Evidence of the Future Coming

Last week in the NY Times Tom Friedman wrote an op ed piece about a friend of his who had just been on the cover of China Newsweek. Michael Sandel's claim to fame is that he is a Harvard political philosopher who is selling out the seats to his lectures on moral philosoohy in China, Japan and South Korea. The compelling lectures use real life moral questions i.e. "Is it ethical that David Letterman makes 700 times more money than a school teacher?"; or "Is is morally just to raise the price on snow shovels after a snow storm?". The questions are modern but Sandel asks the students to debate each other with how Aristotle, Kant and John Stuart Mill would respond. 

The lectures were filmed by WGBH in Boston in 2009 and can be seen on http://www.justiceharvard.org/. Last year Japan's NHK TV broadcast translated versions of the classes and there was so much interest that the University of Toyko had to create a course based on Sandel's.  Millions of students in China watched the uploaded translated Chinese versions of the classes. Sandel's visit to Asia in 2010 turned this moral philosopher into a rock star with long lines waiting to buy tickets, tickets being scalped for $500 a piece and the cover of China Newsweek. His book, "Justice: What's the Right Thing To Do?" has sold a million copies in East Asia. 

So why do I think this is a harbinger of the future?  We are slowly leaving the Age of Pisces and moving into the Age of Aquarius.  Even if the Age of Aquarius begins next year as Sai Baba's quoted in last week's blog, two big astrological events, a once every 20 years Jupiter/Saturn conjunction in Aquarius (last time in Aquarius in 1405) in December 2020 and Pluto's entrance into the sign Aquarius in May of 2023 will bring the new cultural shift into stronger focus.  Aquarius is an air sign.  Air signs like to talk and debate.  Aquarius is concerned that everybody is treated equally. Justice and social equality are the hallmarks of the sign of brotherly love. We are seeing evidence all around us, with the "Arab Spring", with Saudi Arabian women wanting to be able to drive, with moral philosophers becoming rock stars in Asia, that we are moving  into the Aquarian Age when the dignity of each person is valued and ideas are gold.

Eclipse Season

In honor of this eclipse season (June 1st and July 1st, Partial Solar New Moon Eclipses, with the upcoming Total Lunar Full Moon Eclipse this week on Wednesday),  I thought I'd share with you some thoughts about these times from Sai Baba, sent by a friend.   Even if you have read it before it is worth rereading. Eclipses can bring sudden changes to our lives, like no other astrological influence. This is especially true if you, in your natal horoscope, share the same place in the "circle of life" (or zodiac) as where the eclipses are.  Sai Baba speaks of these changes both in our bodies and in our worlds.  And he speaks quite eloquently about the connection between mind and matter that is our theme in this blog.  Whether he is right about the timing of the beginning of the Aquarian Age, I nor anyone else, knows. 

