Global Spring Festivals Celebrate Love and Life
Welcome to the March 23, 2016 Full Moon Eclipse in Libra, Aries Solar Festival edition of the Satya Center Cosmic Weather Forecast newsletter.
Warm greetings from your co-Editors, Curtis Lang and Jane Sherry.
Happy Spring! We celebrated the Spring Equinox on Palm Sunday, March 20, 2016. To explore the origins of the Mystery School Teachings about this ancient spiritual holy day, read our article entitled Spring Equinox Mysteries and Histories.
It’s not too late to celebrate the turning of the seasons! Check out our article entitled Spring Equinox: The Archangel Raphael Meditation. There are instructions on how to connect with the Archangel presiding over this new season, and with the devas, elementals and nature spirits abuzz in the vegetal kingdom and in the aethers at this propitious time of year.
Next weekend is the Feast of Easter. To connect with the Wisdom School teachings concerning this Feast of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, read our article Eastertide: Uniting with the Cosmic Christ, Honoring the Divine Mother. At the moment of his Death, Christ unified his own Body of Light with the etheric body of the planet, permanently infusing the energy of transcendent Self into the Earth’s aura. This Easter, by communing with Nature, we can Unify with the energy stream of the Risen Cosmic Christ. This article contains easy steps to perform a Christ consciousness meditation that will infuse your aura with love and light.
This Wednesday, March 23 at 8:01 a.m. Eastern time, the Full Moon occurs at 3° Libra, and the Sun opposes it at 3° Aries. The Full Moon Eclipse occurs 29 minutes later.
The Libra Full Moon Aries Solar Festival highlights relationships and the power of love. And this week’s Full Moon Eclipse is extremely powerful so be ready for events to rock your world.
The Full Moon this year coincides with the Hindu Festival of Holi. Holi is a venerable and potent festival of regeneration, resurrection, renewal and new life, celebrating the Victory of Lord Vishnu, Sustainer of the Universe, over the King of Demons, and the Victory of Eternal Light over Darkness. Read our article on Holi to appreciate the spiritual significance of this beautiful Festival.
This Libra Full Moon Festival is the first of the three great springtime Full Moon Spiritual Festivals celebrated by Theosophists, Lightworkers, and spiritual seekers from all religious and spiritual traditions worldwide.
This Libra Full Moon Festival, which normally occurs around the time of the spring equinox, precedes the Festival of Easter. The date for Easter is based on the Christian solar calendar. Easter always falls on the Sunday after the paschal full moon, which occurs on or just after the spring equinox. This year Easter falls on Sunday March 27th. For a deep look into the spiritual significance of the Easter Festival, and some beautiful meditation practices, read our article on Easter: Uniting with the Cosmic Christ and Honoring the Divine Mother.
Here in South Florida, you know for sure spring is here – the pollen in the air is so thick you could almost cut it with a knife. Our hedges are flowering, and thickening with new green leaves so fast it’s shocking. Orchids on our trees are still blooming after several months of continuous beauty. We are enjoying an array of fresh organic fruits and vegetables from the CSA farm we joined during the winter. It’s been lovely at the beaches – some days it’s choppy and windy but other days the water is clear and calm and I can float for minutes at a time as I gently rock in the mini-surf.
It all sounds idyllic, but because of extremely conflicted Cosmic Weather patterns, it’s been a challenging month, and it looks like more turbulence ahead, if the stars can be believed!
Cosmic Weather Forecast
This month’s Cosmic Weather patterns are dominated by a long-standing mutable T-square which is entering its three month peak March 23, and persisting through June 29, 2016.
Then, on March 25, Saturn stations retrograde. The retrograde phase of Saturn’s celestial journey usually corresponds to amplification of all Saturn-related issues, so get ready for a rough road ahead. Saturn will station direct on August 13, 2016.
Jupiter in Virgo is square Saturn in Sagittarius, and both are square Venus and Neptune in Pisces. Fear and anxiety percolate through the collective consciousness.
Overall, this T-square in mutable signs indicates a time of maximum flux, especially in relationships, governed by Venus.
You can expect frustrating misunderstandings, delays and constant re-calibrations of all negotiations, agreements, and relationship issues in play during the next several months.
Those with mutable signs (Virgo, Pisces, Sagittarius, or Gemini) in their charts can expect to feel immense pressure and tension and may find that translates into stress-related physical symptoms of various kinds.
In general, we may all feel that we are confronted with an array of choices that are difficult to evaluate, so decision making is compromised.
There is too much information flooding the consciousness and it is difficult to evaluate the truthfulness and usefulness of the information.
This type of atmosphere typically triggers unethical, deceptive behavior of all kinds, fickleness, and a general mental fog that is the perfect cover for manipulating intelligences to work their “black magic” in the world.
