life, from past life times, or as a race collectively that we may carry, but also that we may not even be aware of that can keep us locked, or hold us back from receiving growth.
For an example as a current, why is it every time I witness, or I am drawn to a beautiful love story about receiving and appreciating the passion and beauty of being love, and loved, I cry and cry? Yes I am a sensitive emotional being. But is it in the sense of feeling the separation from this love, or is it the bridge to this feeling and experience that is in process in the moment washing over me in aid to further open me up to receive? I have to ask, am I sending out a vibration of healing, or holding onto an embedded pattern in me. Each time I add to that energy pattern of alignment I need to shift it from disappointment and loss to letting go in the now to make room for receiving, and abundance…It is an awareness I am watching anyway, and something I am discovering and working on in the moment.
In meditation yesterday, when I asked, I received very clear images of the evolving patterns in my life. And, from what I understood in that moment, I found they supported one another. (I am sure this experience and the patterns will be different for everyone.) When I asked about a pattern I wanted to heal, or let go of, that same pattern became greatly expanded and filled with a greater light and a feeling of lightness. And in addition to the light pattern going out, I noticed that pattern also started to receive a new pattern dynamic coming in.
As an aside, this made me realize we are connected and supported in this process. Broadly understanding, if it feels negative it is valuable to visualize releasing and clearing the old patterns necessary to building these new energy patterns in alignment – personally, as they are connected at the collective level, to/from/in our earth, and universally helps expedite the healing process for all of humanity.
Eric writes: “I would suggest, if you’re one of the less grounded ones, identify the places in your history where you did have any source of strength. Find that one person back in there.”
Interesting you write this Eric. Yesterday, one of my earliest childhood memories from when I was 5 years old came back to me. I can still feel the experience and see myself walking home from kindergarten. In that moment I had the absolute knowing, as an intuitive light spoke to/within me:
“All this is here in this moment for you, and of you. You are a part of it, all of it is a part of you.”
I realize now this was such gift. A ‘source of strength’ offered to me of oneness and unity in me. In that early moment there was no separation. I am finding that ‘one’ person back in there..
P.S. Transiting asteroid child is conjunct the U.S. north node at 6+ Leo right now.
jere- great advice, and we’re all stumbling with that discipline thing.
aword, remarkable insight! Can you give an example?
be
Personal experience suggests that “impulse (that) stirs in the brain” is strongly influenced by environmental factors including (or maybe mainly) what I consume. I can influence the tendencies of my words, actions and certainly emotions by modifying what I eat (or consume by other means) and by how I relate to other sentient beings (which in a sense if another form of consumption).
The result of this understanding is that I can modify how easy/difficult it is to harmonize with the world around me as long as I stay conscious of the fact that I am constantly in interaction with that which I relate and/or “consume”. The “impulses” are more tapped in, you might say.
Tone down the brain (some degree), (the one where all the b.s. overwhelms). It’s not healthy in overdrive, for too long, (although useful when applicable). Alcohol won’t get you there, it may relieve the symptoms for a brief spell but, sure as shit, it’ll kick your ass eventually (alcoholic neuralgia). Find/explore avenues of creativity: art, gardening.. (not the crap my dad used to say, “Just work (anything… [fuck! how’s hitman for a job?.. dick]), keep yourself mindlessly busy”, no, fuck that, I prefer to ensoul myself, to treat myself and the world as a single entity (knowing full well the infinite differentiation), BASING off the “assumption” that the more well I am, the more well others will be (or at least my capacity to lend a hand). Discipline, that’s the main path I stumble on these days.
All I can throw out right now (best post before I erase it all). So much more to go….
Jere
Something remarkable is happening in the U.S. Len noted that at the 1st quarter square between Moon and Sun which happened last Thursday, the Sun would be in the degree of Gemini where Venus was occult the Sun in June 2012. Thursday morning Juno (voice for the disenfranchised) semi-sextiled Eris (herself disenfranchised) in her new degree that has a theme of introspection. The remarkable thing that is happening is happening in Arizona. Bus loads of undocumented and unescorted children from Central America are seeking asylum. Hundreds and hundreds of them. They are being quartered in Nogales Arizona for now, many of them sick. News of this crisis started appearing on Thursday, the day the Sun was conjunct the degree of the rare 2012 Venus (love) – Occult(hidden from consciousness) – Sun (consciousness) aspect in Gemini (short trips, children) and the day Eris officially entered her new degree of Aries.
