How do I follow my bliss when my GPS is broken?
Forecast for May 2012
"The world is a holy vision
had we clarity to see it."
~ Wendell Berry, from The Mad Farmer Manifesto: The First Amendment
The Full Moon in Scorpio on May 5th is the biggest Full Moon of the year. It's the most American Full Moon. It's a turbo-charged, fuel-injected, Mach-10 Full Moon.
Really, it's at its perigee. Not a Polish potato dumpling, but a term meaning the closest an orbiting body comes to the body being orbited. So it's going to look reeeeeeeally big because it's so close to Earth. Catch a glimpse if you can. It's sure to be beautiful.
The theme of this Full Moon is Bliss. Feeling connected to the Earth, to our own bodies, to the food we eat, the people we love, to the divine. We need intimacy and depth with this Full Moon. We don't need superficial, shallow quickies. We need day-long kisses and soft strokes on bare skin, eyes lovingly locked, slow dances. We need to take our time. We need patience, just like Axl Rose told us. Bear with me here. These lyrics are important:
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I've been walking the streets at night,just trying to get it right. It's hard to see with so many around.You know I don't like bein' stuck in a crowd and the streets don't change but maybe the nameand I ain't got time for the games cuz I need you. Yeah, I need you. Here's my interpretation: We try so hard to "get it right," fed by an illusion of control. We are overwhelmed by the plethora of choices available to us, but feel swallowed up in anonymity and a general loss of meaning. (Whoa. Guns'n'Roses was super deep.)
But we don't have time for these games anymore. Linear Time is ending. Time to see the world as a holy vision is beginning. Time to see beyond the dizzying array of potential activities to let your eyes settle on maybe one or two unbelievable beauties that deserve your full attention. Time to see yourself as a holy vision.
In her mind-blowing book A Sideways Look at Time, Jay Griffiths tells us about Satish Kumar. In his youth spent as a Jain monk, he was not allowed to use any technology that he could not make with his own hands. With this principle at work, he undertook a global peace walk. Of his journey, he writes:
In every place, I was there, I wasn’t making progress to get somewhere but to be somewhere. It's about relishing the place where you are. Technological progress is always you-are-not-where-you-are. That's why walking is so important—place is sensuous, so you feel the air and you hear things. The speed of technological progress destroys sensuality.
There is so much happening, we don't know where we are or where to look. Or where to go buy groceries, what shoes to wear, which breakfast place to wait in line to eat at, what to do about climate change, where to live, how much to pay for car insurance…
Technological progress, Griffiths continues, moves "without feeling or relationship to the place it is in, without commitment, responsibility or love." When I hear the word progress, I have to ask, Where are we going? What are our intentions? I want to know.
As we enter into eclipse season (what, again?) this month and Venus in Gemini goes retrograde on May 15, making intentions is vital. Where are we going? Do we have a sense of this? Being generally encouraged to cut ourselves off from things like "senses," we may not.
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Let's try a little experiment. Close your eyes. Okay, read this next bit first and then I'll tell you when to close your eyes. We're going to take a moment to experience our senses. There are at least five of them. We're an extremely visual culture, so we're going to remove that sense by closing our eyes. Once we do, we're going to focus on the other four (at least). Hearing. Smelling. Touching. Tasting. Sit in silence for at least a minute and spend time on each one. What do you hear right now? What do you smell? What other objects or beings is your body currently in contact with? How does that feel? Do you have any tastes on your tongue? Are these pleasant sensations or difficult?
Okay, now close your eyes.
And you're back. Take a moment now to really look around you, see where you are. What was that like? Did you make it for a minute? Did it feel silly, strange, wonderful? Did you discover anything new or interesting? Write about it if you want.
When we come to our senses, we enter into relationship with the present moment. We draw a circle around everything happening now and invite it to affect us. Without this connection, we are merely objects moving in space, bumping into wild bears as we text our best friend from first grade. (This really happened.)
This month, we have to go deeper, let ourselves be affected, let the rounds of day and night change us. Many years ago I was lucky enough to attend a retreat with the spiritual teacher Ram Dass, and I asked him about choice: to engage or to transcend. I was never that interested in transcending the world. I came here to live in it, not to escape it. But I was curious to understand how to be engaged without losing one's spiritual center. There is so much need in the world, so much suffering – is it possible to learn inner-peace without transcendence?
His answer has stayed with me as a kind of mantra, reminding me to let go of my need for control and to instead engage with what is actually happening. He said, "Love the world. But do not expect anything from it."
We come to our senses, letting ourselves love and be loved. And each moment can be an invitation to lay down our expectations for something unexpected.
So where's your bliss anyway? If you know where you left it, go pick it up again and see what's changed. If you don't have any idea, just wait. Close your eyes. Come to your senses. You'll find it.♥
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Rhea Wolf is a professional workshop facilitator, astrologer and writer. Rhea brings an extensive background in creative writing, performing arts, the Work that Reconnects, and earth-based spirituality to her work. It is her passion to help people awaken their inherent creativity and deepen their connections to the larger world. Rhea's work has appeared in Alternatives Magazine, New Connexion, hipMama and Tarot.com. For Rhea's complete workshop schedule and more information about her work, visit www.turningwheelastrology.com.
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