A Fiery Foggy Start to Summer!
Welcome to the June 18, 2008 Summer Solstice and Sagittarius Full Moon Festival edition of the Satya Center newsletter.
Warm greetings from your Editor, Curtis Lang and your co-editor, Jane Sherry.
This is our “spiritual” newsletter of the month and another one with alternative global news as a main focus will come to you shortly.
The Moon waxes full in Sagittarius Wednesday June 18 at 1:30 pm Eastern Daylight Time, with the Moon at 27.50 Sagittarius and the Sun at 27.50 Gemini. This marks the Festival of Humanity, the third of the three great spring festivals – Easter, Wesak and this week’s Festival of Goodwill.
We celebrate the Summer Solstice on Friday June 20, at 7:59 EDT, as the sun enters the sign of Cancer. But a close reading of the Zodiacal roadmap indicates that there’s a lot more going on at present than flowers, parties, fun and games!
Mars opposes retrograde Neptune on Solstice Day this year, which indicates the makings of a politically charged and highly polarized “long hot summer” ahead. 
Fuzzy thinking, intentional distortions and propaganda combine in the mainstream media to increase fear, agitation and paranoia, all of which can be conveniently channeled by our political leaders into activities directed against their personal political enemies.
The attack machines have only just begun to warm up, and a propaganda tsunami is on the horizon, which will meet with some organized and extremely agitated resistance this year, in sharp contrast to the two previous Presidential election cycles.
We’ve been deluged by reports of people who are stressed out, overworked, worried about money, hit with health challenges, being plunged into a transformational cauldron, and feeling overheated by it all!
So it’s up to each one of us to set aside anger, fear and worry and to join together in a festival of community and community healing.
Cosmic Astro-Weather Report
Can you say – “Heavy Weather”? Because that’s what’s up this weekin our starscape. Sun and Venus in Gemini are opposed by Moon and Pluto in Sagittarius, all in adverse aspects to electrifying, eccentric and revolutionary Uranus. In addition, Mercury and Neptune are both retrograde this week. Communications are difficult, and the collective mental landscape is obscured by a thick fog of indecision, insecurity, and myopia.
In this type of atmosphere, when you combine dense mental fog with irritating setbacks in all communications and communications devices and systems, the stage is set for constant outbursts of inappropriate anger, impatience and general irritability, along with unquenchable feelings of futility and insatiable desires for instant gratification in many areas of life.
This entire year is infused with a very strong energy of building conflict, which is set to come to a head around November 2, 2008, when Saturn and Uranus square off in the sky, and Americans choose between Saturnine systems of control to strengthen their Empire and Uranian transformations of the national soul to bring about greater conformity with the principles of Right Relations.
So, spiritual practices are a must, but it is hard to find time and energy for those practices in a global emergency. And we are in an emergency.
Ponder the accelerating changes in our world, ranging from the global economic crisis of finance capitalism, to the peak oil crisis, which heralds the end of the age of hydro-carbon driven industrial civilizations, the environmental crisis, the global food shortage, and the increasing intractability and belligerence of the most privileged individuals on the planet, who seem determined to sacrifice the well-being of billions of people and the entire human-friendly Earth environment that developed over the last few billion years, just to extend their wealth, their hegemony and their privileges another few decades. Despite all distractions and increasing responsibilities, we must continue on our Spiritual path.
It is clear that only through access to Higher Mind, through Group endeavors by highly-trained spiritual communities, and by the grace and guidance of the Masters will humanity find a graceful passage into the rest of the 21st Century. So be gentle with yourself, but try to set aside even a few minutes a day morning and evening to connect with Spirit. Do what practices you can do while meeting your worldly commitments. This will eliminate tendencies to worry, to anger, to become depressed and to impulsively react to difficulties facing us all.
Mercury turns stationary direct this Thursday, June 19, 2008, and it will become steadily easier to move forward on all levels, and easier to create mental structures that facilitate steady spiritual practice.
