tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9810991673898384432023-11-15T09:43:51.867-08:00From dark skiesAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00547461369460629688noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981099167389838443.post-60027202626202665672015-08-25T14:33:00.003-07:002015-08-25T14:33:37.777-07:00The Value of Myth<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
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On numerous occasions I use the
statement, “We all believe what we need to believe in order to make it through
the Night.” It is a foundational assumption that I carry so that I can make
sense of the world. It functions to help me understand that other’s beliefs are
just as valid and helpful to them as my beliefs are to me.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
For instance, I have a large number
of friends, acquaintances, and clients who hold tightly to a rather
uncomplicated belief – In a distant past, an immortal god not unlike the Greek
Zeus, seeded a mortal virgin who then gave birth to a Divine child who would be
groomed to be sacrificed to save humanity for all times from its sinfulness. This
story works very well for them, giving their lives meaning and purpose.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
I have seen this rather simple
story deeply transform lives in a very positive fashion. Of course, I have also
seen people, especially in prison, seriously embrace Judaism, Islam, and
Buddhism resulting in similar life changing transformations. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
There is something wonderful and
powerful about devotion to a workable myth. And lest you be alarmed, I use the
word, myth, not as a false story but in its more technical sense as a set of
narratives engaged by a person or culture to make sense and meaning out of what
appears at times to be a senseless, random, or purposeless universe. These
myths can provide great comfort to their believers whether they see themselves
held safe in the arms of Jesus, righteously living by the Torah, or following
the four noble truths of the Buddha.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
We all carry cultural, familial,
and personal myths by which we live our lives. Cultural myths are beliefs like
“Everyone wants our freedoms,” “America is always on the side of Right,”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“America is #1!” and “God blesses America.” Family
myths are statements like, “The Smiths don’t divorce,” and “All the Johnson
family go to college.” And of course, personal myths are beliefs like, “I’ll
never amount to anything,” “I am one good looking catch,” or “Women just don’t
like me so I never approach them.” The reader can readily see how these sorts
of beliefs shape our realities and limit the potentially wide field of
experience available to each of us in going about the business of our lives.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
This is where astrology excels by
presenting us with a marvelously rich field of symbols and metaphors with
layered meanings by which we may discover and explore the stories that help
guide our choices and often keep us locked in to unproductive and unsatisfying
self-narratives. One does not have to believe in astrology for it to be useful
any more than you have to believe in arithmetic to accurately balance a
checkbook. It is simply a tool for personal exploration, a model for
understanding human reality.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Forget the silliness about stars
influencing your life, horoscope columns, and astrologers predicting the
future, visit me at AstroCare.net for a different perspective.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00547461369460629688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981099167389838443.post-771496412774511892015-08-22T15:01:00.001-07:002015-08-22T15:02:37.817-07:00Astrology updated<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
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It's been awhile since I felt I had anything to say. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
What follows are several ideas that
I wish to share with readers. Please do not suppose that I am claiming that
they are actually the truth of things. My position is simply one among many models
for understanding what it is to be human and astrology’s relation to it. Various
models for understanding acquire their value not from their truth qualities but
from their usefulness in helping people get along in their world. After all, we
all believe what we need to believe in order to make it through the Night.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Astrology is a discipline that
provides a framework for imagining a profound intimacy between a person and
their world. This relationship can be discerned by examining the architecture
of the birth moment as mirrored by the pattern occurring in the sky.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
The astrological natal chart is
polysemous in nature. Not only is it a two-dimensional graphic representation
of the planets in the sky as seen from a particular time and location on earth,
a frozen instance in the processual nature of reality as it were, that
demarcates a relatively enduring, pattern of intra and inter-relationships that
we call an organism. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
The chart is also regarded by some
astrologers as a set of cosmic instructions, a roadmap, an image of the seed
potential of the person whose birth it reflects, and can also be imagined as a
reflection of a coherent and fluid sense of self with multiple organizing
centers (planets) in relation to one another (aspects) that have a host of perspectives
(signs) contained in various life contexts (houses) and situated within the
parameters of moment and place. It is an image of psyche reflecting the
interiority and exteriority of the person. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
The idea of a single organizing Self
is deemphasized in favor of a polycentric self or community of selves. There is
no grand solitary overarching control center. The person as a quantum of unique
experience, whose chart is a mirror for every existential situation, is seen as
a focused expression of the local environment. Furthermore, in contrast to
Sartre, existence and essence arise mutually. Another way of saying this is,
body and soul, two sides of the same coin, begin in the same moment. There is
no preexisting essence incarnating nor is there a disembodied essence surviving
death. As the newborn emerges out of this world into this life the first breath
that sets the organism apart from its previous environment immediately sets up
unique circulatory, respiratory, cardiac, gastrointestinal, renal, hepatic, and
immunological changes that shift the organism from a state of dependency to a state
of greater independence.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
As it turns out then, a<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">strology
is a discipline that is not so much to help us improve ourselves or to allow us
to catch a glimpse of what may be around the bend but rather astrology provokes
us to ask, “How are we relating to this present moment, how are we engaged with
this one and only life?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Visit me at AstroCare.net </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00547461369460629688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981099167389838443.post-91123805168660621672014-08-27T09:50:00.000-07:002014-08-27T09:50:41.777-07:00A Brief Rant on Materialism<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Many
people believe Americans to be lost in crass materialism, but I believe this is
a misguided accusation.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Our fantasies of being a
materialistic culture may be a defense against a true love of the material. In a
culture that worships at the altar of Science; rationalism, empiricism, logical
positivism, head over heart, thinking superior to feeling, we are more likely idealistic
abstractionists, not materialists. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
We are a consumer society in
love with the idea of material and not material itself. How else can one
explain fast food promoted via wonderfully sensuous and gustatory imagery yet
leaving much to be desired in the actual eating? We eat the menu images in our
head before we consume the food for our bellies. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
How else do we account for
plastics and synthetics disguised as real wood
furniture and hardwood floors? </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
What about polyesters that mimic
linen and silk, manufacturing clothing with so much more ease of care and disposability?
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
And what about faux stone
masquerading as real rock on so many of our buildings?</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
This is all smoke and mirrors,
fire and air, style without substance, appearance sans the material. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
A true materialist loves the
material world, cherishing the things of the world, repairing not despairing, recognizing
that the world is not a simple commodity for our consumption but rather an animated,
ensouled being of which we are an intimate expression. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
When our dreams and fantasies no
longer promise paradise in the ever after but rather plant us firmly in the
present, and immerse us fully in the moment, then our lives, in tune now with
the rhythms of soil and sea, sun and sky will truly blossom.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Visit me at <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">AstroCare</i>.net</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00547461369460629688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981099167389838443.post-47414693409007637032014-08-27T08:54:00.006-07:002014-08-27T08:54:54.715-07:00The Astrological Birth Chart<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
The primary tool an astrologer
uses is the natal or birth chart which is literally a stylized map of the solar
system as seen from the particular place and time of a person’s birth. It has
several features; the planets, the zodiac signs, the houses, and the aspects or
angles of relationship between the planets. More imaginatively however, it is
an image of psyche or soul, a mapping of the topography of our inner landscape.
As a map it can be used for purposes of orientation, helping us fathom where we
are in life, sounding out our centers, and getting our bearings. We can imagine
life as a turning wheel of dynamic process with the nascent springtime of our
youth, the summer fruition of our efforts, our inevitable fall and decline and
finally, our demise into winter’s inactivity and dormancy. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
birth chart provides a framework for imagining a profound intimacy between
ourselves and our world. We hear this deep intimacy echoed in the words of
early Church Father, Origen who wrote, “Know that you are another world in
miniature and have in you Sun and Moon and even stars.”</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
But for our charts to say
anything to us, astrology must of necessity hinge on the fantasy that our world
is a living being capable of speaking to those who have the ears to hear and
the eyes to see. Historically we find this in the Old Testament in psalm 19…. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim
the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night
they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not
heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the end of the
world.”</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
What is this psalm but a faith
statement about the world’s capacity to speak, to communicate with us, whether
it’s the birds singing their message, the wind in the trees, the clouds on the
horizon conveying the weather, the days becoming shorter, or the dance of the
planets, the world affords us the opportunity to understand our situations. The
world discloses itself to us and also reveals us to ourselves. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Emerson once wrote… </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
“The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to
face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation
to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and
not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of
theirs?... Every man’s condition is a solution in hieroglyphic to those
inquiries he would put.”</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
This “solution in hieroglyphic”
sounds very much like the image of our birth map. If the universe is sacred as
many traditions hold, then astrology is a form of living, sacred text.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
There is no Muslim moon or Catholic sun, no Buddhist
season or sign, the heavens do not play favorites. The sky is all inclusive, it
speaks to everyone. It’s the perfect container for a global spirituality for it
is something under which we all gather and share in common. So it would seem
that the astrology chart is a hieroglyph; a sacred symbol reflective of the
sky. It is a world infused with sacredness.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Visit me at <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">AstroCare</i>.net</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00547461369460629688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981099167389838443.post-25771860678872282172014-08-27T08:45:00.000-07:002014-08-27T08:45:17.510-07:00An Astrological Spirituality<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
An astrological spirituality
means living with a keen awareness of the differences within time and space. In
our everyday mind, time and space are viewed as profane, homogenous, mundane,
of no special merit. Typically they have little or no qualitative difference.
