Welcome to the May 2024 Cosmic Weather Forecast by Curtis Lang with Jane Sherry. As we approach the Full Flower Moon occurring this Thursday, the Catawba trees across the traffic circle from us are in full bloom, and downtown looks gorgeous!
Panoramic View of Central Park from our Balcony,
Winston Salem, NC, photo by Curtis Lang
It's an idyllic springtime view from our balcony, but May has been more like a science fiction dystopia in many parts of the world.
This month, Brazil experienced its worst ever floods in its southern region of Rio Grande do Sul, killing 155 people and forcing 540,000 from their homes.
The government is building tent cities, aka refugee camps for 77,000 while damage assessment continues, and the region's largest city of Porto Alegre remains mainly under water, weeks after the floods began.
View from Brazilian President Lula's Overflight of Porto Alegre,
largest city in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil during the May floods
Lula Oficial, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A large area in East Texas recorded astounding amounts of rainfall between April 28 and May 7, totaling 30+ inches, and submerging a huge area north and east of Houston. Unusual? Oh, yeh.
"The average amount of rainfall these areas received for the same period was about 1.2 inches between 1981 and 2010," reported The Texas Observer.
Hundreds were rescued from floodwaters, many from rooftops providing the last safe shelter from the storms.
To cap off a tough extreme weather month in the Houston area, on May 15th a line of intense and widespread damaging wind and rainstorms known as a derecho paraded across the region, leaving seven dead in the Houston metro area.
Straight-line wind damage inflicted to a high-rise building in Houston, Texas,
during the May 16, 2024 derecho.
National Weather Service, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Fox News reported that "The 90-100 mph winds knocked windows out of downtown skyscrapers. At the height of the storm, over a million customers were without power."
Astute meteorologist Jeff Berardelli explained in his Twitter feed that the derecho was precipitated by a super intense and persistent heat dome in Mexico that has been in place for several weeks.
The heat dome creates a steep pressure gradient on its northern side that is conducive to the formation of rare, highly damaging derecho storms.
As of today, May 22, the heat dome in Mexico is still in place, and howler monkeys have been "falling out of trees like apples" during the unprecedented spring heatwave in Mexico, which began in March and has been linked to the deaths of at least 26 people since it began.
Lakes and dams are drying up across the country. Mexico City's water supply is at a critically low level, and it now common for authorities to truck water into cities across the country for firefighting and to supply hospitals.
But this is just a kind of low level spring fever compared to what summer will bring to North America, according to Jeff Berardelli and other meteorologists, who are predicting the most active hurricane season in history.
Why this dire prediction?
Ocean warmth is off the charts.
Expected high humidity and low wind shear will also favor the formation of storms in the Atlantic and Caribbean Basin.
Chief Meteorologist Jeff Berardelli, WFLA Tampa, former CBS News New York
"This is outlandish," says Beradelli. "The Tropical Atlantic Ocean heat content is so far above normal it’s now normal for Mid August. The stored potential energy in the Atlantic is unreal this year, building on top of last year’s absurdity."
"While some of this is the concentrating of heat in the Atlantic tropics due to natural patterns related to El Niño, the fact that we live in a different World now, with a permanently changed climate due to human forcing, is undeniable. This is our present and future," Beradelli tweeted.
As we monitor the unfolding of a year that seems destined to display characteristics of unprecedented, highly accelerated climate change, Jane and I have been slowing down the last ten days and making room in our lives for group spiritual practices, introspection and healing.
Fire Ceremony, Antioch California, photo by Jane Sherry
Sunday before last it all began when we participated via webcast in a worldwide Peace Puja with our teachers, Shri Anandi Ma and Dileepji Patak, who coordinated day long fire ceremonies in India, Czechoslovakia, Connecticut and California designed to promote global goodwill among all peoples and help catalyze efforts to restore peaceful human relations in warzones like Gaza and Ukraine.
The Peace Puja webcast lasted for nine hours of tireless chanting in Antioch, and even longer in India.