In addition, celebration of spiritual festivals with our families, with our neighbors, with those near and far who belong to our spiritual community and lineage, and, indeed with all people on their myriad spiritual paths, can feed our souls, soothe our worried minds, open our hearts, and fill us with the Divine spark of the Holy Spirit, the loving wisdom of the Blessed Sophia.
In the Theosophical Tradition, this full moon, Wednesday June 18th, The Festival of Humanity marks the moment during the yearly seasonal round when the energetic outpouring from the Ascended Master Hierarchy reaches a peak.
Disciples, seekers, and open-hearted individuals around the world have been absorbing the energies of love and wisdom dispensed during the Easter and Wesak festivals, and learning new ways to re-distribute those energies to those around them, to support the spiritual evolution and the best and highest good of all those involved.
During the Festival of Goodwill, the emphasis is on the Aquarian virtues of community, compassion, wise stewardship of resources, conscious networking to expand the ability of people everywhere to contribute to the Divine Plan, and above all, the sharing of love, light and material wealth.
The Sabian Symbol for 28 degrees of Gemini is “An Old Bridge Over a Beautiful Stream is Still in Constant Use.” Here is a beautiful symbolic representation of Right Human Relations, which will be revealed and implemented in the upcoming Aquarian Age.
A community in touch with its environment and with the needs of its great-great-great-grand-children makes it a priority to provide the very best possible education for every child.
In this way the community instills an awareness of the web of life, and focuses its energy and its best minds to create environmentally sustainable architecture and townscapes.
In such an Aquarian community, the wisdom, the technological skill, and the investment of older generations continues to serve the needs of all the people, who continue to use the well-designed and well-constructed old bridge constantly, without damaging the precious “beautiful stream” which feeds the plants that feed the community and all its inhabitants -- all those with feet, fins, fur, wings, eyes and hands, and all those that crawl upon and within the earth as well.
Spiritually, the Sabian Symbol of the bridge over the stream, represents the opening of the Gates of Heaven and the downpouring of grace and guidance available to us at this unique moment in the Northern Hemisphere when spring gives way to summer, and the Archangel Raphael passes responsibility for the growth of living beings, plants, birds, animals, fish, and insects alike to Archangel Uriel.
The bridge across the stream of subtle energies that separates the physical from the more subtle realms is the connection between the egoistic self and the Higher Self. This bridge is forged through the efforts of each of us, generation after generation, each building upon the grace, the guidance, the good karma, and the examples and teachings of the many true spiritual teachers throughout history.
Let us give thanks to all of these teachers!
Let us give thanks to all of our ancestors for their wisdom, their love, their hard work, and their generosity. In honor of their memory, their struggles, and their victories, let us strive to emulate their wisdom, their love, their hard work, and build a bridge for ourselves to Higher Worlds. And let us offer that bridge to the community in the spirit of joyous service to humanity.
Let those to whom much has been given, give much, and let those to whom little has been given give what they can to those in greater need than themselves. This sharing opens the doors of heaven for all Lightworkers that they may receive abundance in all its forms, especially the grace and guidance needed for them to fulfill their Higher Purpose and attain their highest spiritual goals here on Earth.
This week is an ideal time to meditate upon the changes taking place in our lives, and to ask for guidance to help us transform these changes into golden opportunities for service, for accelerated spiritual growth and for teaching and healing.
Enjoy this meditation on the day of the Full Moon, celebrating the Festival of Goodwill!
Opening Invocation: " I now see Heaven on Earth; Heaven and Earth as One; the anchoring of the Kingdom of Heaven; the spiritual principles in open expression on earth; thus leading to the universal recognition that all are one."
“The children of humanity are one, and I am one with them.
I seek to love, not hate;
I seek to serve and not exact due service;
I seek to heal, not hurt.
“Let the soul control the outer form,
And life and all events
And bring to light the love
Which underlies the happenings of the time.
“Let vision come and insight.
Let the future stand revealed.
