PsychKicks© ~ Karma and Reincarnation: The Great Flow Charters in the Sky

.

Psych yourself up with like-minded sidekicks by exploring the symbols all around us—together.

Source of Inspiration
Life experience, astrology,
metaphysical teachings, past
life regressions

© 2010 - 2017 by Joyce Mason

This offering and some of the soon-to-follow PsychKicks are updated articles from The Radical Virgo and Hot Flashbacks, Cool Insights. They fit our PsychKicks themes, and that I thought you’d enjoy or re-enjoy them in their newest incarnations.

I first became involved in metaphysics in 1977. Little did I know then what a red-letter year ’77 would be. On November 1, the planetary body Chiron was discovered. Chiron would ultimately become my specialty as an astrologer, but not until we “met” eleven years later. Among other things, Chiron’s discovery ushered in a focus on ecology, alternative medicine, and an interest in “New Age” spirituality.

Another iconic event that year awakened the consciousness of many people—the release of the first Star Wars movie. There’s nothing like cinema to coincide with and even help create cultural turning points. Suddenly, we were saying, “May the Force be with you,” acknowledging that there was one joining power we could tap into. We were spouting Yoda-isms, words to live by from the tiny green wizened one.

“Luminous beings are we … not this crude matter.” ~ Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back

My intro to these subjects came from psychic and meditation teacher Betty Bethards and Unity Church, but my upbringing influenced the way I saw a melting pot of ideas from different religions and traditions. Take karma for example.

While karma has many dimensions, the rough parallel is the biblical, “As ye sow, so shall ye reap.” However, karma adds the idea of reincarnation, that you may be reaping your crop through several lifetimes. This is much more than “God’ll get you for that,” as Maude used to tell her husband Walter on her hilarious spin-off from All in the Family. Karma is about balance, learning both what nourishes us and what doesn’t work—anything that hurts ourselves or others. If we hurt others, we’ll eventually walk a mile in painful shoes. If we don’t love ourselves enough, we’ll taste the bitterness of that path and be given a chance to try the sweet nectar of self-compassion instead.


What Are the Mechanics?

I was one of those overly curious kids who asked my father why so often, he wished he had a why swatter. When I received new information, sometimes before my physical and emotional maturity to handle it, I would always get hung-up on the mechanics. For instance, when I first heard about sex and how people “do it,” I had to get out two of my dolls, imagining the male to have an anatomically correct appendage, and experiment with how the male and female parts might fit together. I didn’t get it. Grown-ups must be acrobats! At least I got points for an inquiring mind.

The same thing happened to me with karma. Once I heard that you often go through many lifetimes with the same cast of characters, repeating similar scenes until you complete your “business,” I had to figure out a way to wrap my brain around something so complicated. Here’s what I came up with as a touchstone for organizing my thoughts around karma and reincarnation.


The Great Flow Charters in the Sky and Magic Marker Music

I first got this idea before social networking and many tools we take for granted nowadays. I envisioned that each person has a team of advisers, a karma committee, to help map out his or her next incarnation for maximum learning. This is esessentially what Betty taught us.

With my Catholic background and being raised by an Italian mama, I saw my committee as handsome young Italian-American men in blue pinstripe suits, sort of a white-collar version of Tony Soprano’s mob family. Only better looking. Only angels. They didn’t make their bones; they made their wings. Bad guys gone good, now rewarded with the important job of helping others settle  their own scores in their multiple lives.

They’re in a “peace room” of sorts, the heavenly version of a war room where strategies are plotted before the plotted arise and are planted on earth again, body and soul together, one more time. They have to figure out how this complex of people will meet up and have all the experiences they need with all the right people from their past karmic strings of events. What a job!

I envision several flip charts. On them, the well-dressed angels are drawing intricate flow charts. Each chart stands for an individual life. Imagine the number of charts in a room in order to dovetail all of a person’s primary encounters with the people who are their sources of “unfinished business.” I can barely conceive of the complexity of this. If I had come lately to these ideas, I’d probably imagine some sort of computer program or phone app. But I’d lose something important with a more modern image. The visual of the flow charts makes obvious what a complex puzzle karma can be. It’s easier to grasp the idea in the visible foreground rather than thinking about how some magic box or program makes it happen offstage.

When my karmic connections and karmic moments happen, my mind hears the squeak of the Magic Markers the Flow Charters use, dancing furiously on those flip charts. I imagine the entangled strategy it took for all the planets to align and the people nudged to get this moment to synch up.


The Mystique of Karma

Karma has a mystique like marriage. I had a great conversation with a friend once concerning what a minefield it is to offer opinions on someone else’s marriage, no matter how close the friendship. What Anne said is both commonsense and profound:

Ultimately, what's between us and our husbands is part of that mysterious alchemy that no other person can ever fully know (including us, some of the time!) 

I dare say, the same goes for karma—or maybe it goes for karma foremost, because what marriage would not be a karmic relationship?

The resonance of karma is what pulls people together. We recognize each other energetically. Astrologer Barbara Hand Clow believes that we retain our same Ascendant in our birth chart lifetime after lifetime. One thing the Ascendant or rising sign has to do with is how we look. In other words, she believes we retain looks similar enough from one incarnation to the next to be recognized by our karmic posse. Even though it’s a radical idea, it feels plausible to me, especially after noticing how often I have been attracted to men with a certain look.

