February 1 to 6, 2012
Venus and Mars Opposition
Tonight’s Venus and Mars opposition, which we can observe ceremonially for the next few days, is an opportunity to pay attention to the aspects of our lives, and inner being, that feel as though they are split apart, and in pain because of this split.
My biggest split right now is the pain I feel between my desire to do, accomplish, and make things happen, and my desire to simply be, slow down, and allow gravity to have its way with me. This could be described as my own personal Feminine and Masculine dynamic.
The great gift of opposites is that their differences are easy to see. Of course, also that there is an alchemical attraction between them, that causes them to be drawn to one another (yes, opposites attract).
It is in my feminine longing to slow down that my masculine aspect sees the opportunity for me to act in ways that are more effective and grounded. It is through my masculine desire to do, pursue ambitions, and produce, that my receptive feminine feels she will be able to birth the awareness that was born when I descended into the depths of being-ness.
I am imagining an ever greater skillfulness and mastery between this masculine doing and feminine being within me. A kind of healing needs to happen in order for this to occur. I experience the healing as a kind of awakening reverence within the God for the Goddess, and within the Goddess for the God.
Within me, when my doing self begins to experience deep love and devotion, and appreciation for my being self, and my being self begins to acknowledge and feel as precious my doing self, I will be finally experiencing the most profound dimension of the Sacred Marriage. May my own growth and transformation be for the benefit of all those undergoing their own initiations. Imbolc
Thursday is a cross quarter point of Imbolc, the midpoint between winter solstice and spring equinox. This is a day for ceremony to welcome the coming of spring, and for many who observe the Celtic traditions, a time to pay tribute to the Goddess Brigit.
Like most Goddesses, she has changed through time. We know her now as indistinguishable from Saint Brigid, who keeps the sacred fires burning. Yet in her pre-Christian form, she had many other qualities and attributes. She was seen as a great protector, healing, nurturing and fierce.
She also had a great deal to do with the 5th Chakra, or voice, of the Sacred Feminine. She was known as a sage, or wise woman, and also as the Goddess of Poets. She was believed to have invented the “night whistle” to communicate in the dark. In some literature she was credited as the originator of the practice of “keening:” the very powerful vocal lamentation expressed by mourners in response to the death of a loved one.
In Scottish and Irish tradition it was not uncommon for someone to be hired to “keen” for a deceased person. The Keener would wail and cream, rocking, clapping, invoking others in a chorus, as well as calling out the genealogical line of the deceased, praising the deceased, and vocalizing the tragic fate of those left behind. The Catholic church outlawed this practice for several centuries, so it has largely been extinguished in its original form.
We need not choose between these two Goddesses–they, like us, have evolved to suit their times. It is beautiful to celebrate St. Brigid by burning a candle that represents our love of the Sacred Feminine. We can send out prayers for the girls and women of this world, that they be protected and cherished.
We can practice using our own voices through conversation, poetry, or song, to speak the truth that the feminine aspect of ourselves knows most deeply–the language of love for the Earth, for the creatures, for beings with finite and precious lives. We can honor our emotional lives and pay attention to what they tell us.
And as we experience the first waves of the Neptune in Pisces immersion that is nearly upon us, we may experience moments of great grief for ourselves, for humanity, for people, creatures or our Earth in pain and suffering.
And when we do, we can call on Brigid to help us to grieve, and to mourn in a way that helps us to move the pain and suffering from our bodies, and in a way that honors the birth pain we all experience at this time. Neptune Ingress into Pisces
2012 is a very watery year indeed, and Neptune’s entrance into Pisces this Friday, where it will remain for 13 to 14 years, is one of the first examples of that. It is the year of the Water Dragon, and the full activation of the Scorpio Sacred Feminine. By the fall, Saturn and the North Node will also be in Scorpio.
Pisces and Scorpio are both about learning to navigate the emotional realm, but in quite different ways. Scorpio teaches us to claim our emotions in all their intensity as a catalyst for deep personal transformation. Pisces gives us access to our “higher” feeling function of Transpersonal Love.
This is a very personally felt aspect for me, because Neptune is presently squaring my Venus by about 1 degree. The easy part of this is that I have easy access to my dreams, vision, and intuition. The more challenging side is that I must successfully navigate middle world reality–pay bills, build a nonprofit, nurture relationships.
Neptune in Pisces operates through the principle of dissolution. Who we believe ourselves to be; our roles, identities, etc. feel intangible. We feel lost, and confused. Remember, this is a transit that impacts all of us. Humanity itself is experiencing an identity crisis. The intent of this cycle is not merely to torture us.
It is to assist us in surrendering the false aspects of our identity, to let go of the goals and missions that do not suit our higher selves. As my teacher says, it is GOOD to feel lost during a Neptune cycle. This is exactly where we are supposed to be! The phrase “let go, and let God” applies here.
We actually accomplish more when we take time out for prayer, meditation, time in nature, and otherwise cultivating our relationship with our personal heart, and the heart of God/Goddess. We simply can’t get by with pushing our way through life, stubbornly moving in the direction that our fear-based old identities are so attached to.
It just doesn’t work. So for myself, and you, my readers, I wish a more graceful letting go, a more consciously chosen re-alignment with Divine Will. To the degree that we recalibrate, ever so slightly each day in that direction, we will see our lives move with more joy, more ecstasy, and greater sense of our radiant inner peace.
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