A New Moon in Aquarius on February 1, 2022 aligns with the same date as the Chinese New Year of theTiger. It is also the Imbolc/Groundhog Day on February 2nd. Our ancestors honored the Imbolc because it is the approximate midpoint between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox. At this time, we are reminded that, in spite of the colder temperatures outside, daylight is gaining, and Spring is on its way. This is a complicated time with emotions, as there is a strong need for emotional freedom now. We are in the early stages of the Age of Aquarius, and this transition into a New Age and Paradigm is not without the experience of labor pains. Can’t you feel the contractions on the Planet right now? Life is always with its tension of opposites, or duality. As we have discussed, the Chinese symbol of the Yin and Yang reflects this. Meditation on the energy of Duality helps you feel at peace with your own inner duality. It helps you live in balance, in oneness and harmony, so that you may continue your path in a cosmic consciousness. It helps you discover life through enjoyment and play.
Truly, the energy of Aquarius has an assertive need for being an individual with a fiercely independent streak. But Aquarius also begs the question of how do I be my authentic self, and at the same time, fit in to group consciousness? As such, among groups, it can be easier to understand your feelings and free yourself from negative emotions such as fear, anger and jealousy. Linking up to the right groups can support us in accessing our inner genius, to think in new ways, even divergent from what we have been taught by family/societal conditioning. Getting in touch with inner freedom can be liberating for a soul in a way that transcends rules and defiance of them. Diversity in Unity is the Aquarian mantra. Gone are the days of the Lone Wolf.
Also, a Full Snow Moon arrives on February 16th. The Ojibwe called this moon the Bear Moon, while theAlgonquin called it the Groundhog Moon. Winter is a good time for human forms of hibernation and nurturing our inner cubs before they are ready to come out into the sunlight for the spring thaw and begin manifestation on the Spring Equinox.
Artwork by Barbara Merlotti
When Turtle swims into your stream of thoughts
Remember to picture Mother Earth
loving you with patience and kindness
The river does not need to be pushed
Slow down and take it one step, one breath, and one
moment at a time
How does slowing down help you stop and smell the roses?
What happens to the river’s rapids, when we go with
the flow instead of pushing the river?
Do you need to curl up in your shell and hide, or do you need to come out
into the sunlight and be with people?
Our ancestors celebrated the Full Snow Moon as the peak snowfall accumulation.
Beneath Winter’s dirge,
stirrings of Spring are beginning to think about coming out of Plato’s Cave.
Picture a Turtle protected by an invincible shell,
securely anchored deeply into Mother Earth.
Turtle’s spirit is an ancient reminder of our soulful connection to our living planet.
Our ancestors celebrated the Imbolc,
the mid-point between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox.
Also, this February brings the Chinese-Lunar year of the Tiger.
Now more than ever, meditation on Tiger can inspire a deep freedom for
cultivating ourpassions, power, devotion and sensuality.
Running a hurried up offense is a popular way to live on Earth today . . .
Might as well wise up to Turtle’s wisdom to remember
Do you need to escape from the worries of the world for a spell?
Mother Earth’s ancient wisdom to slow down our tempo and anchor in Her ground
Or do you need to come out of your of your shell and be more social?
Meditate on Turtle for a deeper understanding of
patience and planetary connection
A Chinese-Lunar New Year reminds us that Spring is arriving energetically
In spite of probable peaks in snowfall accumulation . . .
Do you feel the seeds underground starting to think about waking up?
Time to bury your ideas in the ground and let the sunlight do its business . . .
So that they may organically blossom in the Spring
Turtles are older than dinosaurs and carry an ancient wisdom on their backs. If there are any spirit guides to help us open up to the idea of Karma, Turtle is a good role model. Karma can easily be understood as the law of cause and effect. If you are paying attention to the big picture, you start noticing how cause and effect impacts your life and then have ability to transcend it. Have you ever noticed that the more you hurry or try to expedite a process, the more your hurried pace slows you down in the long run? Through patience and compassion, we become equipped to harmonize with our conflicts. T’ai Chi is often practiced in slow motion. The idea behind this slow and meditative internal martial art is that if you practice it at a slow pace, you will be fast if and when the situation calls for fast action. When we slow down, observe the moments as they come without judgment and learn to be with what is. May we cultivate energy gradually and powerfully like water.
In my orientation, I came into this realm strongly aligned with the energy of Rabbit. I remember Grandmother taking me to see story hour at the local library in my Preschool years. I had a hard time understanding the story of the tortoise and the hare. But that makes sense to me now, especially because I was raised in a culture that did not teach us about opposites. We were taught that it’s either this, or that . . . just say no, just do it. Living in America was a sea full of mixed messages that mirrors growing up as a child in a psychotic household. Meditating on Turtle helps relax any pressures of the cultural river we might feel we are pushing against. Just knowing that these creatures are older than dinosaurs helps me appreciate a long range perspective. Rome wasn’t built in a day. All we really have is right now. Might as well take it in. If you need to, go within your shell to take refuge from the worries of the world, or you can come out of your shell and congregate with others. Knowing when to turn inward, and when to socialize is about knowing balance within yourself. Some people are naturally more monkish and hermit like, while others are more pod oriented, and thrive on others to feed them. Nature just reflects to us where we are at and what we need to work with. Let Turtle guide you in wise council.
Like many, I have been in a place of wishing the weather was different from what it was. After I was a child, back when enjoyed being outside regardless of climate, I started to internalize an adult-centric perspective about certain weather being preferable to others, namely complaints about the cold, dark and stormy, and the like. For many people, it doesn’t really matter – it’s too hot, bright, buggy, windy, the laundry list is endless. But for those of you who live in a northern climate, and really hate winter – knowing the half way point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox happens this month may help you appreciate that the sunlight is rising, and warmer temperatures are on their way. I remember being up in the Andean mountain range in South America, and the little Indigenous children were trying to sell us rotten berries for a buck or two. It was a sobering reflection for me to see such a pristine, natural habitat, and yet such abject poverty. Privileged first world people were traveling here to appreciate the natural riches of this land, and yet the Indigenous people who lived in this natural treasure were fighting for survival.