Karmic connections involve strong magnetism and a sense of rediscovery. It’s like when you haven’t seen an old friend for years, and you pick right up where you left off. Only you don’t consciously “know” this person yet in this lifetime, so you can’t understand why it feels that way using “normal” logic.


Details Please! Past Life Regression

I’ve had several past live regressions, a form of self-exploration that I would recommend that you try only with a trusted practitioner by way of a personal referral. I learned amazing things, including my role as an astrologer in Atlantis and how much trouble it got me into. It explains why I’ve had an approach-avoidance conflict with reclaiming that vocation in my current lifetime.

I know that my husband, Tim, was also my husband in Atlantis. He took care of me when I was disabled, and now I am returning the favor in helping him navigate his health issues and disability in our current life.

“Much to learn you still have…my old padawan. This is just the beginning!” – Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back

But What If You Don’t Believe in Reincarnation?

You don’t have to believe in reincarnation for this concept to work. In today’s world, life is so fast and jam-packed with experiences, we live what’s tantamount to numerous lifetimes in a single incarnation. Non-believers might even be more proficient in resolving karma, thinking this lifetime is “it” and all the time they have to work out their relationships.

Completing circles—that’s what it’s all about. Balancing the favors, grievances, love, good and bad feelings and coming to a higher understanding of the essence of each individual on your Great Flow Chart in the Sky, especially yourself.

And, of course, you can see a lot of your karmic story in the ultimate cosmic flow chart of your horoscope, especially when you start comparing yours with others' in your karmic cluster. Some types of astrology such as evolutionary astrology focus on this aspect of birth charts and the Moon's nodes role in the past-life and karmic picture.