Let inner union demonstrate and outer cleavages be gone.
“Let love prevail.
Let all people love.”
(Now simply close your eyes and meditate.
Close with a blessing to the whole world:)
“Compassion to All Beings
North - South - East - West - Above - Below
Compassion to All Beings.”
(ed. Note: I would like to thank Kythera Ann [http://visit.elysiumgates.com/harmony.html] at The School for Spiritual Integrity for reminding me about a beautiful meditation that has been known to Theosophists and to others in the metaphysical community for many years, that is appropriate for this Festival Of Humanity.)
The Summer Solstice
The month of June brings us the longest day of the year known as the Summer Solstice when the sun is at its zenith, entering the sign of Cancer. This festival was called St. John's Day in the EuropeanMysterySchool tradition, and has been a traditional time of community celebrations all over the world & throughout history.
The Summer Solstice occurs when the sun enters the zodiacal sign of Cancer, on Friday, June 20 at 7:59 p.m. Eastern Time this year. It is one of the four solar community holidays of ancient peoples and remains sacred to many people today. These four solar holidays are the Summer & Winter Solstices, and the Spring & Autumnal Equinoxes. Together they delineate the great Cosmic Wheel of the four seasons.
Let us all celebrate the Summer Solstice on Friday, June 20, 2008. Let us be thankful for our connections. Here at Satya Center we thank each and every one of you reading this for your support, for your energy and for sharing with us by email, by letter and by phone. You are truly our far-flung wired-up and wireless global community! We open our hearts to you all.
And we thank our unique group of talented, inspired, fired up & wired up insightful writers, scientists, artists, healers, poets, economists, astrologers, philosophers & journalists who so generously share their work with Satya Center!
This website is in so many ways a collaborative effort. Satya Center thanks the hard-working programmers, graphic artists, and project managers who have worked with us since our launch in 2004. So many thanks to you!
It is a time for flowers, for weddings & betrothals, a time for community bonfires & dancing and singing in the fields. Will forces are rising within human beings, plants dance toward the sun, and all of nature is energized by Mother Earth’s outpouring of Universal Life Force energy.
This outpouring energy is directed by Archangel Uriel, the angels, devas, nature spirits and elementals in the mineral, vegetable, animal and human kingdoms. These beings of Light help minerals, vegetation, animals and humans to grow and develop to manifest the physical embodiments most closely corresponding to the energetic templates outlining each individual Earth being’s development in accordance with karma, environmental conditions, weather patterns and many other variables.
The Archangel Uriel presides over the summer season. Uriel is the Master of Universal Life Force Energy, which originates as Subtle Fire in the Divine Mind and descends through the subtle realms until it penetrates material reality, infusing the physical plane with the loving wisdom that is the Living Light, the Holy Spirit. This Subtle Fire is the Source behind the Source of life that burns at the core of Mother Earth, the secret of kundalini energy, the Spiritual Sun that ignites the magnificence of the physical Star we know as Sol, or Sun.
Uriel presides over the marriage of Energetic Forms found on the causal plane of existence with the appropriate flavor and measure of Universal Life Force energy. This energized growth template, or “morphogenetic field”, as Rupert Sheldrake calls it, surrounds the space in the material world where the physical being manifests, and this energetic template triggers the birth and guides the growth of stars, worlds, plants, minerals, insects, animals and humans alike from the beginning of their life cycle until the end.
During the summer months, observe the growth patterns of plants developing from sprouts into mature beings and feel the energy fill the air around you, including the flying insects& “creepy crawlies” we find in farm country in the HudsonValley. Observe the outpouring of energies in all of the elements of nature.
The water is full of life too. All this life is busily engaged in the most important and constructive phases of the individuals’ life cycles. Sit and meditate upon the pattern of growth that any one of these beings is experiencing. Meditate upon the pattern of growth of all the beings in a small grove of trees in the weeds, or a small pond, or a stream near you, or in your garden or your lawn. Imagine them in their various elements and see them in fast-forward in a movie in your mind’s eye as they transform from spring’s promise to the fulfillment of summer’s joyous dance of life and light. The first notes of that dance-tune are sounding now!!
