Entering the Time of Total Transformation
Welcome to the Monday May 16, 2011 edition of the Satya Center newsletter and Cosmic Weather Forecast. This week we celebrate the Taurus Solar Festival and the Scorpio Full Moon. Warm greetings from your Editor, Curtis Lang and your co-editor, Jane Sherry.
Tuesday May 17, the Full Moon occurs at 26° 13′ Scorpio at 4:09 AM PDT, or 7:09 AM EDT. Lightworkers celebrate the Wesak Festival, the Birth of the Buddha, and the Shamballa Gathering in the Himalayas, a time of spiritual renewal when Lightworkers everywhere connect with their Guides and Teachers to receive instructions concerning their work to come during the next yearly cycle.
Mercury, Venus, and Mars are widely conjunct the Sun in Taurus, and this entire stellium of planets is trine Pluto in Capricorn and happily aspecting Neptune in Pisces, so for the first time in several months earth and water elements predominate over fire and there is a grounded, flowing, and harmonious energy at the time of the Full Moon. The Venus-Mars conjunction promises positive vibes between the sexes, and a touch of relationship magic floats on the late spring breeze.
This stream of graceful energy is auspicious for the Full Moon Festival of Wesak, celebrating the spiritual achievements of Gautama Buddha. The Wesak Shamballa Gathering of Ascended Guides and Teachers celebrates the Unity of the Wisdom Teachings of East and West, and features a yearly appearance by Buddha and Jesus Christ.
However Uranus in Aries is still opposing Saturn in Libra, and squaring Pluto in Capricorn. This Cardinal T-Square is just one more mutation of the multi-year outer planet Cardinal Sign Storm that began a few years ago with harsh aspects that ushered in the global financial crisis and collapse -- a challenging planetary configuration which will continue to dominate Cosmic Weather Patterns for several years to come.
The last time these three planetary giants appeared in a T-Square in the cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn), was in 1761, at the birth of the Industrial Revolution, a time when America was seething with anger at King and Crown, and the American revolution was already visible on the horizon.
Saturn represents structure, Uranus represents the new, the revolutionary, and technological innovation, while Pluto represents total transformation on a molecular level. So when this trio of planetary strongmen gets into a three-for-all, it's typical to see governments fall, business as usual utterly upended, and technological innovations so overwhelming that entire societies must be restructured completely.
Today, as this planetary storm pattern resurfaces, global civilization faces an environmental and energy crisis that requires nothing less than the total restructuring of our Industrial Revolution technologies, political systems, business models, economic theories, and cultural assumptions.
Revolutions are already sweeping the volatile Middle East, and America is ripe for radical change.
The United States appears to be in the early stages of Imperial decline, and appears to be suffering from symptoms of economic and military hubris.
We are officially in an ever-expanding War on Terror in the Middle East, with troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, drone wars in Pakistan and Libya, and covert military operations underway in Iran, including sabotage, assassination and support for dissident rebel forces. The war could easily widen to include Syria, Yemen and more.
This War on Terror is a War Without End, pursued by a bipartisan political consensus established by Presidents Bush and Obama. The never-ending War on Terror results in never-ending and always-rising expenses. Several trillion and counting, so far. Plus $1 trillion a year in "normal" military spending.
Then there's the never-ending "Great Recession" afflicting America, Europe and Japan, the three key global consumer markets vital to a healthy global economy.
The "Great Recession" continues despite Bush and Obama's $10 trillion dollar Wall Street bailout. We are in a "recovery" according to Washington and the mainstream news media, but this recovery continues to act like a recession.
Houses are losing value every month. Now home sales in the United States are down 80% from the peak in July 2005. For most middle class families, the family home is the number one financial asset. Unfortunately, U.S. home values have declined an astounding 6.3 trillion dollars since the housing crisis first began. According to a recent census report, 13% of all homes in the United States are currently sitting empty. The housing crisis just seems to keep on getting worse. 31 percent of the homeowners that responded to a recent Rasmussen Reports survey indicated that they are "underwater" on their mortgages. Unfortunately, it looks like millions more middle class Americans could soon be in danger of losing their homes. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, at least 8 million Americans are at least one month behind on their mortgage payments at this point.
Retail sales are anemic.
The only new jobs are McJobs. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average duration of unemployment in the United States is now an all-time record 39 weeks.... The number of "low income jobs" in the U.S. has risen steadily over the past 30 years and they now account for 41 percent of all jobs in the United States.