I don’t know what is the sound of one hand clapping, but I do love the sound of one marker squeaking.

~~~

Photo Credit: Kids side kicking - keigo1027yasuda @ fotolia.com; Whiteboard – Tuulijumala @ Dreamstime.com

Related post: Astrology and Past Lives by Lana Wooster

Feature Background
See announcement post.

SUBSCRIPTION: To receive PsychKicks directly in your inbox weekly, sign up for The Radical Virgo Posts in the sidebar. If you have any problems with your subscription, contact me: joyce@joycemason.com. 

High Signs 2: Living on the Upside of the Zodiac

Leo through Scorpio

© 2009 by Joyce Mason

In Part 1 of High Signs, we covered Aries through Cancer. The purpose of this three-part article series is to identify some of the best ways to express each of the twelve signs in our charts and lives. As I explored the signs with this goal in mind, a natural process of inner evolution became obvious in the 12-stage cycle of the zodiac. I also began to notice key issues that, when resolved, unlock a higher expression of each sign.

To recap, the initial third of the zodiac wheel represents the following aspects of inner growth process:

~ Conception in Aries
~ Rooting in Taurus
~ Growing conditions in Gemini
~ Protection of seedlings in Cancer

Now we move onto the next third of the cycle from Leo through Scorpio—into the blooming, harvesting, and sharing phases of our growth process.

Leo – Don’t Just Catch the Rays; Channel Them

The sign of Leo brings the process of individuation to its exciting first bloom. “Look at me!” Leo says, as he exudes the rays of the Sun and selfhood with no Ray-Bans or sunscreen. It’s a sight to behold; a once drab and scrawny seedling has grown up. It has burst into vibrant color and first flower, reverberating the very Sun that helped make it so.

Here is both the danger and the cure. Leo must avoid believing she is the Sun itself with all its power—and around which the rest of us mere earthlings are lucky to revolve, if she deems us worthy. Creative spark is the ultimate drug, and if Leos hold onto the Sun energy with possessiveness, they become mean kings of the jungle: self-centered, proud, overbearing, bossy, intimidating, grandiose, and demanding of constant flattery (kiss my ring or whatever!).

To be the self-expressive, generous, vital, playful, childlike Lion to whom the rest of us don’t mind giving center stage much of the time, Leos have to let go. I know it’s a fixed sign. If you can resist so well, you can turn it around and resist doing what harms you. You can’t hold the Sun. You’ll get burned. And by the way, letting sunshine flow through you is like a fabulous energy-recycling loop. The more you let the sun come through you without clutching it, the more others beam back your solar energy, recharging your batteries and sense of connection to the sun in the sky. (If we could bottle the beams from all Leos in the world, there would never be an energy crisis. One of my favorite Leos always says she’s sending me “sparkles.” They truly energize!)

Leo brings the inner growth cycle to first bloom, the one that’s most impressive in contrast to the previous stages of seed, seedlings and budding. Leo assures us there’s been a whole lot of energetic shakin’ goin’ on beneath the surface, and now you can see it in living color.

Virgo – Bloomin’ Complete (Well, Almost … )

If Leo is the first bloom of the flower of inner growth, Virgo takes the bloom to fullness and the edge of harvest. Perhaps the Virgo obsession with perfection comes from an innate sense of this “last chance” before the flower is picked, the grain is harvested—choose your favorite plant allusion—and his true usefulness falls into the hands of others in the second half of the zodiac from Libra onward.

Virgo is the last chance for self-possession. (See The Radical Virgo and Wholeness and the Inner Marriage.) If some of the Virgos you know seem a little control freakish to you at times, they are simply worried that the growing season ends and soon the harvest will be upon us. Virgo is the sign of late summer. Virgos see all they could be—and want it!

To express Virgo in a higher way, the Virgin flower has to tune back into life’s cyclical nature with a view from the mountaintop. You don’t get just one season or one lifetime to become the best you. You get seasons and lifetimes. Don’t make everyone miserable with nitpicky perfectionism, faultfinding, and slavery to jobs or service in an “off” attempt to grasp the usefulness of your Self that you fear you will lose control of, starting in Libra. Helping others is Virgo’s prescience of the next season and sign, but unless you are also blooming your Self, you will have defeated your purpose to be the best you—this time around.

Leo brings the inner growth cycle to first bloom; Virgo completes the blooming before harvest.


Libra –Beauty and the Bounty, Share But Eat Something Yourself First

At the Autumn Equinox, when the sign of Libra starts, we begin the process of sharing the wealth of the inner growth process. No man is an island, and once a person has fully bloomed the Self in Virgo, it is time to share the bounty with another in Libra.

The wheat, grain, or flowers are weighed on Libra’s scales of balance. She hopes for beauty, harmony, justice, and pleasure from her interactions, the fruits of others’ growing. If it starts with “co,” she’s “in”—cooperate, coexist, codepend.

Therein lies the rub, a sign so focused on harvesting others’ gifts, he often forgets who he is. Dependence on approval and the need to partner in all things leads to imbalance, indecisiveness (what will she think?), fawning behavior, and a rash of inconsistencies that can be maddening to the other he is trying not to alienate. Too often, he succeeds just the same. A Libra out of balance is a scary thing.

How to avoid tipping the scales? One plus one equals two. You can’t co-create without maintaining the individuality that is part of the 1+1 = 2 equation. Libra easily falls prey to the misconception that she can rest on her inner growth laurels and coast, now that two have become one. Mergers must create synergy to survive and thrive. This does not occur when Self is absorbed into Other, but rather when two selves interact and create a constant growth dynamic. I suspect the legendary Libra laziness is merely this misconception. If you love relationship as much as you claim, Libra, don’t forget to bring your Self forward—the previous lesson of Virgo. Then Us will rock in a whole new way, where pairing is a preference and vibrant, not a fix.

Inner growth cycle recap: Leo brings the inner growth cycle to first bloom; Virgo completes the blooming before harvest. Libra harvests and shares the beauty and bounty of the inner growth crop.

Scorpio – Chemistry Experiments, But Don’t Blow Up the Lab

Like Libra, Scorpio is an autumnal and “other” sign, one of deep merger and mining the mysteries of life. Scorpio doesn’t take the blooms of others just at face value. She finds out how to mix them up in her chemistry lab to create new by-products, often explosions that run the gamut of pain and pleasure. Then, she might even transmute them into gold.

Scorpio seeks to merge and meld into the other’s experience to see how it can transform them both. It is the alchemical mixing of two selves into Love Potion #9—or whatever happens to come out of the mix.

Much like Leo’s Sun fix, this is potent energy—pure power formed in dark places and so electrifying and life-creating, possessiveness and compulsiveness can take over like a bad spell. The image that comes to mind is Dr. Frankenstein raising the monster to the skies for a lightning bolt of life.

Now, not all Scorpios are mad scientists. Some don’t even obsess over people, but rather work, causes, or other power rides that get their juices flowing. Still, the science metaphor stands. Scientists must remain objective and at least somewhat detached from the outcome of their experiments or the results are biased and invalid. To insist on the outcome of the trial (you will love me or else!) is not exactly good science or good romantic chemistry. Like the other fixed signs, there is a letting go required that is the antithesis of what feels natural to a Scorpio clinging for dear life to his beloved or project.

The saying comes to mind (paraphrased), If you love someone (or something), let it go and if they really belong to/with you, they’ll come back on their own. Of course, you’ve probably heard the less than evolved Scorpionic response to that old saw: And if they don’t come back, I’ll hunt them down, drag them back, and kill them.

You cannot own the life force. The force must flow through you and those who enter your orb of influence, similar to the Leo admonition not to hold onto the Sun. Whether it’s the Sun or the lab chemicals of love or other volatile combinations, burn happens if you clutch them. Scorpio’s realm, from high to low, is the stuff of magic and medicine—or explosive Pluto-nium. Birth, death, sexuality—Scorpio’s realms are the ultimate extreme of matters that matter most. The life force that joins you willingly creates a powerful resonance for you and everyone in your sphere. Otherwise, you’re living on the Death Star.

Scorpio is the part of the inner growth cycle where we don’t just mix the flowers of self with those of another to form a bouquet. Here we understand the pure creative potential of combining energies to form something bigger and synergistically more potent. This is the same alchemy that will turn plants into medicine or other powerful products. It benefits not just the donors, but has the potential to change everyone and everything their merger touches.

Final recap: Leo brings first bloom; Virgo completes the blooming before harvest. Libra harvests and shares the beauty and bounty of the self-development crop. Scorpio combines energies to make medicine and other potent by-products of energetic mergers.

~~~

Next week: High Signs, Part 3: Sagittarius through Pisces and conclusion of the series.

Photo Credit: HAPPY CHILDREN GIVING VICTORY SIGN © Maszas Dreamstime.com

High Signs 1: Living on the Upside of the Zodiac

Aries through Cancer

© 2009 by Joyce Mason

One of my all-time favorite artists is Corita Kent, a former Catholic nun whose pop artwork was very “inspirational ‘60s.” She wove words and color together in a rainbow of good causes: the women’s movement, the peace movement, and the love and joy movement—the movement that’s timeless. (Here’s a short film clip that gives an animated tour in a minute and a half about the difference she made.) Corita literally made peace and love signs.