Is it possible that the way we in the West consider space and time contributes
to a sense of malaise and boredom which seems a permanent feature of American
life?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each day is fairly much the same
as the next. The once set apart holy day of Sunday now affords me the same ease
as any other day of the week for shopping, purchasing alcohol, and even
working. Holidays (holy days) such as Memorial Day can be celebrated anywhere
from the 25th to the 31st of May. Martin Luther King Day, President’s Day, and
Labor Day float on the convenience of Mondays. Thanksgiving is the 4<sup>th</sup>
Thursday in November. These are not cosmically determined like the solstices,
equinoxes, and cross quarter days. These cultural observances do not connect us
to a living cosmos.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Astrological
time however is very different. We can’t just move time around capriciously,
changing holidays and birthdays willy-nilly to fit our daily schedules. Time is
so important that depending on when a person is born is a fundamental key to understanding
that life. Time is qualitative in that each moment is unique from any other,
more propitious for certain kinds of activities and less so for others. Time is
viewed liturgically, similar to the ritualized days and months of the church
year. In other words, <u>time expresses meaning</u>. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>An
astrological spirituality confers an appreciation for the daily round. Time is
imagined as overlapping, interpenetrating shorter and lengthier cycles of
change. To recognize the repetitiveness of time is to accept endings, gain the
capacity to start over, to be born again, to face living with trust in the
eternal returning. I’m not speaking here of simply spinning your wheels or
going in circles, though that may be necessary at times, but rather the
possibility of ever widening spirals of experience weaving more inclusiveness
into life as we spin the fabric of our destinies.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What
about space? Modern life holds space and place with the near same indifference
as time. Now of course, we can speak of beautiful or decaying spaces in America
but overall, space is generally viewed as homogenous. If I am eating at
McDonalds in San Francisco or NYC my experience of eating there has little qualitative
difference. My experience of Walmart in Denver is fairly identical to the one
in Cleveland. It used to be that traveling held great surprises in place but
now we seek the shelter of Ramada Inns, Hyatts, and Hiltons guaranteeing that
our experience in new cities is familiar. For the majority of Americans, modern
America has no sacred space. Americans esteem no sacred rivers or trees, pilgrimage to
no sacred mountains, pray at no sacred wells. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
The astrological life however
carries the fantasy that place matters, whether in relocational charts or in
natal charts. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My birth place reflects
the nature of my inner being. Sacred space and sacred time add depth, difference,
and color, enriching what it means to be alive. The astrological view sees the
classical transcendence of divinity translated to the immanence of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the Sacred in every place and in each moment.
We live a sacred life and the birth chart is a sacred image.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Visit me at <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">AstroCare</i>.net</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00547461369460629688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981099167389838443.post-67404428272032606792013-12-16T11:04:00.001-08:002013-12-16T11:05:51.336-08:00Winter Solstice part 2<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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I’d like to continue on the theme
of the upcoming solstice. The solstice this year occurs next Saturday Dec. 21,
12:11 PM EST. This is one of the four critical turning points of the Great
Round with its complement in the Summer solstice and the two equinoxes in
Spring and Autumn. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Moving toward this cosmic marker,
the light is becoming less and darkness is increasing, gathering us together for
the longest night, tucking us in, and readying us for the quiet display of its
majesty. Once we are enclosed by this dark mother, in appreciation, we can then begin noticing
the birthing of light as<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>days begin ticking their way toward greater radiance. But if not for this Great Darkness,
this cosmic matrix, the stars could not be seen and we would not experience
light. Darkness is the necessary ground for the possibility of any discussion
about light.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Solstice is a holy day that is
natural and cosmic. The cultural holidays; Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanza are
human invention preferring membership in a group. Though solstice is honored by
only a few, it shares its bounty with all, no membership required. It
does not exclude on the basis of caste, class, creed, color, age, gender, or
species. All beings are welcomed to the awareness of darkness in their lives.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
In our increasingly manic, growth
oriented, and light focused culture, we seem to devote great energy toward
eliminating darkness, silence, and death from our lives. We deny death, trying
to hide it away from view by placing dying people in hospital and hospice away
from the bustle of life where they might be seen, away from the home. We apply cosmetics to our recently dead, wanting them to appear only asleep in their final rest. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
We eschew the quiet, leaving our
televisions and radios constantly on, making noise to keep silence at bay. I
find that I can’t even go to a sporting event without music blasting out in
between the action. We find ourselves keeping our phones attached to us to keep
the conversations going or information flowing, avoiding silence and solitude
at all cost.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
We light up our cities and towns
causing light pollution, obliterating the night sky. We illuminate our homes to
chase the darkness away from our lives, keeping nightlights and security lights
burning to ward off whatever shadows may be lurking that we’d prefer not to
meet.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
In our family, in addition to the beauty of
Christmas honoring the birth of the Light of the World out of darkness for
Christians, we've always celebrated the winter solstice. We
generally have many lights (votive, candle, incandescent) lit in the room in
which we gather then slowly extinguish each light and doing readings about darkness
(we have even sung solstice carols on occasion). When the light has been
removed, we sit in darkness for a few minutes and each share the value of the dark in our lives. Then we slowly return illumination to the room, relight the
tree, and open one gift. In gratitude, we may even make a toast to darkness as
that which contains, holds, and brings forth light. It is a simple ritual to
honor that element to which our culture pays so little positive attention.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Let me close with Rilke’s words
about the dark…..</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You
darkness, that I come from,<br />
I love you more than all the fires<br />
that fence in the world,<br />
for the fire makes<br />
a circle of light for everyone,<br />
and then no one outside learns of you. But the darkness pulls in everything:<br />
shapes and fires, animals and myself,<br />
how easily it gathers them! —<br />
powers and people —<br />
and it is possible a great energy<br />
is moving near me.<br />
I have faith in nights.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Wishing you a meaningful solstice and a merry Christmas!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Visit me at AstroCare.net </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00547461369460629688noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981099167389838443.post-13629319158774496082013-12-04T12:46:00.000-08:002013-12-04T12:46:41.360-08:00Winter Solstice<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This
is the season in which we celebrate the Winter Solstice, the longest night.
That time of the year when we can observe the power and necessity of darkness
in our lives. Though I am not comfortable with this matter of darkness, I
recognize that it comprises a significant portion of my life and to attempt to
ignore it, to make it go away, to keep it in the background is to deny its
existence and by extension, deny a part of my own existence. Our culture seems
to try to ignore this darkness, calling it the shortest day, by focusing
attention on light and the birth of the Sun or the Son (Christians) during this
time of the year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
am not at ease in the dark, on the shadowy paths which twist and wind in my
life. Darkness is an unknown where things are unlit and ill defined. It is
where security is at a minimum and risk and uncertainty rule. I prefer the
sense of knowing who I am, of seeing with clarity, of being in control by
manipulating a well-lit environment. Who likes to be left in the dark about
matters? I am a creature who faces the light but in so doing I see nothing
behind or beyond the spotlight of my narrowed awareness. I miss so much in my
unwillingness to trust the dark. If I truly believe that creation is blessing,
then darkness as an integral part of creation contains blessing within itself.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
am reminded that I am the fruit of an encounter that quite likely occurred in
the soft darkness of a winter’s eve, reminded that I am sprung from the
darkness of a loving womb. I am reminded that in the darkness I can sleep and be renewed from the labors of the day. I am reminded that when I am
bleeding, I bandage my wound, cloaking it in darkness in order that the healing
process may begin, and that injured creatures retire to dark out of the way
places to allow nature to work. I am reminded that the seed begins it
germinative activity in the darkness of the fecund earth.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
dark contains as the womb contains, holding mystery, numinous in its depth. It
is a matrix, maternal, holding billions of stars in its vastness. It is imbued
with the power for transformation, filled with potential, shape shifting the
contents of life, bringing forth anew that which has hardened and dried under
the glare and heat of a bright consciousness.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Darkness
is half of creation ebbing and flowing in an eternal dance with light. T.S.
Eliot wrote,</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I said to my soul be still, and let</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">the dark come upon you</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">which shall be the darkness of god.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As, in a theatre,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">the lights are extinguished for the
scene to be changed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">With a hollow rumble of wings</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">with a movement of darkness on
darkness...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Wait without thought, for you are not
ready for thought:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">So the darkness shall be the light and
the stillness the dancing.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When
I am in rhythm with this cosmic dancing then I flow with reality, rather than
distorting or denying it. Without this Holy Dark, there can be no creativity
because there is no gestation leading to birth. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Additionally,
if everything in my life must be exposed to the light of thorough scrutiny,
then I am less able to express tolerance for things which cannot be understood in the clear light of consciousness. Uncertainty, anomaly, mystery, vagaries, even slow growth brings anxiety. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">When I
try to force the bloom of my life with excessive light, I lose the ability to savor life
itself.</span> Forced
blossoms are never quite as fragrant as the ones slow grown on the vine. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Being attached to light, I am only half a person. </span>To reclaim wholeness, darkness needs a new honoring. We must
allow ourselves to be in the dark about things. The Kentucky poet, Wendell
Berry writes,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">To go in the dark with a light is to </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">know the light.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">To know the dark, go dark.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Go without sight, and find that the</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">dark, too, blooms and sings, and is</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">traveled by dark feet and dark wings.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
hope we can all find time to celebrate this Holy Darkness.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Visit me at <i>AstroCare</i>.net </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00547461369460629688noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981099167389838443.post-76715437675358703632013-10-04T13:05:00.000-07:002013-10-04T13:05:11.206-07:00October<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>October
is that moment in the Great Round when the harvest is finishing up and much of
what remains is dropping seed and leaf, preparing for the dark turn ahead. The
Fall is in full display and at its finest. It is my favorite month. Halloween,
that eve when traditionally the veil between the worlds is most thin and we can
feel the presence of the ancestors, will come to our home. Though I was raised
in the Roman Catholic tradition and my wife in the Episcopal, neither of us
have found them very satisfying in addressing our interests, needs, and
concerns. We have over the years created a variety of rituals in our family to
bring a sense of the religious to our lives.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Halloween
is a “cross quarter” day, midway between the Autumnal Equinox and the Winter
Solstice. In astrological thinking, the midpoint of any phase of a cycle
discloses the meaning of that cycle, in this case, the necessary dying of
individual life to the larger Life. On Halloween, we always prepare a dinner
for the dead, those family members and friends who have preceded us back to the
source. We set a place at the head of the table to honor those who cannot be
physically present. There is red wine for the adults and grape juice for the
kids, the legacy of a grape season, the fruit of death. Glass and plate filled
for the deceased. We do some readings and poetry on themes of dying and autumn.
