July 2008

Planning & Scheduling Living in Accord with the Seasons On July 24, the Sun moves into vedic Cancer, (joined by Venus until Aug. 1,) stimulating a focus on the home environment and our domestic family scene. The Sun is sharing this sign with his eclipse point, Ketu, showing lessons for all of us around detachment in the Cancer realms - home and family. This need for detachment might be particularly acute, on Sun./Mon. Aug. 10/11, when the conjunction is exact. Venus experiences an exact conjunction to Ketu on Thur., July 24, bringing in an air of detachment to our love relationships. Watch out for interpreting this as dissatisfaction. Consider the possibility of being present inside a relationship, without either clinging or checking out. Mars and Saturn continue their transiting conjunction in the sign of Leo until August 9, signifying a strengthening of self-esteem through accomplishment and clear personal goals. On Aug. 2, Venus joins Mars and Saturn in Leo, and on Aug. 8, Mercury joins them all, making a spicy, creative jumbalaya. Artists, actors, performers, may all find Aug. 2 - Aug. 25 to be a prolific, or productive period. The conjunction of Venus with Saturn is exact on Aug. 14; expect to mix the energies of joy/ art/ love with responsibility/ diligence/ manifestation. You may find someone you love needing your assistance, for instance. Or you may find yourself carving out time in your schedule to follow your Muse. Mars transitions into vedic Virgo on Aug. 9, bringing some cool, rational assessments and strategies into the mounting boil of interactions. Strong, retrograde Jupiter continues to pass through vedic Sagittarius for roughly 4 months, symbolizing the internal review of our own judgments, codes of conduct, and man-made as well as natural law. Seeing that all these are based in thought, there is the ability for 'Law' to shift (especially while Mercury is opposite Jupiter in flexible Gemini, until Jul 23.)

Triumph of Light Over Darkness Conversations with the Moon This month we witness the brightest full moon of the year, taking place on Friday July 18, at 1:00am PDT, in the vedic lunar sign of Uttara Ashadha. A full moon is sort of like a revolving spotlight. Something in the collective unconscious of all life on earth gets "featured." This month, the spotlight is on the inevitable Triumph of Light over Darkness. Don't we usually think of fighting Darkness "out there," in the government, in the world, on the streets? After all, isn't that the central theme to most great stories of the past? Yet something about this time on planet earth seems to be urging us to look at the triumph of Light over Darkness, within. What does it mean, for Light to triumph over Dark? The ancient sages knew that we as humans, tend to understand things first in a very literal way, and then, gradually, we are illumined in subtler and subtler ways. So stories of Goodness and Virtue triumphing over Cruelty and Selfishness abound. But there's a deeper level to this. Consider Light to be a metaphor for Consciousness, that ground-level awareness that is the same in all of us. And consider Darkness to be a metaphor for suffering, which the sages tell us is caused by identification with thought, which creates the impression of separateness - the core of suffering. The triumph of Light over Darkness would then represent the inevitability of all Life to return to its source, whether at death, or sooner. Just like the inevitability of sunrise. Write this day into your calendar: Friday, August 1 - the New Moon in Pushya. The New Moon is a time when all of nature takes an exhale from "Doing" and naturally returns to "Being." It is a time when the absence of outer aid throws us back on ourselves to discover these qualities inherent in ourselves: warmth, support, contentedness; connection with all of Life.

"I don't 'have' a Life; I 'am' Life" an excerpt from "A New Earth," by Eckhart Tolle If there is such a thing as "my life," it follows that I and life are two separate things, and so I can also lose my life, my imaginary treasured possession. Death becomes a seeming reality and a threat. Words and concepts split life into separate segments that have no reality in themselves. We could even say that the notion "my life" is the original delusion of separeteness, the source of ego. If I and life are two, if I am separate from life, then I am separate from all things, all beings, all people. But how could I be separate from life? What "I" could there be apart from life, apart from Being? It is utterly impossible. So there is no such thing as "My life," and I don't 'have' a life. I 'am' life. I and life are one. It cannot be otherwise.