Spring is Coming Soon!
Welcome to this week's edition of the Satya Center newsletter. Warm greetings from your editors, Curtis Lang and Jane Sherry.
This week we present a short newsletter focused on spiritual insights and cosmic currents. The full February newsletter with lots of news links and new stories will be coming your way in a couple of weeks.
Today, February 2, 2007, we celebrate the Feast of Candlemas, poised halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. Light a candle -- or several -- and say a prayer for the return of the light or meditate upon this turning point in the seasonal cycle when we begin to approach the springtime season by selecting seed and planning our new garden.
Today also marks the Full Moon in Leo, exact at 12:45 am EST this morning, called the Storm Moon by the ancients, and thus the time of the Aquarius Solar Festival, with the Sun at mid-Aquarius
The full moon occurs at 13 degrees Leo, and the Sabian Symbol for this moon is "An old sea captain rocking himself on the porch of his cottage". This Moon is a Moon of Memory and Meditation, which is appropriate for mid-winter, and especially appropriate given the larger cosmic currents currently active.
Saturn is opposed to Neptune this month, which creates an atmosphere of spiritual aspiration and simultaneously a tendency to get bogged down in perceived obstacles, difficulties and assorted downers in our daily lives. Saturn is also retrograde in Leo, and many astrologers feel that until the Ringed Planet goes direct in April, the year 2007 won't really get off the ground. So this month is ideal for inner work of all kinds. Mercury will be retrograde February 14, Valentine's Day, in the sign of Pisces, until March 8, 2007, creating further impetus for inner work and more difficulties in moving forward with our favorite new projects.
It is up to us to equilibrate our inner and outer worlds this month through discernment, patience and meditation. Know that others around us will be impatient, and many will be feeling thwarted, threatened, and confused. Stay centered, loving and compassionate towards those who are having difficulty during this season of thwarted desire, discontent and potential discouragement.
Today is also the Feast of Imbolc, one of the eight solar festivals of NeoPaganism known as cross-quarter days, which fall on sacred festival days of the ancient Celtic calendar. Imbolc occurs when the Sun is midway through the month of Aquarius, although it is often celebrated on February 2 as a fixed date, in many areas.
Imbolc means "in the belly" (imbolg) in Gaelic, referring to the pregnancy of ewes, and is also a Celtic term for spring. Another name for this feast is Oimelc, meaning "ewe's milk" in the ancient Irish tongue.
At Oimelc, Brigid, goddess of fire, hearth, fields, cows, craft, childbirth and poetry, is invited into each house and community and devotees ask her blessing during the season of quickening, as days become longer, and we prepare for the ascent of the forces of light, celebrated at the Spring Equinox.
Nineteen Irish priestesses traditionally kept an eternal fire going at Brigid's shrine in Kildare, according to NeoPagan author Z Budapest. Brigid's sacred wells across Ireland gave sight to the blind and healed the hopelessly ill.
In honor of this Solar Goddess, hearth fires were set burning in each home, and each family brought fire to the community's public ceremony, in a celebration of the end of winter's isolation and the beginning of communal preparations for a new planting season.
Irish tradition sets aside February 3 as the feast of Brigantia, celebrating Brigid as the goddess of the all-seeing eye. Solar crosses of straw were brought into the house and hung over the door. The "eye of Brigid" would protect the household from all evil.
Brigantia celebrations are closely connected with activities involving the sacred Rowan tree, known as "the quickbeam", associated with lightning, and also called the "tree of life". In the romance of Diarmuid and Grainne, the rowan berry, along with the apple and the red nut, is described as "the food of the gods".
Festivals occurring at the mid-point of a fixed sign, like Aquarius, are traditionally feasts of prognostication.
One might profit from divinatory readings on the Feast of Brigantia, which is a feast of divination and second sight. The month of Aquarius is the month of the Rowan, tree of the quickening, and of prophetic visions. The Rowan, often found surrounding sacred circles of stone marking mountaintop shrines, is also known as "the witch", or "witch-wand", because branches of the sacred tree were used for divining metals.
The American Festival of Aquarian Prognostication is called Groundhog Day. TV networks gather in Wisconsin to broadcast the yearly ritual when America's celebrity groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, will make a public appearance. If he sees his shadow, it is said that there will be an early spring, and if not, winter will be prolonged.
Here in the Hudson Valley it is a dark, cloudy day, and we are expecting snow, and so any local cousins of Punxsutawney Phil venturing outdoors will probably not be able to see their shadows. This indicates that spring is fast approaching -- for us. There is not a speck of snow on the ground, and temperatures today will hover around freezing. We expect a cold snap next week, but there are no storms on the horizon this Storm Moon. Our neighbors with working farms are quietly complaining that without a thick blanket of snow on the ground, there are no winter sports holidays, and it feels like the farm rhythm has been broken. There are always more chores to do as long as deep snow does not prevent farm families from working away on a myriad of chores they might normally engage in spring.
