Lighten Your Load, Enlighten Your Soul - New Moon December 16, 2009

The upcoming New Moon in Sagittarius at 24°39' on December 16, 2009, is conjunct the current location of the Galactic Center at 26°55'.

An enormous Black Hole was discovered at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy through the huge amounts of electromagnetic energy pouring out from it. Gamma, x-ray, infrared and radio waves coming out of the Galactic Center affect the electromagnetic fields of Earth and all its inhabitants.

This upcoming New Moon (conjunction of Sun and Moon) is conjunct the Galactic Center. Occurring just 5 days before the Solstice on December 21, I believe this is a very significant New Moon for seeding our intention for the next several years.

In general, New Moons represent new beginnings. A time to set your intention for the coming month. In many cultures, the month begins with the New Moon. The New Moon is actually the first sighting of the Moon after 2/3 days of Dark Moon - not being able to see the Moon at all.

Since we are only 3 years from December 21, 2012, I plan to set my intention on this New Moon because it is conjunct the Galactic Center and, significantly for me, conjunct my natal Jupiter and opposing my natal Uranus. This New Moon seeds my life for the next three years.

In my last long post on my 2012 blog, I wrote about the importance of focus. Interestingly, Stephanie Austin in her article in the current issue of The Mountain Astrologer, reiterates that theme saying "This New Moon in Sagittarius urges us to look deeply at our lives and the choices we are making. It reminds us of the power of focus -- just as a laser can do much more than a scattered beam of light, so our consciousness is vastly more powerful when we concentrate on our life purpose and what really matters."

Sagittarius, the ninth sign in the astrological cycle is represented by a man with the body of a horse. He holds a bow and aims his arrow high, seeking the answers to the BIG QUESTIONS.... What is the meaning of life? Why am I here? What is my purpose? Where did I come from? Where am I going?

While many people content themselves with job, family, home and recreation, some of us (like me) have been motivated to seek the answers to these questions. Since I have been on Facebook, I have been reuniting with many old friends and lovers. I was curious to see "how they turned out." They did the usual things... married, got jobs, had children, bought a house.

I have sought none of those things. Instead, I have been studying, traveling, sitting at the feet of spiritual teachers, meditating and contemplating the meaning of life, for as long as I can remember. Learning that my natal Jupiter conjuncts the Galactic Center and my natal Uranus opposes the GC, have helped me understand why I was so driven. Although we all have the GC at the same degree of Sagittarius in our natal charts, we vary in our house placements and planetary aspects. For a Galactic Center reading, please contact me.

The GC is located in my 4th house, which represents 'where you are coming from'. This can mean your home and family background, cultural conditioning, traditions you grew up with. I can also mean your soul's origin, the place you came from... in the larger sense. By contrast, the 10th house is who you will be in the world - your 'career' and what you will achieve while on planet Earth. You are born from the 4th house, you mature into the 10th and when you die, you return to the 4th.

With my Sun and Uranus in Gemini in the 10th house and Ascendant in Virgo, I see that part of my 'reason for being here' is to serve as a spokesperson for this time of cycle ending. Only after my many years of study, my travels and my experiences am I able to fulfill my mission.

I see my mission as twofold: 1) teaching the writing system so people can read what the ancient Maya said or did not say. 2) assisting people during this challenging time of transformation/transition through plant-based modalities such as flower essences and aromatherapy.

I teach courses on Maya Hieroglyphs, the Calendar and 2012, so, I read whatever I can find on these topics. As you can imagine, the quantity of material is increasing as we approach the date of December 21, 2012, the end of a cycle of 5125 years. There is very little that is original. Most is a rearranging of what others have said. I admit, it is difficult to have original ideas about this, because the 'data' is so limited. By data, I am referring to what the ancient Maya actually wrote. What we mostly have is New Age interpretation of the meaning of this upcoming event.

From time to time, I find something in this perusal of the literature that I believe can help people navigate this time period. Two concepts are crucial at this time and one might consider them especially during this New Moon.

