Sacred Journeys – May 2012
It was wonderful how many of us were drawn to appreciate the sight of Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury in the early spring evening skies recently. We should all look up more often – there is a lot going on up there, and it is all very much alive, powerful and beautiful.
Our ancestors were far more aware of their intimate relationship with the stars and planets than we of the western world. While some cultures believed they came from the stars and studied them with reverence from that perspective, others knew that when Mercury was appearing to move backward in the sky (a phase known as ‘mercury retrograde’), there could be miscommunication with others. Their lives, more commonly, were spent outside. Without electricity, imagine how beautiful the night sky was then.
Ancestral women knew that their menstrual cycles were connected to the moon, as the moon affects the flow of fluids inside and outside the body (and mariners understood that the moon affects the tides and behaviour of the fish). Before phones, tribes and villages would know when to gather for great markets and celebrations by phases of the moon, each named for their place in the natural cycle: Pink Moon (named after a pink flower in the grass), or the Shad Moon named after a fish that swims up river at that time. The names of the moon had relevance and meaning, connecting us to the larger natural world that is ever changing and enduring.
Since the 1960s, we have been observing the night skies on television, and now computers. Moon landings and exceptional photographs have opened our imaginations to the vastness of the universe. Alas, we were spending too much time inside gathering facts, rather than looking up and ‘feeling’ the presence of the heavens. But now we are looking up more, as we move into our galactic and universal consciousness as a species. It is now just a matter of time before acknowledging that those white orbs that appear out of nowhere and move independently (you tube) might not just be man-made, or that the evidence found recently in Mayan and Incan temples are suggesting we have been contacted previously. Those are highly evocative ideas to many, and will seem childishly naive perhaps within a generation.
For all my going on about getting outside to sense our place in the world, I confess there is an iPhone app. called “Planets” that blows my mind. As you move it around, it shows you in real time exactly where you are in the heavens. The amazing part is when you find the milky way running under your kitchen floor from your fridge through to the living room. Wowza. There you are floating in space. (This app. has just a faint ‘see through’ representation of the earth’s latitude and longitude lines to orient yourself). Just as well I still have a regular telephone landline, or I could get hooked on that app. like a bear to honey.
I don’t pretend to understand the stars, but I am lucky to have a mythic astrologer as a dear friend. When we get together over a cup of tea, and I share my own journey, from fears to profound insights, she can show me how my stories are invariably mirrored in the heavens at that very moment. As above, so below.
To an outside observer, humans could easily be seen as identical motes of dust, but far from it, we are unique individuals. Likewise, who are we to see the planets and the stars as merely rock fire and gas. They are vast, powerful entities, who carry an energetic signature like each of us. This interplay of energy and light between them and the earth is part of the stories in which we find ourselves.
There are profound energies and events taking place in the skies this year, principally the dance of Uranus and Pluto. Their dance is pushing us to disentangle from fear-based safety nets. The journey calls for us to re-discover the joy of living together as our authentic selves. It sounds easy, but it is the hero who steps outside of the familiar, into the unknown, and listens to the guidance of his/her own heart. To create the world we want to live in, there needs to be a great deal of change, and that will bring up fears. It is important now to ground and balance ourselves. As we step out of the familiar we release energy and allow more light to move in, taking us closer and closer to our beautiful future.
This summer there will be many celestial events that can support us on this journey – the solar eclipse of May 20th; the Venus transit of June 6th; and the summer solstice of June 20th. By connecting in to these larger celestial events, we are better able to integrate our experience as we flow with the accelerated energy. Remember – to experience the smoothest ride on the waves of change this year, honour and allow expression of your ever changing, true self.
Green economics is a heart path
Where we can honour all our relations
All Blessings, All Love, All of Us