My closest connection to Corita was through her High Cards. They were some of her best poster-like art on colorful half-page postcards. I still treasure my High Cards, which are older than dirt and have accumulated their share of actual dirt from well-worn reading and display in my office for encouragement.

One of the High Cards I love best is black and white and says:

“Change your melodrama into a mellow drama.” – Corita Kent

Since The Radical Virgo advocates evolutionary astrology where each person becomes all he or she was meant to be in optimal self-expression, I thought I’d take page out of Corita’s book and offer some “high ideas” on how that would look on each of the signs of the zodiac. My article, The Radical Virgo, does that in detail for the Virgo, but how about the complete set of twelve? Each sign can choose mellow drama instead of melodrama, high sign or low sign.

Learning the potentials of the 12 prototypes is a life-long quest—a conversation we can never have too often or stop exploring in depth—because the zodiac signs are the foundation of the astrological alphabet and our sky-to-earth understanding.

Here are my thoughts on how the High Signs would look from A(ries) to P(isces). We are living organisms. It's no surprise that an inner growth cycle emerges from the zodiac that largely parallels plant growth. Most of us know the popular saying, paraphrased in several biblical passages and more recently made popular by artist Mary Engelbreit: “Bloom where you are planted.” The seeds of our personalities are indeed sown in the signs of the zodiac. We are responsible for tending them like good gardeners for the best yield and quality of crop.

To keep this meaty but to avoid overwhelm, we’ll take this tour around the zodiac in three posts. Today, #1: Aries through Cancer. In the next two weeks, #2 – Leo through Scorpio; and finally, #3 - Sagittarius through Pisces.

Aries Firestorm – Controlled Burn and Renewal

What boundless energy! This person’s creativity is on fire. (My friend, Pop Art Diva, has Aries Moon, and I swear that woman draws and doodles in her sleep! She is an artist whose productivity and non-stop creative flow boggle the imagination.)

Some of the most exciting qualities of this sign are self-starting, adventurous, and courageous. Aries is the spring seed energy, the Get Up and Go of Life. This Mars-ruled sign needs action! When qualities of impulsiveness, hotheadedness, need to win at all costs, and self-centeredness can be contained like a controlled burn or burned off to leave their tempered complement, Aries begins to evolve to its highest calling—conception. Aries is a think tank, not a bureaucrat. This soul does its most sacred work scattering the seeds of new life and belongs in places where he contributes to constant new beginnings. When Aries is being himself, his mantra is, be-gin. A starter more than a finisher, Aries is most at home in the exciting first stages of a business, project, or relationship. Projects that are short from conception to fruition are his forte.

Obviously, to succeed in certain areas of life, especially relationship; you can’t be just a starter. You need to be in it for the long haul. At her best, Aries finds a way to create constant renewal in all areas of life. Very appealing to Ram-mates who might dig the continuous honeymoon possibilities!

Taurus – Dirt Revels

What on earth do I mean by that? Taurus revels in the upside of the Earth element (dirt)—the beauty of nature, physicality, sensuousness, and all the resources money can buy. The Bull’s steady, persistent nature allows him or her to acquire a lot of goodies.

As a Taurus evolves, she lets go of materialistic tendencies, realizing that if you clutch dirt, you just get your hands dirty. Learning to let go of possessiveness also goes for people and relationships. I love that Earth Day occurs when the Sun is in Taurus. This holiday is a reminder to let go of concern about greenbacks and, instead, to let in the green all around us. Taurus “rising,” as in evolving, comes to terms with the psycho-spiritual aspects of abundance. He is in the constant flow of prosperity and does not need to be possessive or obsessive about security.

This Venus-ruled sign must be surrounded by beauty, especially nature. Often artistic with an eye for color, if the Aries conceives, Taurus takes root. Using steadfastness and her love of the good things in life, this sign sends out deep taproots of living abundance. Earthy, in deed!

Gemini—Making Friends with the Not So Evil Twin

How does a Gemini overcome talking too much, being scattered, distracted, restless or who has trouble following through? She takes her duality and makes it her friend. There are two Gemini Twins, Castor and Pollux, male and female. We often joke about Gemini’s split personality, but as Gemini evolves, she makes it a good thing. If her mental high energy causes her fuss or fidget, the other twin can put an arm around her shoulder, like a loving but firm mom, and say, “Sweetheart, you’ve got to knock it off.” This sign, more than most, has the capacity to get outside itself to observe itself. Gemini is an air sign ruled by Mercury. The trick is to make friends with both twins and a pact that they’re going to work together to channel all that airy, Mercurial energy before it blows them away like so much dandelion fluff.

I have a favorite image from an old childhood cartoon. It showed, arguing repeatedly, an angel and devil on the shoulder of the main character (who must have been a Gemini!). The angel was arguing for the high road; the devil, of course, voted for the self-serving pleasure of the moment. Gemini is facile with our greatest tool, the mind, which can be an angel of positive manifestation or the devil that takes us to hell in a hand basket, if not managed.

The Twins working as a team with Gemini’s Higher Self can take him and his mind to full expression of his charms: spontaneous, innovative, alert, energetic, and unbiased. With his intellectual and logical mind, he can grow not just in the ability to think, but also in the joy of true knowledge. He can become an authority, not just a dabbler.

