Lilith & Health
When I sit down to work out thoughts on Lilith, I often find myself inside one or another feeling, and seem unable to express anything cogent or cogently. Yet when some other being asks me about her, I can respond with a torrent from I-don’t-know-where.
This is adapted from my response to a reader’s question about Lilith’s relationship to healing:
my thoughts on lilith and healing: lilith invites us to embody an uncompromised relationship with our bodies as extensions of the natural world. not a flowery, let’s-hold-hands ”we are the world and maybe we should all recycle” sort of thing, but that we have our own wild sides. that the wild is us, is natural, and can course through us if we let it, and it can inform how we tie together our whole beings and relate to all of life.
i live in los angeles, and we have coyotes here. LA has lots of hills, and at night they step out and roam here and there. people are often paranoid about letting their dogs and cats out at night. the presence of these coyotes (and their so very anti-urbanity howling!) makes me think of lilith often. i feel lilith is clear that the natural processes of life, even though messy, are of prime importance.
people terrify themselves with the idea of the messiness of life, and lilith is an energy that invites us to honor the fact that we’re tied to all of life, that we’re animals with drives and something wired into our makeup that is the wild of the natural world, and that things running their natural courses do get messy.
“it’s normal that pets get killed” would not be the point to lilith, but that when the natural flow of things is not interfered with, this kind of thing can happen. but it’s not heartless, it’s absolutely heartful in a way that modern people, civilized people, have tried to squeeze out of themselves. the good news is that we can never squeeze it out of us, never. it’s part of who we are.
so, then, think of health as the wholeness of body+heart+mind+soul, and consider where interventions thought of as modern (and therefore better than what people used to do, have done for a long time) interfere with the natural order of things. while we’re not aware of it yet on a grand scale, a huge giant bigbigbig thing on our collective plate right now is what happens to a woman using hormonal birth control. this is just huge. the body, and therefore the whole being, gets tuned out of whack by a chemical intervention, and any wisdom that the whole being might be offering by manifesting a hormonal imbalance in the body is not possibly seen. (it doesn’t mean that certain women aren’t positively benefitted by this as a treatment, but not the numbers who are prescribed it as an attempted answer to a problem.) can we recover the kind of eyes needed to see the messages of the whole being that the body has to offer? will we choose to relearn how to relate to ourselves in this way as extensions of nature, and therefore possessing in each of us the wisdom of the natural world?
transfer this kind of thinking to type ii diabetes, cancer, overweight, depression, and everything else and you’ll begin to have a handle on what lilith has to offer about health considerations: when the wisdom of the body is ignored, the whole being suffers. in the long term, we have gotten ourselves into screwing ourselves over for choosing to believe the newtonian perspective of science/medicine that the body is merely a machine. lilith would have us search out and experientially test potential remedies to bring the body back in balance. what does this food in my hand feel like to my body? does my body support taking it in and making it part of me? the headline: we’ve forgotten that we’re part of nature! and lilith offers a door into reconnecting with the wisdom of our wild selves, which possess much undeveloped and untapped wisdom and strength.
when we doubt the wisdom of the natural world (and forget how to identify as the natural world), we buy into the cartesian-newtonian model of life that we’re using to destroy ourselves.
March 10, 2008 By Tom Jacobs
Eating the Wild: Notes on Hillary Clinton
Our mothers understood something essential: the green is poisonous to civiliation. If we eat the wild, it begins to work inside us, altering us, changing us. Soon, if we eat too much, we will no longer fit the suit that has been made for us. Our hair will begin to grow long and ragged. Our gait and how we hold our body will change. A wild light begins to gleam in our eyes. Our words start to sound strange, nonlinear, emotional. Unpractical. Poetic. Stephen Harrod Buhner, The Secret Teachings of Plants, p. 145
A student tonight asked to work on Hillary Clinton’s or Barack Obama’s chart for her lesson. I knew the birth time of Obama was uncertain, so I looked up Clinton’s. Hers is, too, of course, but I didn’t know that - I only recently began following politics again. (Awareness of these things is one way to re-enter the world, after years of holing up on what might be called the spiritual plane - at any rate, a plane less involved in the physical world.)