In the northern hemisphere the Summer Solstice is the moment when the sun begins its metaphorical descent into the underworld and days again begin to grow shorter. St. John's Day, celebrated on Tuesday, June 24, birthdate of St. John the Baptist, is one of those Christian holy days which is synchronistic with the earlier, perhaps original (pagan) holy day of the Summer Solstice.
The Solstice is a moment of reversal. In previous seasons, Cosmic forces have been streaming into the Earth's aura and penetrating deeply into the biofields surrounding all living beings, quickening the flow of life force energy and strengthening the will forces within each of us, creating the templates for growth of plants, animals and humans alike. Now the season of growth has taken hold, and the three living kingdoms begin to exhale as the Earth brings forth verdant growth, animals give birth and humans celebrate their sexuality with the traditional June wedding ceremonies amid peak displays of flowers and fields ripening with corn and grain.
Now is the time when the power of the individual to make conscious choices is at its maximum. The Sabian symbol for the first degree of Cancer is "On a ship the sailors lower an old flag and raise a new one." The revolution has begun.
This is a pivotal moment in the annual cycle of seasons, a time to initiate dramatic changes in your world. Where in your world is a revolution needed?
Resolve to be true to yourself and your personal beliefs. In truth is strength, and through strength, the world can be renewed.
Meditate upon the fact that you as an individual, in co-operation with other like-minded individuals, can work together to bring about a total transformation of the social vessel which currently carries you across the ocean of life. The first step is to join together, make the commitment to change, and raise the flag of peace, love and understanding.
The Austrian philosopher, educator and clairvoyant spiritual teacher Rudolf Steiner taught his students the many ways that they could enhance their will forces by contemplating the forms and cycles of nature, and thus accelerate their spiritual development. As part of his teachings, known as "Anthroposophy", Steiner gave extremely insightful lectures concerning the traditional European festivals celebrating the annual seasonal cycles of the agricultural calendar. Here is what Steiner had to say about St. John's Day: "And so at the time of the St. John's festival, through the ceremonies that were arranged for those among the people who wanted to take part in them, ego-consciousness shone in just at the height of summer."
"And at this time of midsummer people could perceive the mineral realm at least to the extent necessary to help them attain a kind of ego-consciousness, whereby the ego appeared as something that entered into dreams from outside. In order to bring this about, the participants in the oldest midsummer festivals — those of the summer solstice which have become our St. John's festival — the participants were led to unfold a musical-poetic element in round dances having a strong rhythmic quality and accompanied by song. Certain presentations and performances were filled with distinctive musical recitative accompanied by primitive instruments. Such a festival was completely immersed in the musical-poetic element. What man had in his dream-consciousness he poured out into the cosmos, as it were, in the form of music, in song and dance.
"Modern man can have no true appreciation of what was accomplished by way of music and song during those intense and widespread folk festivals of ancient times, which took place under the guidance of men who in turn had received their guidance from the Mysteries. For what music and poetry have come to be since then is far removed from the simple, primitive, elemental form of music and poetry which was unfolded in those times at the height of summer under the guidance of the Mysteries. For everything the people did in performing their round-dances, accompanied by singing and primitive poetic recitations, had the single goal of bringing about a soul mood in which there occurred what I have just called the shining of the ego into the human spirit.
"But if those ancient people had been asked how they came to form such songs and such dances, by means of which there could arise what I have described, they would have given an answer highly paradoxical to modern man. They would have said, for example: 'Much of it has been given to us by tradition, for those who went before us have also done these things.' But in certain ancient times they would have said: 'One can learn these things also today without having any tradition, if one simply develops further what manifests itself. One can still learn today how to make use of instruments, how to form dances, how to master the singing voice' — and now comes the paradox in what these ancient people would have said. They would have said: 'It is learned from the songbirds.' — For they understood in a deep way the whole import of the songbirds' singing.
"My dear friends," Steiner continued, "mankind has long ago forgotten why the songbirds sing. It is true that men have preserved the art of song, the art of poetry, but in the age of intellectualism in which the intellect has dominated everything, they have forgotten the connection of singing with the whole universe."
"Even someone who is musically inspired, who sets the art of music high above the commonplace, even such a man, speaking out of this later intellectualistic age, says: 'I sing as the bird sings who dwells in the branches. The song that issues from my throat is my reward, and an ample reward it is.' Indeed, my dear friends, the man of a certain period says this. The bird, however, would never say such a thing. He would never say: 'The song that issues from my throat is my reward.' And just as little would the pupils of the ancient Mystery schools have said it. For when at a certain time of year the larks and the nightingales sing, what is thereby formed streams out into the cosmos, not through the air, but through the etheric element; it vibrates outward in the cosmos up to a certain boundary... then it vibrates back again to Earth, to be received by the animal realm — only now the divine-spiritual essence of the cosmos has united with it.
"And thus it is that the nightingales and the larks send forth their voices into the universe (red) and that what they thus send forth comes back to them etherically (yellow), for the time during which they do not sing; but in the meantime it has been filled with the content of the divine-spiritual. The larks send their voices out over the cosmos, and the divine spiritual, which takes part in the forming, in the whole configuration of the animal kingdom, streams back to the Earth on the waves of what had streamed out in the songs of the larks and the nightingales."
"Therefore if anyone speaks, not from the standpoint of the intellectualistic age, but out of the truly all-encompassing human consciousness, he really cannot say: 'I sing as the bird sings who dwells in the branches. The song that issues from my throat is my reward, and an ample reward it is.' Rather, he would have to say: 'I sing as the bird sings who dwells in the branches. And the song which streams forth from his throat into the cosmic expanses returns to the Earth as a blessing, fructifying the earthly life with divine spiritual impulses which then work on in the bird world and which can only work in the bird world because they find their way in on the waves of what has been sung out to them into the cosmos.'"
"Now of course not all creatures are nightingales and larks; also of course not all of them send out song; but something similar even though it is not so beautiful, goes out into the cosmos from the whole animal world," Steiner continues. "In those ancient times this was understood, and therefore the pupils of the Mystery-pupils were instructed in such singing and dancing as they could then perform at the St. John's festival, if I may call it by the modern name. Human beings sent this out into the cosmos, of course not now in animal form, but in humanized form, as a further development of what the animals send out into cosmic space."
"And there is something else yet that belonged to those festivals: not only the dancing, the music, the song, but afterward, the listening. First, there was the active performance in the festivals; then the people were directed to listen to what came back to them. For through their dances, their singing, and all that was poetic in their performances, they had sent forth the great questions to the divine spiritual of the cosmos. Their performance streamed up, as it were, into cosmic spaces as the water of the earth rises, forming clouds above and dropping down again as rain. Thus, the effects of the human festival performances arose and came back again — of course not as rain, but as something which manifested itself to man as ego-power," Steiner says in his April 23. 1923 lecture.
Now is the yearly time of personal empowerment when we as individuals can recognize our own participation in the Divine Plan for the beautiful flowering of loving wisdom that we each most truly represent.
In this moment of seasonal transformation, we recognize St. John's Day and the Festival of the Summer Solstice as a time of flowering, when roses and daisies and motherwort express their Divinity through the sacred geometry of Light, Color and Form.
The earth breathes out. This is expressed in the Northern hemisphere as green fields & forests, colorful wild flowers, flowering trees & abundant herbs both wild & cultivated. The air is filled with the myriad pollens of trees, grasses & flowers. Green peas & strawberries bless our tables. Farmers harvest the first ripening crops, kitchen gardens offer their first tender green meals & the promise of harvests to come is tangible to all. Fruit orchards are heavy with the first small fruits ripening on limb & vine.