I remember some of my old football coaches telling us that we should play every down like it’s our last. It was a good metaphor for life. Like the Hopi say, we are in the 11th hour, and we are the one’s we have been waiting for. The time is now. We are at a point in our current experience that we have the power to make ourselves go extinct or awaken to a massive shift in our collective consciousness. The reality is that an old world is dying, while the trumpet of a new world sounds its call. Out of the ashes, a phoenix rises. May we become beacons of light in a world of darkness. Mindfulness isn’t a cure. It is a way of paying attention to the present moment, and noticing what it is, without getting sucked in to labels or judgment.
In Chinese Astrology, Tiger’s cycle of power is around the darkness of New Moons and the brightness of Full Moons. Specifically, this is the Year of the Tiger, according to the Chinese Lunar New Year. Unlike the Gregorian calendar that follows the Sun, the Chinese calendar follows the Moon. It is both a New Year and a New Moon on February 1, 2022.
According to ancestral legend, Tiger settled for third place in the Celestial Race, climbing out of the river believing he finished first, after the cunning Rat jumped the diligent Ox for the win. When the Buddha summoned all the animals for his first teachings, Tiger was among those creatures that showed up.
The energy of Tiger invites meditation on personal space. In general, Tiger people tend to have a strong sense of freedom, fiercely independent streak, keen sense of justice, and dream of changing the world. They are also notorious for being prideful, authoritative and self accepting. Because they have a tendency for being cute and charming, they might get away with some of their other traits like rebellion, challenging the status quo and breaking apart traditions, to the chagrin of the rule followers and protectors of conservatism.
Cats in general are nocturnal creatures that see effectively in the dark, thus representing the mystery of life. Humans can develop an attitude about cats because they do their own thing, like people that are considered free-spirited. I learned how to meditate from cats.
How can they be so relaxed, seemingly asleep and docile, and then immediately become alert, suddenly be on all fours and ready to take action?
Specifically, the spiritual energy of Tiger represents passion, power, devotion and sensuality. These areas can awaken within, especially during this year of the Tiger. New adventures can awaken new passion and power within your life.
Notice what happens to your sensitivity to touch. Sense awareness is an everyday part of mindfulness that you can breathe into the moments of your daily routine.
Human spiritual activists like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Thich Nhat Hanh were drawn to each other, influenced one another and developed a sacred bond. MLK Day is a national holiday in America and is celebrated on January 17. The Chinese New Year either falls in January or February, depending on the Moon cycle. February is Black History Month. Although these two spiritual leaders were known for their peaceful and non-violent practices, including Civil Disobedience for doing the right thing, they were considered radicals by the Establishment. King was assassinated for standing up against society’s injustices, while Hanh has spent most of his life living in exile from his native country of Viet Nam for challenging the status quo.
Meditation on the Sun and the Moon reveals the omnipresence of the Yin and Yang in Nature and how it reflects in our everyday lives.
Meditation on the Chinese symbol of the Yin and the Yang teaches us that balance is key. There will always be masculine in feminine, sun in moon, and light in dark.
Even in crisis, there is opportunity, as it says in the I-Ching.
Life is not without its darkness. In modern society, we have been taught to fear the dark, that darkness is bad or that the light is good. But this is not so because you cannot have the yang without the yin.
When you close your eyes to meditate, you are taking a step into primordial darkness, or the Womb of Life. Black is symbolic of creation, as is water.
Further movement into a New Aquarian Age supports both the identity of the individual and how they interact with the group consciousness. Diversity within Unity.
In American culture, Groundhog Day is a popularly celebrated holiday that takes place on February 2nd.
In this popular ritual, a groundhog comes out of hibernation for everyone to witness whether this creature will see its shadow or not. As the story goes, if the groundhog sees its shadow, then we will have to wait six more weeks till spring. Or if it doesn’t see his shadow, then spring will come early.
But long before that, our ancestors also honored this day as the Imbolc, or the approximate mid-point between the Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox.
Moreover, they also realized, that the Spring (Vernal) Equinox always happens on March 20th, and reflects equality between the light and dark. After that, masculine/yang/light energies will continue to rise till their climax on the Summer Solstice on June 20th, the longest day of sunlight in the Northern Hemisphere.
Regardless, the spiritual energy of Groundhog is significant at this time, as Groundhog symbolizes death without dying. Groundhog medicine reflects that the energy of Winter is a time to go into the dark, turn inward, slow down, rest and be quiet.
This shamanic process of alchemy is when we can transform who we are now (death of the old self) through rebirth of who we are becoming (without actually dying). The death of Winter can bring grieving of the old self, whilst the rebirth of Spring can awaken seeing from new visits.
When I think about stories of Buddhist monks who set themselves on fire in protest of the injustices of occupation, I think about the sacrificial lamb/savior complex remnants of the dying Pisces Age. We will need to let go of this tendency as we surrender to the transition into the new consciousness of the Aquarian Age. We can be light of Christ Consciousness without carrying the heavy burden of the Cross. The energy of surrender helps you focus on your heart and your feelings. Surrender is necessary to let go of old patterns that prevent you from opening up your heart. Surrender makes your fear vanish.
In a Karmic sense, we can experience reincarnation in this lifetime through deaths and rebirths during the natural cycle of the season. We can intentionally work out our karma by making connections between cause and effect, and even transcending it.
Learning to think in the death and rebirth of moments can help stimulate this process. Remember to come back to the home of your breath.
In this early stage of a New Age and Paradigm, we are facing escalating crisis and intensifying chaos. All you have to do is look at the outer world events and turn within to and feel your awakening.
It is a process that is shines in the rays of Love and Truth. But it is also with its share of dark and stormy weather, which does not make for smooth sailing.
Trust in your personal authority, your inner royalty and stay in alignment with the power of your Higher Self.
In this year of the Tiger, call on this big cat to shed light on the darkness so that you can see effectively in the dark like a cat does. This is a powerful trait to adopt, as mystery is a hallmark of the Universe, especially in the early days of this New Aquarian Age.
Having a spiritual outlook on life and a regular mediation practice is critical and will help support you along your way.