The first is that of releasing and letting go. Lately many of us are being 'forced' to let go. Our lives may be more about loss than anything else right now. The secret then is to be okay with it. Mourn and grieve for a time, but move on. See yourself as on a journey where holding on weighs you down. You need to be free to move forward. Like refugees who start out with huge packs on their backs, then shed them as they go, leaving piles of stuff along the road, drop your baggage. It is weighing you down and where you are going, you won't need it. There is no way to fully prepare for what is coming so don't encumber yourself with packets of food or extra clothes.

The second is focus your attention and intention on the light up ahead. Make yourself into a laser beam which will connect you to the Light that is being directed towards us at this time. The more concentrated your light, the faster and easier it will be for you to move.

The word 'focus' is from Latin and it means 'hearth, cooking fire'. Traditionally, this was the center of a home or community. It later became symbolized as the place where the sacred fire was kept - an altar.

Mayan Cosmology, as reflected in the sky, posits the 'hearth of heaven', the 'three stone place' as composed of three stars, while the hearth of Earth is the traditional cooking fire in the home. The 'three stone place' is the place of creation. It is marked by Alnitak (one of the three stars in the belt of Orion), Saiph and Rigel)(Alnitak is in the position which corresponds to the Great Pyramid at Giza.) At the center of this triangular 'hearth' sits the M42 nebula which often appears 'smoky' due to clouds. One might ask themselves how the Maya could see this with unaided vision.

Sufis see the heart as the center of the human being. Cultivating the fire in the heart has to do with compassion, acceptance, forgiveness - Love. Many of the spiritual practices of Sufism have to do with removing the rust that coats the heart and prevents us from truly seeing each other as the sparks of the Divine that we truly are. Our hearts have become armored through betrayal, disappointment, and fear. Our job is purify ourselves by letting go of the pain - dropping our burden. We don't have to hang on to it. We need to move forward in Trust that all our needs will be taken care of. Lighten your load, enlighten your soul.

Now is the time to begin. Each moment offers another opportunity to begin again. The more times you begin the more chance you have of continuing. It is significant that this New Moon occurs the day before the Urs of Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi (Urs means the reunion with the Beloved, the wedding day - death.) One of his poems says:

Come, come, whoever you are.
Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving.
It doesn't matter.

Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your vow
a thousand times.
Come, yet again, come, come.

~Inscribed on Rumi's Shrine in Konya, Turkey

Four years ago at this time, I was there along with pilgrims from all over the world. Another saying written in his tomb is: "Do not look for me in the tomb. I am not there. I am in the hearts of the Believers."

Discovery of Pluto - Harbinger of the Coming Shift?

While doing my EC drops, yesterday, I found an interesting post about the discovery of Pluto at The Modern Historian. That occurred on February 18, 1930.

Astronomers demoted Pluto last year to a planetoid. But as anyone who has ever gone through a significant Pluto transit will testify, Pluto is no "toid" anything. In fact, after working with the Evolutionary Astrology method brought forth by Jeffrey Wolf Green, which focuses on Pluto in our charts, I believe no other planet has as much influence and power in our lives. Indeed, the EA method teaches that Pluto reveals our Soul's Purpose. What could be more important than that?

I have been thinking about the fact that Pluto passed over the Galactic Center in recent years. The "Event" at the core of 2012 is the alignment of our solar system with the GC. What is the significance of this transit? (which happens every 248 years or so.) The last time Pluto was in Sagittarius was a decade or so before the American Revolution. Why was America settled by the first colonists? We have been taught that it was because of religious persecution. Another reason was that people wanted to be free of the economic control of the King and the aristocracy. The 'common' man wanted a chance to make his own wealth. The emerging concept of Capitalism wanted free reign. Entrepreneurs and merchants wanted to out from under the tax system of the Crown, that's why we had the Boston Tea Party.

So here we are, one Pluto cycle later and that American Capitalism gone rampant threatens to destroy the global economy.

Some astrologers say that a planet is discovered when the collective is ready to understand and work with, its energy. So... what was happening in 1930 that relates to us today?

