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New Moon, New Orientation

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“We are now imagining a new orientation aligned with the reality of our interconnection,” they write (Wisdom Collective). “This requires new compass points, new operating systems, and new ways of navigating these in-between times.” ~Wisdom Collective, Daily Good 6.4.26

It is necessary in these moments of chaos and confusion, of not knowing, to examine our humanity. As individuals on our way to fuller understanding and therefore deeper connection, we take stock of our priorities, our reactions and our actions. Being observant of all the similarities that we are rather than the differences. Knowing that one person’s struggle is/was my own. Having patience knowing that presence, beyond the individual sense of need is what is most needed in our interactions and relationships. Am I listening?

The ability to listen takes us deeper, not just with other people but also with animals and all of nature. We are deeply caring and compassionate when our differences are discarded, our conditioning that often isolates us, is shed. The walls disintegrate and we find we touch each other in the vastness of unconditional love.

“Listening reminds me how precious it is to be here at all. And so, listening is the first step to peace, both inner peace and the compassion that connects people.” ~Mark Nepo, Seven Thousand Ways to Listen

When we listen deeply we engage sensing as well. The ability to feel beyond the superficial layers of another human being to a place where there is the profound essence of our true being. The ‘one’ inherent and yet denied, the one that offers us liberation if and when we decide we want freedom; to step out of our familiar and to fully embrace Life. Am I sensing?

Am I engaging with all that I came in with to guide me through this life time? We cannot help now, except to look inward and explore our creative nature that everyone is, regardless of how we judge our selves. Our judgment is based on conditioning, that which we are leaving behind. Why leave it behind? It often does not allow us to enter that domain of everything possible. When I am free to travel unencumbered I am free to greet myself aligned with the magic of the Universe. Am I engaging?

It is exciting to know that before we set ‘new compass points, new operating systems and new ways of navigating these in-between times’ we will be required to free-fall toward what has yet to be experienced. And, it is not possible to imagine with certainty, what awaits us. The answers will appear. No need to find them. A clear mind is open to every nuance.

“To attend to transformation, we must attend to language itself, evolving the consciousness from which our words emerge.” ~Daily Good 6.4.26

There is no doubt that the old structures of identification are evolving and that shifting global communication will lead to new solutions for issues that have long existed here. These changes “reflect a collective consciousness that is moving away from strict separation, static categories and individual isolation”. ~ScienceDirect.com May 2022

We must allow ourselves to understand that if we feel moments of disorientation it may be due to the disappearance of what we have come to rely on. Quiet the mind, breathe and allow the ever present knowing, the inner voice to be your guide. Come to trust this and life expands in all directions.

The New Moon in Cancer at 21 degrees 59 minutes.

“This is a very fertile time and favors creative new beginnings.” Astro.com, The Month of July

The Sabian Symbol for 22 degrees Cancer is: a woman awaiting a sailboat. The meaning of which is, a time for patience and trust as we wait for the wind, a metaphor for trusting the universe that is the flow ofLife. Brings all things to us rather than us labouring to make something happen.

With July’s intensity, based on the Mars-Uranus conjunction early on and two small talent trines involving Pluto, Neptune, Uranus and Jupiter forming a cradle, the overall energy shifts everything further from the familiar into regions unknown. The Jupiter opposition to Pluto, truth or control–truth/wisdom and transformation.

Neptune in Aries is retrograde now and requires us to dive deeper into inquiry that further illuminates Self. The New Moon in Cancer, a water sign allows us to traverse this terrain expertly. Cancer, empathic and intuitive is adept at listening, sensing and engaging in ways that often bypass language. Through deeper connection they offer themselves to others in a sensitive and caring way; that is to say the potential for bypassing the ego to reach into the vastness of our inter-existence.

Venus the planet of personal values and relationships, our desire nature, is at the point of a ‘yod’ formed by quincunx aspects from the outer planets Neptune sextile Uranus. Collective evolution meets our personal vision. The 150 degree angles from these outer planets represent energies that are moving with the inherent, universal flow. If we are operating from an ego-based experience we are not necessarily in a position to benefit from this configuration often referred to as ‘the finger of God’.