As we united our intent with our friends and teachers, chanting mantras and directing energy into the collective consciousness of humanity with the help of our crystal allies hour after hour, we felt a tremendous surge of energy sweeping across the face of the Earth.
We have been experiencing healing for ourselves in the wake of this powerful Global Peace Puja, in a powerful demonstration of Instant Karma. Thanks to Ma and Bapuji for their grace and guidance!
Shri Anandi Ma and Dileepji Patak in the Swiss Alps
In this way we have prepared for the Festival of Goodwill, which takes place this Full Moon week.
Together at the time of the Sagittarius Full Moon, we will all experience the culmination of the spiritual work that was accomplished during the first two Spring Festivals of Easter and Wesak, and tune in to the healing energy and spiritual guidance directed toward suffering humanity by the collective consciousness of our incarnate and disincarnate Spiritual Guides and Teachers of all schools and lineages, in both the East and the West.
May 2024 Cosmic Weather Forecast
In spite of dire events in many parts of the world, auspicious aspects abound during this jovial Full Moon, creating golden opportunities in many areas of life.
Jupiter is working overtime this Full Moon, broadcasting beams of Higher Consciousness and encouraging you to follow your bliss.
The Sun in Gemini is in strong trine with Pluto in Aquarius, creating a strong current of energy that can be channeled into activities focused on self-transformation.
Now is the time to release old, outworn, self-defeating behavior patterns and initiate new, healthy habits and relationships.
Be aware that when Pluto trines the Sun there is always the potential for overbearing, egoistic behavior and that there is a tendency toward self-righteous venting and aggressive action directed at those we perceive to be exploiters and enemies of our tribe.
Pluto, New Horizons Image, courtesy NASA
So if you observe yourself getting into a war of choice with someone or a group that seems to threaten your identity, slow down, take a deep breath, and rest in the knowledge that the provocation will likely dissipate in a day or two.
Then, refocus your attention on ways to use the powerful Sun-Pluto trine to affirm your sense of worth and well being rather than on tearing down perceived enemies around you.
A powerful Jupiter Neptune sextile is more or less exact at 29° Taurus/Pisces on the day of the Sagittarius Full Moon, and continues to energize the collective consciousness through the 20th of June, supporting a tendency for daydreaming, imaginative envisioning of our potential future development, consciousness expansion, and mystical experiences of all kinds.
Visualize the future you want to manifest and open yourself to intuitive guidance that can expand your horizons and even direct you toward pathways leading to the completion of spiritual and material goals so exalted that you would never have previously imagined they were a possibility in your life. They could be within your reach in the near future!
Venus Conjunct Jupiter in Taurus, both conjunct Sun in Gemini within 4º during May 2024 Full Moon
Pleiades Visible Above the Sun
At the time of the Full Moon in Sagittarius, Venus will conjunct Jupiter in the 29th degree of Taurus, as you can see in the picture above. The effects of this transit will certainly last for several days, and could trigger long term changes for the good in our lives that linger for longer.
The two auspicious luminaries will be less than 4º from the Sun in Gemini, creating a triple conjunction that is ideal for romantic encounters, trips to the museum, enjoyment of musical performances, vision quests, and big parties and gatherings.
Enjoying nature's beauty with a group of friends or with a loved one can open us up to expanded realms of transpersonal consciousness and open our hearts to the Divine, enabling us to decipher the Book of Nature and experience a feeling of oneness with the web of life.
This unusual stellar configuration can indicate success in business affairs, appreciating investments, monetary windfalls and mind-blowing romantic encounters.
With Jupiter magnifying the effects of Venus ruled Venus in Taurus, good fortune, good vibes and feel good experiences abound!
Artists can utilize this quality of time to express imaginative flights of visionary creativity.
Under the influence of this triple conjunction, we can all benefit from participating in spiritual practices designed to open us up to mystical experiences of the Unity existing behind the appearance of conflict and duality we experience through our egoistic consciousness.