We tell stories about the lives of our honored guests and play appropriate
music. It is one way in which we try to deepen our lives by recalling those
upon whose failures, accomplishments, and shoulders we stand offering homage. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Halloween
affords me the opportunity to reflect upon death, especially my own. For many
years I have had the fantasy of when I’m old and gray of going up on a hill
overlooking a pastoral setting on a beautiful October day and just sitting
under a tree and expiring. This I have come to believe is an imaginal place, my
psychological dying space. It brings great comfort. The image, of course, is
death as a completion of life rather than death as an interruption as it is so
often experienced. How many of us would wish for an easy death, not too much
pain, disability, or lingering but the final punctuation sweetly ending our
life’s sentence.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Personally,
I’m saddened at the prospect of leaving this life and find it extremely disheartening.
It’s very difficult for me to let go of family, friends, animals, sunny days,
storms, snowfall, and fog. I have no wish to fight death’s appearance or pray
that it never occurs. I recognize its necessity. It’s just that it’s so final.
When my turn is finished I need to give up my seat to another who is just
getting on this wild ride and hope that they have as rich and <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>meaningful an experience as I have had.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
am put off by talk of an afterlife, I find it terribly distracting from this
life. There is so much occurring here that I don’t want to miss any of it
through inattention. If there is no afterlife for all beings that have died,
then I certainly wish none for myself. How am I more valuable than the eagle,
worm or possum? These creatures are filled with the same life that pulses
through my being. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My comfort surrounding death is in believing
that I return to the generous womb of the earth which first conspired with my
parents to bring me here. As Alan Watts once said, “we do not come into the
world but out of it.” I trust that I am able to go graciously back to the
source and contribute to the wellbeing of those who follow.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Perhaps
my favorite thoughts on death come from Walt Whitman in “Song of Myself,” and I
hope that they will be read upon the occasion of my demise.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>If
you want me again look for me under your bootsoles.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>You
will hardly know who I am or what I mean,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But
I shall be good health to you nevertheless,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And
filter and fibre your blood.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Failing
to fetch me at first keep encouraged, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Missing
me one place search another,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
stop somewhere waiting for you.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Visit me at <i>AstroCare</i>.net </span></div>
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<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00547461369460629688noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981099167389838443.post-4678094160505361152013-09-09T08:15:00.000-07:002013-09-09T08:15:53.560-07:00Do You Believe in Magic?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A number of years ago, I read
several articles concerning the falsity and implausibility of astrology, a
discipline near and dear to my heart. Many skeptics argue that astrology is
false and tell us why it doesn’t work. The academic research into astrology that
I’ve seen demonstrates that the claims of astrology are not true in a literal,
falsifiable manner. Oddly enough, this is not at all hard for me to say though I frequently
use astrology in my life and work.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>My belief over the last 30 years is
that astrology is much closer to religion than to science, more in line with
drama and poetry than equation and fact, more fictive than empirical. The
attempt to address astrology through quantitative research is similar to
evaluating a poem by the criteria of good legal contract writing, or describing
a Beethoven sonata as a particular array of sonic disturbance in a gaseous
medium. We can do this but it would not capture the power and beauty of the
verse or the music. In other words, we would not be able to see the value of poetry
and music if we used the wrong tools to address them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Astrology works in the fashion of
great drama, lyric, or narrative. It captures us with its elegance. Who among
us has not been deeply moved by dramatic presentation, enriched by poetry,
caught up in musical ecstasy, entranced by art, or enchanted by ritual? To
suggest that these experiences have little value by not being amenable to
empirical testing or demonstrating a literal truth is simply specious. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The late psychologist, Rollo May writing
in <i>The Cry For Myth</i>, about science’s failure to realize that astrology
has a different basis than science notes that astrology “is a myth and requires
the language of myth. It has both the shortcomings and the positive effects of
myths.” The word “myth” is used by May not to denote falsehood (perhaps the
popular understanding), but to speak of that category of human experience in
which value, significance, and meaning reside. He further writes that myths are
“essential to the process of keeping our souls alive and bringing us new
meaning in a difficult and often meaningless world.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Astrology is a form of imagination,
an imaginal poetics that is better placed in the humanities than the sciences.
We do not argue the truth of art and literature but rather indicate that they
are vehicles for conveying, suggesting, or disclosing truth, and so it is with
astrology. In the same manner that a portrait reveals, evokes, or presents a
particular view of its subject, likewise, the drawing up of a natal chart
allows the astrologer to construct a rough draft of the person which becomes
increasingly refined through dialogue with the client.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Astrology provides a framework for
imagining a profound intimacy between ourselves and the world. It gives us the
fantasy of belongingness and connection. It situates us naturally in the world,
part and parcel of an interdependent universe. It gives us a place, bespeaks of
home. Through its archetypal images, it can give voice to our deepest
connections. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I believe that we go to astrology,
tarot, I Ching, enneagrams, and the like not seeking the facts of our life but
rather the truth of our existence. Like beachcombers walking the morning shores at low
tide, we seek a revelation from the larger mystery out of which we all
originate. We yearn to bring to the foreground of our lives a hint of a larger
order to sustain us, if only for a brief moment, in the ground of our being.
After 40 years of experiencing astrology, my faith in it rivals the
empiricist’s faith in reason. I do not know why I believe what I believe,
perhaps because it comes not from the head but from the heart. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Despite several
centuries of scientific discrediting, we seem to need astrology, myth, and
magic. Some veiled part of the soul yearns for mystery. Astrology works not
because it gives us the facts, but because it provides a satisfying aesthetic.
It suggests elegance, beauty, and the sublime. What better task for astrologers
than to spin beauty back into the world, to reawaken in us some of the
abracadabra of life?<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">Visit me at <i>AstroCare</i>.net. </span> </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00547461369460629688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981099167389838443.post-36171777562276224912013-09-03T10:27:00.000-07:002013-09-03T10:28:08.830-07:00The Magic of Reunion<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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The word, ‘reunion’ suggests a coming back together
of that which had been separated, a gathering of what was once joined or
familiar but has since scattered to the four winds. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After attending a recent high school reunion and then reading
Facebook comments of appreciation and inspiration regarding the event, I was very
intrigued that it was in a sense a “return to beginnings.” A “return to
beginnings” is a common mythologem in the field of religion studies. Many
indigenous cultures reenact a “return to beginnings” in their healing
ceremonies, and in New Year festivals bringing closure to the old and birthing
the new. </div>
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<br /></div>
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For example, in the sacred tales of the Finnish people (my
heritage) when one of the major characters cuts his knee with a poorly swung
axe, to initiate the proper healing process, the myth of the birth of iron, out
of which the axe was made, had to be recounted in order to retrace and honor
its creation and power. All traditions have numerous origin or creation
stories. In our own culture at Christmas, we “return to beginnings” by retelling
the birth narrative of Jesus and reenact the nativity with scenes of figures
and animals gathered ‘round a manger with mother and child. We pray this time
of the year can bring healing and peace to humanity and we engage this ritual
repetition every year.</div>
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<br /></div>
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I think high school reunions can be read as a kind of
“return to beginnings,” a return to and a recounting of the creation of a
particular class at a time when they struggled through adolescence toward graduation,
then into emerging adulthood with its departures from the known world of
friendships, school environment, and community. It was time for many of us to embark
upon new adventures in distant places with unfamiliar customs and responsibilities.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My high school class has come together in five or ten year
increments. Our gathering is a return to the once familiar, recalling a time
when we were in the bloom of youth, innocence, vitality, carrying a great sense of -
we can do anything! We gather now to reminisce, tell anecdotes, reacquaint, engage, flatter, enjoy what once was, yet is no more, and we fondly
imagine what might have been. This can all be an occasion for renewal.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We also remember
those in our class who were unfortunate and left us early. We now deeply recognize that there is so much more road
behind than ahead and we gather to share our situations, our wounds, our
successes, commiserating and celebrating this one precious life. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have always been somewhat reclusive and introspective,
preferring quiet solitude. I find large crowds, loud music, and activity rather
uncomfortable, yet it is joyful to gather, even as I sit in the margins, and I
greatly appreciate our convening despite the many different paths we have all wandered
over the years. I’m continually surprised at the warmth and affection I feel
for people who have not been part of my adult life but have lived mostly in
imagination. This is sheer blessing.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So I will continue to look forward to these celebratory efforts
at connection, healing and renewal, and hope that all will be here to gather
once again the next time.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You can visit me at <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">www.</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">AstroCare</i>.net</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00547461369460629688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981099167389838443.post-4718561697855015752013-08-08T14:37:00.002-07:002013-08-08T14:37:17.301-07:00Imagining Nature<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
I recently wrote about the importance of imagination in
our lives. I would like to gather up that thread and spin it out a bit further
this time. In the history of religious symbolism, the images of sun, blood, and
water have prominently reflected the notion of Life, vitality, and
purification, yet in the span of my life I have witnessed these powerful images
revisioned as foci of death, danger, and contamination.<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Sun: I recall my mother telling me to go outside on a
summer day to get some sun. We needed to be in the sun to stay healthy. SPF factors
had not been heard of and few people used sun lotions. Skin cancer was not a
concern. We felt bright, happy, and warm in the sun. We were safe. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Blood: a potent symbol of life and continuity. I remember
making a cut on our hands with one of my friends, mixing our blood together
becoming blood brothers, joined forever. A small abrasion at a friend’s house
and his mother would simply wash it with soap and water, apply some
mercurochrome, a band aid, and send me back to play. There was no fear by her of
touching my blood. No one ever saw latex gloves. There was no paranoia about
contacting blood. No medical person ever said to me, “Treat everyone as if
they’re infectious.”</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Water: once a precious liquid, life giving, baptizing,
purifying. We could still drink from some streams and swim without worry in its
refreshing flow. Today, many beaches, lakes, and streams are permeated with
filth and debris. We purchase filtering systems for our homes and buy water in
bottles to ensure its safety for heaven’s sake. This all astonishes me.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Lacking a pervasive guiding fantasy for caring for the
environment and possessing a stunted aesthetic toward beauty, we have damaged
the air, infected the water and wounded the land to the extent that it is
difficult for the planet to care for us anymore. We experience no sacred
immanence intimately present in the world. For many people, the guiding fantasy
is that life is simply a testing ground pointing toward a greater life after
death in our true Home for Eternity. Sacredness resides out there somewhere in
heaven, that’s what need concern us. It is no wonder that when the planet is
imagined as simply a commodity for our use, as inanimate (i. e., without soul),
dead matter, that we do not cherish it.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Imagination is reality, our guiding fantasies shape our
relation to the world. If we truly believed that nature was sacred then the
Darwinian image of having evolved from earlier primates would not so much raise
our collective ire as it would humble and soothe us as we would clearly be
connected to the sacred nature of the world. It would be no shame to share an
ancestor with the apes but a blessing. We would celebrate this relationship,
not put it on trial. We would have a sense of being home and of belonging here.