Medical insurance costs and the price of gasoline are rising as fast as the price of gold. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, health care costs accounted for just 9.5% of all personal consumption back in 1980. Today they account for approximately 16.3%. A New York Post analysis has found that the rate of inflation in New York City has been about 14 percent over the past year.
The wealthiest 1% of all Americans now own more than a third of all the wealth in the United States. Wall Street is booming and corporations are declaring record profits while reporting that America's workers are more productive than ever.
Of course those workers are seeing no benefits from working harder and longer than ever before. Unions are under attack, women's right to choose is under attack, immigrants are under attack, Medicare is under attack, the EPA is under attack, and, more and more, President Obama wants to compromise with the radical right wingers who are setting an increasingly irrational American political agenda.
This looks a little pathetic to much of the rest of the world, including many friends and allies, but more importantly, whether you are worried about deflation or hyper-inflation, whether you are in favor of fiscal austerity or a proponent of neo-Keynesian stimulus, no matter what your ideology or political preference, it's hard to believe that the world should trust its financial future to the folks who blew up the global financial system, and who have clearly demonstrated they can't or won't fix it.
No wonder America's role as global financial hegemon is being questioned around the world in the wake of the financial collapse and the ongoing Great Recession, and some analysts now say that America's role as unchallenged sole super-power is becoming too expensive.
During the Vietnam war, during my youth, it was often said that "You can't have guns and butter." This meant that the government couldn't afford both expensive social programs and expensive foreign wars simultaneously.
Well today, after 40 more years of massively expanding military budgets and an endless succession of cold, hot and luke-warm wars and covert operations designed to decapitate and replace political leaders who fell out of favor in Washington, we are seeing that America can't afford to fight numerous foreign wars simultaneously without eliminating many social programs.
Especially after a multi-trillion dollar bailout of Wall Street and the biggest banks, a bailout which may have prevented a total global financial collapse, but which ultimately did little to promote a sustainable recovery.
And now there is no recovery at all except in the stock market where the bank bailout trillions have created a speculative bubble, and in commodities markets, where this same flood of hot money has created speculative bubbles in food, silver, gold and more.
That is why the entire middle class, unions, the elderly, the poor, environmental regulations, and more are about to be tossed overboard as "too expensive".
The only other alternative is to tax the rich and to insure that corporations pay their fair share of taxes. "From the end of the second world war into the early 1960s, the highest income earners paid a tax rate over 90% for many years," reports Richard Wolff in the UK Guardian. "Today, the top earners pay a rate of only 35%. . . Consider two further points: first, if the highest income earners today were required to pay the same rate that they paid for many years after 1945, the federal government would need far lower deficits to support the private economy through its current crisis; and second, those tax-the-rich years after 1945 experienced far lower unemployment and far faster economic growth than we have had for years."
Exxon Mobil 2009 profits totaled $19 billion, yet the company paid no federal taxes and received a $156 million tax rebate from the IRS, according to a handy guide to corporate tax deadbeats compiled by Senator Bernie Saunders.
Goldman, Sachs, which received $800 billion from the Treasury Department as part of the Wall Street bailout, made a profit of $2.3 billion in 2008, and paid 1.1% in federal taxes.
Citigroup 2009 profits totaled more than $4 billion, but the company paid $0 in federal taxes, after receiving a $2.5 trillion bailout from the US Treasury.
The list goes on and on. It's no surprise that Washington and Wall Street want to squeeze the middle class "until the pips squeak". The money for endless wars and financial bailouts for the wealthy and well-connected must be financed by someone, and it won't be the rich or the corporations.
It all adds up. Ten trillion here, six trillion there, a trillion a year for defense, maybe another few trillion for another bank bailout when the remaining tens of millions of foreclosures hit the streets, or when the government shuts down and the bond market has a heart attack, or when the commodities bubbles burst big-time, or when we decide to attack Iran and oil prices go to $200 a barrel and the global economy collapses.
Yes, the risks are there, because the Obama administration did virtually nothing to remove the players responsible for the financial meltdown, and did nothing to improve the regulation of Wall Street and our banking system, so that the same individuals who created the financial crisis were first rewarded by bailouts and then given a free pass for their mismanagement, fraud and abuse of the system. Obviously, they will do the same thing again, in spades. So there are many reasons to see Captain America's cape as a bit of a fraying rag these days.
If all this sounds a lot to you like the beginning of the end of the experiment in free market democracy that was just in its embryonic stage here in America in 1761, you are probably right. According to the Cosmic Weather Forecast, America is due for a revolution once again.