Ascended Master Teachers Collage, Courtesy Wikimedia
Виктория5551, Kingtooth, Abhishek.thakur19, Kitakitzcom, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
These are auspicious aspects for the celebration of the Festival of Goodwill, the third major spring festival of the Global Wisdom Tradition honoring the Ancient Wisdom Teachings of the East and West. The first two were Easter and Wesak.
Disciples and Initiates, Guides and Teachers of Wisdom School traditions of the East and West have raised consciousness, quickened life force energies, and asked for grace and guidance during the first two spring festivals.
During this week's Full Moon Gemini Solar Festival of Goodwill, the combined intent and the repeated spiritual practices of this global group of World Servers will infuse the Earth's auric field and the collective consciousness of humanity with the heightened energies of the Second Ray of loving wisdom, which is associated with the sign of Gemini.
Song of Shambhala, Oil Painting by Nicholas Roerich, Public Domain
In response, the collective consciousness of the Ascended Guides and Teachers inhabiting the subtle energetic realm known as Shamballa will pour down upon suffering humanity an ocean of light, and our hearts will open to receive a river of unconditional love.
During the Festival of Goodwill, the love of Christ and the wisdom of the Buddha are showered down upon the Earth.
At this time, spiritual disciples of all paths and lineages and religions around the world receive inspiration and instructions concerning their roles and duties for the upcoming year.
In our blogpost entitled Celebrating the Festival of Goodwill, we offer you two different ways to participate in this global spiritual festival, and we hope you will join us in broadcasting love and light to all humanity.
This is the moment when meditators, lightworkers and practitioners of both Eastern and Western spiritual traditions around the world invoke the inspiration and guidance of their Teachers and Guides, incarnate and disincarnate.
In response, the Spiritual Hierarchy transmits to each participant an energetic download containing guideposts on the path of Spirit for the next year, unique to each individual.
Every year, since 1952, people in all parts of the world have celebrated The Festival of Goodwill. Meditation and various forms of individual and collective spiritual practices begin the day prior to the Full Moon, throughout the day of the Sagittarius full moon, and for a day afterward.
People of different spiritual paths join in a universal appeal to Divine Source, using the Great Invocation, as above.
If you are unable to meditate at the exact time of the full moon, choose a time within 24 hours before or after the full moon to be part of this global meditation.
The intensely social, innovative, aspirational stellar energies characterizing this week's Gemini Solar Festival continue to build in the days and weeks that follow this week's Full Moon festival.
Constellation of Gemini, Alexander Jamieson Celestial Atlas, 1822
Alexander Jamieson, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Unsurprisingly, Jupiter in Gemini exhibits two-faced behavior characteristic of the sign of the Twins.
Individuals who are firmly entrenched in their egoistic personalities will experience Jupiter in Gemini energy as an acceleration of their mental activity, and may find it difficult to focus as they ingest more and more information in an effort to make life decisions.
Under the influence of Jupiter in Gemini, egocentric individuals may also become increasingly attached to their opinions and belief systems, mistaking their personal preferences and tribal perspective as manifestations of Universal Truth.
Jupiter Photo by Webb Telescope, courtesy NASA
For those individuals who are able to connect with inner spiritual guidance and who operate primarily from the transpersonal realms of consciousness, Jupiter in Gemini can provide expansive views of one's life experience, encompassing past, present and future in a single snapshot that reveals the hidden meaning in key life events, the karmic sources of life dramas, and visions of pathways into the future corresponding to our Higher Purpose, signaling the achievement of our highest spiritual and material goals.
The duality of Gemini consciousness and its implications for our spiritual growth are aptly illustrated in a famous passage from Chapter 3 of the Advaita Vendanta text known as the Mandukya Upanishad, which features the fable of the two birds in a tree.
"Two beautiful birds, closely bound in friendship,
cling to a common tree. Of these one eats the delicious fruit with relish,
while the other looks on without eating. Seated on the same tree one of them--
the personal self--grieves on account of its helplessness.
But when he sees the other--the worshipful lord in all
his glory--then his sorrow passes away from him."