If this were the case, then I imagine we would take care of our home more
lovingly. As long as we feel like outsiders, tourists in some distant motel,
far from home, it’s not hard to imagine us trashing the rooms.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
When Columbus invaded the New World, the world was already
being imagined not as a living being, but as a storehouse of unlimited
resources for consumption. In <u>Beyond Geography</u>, Frederick Turner
suggests,</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span>"To
those who followed Columbus and Cortez, the New World truly seemed incredible because of the natural
endowments. The land often announced itself with a heavy scent, miles out into the
ocean. Verrazano in 1524 smelled the cedars of the East Coast a hundred
leagues out. The men of Henry Hudson’s <i>Half Moon</i> were temporarily
disarmed by the
fragrance of the New Jersey shore, while ships running farther up the coast <span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>occasionally
swam through large beds of floating flowers. Wherever they came inland they <span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"></span>found a rich
riot of color and sound, of game and luxuriant vegetation. Had they been <span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"></span>other than they were, they
might have written a new mythology here. As it was, they took inventory."</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
"Had they been other than they were," how were they? They
were consumers rather than conservers, they were businessmen rather than
artists, they were Christian rather than pagan. Even with this great
provocation of beauty, they could not imagine the world as sacred. Their
cultural imagination displayed the land as ultimately cursed and given for
their use. Beauty was in the adoration of the transcendent not the immanent.
And here we are now, our fantasies about life darkened; impoverished land,
impoverished soul, impoverished imagination.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Perhaps we can adopt a new credo: Cultivate imagination,
Seek beauty.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Visit me at <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">AstroCare</i>.net</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00547461369460629688noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981099167389838443.post-75879365693549529822013-08-08T14:17:00.002-07:002013-08-08T14:17:45.578-07:00Healing Fiction<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
The poet Wallace Stevens once wrote, “The final belief is
to believe in a fiction, which you know to be a fiction, there being nothing
else. The exquisite truth is to know that it is a fiction and that you believe
in it willingly.” For many years I have pondered Stevens’ meaning and through time,
my understanding of the phrase has shifted, adding various subtleties and
shades of meaning. I have wandered into a space in my life where I have adopted
this as a personal credo.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
There are certain propositions about the world which I
assent to, which glue my world together, and that quite naturally, I hold
dearly. I recognize their empirical unverifiability, they are fictions, but for
me they are what James Hillman refers to as “healing fictions.”</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
The first is that there is a Way (perhaps Tao)
expressing itself continuously.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
The second is that elements of the Way are potentially
knowable. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
The third, that historically there are numerous
disciplines by which we may discern this Way. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Fourth, the practice of astrology is one of these disciplines.
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Now I don’t mean the trivial astrology found in the sun
sign columns in the newspapers and magazines, nor am I interested in anyone
attempting to tell me what the future holds, the future can take care of
itself. I mean the kind of astrology that rather than providing answers to my
worrisome problems, generates questions about what it means to be living this
life here and now. It provokes new questions that lead off on adventures in
meaning, that help to create/discover shifts in understanding. In some ways, it
is astrology as spiritual practice. My only basis for believing these fictions
reside in the heart of my own experience. I do not doubt their veracity though
I could in no way prove them to you.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
I think it is fair to say that astrology falls short of
empirical validity There is a blatant attempt by astrologers to move into the
neighborhood of science where most cultural validity resides, kind of like
gaining increased status by having rich and important friends, or they simply
know little about the workings of science. Astrology is an art form, an applied
poetics as writer Thomas Moore suggests. Like many good things in life it is
not to be taken literally. The painted portrait is not, nor does it necessarily
reflect, the literal person, the well told tale (Shakespeare, for instance)
does not need to be historically accurate to imbue its listeners with meaning
and value, the stories of the Christ or the Buddha do not have to be authentic
to carry power and import into our lives. These are mysteries and fictions with
the capacity to heal and move us into new spaces.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Fictions and fantasies do not reflect categories of
diminished value or useless inquiry, but have great consequence and that even
science and technology are expressively permeated by many fantasies. There is
no need to be locked into a monocentric view of things. There is no longer one
right way to approach life, no quest I need go on to find it, but many ways
now. I can also recognize that there are many styles of being in the world and
though mine may be right for me, it is not necessarily right for others. Each
person is a unique expression of life, a particular facet on this gem of the
world. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
The astrological imagination is effulgent with
polycentric perspectives and respect for others. Almost by definition, it
includes tolerance and diversity with less need to pathologize the ways of
others. Every person is fitted perfectly into their lives with even the
struggle to fit, fitting.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
To see the beauty of celestial rhythm reflected in the
everyday affairs of my life grants a certain feeling of serenity and
contentment upon which I can fall back in the midst of my own crises. I have said this before but I think it bears repeating, because my life at times
seems out of my control is not to suggest that it is out of control, there may be larger guiding factors in play. To engage
the fiction of astrology to acquire this learning is for me a worthwhile
endeavor.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Visit me at AstroCare.net </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00547461369460629688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981099167389838443.post-1286479845101594162013-08-08T14:01:00.000-07:002013-08-08T14:07:52.644-07:00Imagination is Heavy<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span>I
believe that we are constantly imagining the world and that imagination has a
central rather than peripheral place in our lives.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
I like the ambiguity of imagination. Imagining
is still a controversial issue in psychology and philosophy. I think we all
know what we mean when we say the word but find it difficult to articulate a
good definition. Imagination may be understood as our capacity to generate any
possible reality. We are imagining when we dream or envision situations but we
are also imagining when we close our eyes and place a finger to our nose or
navigating in the darkness through our house late at night. But imagination is
not simply representational, it is also creative of new realities.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Cultivating
imagination is not emphasized in our upbringing. In fact, we occasionally hear
remarks such as, “It’s just your imagination, you’re dreaming, it’s all in your
head, that’s only a story,” which are used in a dismissive fashion, something
which says the issue at hand is unreal or unimportant. These are negative value
statements. Gore Vidal once wrote that it “is the spirit of the age to believe that
any fact, no matter how suspect, is superior to any imaginative exercise, no
matter how true.” Imagination does not have a valued place in our culture.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
The
late historian of religion, Ioan Couliano noted that whereas the Renaissance
was a culture of imagination, the Reformation of the 16th century led to the
total censorship of the imaginary. Religion, generally locatable within the
province of imagination, witnessed immense differences arise in liturgical
style between the Roman Catholic tradition and the new Protestant worship. The
once sensuous liturgy was transformed into sterile formality. Gone was incense,
chant, bells, intonations, Latin, candles, costume, rich tapestries, statuary,
relics, and the deep mystery of the Eucharist. The Reformation brought
unadorned interiors, somber hymns, plain pulpits, suited pastors, and a new
focus upon the sermon in the common vernacular. An imaginative and sensuous
worship was viewed as idolatrous. The worship experience shifted from sensory
experience to explicated meaning. Apparently, in the beginning was the Word not
the Image.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
I
believe it is mostly the poets, artists, occultists, and madmen who have kept
imagination alive to us. William Blake at the turning of the 19th century,
wrote, “Man is all Imagination. God is Man and exists in us and we in him.”
“The world of Imagination is the world of Eternity.” “The Imagination is not a
State, it is Human existence itself.” For Blake, imagination, experience, and
existence were all of an inseparable piece. A century later, Jung was
proclaiming, “What appears to us as immediate reality consists of carefully
processed imagery... We live immediately only in a world of images.” “Image is
psyche.” If image is psyche and psyche can be defined as soul, then when we cultivate
images, we are also engaged in the task of soul-making. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Contemporary
archetypal writer, James Hillman describes soul, not as a thing but as a
perspective, a way of seeing that is reflective, deepening events into
experiences, adding layers of depth and richness to our lives. One of the
qualities of poetry is to take an ordinary event and through reflection,
probing, and working it as an image describe it anew in such a way that it
becomes meaningful experience, something which actually moves us. Soul-making
is about differentiating this middle ground, creating imaginal space between
the event and its impact upon us. Another way of grasping soul-making is the
notion of attending closely to the minute and mundane details in our lives,
paying attention to the sensuousness which surrounds us when we waken, when we
bathe, when we prepare and enjoy food, when we meditate, when we make love.
