Dear Friend and Reader:
The Sun continues its trip through Taurus. Wednesday we arrive at the midpoint, which is officially Beltane — the celebration of the Goddess and the tipping point between spring and summer. This is also called Mid-Spring Holiday.
Tuesday at 8:05 pm EST, the Moon forms a conjunction with Jupiter in the next to last degree of Aquarius. This is a reminder that Jupiter is about to ingress Pisces on May 13, in a little over a week from now. (For historical reference, the last time Jupiter entered Pisces was Jan. 17, 2010, in a quad-conjunction with the Moon, Chiron and Neptune.)
Between now and May 13, Jupiter will be moving through the last degree of Aquarius, which I consider one of the most profound of the wheel. It involves an individual emerging into universal consciousness after undergoing a personal metamorphosis.
This highlights what group consciousness is as opposed to mass consciousness: groups are formed of individuals. Tribes are not groups. Crowds at concerts and sports events are not groups. Where people have a sense of their own being and connect with their motive for participating, that is a group. An example of this is a council of elders, where every voice is heard and respected, and that constitutes the true power of the group.
After we get past food, water, shelter and safety, the need for belonging dominates. This includes friendship, family and sense of connection, as well as status and recognition.
Unmistakable Influence of Aquarius
Society is now feeling the distinct influence of Aquarius, in a few different ways. One is about the pressure to conform: to what we are told “the public” wants but really, it’s a few people driving the movement. Anyone who asks questions will be called a denier, or selfish.
This approach to social control is coopting several different human needs, one of which is to be accepted. The need for acceptance is so urgent, most people will do anything to fulfill it. Twentieth-century psychologist Abraham Maslow mapped this out. After we get past food, water, shelter and safety, the need for belonging dominates. This includes friendship, family and sense of connection, as well as status and recognition.
Like hunger, the need for belonging can be marshaled, manipulated, coopted and turned against people. It can be coaxed and swayed, or whipped into a desperate frenzy. This need is particularly deep now because we have spent so many years playing another false game, “Every man for himself.”
I have heard heartbreaking stories the past few weeks of people who took an irrevocable action with their body because their family pressured them, or even coerced them by being told that they would never see their mother again unless they do this one thing.
To me this was typified in the “Army of One” series of recruitment ads, which made it seem like an individual soldier fights the whole war. What we are seeing now is the backlash against decades of phony rugged individualist capitalism. Today, many people are desperate to get together for some common cause; any one will do.
Yet this can take a twisted form when people use the promise of inclusion and the threat of exclusion to get them to do something they would not ordinarily do.
I have heard heartbreaking stories the past few weeks of people who took an irrevocable action with their body because their family pressured them, or even coerced them by being told that they would never see their mother again unless they do this one thing.
The excuse, the alibi that is almost always granted, is the common good. Don’t do this for yourself. Do it for the rest of us. Yet is it true? Who cares; it sounds good. And anyone who doesn’t buy in risks being left out in the cold, hungry and excluded — or so they are made to feel.
Deep within ourselves we need to express actual commonality; we know we are all in this life together. Yet when the pressure is on, and it is right now, it’s difficult for many people to resist falling for the counterfeit.*
To any circumstance where there is true affinity, people bring their individual motivation and then tap into or co-create a group motive in a conscious way.
True Affinity
There is also such a thing as true affinity. It is rare, though it exists. The reason it’s rare is that people who find this with one another have gone through an unusual process called self-actualization, or they are on the way. At least, tools of self-awareness are being forged.
To any circumstance where there is true affinity, people bring their individual motivation and then tap into or co-create a group motive in a conscious way. Groups become so powerful over individuals that even under the best circumstances, it takes some blend of moxie and chutzpah to maintain one’s integrity. You might need to do this in any form or size of a group, right down to the couple.
True affinity is based on actual common values, something I covered in the article The Taurus Test. I am friends with a man named C.T. Butler, author of Food Not Bombs. He is also a leading consultant on a method of organizational leadership known as consensus.
He once explained what a real consensus is. Typically it’s confused with people being bowled over and going along with the group. C.T. said that consensus is based first on forming an agreement about values and goals. That is where to invest the energy; that is what you want to hear, and find out where people align.
Mostly, though, I would call upon anyone reading to cease and desist from pressuring anyone to do anything. And I would call upon those who feel needlessly or unfairly pressured to stand up for yourself, speak your mind and make your own choices.
The rest follows naturally: once the values and goals are agreed upon, then all that’s left is the means to making it happen.
This takes time, care and thought of a kind we need more of now. Mostly, though, I would call upon anyone reading to cease and desist from pressuring anyone to do anything. And I would call upon those who feel needlessly or unfairly pressured to stand up for yourself, speak your mind and make your own choices.
It is difficult at first, and then you might decide the difficulty does not matter. There is no other sane way to live.
Meanwhile, Jupiter passing through the last degree of Aquarius will be highlighting the matter of true versus false affinity; group consciousness as contrasted with mass consciousness.
With love,
*I am going deeper into Alice A. Bailey’s work on the Seven Rays, or what you might call the seven expressions of God on Earth. What we are talking about with Aquarius here seems to be an expression of the Sixth Ray, or that of idealism and devotion. I have two takeaways from reading this chapter today: one is she said that the influence of this ray is waning, in our time in history; and the other is that it has been used to cause much cruelty to humanity (think of the crusades, historic and modern). As I learn more about this, I will share what I put together as best I can.