"Year 2012 according to Sai Baba",2010. Extract from a conversation between a reporter and the Social and Spiritual Reformer of India, Sathya Sai Baba. Sai Baba almost never gives interviews, so this is very special... "Have you heard of the year 2012 like a year where something will happen?" The truth is that the planet has been changing its vibratory state, and this change has intensified since the year 1989 where the magnetic poles have moved the last 20 years more than the past 2000. Well, in one way there are several prophecies that signal this date like a term or important conclusion in the history of humanity, but the most significant is the end of the Mayan calendar, which prophecy has been interpreted in different ways. The most negative ones think that during this year the world will end, but it will not be like that, it is known that during that year a new era will start, the Age of Aquarius. This has to do with the rotation of the whole solar system (solar cycle) that goes passing through the different eras each one of them lasts 5125 years. The era in which we now are, called the Age of Pisces, started on the year 3113 B.C. and ends on 2012. If there is a change on the earth's magnetism, there is a change on the consciousness and also an adaptation at the physical level for this new vibration. The changes are not only on our planet, but also affect the whole universe, and today's science can verify that. Inform yourself about the changes on the solar storms (that are magnetic storms) and you will see that scientists are up to date with these things, or ask about the movement of the magnetic poles during the last years, and airports having to modify their instruments. This change on the magnetism translates or it's perceived as an increment of light, or an increase on the planet's vibration. For you to understand it easily you must know that this vibration is affected and intensified due to the consciousness of all human beings. Each thought, each emotion, each new awakening of a human being towards the consciousness of God elevates the vibration of the planet. This might seem a paradox, due to the fact that the majority sees around themselves more hatred and misery, but this is not so. There are many, even if I would like them to be more, that are trying to get out of darkness to grow and become a better Son of God. I have been saying this on previous messages, each one chooses where to focus the view, and those who only see the darkness are focused on the drama, the pain and the injustice. If you don't see the spiritual advancement that humanity has made it is because you haven't focused on it, but if you do the right work and liberate your mind of the negative you will open a space where you will be able to manifest your divine essence that will put on the focus of what is really happening with humanity and the planet. Humanity is elevating its consciousness as never before. "But how!...Can't you see the darkness?" Yes, I see it, but I don't identify Myself with it, I'm not afraid of it...How can I fear darkness if I see such clear light?...Of course I understand those who fear, because I have also been standing where I could only see the evil. This is why now I feel love for all of that. Darkness it's not a force contrary to the light, it is absence of light. You cannot invade the light with darkness, that is not how the principle of light works. Fear, drama, injustice, hate and sadness only exist in states of darkness, because you can't see the global context in which your life develops, and the only way to see from the light when you are there is through faith. Once you have increased your vibration and frequency (state of consciousness) you will be able to see towards darkness and understand what you have lived. "But...How can You say this if there is more evil in the world everyday?" There is not more evil...there is "more light", and that is what I'm talking about on this message. Imagine that you have a room or warehouse where for years you have been storing your things and is lit by a 40 w. bulb. Change the bulb to a 100 w. and you will see what happens. You will see the mess and the dust you didn't think existed. The dirt will be clearer. This is what is happening, and this makes possible that a lot of people are reading this without thinking of it as foolish, like it could have been some years ago. Have you noticed that today lies and deceit come to the surface faster than before?...Well, to access God's understanding and life's functioning is also faster than before. This new vibration of the planet is what is making everyone nervous, depressed or sick, because to be able to receive more light and to rise to that vibrational level, people have to change physically as well as mentally, they have to change the way they think and feel, and delete or eradicate from their lives such beliefs or parameters that generally differ from reality or that take them towards the negative side of things. You must put your warehouses in order, because each day you are receiving more light on your consciousness and even if you want to avoid it, you should start putting your hands on the project and start the cleaning or decide to live in the middle of the dirt. This change creates physical discomforts, pains on the body, on the skeleton system and most of the time; the medical tests can't find the reason or illness that provokes it. Generally they relate it with stress or nervous states; nothing farther from the truth, because these discomforts are provoked due to negative emotions accumulated during our lives, fears and anxieties that you have carried with you always and that now have the opportunity to transcend and transmute. It's about that dust accumulated for years that you are now seeing, for it to be cleaned. There will be nights when you will wake up and stay up for a few hours...don't alter yourself, read a book, watch TV, meditate, don't fight thinking there is something wrong with you, it's the new vibration of the planet that you're assimilating, you will go back to sleep and the next day you will not feel a need to sleep more. If you don't flow with this process properly, the pains will be more intense and you will be diagnosed fibromyalgia, which is a name that medicine has given to these pains that have no visible cause and for which they offer no treatment with concrete results, they only give you a prescription for antidepressants and this makes you escape the opportunity to change your life. One more time you chose which reality you want to live, only this time the drama will be more intense and of course will be the love. If the Light is increased, also is the lack of need for it, this explains why there is so much irrational violence during the last years. We are living the best time that humanity has ever lived, we will be witnesses and actors of the biggest transformation of consciousness that you have ever imagined. Inform yourself; wake up your unrest for these subjects. Science knows that something is happening; you know that something is happening; we all know that many changes are happening in many levels. Be a conscious actor of these changes and don't let them take you by surprise because you don't know what is happening. (*) "Year 2012 according to Sai Baba",2010. Extract from a conversation between a reporter and the Social and Spiritual Reformer of India, Sathya Sai Baba.

