John Robbins on "The New Good Life - Living Better Than Ever In an Age of Less"
By Cathy Lynn Pagano (about the author) Page 1 of 2 page(s)
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Autumn Equinox & Aries Full Moon September 23, 2010
Venus Arising Out of the waters by Susan Boulet
Once again, we meet at the balance point of light and dark. The Autumn Equinox occurs this year on September 22-23. The Equinox is a moment of balance, of quiet, of stillness, as the Sun passes over the Equator from North to South. We have reached the time of Harvest, and a few hours later, the Aries Harvest Full Moon will reach its peak. A moment of perfect balance, made sacred by the self-awareness we need to cultivate on a full Moon as well as at this time of year. With the arrival of the harvest season, this year 2010 comes to its maturity. We have choices to make, about our personal harvests and about our world, and the cycle of the year demands that we make those choices with our eyes wide open and our hearts filled with a passion for life. That passion for life will get us through the Winter to come.
Take the time to acknowledge your harvest for this year and offer gratitude for the many gifts, as well as tests, that this year has brought you. From what I'm hearing from everyone, this Summer of 2010 T-square has tempered us on a fiery anvil. To those of you who are tired, it's time to celebrate the turning of the Wheel of the Year once more. The energies are about to shift.
The Autumnal Equinox is upon us here in the Northern Hemisphere, while those of you in the Southern hemisphere are celebrating Spring Equinox. As we in the North welcome in the darkness once again, those of you in the South will be rejoicing in the return of the light and warmth. Your Sun is back in the neighborhood!
What makes this full Moon special is the fact that after this full Moon, the Soli-Lunar cycle switches again: the new Moon in a sign will once again fall before the Full Moon associated with that sign. After this full Moon, when we plant a seed in a sign, it will blossom in its complementary sign, not in incompatible elements (for example, we've seen a new Moon in Virgo Earth with this next full Moon occurring in Aries Fire rather than Virgo Earth to its complement Pisces water).
This first Aries full Moon is right at the Equinox point, while the second Aries full Moon will occur at the 30th degree. The Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end.In the sign of Aries, that means this full Moon is about beginning to incarnate that new identity you've been developing this summer, while the second full Moon can lock it in place. The second full Moon in Aries might just be the real "blue moon' because two full moons in an astrological month (rather than a calendar month) make more sense if a blue moon is special in some way. While this full Moon once again is part of the Cardinal T-square I've been talking about all summer, the other planets are fairly free-floating.
Neptune and Chiron are conjunct at 27* Aquarius, healing our collective mindset with a new vision of ourselves and our world. We all need a vision of "who we are and what we can become' to work towards. The Aquarius vision of the earlier part of 2010 is still being crafted. Just remember to heal yourself first. Let go of all the negative ideas you have about yourself and start with the positive, while you stay aware of those parts of yourself you still need to work on.
The Sabian symbol for 27* Aquarius is: An ancient pottery bowl filled with fresh Violets. Ancient containers or values can be saved just as long as we fill them with living beauty. Violets are considered symbols of modesty and humility, two values that we still need to cultivate in creating a new vision for a unified world. Wild violets send out runners that produce new plants reminding us that new growth is built on old growth and life. We can be modest in our expectations of a good life while being humble enough to be of service to each other. True equality depends on these virtues.
Jupiter and Uranus are together at 29* Pisces, expanding the crack between the dimensions of reality, expanding our awareness of the mysterious Unseen aspects of Life here on Earth. Let these energies flow through you with compassion for yourself and for everyone else just trying to get through the task at hand. We are all in this together. The Sabian symbol for 29* Pisces is: Light breaking into many colors as it passes through a prism. While there is one stream of light for all of us, there are many dimensions that it flows through. It's time for us to let all the colors live within us, not just the socially accepted ones!
Mercury is traveling alone, once again in forward motion in Virgo, analyzing and considering what needs to be done. The closest aspect to Mercury is with Venus and Mars in Scorpio. Once you figure out what you really want, send it on to Mercury to begin to get the details in order. The Sabian symbol for 14*Virgo is: A splendid family tree engraved on a sheet of parchment. Our family lineage, as well as our soul lineage, is the root of our personal power. As we deeply accept who we are, we can begin to understand what talents and gifts we bring to the world.