Her South Node in Scorpio with Mercury-Venus in Scorpio and Jupiter in Sagittarius conjunct it tells of an acuity in the realm of politicking, in understanding the ways that people are, think and feel. A familiarity with the workings of power (Scorpio), how it affects people and how people affect it (Mercury-Venus in Scorpio). And with Jupiter there in that particular sign, an understanding of how to inspire people by formulating and expressing vision. And yet with the South Node ruler Pluto square the nodes, she’s her own worst enemy when it comes to the expression of her desire to be an aggressive, powerful authority figure (Saturn-Pluto-Mars in Leo square the nodes).
She’s got a karmic history of, on one level or another, going for the big office, or expressing the big idea (the whole story of her healthcare reform proposal from some years ago tells this story in parallel to her bid for the nomination, by the way), and in the end feeling that she didn’t do some part of it right (squares to the nodes indicate energies we need to learn to make different choices about - typically they tell of choices in other lives that didn’t serve us well because we didn’t understand all we needed to in order to navigate some choice successfully).
And then that North Node in Taurus. Taurus being the sign of slowing down, and the ruler of it, Venus, in Scorpio conjunct Mercury. If she were a client, I’d advise her to come to her senses.
Literally.
There’s a highly developed strength of observation and sensing of others with that conjunction in Scorpio on the South Node. And yet how much is her ability to listen and sense, and probe into deeper layers of reality, turned on herself? The aggressive expression that is the hallmark of her public persona (Saturn-Pluto-Mars in Leo) represents what is, from the viewpoint of the journey of the soul, an overdoing that I suspect is a repeat of a karmic scenario from her past, an investment in a deep desire that doesn’t actually get her where she wants to be (the respected authority who has the ultimate say in something).
With this node in Taurus, all things natural are called for. Natural ways of being, of perceiving. Feeling life through her body as part of her whole being. Connecting with the natural side of anything is what’s foreign territory for her. Taurus also calls for the development of a personal relationship with the natural world, with nature or, perhaps, Nature.
If she came to me as a client, I wouldn’t necessarily advise her to drop out, head to the wilderness, grow her own food and get off the grid, but I would advise to see how to heal the memories of the karmic past of not getting recognition as the authority figure - that she craves, that takes so much of her energy - and reconnect with herself as an extension of the natural world.
If she loses the nomination, her challenge for growth will be in understanding that what she’s offering doesn’t speak to the majority of people at this time. Taking it personally, which would be the reaction from habit, would only fuel the momentum of the karmic wound, with all the Leonine Saturnian-Plutonian-Martian action covering up the pain under even more layers of thwarted ambition.
My take on what does speak to us, what we’re hankering for in the present moment (aside from ideas for solutions for current concerns), is someone with heart. It’s true that Obama doesn’t have the experience that Clinton has, and yet it’s evident that more people are more willing to trust him. Anyone connected with him- or herself can’t trust people so obviously disconnected from heart-informed ways of being.
As Pluto continues its fresh transit through Capricorn, we’re getting the opportunity to see any assumptions we might have about what it would mean to have a woman in the White House. As I wrote here a few weeks ago regarding these assumptions, would she bring a compassionate stance to the office? Would having a woman in the highest office in the land mean having a heart-centered person as the nation’s chief executive? Would we automatically have an emotionally centered individual (a prevalent assumption about womanness) running the show, checking in with her heart instead of just her head (a prevalent assumption of manness)?
Anyone checking in with how they feel in their bodies when they hear her speak will be very clear that the answer is no.
And while I admire Clinton’s dedication, tenacity and clarity of purpose, I would hope she can learn to slow down. My wish for her is not just to learn to remember and eventually enjoy smelling the roses, but also to toss them into her mouth and chomp away with abandon, letting the natural world enter her, and share its emotion, and let its nonlinearity, unpracticality and poetics speak to her through her body.
(In case it’s not clear yet, the opening quote kind of hints at my wish for Clinton, whether or not she wins the nomination.)
Tom is available for heart- and soul-centered consultations. See his website for more information and contact details.
March 3, 2008 By Tom Jacobs
The Tea Bag Said It: Capricorn, Libra and Relationships Misunderstood
I’m writing about Pluto in Libra tonight, settled in for a cozy astro-inspired night at home. I remembered that a friend gave me a few tea bags of what is certainly the finest, most wonderful, greatest and otherwise superlativest tea ever created. It’s made by this company that has inspirational messages printed on the bag tags.
