Working Together During The Great Transition
Welcome to the August 31,2006 edition of the Satya Center newsletter. Warm greetings from your Editors, Curtis Lang and Jane Sherry.
September is the month of the Barley Moon, also known as the Corn Moon. Here in the HudsonValley, the corn stands taller than my head in the field next to our house, and as I drive around the area, my car is often overtopped by the surrounding corn tassels, especially when I dip into the “hollers” between the hills.
On the upcoming Full Moon, Thursday, September 7, 2006, at 2:52 EDT, we will experience a partial lunar eclipse, occurring at 15 degrees, 1 minute of Pisces.
Each month, when the moon lies on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun, the Sun fully illuminates the lunar disk, which then appears round and “full” to observers on Earth.
Most months, the moon’s orbit passes to the north or south of the Earth’s shadow during the “full moon” phase, because of the tilt of the moon’s orbit around the Earth relative to the Earth’s orbit around the Sun.
When a lunar eclipse occurs, the earth is passing directly between the Sun and the Moon. During an eclipse the alignment is more or less perfect and the moon is covered for an hour or more by the shadow of the earth.
Here on Earth, the Full Moon disappears, either partially or completely, during an eclipse, and to clairvoyant Earthly observers this is perceived as a withholding of the cosmic energy associated with the moon.
Our word “eclipse” comes from the classic Greek word “Ekleipsis”, which means failure. “Ekleipsis” is a derivative of“ekleipen” meaning“to no longer appear or be present”.
To the Greek astronomers and astrologers, the moon was deified as the Virgin hunting goddess Artemis. In Ephesus she was called “Dea Anna”, "many-breasted", and was the patroness of nurturing, fertility, and birth.
To Greek astrologers, a lunar eclipse represented an evil omen -- the disappearance of the energy of the nurturing Mother Goddess and a harbinger of her potential punishment.
At the time of a lunar eclipse in 413 B.C., Athenian generals foresaw disaster and delayed their planned retreat from the Sicilian city of Syracuse, where they had fought for two years in the Peloponnesian War.
The Syracusans seized this opportunity to break the siege, contributing — some believe — to the fall of Greek civilization.
To the Ancient Vedic seers and to modern Hindu astrologers, the Sun is the controller of the cosmic tides, but the moon acts as the controller of life on Earth, and thus the lunar eclipse represents a two-fold danger: a time of chaos and a time when the normal flow of Universal Life Force energy from the cosmos into Earthly life is disrupted.Thus a lunar eclipse is a most inauspicious time, and efforts are taken to avoid travel, important tasks, even going outside at that time.
The Sabian symbol for this September Full Moon Eclipse at 15˚ Pisces is “An officer instructing his men before a simulated assault under a barrage of live shells”.
The officer symbolizes the Higher Self and his men symbolize the lower mind, the personality, the egoistic will, the emotions, and the physical vehicle of the individual aspirant.
On an individual basis, this Full Moon Eclipse emphasizes the need for each of us to turn within, to subordinate our egoistic will to the Higher Purpose we each have incarnated to fulfill, and to the Divine Guidance available to us through our connection to Higher Mind.
Self-sacrifice, discipline, endurance, courage and fortitude are the requisite virtues associated with this moment of testing and learning.
On the level of the collective consciousness, this symbol points directly to current issues of war and peace and climate change, and the need for collective co-operation in the face of tremendous danger and difficulties threatening the very existence of our civilization.
A modern observer could easily be forgiven for following in the footsteps of the ancient Athenians, viewing this September lunar eclipse as a foreboding omen during a time of rising global tensions.
After all, this last month has seen tremendous political, military and climactic upheavals escalating around the world.
An uneasy and fragile truce has temporarily halted the war in the Middle East between Israel and Lebanon, but Israeli offensives in the Gaza Strip continue, and Israeli politicians and military leaders are now threatening to widen the war to include Syria, and Iran.
Iran and the United States continue their escalating war of words and the United Nations appears relatively ineffective as a peacemaker in a region where a widening war could escalate into a true war of civilizations while simultaneously disrupting global oil supplies and plunging the global economy into chaos.
Mexico is on the brink of civil war. Manuel Lopez Obrador, the candidate of the left wing PRD, contends that the election was stolen from him by right wing candidate Felipe Calderon, and millions of people have taken to the streets throughout the country. In Oaxaca, the subsequent gubernatorial election has resulted in a mass strike and street protest by the teacher’s unions and other progressive groups who contend that another stolen election resulted in the ascendancy of the right wing candidate.