Through attending, we become alive to the world and the world in turn becomes
alive to us, vital, a living being. An animated world is a world permeated by
soul, anima (soul in Latin) brings us round to the notion of World Soul.
Emerson has a marvelous essay on the World Soul, which he terms the Oversoul
and I heartily recommend it. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
In
reclaiming imagination, giving it an honored place, we more easily care for
soul and deepen our relationship toward life.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00547461369460629688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981099167389838443.post-54805463844948900482013-07-06T09:21:00.002-07:002013-07-13T11:27:40.931-07:00The Tragedy of News Media<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Recently
the community of Boston suffered an immense tragedy, before that, Newtown, CT and prior to that, Aurora, CO . Unfortunately after these events,
the media has attempted to victimize the rest of the nation under the guise of
the public’s right to know.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
am glad that I live in a country with a free press. I believe it is truly a
blessing for society in order to provide a system of checks and balances to
protect the citizenry against potential abuses by government. Certainly, the
founding fathers recognized this as a needed aspect necessary to ensure a
democracy.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
underbelly of this freedom however, is license to report anything and
everything regardless of the relevancy and impact on the public. Why print, broadcast,
and cyber media find it necessary to overwhelm the public and beat it
relentlessly down with tales of tragedy so distant from home that it has little
impact on our lives until the media makes it so, is an unanswered question. Or
perhaps the answer is the bottom line. Media is, after all, a business
attempting to make a profit.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Not
only was I stunned by the news of the Boston event, but even more so when a broadcast
station announced that on their evening news that same night they would examine
whether something like that could happen here. I did not expose myself to that
particular evening display but I wonder..... even though many things are
possible, is it probable or likely that such a tragedy would happen here. It
would seem that the media is suggesting that it could happen anywhere. But is
that true? On what basis is it true since at the time we had no idea of the
structure and reason for the bombing. What are the criteria necessary for this
kind of horror to occur? Certainly, you need more than simply disaffected youth
with access to weaponry. In our society, that might apply to the majority of young
people. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
suspect we will have heard from the surviving victims, the families of the
victims, the friends of the families of the victims, distant relatives, local
political and educational spokespeople, and the surrounding professional
experts who will proffer their speculations about reasons, all the while the
media constantly keeping the story in our awareness. Why is it necessary to
report so frequently, thoroughly, intimately, and constantly? I suppose defenders
of the coverage will state that the public has a right to know and we need to
learn lessons from the tragedy. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
can’t help but think that this rationale for coverage arises from the bottom
feeders who thrive on the genre of programming that gives us TMZ, Jerry
Springer, Honey Boo Boo, Jersey Shore, and the like and the world’s most
amazing car crashes, police busts, attacking animals, strange incidents, and
catastrophes. Perhaps we’ve become a nation of voyeurs seeking our nourishment
by vicariously feeding off the adversity of others. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>If
it is true, as some suppose, that youngsters are so vulnerable and easily
influenced by rock musicians, song lyrics, movies, radical religion, and just about anything that
opposes and dis-poses the status quo, why would we allow the media to bring
such tragic and perverse stories into our homes and schools? People can become
traumatized not only by experiencing and witnessing traumatic events but also
by hearing about trauma. Is it possible that the media has a responsibility <b>not</b>
to report?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
encourage readers to reduce their amount of exposure to the news media. If you
must, browse newspapers, listen to friends and colleagues to find out what’s
happening. It adds to our daily stresses to hear calamitous stories from around
the world and be powerless to act upon them. We victimize ourselves when we do
this. Press the OFF button. If a story has a direct effect on your life, trust
me, you will hear about it. When we constantly place ourselves in victimized
positions, we become impotent, disenchanted, tortured souls, vulnerable to
numbing out and losing our passion and compassion for living. In an effort to
reclaim power we often adopt the position that somehow we are owed relief from
bad fortune, given all that we have had to take in through other’s misfortunes.
I’m thinking here of the obscene advertising motto of a personal injury law
firm which urges you to call them “when life is unfair.”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Although
we are guaranteed by our Declaration of Independence the right to pursue
happiness, we are not guaranteed happiness. We seem to believe that we deserve
happiness. I’m sorry but that “ain’t gonna happen.” Unfairness is part and
parcel of the Great Round. Misfortune, error, bad luck, flaw, failure, etc.,
make up at least half of our lives. We receive enough of this in our own
experience, there’s no need to let the media dump more and victimize us
further. Our own circumstances and events contribute to the establishment of
character, engender a respect for fate, and inspire humility. Honor your own
suffering, embrace it, welcome it when it knocks on your door, and your life
will grow to contain less yearning and more contentment. Don’t rob others of
their sorrow. Don’t steal their pain for your own passion.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Visit me at www.AstroCare.net </span></div>
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<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00547461369460629688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981099167389838443.post-58186013728444175392013-07-06T08:57:00.000-07:002013-07-13T11:27:08.867-07:00What I Did in Prison<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
spent much of my time over the last thirty years in prison working with
convicted felons, some of whom were seriously mentally ill. Every so often I’m
asked, “What was I doing there?” The answer tends to be multifaceted, shifting
its focus depending on what was occurring in my life. Occasionally I can say that
I don’t know what I was doing there aside from earning a salary. It can be
frustrating work.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Prison
is a real place not a Hollywood image. It is highly structured toward
uniformity and intended to disempower its community members. It is a unique
environment and its residents can be as foreign to me almost as if they were a
separate species of their own kind and making. The rules of conduct that apply
in civil life generally do not work well in prison. Kindness, civility,
decency, and concern for others are considered weakness. Inmates and unwary
staff who express these qualities are quickly
consumed by this dark, predatory beast.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
community that I served was comprised of approximately 2400 men of all ages,
serving both short and lengthy sentences for crimes ranging from theft to
kidnapping, rape, and murder. Some are leaving soon to return to civilian life,
some are never leaving and will die within those walls.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Some
of these men were so broken and psychologically misshapen that they were beyond
the reach of any human agency and yet those are the men with whom I worked.
They functioned poorly, will likely always function poorly, and if released
will continue to be a threat to person and property in their community. They
tend to be lacking in education and are under-socialized. Many have numerous associates and relatives in prison. Their lives will be spent going in and out of
various institutions. Many of them were comfortable with this kind of future.
They need not worry about food, clothing, and shelter. There were no concerns
about paying bills on time or working a forty hour week. Many didn’t miss women
because even when they were on the outside they related poorly to others and
viewed women more as objects to be sanctified or abused.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Demographics between myself and my
clients radically differed. I am not from a broken home, I was never severely
abused, I am not uneducated, I do not have a serious history of substance
abuse, and I do not engage in violence to solve my problems. I do not have a
string of unsuccessful relationships, nor sporadic employment. I do not lack
impulse control or the ability to delay gratification, and most importantly, I
do not behave as a victim in this world.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But
behind these appearances, within a deeper perspective, is where these men and I
touched, where common threads are woven into our lives. Each and every one of
them, like myself, has sought pleasure while trying to avoid pain, has
experienced a wide range of emotion, has faced a variety of challenges, and
someday will move on to a great Unknown. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
image of the prisoner provides an appropriate metaphor and a concise embodiment
of what it means to be human. When we find ourselves locked in by our fears,
restrained in unhealthy relationships, kept down by family obligations, stuck
in meaningless occupations, or held captive by our own inadequacies, then we’re
all doing time in prisons of our own making and it’s terribly hard to break out
to freedom.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>These
prisoners were both my clients and my therapists. There seemed something to
learn in each encounter. Through them I saw my own darkness, I was forced to
confront my own projections, becoming aware of my own craziness, my fears, my
uncaringness, my own capacity for evil, and I was constantly humbled. In the
same manner that playing with a child keeps us tethered to our own innocence,
prison nourishes the dark intensity in our soul.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
do not believe that it is possible for one person to heal another. That is
something which occurs within each of us if we can open to it. There is a great
resistance to healing due to ignorance, habit, and fear of change. When we are
ready, healing arises in its own time. Healing<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>doesn’t of necessity mean that the client improves or makes progress,
sometimes it means that clients are simply able to begin the process of
learning to embrace and accept themselves, their marvelous quirks,
eccentricities, and twisted deformities. Their lives are enriched and deepened
though not necessarily better. Consequently, I viewed my task as coaxing into
being an environment within which healing might occur, to catch that moment
when the client was ripe for change. That at its best is what I was doing in
prison.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Visit me at AstroCare.net </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00547461369460629688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981099167389838443.post-25929982759035454542013-07-06T08:39:00.001-07:002013-07-13T11:28:44.481-07:00Humor and Spirituality<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
was recently pondering the meaning of spirituality and how we could understand
the term differently. I do not write as an expert on the topic but simply as
someone who believes that he has something to add to the mix. I have spent much
of my life as a devotee of religions and have explored the many forms within
monotheism (Christian, Jewish, Muslim) and without, such as Hindu, Buddhist,
Taoist, native and indigenous beliefs. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Spirituality
has been defined historically and culturally in a variety of ways and it
remains quite slippery. Looking about, it seems that there are at least two
kinds of spirituality. The one which I see quite frequently is a dry, floating,
hold-your-breath kind of spirituality. This approach focuses upon ascent, an
upward escape away from the mundane, boring, flawed, frustrating, ordinary
qualities of existence. It is suited to those seekers who reflect T.S. Eliot’s
opinion that “humankind cannot bear very much reality.” It is a spirituality
directed toward fending off the vividness of life. Typically it is an ascetic,
moralistic, methodical, discipled, detached style of spirituality severed from
the juiciness of living. This type of spirituality stems from dissatisfaction
with one’s life, the feeling that self and/or situation is not good enough. We
hold the desire to be something other than we are in this moment. This, of
course, is the fatal trap which keeps us stuck.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
second kind of spirituality appears more closely related to the root of our
word, spirit, in Latin, <i>spirare</i>, which means “to breathe.” This
spirituality is characterized by breathing, breathing deeply of the world,
being immersed in life. This kind of spirituality is a way of looking deeply,
of seeing through appearances to the heart of the numinous or sacred which is
behind, beneath, and within all things. This approach keeps us attached to the
world in the sense of caring and honoring each thing fiercely because of its
rarity and fragility. This erotic attachment to the depths of things
invigorates and inspires us to continue to breathe life deeply until such time
that we ourselves expire. It is the kind of spirituality which recognizes every
breath of the wind as our own and every pulse of the tide as our
heartbeat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One
additional aspect of this kind of spirituality is an exuberant, robust,