A New Moon in Capricorn on January 2, 2022 inspires meditation on accepting that reasonable boundaries and rules actually do offer us freedom from things like worry and chaos. For example, setting goals for ourselves allows us to focus on what really matters.Following an internal path with commitment through the Sea Goat’s footsteps transcends the judgements of the audience, whether or not they boo you offstage or give you a thunderous applause in the theater of life. Remember that without that roaring laughter, there would be no Tao. Strategy is dependent on finding practical supports for self-sufficiency through enthusiastic transformative opportunities for solitude. A mighty will of oneness of the inward and outward reality reflects the Aquarian Age’s mantra of Diversity within Unity. We have our diverse expressions but we are also cut from the same cloth.
The Full Wolf Moon rises on Monday, January 17, 2022. The Western Abenaki Indigenous Peoples called this moon Greetings Moon, while the Ojibwe Native Americans called it the Spirit Moon. Our ancestors observed that wolves were more likely to be heard howling at this time. Wolf communication generally reflects defining territory, locating pack members, reinforcing social bonds, and coordinating hunting.
Artwork by Barbara Merlotti
Become the Full Wolf Moon by allowing Wolf to guide you
beneath your anger into your deeper and higher wise mind.
Yes, there was a time to howl in the night at the madness in the world.
The time is now to feed our Wise Wolf within,
whilst making friends with our angry inner wolves.
When Nature blows in the hot air of the Big Bad Wolf
There is no need to freeze dead in your tracks or tear
everything you see into tiny little pieces
Remember to picture the moon and breathe your spirited Wise Wolf into your being
Are you feeding your calm, peaceful wise wolf, or the
pouting/temper tantrum ways of your angry wolf?
Wolf guides us along the trails to balance
our own unique tracks with our kindred pack connection . . .
Do you remember when hungry wolf packs howled outside old tribal villages?
Humans, like wolves have a strong orientation of rugged individualism –
Coupled with a strong sense of pack family kinship
A passing Winter Solstice reveals an exit strategy for many souls
that leave behind Earth at this junction . . .
But their imprint lives on . . .
Wolves embody a delicate balance of authentic soul expression
with respect for the pack mentality
Our key connections to the Moon –
unlock hidden knowledge and wisdom
What is lurking beneath your conscious experience with reality?
Let Wolf awaken your own wise teacher within
May we learn to sit with Life’s unfolding mystery
Contemplate on your experiences with anger for a moment . . .
Are you feeding your inner wise wolf or the angry wolf?
Feel the fire of a wolf’s heartbeat . . .
Picture a Wolf to fully become the Moon –
Lay the tracks of change you want to see in your field of vision . . .
Lighten-up your energy field to see positive and constructive pathways ahead
Commentary:
Anger is a primal emotion that is an integral part of being human. Some of us do not go any further than our anger – constantly reacting to the ways of the world without reserve. Intimidation, aggression and even violence are a way of life. And it is easy to stop at justifying our anger by looking at someone or something else as the target of our problem. But Wolf can guide us into the deeper, hidden dens of our souls. Meditation is a process learning to self-reflect. Our emotions are part of being human. We are here to learn how to effectively integrate our emotions into our lives for authentic living. We still have a long way to go. But take a look at the Civil Rights movement and remember how Apartheid was driven out of American culture. Wolf government is inspiring to our developing New World because it is a complex hybrid of a hierarchical and socially democratic culture. Within this balanced system is a carefully woven tapestry of novelty, structure, consistency and predictability. By feeding the wise wolf teachings, we can learn to transform the energy of our anger and use it to take constructive action. Perhaps you get involved in politics to stand up for social justice. Or you could start meditating everyday to lead the sea of change by starting with yourself. It will have a ripple effect that will help heal the whole wide world and beyond. We are not victims to the dictates of the Universe. Rather, we are the Universe. And it is here to serve us as we serve it. Let Wolf show you the way.
The Law of Impermanence teaches us that everything changes in the naturalistic environment. Even in a sterile laboratory, or in a carbon copy, no snowflake is exactly the same, just as no scientific experiment is not without a subtle mutation. And we know from thermodynamics that energy cannot be created nor destroyed. Our modern culture, in its over identification and over emphasis of materialism – including being in our bodies, has left us with little regarding stories about death and dying, loss, letting go, etc. In many cases, the mystery of our experiences have been explained away and squelched. But the truth is, “the Lord works in mysterious ways.” Fixed ideas about the after life are no exception. The reality is, none of us really know all of what is going on, or where we are going, not really. We have been taught to be afraid of the dark, and be scared stiff of ghosts – of things that aren’t supposed to be real, or seem to lack rational/logical explanations. I have come to look forward to life, including its deaths and rebirths as surprise birthday parties. Like the box of chocolates metaphor depicted in the popular film Forrest Gump, you never really don’t know what you’re gonna get. Isn’t that what makes novel experiences grand – that you can’t really predict what will happen by a completely controlled design?
By imagining a world out in nature, you can get a feel for nurturing your natural need to support your own individual needs versus your need to be part of a group to support the needs of the collective whole. Human beings are part creature and part divine. As such, we all need to learn how to work together in social circles, as well as go back to our dens and be alone with ourselves by sitting with is going on inside our being.
There are old stories that our elders passed down from oral traditions that humans descended from wolves, and from the skies. Given that dogs have been called “man’s best friend,” metaphorically this makes sense. Humans, like dogs, have been genetically engineered in a variety of ways. Even our sciences have discovered that we all have stardust in our constitutions. And we also now know that we have the built-in capacity to change our DNA, but changing our thinking, our attitude, shifting our perspective, and our power to choose the meaning about how we experience reality.
Just because much of humanities experiences to date have been to a large degree unconscious and subconscious creations out of the shadow building of a men who know not what they do, does not mean that we are victims to circumstance. Part of the reason the elite few have stayed on top is that they have learned the secrets of how to manipulate and control the masses by tapping into primal desires, and also dividing and conquering by driving people to distraction. People who march to the beat of their own drum, question authority, and dream of a different world where everyone can win are lucid dreaming. The trick is to remain grounded in the reality we live, so that we can empower ourselves to remember that we are spiritual beings that live on this world, but are not of it. When you dig a little deeper, and tap into the kingdom of heaven within, you know the experience of inner peace. Happiness as a way of life is not without pain, and uncomfortable experiences or tension. Inner peace and experiencing happiness as a way of life is about leaning into the unwanted scenarios and exchanges, facing your fears about them head on, building up your tolerance for that, and coming to an acceptance, and even embracing any arriving imperfections.