 

What IS the relationship of mind to matter?

I am thinking about this as we have a solar eclipse New Moon in Gemini, the sign of our mind, this Wednesday June 1st at 5:03 PM EDT.  Eclipses bring into alignment the Sun, Moon and Earth; New Moons begin new monthly cycles. The eclipse is stronger however and signifies that this new beginning will not just begin and end in a month but will extend over years.  So what are we looking for to begin here and how can we make the connection between what we think about and what happens in the outside world?

Enlightenment thought gave us Descartes and "I think therefore I am" and Kant who gave us the mind as separate from outer reality;  that we cannot effect the outside world but only impressions of it through our senses.  We have been conditioned to think in dualistic terms, this or that, mind/matter, body/mind, cause/effect, inner/outer.   Modern physics however has been opening our minds to view reality more wholistically.  (Rather more like the way Marcus Aurelius thought about it in the 1st Century quote above).

Keiron Le Grice, in his book, "The Archetypal Cosmos" writes about Heisenberg and his uncertainity principal, that the observer is not separate from the observed;  and physicist John Wheeler who felt that the independent observer be replaced by a "participator", that we humans are responsible for shaping reality. These two and many more physicists, cosmologists, evolutionary system theorists, ecologists, transpersonal psychologists (according to Le Grice) all share a common vision that of incorporating a more expanded view of the nature of mind and reality. Fritjof Capra in The Web of Life, writes that "the organizing activity of all living systems, at all levels of life, is mental activity." That is how important what we think about is. 

So during this week as we wind down from "the beginning of summer" weekend, we get to pay attention to what we are thinking about and what we are sharing with others.  Mercury is the planet that rules Gemini. He was a trickster-he stole his brother's sheep when he was an infant.  He could travel between Olympus in the heavens and Hades below the earth (the only god that could).  Mercury signifies our minds-it can play tricks on us, it can go into the heights and down to the depths and take our outer reality with it. 

Gemini is the sign of the twins-lower mind and higher mind.  When we are in our lower mind we are scared, restless, worried, depressed and anxious. Our  higher mind brings us to truth , beauty, equanimity and insight.  However and whenever we are in our truth and speak it, we are in our higher mind. Gemini is compelled to communicate. If what we think and communicate creates reality, then at this solar eclipse New Moon we have a golden opportunity to reset our thinking patterns.  We are that responsible for the world we create around us.  It comes from what we focus on and what we think about. 

Continuing where we left off...

I took a walk up lower Broadway this morning, as I am in the city minding my sister's dogs.  There are markers in the sidewalk pavement noting dates and ticker tape celebrants.   There were parades for Korean War vets, Vietnam vets, Persian War vets, Olympic games medalists, World Series winners, Superbowl winners, Stanley cup winners and astronauts. The predominant recipients were sports teams and war vets.  (In the spirit of fairness I also saw markers for Nelson Mandela and John Paul II).

In our last blog we were talking about the early morning sky and how rare it is to see 4 planets rising ahead of the Sun, but that whatever planet rises ahead of the Sun in a personal or country's chart becomes a "herald" for that entity.  We mentioned that Mars is the herald for the USA.  Mars rose in the eastern sky ahead of the Sun on July 4th 1776.  I thought about this this morning as I was walking up Broadway and noticed how "normal" it is for us to honor our war or sports heroes, those people of action demarcated by the planet Mars.