You know the one. They’re always pithy notes aimed at gently opening your eyes to a higher level of love and light. Or bringing you back to your already very elevated consciousness after a stressful commute full of screaming at all the ignorant people who shouldn’t be allowed to drive but inexplicably apparently are. Or reinforcing your entrenched self-definition as someone who trafficks in a Cali-style, new agey pithiness that your Midwestern relatives are continually stunned by, telling each other when you’re not around that you probably joined a cult.
I’m usually down with what the tea bags have to say to me. The messages tend support my chosen self-definition, and I even sometimes share with others what the tea bag told me if it was particularly poignant or Cali-licous.
The message tonight: Live for each other.
Can you blame me for running over to trusty Computor to get my reaction down on virtual paper?
I’ve been sitting here teasing out the blind spots and unchecked assumptions of Libra, and the criticism that Capricorn can offer if Libra will listen. Libra makes the other its business, and Capricorn makes building the structures needed to care for people en masse its business.
Each sign’s energy defines itself in terms of what it can do or how much can get done for the other, yet the criticism of Libra from Capricorn has to do with the reality of working hard toward something concrete, and not just remaining focused on a person and the (to-Capricorn) petty concerns of defining the self in terms of interpersonal human relationships.
But living for each other?
No, tea bag, no! Living for each other is how we malfunction. That’s how we get away from being able to offer each other our best, from being able truly to share life in the superlativest ways.
People, don’t listen to the tea bag. Don’t live for each other. Live for yourself. Get yourself to the point where being with others becomes a celebration, and honors your life and their lives and your choice to experience them with each other.
I can’t yet advocate never listening to any tea bag, but you need to root it out and slam the door in its face if it sneaks into your life. And let’s all just be a little critical when tea bags offer easy means to deludedly derail ourselves from our path of compassionate awareness, or whatever other Cali-licious path you might be on.
Tom is available for private intuitive astrology consultations. See his website for more info.
February 29, 2008 By Tom Jacobs
Last-minute thoughts before Pluto splits Sagittarius
1. Thirteen years might be a long time in human consciousness years, but might not be enough to rreeaallllyy intuit the truth. We’ve been trying on for size different versions of Truth, as well as different ways of arriving at it.
2. I’m pretty relieved now that I can stop trying to figure out what’s true. My job now is clearly to start building stuff - no more of this sitting around and checking in with my intuition, no more digging behind how things work. I mean, do you know how tiring all that fluffly perhaps-not-work is?
3. In honor of Pluto, I’m considering building a ladder down to hell.
Once I collected months’ worth of hair a roommate had brushed from her divinely adorable and wonderful cat and carefully rolled it together, a la dreds. I displayed this freak show entrant on the livingroom mantle, and when visitors asked what the disgusting snake-like lint thing was, I told them I was building a ladder to heaven from the cat’s hair, since she was so divinely adorable and wonderful, etc.
But now, it’s time to get serious. No more cat hair-as-joke lying in wait for unsuspecting visitors - no more frivolous games. Now is the time to earnestly build mental, physical and emotional structures to reflect what I learned from sitting around checking in with my intuition all those years (and preaching the truth left and right as I was deciding I was getting it). And one of the major things I learned during Pluto’s trek through Sagittarius is that doing spiritual work isn’t getting me anywhere if I’m not also doing soul work.
In depth psychologist and ecotherapist Bill Plotkin’s terminology, the former is ascension. While it has its place in our lives and journeys, integral to wholeness is also engaging in descension. I see we’re getting here and there better at ascension, for which we have some examples in our culture, but we don’t have acceptable, sanctioned models for descension, and so people don’t always know how to deal with that. I recommend Plotkin’s work to get a handle on this stuff - it’s conscious of how people and the world really are, and in it he suggests and explains numerous doorways to undertake the journey to gain consciousness of your most inner workings and, as I understand it, make friends with and reintegrate anything hiding down there that we’re afraid to look at. It’s a smorgasbord of shadow work.
Hence, a ladder down to hell.
Coincidence that I’m doing this waxing Pluto square thing?