Although Mexico’s top electoral courts reject Obrador’s claims, Obrador says that on September 16, the day of the presidential inauguration, Mexico will have “two presidents”.
In Pakistan, against the orders of the country’s President, Perez Musharraf, the army has assassinated the head of one of the country’s foremost Islamist leaders, whose Balochistan home base is both the site of Pakistan’s primary oilfields and a well-known refuge for international Islamic terrorist groups. Islamic groups have taken to the streets throughout the country and there is renewed talk of civil insurrection.
A civil war in Pakistan would almost assuredly lead to the ascendancy of hard-line Islamic groups, no matter who became the titular President of the country, and would create extreme tensions between India and Pakistan, who stand toe to toe in a prolonged cold war, armed with nuclear weapons.
In China, prolonged drought has left millions without water and compromised the year’s rice harvest. In India, because of monsoon flooding, “tens of thousands of people have been displaced in Barmer, a sprawling district that borders Pakistan and is known for its sand dunes and widely spread villages,” according to Reuters Environmental News Service.“Dozens of people are missing.”
"The desert looks like a sea. There is no place where one can walk," Captain Saurabh Modi, an army officer who is involved in relief operations in Barmer, told Reuters by telephone.
We must all consider the current multiple global crises as a “simulated assault”, a “dress rehearsal” for the upcoming “long emergency” triggered by peak oil, global warming, economic upheaval, social conflicts pitting the haves against the have-nots, and potential world resource wars.
Lightworkers, meditators, and spiritual seekers are called upon to join together with their community at this time of global testing in group efforts to raise humanity’s consciousness toward the light.
Lightworkers are called upon to become active in their communities. Get to know your neighbors & find out what their concerns are for the future & perhaps share your ideas about what positive steps can be taken to ease the transition in this time of great transformation.
We can all help to implement and support local food production and distribution. We can help with the creation of community based plans to curb runaway development and emissions pollution. We can get to know our neighbors, car pool, reduce our energy footprint, and encourage others to do the same.
Lightworkers are called upon to volunteer in local medical facilities to provide much-needed alternative and complementary medicine programs. Let your elderly or ill neighbors know that you are available if they have an emergency or simply need company.
The good news is that the long-awaited transition to a New Age civilization has finally arrived. This Full Moon Eclipse is only one of several astrological signatures spelling global transformation, written across the late summer night skies for all with eyes to see to understand.
One example is the Saturn-Neptune opposition on August 31, the end of a 16 year cycle that began in 1989, pitting the universalizing forces of the watery giant Neptune against the compartmentalizing structures of the ringed planet Saturn. This opposition will continue to operate throughout this year and the entirety of 2007.
On an individual level, Lightworkers are finding that the structures that have underpinned their security, their relationships, and their day to day routines are being subtly – and not so subtly – undermined by a slow tidal wave of irresistible change.
The walls we have erected between ourselves and our family members, neighbors, business associates, and communities are being weakened and dissolved through the action of Neptune, which is the stronger of the two planets.
This is an alchemical moment in world history. “Solve et coagula”, say the alchemists. Dissolve and solidify. Disassemble, transform and recreate. This alchemical technique is a quintessential description of the action of the Neptune/Saturn opposition.
Saturn represents the individual’s personality structures, rooted in karma and group consciousness, which divide us one from another, while Neptune represents the universal solvent, unity consciousness, which brings us together in the great family of humanity, at one with the web of life on planet Earth and the cosmic forces sustaining our world.
On a social, or collective level, Saturn represents the political and economic leaders of the world, whose actions, rooted in self-interest and power politics, are creatingdeadly conflict, environmental destruction and economic exploitation everywhere on Earth.
Saturnian forces of dominance and control are being undermined around the world by sea changes in the social, economic, political and environmental arenas in which global elites exercise their power.
Here in America, this was expressed most visibly one year ago during Hurricane Katrina, when we learned that the American government was unable to protect the citizens and infrastructure of the most important port city in the country, and had no desire to do so.
We learned that rampant racism and idiotic free market ideology impelled all levels of government to simply abandon hundreds of thousands of people to their own devices during this devastating event, and then simply scatter the most vulnerable New Orleanians across the country with nothing more than a bus ticket and a few bucks as their recompense for an entire community and way of life lost forever.
Saturnian structures designed to control the flow of the Mississippi River and the impact of tropical storms upon the Crescent City were totally undermined by the Neptunian storm surge of Katrina. Saturnian political and economic structures designed to bring maximum advantage to the upper classes and to control the lower classes, keeping them out of sight and out of mind, failed entirely.