-- Mandukya Upanishad, Chapter 3, verses 1 and 2, translation by Karan Singh, 1987
Advaita Vedanta is a yogic path of philosophical knowledge and spiritual practice that teaches the Unity of the individual with Brahman, the transcendent and immanent Source of this four dimensional Universe.
One bird on the tree is the doer, who symbolizes the personality, or the Jiva, as it is known in Advaita philosophy.
This bird, constrained and impelled by the demands of the physical, emotional and mental bodies, enacts its inherited karmic scripts in this life, happily consuming new experiences unselfconsciously.
The other bird on the tree is the Watcher, who simply observes the activity of the personality without becoming attached to outcomes, and without identifying with the personality's dramas or experiencing that personality as the active initiator of events in this life.
Brahma on his swan vahana, 1720 CE painting now at Ashmolean Museum University of Oxford
Ashmolean Museum , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
This Watcher bird is the Atman, the great Father-Mother Source within each of us, known also as the Higher Self.
The Atman is one with Brahman, and as such, abides in loving wisdom, in Unity with the true Source of all activity in this manifest Universe, without attachment to the dramas encountered in life, and without mistakenly believing itself to be the initiator who is the creator of these dramas.
"The whole of the Vedanta Philosophy is in this story," explains Swami Vivekananda. "Two birds of golden plumage sat on the same tree. The one above, serene, majestic, immersed in his own glory; the one below restless and eating the fruits of the tree, now sweet, now bitter. Once he ate an exceptionally bitter fruit, then he paused and looked up at the majestic bird above; but he soon forgot about the other bird and went on eating the fruits of the tree as before. Again he ate a bitter fruit, and this time he hopped up a few boughs nearer to the bird at the top."
Swami Vivekananda
2030791rosemerin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
"This happened many times until at last the lower bird came to the place of the upper bird and lost himself," Swami Vivekananda continues. "He found all at once that there had never been two birds, but that he was all the time that upper bird, serene, majestic, and immersed in his own glory."
This month, for the first time, on May 24th, a day after the Festival of Goodwill this Full Moon, PBS will broadcast Raja Choudhury's feature-length documentary film America’s First Guru .
This film tells the story of "how Yoga, Vedanta, and the highest ideals of Indian Wisdom first entered the popular American conversation in 1893 with the arrival of Swami Vivekananda at the first World’s Parliament of Religion in Chicago and how, in 6 short years he traveled across the country, transforming American religion, culture, interfaith dialogue, and gender equality," Choudhury explains.
"He celebrated the universality and pluralism of all faiths," says Choudhury. "He changed the way the West saw India forever and, in doing so, became America’s First Guru."
Jane and I hope you will join us in watching this film, released at such an auspicious time.
Jane and I affirm that each of us receive the grace and guidance we require to progress on our path of Spirit during the remainder of this beautiful spring season and in the seasons to come!
We send you love and light, and we join with you in sending love and light to all of suffering humanity this Full Moon week!
Meditation Moment: The Jesus Fridge, by Jeffrey McDaniel
Your fridge died last week. The light
still came on when you opened the door,
like a doll sticking out her yellow tongue,
but the jar of pickle spears, the oat milk
in its blue cardboard house, the yogurt
were warm as an average day in Santa Monica.
A couple hundred dollars of provisions
down the figurative drain. A new fridge,
a vertical morgue with shelves, was ordered
and set to be delivered from the truck’s womb,
when wait—the dead fridge came back to life.
The Jesus Fridge. The dead food healthy again.
This phrase was funny to you last week.
The collision of the mundane and mechanical
with the long-haired and sanctimonious.
But it’s not funny today. The world has changed.
This is a George Floyd moment for both Israelis
and Palestinians. Actually scratch that.
It’s a George Floyd moment for both Americans
who sympathize with Israel and Americans
who sympathize with Palestinians. It’s a holy fuck
moment for anyone who cares about human life.
Upstairs the bathtub is filling with blood.
How big would the swimming pool have to be
to hold all the red salty stuff spilled the last week?
Who will recline in the fresh blood bath?
What swimmers will adjust their goggles
and freestyle the miles of blood?