We all have an inner genius within our being. The difference is that only a minority of people either believe it, or are even willing to entertain or imagine this possibility. I remember a time when I at least started to consider the idea of an inner genius as an intellectual possibility, and started focusing on it in my mind, and reading books that were spiritually instructive and inspirational in content. And I craved talking with people that were tapping into this kind of thinking. But like anything, you have to test it out for yourself, and be willing to move beyond the intellect, and into your heart, deeper into an intuitive understanding of just knowing. And you can’t do that without trust, and a leap of faith. Not blind faith of dogma, but a faith that makes the jump when you’re not really sure where it will take you in your consciousness. To do that, you need a callback to stay grounded in this reality. Wolf is good energy medicine for making friends with that.
Anger is a primal emotion, and I came into this world with a built in anger. I also had many experiences in my early years, and of course later in life that have made me angry. Whether it was not every knowing what it was like to have two parents living together, and taking care of me, my behavioral struggles in schools, heightened sensitivity to the moods and emotions of others, and then reacting to that by not knowing the difference between what was mine and what was theirs, or seeing people out there that seemed to either have it better or worse of than me. I remember when an older friend told me the truth about Santa Clause, and then another one told me about the truth about nuclear weapons. I was enraged at being lied to, and the hypocrisy of our species to be so intelligent on the one hand, but doing such stupid things with that intelligence on the other.
The wisdom of Wolf is to understand that we all have two wolves in our heads at any given moment. And they are always fighting. But it is the wolf that we choose to feed that wins. It’s akin to the saying that energy is energy . . . it’s what we do with it that counts. We can either work it in the positive or the negative. The choice is ours. Meditating on Wolf in the positive can help lead you in the right direction.
Spiritually, the energies of the Sagittarius New Moon on December 4th are inspirational for expanding our horizons and challenging our old beliefs systems. Sag’s free spirited and fiery personality characteristics, magnified by a solar eclipse has the potential to ignite radical changes in our perspectives, and chart new pathways of thought. It will be harder to stay stagnant, as movement towards breaking out of our comfort zones will feel natural and needed. It is as if the Universe is asking us to come to terms with our inner truth and take some risks for the sake of personal and collective growth.As bitter as this pandemic is to the taste, can you see how the virus has been pushing humanity further into the uncertainties and unknowns of a New Aquarian Age and Paradigm?
A Full Cold Moon sits on the horizon on December 18, 2021, followed by the Winter Solstice a few days later on the 21st. Like all full moons, this one goes by many names but this name traces its roots to Mohawk Indigenous Peoples. Here in Maine, the Indigenous Western Abenaki name is Winter Maker Moon. As many of you already know, the Winter Solstice is the darkest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. Our ancestors noticed this phenomenon, and observed that Nature signaled a green light to begin coaxing back the light. It is a good time to venture yinward, go into deeper meditation, introspection, contemplation, rest, sleep and go into your cave for inner exploration and self discovery. In the Southern Hemisphere, it is the opposite. It is their Summer Solstice, where the light reaches its zenith, and the amount of light in a day starts slowly waning thereafter. Conversely, this is a time to be more of a social butterfly, festive and outwardly expansive.
Artwork by Barbara Merlotti
Mountain Lion guides us toward a Full Cold Moon
with subtle leadership through gradual softness.
These are the coldest, darkest and longest nights of the year.
It is time to coax back the light, and look forward to brighter days,
as we climb the mountain toward energetic alignment again.
Our spirits can get cold after a long December . . .
But we can climb down into our souls, and connect in our hearts together
Picture a Mountain Lion to come down from the
mountain to live with the peeps in the valley.
Be a unique cat, and lead by example
Do you look to others to tell you about who you are?
Or are you finding out about what makes you your own person?
In a world full of loud leaders pounding their chests to be seen and heard . . .
Mountain Lion embodies a gentle roar quietly leading by example
But in authentic feline fashion, your leadership will probably go unnoticed by many
Know that your personal power makesyou a cool cat commanding the call of respect
A Full Cold Moon signifies the coldest, darkest and longest nights of the year –
Especially on the Winter Solstice, where the dark night of
feminine-yin energy reaches her energetic peak
Following that, we start coaxing back the light as the days slowly become longer
as the sunlight of masculine-yang energy gains momentum
On the opposite side of the same coin –
our friends in the Southern Hemisphere experience peak light as
masculine-yang reaching its zenith on the Summer Solstice
Now their days will slowly become shorter as movement into the dark grows in power
True power builds gradually like water
But the attached price-tag of responsibility need not make you hiss
Mountain Lion is king of playing situational football at its finest –
Know in your personal authority that you have the ability to effectively
adjust your game plan at any given moment and respond accordingly
Do you remember the power of our tribal African shamanic brothers and sisters?
Fly away and meditate on the elemental forces of water and darkness for a spell . . .
How many times have we feared our own primal, dark and feminine nature?
The power of the internal martial arts is cultivated gradually
A cumulative effect of simmering softness of feminine energy has risen again
Commentary:
Cats are curious creatures, and will take their time observing, watching, and exhibit stealth beforethey pounce onto a scene. Jurisprudence and the ability to delay gratification are dying traits that are critical to remember as we move forward in our personal and collective evolution.
In our modern world, we often think of power as a position of leadership that basks in the limelight. We often look for those in positions of leadership to the answers and solve our problems. Yes, we do need movers and shakers to share access to resources and do their part with the right intention. But we all have a natural humble leader on the inside. Like an ocean bowing to the rivers that flow into it, the energy of Mountain Lion is quiet, yet powerful spirit guide to tap into. In terms of a popular leader, the Dali Llama symbolizes this kind of power. He represents the wave of the future when it comes to an embodiment of egoless power and a good role model. This is the kind of power, though radical humility, that you can relax into by just knowing that it is there for you and society to share. But don’t go looking for awards, accolades or special recognition. Because this kind of cat is working in hidden shadowy caverns and crevasses more than out in broad daylight.