Venus and Mars are both Argentine tango-ing through Scorpio, sending out dark and dangerous signals to potential mates, friends and foes, while preparing for Venus' retrograde starting October 8th. Time to figure out the difference between what we need to grow our lives and what we desire in our lives. They're two different things, as a very wise goddess sister said this weekend. With Venus retrograding back into late Libra, we still haven't sorted out our hearts' desire. Don't hurry it. Everything comes in its own time.
The full Moon at 1* Aries, conjunct both Jupiter and Uranus in Pisces is being nurtured by the collective vision of compassion as well as the individual experience of living in a multi-dimensional world. The Sabian symbol for 1*Aries is: A woman just risen from the sea. A seal is embracing her. Here is the new potential to be conscious, arising out of the ocean of the Collective Unconscious (Pisces). It's a potential of selfhood and individuality. It is a woman and so the image speaks of a new feeling life that is true to our original nature. That is the seal that comes up out of the waters with her. Our original nature is both comfortable on land and in water, since we develop in our mother's watery womb. The seal reminds us to stay open to the unconscious, to our feelings and to the creative imagination and to the magic of life. If we do, we will stay true to ourselves.
The Sun at 1* Libra is conjunct Saturn, inspiring us to take responsibility for making the balance between Self and other, and justice and self-worth conscious. The Sun and Saturn wants us to get serious about our purpose in life, while the Moon might enchant us to journey to other dimensions and indulge in some fantasy.Try to find the balance between doing both. You need both attitudes right now to become aware of your next step.
The Sabian symbol for 1* Libra is: In a collection of perfect specimens of many biological forms, a butterfly displays the beauty of its wings, its body impaled by a fine dart. Here we see the exact opposite of the image for the Moon. Life is no longer alive, but looked at as an archetypal reality. And yet it also reminds us of an emergence. The butterfly symbolizes the process of transformation and shape-shifting. It calls us to remember that change is constant and yet not chaotic. There is a process involved. The dart that impales the body of the butterfly keeps it in its perfect form so we can see and understand its final form before death. It also implies a sacrifice of some kind and in Libra we do learn to sacrifice our own desires to meet the needs of others, which are ultimately our own needs. As autumn takes center stage, we begin to understand that we have to work together to bring in the harvest and make plans for everyone's needs during the harsh winter months.
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I heard about Maureen McCarthy and the State of Grace Document about seven years ago, and I quickly knew I wanted to connect with her. The bold claim that we can create and maintain a state of grace in our relationships intrigued me. The simplicity of the tool – a few essential questions that help spell out nakedly and gently what it would take to maintain a state of grace between two people – won me over. I wanted to learn more, and to explore the parallels and complementarities I saw between this work and Nonviolent Communication.
To cut a medium-size story short, Maureen and her partner Zelle just left my house a few hours ago, after visiting the Bay Area for nine days, including teaching a workshop that BayNVC hosted this past weekend. Meeting them has been one of the most delicious and unexpected treats that have come to me because of starting this blog. Knowing Maureen and Zelle has been full of surprises, deep engagement, learning, and inspiration.
Here’s a picture from the workshop last week:
Left to right: top row - Ruth, Smita, Cindy, Kathy; bottom row - Zelle, Miki, Maureen
As you look at the picture, bear in mind that Maureen – this vivacious, smiling, vibrant woman – is operating on 10% lung capacity from a rare and ultimately fatal lung disease she’s had for 22 years. Which doesn’t prevent her from saying, with a big smile on her face, that she has a better life than anyone she knows. I believe her. As I see it, the qualities that make this possible are the very building blocks of the tool she and Zelle live and teach: simplicity, authenticity, clarity, and self-responsibility. As a main feature, they are committed to asking for everything they want without ever making it a demand, and they are committed to telling the truth, including in response to requests. I could almost smell the freedom this generates between them. Being with them, whether during the workshop or while hanging around my house, the love and ease between them were completely palpable to me.
