Since the last time since I last wrote to you we have moved from Aries whose fire animates life and arrived in the loamy, earth sign of Taurus who embodies and shapes life and teaches us all about the material world, from money and resources to food, anything we need physically to live, as well as the more subtle matters of values and worth. Taurus is also about the preservation of life and maintaining the status quo.
Right now though Uranus is in Taurus and this planet is about anything but preserving the status quo! Taurus doesn't like a lot of change because change creates uncertainty and instability but with Uranus in Taurus, the earth, our earth is on the move and we are being asked to leave behind our comfort zones and embrace the entirely new. For most of us the earth beneath our feet is very different than from a year ago!
As Joseph Campbell says so articulately:
“if you will think of yourself as coming out of the earth, rather than having been thrown in here from somewhere else, you see that we are the earth, we are the consciousness of the earth. These are the eyes of the earth. And this is the voice of the earth."
This is something Greta Thunberg, the teenager activist, demonstrates so clearly with her connection with the earth and how her cry out to us all on behalf of the earth, our earth, which is asking us to move, to change, to reconnect, to hold ourselves open for Reality to impinge upon us.
So how do we open to reality, prepare the soil of our life when we live a world where anything could happen, the extreme climate, the extreme economy, a world of noise and distraction that alienates and causes the anxiousness of people everywhere? In this very time of looking into the dark of not knowingness (if we're honest it is always a time of not knowing) this is the very time that we adopt the stance of what is important to us, an intention to practice, to respect and to live to the highest values.
What do I mean by this? Well if I use the example of meditation, it means that we intend to weave a container of practice. To do that we need to adopt the stance – learn the practice, commit to the discipline and practice, be constantly curious as to what is going on in our practice so we can spot when we are going to sleep or not showing up with our whole self, maintain a posture of patience which is not expectation but a place of holding our stance trusting the Other will come to join us. There will be times of emptiness and despair but if one is able to hold the stance there may come a moment of complete surrender and in that surrender our world completely changes, sometimes on the outer, but always on the inner.
With Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn for this next while there will be work in preparing the soil for the new. We will be digging into the earth of our life and weeding out anything old, outdated and just plain mouldy and past its sell-by date. This work cannot be put off as the Saturn/Pluto/South Node combination in Capricorn is a symbol of evolving and changing times that demands to be taken seriously, in the world at large and within our personal worlds too.
This is a Capricorn time of being responsible, of showing up for our life, of doing the hard work of tilling the soil, of waiting for that new birth whilst living with the difficulties these planets often bring. Perhaps a flare up of serious illness such as my household just experienced, or perhaps tending to a relationship that no longer feels nurturing or showing up for work that puts money on the table for food but does not feed your heart. These times can feel like you are treading a treadmill and when that happens there are two things I find I can do to lighten what can sometimes feel like a toil but which is such a necessary toil.
The first is I turn to the practice of gratitude, praying thanks for the love that braids itself into all our lives, almost despite ourselves. The love for a child, the love for a shared story with a husband, the love we give to each person as we tend to each other by doing what we do whether doctoring, counselling, mothering, cooking a meal that is shared, being part of the natural weave and web of love and life that the earth so lovingly includes us all in.
Taurus is also about pleasure, sensuality, taste, touch, and abundant flowering and so I practice giving gratitude each day for each particular thing that has been beautiful, loving or uplifting that day as well as for each thing that enables my life, the breath that moves through me, that glass of water, the plate of food, revelling in the Taurean love of nature as I feel my foot on the earth, my hand in the garden bed as a tiny jewelled sunbird sips from a bright orange flower cup.
As I am a lifelong student (and I suspect all of you are too), the second for me is to inspire myself with an arena of learning that is meaningful to me, to enhance my own learning with that which inspires me to wisdom and truth with a capital T. I am surrounded by colleagues and friends who are well into their seventies and eighties and are still studying, still enriching their lives with deep learning and so I see this as a vibrant, lifegiving, forever practice for all of us!
I have been surprised when studies I have adored and thought just to be for me turned out to be seen as something of value by others. I am thinking of my studies of Tarot, Astrology, Jungian thought, mysticism, and the power of silence that inspires thinking, which I have inhaled with delight, particularly in those long down times of recovering from relapses of illness, and out of which has come my own synthesis which I now offer in Transfomational Guidance consultations. These consultations are imbued with my passion and love for my work.
I adopted a stance of knowing deeply that learning to find the golden threads in all the beautiful symbolic languages is life-enhancing. Life came along and danced with that and created an opportunity for me to share with others. My earth flowered and I now live with the joy of being with people as they explore the earth of themselves and how they are being called to live on this precious planet.
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Sending you all prayer bells of love, courage, connection, heart-warmth and joy,
Susan ♥