Slavery has arguably been with us since we humans were created. But there is nothing more degrading than working on command and living a life that you were not authentically meant to live. I think about our primal human nature, when our ancestors sat around fires, playing music, and spitting lyrical poetic prose to the beat of universal drums. This is part of our creative nature.
We live in a world that has programed us into buying into a membership has its privileges mentality, that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, etc. But a different kind of power does exist. In a New Aquarian Age Earth, we are awakening to a vibration and dimension that rises up from the kill or be kill, dog eat dog, social darwinism survival of the fittest cannibalism of the oppressive old world. Leadership doesn’t have to be a bullying top down, hierarchical system. Cats have a natural Tao-centered way of living. Yeah, cats are predators, and are capable of killing indiscriminately, often apparently just for the pleasure of toying with their prey. But when they are left alone, and allowed to be who they are, cats tend to take the path of least resistance, and are incredibly affectionate creatures with amazing psychic abilities, and a penchant for being present and still with their surroundings. Human beings are evolving into less like sheep, and more like cats. Might as well learn to understand what you might have once feared. Cats embody mystery, which merely reflects our deeply mysterious Universe. That isn’t so scary when you start embracing your dark, feminine, yin part of your nature. Paradoxically, there is lightening up of your energy field the more you relax your resistance to that truth.
Take care of yourselves everyone,
Ari
Check out this podcast version of this blog at the link below:
May the animal spirited grace of Swan inspire you to paddle with the current instead of fighting against the rapids of everyday life. Notice the flow of grand moments, and the intersection between the extraordinary in the ordinary, as well as the perfection within the imperfection. If only we can gently allow ourselves to let it go instead of trying to grasp onto it, whatever it is.
Sometimes, all you can do is sprawl out and surrender to the will of the Universe, and trust that its winds will guide you to where you need to go. We all know the curse of this pandemic, particularly on humanity’s plight. But the blessing is also the gift of surrender among our human kinfolk.
A Full Flower aka Sagittarius Moon arrives on May 26th 2021. Not coincidentally, it gets its name from an abundance of flowers that spring forth across North America. When I think of Sag, meditations of fiery energy, mixed with new philosophical ways of intuitive knowing resonates in my soul. Also, this Full Moon is the second consecutive supermoon, and biggest and brightest moon of the year. It is also a Total Lunar Eclipse, meaning that it is fully obscured by Earth’s shadow, giving the Moon a reddish hue, which is where the term blood moon comes from.
Moreover, please consider the following Sacred Geometrical Arcturian Wisdom, via the Third Wave Positive Self Talk Mantra: “The energy of the Third Wave makes you aware of your choice to be here on Earth. Accept who you are on this Earth, and your strength will increase.”
Artwork by Aunt Barbara Merlotti
I remember when Grandmother talked about being called “white trash”, during her formative years in St. Louis, growing up in abject poverty during The Depression. In fact, she never saw a dentist until she was 18 years old, when she walked in off the street with bleeding gums, and the kind folks at the dental office followed their “hippocratic oath” and did the right thing. In this day and age, it’s mind boggling that our current healthcare system, in the wealthiest nation of the world, can still be viewed by the Establishment as a privilege rather than an entitlement. In the American political scene, we can at least directly trace this old world attitude to the England’s Elizabethan Poor Law of the 1600s. If you would like to delve further, check out this link:
During her childhood and premarital adolescence, Grandmother was a member of what sociologist and Harvard professor William Julius Wilson many years later referred to as “the underclass”, in his book The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy. When I read his book in college, I learned also by experience that he accurately noted that this underclass was a growing epidemic in our world, as well as in the US. Grandmother being spoken to in a derogatory way was the kind of racial epithet that is analogous to prejoriative language to characterize someone who is LGBTQ or BIPOC. Negative self-talk is typically not regarded as helpful, but it is less so when it is spoken aloud, with an underlying edge especially. What is with the attitude about the poor and oppressed, that they are deserving of their suffering, should be controlled, and punished accordingly?
The old world, and the status quo of its power structures are being dismantled, white privilege and white supremacy notwithstanding. In fact, a growing number of white people, including white men are part of this shift in equanimity in consciousness that is of mutual aid to the goose and the gander. We are living in a time when there is too much information, and it does seem to be harder to discover the truth. It is as if we are being asked by the Universe to discover the truth on our own individual basis, which is part of honoring our diversity. The unity piece comes in where we can know a collective truth. To do this, it requires that we are open to relaxing our attachments to the mental boxes that we have bought into.
Race and class in America are nothing new. But even in this day and age, we still experience cultural denial that we have institutional structures in place that are barriers to personal freedom and liberty. For example, some of our “friends in Congress” are trapped in a “fake news” denial that we have a system in place that is rooted in class consciousness. Dr. King and others fully recognized that we have both intentional and unintentional consequences of discriminatory oppression of certain populations – both vis a vis legal laws and unwritten rules that are perceived as “that’s just the way it is”. It was never easy to move up the socioeconomic ladder. But Grandmother admitted to me that her movement into the Middle Class during the 50s was made easier for her to assimilate into because of the complexion of her skin tone, and white anglo Saxon protestant lineage, in spite of the culture of poverty that she was born into, and converting to Catholicism. If anyone could have chosen to stay in denial about her racial privilege as a coat of armor to hide behind, it would have been Grandmother. But she never forgot about where she came from, did what she could to help others like her get a leg up, and be a good role model for overcoming obstacles. Besides, demonizing the oppressor, whatever he or she looks like, is not the solution. Overthrowing the government or powers that be will only replace the same tyranny and corruption that you seek to dismantle. This is a cold hard fact of life that must be understood. The looting and rioting, militarization of the police, the education to prison pipeline, and bloated military that protects the stock exchange under the guise of puppet dictatorships of dirty energy is a recipe for a widening gap between the haves and have nots.
For example, I remember the cultural context of African American culture in America, during the time period called the Great Migration, when black folks sought personal freedom by risking their lives to escape from the oppressive Jim Crow South. Part of staying alive, and reinventing themselves into a new chapter in life, many secrets were kept to hide from the collective trauma of their shared experiences. A historical debate sprung up about where to focus on the advancement of black people. In the Booker T. Washington camp, blue collar jobs were seen as a way out of poverty and socioeconomic empowerment. Basically, the belief was that black people could get a leg up if they had access to blue collar jobs in the trade industry, production, manual labor, etc. Sadly, but understandably, the decimation of the manufacturing base and labor movement have reinforced the truth of this point to appreciate. Proponents of Dubois bought into the idea of the “talented tenth”, which posited that the focus for black progress would come from the upper echelon of African American society via assimilation into the college educated, white collar world. For those of you that recall the 70s TV show The Jeffersons or the 80s The Cosby Show, you can see comedic caricatures of these nuances play out in sitcom format. Today, the rise of the black middle class reinforces both perspectives, as both camps are true, on some level. The real division was in a segregated either/or mindset that mirrors how divided our country is today. So even in black culture, as in other BIPOC cultures, there are hierarchical structures in place of who is perceived as entitled to privilege, and who is not.
Check out this brief video on “Being 12: What Are You?”
In fact, people that identify as BIPOC and LGBTQ and know their history understand the experience of “passing.” For example, you might see yourself as black, but you could pass as white. Or if you are gay, you could pass as being straight by pretending to be, or a trans person could front as being “cisgender” or in gender alignment with the sex they were ascribed at birth. But at some point in the game, waking up to who you are, and being allowed to express yourself in your true colors is suffocating if you cannot pass as yourself. Meditation on this perspective can help build empathy for another who might walk in different shoes than you do. On the other side of the coin, there is peer pressure to identify as LGBTQ, even if you are not because it is becoming the hip or chic thing to do. In early adolescence particularly, this can be a form of attention seeking, and over reliance on peers for identity development.
Psychologically, Albert Bandura was a behaviorist and father of the social learning theory, as the primary medium of personality development in children. In short, role modeling, or monkey see, monkey do is how we humans learn. Abraham Maslow, on the other hand was known for his pyramid called Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, with basic survival needs at the bottom and self-actualization at the top, and some other areas of personal growth in the middle. If you don’t have equal access to basic resources, or feel safe or a sense of community connection or belonging, then it’s hard to move into the area of self actualization. It can be done, but you have to work a lot harder. A more fair and just society is created when incentives are in place for “these truths to be self evident.” Of course a child that is raised in a loving home where they feel wanted and loved reinforces this natural belief to a soul that its inner light can awaken and shine through its form. We are all born into this world with a unique blueprint that is designed to love. Yes, we have different temperaments, and our personalities evolve during our life cycle. What matters is how we work with our core temperaments, and evolving personality characteristics. You can be born with an anxious-avoidant temperament, an insecure attachment with your primary caregiver, and without an athletic bone in your body. But you can still learn to relax, feel safe inside yourself, and take up athletic exercise for your own wellbeing. Who cares if you’re bursting with nervous woodland creature energy like a squirrel or never become a famous Olympian. Squirrels learn by imitating, like we humans do, and you can always go to your inner Olympian for building your athletic confidence.
An old friend sent me the article below that reinforces the figure above:
Additionally, many of you know that Ghandi, who gave up his privilege, stood up to the British Empire, and India’s Caste System at the time. Also, Siddhartha Gautama aka the Buddha, left his father’s empire that was set up to protect him from suffering, and then he subsequently gave up his privilege to awaken his inner light and know his Higher Self. There are risks inherent in living a life with purposeful attention that is in alignment with the living moment. To trade that for fame, fortune, and complacent personal contentment is a choice wrought with victimhood. That’s why the oppressor suffers just as much, if not more than the oppressed. It’s a heavy cross to carry when you defend the status quo of an oppressive regime. At the end of the day, it’s a lose-lose situation, even though the illusion shows winners and losers, and justification for that paradigm.
Furthermore, in the film The Trotsky, the main character plays the role of a High School Student who believes he is the reincarnation of Leon Trotsky, the late Russian revolutionary. In the film, this Canadian youth inspires his school peers in a way that moves beyond their boredom and apathy into the self evident truth that “school doesn’t have to suck”, and that student empowerment is a real possibility. In a nutshell, the students in the film move from being “sheeple” to empowered youth, in a prosocial power through legitimate means. You know, the only kind of power that is sustainable, vis a vis an externally inspired prompting but internally directed fruition.
Interestingly, some cultures have a common language and shared stories about reincarnation. Basically, the idea is that our souls are real and are recycled as part of its evolutionary process. While this process can be accelerated in a single lifetime, because of the way the established paradigm is right now, the precedent has been set up to take many lifetimes for a soul’s personal growth and transformation to take place. But the flowering of consciousness taking root on the planet right now is flipping the script on all that. Perhaps you lived as a member of a different gender or race in another lifetime. This could leave you feeling more empathic to the plight of the people who remind you of your old self, or it could paradoxically leave you feeling entitled today. Past Lives Matter. Do you have memories of your soul having experiences in another form(s)?
More importantly, a spiritual perspective that aligns with the human potential movement, and a generalist social work perspective understands that basic needs or equal access to concrete resources supports other areas of psychological growth and self-actualization. If human beings are encouraged to harness our strengths, recognize our blind spots, explore what we are passionate about, and what builds their resiliency, then before long they want to be an ally to support others in having this quality of life. Is this social engineering? Yeah, but only in a more mindful, meditative, positive self talk kind of light. Just imagine the possibilities without Berlin Walls, Glass Ceilings, Ethnic Cleansing, Weapons of Mass Destruction or fixed ideas that inhibit connections between new neuronal pathways. When we rework our DNA with “plasticity of the mind”, we open up to new ways of doing things, a relaxation of attachments to conventional boxes in cognition, and emotional reactions to our engrained repetitions. In this space, we observe a calming down of thought forms manifesting as verbal and physical escalations and behavioral traps respectively.