More men of Mars were described in the  Sunday NY Times in a front page investigative report about a former Navy Seal,  founder of the Blackwell Worldwide Group (the private mercenary group that won billions of dollars of contracts for the US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan).  American Erik Prince has organized a secret (although not so secret anymore) 800 man mercenary army, paid for by the Sultan of the United Arab Emirates, the country across the Persian Gulf from Pakistan.  These mercenaries from Columbia, the US, South Africa and other European countries are commissioned for secret operations inside the U.A.E.  The US and its citizens are very much involved in the promotion of violence and bloodshed overseas.  But how long can it last?

Mars is the planet of war, violence, action, strife, fighting, anger, aggression, turmoil and energy spent outwards going after something turned retrograde on July 2006, at 18 degrees Libra in the USA's progressed chart.    That means that our use of force to obtain what we want is going to backfire.  Instead of being successful in our initiatory endeavors, there are times now when clear cut victories are not a given, as clear cut goals are not defined. (Notwithstanding the Bin Laden raid which happened with a Mars (action) in the sky that night coupled with Jupiter (successful) which only happens once every 2 1/2 years for a few days.)

Secretary of Defense Gates spoke at West Point not long ago and cautioned any future Defense Secretary that if he (or she) was thinking of entering any future expedition like those in Iraq and Afghanistan that "he ought to have his head examined".  Are we finally rethinking how and when we use our young men and women?  We have doubled our defense budget in the last 10 years.  Is it time to trim excessive money spent on weapons?   Are the effects of a very slow moving Mars changing its orientation towards the Sun beginning to have an effect in the "real world"?  Progressed Mars has been at the same 18 degrees of Libra since 1994 and will stay in this one degree until 2016-that is a total of 22 years in the same degree.  We are "stuck" in one place  because we have to relearn how we are using our energies, where we are putting our focus and the effects that we have, both anticipated and not.

Another op ed piece in today's NY Times by Nicholas Kristof,  speaks to the feelings of the since deceased special envoy to the Afghanistan/Pakistan region, Richard Holbrooke.   Holbrooke was privately especially critical of any military action in the region and was a strong proponent of diplomacy-with all the parties even the Taliban. Mars the planet we are talking about has stationed in Libra-the sign of diplomacy and conversation. Kristof is of the opinion that now, after Bin Laden's death, is the time to do double duty on negotiations between rival factions, India and Pakistan, Afghanistan, the US and the Taliban, Israel and the Palestinians.   All wars end with diplomacy.  Mars rules action and Libra rules diplomacy.   Are we going to learn our lessons in that regard soon?

Look Up in the Eastern Sky Before Dawn

It has come to my attention through The Mountain Astrologer's web site and current blog "Astrology as if the Sky Matters" (written by Gary Caton) just how rare this current celestial phenomena is.  If you are up (and I tried this morning but there was a cloud bank) 1/2 hour before dawn around 5:00 AM, you will see 4 little white dots in the sky which are Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Mars ( a little redder) over in the eastern sky.  In hasn't been since August 9,1966 and June 5,1680 when you could see 4 planets rising ahead of the sun at the same time. 

Planets in the sky that we can see in daylight are heralds.  Think about the birth of The Christ.  The Wise Men who noticed the star in the east knew to look for something new on earth because the sky was giving them the cue. On June 5th in 1680 the Japanese Emperor died.  If you think back to 1966-when the "fab four" came to America and how they heralded a new era. On August 9th 1966, the first date you could see all 4 planets rising ahead of the Sun, we were also in the Vietnam war. A major engagement called the battle of Duc Co took place and a new phase of the war began.  

Now too we have had extrordinary events these past few weeks- President Obama having to offer his" long" birth certificate, the marriage of William and Kate and the President calling for the military expedition that lead to the death of Osama Bin Laden.  All these events mark endings of some sort which also mark new beginnings.  The stars in the dawn sky are calling our attention to the birth of a new time. 

If you wonder why so many times a military expedition has begun for us, you only have to recall that the planet rising ahead of the Sun in The USA's natal chart is Mars-so the planet of action, effort, strife and sometimes war and violence is our "hearld".  After all wasn't the birth of the country an act of civil disobedience to the King?