The whole world watched as American myths were washed away by the flood tide. The myth of American technological invincibility was eroded by a growing awareness that the levees around New Orleans were a pathetic shadow of the engineering marvels used in The Netherlands to protect that country from an encroaching sea. The myth of American social justice and American racial equality was left in tatters by the aftermath of the storm. The myth that the American political system exists to serve the people was destroyed.
Yet, unfortunately, America’s elites have failed completely to learn the Neptunian lessons of Katrina. It is worthwhile to remember these lessons one year later. Now we know that the levees surrounding New Orleans should have been built several feet higher, and that their construction was shoddy and sub-par. And now the government is rebuilding those same levees to the same deficient specifications, putting the lives of all those remaining in the Crescent City in danger.
Now more than ever, it’s worth reading the feature story I wrote at the time of the great storm, which discusses the history and importance of New Orleans, and details the multiple failures of government officials in Washington, Baton Rouge and in New Orleans itself. Read “The New New Deal: Learning the Lessons of Katrina” to find out what really caused the debacle and what America should have learned from this disaster – but didn’t.
America’s leaders should have learned the importance of unity, and community. We should have learned that the wealthy and the privileged in our society cannot enjoy happiness and a good quality of life unless the entire society is protected and empowered to enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
We should have learned that in the face of global warming and environmental disaster no one lives in a bubble of privilege.
We should have learned that technological fixes to environmental problems which are designed to minimize social costs, and thus taxes, and to maximize private profits, are doomed to abject failure.
We should have learned that racism is ugly, immoral and totally unacceptable. We should have learned that our other great American coastal cities are endangered by the “American way of life” that involves massive over-consumption of fossil fuels, massive over-building of coastal shores, and massive destruction of coastal wetlands.
Katrina should have been a wake-up call, triggering a nationwide movement to demand environmental, social, economic and political reform.Unfortunately, the result has been simply a return to business as usual.
But Katrina, the war in the Middle East, global warming, stolen elections and other global dramas currently in the news, are symptoms of a long slow tidal wave of global change undermining the institutions of wealth and power in this country and others around the world.
Business as usual cannot continue – and will not continue – as these multiple crises intensify over the coming weeks, months, and years.
Astrologers, environmentalists, social activists and Lightworkers are all in agreement. We are now on the cusp of fundamental transformations in every area of our lives.
The good news is that all these over-arching crises are simply the birth pangs of a new civilization. We are asked to remain calm and centered, and to be prepared to act as the midwives of the new global culture that will rise from the remains of our present mosaic of social systems.
We are in the time of the “simulated assault” with “live ammunition”, and we must unite and prepare for the coming battle. We are all in this together. In our unity we will find the strength to transform this threatening transition into a time of opportunity and spiritual evolution.
For me, this means that it’s time to reach out lovingly to friends, family, co-workers, neighbors and clients to build stronger bonds of mutual assistance. It’s time for me to forgive superficial slights and misunderstandings, and restore positive relations with all those important connections.
It’s time for us all to strengthen one another, help one another, heal one another, love one another, inspire one another, and protect one another’s best interests during this time of upheaval.
The time of the Full Moon Lunar Eclipse opens a very special doorway into spiritual worlds, while presenting significant challenges to conducting business as usual. It is vitally important for Lightworkers to take this golden opportunity to perform their spiritual practices, meditation and prayer, during this Eclipse period. The power of the practices will be greatly enhanced during the Eclipse period when two or more Lightworkers gather together in Unity with the Divine to perform their practices. So gather with those walking the path of Light with you and celebrate the Great Transformation taking place around the world.
Jane and I offer this special prayer for all our readers: May this month find you renewing your loving connection to family, friends, neighbors and community in a spirit of mutual interdependence and creativity. May you find your heart opening, your courage renewed and your determination to be a focus of Eternal Light amplified beyond what you have yet experienced in this lifetime. And may you receive the grace and guidance necessary to achieve your loftiest spiritual goals.
Meditation Moment: Overcoming Obstacles
" The obstacles you encounter in the realization of your high ideal are not there to discourage you, but to stimulate you so that you will provide your fellow human beings with works or
examples of inestimable value.
If others do not recognize your efforts at the time, you must not be concerned. Everything you strive to create by means of love and light will remain immortal, and this is all that matters.
Continue to advance, and you will sense that your difficulties act beneficially on you by strengthening your character. The more others try to oppress and constrain you, the more you must strive to become strong, full of hope and unshakeable in your faith. Sooner or later, not only will those who put obstacles in your path recognize you as an exceptional being, but by inspiring thousands of people to follow in your footsteps, you will be a force for good everywhere."
-- Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov