Thursday September 22, 2005

Into the West we all go!

This afternoon, at 3:24 p.m. our Leader, the Sun, will enter his fall home, the sign of Libra.  We will, as always, follow him as his travels take him through the deeper, more complex signs of the Zodiac, which occupy the Upper Hemisphere of our Solar Chart.

Entering this new terrain, day and night will briefly balance perfectly, each in equal proportion, and then the days will begin to grow shorter as the Night takes the power.   Fall’s healing balm (in the teachings of Angeles Arrien) is sweet silence, and this dance of nature seems to pull us inward and we slow, introspect, snuggle in and ponder what we have learned, since Fall is the Season of The Teacher.  Well, theoretically, that is!

We who live here in the Western Hemisphere, seem to have very busy minds and busy bodies.  We do all that we can to let Nature know that ‘we don’t need her telling us what to do’!  Ah, yes, we are rebellious children.  She says, “Well, if you do what you do forever, your rivers will be toxic, your air will be unbreathe-able and you will all be crazy!”  Do we listen to our Mother?    Humans!  Listen, folks, our Mother should know!  She says, “Slow down!” and I think we should listen. 

Still, ‘when in Rome’, yes, it is so exciting on this planet, it’s hard to take time to go inward, especially since here on Earthbase, this first day of the fall of 2005, we have a Sun/Moon aspect of restless energy!

We start this day in a ‘grounded’ enough manor. Both of our luminaries, the Sun and the Moon begin today in an Earth home, the Sun is in her harvest home of Virgo, and the Moon is completing her 2 ½ day journey through Taurus.  At 9:41 a.m. these luminaries dance in a perfect earth trine, sharing a feeling of well-being with us all, and then Luna our fast-mover slips into Air at 10:07 a.m. today, and Gemini becomes her new home.

Our Sun who is bigger and slower, follows later, he must get it right, as this time is all about balance, and at 3:24 this afternoon he, too, will have lifted into Air.

You may recall in previous writings (when I used to write those long, lengthy monthly ‘forecasts’!) that I had had a bit of euphony about the seasons.   While thinking to myself that it would be fun to make an altar for the fall season, I began to gather items to put on the altar that would symbolize each of the elements.  The first sign of the fall is Libra, which is an air sign, then Scorpio, a water sign and then the last month of the season is Sagittarius, a fire sign— I realized that I had run out of fall!  The earthiest season of the year has no earth sign!!!  You may recall that upon further ‘pondering’ about this phenomenon, I decided that our Mother, Earth has given us three elements to use and we each, in our own fashion, must ‘author’ the fourth—the missing element!  If we bring in, in some way, this missing element, we empower ourselves. 

So, Grasshoppers, what do we need to bring Earth into our lives?  Remember that earth is the element of solid, grounded, committed, true, loyal, sensual and strong energy.  It is not theoretical, it is actual.  So, what can we DO that is REAL?  Example:  How often have we thought it would be great if we took a class and learned something new?  The earth response is to DO IT!  Air is to imagine it, water is to need it, fear it or feel it, and fire is to intuit, or be inspired by it, but without the element of earth, all other responses stand still—earth is the element that creates form here on terra firma, and earth is the element that manifests.

Now, this fall begins on a very airy note. The Sun and the Moon are both in air signs, as is Jupiter and Mercury in Libra and Neptune in Aquarius.  The challenge to this fall chart is that we can get caught in our minds and our imaginations, spinning our wheels, waiting for the ‘perfect’ plan to follow.  Your question for this fall chart is:  What do I need to truly get grounded, to manifest that which is important and needs to be created in my life?

Many spiritual disciplines have different philosophies about the element, meaning and power of the fall.  In the one that I studied with Angie (the Basque Way), the fall is the season of Grandmother Ocean, the place where we all emerged.  It is the season when we honor our ancestors, we remember that we are connected to so many who walked before us, and we are in the middle (unless we blow ourselves up) of many who will follow.

Did you know, if you get on your calculator, and plug in a number representing your mother and father, (two) and each of them have a mother and father (that makes four now) and each of THEM has a mother and father (we’re talking sixteen) and each of them, etc. etc…….and if you do this twenty times, twenty generations, ( that might take you back to about 400 years ago)….that each of us, by the time we hit twenty generations, has descended from a gene pool of one million, twenty thousand ancestors!!!  Mind boggling, n’est pas?

Each of these humans lived, loved, gave birth (or you wouldn’t be reading this) and walked on Earth Island.  A squiggly energy called a genome was passed from one to another, giving us similarities with our ancestors; we share talents, physical appearances and illnesses, not to mention mental patterns.  Angie suggests a wonderful visualiztion, and I would like to pass it along for your fall ritual.

Stand and face the west and take a deep breath.  Close your eyes, and then imagine that just behind your left shoulder, stands your Mother.  Behind her stands her mother and your father’s mother.  Behind them stands their mothers, and on and on, as far as the eye can see…..all the way back to the Beginning of Time.  Behind your right shoulder stands your Father.  Behind him are his father and your mother’s father and on again.

These are your ancestors—they are a part of you and they are never far away from you.  You (and I) are not alone, this earth is solid and holds us, but we all pass through so quickly…a gauntlet is passed to us, and we will pass it along to our decendents.

This fall, let us enter consciously, it is a very intense time here on the Earth base.  Let us ask our Ancestors what they think—they have the power of perspective, the clarity given by Time.

May your fall be rich, grounded and sensual, and may your dreams be made manifest!

Nameste.