A telling moment happened one evening when I heard Maureen make a request. With a light, easy, and fresh tone she simply said: “Would you do me a favor and bring me a glass of water?” It sounded as if this was the very first time she had ever asked him for a glass of water, without any weight, expectation, or the possibility of being disappointed if he said no. What made this exchange particularly dramatic was knowing that Zelle attends to most of the common daily tasks of living for both of them (they are hardly ever apart from each other) because Maureen is on oxygen whenever she moves and exertion is challenging for her. Despite years of offering and receiving this level of support, neither of them is taking this arrangement, or the relationship as a whole, for granted. Each day for the twelve years they have been together they explicitly choose each other again.
While they were here, I asked lots of questions, with utter abandon, like a small child, like I always want to with everyone. I wanted to know everything about the disease, their relationship, and their work in the world. I was delighted to learn how far and wide this tool has spread, including in corporate settings. Maureen and Zelle no longer sign contracts – they only do State of Grace Documents with their clients, and so far no one has refused to hire them.
In case you are curious, their website contains enough free resources that you could create documents even without a workshop. I am only beginning my own journey with this tool, and my first document is with Maureen and Zelle. Being at the workshop I could see that there is a definite art to creating these documents, it is also strikingly simple and doable. All it takes is to know and articulate answers to a few key questions: What draws you to the relationship? What is your interaction style? What are the warning signs when you are stressed (I sense this part is one of the most important aspects of the document) and what helps you in those moments? What do you expect, want, and hope for in this relationship? What could help you come back to peace? How long will you take before bringing up an issue? If the unimaginable happens, how long will you take before coming back to a place of peace and letting go? Then you ask the person you are doing the document with to do the same. Even if you are the only one doing it, and there is only one half of the document, having you offer the level of transparency and self-responsibility that these answers provide may in and of itself change the terms of relating, open possibilities, and create more trust.
Crossposted from The Fearless Heart
By Cathy Lynn Pagano (about the author) Page 1 of 2 page(s) Become a Fan (28 fans)
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Virgo New Moon, September 8, 2010
The Heart is the storehouse of the human soul all its memories, deeds, words, emotions and longings. . . . The ma'at (truth) of the heart connects a man with his Osirian nature, with his continual regreening. It is that small light part of the self light as a germ of a seed that is the source of one's renewal. (Jean Houston)
The Virgo New Moon, exact on September 8th at 6:30 am EDT/ 3:30 am PDT, is interesting for a few reasons. As Stephanie Austin points out, it's the second of three Super Moons, meaning the Moon is very close to the Earth at this time, generating greater electromagnetic shifts within the Earth and within each of us. On top of that, this Virgo new Moon makes no aspects to the other planets, which is unusual. This means that it's free to work on its own, drawing us down like a seed to germinate within our souls a fresh sense of who we are. That's Virgo's mission to help us know ourselves and belong to ourselves.
Virgo heralds a quieter time of introversion after the bright, golden days of Leo.Characterized by the virtues of patience and purification, Virgo puts great attention on technique and methodology, which is why it rules alchemy and the process of transformation.Virgo's ruler, Mercury, becomes Hermes the focused mind who purifies the unconscious mind and creates psychic wholeness or the Philosopher's Stone.
Virgo also rules ritual magic and supposedly the Celtic druid Merlin was a Virgo, born on September 4th (my youngest son's birthday). But it is the goddess Isis, the Virgin bearing the sheaf of wheat, who symbolizes the best of Virgo. Isis is the mistress of magic and healing, and it is she, with her husband Osiris, who brought the gifts of civilization and healing to the ancient Egyptians. Most importantly, it is Isis as Mother that is the essence of Virgo. For it is only when we give birth to our wholeness that we can be of service to humanity. The Virgin bears the sheaf of nourishment and new life.
The Sabian symbol for the Sun and Moon at 16* Virgo is: Children crowd around the orangutan cage in the zoo. Orangutan is the Malay word for "person of the forest'.Orangutans very rarely leave the tree tops and feed on fruit and other food sources found in the top of the trees. Perhaps the lesson here is that we have to understand how we imprison our instincts and our wildness, along with our heart's desires. To live in the treetops symbolizes a return to our original selves, since trees are a symbol of life itself. Let your inner child set those orangutans free!
This new Moon in the mutable earth sign Virgo offers us a chance to take the essence of what we learned at the Pisces full Moon two weeks ago and begin the process of self-integration yet again. The Pisces full Moon illuminated the state of your trust in yourself and in life. It probably brought up some old limiting beliefs as well. Have you reverted to an old pattern of despair and depression or have you expanded your view of the possible? Either way, you now know what you have to face and deal with.