We may also feel that we are on an accelerating merry-go-round. We try to move forward but although we keep going faster and faster we keep ending up back in the same place we started from, and then we have to go through the whole dizzying process all over again.
In this Presidential election year you can expect politicians to behave badly. Insults, distortions, exaggerations, and outright lies will be the order of the day.
Financial markets will probably experience a lot of alternating fear and greed, resulting in volatility and trading within a highly bounded range, much like last year, when no one could make money by buying and holding securities. That’s with a lot of luck!
There could be major disruptions in financial markets, caused by lack of faith and confidence in central banks and other financial authorities and institutions, who seem to be particularly inept in communicating to investors this year so far.
Patience, discernment, and loving compassion are the antidotes to this gathering mutable storm in the heavens. There is a tendency to want to bunker down in a safe space (Saturn in Sagittarius) while there is a generalized feeling that in order to achieve stability in our political and financial institutions we need to join with others in movements that will bring about desirable change (Neptune in Pisces).
We are surrounded by a myriad of loud voices urging us to take drastic steps to secure our futures, and to place our trust in charismatic leaders whose promises mainly seem too good to be true.
There is potential for foggy thinking to be influenced by manipulative politicians intent upon inciting anger, casting blame, and building a constituency on a foundation of cynical lies, half-truths and rumor-mongering.
The Libra Full Moon Eclipse provides an energetic antidote to all this mutable insanity. Libra is the sign of dynamic equilibrium, and Libra lessons involve learning to keep a balance while in a turbulent flow of energy and events.
The Sabian Symbol for 3° Libra is The dawn of a new day reveals everything changed.
We have all been through a seven year cycle of Uranus-Pluto squares in Cardinal signs and the recurring Grand Cardinal Cross, which has shaken our political, financial, environmental and personal foundations and challenged us to find new ways of living in the world.
Now we realize the enormity of the task before us, and we are confronted with a bewildering array of options facing us in the dawn of a world dramatically changed, for good and for ill, in every aspect of reality.
Now is the time to exercise patience in all areas of life, to take a deep breath before making a commitment of any kind, and to take some time for ourselves to connect with Spirit and our Higher Selves, our intuition and spiritual guidance, because our mental acuity may be compromised.
The Libra Full Moon Aries Solar Festival of Love and Light
The Libra Full Moon Eclipse Aries Solar Festival highlights relationships and the power of Love.
The Sun in Aries accentuates the drive to individuation, and at this time of year, the power of the individual will forces in humanity are vastly strengthened. Aries is a fire sign, the sign of the pioneer, the risk-taker, the way-shower, the ground-breaker, and sometimes of the me-first individualist.
The seasonal cycles we can observe in the natural world mirror the fiery, active nature of the Aries personality. In the Northern Hemisphere, when the Sun enters Aries, usually a couple of weeks before this Festival occurs, the Spring Equinox heralds the approach of a time of blossoming flowers, blooming trees and vivifying rains. Conditions are ripe for the planting of seeds, the tending of sprouts and preparations for another year’s agricultural cycle. Humanity feels the quickening of dormant life within the Earth, after winter’s cycle of hibernation and involuted energies. Spirits rise, sexual energies are aroused, and we greet a new astrological year with a sense of renewal and anticipation.
The Solar Festival of Aries coincides with the Full Moon in Libra, the sign of relationships, dynamic equilibrium, diplomacy and tact. Libra is the polar opposite of Aries, and Libra energies are the perfect complement for Aries individualism and impetuosity.
The Libra Full Moon Aries Solar Festival is the Festival of Resurrection, and at this time we celebrate the Sacrifice, the Suffering, the Death and the Triumphant Rebirth of Jesus Christ, at the time of the Sacred Feast of Easter.
The Resurrection is a Miracle of Love. The Divine Love manifested in the Self-Sacrifice of Jesus Christ created a new energy signature within the etheric body of planet Earth, which corresponded to a new spiritual pathway in the collective consciousness of all human beings. This new pathway provided a template for a new way of life for suffering humanity -- an Ascension path that leads through Love to Forgiveness, the conquest of all human failings, and the Self-Expression of the Divinity which is the true face of human nature in all its glory.
This Divine Love, this monumental Self-Sacrifice, celebrates the healing power of relationships, and the innate ability of humankind to transcend the individual personality, the individual will and the limited and self-limiting perspective of the ego-self.
At the time of the Libra Full Moon Aries Solar Festival the Hierarchy of Ascended Masters pours forth a potent, healing stream of unconditional love and creates an enhanced energetic field supportive of all spiritual practices.