A finger of God offers us opportunity to connect with the higher octave of a planet at the apex. In this case the emphasis for Venus in refined Virgo is to be of service of course, but in such a way that all energies shared are those inherent within us. There is an endless abundance that allows one to continue sharing without exhaustion or compromising one’s well being.

Our task at this time is to open our selves to this level of creative interrelationship. It requires vulnerability, trust and compassion obviously bypassing judgment and self doubt. Most of all it asks us to be present, a tough assignment if we are used to superficial ways of interacting. That is not a criticism. So many of our ways of behaving are conditioned—through fear, peer pressure and/or cultural norms.

Cancer can be one to hold onto what is familiar and comfortable due to its own flavour of insecurity. This is an opportunity to again, look within, to discover what might be limiting you based on any of the above. We are beginning to really notice the error of our ways for hanging out on shaky ground. Best that we not resist and become unsettled when the rug is pulled from beneath our feet!

“The quality of time during these days is high-frequency, multi-layered, and full of surprises.” ~Astro.com, Month of July

(*AI was employed only in an interesting discussion to determine evidence to support the evolution of our language. An example being the shift from simple male/female identification to one which includes many more possibilities.)

Still…

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Today is still
and so the ocean
though, cool air
and rolling waves,
damp sand and distance
with the scent of eternity.

“If the defining feature of our future is uncertainty, then we all need to become improvisers.” ~Srinija Srinivasan, Daily Good, 12.9.25

(Improvise def.: if you improvise, you make or do something using whatever you have or without having planned it in advance.)

To improvise we are in the moment, with only what is available in this moment. This precludes one from relying on the past. Instead we are challenged to tune into a greater source that offers a multitude of possibility. We listen, engage the senses and go with the infinite and eternal flow.

“Improvisation means coming to the situation without rigid expectations or preconceptions. The key to improvisation is motion—you keep going forward, fearful or not, living moment to moment. That’s how life is.” ~Bobby McFerrin (Don’t Worry, Be Happy)

In the Bardo we were brave and confronted some of what ails us. It is an individual discovery that serves us to better understand our limitations. This contributes to collective discovery. Everything moves forward together. Individually each step may seem unique. Yet all steps contribute to the same thing and that is greater awareness.

Even as technology seems to herd us into corners we may still find freedom in the boundary-less inner world that expands into infinity. We race unfettered toward an undefined goal embracing every moment with spontaneous delight. There are no rules or laws, expectations or judgment. There is air to breathe and motion to guide us. Openness, space and possibility.

For all of us prepared to dip the ladle a little deeper, to stir the bottom of the pot and find hidden, those nuggets of creativity that lie waiting, this is the moment. This year, that rapidly draws to a close, has been one of challenge. It may have resembled the trials of Sisyphus, a king of Corinth who was condemned by Zeus to roll an enormous boulder uphill. Every time he neared his destination the boulder rolled back downhill. This was his eternal struggle.

The never-ending challenge is over. There is no boulder and there is no hill! There is only this moment of possibility that awaits in which, when I listen, all answers arrive. Often the answer is so simple that I have not been able to hear it.

This New Moon in Sagittarius is a moment to feel into an unknown capacity for the creative and unfettered self. Sagittarius is a mythological being, half man, half horse. The human having tamed the beast within seeks greater awareness. He is an archer with bow and arrow raised to the heavens, symbolic of seeking truth. Sagittarians desire the freedom to explore all possibilities and move through life as free spirits. The curiosity of Gemini, their opposite, becomes deeper exploration in Sag.

With ruling planet Jupiter (in Taurus) figuring prominently in this new moon chart, we are inclined to act with wisdom and a sense of justice. (Be aware of tendencies to feel righteous or all knowing as this can be a shadow expression of Jupiter).

There is ease in this chart as Jupiter is in favorable aspect to Uranus in Taurus and Saturn/Neptune in Pisces. This forms the infamous small talent trine that allows for brilliant use of creative resources. Uranus of course is in favor of evolution at all costs and the Neptune/Saturn conjunction in Pisces has a ‘responsible, focused’ vision that upholds greater spiritual exploration.

The ease of this combination of planets is based on seeds that were planted during the solar eclipse March 29th of this year. That occurred in Aries, I seek Self. Now in Sagittarius we realize I am what I seek and that allows for an unlimited experience in this phenomenal world.