Lastly, as a purveyor of possibilities, Gemini shows us all the ways the wind could blow. This is a critical next step in the psycho-spiritual growth process that parallels nature. In Aries, the creation is conceived; in Taurus, it takes root. In Gemini, we assess atmospheric growing conditions that influence how our plant will flourish.

Cancer: Feelers, Not Tentacles

The Moon-Ruled Cancer makes me think about how the much of the human body is made up of water—55-60 %. Think of the Moon’s gravitational pull on the tides. No wonder emergency rooms overflow with physical and mental crises at the Full Moon! By definition, Cancer is more sensitive—even hypersensitive—to the forces of nature around her. How does she go from clingy, moody, self-indulgent, hoarding, and gluttonous to the high ground of receptivity, devotion, protection, positive changeability, and imaginative intuition?

The key is how she chooses to create a safe container. Whether it’s her home/nest or a the vision of a crystal bowl that holds her psyche, Cancer’s bowl or cup must contain her considerable water without spillage and leave her reflective and receptive without undue fear.

Cancers find security in being held, both literally and figuratively. That can be in her home, her psychic container, or a relationship with someone she trusts. All these things keep Cancer’s nurturing from running all over the place. Leaking the waters of Self are what leads to the clutchy, smothering behavior for which some Cancers are infamous. She wants to be held to get a hold of her feelings.

When Cancer puts attention on this key issue, she has created an incubator or greenhouse for her Self. In the psycho-spiritual growth process, we have gone from conception in Aries, to rooting in Taurus, and attention to weather and growth conditions in Gemini. Now, in Cancer, we have the flowerbed, row or container garden for seedling protection.



Next: High Signs, Part 2: Leo through Scorpio

~~~

Learn more about Sr. Corita’s work in this video by LA Curator Aaron Rose who calls her art “radical, political graffiti” and captures it in this clip from her Passion for the Possible exhibit.

Corita Kent's birth data: 20-Nov-1918 in Ft. Dodge, IA. Time unknown.

Photo credit: HAPPY CHILDREN GIVING VICTORY SIGN © Maszas Dreamstime.com

The Depths of Change: A Cup of Courage in Times of Tough Transits

© By Joyce Mason, 1996-2009

(Author's Note: This article was written in 1988 during my transiting Pluto conjunct natal Chiron transit.)

Change is the story of my life—one of deep and ongoing transformation. As I'm sure is true for many people on the spiritual path, that constant death-and-rebirth process is the very turbulence that brought me to my knees and the heart of my inner journey. It takes most of us many years to learn that change is our friend, not our enemy. It takes some of us even longer to learn to enjoy the trip. When the outer planets are involved—Chiron, Uranus, Neptune, or Pluto—and when they are ravishing us where we live (making stressful aspects to our personal or most pivotal planets), the trip can feel like a Blind Journey through Hell.

One day, when I was feeling particularly frustrated and depressed, my best friend remarked, "I worry about you sometimes. Change comes from such a deep part of your being, I'm afraid you don't see it for a long time."

That transformational nearsightedness is probably the most difficult aspect of our evolution, the heart of faith that requires us to believe in things unseen. Recently, I remarked to my mother, "Who ever said metamorphosis would be easy? Pushing and shoving through that cocoon of hardened ideas is exhausting to say the least, but flying like a butterfly—there's the fun!"

She reminded me, however, that while the butterfly flutters freely and his flight is exhilarating, his life is short-lived. She added, "That's what life is—constant birth, death, and rebirth."

In the depths of change, which is a sort of dying, we are least aware of our flight, our freedom, and our direction. When we're changing, we're letting go. Most of all, we're letting go of those hardened ideas that constitute the cocoon of "who we have become." You can't see yourself letting go of ideas, and neither can anyone else see it. Yet it's nonetheless happening, and it's the prerequisite for the subsequent joy of being unfettered, able to "fly free," becoming all we are.

As I write this, I am personally climbing out of the deepest, hardest cocoon I ever built. This metamorphosis began when I took six months off work to write my autobiography, about my own inner healing. Few people have the opportunity to look at themselves as candidly as I did in outlining my story. Every pattern in my relationships and my own self-undoing came jumping off the manuscript pages in flashing neon lights. I have looked my baseline devils square in the eye: I have had an exorcism from the bottom of my being. My very foundations have been shaken. I had to see what I believed and challenge it. Some of the things I saw were not pretty.

I saw the beliefs that have been woven into my cocoon, such as:

"I am not enough."
"If I really love someone, I must let them go."
"It's always my fault."
"Closeness always ends in abandonment."

It was hard enough to find some of these foundational beliefs, they were so deeply buried, much less to face them squarely and be willing to give them up. In fact, the process was so painful, even for an eternal optimist, that I fully understand why some people spend their entire lives running from themselves and this very healing. At times, it feels like a bitter pill.

No wonder, lately, I've felt a sense of depression and grieving. "Joy cometh in the morning," we are told. Not only that, but, "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted."

When we've spent our entire lives supporting beliefs, healthy or otherwise, they served us at some level, if for no other reason that to reinforce a false sense of safety. To give up the shelter of our cocoon is an act of faith, to say the least, with nothing left surrounding us for protection except the hope that joy will eventually come.

Perhaps I have felt most blocked, lately, because I am the closest to pushing out of the cocoon. I beat and beat on the walls, but until I weaken the structure enough to push through, I am still blocked and still frustrated. Perhaps that angry push of frustration is the very thing that's needed for breakthrough. From this side of the cocoon, I don't see the progress I'm making. I still see darkness and a wall with no exit.

Just like Jesus, we must die for our beliefs, in a figurative sense. The person who believed all those unloving things about herself must let go of life as that kind of person. We sometimes wonder if our whole life has been for naught, as we face what feels like a crucifixion—no matter how much we hear it will lead to resurrection and transformation to a higher form of life. We must not worship the dying, but learn to see it as a passage and a pathway to new life—an initiation.

I'm not sure who I am anymore. I know my best friend is right. I don't yet see the totality of my own transfiguration, but I cling to my trust in the process of life, no matter how shaky. Winter always turns into spring.

Recently, I had an opportunity to explain to someone very different from me what it's like to be a deep person: If there are potentially a dozen layers of psychological being, many people live on Layer 1 and 2. They're not very aware of themselves, and many repressed feelings are pushed down into the deeper layers. If they're not willing to know those deeper layers, they will remain unconscious of them. That's what the subconscious is. You are not aware of what's in it and the many ideas, hurts, and experiences that rule your life from this unknown power center.

Some of us old souls seem to have been born with a willingness to live life from the deepest levels of our being, and to know the depths of Self. If most people live their lives on Layers 1 and 2 and there are 12 possible layers, I feel like I live on Layer 14. It is unique and unusual to live like this, and, obviously, most people drawn to astrology or spirituality are "deep ones."

I sometimes envy Layer 1's and 2's. To me, their lives look simple, viewing them from out here on Layer 14 where it's difficult to find someone to talk to. Few of them can relate to the deep inner healing I am talking about.

Yet, bottom line, you can only heal from the inside out. Until you're ready to plunge the depths of your psyche and spirit, it's like putting band-aids on cancer. As Louise Hay said of her own cancer in her book, You Can Heal Your Life: they could keep cutting off pieces of Louise or she could change the thoughts that made her sick. In a figurative sense, this is true of our dis-eases, whatever they are, and and regardless of form.

It's worth it. Even funerals are a celebration of life, and it's in dying that we are reborn. Dare to plunge the depths, and honor yourself and your feelings when you don't feel like dancing on your own grave until the healing is done.

I fear, sometimes, that in our commitment to "positive thinking" we sometimes do not allow ourselves the tears that cleanse. Sometimes the path from here to the spiritual ideal requires many detours and considerable travel on rough roads. One must keep the ideal/target clearly in mind to hope for a bull's eye. Like the sign in my office says, "If you aim at nothing, you will hit it."

However, in aiming at joy, we must sometimes walk knee deep in sorrow to get there. It doesn't seem like we're making progress at all. Yet when change comes from the deepest part of ourselves, and in partnership with Spirit it is only a matter of time before we burst forth from pupa to perfection. Even (especially!) when we're dealing with Pluto...

As Marianne Williamson, my favorite teacher of A Course in Miracles says, "Are you going to believe in what the ego says, in its need to see something, now, or are you going to believe in the same force that turns seedlings into flowers and acorns into mighty oaks?"

From the deepest depths within me, my decision was made a long time ago: the exotic flower of a human being in full bloom has got to be worth watering with tears.