Another aspect that day was between Venus (love) in Taurus (comfort) and Jupiter (foreign) in Cancer (home). It was a quintile (72 degrees) and an aspect that “relates to the higher synthesis of the 4 basic elements (Fire, Earth, Air, Water) into the 5th element of Ether”. It is an aspect “relating to the use of the spiritual will and it transcends physical limitations.” (F. Sakoian and L. Acker, The Minor Aspects).
As you say Eric, “you have to see and identify a problem to solve it”. Mercury begins his retrograde conjunct the U.S. Venus (and U.S. Karma) at 3+ Cancer which – for the country as a whole – is an aspect with a purpose. Mercury is a messenger with multiple messages at any given time, and in this era of electronics, multiple modes of communication. He is also a symbol of childhood, especially the education of children. For many in this and other countries, that process of childhood learning via the mind was either non-existent, incomplete or wrong. Now Mercury attempts to educate us via the heart, probably one of many attempts.
Alan Oken, a teacher of metaphysical astrology says “Gemini.. . . . .coordinates the interrelatedness of the personality and the Soul. This is done through Venus, (who) . . brings about a fusion and integration of the various parts of who we are.” (Dell Horoscope magazine, June 2013) Being whole (integrating our various parts) is another way of saying being healed wouldn’t you agree? For the U.S. the astrology (based on its manifestation of busloads of kids seeking asylum) says (to the People who speak to their Representatives in Congress) that we must do something about immigration, and this time using our hearts and compassion rather than just our minds and logic.
For individuals with individual problems, it is, at this time, through the combination of Venus-Mercury-Gemini-Cancer and the Sun we will become whole. Oken goes on to say “Instead of further polarizing the life situations in which we find ourselves, we bring a type of resolution that benefits one and all. When Venus is at work through the OPEN (my caps) Heart, then everyone is a winner.”
be
Yes that’s very basic; family has been in turmoil, with little community to support us; and at the same time we’ve all had some grounding. I mean…even if just a wee little bit. I have read for adopted people who don’t know the day they were born and never met their family of origin (and may never). I would suggest, if you’re one of the less grounded ones, identify the places in your history where you did have any source of strength. Find that one person back in there.
One memory that stands out for me is a perhaps five minute meeting with a guidance counselor when I was in 2nd grade or 3rd grade latest, at PS 268 in Brooklyn — Mr. Viggiano. I was in a lot of pain, he could see that and he really seemed to care. Someone cared in a way they expressed to me. In that moment, I had a contact point. It’s never left me and I still remember him.
How appropriate the photo of the redwood root – many of us have not experienced the grounding of a supportive family unit.
With mercury retrograding from water to air, cancer to gemini, there is the gift of revisiting our thoughts about our roots (family, gender, culture, ethnic,human, spiritual), and the self-awareness that communicates that to others.
Thank you for opening this forum towards healing.
Gosh. Don’t know where to start dear Eric – but thanks for the invitation. Will have a go – first the background I grew up in a pretty dysfunctional family, with a father who was a rampant womaniser, obsessed with success and often away on business, while my mother was often counting out pills, contemplating suicide and left us in the hands of many different strangers (mostly young unhappy women) when we were small. She encouraged me to hate my father by telling me about all his escapades from the age of 10, because this alleviated some of her misery – and I became her shoulder to cry on from then on. I grew up full of repressed rage and fury against my parents – covered over by a passive-aggressive, appeasing nature.
The way out was long and messy. It started with a homeopathic cure that unleashed all the rage I had inside me – but will keep this short, so… The big radical shift came after my boyfriend at the time left me and i decide that I had to do something to help myself out of the hole I was in. I started to follow Buddhist Vipassana meditation classes and retreats, held by wonderful teachers, and devoured books about it. It doesn’t work for many – but it was my therapy. Particularly during the longer retreats – I began to watch my crazy mind and let some of the crap go. I saw how much of my parents stuff i was carrying, and I learned to create a lighter happier mind – which was the total oppsite of the mindset I had grown up with – the miserable “Oh life is so unfair” stuff of my mother. As I did this I was able to let go of the anger I was carrying towards them and it was gradually replaced by love and compassion.
I think the greatest healing gift is to acknowledge our deep dark painful stuff, because it HAS to be acknowledged, as you so rightly say, Eric – but once one has done with the raging to let it go. it’s a process of openng up to stuff, but at a certain point saying I’m going to let go of this now because it’s damaging my mind and body. It isn’t easy to do – but it’s a wonerful feeling. Because in the end we’re all full of dark and light, and capable of both great harm and great love. The Buddhist meditation was a tool for me – it wasn’t THE answer, I think once one really starts looking for a way to heal, one finds the ‘cure’ that is best for one
Thank you Eric, for giving me the opportunity to write about it here.
Thank you Scott, I had you in mind.
Full of ideas for sure, but time does not permit the full expression of what I’d want to address here, because I am teaching today. When I have the time I’ll join this conversation.
If Art were racehorses, then jockeys would be artists, owners would be galleries, art historians would be the media and the bookies would be the art critics.
In the real world when the the bookies mess with the other players, they get pinched if they get caught. Critics openly mess with everyone with impunity. The Art World can be very corrupt. Artists shouldn’t listen to critics, they should only listen to that inner voice that knows what they must do. As a teacher these days, we are being bombarded by the technological application of neuroscience. Despite the repeated assertions by leading neuroscientists, that the only thing we know about the brain is that we know very little, there is a great deal of pseudoneuroscience being applied to teaching that smells like what we used to call brainwashing 50 years ago, or the Dale Carnegie Method, a way of pushing peoples buttons to get the desired response.
My understanding of neuroscience today is that they have experimentally and irrefutably established a timeline for human action. Milliseconds before we act, a part of the brain governing that action lights up indicating a command to act. Milliseconds before that some kind of impulse stirs in the brain, and no one. has any idea where that comes from. The current speculation is that the various chemical, biological and electrical systems that make up our bodies compete with each other in pursuit of their own agendas and the winner somehow must initiate this impulse. The last on to the party, milliseconds after the action, is our conscious mind. It actually creates a story to account for what we just did, and fools itself into believing it initiated the whole process, when in fact it is just creating a rationalization for it.
Lets say Art is allowing that originating impulse to express itself in the physical world through us with the least amount of interference on our parts, then Art Criticism would be the ultimate interference, putting more value on the rationalization than the thing itself. Unfortunately, that is pretty much the way we humans do things, and a lot of us get really upset with those who don’t.
In a perfect world, everything would be art. Everything would be a perfect expression of those. originating impulses.
Charlie
Thank you for the invitation, Eric. Speaking up is necessary to healing, and being witnessed by a person or circle of people who have no agenda beyond presence magnifies the healing. This is especially potent with the subjects arising here around gender and sex.
The throat and the sexual center are connected, energetically and anatomically by the nervous system. Many readers here will be familiar with chakras, the throat (5th chakra), and the sacral (2nd). When you can connect with yourself sexually, you find the power of your voice. When you open your voice, your sexual energy opens and responds. Telling your story out loud allows the physical vibrations to work in your body, move energy, and release.
That is a limitation of the virtual circle, typing stands in for sound. Still it is a good place to begin, and can create a powerful vortex if we share our voices in writing in response to the invitation. If the words typed or spoken freeze in your throat, loosen up by making nonverbal sound. Get the vibration going with humming, chanting, keening, hollering, which may loosen your fingers for typing.
I have reserved this day to go quietly into another layer of my own healing, much inspired by the conversations of this past week. Tomorrow I’ve made space to share some of my story with a Witness. I’ll be happy to share more here in due course.
I want to acknowledge how good this feels, a deliberate invitation to go beyond drama into opportunity for transformation.