This Festival of approaching spring is also traditionally a time of preparation for the coming planting season. On the feast of Brigantia, women would gather and ascend to the heavens on magical horses, brooms made of Rowan, Ash and Birch, gathering on the mountaintops to circle and honor the Lady of the Heights, who brought the lightning and storms that would purify the land and quicken the soil in preparation for the spring planting.
Now is the time of purification and preparation celebrated in the spring festivals found in Celtic, NeoPagan and Christian traditions alike. Lent, the next forty days, is the ideal time to begin personal purification in preparation for the accelerated influx of light and life-force initiated at the Spring Equinox and Easter festivals.
On this Festival of the Hearth, purification can be sought by lighting a candle or a log in the fireplace, invoking the Divine, and meditating upon the bad habits, negative emotions, and outdated mental maps of the world we would do well to release in this New Year. Make a list of the elements you are prepared to sacrifice and burn the list with gratitude.
This is the time Christians celebrate the Feast of Candlemas, the day of the presentation of baby Jesus in the Temple, forty days after Christmas, traditionally February 2 in the West and February 14-15 in the East. In America, we celebrate Ground Hog's Day.
This is also an ideal time of year to begin a daily sunrise meditation practice, to synchronize body, mind and spirit with the waxing energies of Great Sol, the main source of Earthly life-force energies. Here's a simple, yet deep five-minute Sunrise Meditation I've adapted from well-known meditations taught by Sri Yukteswar and Drunvalo Melchizedek. It's designed to infuse the soul and body with solar energy, and strengthen the aura.
You may also want to try this powerful Morning Meditation for Radiance and Cellular Transformation offered by agricultural researcher extraordinaire Steve Diver.
Speaking of Steve Diver, this came to our attention today from the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute. Please take action to preserve this valuable resource:
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PLEASE CALL SENATOR HERB KOHL's OFFICE IMMEDIATELY!!
Yesterday, Congress announced its plan for making permanent funding
decisions for the fiscal year already underway (Fiscal Year 2007), which
wasn't completed before the last Congress ended. Unfortunately, this plan
cuts a program crucial to sustainable agriculture!
The Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas (ATTRA) program is a
highly rated national information service that answers practical questions
from farmers and others who call its 1-800 telephone number, print
publications from its website, or attend its workshops.
Senator Kohl chairs the Senate Appropriations Agriculture Sub-Committee, and
it's crucial that you call, today if possible, and let him know that ATTRA
is a valuable source of information to farmers on how to farm using
sustainable practices and shouldn't be cut. Congress is acting quickly, and
it's important that Senator Kohl know that you want this and other
sustainable agriculture program funding protected.
It's easy to call (and your call has a big impact). Please call Senator
Kohl's aide, Phil Karsting, at (202)224-5653. If he's unavailable, leave a
message with your name, phone number and the key message above.
The message is simple. "Please ask Senator Kohl to insist on restoring full
funding to the ATTRA program when the Senate considers the FY07 Continuing
Resolution next week."
For over a decade ATTRA has been one of the most reliable sources of
information for farmers and others who want fact-based information on a wide
variety of agronomic, livestock, marketing, and entrepreneurial questions
with reliable information, evaluated and summarized from its extensive
database.
ATTRA is an extraordinarily efficient program. Though its funding has
remained far too small, at $2.5 million since FY02, it accomplishes great
work for farmers and consumers around the nation! ATTRA's services are in
great demand, exceeding 35,000 technical requests last year and drawing over
2.6 million unique visitors to its website, from which over 673,000
publications were downloaded or printed from the site.
It is phone calls like yours that have protected sustainable agriculture
funding in the past. THANK YOU again for contacting Senator Kohl immediately
to keep ATTRA's funding from being cut!
For more information on ATTRA, go to:
http://m1e.net/c?55055023-KJQCc2KS.scoY@2219183-PpsKsCfIS6.E2
Margaret Krome, Policy Director
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FIRING THE EARTH GRID -- GLOBAL HEALING MEDITATION
Please join us a profound, life changing and earth changing meditation ever, which will take place July 17, 2007. We'll remind you of this again, in the months ahead.
The details are on http://www.firethegrid.com
Here are excerpts about this profound meditation:
"We are now in a time when natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, and tidal waves are dramatically affecting our planet, and our lives on it. We now have the power to destroy this beautiful Earth quickly, with atomic power, or more slowly, with pollution and devastation of our resources, and overpopulation. I have been guided to tell you that we also have the very real power to save this planet, and to make it a loving and healthy place for ourselves and for future generations. Please take a few minutes to read my story. It will hopefully save our Earth.
". . .Two miracles happened in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. My son and I drowned in a flooded marsh and not only lived to tell the tale, but we are better than ever. I was "dead" for fifteen minutes. I was told by beings of light how to save myself, and my small son. And I was given a message on how to heal the Earth.