spontaneous, sense of humor. Humor is a word etymologically rooted in a term
meaning “to be wet.” Humor is fluid, flowing, quick to ‘break the ice’ (a
phrase related to the same word stem). Humor quickly fills us with good feeling
while deflating some of our self-importance, keeping us humble. Without humor,
fear, defensiveness, rigidity, alienation, and isolation set in.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jungian
counselor, Helen Luke notes that our sense of humor originates in our sense of
proportion, the capacity to discriminate and respond to the relationship of the
parts to the whole.<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This knowing the
‘place’ of things in life keeps us in our place, away from hubris and toward
humility. It allows us to laugh at ourselves, to feel our own folly, and also
to recognize in T.S. Eliot’s words, “the laughter at the heart of things.”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
philosopher, Goethe once wrote, “The man of understanding finds everything
laughable, the man of reason almost nothing.” Meister Eckhart, 700 years ago,
warned us to never trust a so called spiritual person for whom laughter did not
lie at the center of his or her spirituality. Laughter is an act of letting go
and letting be. It is a <i>kenosis</i>, a self-emptying which allows us to be filled
with the spirit anew.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Luke
notes further that there is “in fact no real spirituality without the laughter
that the sense of humor brings. It is not to be confused with frivolity and it
cannot exist in anyone who is not a serious person able to explore the darkness
and suffering in life.... It simply begets in men and women a true perception
of all the suffering and the joy, the tears and the laughter, the seriousness
and the fun, inherent in our experience.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Humor
strikes suddenly and allows grace to enter when we least expect it. The 19th
century Zen master, Sengai stated, “There are things that even the wise fail to
do while the fool hits the point. Unexpectedly discovering the way to life in
the midst of death, he bursts out in hearty laughter.” It would seem then that
in our own journeys we would want to make a place for the power of humor, to
express that hearty belly laugh in the face of this marvelous and terrifying
existence.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Visit me at AstroCare.net </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00547461369460629688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981099167389838443.post-6583782277209064842013-07-05T12:38:00.000-07:002013-07-13T11:29:39.747-07:00The Gift<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In
the film “Patch Adams” there is a scene intentionally given to depict a
communication from what we may call “the Other.” I like to think of it as the
world speaking to the character Patch but it can just as easily be regarded as
a divine message from God, or Life, or the spirit of his friend. I don’t want
to disclose it specifically because some readers may intend to see the video
and I wouldn’t want to give the scene away. It has no grand dramatic relevance
to the film but there is power in its simplicity.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As
part of my own discourse with life, I engage the fantasy that the world is an
ensouled, living being, that it speaks to us in odd moments and delicately
nuanced whispers. It merely takes attentiveness to experience its wonder.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
recall an evening some 43 years ago when I was in college and sharing a house
with two friends. A dog was hit by a car out in front of the house and had
somehow managed to hobble from the road into our backyard. A girl came to our
door asking if we owned a large black dog and that while crossing the road had
just been injured by a car and was in our backyard, the driver had never
stopped. I didn’t recognize the dog. He was a black mutt, built like a solid Labrador.
He was scraggly, dirty, wearing a collar worn with age. I was reluctant to help
at first. There were other things I wanted to do that night. I had plans for
the evening and didn’t like the disruption to my cozy world. The police had
arrived and were going to shoot the dog, because there was nowhere they could
take it. I find death a difficult matter so despite the intention of the
police, I decided with some encouragement from the neighbor girl to seek a vet
on a Sunday night.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
tried to keep the dog warm with an old blanket. He didn’t seem to be in any
pain but his breathing was labored. He attempted to get up several times but
his back legs failed him. After locating a vet by phone and using the blanket
as a stretcher, my friends and I placed the dog in the car. My friend drove and
I sat with the dog keeping vigil. During the ride he never made a noise but
simply lay quietly. Gradually, his breathing slowed and then stopped. I said, “I
think he’s gone.” We continued to the vet for the final pronouncement and then
took him back home to bury him in our own backyard where he had lain. He had
died as quietly as he appeared.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He
had suffered in the company of strangers, had died in an unfamiliar place but
he was embraced with great care. What kind of life had he had, I wonder. What
sort of things had he done? Did he frolic with small children? Had he
experienced the love of others? Did he lie in the sun and bounce through rain
puddles? I placed him in the ground gently, with loving softness and tears as
if we had been friends all of our lives, though we had been together only an
hour or so. His passing was in no way without meaning. He helped me realize
that we all share this one great life filled with terror and beauty and that
each death takes something from us and also brings us closer to the
preciousness of life. I thanked him for sharing his death with me because in
those final moments he gave me my humanity, showed me my love and compassion.
As is apparent, I’ve never forgotten that dog.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There
is an addendum to this story. About 25 years ago, late at night, I was driving
home. It was dark and I was speeding down the road, singing some song or other.
Just before I got to my turn, the memory of that dog came to me and I slowed as
I contemplated that experience. As I made the turn at a slower speed than I
would have only a few moments prior, a large black dog sprang out of the
darkness in front of my vehicle. As I was driving more slowly I did not hit
him. He moved across my path and bounded back into darkness. I like to imagine
that somehow this is all connected in ways that I cannot fathom. I like to
think that this moment was an instance of “the Other” speaking to me,
protecting both the dog and me from undue harm. However strange sounding, these
are the kinds of moments which strengthen my faith in the goodness of life.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Visit me at AstroCare.net </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00547461369460629688noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981099167389838443.post-44903926356294527062013-06-24T06:51:00.002-07:002013-07-13T11:30:30.230-07:00The Happiness Trap<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></b>I was raised in a family whose
guiding myths included themes of competitiveness, athleticism, hard work, and
academics. In 1969, I was introduced to sex, drugs, and rock and roll. I quit
basketball, let my hair grow long, and bought the requisite jeans and work
shirts of the counter culture. After about a year and a half, my mother who was
quite worried by my behavioral and stylistic changes, asked me during one of my
holiday visits, “Bradley, are you happy?” I took her question seriously as I
took all matters seriously during that era and found it hard to answer. In a
way, the question became a Zen koan for me. I discovered as I contemplated it, that
I did not measure my life in terms of a happiness quotient. I was living
through the highest highs and the lowest lows. The revelation for me at this
time was that the proper question would have been, “Is your life meaningful?” I
found that if I circled my life in terms of happiness and sadness, then
satisfaction and dissatisfaction bounced through me daily like a rubber ball.
Whereas, when my life was framed more inclusively in terms of meaningfulness,
there arose greater acceptance and contentment. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
People often desire to be happy and I always get
a little uneasy when I hear people wanting happiness because it’s a surefire
way not to get it. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
As some of you know, I am an
astrologer. I mention this because from the point of view of astrology, we
Americans have a Sagittarian outlook on the world. What this means is that our
perspective on matters is imbued with the ideas of expansion, of the wide open
spaces, of westward ho, of “give me land, lots of land under starry skies
above, don’t fence me in,” of endless growth, of freedom, of a brighter future,
of a favored relation with God as in the notions of the New Jerusalem and John
Winthrop’s “City upon the Hill.” This thinking is characteristic of the
American imagination.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It is a
primary feature of the American Dream that a person can start with little and
end up with much, going from rags to riches. We have been indoctrinated with
the belief that anyone can grow up to become President, that we are all
potentially living an Horatio Alger story, that prosperity and success lay just
around the corner. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In his 1931
book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Epic of America</i>, James Truslow
Adams wrote:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life
should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each
according to ability and achievement.” And so we have happiness peddlers, snake
oil salesman, get rich quick schemes and trouble, right here in River City.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Deep in the
heart of the American psyche hangs a pall of happiness that obscures our relation
to life. It is woven into our country’s founding and is understood as having
been endowed by our Creator as an unalienable right. We find it in our
Declaration of Independence: the right to Life, liberty, and the pursuit of
Happiness. We have taken these words into our hearts, and we experience the
inevitable outcome of this declaration, which is a perpetual dissatisfaction through
an endless seeking for happiness. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
As the late political columnist Max
Lerner observed, “America is a happiness society… The underlying strivings may
be toward success, acquisitiveness, or power, toward prestige or security. But
what validates these strivings for the American is the idea that he has a
natural right to happiness.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Happiness over the centuries seems
to have become an entitlement for us in the same manner that if some unhappy misfortune
befalls me then somebody better pay up, make it right, whether I’m spilling hot
coffee on my lap at McDonald’s, or I’m the pedestrian hit by a car suing Google
for unsafe directions, or I’m the man carrying a gun into a bar, being wounded
in a shooting, then suing the bar for not searching me when I entered the place,
or I’m holding the fast food industry liable for my obesity, or the families
who held 25 film studios and video game makers responsible for the Columbine
shootings. Somebody owes me dammit! Where’s my piece of the pie?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In the 19<sup>th</sup>
century, French social critic, DeTocqueville noted in his travels round our
country, “In America, I saw the freest and most enlightened men placed in the
happiest circumstances that the world affords; it seemed to me as if a cloud
habitually hung upon their brow, and I thought them serious and almost sad,
even in their pleasures.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What we
fail to recognize is that it is in the very search for happiness itself that
the cause of our discontent can be found. This line of thinking always places
fulfillment in the future. We want more, we want bigger, we want better. We
want new and improved. We want it all and we want it now as the song lyric goes
and the advertising industry tells us that we can have it. We yearn to be all
that we can be. We want the quick fix, the fast buck, the newest version, the
latest edition, the most recent upgrade as if settling for less or for second
best somehow rubs against the grain of the American way. Give me that iPad,
iPhone, Kindle, and 3D television.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We have
been breast fed the milk of happiness and we consume it with gusto. In this day
and age, some still believe that there are no limits to growth, to resources,
to problem solving the obstacles in our path. In America, we are taught if we
just apply ourselves, we can achieve anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>With the zeal of true believers, we seek to rid our lives of all that
hinders, blocks, and frustrates our quest. We desire perfect marriages, happy
children, rewarding parenting, great sex, rich spirituality, harmonious
emotions, conflict resolution, successful endeavors, a joyous inner child,
glowing physical and psychological health, and of course, the great prize,
wholeness.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As an
observer and member of the mental health industry, I’ve witnessed psychological
health become twisted in impossible directions. With the help of positive
affirmations, ten simple ways to change my life program, brief psychotherapy, solution
focused counseling, or positive therapy that keeps me on the sunny side of life,
I can continue to grasp for the brass ring, the one I deserve. The product of
these interventions is intended to be a better person, symptom free and well adjusted
to the demands of daily living. But why is it I want to rid myself so quickly
of depression, worry, disappointment, and failure? Where is my patience to
tolerate the uncertainties and ambiguities in living while they sort themselves
through? What’s with my need to control and direct every aspect of my life?