Of course not. Why, I’m this week spending time with some monsters that’ve been under my psycho-emotio-spiritual bed. Probably I won’t report the encounters in detail, but suffice it to say that I’m learning just tons about stuff I think, feel and do that I’ve never been able to see before. And, of course, I’m happy to report that the reality is never as bad as you think - as bad as the fear of it. But something I got today when writing an e-mail to someone is this: One of the fears about coming to work with Pluto energy consciously at the waxing square is that in each of us, there’s a part that’s afraid to become the agent of change we so desperately want to become.*
*Pluto in evolutionary astrology, depending on whom you ask, represents the soul’s deepest desires/intentions or the soul’s deepest wounding. I work with it as representing both: To get to the desire and become that agent of change, we have to heal the layers of pain that inform our fear of living our lives in the ways we truly desire.
Tom is available for soul-centered consultations. See http://tdjacobs.com for more information.
January 25, 2008 By Tom Jacobs
Two or Three Thoughts on Libra + Transit Lab: Waxing Pluto Square
While Aries defines itself in terms of self, saying, “I am what I am because I am it,” Libra defines itself in terms of the other, saying, “I can tell what I am because I can tell what you are.”
This isn’t a terrible starting place, but it can’t be the only stop on the line. At some point, the Libran (whether it’s the Sun, Moon, Ascendant or some kind of planetary pileup there, or if there’s a very strong Venus/7th house signature) has to resort to understanding self first.
But the orientation to the other is a blind spot for Libra. The core aim of Libra, understanding it as a method, or a lens through which planets operate, is to create harmony and balance. Libra does not already understand how to do that. When people come in with heavy Venus/Libra/7th signatures in their charts, there’s an evolutionary intention to learn to relax, to slow down - to introduce moderation into their lives.
Last night I thought of the Pluto in Libra generation (1971-2 to 1984), specifically that they have the greatest soul wounding surrounding the aims and methods of Libra. There is a range of possibilities to each of the 12 energies of astrology, and yet people tend to focus more or less on specifics in their karmic journeys, as anyone’s conditioning necessarily limits the vast possible menu into a few subsections of it that can offer us appropriate playing fields on which to explore the core ideas of it.
The specific that came to me was in the prevalent Pluto in Libra fear of rejection, that can be based in a fear of abandonment. To be alone to these people is hard enough, but to be left by someone, a friend, lover or parent, is devastating.
What Libran Pluto people having this fear need to learn is that how people treat you has nothing to do with you.
Nothing.
It has everything to do with how they think of and feel about themselves.
This will make zero sense to most Pluto in Libra people who haven’t Plutoed themselves quite a lot somewhere along the way. And with Pluto entering Capricorn, the waxing Pluto squares for Libran Plutos are about to begin. Steven Forrest has said that this square is when the monsters that live under your bed come out and sit down with you at the dinner table. I have loved this image, and I find it very useful when working with clients.
When you’re sitting at the table with them, which is to say that what you hide is out in the open and needs to be faced directly and head-on, you see that they’re not as bad as you fear. That the fear of them is worse than their reality.
The next few years will see the older Libran Pluto people facing these monsters, and seeing how to navigate them. The basic message that Capricorn has to give Libra in its natural square is to stop looking around itself and to relationship for cues about how to be, and to get busy building stuctures to take care of the self. I expect that many people in this generation who haven’t learned to do so already will begin to take back what they put on other people (a Libran strategy to form relationships) and begin understanding the impact that kind of use of energy has on them and their lives (the Capricorn call to reality that feels like friction - the square - to Libra).
I’ll be writing on these and other themes about this business in the coming months. With my Pluto at 3 Libra, I’m one of those folks just beginning the square. And it natally squares my Jupiter at 6 Capricorn in the 3rd. How this has worked so far is that all the Pluto square stuff that wants to get thought ends up coming out in my writing and speaking.
Tom is available for spirit-guided karmic astrology consultations. Contact him via his website.
January 18, 2008 By Tom Jacobs
Pluto into Capricorn: With Open Eyes
As uncomfortable as it may be, you may soon begin to experience certain aspects of reality that you’ve seen fit to edit and omit from your consciousness.