From a ‘higher vista’ we see clearly, as in the World card XXI of the major arcana. Our experiences have been plenty and as we ‘have been there done that’ on so many occasions, we need not be distracted by choice. We feel only the movement that moves everything and we too move. It is easy.

“The winds of grace blow all the time. All we need do is set our sails.” ~Ramakrishna

The squeeze shows up in the Sun/Moon and Venus square aspect to the same Saturn/Neptune conjunction. It would seem that we can’t exactly run wild, hither and yon without paying attention to the deeper calling—to attend to deeper desires that Venus in Sagittarius can have when challenged by the need to continue learning (Saturn) and our listening to the call home (Neptune).

Finally, Mars in early Capricorn, the manifestor of the universe, is next door to Sun/Moon and square to Saturn/Neptune. The energy of Capricorn is a powerful dynamo. Tireless and never without resources, Mars in Capricorn will provide us with ample motivation to move. Ruled by Saturn, Capricorn is reliable, focused and determined to provide that which supports us in these wild times.

At the end of this year there are bound to be revelations and ah, hah moments. Whatever projects you may have perculating know that 2026, the year of the Fire Horse, is in essence a whole year of Sagittarian accomplishment fueled by great vision and a ‘knowing’ which expediates the creative process. AI is a significant contributor to the speed with which we advance and has the ability to reflect to us our own shortcomings. We’re listening.

In these accelerated times we can feel challenged and comfortable at the same time. Challenged to open up and comfortable knowing that that is all that is required of me, to open up. I am free of thoughts that life should be any way in particular. We have become aware that ‘my thoughts create my reality’ and as such have more freedom to express ourselves from a truer source.

May our openness guide us to care for each other in new ways and to touch deeply in a way that awareness allows.

Random Quotes

“Reverie is not a mind vacuum. It is rather the gift of an hour which knows the plenitude of the soul.”~Gaston Bachelard

“Will you gather daydreams or will you gather wealth? How can you find your fortune when you cannot find yourself?” ~Gordon Lightfoot

Without its daydreams the self is apt to shrink down to the size and shape of the estimation of others. ~Michael Pollen

Dust, Breath, Sunlight

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I know who you are:
The dust that settles on everything,
the breath that breathes for all of us.
The sunlight that bounces on the waves,
the ensuing laughter.
The calm that fills each crevice
to remain a mystery.
The eternal flow of the river
as it meanders and rushes.
Always the pulsation that echoes 
in our hearts--
the rock solid knowing of nothing.
......

Thank you for the coming down from the mountain,
for touching knee to earth, and tears mingling with 
the early morning dew, cheek settling against a longing
to live life aware of the beauty of impermanence
And the joy of participation.
Thank you for coming down from the mountain
and rising up again.

Love…

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…is everything. When we do not know love (as abiding within) we look everywhere for it; the source of so many disappointments, heartache and suffering. When we are not suffering life has a light, open and inquisitiveness that is delightful! We are free to Be in this moment without a need to do or pursue something that is in any case, impermanent. Give it, receive it and most of all know that love is not an acquisition but is inherent…

Daodejing #11

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So much suffering as we continue to choose sides and hold our beliefs. Fed by the system and eons of conditioning we continue to perpetuate lack of awareness. It is not this side or that, us or them, a short-sighted experience that is disharmony and imbalance. We must stick our heads above the clouds of doubt and glimpse what is beyond the walls–rest in the hollow, the space wherein these thoughts have no existence.

Thirty spokes converge on a hub
but it is the emptiness that makes a wheel work.
Pots are fashioned from clay
but it is the hollow that makes a pot work.
Windows and doors are carved for a house
but it’s the spaces that make a house work.
Existence makes a thing useful
but nonexistence makes it work.

We may sit and think, contemplate and feel that this is useful but it is when we are free of thought that we realize, everything unfolds without any participation.








Wild, Being

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“When we quit thinking primarily about our selves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.” ~Joseph Campbell

In our journey to ‘the mountain top’, to the illumined plane of crystal clarity and stillness we will not succeed by neglecting any aspect of the experience. Whatever we deny follows us, we are the ancient mariner bearing a burden of our own creation much to our detriment. We’ve been carrying our burdens for centuries. Ignoring them achieves very little.