So we've got looming and already existing resource wars, a continuously troubled global economy with no real locomotive to pull the world out of its slump, extreme environmental events around the world, the worst nuclear disaster in human history still unfolding and likely to continue for years, and people in Washington arguing about whether or not to shut down the government for partisan political advantage, and about whether or not to go to war with Iran or just continue our present policy of clandestine operations, including sabotage, assassination and cyber-warfare. To America's leaders, the middle class is expendable, and the poor, the elderly, children, the infirm and other non-productive citizens are the new domestic American enemy.
No wonder that Chinese and Indian professionals I talk to here in the Bay Area invariably say that they are considering moving back home.
This is not a picture to inspire confidence in America among political or financial leaders anywhere in the world. In fact, one could easily predict that many less enlightened such leaders might make moves to dramatically increase authoritarian controls on their own societies around the world.
At this point in the Cardinal Cross Storm Years, which peak in 2012 and 2014, the elites that control the commanding heights of the global economy and the power centers of political capitals are struggling mightily to maintain the status quo. They are as likely to succeed in their efforts as King George was successful in his strenuous efforts to retain control of his colonies in the Americas.
But until the last we are sure to see a grand display of troops in a variety of extremely impressive uniforms armed with the very most advanced techno-weaponry attempting to do the impossible -- hold back the rising tide of history during a 250 year flood of civilizational change.
So here's your Long-Term Cosmic Weather Forecast in a nutshell: During the next few years we are likely to see a series of events that clearly define the end of the Industrial Revolution and the existing set of economic, military, political and religious relations that we know as global civilization. This necessarily entails the end of American global hegemony.
And now, we return to coverage of this Tuesday's Full Moon Wesak Festival.
The Sabian Symbol for this Full Moon at 27° Scorpio is "A military band marches noisily on through city streets."
Very appropriate, since here in America we have seen this week devoted to celebrations of the death of Osama bin Laden. These celebrations were noisy, super-nationalistic, often drunken. As the nation went on a binge, the President warned that the War on Terror would continue forever.
This was not a celebration of victory, but a celebration of revenge. This was not V-E Day redux, this was a national brawl after the home team won a football game.
There is no precedent in American history for such a brutal wide-spread display of martial self-aggrandizement upon the death of an enemy leader. There were no drunken street marches when Hitler died, or when America bombed Japan with nuclear weapons. No.
In those days, we celebrated victory and the end of the war. Now we settle for less in every area of American life, and as we are diminished we imagine that we are giants astride history, whose like has never been seen before.
The Sabian Symbol for the Taurus Solar Festival, with the Sun at 27° Taurus, is "An old Indian woman selling the artifacts of her tribe to passers-by."
The implication here is that in old age the egoistic personality begins to lose its grip upon the life of the individual. The Indian elder is acting as an agent for the tribe as well as to insure her own survival. The fortunes of the Indian elder are inextricably tied to the fortunes of the tribe. This is a vision of the primacy of human community and the mutual interdependence of the individual and society. This is the opposite of triumphalist American individualism, and the elevation of the super-rich, the politically powerful and the momentarily famous as the only exceptional individuals whose lives have true meaning.
Here we approach the Wesak teachings of the Buddha.
Buddha taught that the individual Self, experienced as the egoistic personality, is an illusion, and that each of us is indissolubly united with the vast web of life that interpenetrates the physical and spiritual realms, extending throughout the space-time continuum, encompassing past, present and future.
Thus, when we help another being we help ourselves. When we harm another being, we harm ourselves. This is the philosophical and spiritual foundation for the practice of compassion and selfless service that defines Buddhist spirituality.
It would be good to meditate upon the web of life this weekend at the Full Moon Festival of Wesak, celebrating the birth of Gautama Buddha.
Here in the West, the Inter-Denominational Festival of Wesak is a Global Celebration of the work being done by the Ascended Master Teachers in Spiritual Worlds and by the New Group of World Servers, often known as Lightworkers, in the physical realm on planet Earth.
In the East, Wesak is a yearly Festival commemorating the birth of Gautama Buddha, his spiritual enlightenment, and his transcendent journey beyond the manifested universe.
On Wesak, millions of Buddhists in thousands of temples across the world from Tokyo in the East to San Francisco in the West gather and pay homage to an Indian Prince who renounced the pleasures of his royal household to seek enlightenment for the purpose of ending human suffering, and to bring peace and happiness to mankind.
If you'd like to read more about the philosophy of Buddha, read our new article Wesak Wisdom: The War Between the Ego and the Higher Self.