In the Qabbalah, the "non-sefira", lying in the central pillar between Tiferet and Kether, known as the Daat, the Hidden Teacher, is equated with Pluto,. There are some schema that equate it with Saturn "God of Time" because they were established before the discovery of Pluto. And there is significance to this reading as well. I believe that when Pluto passed over the GC, it served to remove the veil and open the way to the teaching from the Galactic Center. The Hidden Teacher in the sign of Sagittarius (the Teacher, the Spiritual Leader) opened the teaching of the meaning of the 2012 event.

Sagittarius represents the Teacher, but is also the "Seeker of Truth". So Pluto "God of Transformation and Death", in the the sign of the Seeker of Truth, went over the Galactic Center, The Source. Our entire Solar System is now within the area of the GC and will be exact on December 21, 2012, the end of a 5125 year cycle in the Mayan Calendar.

Many people alive today lived during the Great Depression. Many of us are children or grand-children of those "Depression Survivors" and have heard the stories and received the 'teachings' although we have dismissed them and not followed them. In the West, we have had abundance compared to the rest of the world. We have become complacent. Unless we were 'back-to-the-land' hippies in the 60s, we have lived an affluent life. The current economic down-turn will be changing that for many people.

I would like to suggest that rather than thinking about what we are losing or having to do without, we shift our attention to what is of real and lasting value. I suggest we develop our inner wealth, utilizing our inner resources to optimize our connection to Source. If you have a meditation practice, a program of prayer or other spiritual methodology, this is the time to dust it off and get with it again.

"Every breath we take is our prayer" I just heard that on the Caroline Casey radio show on KPFA and it seemed totally relevant to this post.

Think of all that you might be losing on the material plane as Sacrifice, which means to 'make sacred'.

Sagittarius New Moon - November 27

I have been a bit distracted lately. A lot is cooking after the 2012 Conference. I am working out the details for a class I will be teaching on Mayan Hieroglyphs and the Mayan Calendar, and planning to put a class on CD that will be available in a couple of months and... I missed, or almost missed this incredible New Moon!

What adds to its significance is that on the same day, Uranus goes direct after being retrograde since June. Stephanie Austin in the Mountain Astrologer says its "like a red light turning green". Uranus is the Awakener, the God of Chaos, the Cosmic Wild Card. Turning direct it signals a time for a quantum leap.

From November 27 through December 31, there will be no planets retrograde and so a lot could happen in the next month. Austin calls the energy that is available "breakthrough or breakdown". Change or be changed.

I got an email from one of my teachers, Jane Bell. She said she is going to devote some time to creating a supportive infrastructure. That really got me thinking. Sometimes we are so focused on what we want to accomplish, we forget that unless we have a solid base to work from and nurturing support along the way, that is, if the foundation is not laid, we cannot get anywhere. The arrow of Sagittarius is pointing us in a direction. But don't forget to look at the rest of the symbol, which also has meaning. The bow and arrow are held by a man with the body of a horse. In addition to the arrow - the goal, look at the foundation - the horse. Don't forget to take care of your horse.

An expression I learned from the Sufis is "Pray to Allah, but tie your camel." We ask for Divine Inspiration (from whatever source) to give us this or that, but we fail to do our part by taking care of what we have in front of us.

The day before this New Moon, Pluto goes into Capricorn. The challenge is to create structures that are sustainable and equitable, not just to get back to business as usual. True, we all want economic recovery, but not the way things have been done in the past. Rather than seeing recent events as a disaster, see it as house cleaning, remodeling, tearing down a dilapidated structure to build a new one.

Pluto and Uranus are preparing us for a paradigm shift. They are leading us into a new way of doing things. Ya Hu!

"Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential" Barack Obama

Oh! I just love the sound of his voice! For 8 years, I couldn't listen to Bush, not only for what he said, but because his voice was so irritating. McCain was worse. A certain hissing like Golam in Lord of the Rings. Obama's voice is music to my ears. Oh Happy Day!