The journey from the weight of oppressive conditioning to the pristine landscape of Being, the plateau of observation without judgment, of accepting what is, presents itself in several stages. Each one we rise to in our own good time, when we are ready. There is therefore, nothing to fear. Our guide on this journey has infinite and eternal wisdom. It is with us all the time but the mind prefers to perpetuate the notion of its dominance.

(On this journey everyone is unique although we have a collective desire. Nothing is written in stone and most importantly everything is based on experience through the lens of the experiencer.)

There isn’t any particular order related to one’s journey. Everything happens simultaneously and a good deal occurs of which we are often initially ignorant.

There is a desire to rise above, to see without the tainted view. This pre-exists, smolders in some and is a roaring fire in others. They say, this is based upon the degree to which we have performed repeatedly our actions here—earth the school for learning. Of course it makes sense! Or, its the best story we have! In a nutshell, there is ever present energy that is all things moving everything in like manner. We embellish upon this to our heart’s desire. Whatever it takes to help us navigate the severe turbulence en route to the stillness.

Briefly, our story may look something like: a. the desire b. awareness of more (such as feeling the inter-connectedness of self with nature/cosmos) c. experiencing connection with ‘more’ while healing emotional trauma–healing begins to release old patterns of behaviour–lightens the load and frees one to realize the clarity that pre-exists conditioning.

Essentially, we work our way through our inherited tendencies and can take a deep breath into possibility. The possibility of knowing ‘thyself’ as infinite potential, not the body/mind. The benefit of becoming conscious of the road we navigate is to actively participate with our awakening. We can tend to resist less and surge ahead courageously. Obstacles shrink and the intensity of arising emotional content becomes more bearable..

In David Abram’s book, The Spell of the Sensuous he talks about the decline of humanity’s ability to know this pre-existent energy that is everything. He illuminates for us the importance of regaining our connection to ‘nature’ on our way to embracing so much technology as technology is human-based, while our energy is eternal source.

It is often said that the human mind is an aspect of source and cannot understand the nature of source. As such, and according to Einstein our solutions cannot come from that which is based upon past experience or the human experience. Magic, is how we refer to occurrences beyond human endeavour and it is magic we revere as miracle maker.

“Without such wild otherness (Abram refers to all the evidence in nature of the pre-existant energy e.g. “the complex intelligence of an old growth forest dank with mushrooms and bracket fungi”) there is no magic.”

It may not be enough to deeply appreciate wild otherness but to know it as ‘my self’. That realization is part of the unfolding of consciousness that occurs as we accept and move deeper. The word ‘otherness’ then, actually disappears. The notion of a separate identity dissipates along with our frequency of taking things personally that is one source of so much suffering.

This New Moon at 1 degree of Capricorn provides a window of opportunity to consolidate our thoughts toward a single focus. We accomplish one step at a time without distraction. What do I envision for the New Year?

As Jupiter has just switched signs from Pisces into Aries and squares Sun/Moon, the prevailing energy pushes for progress. Jupiter represents our wisdom, our faith, growth/expansion and optimism. Jupiter is the Guru, the higher attributes of mind that uplift the soul.

Capricorn is the practical idealist and has the determination to surmount all obstacles en route to the peak of experience. They have the power to manifest based on their use of the resources available and their understanding of the underlying structure necessary for achievement. There are rules to follow that lead one to the effortless expression of Being here.

With Saturn as the director of Capricorn, we will learn our lessons in order to escape the confines that lessons and rules establish for us.

“It (Saturn) is solely committed to educating us…and pushing us to become the most mature versions of our selves…” ~Subham Dhanawat, Bodhi.app

When we are aware of what lies on the other side of our education we approach it with enthusiasm. Jupiter in the first sign of Aries is all about enthusiasm and a can do attitude. This is a moment to stand tall, confident that we create our reality and our potential to do so is limitless. It is knowing self as creator that gives one ultimate freedom and profound confidence.

As a collective, the energy of this New Moon launches us into a vital experience of knowing the ease and grace with which we manifest our vision. Mercury the planet of communication and how we think sextiles (60 degree aspect that presents a challenge yet provides a flow of energy that is helpful in successfully meeting the challenge) Neptune, embodying ‘spirit’, idealism and sometimes downright fantasy. This combination could result in dreams that apparently go nowhere. Dreaming is great! Having an additional means of bringing dreams into physical reality is optimal.