The Great Goddess is the source of Fertility and the Fairy Godmother who grants us our individual and collective Dreams and Wishes for our loved ones, our families & communities & for our Mother Earth herself.
In the human community, maidens & young men begin to ripen into their sexuality, and the earth pours forth a fragrant, verdant perfume. Now is a time of rising sexual energies -- a time for Love in all its many forms. Now is the time for first discovery of the sexual impulse & for committed union with the Beloved.
At this time in the year, we also begin to express our spiritual and emotional energies in an outward flow. Our bodies are more expansive in the increasing warmth of summer's days & nights & the outward expressions of Nature. And our souls & hearts more easily find expression for thoughts & feelings of love.
It is a time traditionally for bonfires, for lovers trysts, for making wishes to fulfill love. When the Sun is in Cancer, the traditional time for weddings, betrothals & new expressions of love, the full moon is called the 'Mead Moon', (or honeymoon).
Summer Solstice is the time for the community to rejoice in the many gifts of the Great Mother, in her myriad manifestations of Female Power, Nurturer and Creatrix. Now is the time to celebrate the heightened sense of energy all around, the success of the spring planting and the joy of new love. Now the entire community rejoices in the commitment to an abundant future expressed in new marriages, ripening corn and wheat in the field, tomatoes forming on the vine and the seasonal sharing of the first ruby red strawberries.
It is a time for gathering flowers to make medicines for winter. It is a traditional time to release worries, fears & old outmoded forms of thinking or behavior & to take on new ways of loving & living in the world.
Around this time of year, the first burst of flowers appear on Hypericum Perforatum, commonly called St. John's Wort. St. John's Wort is a magical plant whose yellow blossoms reflect the sun and has a long deserved reputation for healing depression. The oil infused from this plant turns a lovely ruby color when infused & is a wonderful oil to use for protection, for spiritual work & for healing the emotional body. The word perforatum perhaps refers to the tiny perforations on the plant's leaves, which you can see when you hold them up to the light. Crush some leaves and/or the flowers, and you will see the red oils of hypericin, which has been shown by contemporary science to be an effective anti-depressant, anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory & anti-fungal remedy. Studies have been performed in Germany showing effective immune modulation in subjects with HIV.
Certainly, using St. John's wort as a tincture, or as an anointing oil on Midsummer's Day, St. John's Day or the Summer Solstice would be a wonderful addition to any ceremony held to invoke the many beneficial and protective energies available during this auspicious Celestial occasion.
Just as St John baptized Jesus Christ with water, we are baptized on the Summer Solstice with the Great Mother's gifts of elemental Fire & Water in the form of Universal Life Force energy and rising sap within the abundant plant life surrounding us. When we celebrate the Joy, the Love, and the Bounty of Creation, when we light fires to ritually activate protection for the year, or dance in celebration of this great Solar Feast Day, we are born anew.
Some invoke, Juno, the Roman Queen of Heaven for whom the month June is named, some Isis, the Egyptian Mother of Life & Death. The Great Mother is also known as Oshun in Africa, as Inanna, the Sumerian Queen of the Universe & consort ofTammuz (or Damuzi) and as Ishtar, the Babylonian Star Goddess who has been variously called Ashtoreth, Asherah, Anath, The Great Whore of Babylon, Great Mother of all Green Growing things. She has many names and many children.
To celebrate her Festival of Life, simply call upon the Great Mother Spirit within us all: woman or man, child, beast, every creature great & small. We all are connected as if by a cosmic umbilical cord to the nurturing stream of Life Force Energy that the Great Mother bestows upon us here on our only home, Planet Earth. Through our connection to Her we are all connected with one another. It is the great Web of Life she weaves that we celebrate on Summer Solstice Day.
In the Northern Hemisphere June is the moment when the Great Mother's Roses begin to bloom & offer up her perfume. Now upon the threshold of our fourth summer here in farm country, we are gifted with the scent of five different varieties of roses, wild & cultivated