~~~

Photo Credit: CHRYSALIDES © Liumangtig... Dreamstime.com

Why Chiron? Gifts of the Wounded Healer

© 1991 - 2009 by Joyce Mason

New to Chiron or looking for something about Chiron in a nutshell? This updated, introductory article has been an enduring favorite. Because Chiron is such an amazing archetype of positive male energy, this post is for Father’s Day—dedicated to all our dad readers and to fostering the positive male energy in us all.

Don’t let its small size and unusual nature as part-comet, part-planetoid fool you. Chiron is the missing key to interpreting your astrology chart. It opens the door to personal and planetary evolution. Because mythological Chiron was a mentor of heroes and the first astrologer, the discovery of astrological Chiron in 1977 heralded a whole new way of using astrology and other lost esoteric arts—to bring out the best in each individual. By fostering their greatest talents, each person can go onto contribute them to the collective. This makes a culture hum and a society great. Chiron’s own work was turning out heroes. Nearly every era of history needed heroes, who could argue that current times call for heroism?

Bridge from Old to New
Chiron is an ambassador between Old (Saturn) and New (Uranus). As it orbits between these two planets, Chiron is connected with process and evolution. Imagine, as Barbara Hand Clow has called Chiron in her book title, a rainbow bridge. [1] Saturn is on one end, Uranus on the other. In the past, the only way hard, institutionalized ways (Saturn) were changed in our world was by revolution (Uranus). Chiron brings us an alternative—step-by-step organic change, the slow but sure type that really sticks. We need it, because human beings don’t handle change easily, much less drastic and unexpected change.

Once change is achieved—we cross the bridge from Saturn to Uranus—and we sit with it awhile, the New eventually becomes Old, and we start the process all over again. It is really an endless recycling loop, apropos because the centaur Chiron was keeper of the forest and is strongly associated with ecology. The individual with Chiron prominent [2] has a foot in both worlds—the establishment and the leading edge. S/he is able to work within the system to convey new ideas and catalyze change.