"The plan, was given to me by the same light beings that guided me while I was drowning in the lake. They have been with me since that time and have been delivering to me information about our world and how we, with love and unification, can pour our loving intention of peace and healing into this earth. They want to set us on the path for a healthy planet, viable and working now, and for the generations that follow. They also want to direct us to the way to enlightenment and union with the Divine.
". . .The light beings use the term "fire the grid" when they speak of the energizing of humanity with divine power, on July 17, 2007.
"They say firing the grid will accomplish two things. First, it will pulse healing energy into the center of the earth and regenerate the core, or the heart of the planet. Just as we poured our energy into my dying son, we will individually give the gift of our true intention, the gift of our individuality and the gift of our healing energy. As they explained, my son�s energy field was badly deteriorated, as is the Earths.
"We must pour some of our living energy into the Earth, and the accumulation of our combined energy will regenerate the Earth. They told me humans are like little lightening rods, channelling God's energy to the planet. Because we have separated ourselves from our complete connection to The Source, by not having a fully functioning human grid, God's energy has not been able to easily flow into the Earth.
"If we choose to come together to rebuild our grid, then the natural flow of energy between us and God, God and the Earth, and from person to person, will be restored. Do you see what a wonderful gift you will give? This energy will live on eternally with the earth and its inhabitants; the splendour of the creator's intention for us realised in the creation of this new energy field for our planet. How do we do this you ask? The time has been set for July 17, 2007 at 11:11 Greenwich Mean Time."
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A dear friend of ours sent us a link to the Firing the Earth Grid website a few minutes ago, just after we got off the phone, and just in time to include information about this global event in today's newsletter. He had been studying Acme/Diamond Heart teachings in upstate New York at a retreat, while we have been studying teachings from Sri Aurobindo's amazing book The Life Divine. We realized that both sets of teachings were dealing with similar issues, concepts and paths to similar spiritual goals. Synchronicity leads us all onward as we climb the rugged path of Spirit.
And another example of this synchronicity is that one particular part of the message of this remarkable Firing the Earth Grid website explains how beings of light have recommended that lightworkers meditate to elevate their consciousness dramatically to prepare for the July global meditation event. Because this is the Full Moon/Candlemas Spiritual Portal, with the Moon at the exact degree corresponding to the sea captain rocking in his chair, meditating, and especially remembering the past, NOW is the perfect time to practice the recommended technique. The technique from the "Firing The Grid" message combines memory and meditation. Here it is:
"Collect a series of wonderful happy moments from your life, for example your most loving kiss, the joyous happiness of eating ice-cream or the sun on your face after a long cold winter.
". . .The smile you have when you see a kindness of a child or the sheer pleasure you feel while washing your hands under warm water with fragranced soap. . .when a lover touches your flesh or when your child smiles. If we as a group of humans would take time out everyday and I don't mean huge amounts of time I mean moments to remember a happy moment then we collectively raise the planets frequency a little every day with little effort. It will also raise the level of the humans who participate.
Simply close your eyes and remember a thought or feeling that has given you earthly pleasure then be thankful for it. If you only have a few that is alright because as you practice this little exercise you will find yourself finding more and more to feel happy about. It will act like a contagion because others will feel your happiness and it will infect their field."
What could be more beautiful?
May your meditations be fruitful and may you receive the grace and guidance you need to achieve your loftiest spiritual goals.
Much love and light,
Curtis Lang and Jane Sherry
PS -- Valentine's Day is coming soon! Visit our Crystal Gallery for a great selection of gifts. We've never had such a large selection of pendants including Reiki charged Super7, Indigo Quartz, seraphinite, larimar, moonstone, kunzite, rubellite, quartz, Vera Cruz amethyst, citrine, moldavite, tourmaline, phenacite, danburite, aquamarine, and ametrine pendants, power beads, earrings -- and much more.
We have a tremendous selection of new Vogel-cut pendants: Flower of Life, Radiant Heart, Angelic Star, Star of David, and more. Click any product thumbnail to see a large photo and a description of their metaphysical and mineralogical properties.
Be sure to check out our Jewelry Cellar, our bargain section for the best values online.
Meditation Moment -- The Virtue of "Santosha" or "Contentment"
"During the course of the day, you see nothing wrong in expressing
discontent or irritation for any number of reasons, some more
valid than others. Don't you realize that with all these
negative states your life ebbs away and you enter a current of
death?
Yes, the first stage of death is discontent, for if you
do not take precautions discontent becomes sorrow, and sorrow
turns to suffering. This suffering, which at first touches only
the psychic plane, eventually reaches the physical plane. One
day it becomes illness, and illness gradually leads to death.
There are obviously many stages between discontent and death,
but in time one leads inevitably to the other.
Contentment, on the other hand, puts you in the current of life.
Those who are content are full of gratitude towards heaven and
live in peace. This peace gives them strength, strength brings
them fulfilment, and they begin to taste eternal life."
-- Omraam Mikhaïl Aivanhov