Further Circles

In creating this blog I was inspired by a book I read, "The Archetypal Cosmos" by Keiron Le Grice, subtitled Rediscovering the Gods, in Myths, Science and Astrology. In it, Le Grice surveys the history of myth and its function from Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung to the new paradigm scientists.  What was so remarkable to me is that this survey and Le Grice's findings parallel completely what Marcus Aurelius, who is quoted above, said in 100 AD. The universe and all that is in it is created from the same "stuff". The difference being that Aurelius wrote it with out the benefit of  the discoveries of  modern empirical physics.

So there is nothing new under the sun. We are just confirming what has always been known intuitively. 
These past 2,000 years have been about the discovery of the validity of those intuitions concerning the nature of the universe and the relationship of a part to the whole. 

Le Grice starts his book by exploring the work of Joseph Campbell who wrote extensively about the many functions of myth.  Myths were not just made up stories to explain natural phenomen, but had functions.  Myths were used to explain man's place in the universe.  Campbell's central thesis, Le Grice writes, is that the stories of myths should be read as metaphors that can be related to our own experiences providing 'perspective and symbolic meaning'.

In the more modern mind we have lost the externalization of the Gods doing this and that to us. Our demons are no longer outside but have become our own self destructive habits and vices. But rather than feeling we are being left alone to make our way with self determination and free will, wouldn't we do better by understanding and acknowledging that the forces in our external environment are the actual manifestations of our internal space. The psychological explorations that relective people go through, supported with all the self help books, programs, healing modalities and religions are one way we can source our own personal myth.  By questing after our own personal myth, as Jung did, are we not less  the victim of the gods anger or pleasure as of old, but are more personally responsible for our fate as we become  more clearly defined individuals. Can astrology help with that journey into inner space?

The Circle Game

I was recently reminded of the old Judy Collins song "The Circle Game"

                         And the painted ponies go up and down
                         We are captive in a carousel of time
                         We can't go back we can only look behind to where we've been
                         And go round and round and round in the circle game

Hearing the news about the demise of Bin Laden made me think again about this song. It also  makes the curious mind ask-why this and why now??  Astrology is really good for seeing the pattern in the timing of things. As we mentioned in our last post we talked about the placement of Saturn in the sky being in Libra and that the USA is having its "Saturn return".  We talked then of the nation being in a depressed mood. The placement of Saturn in the natal chart of the US on July 4th 1776 was 14 degrees and 48 minutes.  The position of Saturn today is 11 Libra 48 minutes. 

Saturn is in its retrograde phase, that is from our view point (earth) it is changing its relationship to the Sun. It was at 14 Libra 48 minutes for the first time December 4th, the 2nd time, March 23rd and will again pass that degree August 28th.  The strong effects of the Saturn return will not start passing away until September and not be completely finished until October 2012 when it moves into Scorpio. The US has the Sun (identity) in Cancer (homeland strong) in square (90 degrees) to that natal Saturn.  This gives us the impetus to be the disciplinarian, the defender because Saturn (rules) in Libra (the scales) demands justice.  Saturn only returns to this degree every 30 years. The effects of Saturn's sense of timing is as a laggard.  You do not always feel his effect on the date of exactness but later.  (That is why our Capricorn friends are late bloomers because they are ruled by Saturn).

The tie into September 11th and Bin Laden?  The moment the planes hit the first tower, 8:46 AM, the degree rising on the eastern horizon (we cannot see the stars when the Sun is out but they are there) was you guessed it, 14 Libra 21 minutes.  This is very potent if you remember that every 4 minutes a new degree of a sign rises up on the eastern horizon, because the earth always turning on its axis as well around the Sun. 
Which makes the moment of the Twin Tower attacks part of our collective destiny from our founding in 1776. The points in that chart are sensitive over and over again as they show up years later.  "We are captive in the carousel of time".