Journey to Wholeness
Chiron is complex and exciting. It is the archetype connected with your individual journey to wholeness. All key words for Chiron relate to wholeness or achieving it. Prior to Chiron’s discovery, Dane Rudhyar predicted that there would be a planet discovered between Saturn and Uranus that would act as a “higher Moon.” Rudhyar had a glimmer of the reason why Chiron in his mythological story had an incurable wound. It is being stuck in our wounding from the past that keeps us from achieving what we crave in the present. There is no healing without healing the emotional body, and Chiron’s story emphasizes this point.

Chiron was wounded in a fracas with the wild centaurs that interrupted a wedding. The wedding is a metaphor for the inner marriage of feeling complete, where the all parts of us are wed in harmony.

Our ability to become all that we can be is interrupted constantly by our own devils, the wild centaurs within us--the one’s Chiron was not like and stood apart from. Those dark forces cause the scars of unresolved pain. Chiron was a great herbalist and surgeon, the teacher of Asclepius, Father of Medicine, yet he could not heal himself. This is what happens if we don’t confront our inner demons.

Cultural Influences

The myth, astronomy, and events surrounding its discovery contribute rich metaphors to understanding Chiron as an astrological influence. The cultural phenomena most connected with Chiron’s discovery are the “New Age” and holistic healing. I put New Age in quotes because there is nothing new about it, just a resurfacing of repressed esoteric knowledge that has been present, if underground at times, for millennia. In addition, I want to distinguish the sincere and beneficial practice of these arts from the pejorative way this term is sometimes used by those who don’t appreciate them.

Weaving Opposites
Both Chiron’s myth and astronomy tell us of the need to merge the opposites within us to achieve wholeness. Our cultural wound is the split between instincts and intellect (represented by mythical Chiron’s centaur body, half man and half horse). The astronomer who named Chiron had great intuition, whether or not he realized it at the time. Only later was it confirmed that Chiron is a composite as a planet, too. The American Astronomical Union has classified objects like Chiron “centaurs” —the thousands of others like Chiron discovered beyond Neptune. The term is in Chiron’s honor, the first centaur planet discovered.

Spiritual Elements
Chiron’s energy has been rediscovered at a time when we need it most, and his story has a number parallels to the later life of Jesus. Since one function/meaning of the “rainbow bridge” is to bring heaven to earth, we can see Chiron as a nonreligious, but spiritual archetype that gives us a prescription for wholeness and achieving it. Chiron is about healing where we feel misfit and unrelated and finding our place in the world—interconnected and in communion with each other.