These energies are available to everyone who chooses to access this Love and Light by participating in spiritual practices of their choice during the three day period of the Libra Full Moon Aries Solar Festival.
You can participate in the March Festival of Love and Light by meditating upon the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which takes place on Easter Sunday.
You may want to fashion your own meditation practice for this Full Moon Festival just prior to Easter, or you may want to utilize a Christian practice which is part of your spiritual tradition.
You may also want to try our suggestion for an Easter Meditation, which will bring you in contact with the Loving Wisdom and the Living Light embodied by Jesus Christ.
You can also join us in a meditation designed to bring about peace, harmony and goodwill which was designed for this Universal Planetary Spring Full Moon Festival. You'll get all the simple directions for this global group meditation a little further along in this newsletter!
Spiritual Practices for the Libra Full Moon Aries Solar Festival
At this auspicious turning-point moment of the yearly wheel of cycling seasons we attune ourselves to the ascending energies of the Spring season manifesting in the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms.
According to the Initiates of the Wisdom School Traditions of the East and West, the Vernal Equinox is one of the four great seasonal festivals marking moments when the activity of the Sun, the sustainer of all life, is at its peak.
Here are some further ideas for those who would like to participate in this great Universal Festival of Love and Light.
Gratitude
During the days prior to the full Moon, and for two days afterward, accelerate your spiritual practice as much as possible.
Attempt to remain somewhat more quiet than normal. Listen to some uplifting spiritual music, chants or mantras, instead of watching TV if possible.
Or simply make some silent time. Meditate. Pray.
Ask for the grace and guidance you need to achieve your loftiest spiritual goals. Ask that you be ever more consciously connected to inner spiritual guidance.
Ask that you be given golden opportunities to be of maximum service in the world.
Give thanks. Perform random acts of kindness.
Healing Waters
On the evening of the Full Moon, fill any crystal bowls or vases you may have available with water, and place them outside at sunset. Allow these containers to sit outside during the night, and bring them in the following morning. Put the water from the crystal containers into sealed glass bottles. You can use this holy water, infused with the magnetic energy of the Loving Wisdom embodied by your own Spiritual Guides and Teachers, to heal your environment, yourself, and others. Place the water in a crystal bowl on your altar, or by your bed, or on your mantelpiece, and simply allow the water to evaporate. Then replace the water as needed. This will elevate the energy within your living space. Occasionally pour some of this enlivened water into your bath to purify your body and soul. Occasionally drink the water for self-healing. Offer the water to others who are in need of healing. Tell them what they are receiving. Pour this water upon the earth in areas where human beings have damaged the environment, and ask Grandmother Earth for forgiveness.
Unify
In the room where you meditate, place a crystal bowl full of water on the altar or nearby you. Play some appropriate spiritual music the evening of the Full Moon. That evening try to be sitting in meditation. Connect with your spiritual guides and teachers, and with inner spiritual guidance. Ask for help with any and all issues you are currently addressing. Ask to be graced with guidance that will help you understand what is to come in the next year, and how you can be of maximum service in the world. Chant or pray as the Full Moon approaches. Then, simply enter into a deep meditative state. Try to visualize or hear or feel the presence of a vast energy grid surrounding the Earth, energized by the combined will and intent of the entire Spiritual Hierarchy and the New Group of World Servers around the world. Feel your own energy uniting with that vast collective outpouring of love and light.
When your meditation is over, simply give thanks. Allow yourself time to feel the inpouring flow of Loving Wisdom from the Divine Source.
THE GREAT INVOCATION
From the point of light within the Mind of God
Let Light stream forth into our minds
Let LIGHT descend on Earth.
From the point of love within the Heart of God
Let Love stream forth into our hearts
May LOVE increase on Earth.
From the center where the Will of God is known
Let purpose guide our wills
The PURPOSE which the masters know and serve.
From the center which we call Humanity
Let the Plan of Love and Light work out
And may it seal the door
where evil dwells.
Let Light and Love and Power restore the Plan on Earth.
Let Light and Love and Power restore the Plan on Earth.
Let LIGHT and LOVE and POWER
Restore the Planet Earth!
The Great Invocation is the Prayer beloved by Spiritual Students on the Theosophical Path blazed by Alice Bailey, who brought us the Three Great Spring Festivals for a New Aquarian Age.
Jane and I wish you health, happiness, equanimity, clarity of mind, strength, fortitude, discernment, and abundant love and light at this time of budding life and rising life force energy.
Be bold and enjoy the Spring!
Curtis and Jane -- at South Beach in Boca Raton, Florida.
Photo of merry-ro-round by Andreas Praefcke • CC BY 3.0
Other images public domain except for photo of Curtis and Jane and digital painting of lily, both by Jane Sherry.