In this article, we offer some simple meditations on liberation, communion with the Higher Self and the loving wisdom of Christ and Buddha which are appropriate for this High Holy Festival of Wesak, which celebrates the Unity of the Wisdom Teachings of East and West.
The Shamballa Gathering
During the Wesak Full Moon a gathering of incarnate and discarnate disciples, Guides and Teachers from every corner of the Earth gather in a valley high in Himalayas for a yearly Festival in which the Christ and Buddha appear to bless the assembled gathering and all the faithful throughout the world. This is the Shamballa Gathering.
Buddha achieved liberation from the bondage of material existence through his untiring spiritual practices, his open heart and his diamond like clarity of consciousness. By shedding the limitations of his egoistic personality, Buddha attained Union with the Divine.
Buddha's attainment of this Union included the overlighting of the personality by what in the West we call the Higher Self. Higher Self is often called Christ Consciousness by Western Adepts or Krishna Consciousness by Hindu mystics or Buddha Mind by Buddhist practitioners. Self-love as experienced by the Higher Self is Union with the Cosmos, and the transcending of that Cosmos, followed by entry into the Void is Nirvana, the final prize attained by Gautama in his quest for realization.
It should come as no surprise that the Inter-Denominational Festival of Lightworkers and New World Servers known as Wesak is a Festival of peace and love, dedicated to all works directed toward establishing peace among nations here on Earth.
The 20th century Theosophist, clairvoyant, spiritual teacher and esoteric astrologer Alice Bailey discussed the new global tradition of the Wesak Full Moon Festival in her booklet, The Wesak Festival: A Technique of Spiritual Contact.
“As one studies the world situation today, it becomes apparent that the secret of synthesis has been lost. Humanity is divided – one section against another section; the East versus the West; one race against another race; one nation against another nation,” Alice Bailey explains. “Men need to get back to the ancient knowledge that our planet is intended to demonstrate the essential unity of humanity, and that the energy which should manifest is that of integration and coherence. When this is truly realized our present world problems will adjust themselves, and the basic world rhythm will be re-established and stabilized.”
To read more about the Inter-Denominational Global Spiritual Festival of Wesak, including Five Minute Wesak Meditations and instructions for conducting your own Full Moon Wesak Ritual at the time of the Gathering of Ascended Guides and Teachers in Shamballa in the Himalayas, read our new article The Global Festival of Wesak: Buddha's Birthday & the Shamballa Gathering.
You'll learn how to create a sacred space in your own home and magnetize your aura to resonate with the uplifting and exalted energies of the Ascended Guides and Teachers who gather to celebrate Wesak in the Himalayas at Shamballa, an Inter-Dimensional Gateway leading beyond the known Universe.
In the spirit of the Buddha, and to underline the importance of international negotiations as an instrument of diplomacy, and a superior alternative to warfare, we offer a new article entitled The Libyan War, American Power and the Decline of the Petrodollar System, by Dr. Peter Dale Scott a former Canadian diplomat, investigative journalist, author and English Professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
"The present NATO campaign against Gaddafi in Libya has given rise to great confusion, both among those waging this ineffective campaign, and among those observing it," says Dr. Scott. "My own take on this war, on the other hand, is that it is both ill-conceived and dangerous -- a threat to the interests of Libyans, Americans, the Middle East and conceivably the entire world. Beneath the professed concern about the safety of Libyan civilians lies a deeper concern that is barely acknowledged: the West’s defense of the present global petrodollar economy, now in decline."
"I would submit that, if only to stabilize and reduce oil prices, it is in America’s best interest now to join with Ban Ki-Moon and the Pope in pressing for an immediate cease-fire in Libya," argues Dr. Scott. "Negotiating a cease-fire will certainly present problems, but the probable alternative to ending this conflict is the nightmare of watching it inexorably escalate."
Jane and I pray that during this Full Moon Wesak Festival you will receive the grace and guidance you need to achieve your loftiest spiritual goals this coming year!
May your lives be full of abundance, joy, health, strength, courage, and above all, may your hearts be opened and may love come into your life day after day!
Meditation Moment
"When the energy of love is strong in us, we can send it to beings
in all directions. But we must not think that love meditation is
only an act of imagination--we imagine our love as being like waves
of sound or light, or like a pure, white cloud that forms slowly and
gradually spreads out to envelop the whole world.
A true cloud produces rain.
Sound and light penetrate everywhere, and our love
must do the same. We have to observe whether our mind of love is
present in our actual contact with others. Practicing love
meditation in the sitting position is only the beginning."
~Thich Nhat Hanh
From the book, Teachings On Love, published by Parallax Press.