What is more, brain science reveals a false dichotomy” about trying to differentiate between the brain/body, in much the same way as we try to do between mental health and health. You can see this misunderstanding happen in the compartmentalized culture here in the US. The reason that meditation is good medicine is that it literally rewires the brain toward equilibrium so that we can respond to our emotions effectively. Daily practice is a general workout that exercises our social skills because the rehearsal pays off. Self awareness is knowing our triggers ahead of time. When we lean into our pain, and then shift our focus toward peaceful, calming thoughts and mindful breathing, we are putting the spotlight on our emotional centers in a positive way. Can you become more connected, in a way where you could tune into sensing a feeling a sense of ease or unease? For example, might you ask yourself some reflective questions like, am I needing to rest, take care of myself in a way that I haven’t, or am I congruent with my values at this moment? Personally, I like to think of the children’s story The Little Engine That Could for an inspirational friendly reminder. It helps me stay on track and not run out of steam, if you’ll pardon the pun.
Many of my students (and coworkers) have good “bullshit detectors.” As such, they know the difference between those that fake self confidence (we’ve all done it) versus those who have developed a “realistic self confidence.” And given that we humans have the ability for pretending, we can all learn to “fake it till we make it.” Along the way, we can see ourselves standing in our own personal authority by growing roots in the living moment.
But beyond a sense of entitlement, is a value attached to taking ownership for awakening our personal and collective power. This can happen through currency or any energetic exchange, like bartering. Reciprocity isn’t about the old egoic state of “I’ll scratch your back, you scratch mine” mentality. Rather, it is an evolutionary step into and coming from our Higher Selves that embodies win-win situations.
Be kind to your mind when recognizing that there have been abusive matriarchies in place in human history, where men were subjugated. Where do you think the fear of feminine, yin energy or woman’s power came from? Whether realized or not, men have been programmed, as we all have, to have a fear of feminine power, albeit the connection to this fear is often unrecognized and can play out in silly “facebook wars”, cyberbullying experiences, and in person interactions. Of course this also can occur in trans-racial and cross-cultural communication too. So it stands to reason that if suddenly, magically overnight the LGBTQ and BIPOC identified groups were to be in the majority and in control of the hierarchical power structure, we would not be living in a utopian shangri la. Keep in mind that was Hugh Heffner’s vision of the Playboy Mansion. You can see how sustainable that vision worked out, if you can appreciate the sarcasm.
Finally, in our Civil Rights Teamwork, our students often freely initiate conversations organically. Because we established guidelines early on, they rarely need to be redirected to follow “the rules” of maintaining communication that embodies dignity and respect. For example, in a recent meeting, they initiated a healthy conversation about their respective astrological signs. During that conversation, we had an animated discussion about how you can take 10 people from the same race, ethnicity, ancestry or cultural background, who all might look similar on the surface, but could all have different astrological signs, meaning diverse orientations intrinsically. Like personality characteristics that are unique to the individual, a person’s astrological sign reflects their uniqueness and diversity, on a deeper level. Yet we all share the common tapestry of our humanity. Diversity in Unity. Remember that we are all mostly water in form. But on a deeper level, we are formless, yet luminous, energetic beings. Recognition of this does not discount our diverse expressions of form. If anything, we should honor those differences, as well as highlight our unity.
Take care of yourselves everyone,
Ari
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A Full Snow Moon arrives on February 27th, and welcomes back ancestral traditions of honoring this Moon for representing peak snowfall accumulation. If rocks are part of your spiritual path, it’s a good time to let them rest and recharge underneath this Full Moon so that you can recalibrate them in your sacred meditation space. We all need to rest, especially with the cultural war raging on, coupled with the slow melt of the pandemic. It isn’t just the school community I work in that is hitting the wall during these hard times. And the lingering shadows of Old Man Winter are nothing to sneeze at either, if you’ll pardon the puns. But visions of Vernal Equinox, and Big Night, when the salamanders make their romantic midnight run to get it on, dance sensuously in our hearts and heads. How do tiny salamanders make it to far reaching vernal pools against all odds? Indeed, they have great forces of Nature, and lurking predators to contend with. Maintaining perspective is a key dynamic to happiness as a way of life. Patience in communication with each other is critical to that. Building bridges of understanding in our connections with one another will support positive development in human relationships.
Switching horses for a moment, when I think of turtles, I think of survivors. Turtles have been around longer than humans, and have even left dinosaurs in the dust. If you’re anything like the rest of the planet and me, then you could probably stand to meditate on the virtue of patience. Whenever I feel like I’m pushing the river or running the hurry up offense unnecessarily, I try to remember to keep my wits about me by visualizing a turtle to help ground me to the Earth. If only I can catch the wave of a mindful moment to swim with the current by allowing what is to happen, rather than striving to make it happen. Easier said than done. In my younger days, the spirit of Rabbit dominated my energy field over Turtle, as I was almost always on the hop. Who would I be without the charge of my hypervigalant nervous woodland creature energy? Suffering from young man’s disease means that you see faster as better, and competative worrying as a strength. But as my years of living on the planet advance, I feel more connected to Turtle’s spiritual therapy these days.
Furthermore, it is wise to realize that happiness doesn’t mean that we are above or below the tones of pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral feelings. If you are paying purposeful attention to your feelings, then you’ll notice that most of them don’t last more than 15 to 30 seconds. Indeed, they are like a river. So, what’s with all the sensational headliners? Is this suffering really an outrage or will this too so shall pass? Not to project my anthropomorphism onto Turtle, but I do believe their spirits will just watch without any judgment or clinging to any primary feelings or secondary emotions that might arise in its wake. Pretty sure Turtle wouldn’t get seduced into a partisan Congressional quagmired debate. No dark earmarks, bloated military industrial complex budget, Qanon or Trumpamania either. Perhaps more likely, we might entertain a peaceful, and non-violent act of civil disobedience. But melting the ice I don’t think so. This doesn’t mean turtles aren’t fierce or that they’re wimpy. They’ll let you know when they’re angry, and are good teachers on knowing when to retreat into your shadowy shell or let your head out into the sun for some vitamin d.