Virgo is the sign of the zodiac that deals with how we bring together body, mind (intellect and feeling), and spirit in a balanced whole. Virgo's energy pushes us to know ourselves, both the good parts and the not so good parts. Virgo demands we see the truth and stop lying to ourselves. And we get to that truth through deep analysis of our behavior patterns. With Virgo's ruling planet, Mercury, still retrograde, we have the opportunity to really root out behaviors that no longer serve our life's purpose. These old patterns developed to protect the child ego, and as we've developed and grown in consciousness, these patterns get replaced by choices based on our values. But the old patterns are deeply rooted, and they spring up again whenever we fall back into unconsciousness. Now is a good time to finally weed them out.
After Saturn's 2 1/2 year journey (9/2007-7/2010) through Virgo, our Virgo energy has been restructured, refined and hopefully re-aligned with our spiritual purpose. Did you spend the past few years taking care of your physical health, your mental perspective and your emotional well-being? Hopefully you did. This is the first time since Saturn's passage through Virgo that the light of the Sun shines in Virgo on that new re-structuring. What has the Sun in Virgo brought to your attention this year? Despite the usual Mercury retrograde jams we find ourselves in, it helps having Mercury retrograde in Virgo, for it gives us a chance to go back over some issues we still have to deal with.
Virgo as well as Mercury retrograde gives us the patience to wait, to humbly perform routine tasks and to spend time looking within. With Mercury's retrograde back through Virgo just days before the Pisces-Virgo full Moon, perhaps you've experienced a "time out' when you've had to confront situations or issues that still need resolving. Whether these inner issues get constellated through trouble with your home, your car, your computer, your work or your relationships, these Mercury retrograde breakdowns may have pushed you back into old behavior patterns that are probably emotionally draining and certainly no longer viable.
Mercury retrograde in Virgo asks us to reconsider what these breakdowns are really saying to us. Just around the full Moon, my car's starter and alternator broke down. Sometimes the car starts sometimes it doesn't. Then the brakes went. Symbolically, this speaks to my energy levels, my ability to start things up, and perhaps to my inability to put the brakes on to some of my old habits. Eating that pint of espresso fudge ice cream last weekend while my car languished in the garage did not help in the long run!
Do you get the picture? We all still have work to do! The Virgo work of discernment, of being able to know what issues you can work on and which ones are the "set-up'. My car is older and just needs maintenance. My Virgo work is about my limiting beliefs that the car trouble brought up.
We need to understand and defuse old emotional habits of powerlessness, sorrow, betrayal, insecurity and selfishness. The more inner work we do now, the better able we'll be to meet whatever the next years bring us. Although the most stressful part of the cosmic T-square (Jupiter/Uranus in Aries; Pluto in Capricorn; Saturn in Libra) is over, we still have 5 squares between Pluto and Uranus in the next 5 years to deal with. The revolutionary energies of the 60s are at a crossroads will we evolve into a peaceful society or will we let repression and violence continue to strangle us. This is going to be a long haul and the forces that don't want to change both in society and within ourselves will get repressive before the new energy finally settles in. The world economy isn't going to get better any time soon. We're going to have to re-invent the whole thing in the coming years. So prepare yourself now by taking small but important steps to become the person you want and need to be to meet an uncertain but interesting future.
Like the princess in the fairy tale, we have to work in our mantle of furs before we can use our mind, heart and spirit in new ways. To recap: There is a beautiful princess whose father wants to marry her. In order to stop him, she demands that he make her a dress of the sun, one of the moon and one like the stars. And she must have a mantle of furs with a bit of fur from every animal in the kingdom. The king gets his subjects to make these dresses and mantle and so the princess has to escape from his power. She does it by leaving in her mantle of furs and running away to the forest. There she is found by a new king, an earthy king, who takes her back to his palace where she works in his kitchen, hidden in her fur mantle.
Now after working long and hard in this kitchen, the princess appears at three balls the king gives. In the first she wears her dress that shines like the sun. At the second she wears the dress that glows like the moon. And at the third ball, she wears the dress that shimmers like the stars.
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