In this New Moon chart, Saturn the planet most invested in practical application is positioned at the mid-point of the Mercury/Neptune sextile. It intercepts the dream and urges one to focus on results. Mercury in Capricorn is also highly result oriented. Neptune in Pisces says, ‘there are no limits’.

Another characteristic associated with Capricorn is reverence; the appreciation for recognizing the underpinnings that support human endeavour. Reverence for the magic and how everything unfolds with perfection. Knowing this increases the success with which one handles all the various details of daily existence.

It may not surprise us to be called to involve one self with any expression that allows for a connection with these underpinnings. It is a strong and intentional way of launching one self into the new experience.

There are numerous forms of ritual one can perform that serve this purpose from the simplicity of lighting a candle, blessing our experience and asking that ‘I be open to receiving the plenitude that is my nature’, to the more complex shamanic practice of sweat lodge, calling in the four directions and aligning with spirit animal totems to connect us to our roots.

Prayer is a sublime meditation that also helps us connect to source. There is a reverence in prayer that can instantly cross the veil. We are not necessarily referring to prayer that is a plea for something. It is prayer that simply intends to align with higher consciousness. I like what Hippocrates offers as a little bit of advice about prayer.

“Prayer indeed is good, but while calling on the Gods a man should himself lend a hand.” ~Hippocrates

In other words going into prayer without the expectation of receiving any thing other than a deeper sense of peace. And we till the ground for such to occur.

And truly, it is good to remember that the source of all creation is right here in this one, in this moment.

We pray with faith, knowing this.

During the week I chatted with a young woman from eastern Europe as I was waiting for my tea. She shared with me, ‘A saying from my country, if you want to go down the slide, be sure to bring the slide.’ Simply a reminder of the aforementioned. Our reality is in our own hands. This knowledge is uplifting and empowering! The very way we are determined to greet this New Year!

“Don’t let the lure of the dramatic arc distract you from the digressive amplitude of being alive.” ~Galen Strawson Daily Good 12.1

Enthusiasm

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In this moment ENTHUSIASM inhabits
these bits of now.
I enjoy this!
White caps, wind!
Gulls swept away by turbulence.
Trees, gleeful I imagine,
as they dance.
The wildness, when nature speaks
with enthusiasm is I!
Never not, never ventured
even a centimetre away 
from this truth.
I know it, you know it!
Just stand and watch the waves
return to the shore.

When…

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When,
was the ocean not or the moon?
the wind that circles here
and upon which our deep memories glide.
Ridges rise up from the sea, seem to float as 
they gather mist at dusk, at dawn. Their roots
hidden from view. 

We, 
fantasize of some mythic origin
and mythic beasts that
exist only in memory. Shift my gaze--
when was the sky not or the horizon line
that bisects above and below yet deeper than I see.
Yes, when was that not, when was I not.

We are ‘a work of art’

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New moon March 2022

“I think of a great work of art as like a moon shining in the night sky: it illuminates the world, yet its light is not its own but borrowed from the hidden sun of the absolute.” ~The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

This passage went straight to my heart. For awhile I didn’t know why. Didn’t think why. But on a stroll along Shoreline park, observing so many people with children, with dogs, all an interwoven and integral tapestry, and the ever present glow that emanates from such every day scenes, it seemed obvious that each and every one of us is the moon, a great work of art, and in the sharing we radiate that which cannot be hidden in spite of some of our unconscious efforts.

Light shines from the most painful occurrences. The seed that was planted somewhere along the timeline sprouts from the driest, most inhospitable circumstances. Everything we learn in the journey brings us closer to the realization that whatever ‘I’ accomplish, whatever light I share I share with you and you with me and every ‘thing’ that graces our world.

Great works of art soothe our souls, bring to mind human capacity for suffering; the depths to which our human emotional selves dive, linger and rise again. All radiate the beauty of being here. Though we whine and complain, churn up drama about circumstances in our lives, beneath it all, surrounding it all is the ever present knowing that this is not Truth but a reality conjured and repeated based on thoughts we have also been sharing for a very long time.