Where is my faith?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Is it possible that in brief
approaches to people that the result is more likely to be superficial and short
lasting? Is the quality of the outcome similar to Wonder bread and Bud Light,
momentarily filling and satisfying but in the end leaving me wanting more? Is
there anything to be gained by home baked bread, garden grown tomatoes, hand
crafted beers, or relaxed meandering therapies? Wouldn’t I prefer something
that is lovingly and caringly crafted over and against the mass produced
product? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
It has been argued that the
defining purpose of the ancient Chinese text, the Tao Te Ching is to endeavor
to bring into focus and sustain a productive disposition “that allows for the
fullest appreciation of those specific things and events that constitute one’s
field of experience.” In fact the title could be translated as “Making This
Life Significant.” Is it possible that this optimizing of experience is
discovered in the savoring and enjoyment available from something that takes time
to prepare, ripen, and mature?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But let’s
face it; I want the sunny side of life without having to experience its shadowy
night and I want it now and forever. I want to ascend to the heavens without
the requisite descent to hell. I believe we are a lopsidedly developed people
limping toward a paradise that recedes into the distance with every step to
bring it closer. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It is this
attitude of grasping for things other than what I have, be it enlightenment or
stuff, and wanting to be other than who I am in this very moment that shapes my
world into a commodity for my private use. A world imagined as commodity has
thingness, but no soul. This attitude promotes the desire to explore the world
seeking oil, gas, riches untold at the expense of environmental and human
degradation. There are no tree spirits in our culture, only lumber, no water nymphs,
only hydro resources, no mister pig or missus cow, simply pork and beef, and recalling
St. Francis, no brother sun nor sister moon. The world is reduced to a thing
and we are alone in the universe, friendless with no allies, humanity against
the world. The American imagination seems to have little room for an animated
and intimate world seeing this ensouled view as simply anthropomorphic.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span> Is it
possible to break free of this happiness trap? Let me reach back into classical
mythology for a moment. In Greek mythology, there is a significant contrast
between Zeus, King of the Gods, known for his dalliances, never satisfied with
his current state of relational affairs, constantly seeking new fields to plow
where the grass seems greener, and his father, Kronos, who abolishes creativity,
annuls the past, and devours the future. In Roman mythology, Zeus and Kronos
are known respectively as Jupiter and Saturn. For the astrological imagination
Jupiter rules the sign Sagittarius that I mentioned earlier as reflecting the
American outlook on the world. Oddly enough Zeus’ bird, the eagle, known for
its great flight and great vision, became our national emblem.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
The astrological Jupiter is
associated with expansiveness, growth, opportunism, enthusiasm, optimism, joy,
buoyancy, levity, and freedom. Saturn on the other hand, is known for matters
that are delayed, limiting, focusing, sobering, serious, constrictive, fated,
and other related expressions. Saturn as the last and furthest planet out
during the centuries when the astrological imagination flourished in the West (before
the discovery of Uranus in the 18<sup>th</sup> century) was symbolic of the end
of the road, finality, mortality, the grave. It is grave not only in the sense
of death and final resting place, but also grave in the sense of serious and
weighty, issues that are heavy and leaden. Additionally, grave as in to stamp
or impress deeply, to fix permanently. Grave and grieve stem from the same
Latin root, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">gravis</i> which has to do
with bearing, not only one’s bearing, getting our bearings, but with being
weighed down, and gives us our word gravity. It is easy to see why we avoid
Saturn’s realm. Deprivation, denial, limitation do not blend well with the expansive
‘no limits to what we can do’ American Dream. We are educated to accumulate
stuff, to live in large homes so that we can store our booty. And as we acquire
more stuff , we rent storage space for this excess. We are taught to
accumulate, not to let go, to seek happiness, not to embrace sorrow, yet dark
times are half of the human experience.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Now
if you recall, the qualities associated with Jupiter all tend to carry positive
cultural value – joy, levity, optimism, enthusiasm, frivolity, happiness –
things we all want. Those just mentioned regarding Saturn however, are burdened
by a negative valuation. Who wishes to be bound, weighted, and restrained in their
living? So like heliotropes, we turn toward the levity of Jupiter wanting to
avoid the saturnine world at all cost, and yet in doing so we can live only a
partial life, incapable of affirming the fullness of existence.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Ah, but strangely and fortunately,
life is structured in such a fashion as to remedy its own dilemmas. Taking any
polarity to an extreme, forces a repolarization. For example, if I move in the
direction of north, eventually if I continue this trek, I will be moving south.
The exposure to the extreme cold of dry ice is experienced by me as searingly
hot. Extend the pleasure of an orgasm too long and it becomes painful.
Constantly pursuing happiness ends in disappointment and discontent. Embracing
this discontent, leads to contentment. And this is the paradox, the necessity
of losing one’s soul in order to gain it, as the gospels intone.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
So, what must I do to escape the
happiness trap? Absolutely nothing, there’s no escape, there is nothing I can
do in terms of activity, method, or practice to escape this moment. There is no
satisfaction in a future that never arrives; there is only contentment in the
moment when past and future are realized as distractions. We’re all in the same
cosmic soup, sometimes it’s stirred, and sometimes it’s stilled. No one is
ahead and no one is behind. There is only a deeply felt sense of the miraculous
and wondrous absurdity of it all, the awe and the terror, with full
acknowledgement and embracing of it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
In giving up our busyness, our
searching for happiness, the questing for enlightenment, the chronic dissatisfaction
I feel dissipates like clouds clearing away and the sun breaking through. Fate we
discover is no more than freedom, gravity no more than grace and life is
experienced in its fullness. In that moment of clarity, when we have
surrendered any hope for happiness or desire for salvation, the scales will fall
from our eyes, and we will drop our crutches and dance with Life. May we all be
so blessed.<br />
<br />
Visit me at AstroCare.net </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00547461369460629688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981099167389838443.post-64094785707799472352013-06-16T11:36:00.000-07:002013-07-14T14:29:06.784-07:00Belief<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Death, disaster, terror, tragedy,
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My own beliefs are deeply rooted
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I am absolutely certain beyond any doubt, reasonable or otherwise, it is that I
could be wrong.<br />
<br />
Visit me at AstroCare.net </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00547461369460629688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981099167389838443.post-78768394934025509982013-06-14T07:06:00.004-07:002013-06-14T07:06:45.760-07:00The Time of the Summer Solstice<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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June 21 at 1:04 AM EDT is the Summer Solstice this year.
This is an astronomical fact to be sure but it also carries a psychological
meaning for us as the seasons shift again, constantly expressing the Great
Round of the solar year and reminding us that life is a cyclic process; an
interplay of light and dark. </div>
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The Summer Solstice is the day of longest light. The Sun in
its apparent journey northward arrives at it northernmost point, the amount of
daylight climaxes, and from this moment on, the Sun begins its long trip
southward trailing diminishing sums of daylight. The Sun’s gift to us then is
leaving the northern hemisphere warm and luxuriant in the full bloom and beauty
of the natural world.</div>
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Light has traditionally been associated with consciousness,
differentiation, spirit, and focal awareness. Most recently in the western
tradition, it’s been reflected upon Christ as the Light of the World, and
before that Mithra, solar deity of the Roman Empire. In classical Greece,
Apollo was associated with the human longing for beauty, youth, order, beauty,
music, and harmony. Clarity, discipline, and reason were given to Apollo. He is
the quality of rational consciousness. He is with us when we see better in the
light of day and matters by the light of reason.</div>
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When I was small I recall how much time I spent outdoors and
how wonderful the Sun was to me. I welcomed summer. I’d get up early, go out
and stay until day’s end, playing, lazing, and exploring the world around me.
