Cancer Rose Meditation
Welcome to Satya Center’s Cancer Solar Festival, Capricorn Full Moon July 2015 Cosmic Weather Forecast, brought to you by your Editors, Curtis Lang and Jane Sherry.
Jane and I have been extremely busy the last couple of months.
We finally have a Satya Center Facebook page! You’ll find some valuable coupon codes there so you can get discounts on Vogel wands and other treasures in our crystal store.
We ask that you visit our new Facebook page, and if you like what you see, like us on Facebook and invite your friends to visit our Facebook page as well.
We will be posting regularly on Facebook so don’t miss out. The Facebook page will be a place for us all to chat about crystals, astrology, meditation, organic food and gardening, and all the other topics we cover at Satya Center.
We have been working on a new version of the Satya Center website with our team of expert programmers and web designers in New York. We have tens of thousands of pages on the current site, and now that the redesign is basically complete, we are finishing up the programming of the backend of the new site and preparing to migrate to the new site.
We think you’ll love the new site. It will be much more modern with a vastly improved design, interface, site architecture and shopping experience and should be complete in a few months.
The new website utilizes what is called responsive design, which means that the site will look great on large computer screens, tablets and smartphones because we created three different designs optimized for these various devices. And that’s just one of a myriad of improvements.
Jane and I are concentrating on adding new inventory to the existing site and creating new content between now and the launch of our new site.
We have added a large number of new Vogel wands in clear quartz, smoky quartz, citrine and amethyst, including 144s, 108s, new dream wands, and more. We also now have many many wands for sale in the $175 - $1200 range.
Jane and I have been getting guidance that we need to work harder to make our crystals more affordable, so we can get them out into the world into the hands of those who need them, now more than ever. So I just marked down the prices of our most expensive Master Cut Vogel wands by an average of $1000.
We also have the largest selection of new jewelry we’ve had in years.
We are continuing our June 15% off sale until the end of the month.
Jane and I thank you for your support! We cannot do this without you.
Cosmic Weather Forecast
We have just experienced the longest day of the year, the Summer Solstice festival, on Sunday, June 21, the moment when the Sun enters the sign of Cancer.
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 (or anytime during the summer months) 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.
On Wednesday, July 1, we celebrate the Full Moon during the Cancer Solar Festival and the Capricorn Full Moon Festival, at 7:20 PM Pacific time, or 10:20 PM Eastern time.
The Full Moon perfects at 9°55’ Capricorn, with the Sun at 9°55’ Cancer. The Sabian Symbol for this Full Moon is An Albatross Feeding from the Hands of a Sailor.
This Full Moon calls us to experience our deep connection to all sentient beings on Earth. We are being asked to celebrate life on Earth, and to take up our task as keepers of the Earthly garden spread out around us, in co-operation with our Brothers and Sisters the animals and birds, bees and insects whose activities help to optimize the plant bio-systems that support all life.
This is a Full Moon to celebrate our discovery of the Divine in this Earthly Creation, to find spiritual nourishment in the beauty of the natural world, and to experience deeply the companionship we can share with the wild ones who inhabit our world.
As one of Jane’s teacher’s, Starhawk has said, “In the Craft, we do not believe in the Goddess – we connect with Her; through trees, animals, through other human beings, through ourselves. She is here. She is within all of us. She is the full circle: earth, air, fire, water, and essence – body, mind, spirit, emotions, change.”
The Cosmic Weather Forecast for July through the Blue Moon on July 31 (August 1 Pacific time) features some scintillating, expansive and loving energy from a Venus/Jupiter conjunction in Leo, which also trines Mercury and Uranus in Aries, indicating the opportunity for accelerated spiritual growth, electrifying moments of visionary insight, and unexpected golden opportunities to connect deeply on spiritual, mental, emotional and physical planes with those we love.
Go out just before sunset to see those planets in close connection in our heavenly skies. Venus appears huge right now, just before she sets, along with Jupiter and the waxing moon nearby.
Take a big step into the unknown this month, with the support of this highly charged positive pattern in the stars – it’s the perfect time to begin a new project, brainstorm on a new business or invention, and pull in a new group of like-minded compadres who can help you implement your wildest, most innovative dreams!
Both Sun and Mars in Cancer will oppose Pluto in Capricorn and all these planets will form an anxious T-square with Uranus in Aries, which will unfortunately resurface the tense, confrontational, belligerent and anxiety-ridden energy of the infamous Grand Cardinal Cross, which has dominated the skies since 2010.
Pluto in Capricorn square Uranus in Aries has been the dominant astrological aspect for the last several years, and although the last of 7 exact Pluto-Uranus squares occurred on March 17, 2015, these outer planets are still in close square, and these two will once again be around 2° to 3.5° of a perfect square during Christmas week of this year, so the tension and the creative destruction this recurring aspect triggers will continue throughout the rest of the year.