At some point, a recognition of reality apart from our selective visions is to be faced. I seem to think this is what happens on the deathbed, and with certain tragedies and traumas that can serve to wake us up, when we find ourselves working from within a new and clear paradigm of spotless vision. And yet it seems to be in the air at the moment - at least in my circles and of what I’m hearing of people’s experiences these days.
Capricorn is the sign of slow development and maturation that comes from hard work. And yet as the sign concerned with status and reputation, it’s also the sign of the veneer of slow maturation that comes from hard work. What I’ve been writing about Pluto entering Capricorn has been based in my understanding that Capricorn operates according to a lot of shoulds, and there could be some hollow structures that hold our lives and societies together. Whatever they may be, Pluto entering this sign is the surest (if not the quickest and least painful) route to begin to see how we might be running on a lot of shoulds that aren’t based in reality or contributing usefully to it.
Last week I moved to a new place, and a few days ago met one of my neighbors, an artist and writer named Alex Forman. She told me about a photography & writing project she’s done, and it struck me as wonderfully illustrative of the energy of Pluto in Capricorn.
She photographed 2″ high figurines of the American presidents from Washington to Nixon, and each is accompanied by text reflecting research of various sorts of records - letters, medical records, biographies, etc. - which let us in on what are perhaps little-known aspects of the presidents’ lives. The result is what would make my 1st grade teacher believe she was near an apopleptic fit: A look at these men as the humans they were, with human concerns, desires, challenges, weaknesses and urges. As men with personal & intimate lives not ending with what the office of the presidency (I suppose that’s to be capitalized?) is supposed to be about. Each was made to be as much a symbol of the “should” life of the country itself as possible, and I have to believe it’s only a matter of time before stories based in reality come out.
The truth is that the vast majority of us constantly create a veneer of self-image based on shoulds (in what ways have you responded to media versions of how people should look? - that’s big enough for another post!). And it takes a lot of energy to keep out of consciousness the other, left out aspects of reality that fill reality out. Think about what it is that you don’t want to know about, don’t want to hear. Think about why you spend as much energy as you do keeping certain things out of your consciousness. Alex offers an example of this on a large social and historical scale with information about the real lives, the sometimes messy and gritty lives, of the presidents represented in her project.
Take a look at her site (Tall, Slim & Erect) and understand that this sort of revelation of truth, being faced with the unglamorous bits and pieces of reality that in actuality make us up, is the kind of thing we’re all in for with Pluto’s Capricornian ingress - the kind of thing we all have the opportunity to experience if, that is, we’re at all tired of keeping the messier, unglamorous and perhaps shameful-seeming corners of our realities out of consciousness and ready to try something new.
And this, as all things do, comes down to the challenge of self-love: Can you accept the parts of yourself that you don’t want to be part of you? Can you choose to be more whole by admitting a broader scope of yourself, as shown by an honest look at the reality of you?
Tom is available for karmic astrology & intuitive consultations. See his website for more information and to contact him.
January 11, 2008 By Tom Jacobs
From Sagittarius to Capricorn, re Pluto’s Upcoming Shift
I’ve been thinking this morning about Pluto being the “bottom line”: What, in the end, is the most important thing. What underlies everything else.
In the paradigm of evolutionary astrology, Pluto for any person (natally) represents the deepest desires & intentions of the soul, as well as the soul’s deepest wounding. Transiting Pluto for all of us indicates pathways to manifest desires and intentions, while offering doorways into healing any wounds we collectively share.
This morning I’ve been thinking about the shift from Sagittarius to Capricorn as one from Mutable to Cardinal, and from Fire to Earth.
Mutable to Cardinal: From flexible and preparatory to direction-based. From openness to the exigencies of external circumstance to the motivation to travel over or plough through them. From an awareness of multiple existing realities to the instinct to create new ones.
Fire to Earth: From the spark of inspiration to the need to manifest physical structure and order. From the flash of intuitive knowing to the necessity of manufacturing and sensing physical security. From the feeling of possibility to the reality of matter.
One way I see this manifesting in my circle is the emergent desire to ground the spiritual knowledge gained during the long transit of Pluto through Sagittarius. Among some folks in my circles, the realization that practical, concrete skills and sturctures need to be applied to the insights recently gained.
In some people, this shift could manifest as the calm knowing that things need to slow down, a natural pitstop on the way to figuring out how to ground and stablize, as Capricorn requires. The intuitive feeling of Sagittarius gives way to the physicalizing of Capricorn.
But, again, this is all bottom-line stuff. Though for anyone interested in healing and making real their deep desires, this shift from Sag-Cap will be noticeable. Those people are the ones focusing on the bottom-line issues of their lives, of life in general.
Tom is available for spirit-guided, soul-centered astrology consultations. Contact him via his website.
January 2, 2008 By Tom Jacobs
Jupiter in Capricorn - and Pluto on its Heels
Headline: The High-flying Optimism (and Perhaps Over-extended Wishfulness) of Sagittarius Gives Way to the Sobering View of Reality of Capricorn!
Whether this is seen or experienced as a plus or minus depends on one’s willingness to adjust meaningfully and maturely to Saturnian, get-the-job-done energy.
Undoubtedly, it’s time to work. With Jupiter into Capricorn, the intuitive mind begins to whiff that there are opportunities to ground some of the insights afforded by the previous year of Jupiter in Sagittarius.
It might be time to go to school or class of some kind to put into actual practice (manifestation) some of the rad theoretical stuff that we’ve been collecting. It might be time to slow down anything and everything in order to be sure that we can get and stay real about how things are actually working - Capricorn being the sign of adjusting to and responding to reality.
With Pluto’s ingress to Capricorn, we’re looking at the opportunity to deepen our relationship with the reality of authority. Who’s in charge, and why? How did they get there? What do they have that we think we don’t? What do we have in common that we may not have seen? Anything in there we can learn to ground and stabilize to develop and manifest our authority in new, better, healthier ways?
Pluto presents us with the tools to dig below the surface, and invites us to turn over the soil in a recognition that change is inevitable. If you’ve followed Pluto transits in your own life, you can correlate its level of difficulty with your willingness to change…wait a minute! - no one told you that’s the secret of prospering and growing during Pluto transits? Well, it’s time you got the memo.
Pluto in Capricorn will present us with many reflections of our conditioning, and you’ll treat yourself well if you choose to be willing to see how you’ve adapted to the suggestions, requirements and edicts of external models of authority. Who do you think is in charge of your life? Who gets to direct things in your consciousness? How are you doing at learning to be in charge of yourself? Whose idea of reality is currently the ultimate one?
Capricorn is the sign of normalization, of leveling to a common demominator that’s based on the order necessary for the greater good. Capricorn aims to fit everyone into the bell curve, an impossible attempt not at homogenization but at a decomplication to allow a given amount of work to positively serve the greatest number of people.
Let Pluto’s ingress show you what’s really happening in your life related to that necessary order and that greater good. See where you can ground. See what you can do to get more real about what’s happening and what needs to be done. And above all, keep your eyes, minds and hearts open.
Tom is available for spirit-guided, soul-centered astrology consultations. Contact him via his website.
December 29, 2007 By Tom Jacobs
The Transiting Lunar Nodes Shift to Leo-Aquarius
Building on my very first blog post, on the transiting lunar nodes entering Virgo-Pisces, here are some thoughts on the imminent shift to Leo-Aquarius (December 18th).
Where Virgo-Pisces focus on service, Leo-Aquarius focus on creativity and expression. What’s the right place and form of expression? Should it be aimed at, inspired by, the personal or the collective? Is it for the present moment or is it to look ahead to a desired future? Should it be sparked and driven by the passions or the intellect?
With the transiting South Node in Virgo we’ve been facing our issues with the desire to serve by bringing in our analytical, hands-on and control- and precision-oriented faculties. The growth opportunities have been in opening to Piscean opportunities to trust, to learn to go with the flow and see the perfection in the whole as it is, and to work with the Universe instead of trying to control it.
As the nodes shift to Leo-Aquarius, the focus moves to confronting our issues with our personal here-and-now, our desire for recognition of our particular contribution (tr. South Node in Leo) with the growth opportunities involving gaining perspective, learning objectivity, and thinking ahead to what we want our particular contribution actually to manifest as and achieve down the road (tr. North Node in Aquarius).