More importantly, revolutionary spirit is in the air as we move in a New Aquarian Age. But what old ways still have meaning in this New Earth we are transitioning in together? Cocreating Heaven on Earth means that we are getting in touch with the better angels of our Higher Selves to support our universal connection to one another during our shared coexistence on Mother Earth. Diversity in Unity means that we are all connected. Like may attract like, but remember that even opposites attract because the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. All voices matter so that we can honor our differences, and also be true to our oneness. Clearly, there are old patterns and wounds that we still need to release and heal before we can really move forward. Part of that healing is to hear that the attraction to Trump is “a belief that government should not run our lives, and limit our freedoms.” And while I can appreciate the sentiment, he is part of the problem, not the solution. BIPOC and LGBTQ + are not a threat to humanity, but rather weave an integral part of our collective inner tapestry.
For example, take a look at Bernie Sanders as an embodiment of revolutionary spirit, and of working Turtle energy in the positive. Now that’s an elderly white man of privilege that will give you the shirt off his back. All people like him are saying is that capitalism, socialism, and the democratic process can all coexist equally. “The spiritual war that we have in our world right now wants us to cling to these fearful stories, take sides, and blame someone for our pain. We have to remember our togetherness and really what unites us which is our spirit. Our spirit is made of all of the same Divine Light.” Letting go of the Military-Industrial Complex’s concentration of power in our lives is breaking down, and we can see that through the eyes of disorder in our world. There is no one size fits all T-shirt folks. Don’t be tricked into believing that fixed ideas and attachments to them are not the real natural disasters and war drums that divide and conquer us. There is enough, and we can all win. It is unconstitutional not to level the playing field by promoting the general welfare of the public. But isn’t that obvious?
Looking back, we have discussed the growing body of evidence that supports the existence of the UFOs, extraterrestrials, multidimensional beings, etc. But keep in mind, there are many historical reports of these phenomena that existed prior to the Roswell incident back in July, 1947. For example, Leonardo Da Vinci was reportedly visited by “light beings”, and Michelangelo, Christopher Columbus, and Nostradomus reportedly saw some sort of UFO or otherwise unexplained apparent aerial phenomena that shifted their consciousness back then. Also, there are many culturally accepted stories by Indiginous people about “sky people” that trace lineage connections to humankind. Here in America, “multiple states” reported sightings in the 1800s. In his book Passport to the Cosmos: Human Transformation and Alien Encounters (1999), the late Dr. John E. Mack, who was a Harvard psychiatrist, and department chair, came out for his support of his clients that claimed to have been abducted by aliens. Dr. Mack believed that his clients had experienced something real that was traumatic, perhaps that their souls had really been abducted. However, it was unclear whether this experience was physical or more multidimensional in nature. A trauma informed lens would appreciate the meaningful reality of what they went through that had lead to transformational experiences in their consciousness. What is it that we need to revisit in our consciousness? What more do we have to learn about the truth of this phenomena as the Pentagon continues to relax its guarded secrecy, and disclose the information that it has been hiding from us?
Additionally, during this “dreamy” Pisces time of year, it is a time to “let go, surrender . . . (and) connect to our oneness, own spiritual path, mystical side of life, (and) reorder the sacredness of life.” It is within the elemental forces now to examine an old part of yourself that needs to die so that you can be reborn. During this process, we are invited to face our fears, and explore what is hiding in the shadows of our unconscious so that we can “bring love to it.” Meditation on Venus’ rising tide evokes passages through a death/rebirth cycle of inner transformation that reflects an out with the old, in with the new perspective that mirrors springtime. Many moons ago, I remember an old friend saying that she “got depressed” around springtime. This makes sense because it is natural to grieve the loss associated with the death of the old self. You might not even like Winter, but even so it can be hard to say goodbye to yesterday. Remember that we are part of Nature, not separate from Her, nor Her seasons. But the sun of Father Sky still rises to lighten our spirits, and the Moon still shines on and moves the tides. As humans, we are mostly water, which is a conductor of sound frequency, which Whale is deeply aligned with. “We are assisting mother Gaia (Earth) in giving birth. She has been waiting for us, patiently. Her water has broken and we are gathered ’round to assist her in any and every way possible. She doesn’t ask that we prepare in any way. She simply asks us to show up and assist her to remain calm and trust that all will go well in her delivery process. The cataclysmic occurrences on the planet as of recent have simply been Gaia’s very intense labor contractions. She needs us now, more than ever.”
Finally, according to the sacred geometrical Arcturian wisdom, “The energy of frequency helps you remain within your own energy. Quite often we conform ourselves to others, thus raising or lowering ourselves to a frequency that isn’t ours. By proclaiming your truth with love, you will start processes that may influence others. More unity will be visible!” Moreover, inner peace is about a vibrational-dimensional shift that takes place from the inside out. That being said, a trauma-informed/mental health oriented term that is gaining popularity in schools today is called coregulation. When you get down to the nuts and bolts of it, anyway you shapeshift, coregulation is when we are able to influence each other in ways that supports empathic heartfelt connections with each other.
In conclusion, you’ve all heard the old saying, misery loves company. That’s why sympathy cards and gossip generate so much attraction. But generally speaking, neither does much by way of co regulation or helping anybody. There isn’t anything wrong with holding a sympathetic perspective toward someone or indulging in a little news gossip once in a while. There can be an element of catharsis to commiserating with a fellow coworker, peer, friend or family member from time to time. But just know that it doesn’t serve anyone’s well being when it becomes habitual, and ingrained in your everyday life. If anything, this pandemic has taken away the IV drip from the gossip and sympathy addicts. What have been their replacement strategies? While that remains a mystery, a 6th greader I know took my advice and has gone on a news fast, and has reported a significant decrease in his anxiety and paranoid thoughts. Also, I know many people who have started meditating, wearing items of power like crystal necklaces or other spiritual trinkets, playing around with smudging themselves or giving themselves energy baths with essential oils, or playing with chimes, singing bowls or utilizing meditation/mindfulness apps on their phones. These are all gadgets that help you make a dimensional-vibrational shift into inner peace, or become more adept at empathic coregulation. You can always become an agent of change by starting with yourself. Or you could just march to the beat of your own hum.
Classroom Mothership Earth 