Be careful not to become embroiled in needless confrontations in your personal and business life this next lunar cycle, and watch out for the rest of the year for dislocations in financial markets, escalation of international conflicts, extreme weather events, and general insanity on the part of our political elites around the world.
In addition, Venus in Leo (conjunct Jupiter this week) is square Saturn in Scorpio between July 10 and August 12, 2015, so we can expect a very depressing vibe from this stellar configuration, along with the potential for difficulties connected with health issues, financial turmoil, and environmental crises.
Now more than ever is the time to practice loving kindness, compassion and patience, both with ourselves and with others. It is through the practices of Love that we will overcome any obstacles, whether through love of a child, a parent or friend, of a teacher or simply practicing self love and forgiveness so that we are most able to access the Divine Streaming Love which is always present on this Garden Planet.
Cancer Solar Festival Rose Meditation
In the Northern Hemisphere June is the moment when the Great Mother's Roses begin to bloom & offer up her perfume. Of all the expressions of the Great Breathing out that takes place at this sacred moment of solar ascendancy, the Rose has always been the symbol for fertility, an expression of the Mother, of Love & Union.
The Summer Solstice is a good time to perform a Rose ceremony. Plant a rosebush, or if you are already blessed with roses, then cut yourself a rose, thank it, and make a wish upon it as you breath out your deepest desires. Then place the rose in a stream or pond or other nearby body of water. Watch it travel to the Mother carrying your wishes, buoyed by the strengthening, protective & cleansing waters of the earth. Or simply place a cut rose in fresh water on your altar. Ask the Mother to grant you your dearest heart's desire.
Go out into your yard, a garden spot or a wooded area and observe the forms of nature. Let the flowers, the trees and the herbs around you speak to you. Meditate quietly among the plants and allow the energy in the air to fill your being as you breathe deeply in and out.
Reflect upon the transformations you have seen in the landscape since the Winter Solstice. Picture the snow or winter rains, the spring thaw, the seeds planted in early spring, the first shoots and the growing stalks, the buds, the flowers and the fruits as they appear over time. In this way you can attune your soul to this season's transformations of the Cosmic Wheel.
Each of the four annual solar festivals help us tune in to the various energies of the ever changing Cosmic Wheel of the year. As we tune into the seasonal changes we move closer and closer to the Source that sustains the movement of the Wheel. Celebrating the eternal Source of Universal Life Force Energy that manifests in the continuous renewal of life we experience through the changing seasons strengthens our faith in the abiity of Life and human spiritual evolution to overcome all obstacles over time.
In the face of global climate change, mass suffering, war, poverty and hunger, we often experience feelings of personal powerlessness. These seasonal ceremonies help us to approach the ever-changing seasons of our lives with equanimity. Celebrating the turnings of the year, we can learn to gracefully accept both obstacles & joys in life. The Gift of Life is an ever shifting dance of light & dark, of breathing out and breathing in, of abundance, scarcity and renewal.
Attuning our own consciousness to this Dance of Life we can gratefully offer ourselves & our love & gifts to the world, knowing that our efforts to create a better world spring from that same inexhaustible Source that sustains the Cosmic Wheel. Establishing a conscious connection to that Source, we can be certain that our efforts in working for peace, social justice and sustainable communities will result in a new cultural flowering.
May you connect with the Divine Source during this seasonal celebration and may you and your loved ones receive the grace and guidance you require to attain your loftiest spiritual goals. May you all be happy and healthy and free from fear. May you each experience great love in your lives.
Meditation Moment: For the Michael Age
We must eradicate from the soul
All fear and terror of what comes towards Man
Out of the future
And we must acquire serenity
In all feelings and sensations about the future
We must look forward
With absolute equanimity to everything that may come
And we must think only that whatever comes
Is given to us by a world directive full of wisdom
It is part of what we must learn in this age,
Namely to live out of pure trust
Without any security in existence.
Trust in that ever present help of the spiritual world.
Truly, nothing else will do
If our courage is not to fail us.
And we must seek this awakening within Ourselves
Every morning and every evening.
Rudolph Steiner, from a lecture given in 1910
This newsletter is written by Curtis Lang and Jane Shery, founders of Satya Center and the Satya Center Crystal Store since 2003.
They have lived on both the east coast and the west coast of the US. With backgrounds in writing, journalism, editorial work and investigative journalism, Curtis has brought those skills to all of his work at Satya Center and these newsletters.
Jane's background as a fine artist, gardener and cook have lent those skills to work at Satya Center in the form of beautiful imagery, fine crystal photos and great seasonal recipes.