The Sun and Uranus, the planets ruling this axis, are nothing if not creative. Their inspiration and methods differ considerably, but the emphasis with these two is definitely on creativity. Notice over the next few weeks any issues you see arising in yourself about the right kind of creativity your energies seem best suited to. And if you find yourself wanting to check out of or cut ties with groups you’re associated with because of personal differences (Leo), check yourself before making any decisions. Not that you shouldn’t make changes, but be aware of why you’re making them.
Aquarius is the sign of the collective, and many of us might be soon invited to re-evaluate the basis on which entered into any sort of group associations that involve creativity. How do we get where we’re going? Is it under our own steam or by working with others? This can even manifest as whether or not we share our creative ideas with others: Can we risk opening up to others’ input, when, while it might expand our perspective redically, it might also result in dilution of the purity of our personal voice?
Often we hear that Aquarius is the sign of friends, hopes and wishes. What’s behind this archetype as relating to friends is that we need to ally with others of like mind in order to create the kind of future we want. It’s the archetype of creating the kind of future we want to see realized. And we can’t do this by ourselves.
This is inherent in the progression of Sagittarius to Capricorn to Aquarius: In Sagittarius, we intuitively put our finger on and go with what we think is probably the most true. In Capricorn, we endeavor to take it into the world and manifest it. In Aquarius, we understand that creating a future as we wish it to be requires working with other people.
Keep an eye out for any shifts around creativity and groups. The growth opportunity for the next approximately year and a half is in learning to balance these two energies in our lives, which requires healing outstanding Leo/Sun and Uranus/Aquarius issues we may be holding on to. And with Jupiter and Pluto headed for Capricorn, the issue of who’s really in charge is about to become front and center. Given that Aquarius follows Capricorn in the natural zodiac, let whatever comes up for you about authority inform and feed what you’re experiencing about where to put your creative energies.
Tom is available for spirit-guided, soul-centered astrology consultations. Contact him via his website.
December 13, 2007 By Tom Jacobs
A Thought on Conditioning
After being related a story by a friend just back from a rather intense family Thanksgiving visit, I loaned her a favorite book of mine, What Do You Say After You Say Hello?, by Eric Berne, MD. If you’ve ever wondered why people do the things they do, check out this book. It’s a pretty easy read, given it’s a text for psychoanalysts.
So, what is it that you say after you say hello? It depends on what you’re trying to get from any given interaction. Berne outlines the scripts people live, and shows how we’re conditioned by our early home environments to perform certain roles.
SO, then, again: conditioning. The roles we play aren’t indicative of our true natures. An astrological birth chart is a map of possibilities, and two major factors determine which sets of realities we create from those possibilities: conditioning and free will.
Our free will is often, by our beliefs of what’s possible, shaped by that conditioning. Okay, so I’m really saying that it’s often not even two factors that determine what reality we’ll create; there are times when it’s all about conditioning.
Last week I gave a talk on a new view of spirituality in the birth chart. When dealing with any issue, including spirituality, key is a client’s conditioning. Regarding matters of spirit, we have to look not only at Neptune/Pisces/12th house, but also Jupiter/Sagittarius/9th house to understand the conditioning surrounding belief. We have to look at the asteroid Lucifer (1930) to understand the conditioning around a person’s relationship with the idea of and the reality of the existence of a higher power. We have to look at the asteriod Arjunsuri (20300) to understand the person’s relationship with his or her own conscience (whose voice/authority is considered the ultimate authority?). The picture is pretty complex when you get deeply into any individual chart, but it all comes down to conditioning.
As long as we’re on the subject, I’ll note that every interaction you have with your family and those with whom you’ve been close for a long time, offer the opportunity to see your conditioning. If you’re someone who has difficulty dealing on some level dealing with family/where you came from and yet are going back for upcoming holiday festivities of some sort or other, see if you can catch yourself in however you want to react to any stressful situations and hold up a second. Wait a minute, and instead of reacting how you perhaps always have, make a different choice. That’s how you start breaking conditioning!
Brought to you by the “Down With Outmoded Conditioning” Committee, with additional support from the “Pluto in Libra ‘Can’t We All Get Along?’” Cabal.
Tom is available for spirit-guided karmic astrology readings. Contact him via his website.
November 25, 2007 By Tom Jacobs