Everything here is shared. What feels quite like an individual experience is also a collective journey. The more we open to our selves and risk exposing our vulnerability to others the stronger we become. Alignment with the natural flowing universal ‘way’ engages us in pure Being that delights us beyond reason. This touches everything. The moon, with its capacity to enchant is merely a reflection of the light that underlies existence; from which all things unfold.

Theoretical Physicist David Bohm (1917-1982) “conceived a new scientific approach to reality based on an understanding of the totality and oneness of existence as an unbroken and seamless whole.” ~Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.

What enlightened masters realized centuries ago has been given substantiation through scientific observation and analysis. In Unfolding Meaning, A Weekend of Dialogue with David Bohm he explains fully his theories that include ‘implicate order’ (enfolding universe) and ‘explicate order’ (unfolding order). Not enough room here to discuss. He does talk about holomovement (holo, Greek for whole) as “the basic reality, at least as far as we are able to go, and that all entities…are features of the holomovement…”

If we talk about wholeness and wish to bring astrology for this New Moon into the conversation then Pisces is the sign which best describes the seamless whole. Pisces New Moon at 12 degrees 7 minutes is an expression of the limitless, unbounded whole.

“Pisces is the soul, the ultimate mystical union with all, wordless sound, felt sense.” ~Cerena Childress, AstrologicalNow.com

Pisces New Moon with absence of light promotes seeking ‘answers’ from the light that is ever present, shines from within. The desire is to expand our capacity to radiate that automatically contributes to a pervasive ‘lightening’. Jupiter co-ruler of Pisces is at 14 degrees Pisces, conjunct the New Moon and a major player in the events that promote growth and utilization of wisdom. As circumstances appear to be devolving into greater chaos it is beneficial to also sense the deeper level of healing and maturation that occurs as a natural process of evolution.

The Sabian Symbol for this degree of Pisces is ‘a sword used in many battles is now in a museum.’ We have the potential to see the past displayed before us and make a collective choice to avoid repetition when it is clear that some of what has occurred in the past does not serve us.

Applying sound logic is one way of progressing based on facts rather than emotion and fiction. Saturn conjunct Mercury in Aquarius in this New Moon chart amplifies the powers of reason but can have a ruthless edge when considering collective good. Deleting individual priority in favour of what serves community may not please us. Clearly there is movement that is the result of centuries of activity contributed to by all of us that is an ongoing process, like an enormous juggernaut, that will not be stopped. Best to go with the flow.

A third exact conjunction in this chart is the Pluto, Mars, Venus aspect in Capricorn that points to the elimination of structure that supports an antiquated perspective of what we desire (Venus) and how we go about attaining that (Mars). There are many possibilities with this trio. The underlying energy though is one that seeks to continue the disintegration of dualistic notions that continue to create separation.

As we progress further from the Kali Yuga (the darkest time for human development) into the

Dwapara Yuga on way to the Golden Age, belief systems that do not serve the evolutionary ‘intent’ are naturally falling away. On an individual basis we are unaware of all that this entails. We can however become aware of this flow that is everything including me and you and intend to freely follow that flow.

A point for possible consideration, the exact square between Uranus and the asteroid Juno. Juno “embodied traditional ideas of monogamy and marriage.” ~Astrology.com This butting heads with Uranus the planet of revolution for evolution and taking into consideration the Pluto (destruction), Mars (yang) Venus (yin) conjunction speaks of a concentrated energy that pushes us to reconsider the basis of what defines us. Big stuff for these dynamic times! Nothing that ‘we’ are not ready for or cannot handle.

The Eight Brocades

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September New Moon; and the Eight Pieces of the Silk Brocade

“I was sitting by the ocean one late summer afternoon, watching the waves rolling in and feeling the rhythm of my breathing, when suddenly I became aware of my whole environment as being engaged in a gigantic cosmic dance… I “saw” cascades of energy coming down from outer space, in which particles were created and destroyed in rhythmic pulses; I “saw” the atoms of the elements and those of my body participating in this cosmic dance of energy; I felt its rhythm and I “heard” its sound, and at that moment I knew that this was the Dance of Shiva, the Lord of Dancers, worshiped by the Hindus.” —Fritjof Capra

This quote I came upon recently describes perfectly how I was going to begin this article—with my experiences of doing Qi Gong (the Eight Pieces of the Silk Brocade) by the ocean. Fritjof Capra is a physicist and ‘deep ecologist’ who promotes the inherent worth of all living beings…

While I move slowly and from a place of deep knowing the mind is still, giving space for feeling into life that is everywhere. Time does not exist. There is openness. Sense of self vanishes. ‘I’ am the ocean, sand, cliffs behind and I soar with the pelicans gliding in platoon. Quiet, peace, swirling, unfolding, the universe flows—we flow—without focusing on our numerous thoughts, time and reference to the many details that define our reality cease to exist. There is freedom. Freedom from the relentless way in which we can drive our selves. Freedom to, just Be.