It seemed our entire culture worshipped those sunny days.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Today I’m struck by how attitudes have shifted 180 degrees
regarding Sol. Rather than healthy and life-giving, we issue cautions about the
Sun as if he were an enemy. We are told to limit the amount of time in his
presence, screen ourselves from direct contact with his power. Have we in the
end spent too much time at his altar, become too relaxed in his presence, so
secular that we have forgotten his divinity?</div>
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<br /></div>
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We are seeing now how we have dishonored his visitations
with our excesses; the inevitable result, the increasing rates of skin problems
and cancers found in sun worshipers and non-worshipers alike. In our excesses,
have we become an inflated solar culture placing too much reliance upon
Apollonian rationality at the expense of other styles of being in the world? Do
we now worship the god of reason and order while neglecting the gods of Chaos,
Night, and Imagination?</div>
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<br /></div>
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Summer brings culmination and full bloom. The world is in
bright display, everything is in its moment, brilliant and shining. Light is a
wonderful blessing in its proper proportion. Despite this as we all know, light
can also be overbearing, glaring, flaring, searing, burning, sparking, and
blinding. Icarus and Bellerophon in coming too close to the Sun vividly remind
us in their plummeting that humans are not destined to be gods. It is important
to remember that making observance from the proper distance keeps humility
close at hand and helps avoid <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">hubris</i>.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The Sun is a great blessing and without it we would not be
here. The Summer Solstice is Light’s yearly triumph before giving way to its
seasonal decline and eventual submission to the power of Night. The Solstice is
our day in the Sun, our moment in the spotlight. Let us celebrate Sol’s climax
and celebrate ourselves as the season of warmth and heat blossoms and then recognize
and accept his eventual decline. Other divinities have their claims upon us
throughout the day and throughout the turning of the year and they also require
honoring. “To everything there is a season…” Have a nice Solstice.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00547461369460629688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981099167389838443.post-50896632343330031232013-06-14T06:44:00.000-07:002013-06-14T06:44:48.263-07:00Strife<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Strife is the father of all.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“The way up is the way down.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Heraclitus </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“The ultimate purpose of psychotherapy…. is learning
gradually and with much effort to accept our own limits and to carry the weight
of our suffering on our own shoulders for the rest of our lives.” <span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Aldo Carotenuto,
psychoanalyst</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What are we to make of these sentiments? Don’t most of us
seek out happiness, pleasure, sanity, wellness, peace, light and life? We try
to avoid sadness, suffering, craziness, illness, conflict, shadow and death. Don’t
we talk about trying to live a balanced life believing this to be the intended outcome
of a spiritual path?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To wish to be rid of troubles in favor of consistently enjoying
balance is to deny the realities of existence. Ongoing wellness without illness
is an absurdity. Equilibrium without ever being thrown off kilter is an impossibility.
To attempt to be rid of imbalance, uncertainty, ambiguity, strife, upset,
dissonance, or discord is to deny half of human reality. This results in our
leading lives of partiality instead of wholeness.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It makes as much sense as keeping the North Pole and
eliminating the South Pole, keeping our fronts while removing our backs, or
preserving the mountains while eradicating the valleys. These are not possible
and any attempt to do so will fail as it destroys the entire system of which
these polarities are integral properties. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Happiness is not a reward for a good life nor is suffering
the return on a poorly lived life. Pain and pleasure are simply features of the
human landscape. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Our problems and pathologies are not to be resolved any more
than the goal of life is to be had in the end of the journey. The journey
itself is the meaning of life. This very moment in which we are immersed is its
own significance. Our psychopathologies are gifts of the planetary gods to be
worked, simmered, fermented, and massaged in ways that enrich our beings. This
embracing of our difficulties is the way of soul making for John Keats and
James Hillman. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“There is a time for everything,… </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
a<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>time to weep and a
time to laugh,… </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
a time to mourn and a time to dance,…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
a time to tear and a time to mend,… </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
a time for war and a time for peace.”<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ecclesiastes</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“So sometimes things are ahead and sometimes they are behind;</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sometimes breathing is hard, sometimes it comes easily;</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sometimes there is strength and sometimes weakness;</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sometimes one is up and sometimes down.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tao
Te Ching #29</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
From a Taoist perspective the universe is processual; a word
meaning always flowing, always dynamic, always impermanent. This means that
movement is really movement toward stillness, and stillness is stillness
turning toward movement. This reflects the solstices. Homeostasis or balance is
inherently unstable moving toward disequilibrium marking the dynamism of the
equinoxes. Balance is always precarious; not quite one terminus of the polarity
yet not quite the other either.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So let us champion off centeredness, eccentricity, and weirdness, stand on behalf of flaws, failures, and shortcomings, and affirm those times when we are thrown off balance as the deep treasures they truly are for us.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00547461369460629688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981099167389838443.post-21981145840155289462013-05-27T16:39:00.004-07:002013-05-27T16:39:53.453-07:00Intelligent Design<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As a sexagenarian any conversation that doesn’t include
current health complaints is a blessing and worth my time. A rather bright
friend and I were recently engaged in a theological discussion. Now don’t let
that last phrase chase you away. In any case, he gently placed the proposition
before me that there is no outside to the universe, no transcendence, no God,
no supernatural beyond the natural. He has good reason for this stance.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And though I am a religious person, I have no difficulty
with this proposition. I did however offer a counter-position in that, though there
may be no outside to the universe, I fervently believe there is an inside; an
interiority, a subjectivity, in ancient days known as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">anima mundi</i> or the Soul of the World.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The intelligent design (ID) debate is typically posited
within a framework of Creator outside the universe (Intelligent Design) or no
Creator outside the universe (evolution). The reasoning for ID that I most
often hear is that when we look around and see such an intricate and complex
design then obviously, common sense moves us toward a Cosmic Designer. For
evolutionary biologists, a Creator is not necessary for the universe to be
here only natural selection. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The root assumption beneath both these positions however
holds to a model of cosmos as so much “stuff,” living organisms without interiority and lifeless matter available to be
molded as potter to clay and operating mechanically in the manner of Newton’s
clockwork universe. Matter tends to be viewed as inert and/or stupid, entirely
without meaning, soul, or interiority. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A slightly different, more organismic slant imagines cosmos
as living being, found in ancient Neoplatonic thinking and in the modern Gaia
hypothesis put forth by Lovelock and Margolis a few decades back. I suggest
that for Buddhist, Taoist, various indigenous, ancient quarters and the edgiest
perspectives in contemporary biology and physics, the issue of ID versus
evolution is a non issue. These models imply no separation between Creator and
Creation and that the universe is self-creating, self-organizing, self-sustaining,
and self- transforming in continuous process. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The cosmos then is self-designed. We live in an intelligent
universe. We are a particular expression of cosmic life. This is extremely hard
for many people to wrap their heads around because we are culturally
indoctrinated (both religiously and scientifically) to view the world as Other,
a huge supply of resources and commodities for our use and stewardship without
intrinsic life and value except as assigned by humanity. In the history of
humanity, soul was withdrawn from everything except our species. We imagine
humanity as the crown of creation rather than one species among many,
interpenetrating and interdependent upon each other. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When the universe was de-animated in the Age of
Enlightenment by the new Western worldview, we became increasingly separated
from the natural world. Indeed, even <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>estranged from ourselves, the medieval Great
Chain of Being was fractured and modernity began.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The organismic model of the universe is entirely consistent
with astrological thinking and I would encourage those seeking more information
consider reading <u>The Death of Nature</u> by Carolyn Merchant, <u>The
Self-Organizing Universe</u> by Erich Jantsch, <u>The Dream of the Earth</u> by
Thomas Berry, <u>Journey of the Universe</u> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>by Swimme and Tucker, <u>Where the Wasteland
Ends</u> by Roszak, <u>The Archetypal Cosmos</u> by LeGrice, and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><u>The Sacred Depths of Nature</u> by
Goodenough.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Wishing you curiosity. </div>
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<br /></div>
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<![endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00547461369460629688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981099167389838443.post-83346804958474837302013-05-26T14:57:00.000-07:002014-08-27T08:32:34.676-07:00Dark skies greeting<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This blog is associated with the web office of Brad Kochunas, astrology consultant at <b><i>AstroCare</i>.net</b>.</span></span> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Published occasionally, I hope you'll check back for new rants</span> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">and offer constructive commentary and informed opinion.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why dark skies? Dark skies</span> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">is the sign off that I have used over the years when writing emails and letters. Some people have questioned whether I was wishing them a difficult day, bad fortune, or troubling times, I reassured them that no, I held their best interests in my heart.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It's my understanding that one of the ways by which soul (psyche) was imagined during the medieval and Renaissance periods was as the entire night sky. This is a lovely image for our interiority. It lets us hold a cosmos within and is echoed by Origin, one of the early church fathers when he wrote, "Thou art a second world in miniature, the sun and the moon are within thee, and also the stars." And as an astrologer who deals with mythological deities like Venus, goddess of love, Mars, god of war, and Pluto, lord of the Underworld, the vast blackness of the night sky allows me to see these imaginal gods at work and at play in my life and in the lives of others when working with their astrology charts. Without the endless darkness of space the magnificent turning of the cosmos could never be experienced. The great lights both wandering and constant shine brightly and help instill humility within me knowing that I am but a small expression of a larger and wiser natural process.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">All too often we focus on the starry light in the foreground and ignore the backdrop of the cosmic blackness failing to realize that without this darkness there would be no light. Though in many creation stories darkness often precedes the light into being, I think it more likely that light and dark arise mutually into awareness.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In any case, dark skies awaken us to the fantasy that though our lives may at times feel out of <u><b>our</b></u> control, they are not necessarily out of control, there are larger guiding factors at work in the world.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So, should I wish you dark skies, it is my fondest hope that you'll experience an opening into your inner heavens and receive the deep blessing therein. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Dark skies. </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00547461369460629688noreply@blogger.com4