The Eight Pieces of the Silk Brocade (the 8 brocades) is a Qi gong practice a thousand years old that a young chinese general developed for his troops to enhance all of their abilities.

This practice is based on finding a graceful and fluid rhythm among your own integral energies. Each movement relates to an organ encouraging harmony throughout the body and a positive flow of energy.

When the body is in harmony it is one with the universal flow of energy. We are one with that. There is no separation.

“Qi Gong is a strategy for freedom from our cage of isolation.” ~Garri Garripoli, Qigong: Essence of the Healing Dance

Qi Gong is empowering and stilling. As our fears subside, confidence increases and we are able to move through life with grace just as we do with the movements of Qi Gong.

A knowing is instilled through repetitive practice that cannot be defined by the mind. It feels so ‘right’ that it cannot be denied.

Qi Gong practice is perfect to consider during this New Moon in Virgo. The natural characteristics of Virgo, quiet, patient, observant, skilled, focused and dedicated are qualities that contribute to the mastery of such an art. And in the process of relieving our selves of old resistances we notice a lightness and peace that takes up residence. Feeling good is associated with the letting go and releasing that happens during practice.

This is an active New Moon chart as it includes an exact trine with the evolutionary giant Uranus. Will of the people, less focus on the individual. Universal causes, unity, no separation, equality, freedom. The energy of Uranus is electric, shocking, rebellious in its quest to liberate and wake us up! Therefore it would not be unusual for the individual to be feeling an extra level of tension cultivated by the tendency toward resistance that most humans feel when urged to change and the high voltage insistence of Uranus.

“Uranus brings with it a new way of looking at things, and its approach is best met with an expanded consciousness.” ~www.astrology.com

Seeing beyond the habitual is easier with Uranus in play. As the higher octave of Mercury, Uranus is about insight and knowing rather than thinking. It’s view is of the big picture and so demands that we open up to what is outside of our normal range of view. This might be a challenge for Virgo who prefers to deal with what is observable and practical.

This is where Qi Gong is a powerful tool for transformation and can be appealing to Virgo—taking practical steps through Qi Gong movement is all that is necessary the rest happens without our interference. There is nothing more to do.

Doing is the realm of Mars, also found in Virgo currently. This combination is action with precision and very beneficial for focusing the energy during a Qi Gong routine.

“Mars is the planet of “do” and Virgo is the sign of “do it efficiently.” While Mars moves through Virgo, we’re able to figure out where to cut the fat…”

There is the additional energy of Neptune to consider here though, as Neptune is in opposition to Mars.

“Mars in Virgo retrograde is a powerful healer who goes inside the inside to heal you. Mars in Virgo retrograde opposing Neptune is the healer healing the healer. Hands-on, hands-off, doesn’t matter. And the message that heals is nothing you can grasp with the mind which Virgo finds… uncomfortable.” ~www.moonplutoastrology.com

It may feel uncomfortable, the lack of definition, however through Qi Gong the purpose of not being able to grasp ‘it’ with the mind becomes evident as we have mentioned all along. Let go and trust. One step at a time, one movement at a time and all questions become irrelevant even for the short time one is immersed in the Qi Gong dance. 

With Jupiter in Aquarius inconjunct or quincunx Mars, when the action is for expansion and moving with the Universal flow, it feels balanced, harmonious and ‘perfect’. If there is doubt and deliberation about any ‘this or that’, the discomfort will be noticeable. 

The trine to Mars from Pluto is a powerful energy to eliminate any tendencies that are limiting action toward greater self awareness. All the planetary players are in alignment to help us reach our most desired goals. There isn’t much that needs to be done except follow the movement and relax!

Video: Mimi Kuo-Deemer demonstrating the Eight Pieces of the Silk Brocade

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