Point of Chart Synthesis
In a birth chart, astrological Chiron is the point of chart synthesis, where old pain can be transmuted and the individual can become a model for mastery of a specific life lesson. By working through and finding the gift in our own suffering, everyone whose life we touch benefits by example. This is true heroism and why Chiron mentored heroes. This is why we crave “human interest” stories. Pain is our teacher, because it holds the key to our healing. Each of us has a job to heal our own wounds so that we can learn from each other. So often, where we were hurt the most contains the seed of our gift to give in terms of life’s purpose and “real work.” Examples: A kid who grew up in the ghetto, makes it rich, and becomes a philanthropist; or the domestic violence victim who runs a shelter to protect others who are still in the process of breaking free. [3] If you don't know your Chiron, you don’t know what you’re missing!

~~~

Photo: Statue of a centaur I purchased in Athens during the Chironic Convergence in 1996. The Chironic Convergence was a journey to the Pelion region of Greece--Chiron's mythical homeland-- for astrologers and astrology students to explore Chiron.

For more articles on Chiron on The Radical Virgo, enter Chiron in the Search This Blog feature near the top of the sidebar.

NOTES
[1] Clow, Barbara Hand, Chiron: Rainbow Bridge Between the Inner and Outer Planets (Llewellyn: 1987).

[2] Chiron is prominent when placed on one of the four angles or cusps of the 1st, 4th, 7th, and 10th houses (Ascendant, IC, Descendant, or Midheaven). It is considered especially prominent if placed in the 1st House of identity or self-expression (Barack Obama has this position) or the 10th House of career/public life (Angelina Jolie, Elton John). Numerous aspects to Chiron also contribute to prominence, most notably conjunctions, squares, and oppositions. Just one of these can make a person “Chironic” if they are to the Sun, Moon, or Ascendant.

[3] Thanks to astrologer Dale O'Brien for enhancing my awareness of the connection between the Chironic wound and career paths.

This article first appeared in Welcome to Planet Earth.

Wordgo: The Virgo Way with Words

Why are Virgos in love with words?

For years, I have used the Celestial Influences astrological calendars. There is a two-word affirmation for each sign every month. Examples: “I Am” for Aries; “I Have” for Taurus, and “I Think” for Gemini.

The I-statement for Virgo is “I Analyze.” That job would be really difficult to do without words—lots of them!

There are some main areas of life that Virgos work on: knowledge, health, and service. Note the difference between the I-statement for Gemini and Virgo, both traditionally ruled by the Thinker Planet Mercury. Gemini thinks, but Virgo analyzes. Analysis can often make the difference between information and knowledge, between facts and wisdom.

Gemini often likes information for its own sake, the reason why so many folks with a lot of Gemini in their charts are likely to beat your butt at Trivial Pursuit. They throw factoids, dates and data around like confetti.

Virgo, on the other hand, is not happy until s/he knows why the fact is important, what the data means and exactly why a date was significant. To a Virgo, this is not a party, and that Gemini can take his damned confetti and mess elsewhere. This earth sign literally wants to bring the data down to earth, to know what it’s good for, and how it will help people.

We all know the expression, “garbage in, garbage out” or GIGO when it comes to using computers or any other kind of data crunching mechanism, including our own brains. A Virgo would never put in garbage. You know how much Virgos hate dirt! “Garbage out” would never be an acceptable outcome. The Virgo’s need to sift and winnow, her proverbial job of separating the wheat from the chaff, is ever so much easier if she starts with a decent crop of wheat, preferably organic.

Mercury is also the quicksilver god of communication, the winged messenger. It’s fun to contrast the Mercury-ruled signs. Gemini would love the thrill of having to run the message to its destination lickety-split. He’d deliver it with clever conversation and perhaps report on the weather and interesting encounters on the way. Virgo would be much more worried that the right message got to the right person at the right time. She’d be looking for shortcuts to get there efficiently and the correct person authorized to sign for the article.

So, how do we make the best of our Wordgo tendencies? Many of us are writers, editors, publishers, and composers. (Music is a more math-based type of writing, but if you’re a lyricist, too, what an impressive right- and left-brain merger!) The sign of Virgo has its share of actors and news personalities, all who make their living with words.

There are many potential jobs for Virgo, one of the most employable signs of the zodiac, because we love to work! But since this is the Radical Virgo blog, I hope you’ll comment and tell us your personal way with words, especially if you were a Virgin birth (born with Sun in Virgo); or if you have other Virgo planets that bless you with these proclivities. What do you do with words? How do you love them? (Count the ways.)

I’ll go first. Here are some of mine:

Writer, publisher, shameless punster, a word game player (Scrabble, Jumble, Spellbound) … and a person who loves words in art. One of my favorite artists ever was Corita Kent, whose words made beautiful became designs for posters, book covers, and murals. Her work includes the 1985 Love Stamp and Rainbow Swash, the 150-foot (46 m)-high natural gas tank in Boston. Her artwork, focused on messages of peace and love. That made it particularly popular during the social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s. (Have you noticed how the peace sign is coming back, and not just on The Radical Virgo’s new blog header?)

I also love to rearrange words on the Internet Anagram Server. Some of my faves for “Radical Virgo” are Caviar Do Girl, Garlic Via Rod, A Rival Doc Rig, and Vocal Rag Rid I.

Of course, I research the derivation of words, and wear word jewelry. For my croning ceremony when I turned sixty, I was presented with a Light Drop Jewelry necklace that says Heals on one side, With Words on the other. I covet a pair of earrings made to replicate old typewriter keys. Unfortunately, my Mercury in Libra can’t make up her mind which keys she wants. While my initials, JM, are obvious possibilities, I sure would like an exclamation mark (!) or a dollar sign ($).

Finally, I thought I’d introduce you to Wordle, if you haven’t already met—word collages that capture the essence of a blog or website—or any cut ‘n’ paste concoction of words you want to feed into it. This Wordgo Wordle (say that 10 times!) was created by The Radical Virgo on April 19, 2009—a picture in time of what’s happening on this blog. Check out the words that stand out most:

Astrology Chiron Moon New Life Hero One Want

Freely translated: Astrology can be a healing path to receptivity, new life, and becoming our own heroes, the one thing we all want.

The Word from On High!

~~~

Word-Class Reminder: Don't forget to mark your calendar for Donna Cunningham’s teleseminar on finding career signatures for writing in astrology charts, May 3, 2009.

New Moon Manifestation Ceremony

Toolbox – Rituals

By Dana Stone, Guest Author

Note from Joyce: Each month we have a Golden Opportunity to capture the energy and natural cycle of the Moon. The lunar cycle is our vehicle to create what we want in our lives for the next 28 days. By putting forth our desires at the New Moon, the time of new beginnings, we align with heavenly forces to co-create what we want to manifest. Our desires ripen at the Full Moon, when they peak to fulfillment. Then we watch those desires wane as we absorb their resolution into everydayness. Other issues soon surface and drift to the front burner for the New Moon Treatment!

Dana Stone is not only my dearest friend of 30 years, her metaphysical know-how and this New Moon Ceremony, in particular, are invaluable to me. Enjoy Dana’s recipe for getting what you want out of life, and more insight than a Full Moon could ever illuminate.

Items needed to create your sacred circle:

· 1 white mini-candle
· 1 red mini-candle
· White sage wand (or incense preferred)
· Earthen (clay) or crystal bowl filled with spring water
· An offering (a piece of fruit, coins or article of clothing etc.) for donation
· Bound notebook or creativity diary
· Colored pens, pencils, paints, art objects, pictoral magazine clippings
· One to four tarot decks or oracles

Here are the basic steps for my New Moon ceremony (about 60- 90 minutes long):

1. Smudge or sage your sacred space in a large circle.

2. Center yourself, see and open your seven chakras.

3. Light two mini-candles: one red to energize and one white, representing wisdom and vision. Say an invocation prayer of gratitude for all blessings past, present and future.

4. Sit quietly and reflect on what is most important to you right now in your life and what you would like to create or have manifest in the next 2-3 weeks. Focus on the end in mind. Where do you want to be or what you want to have changed or manifested in your life?

5. Write down what you'd like to manifest in the current moon cycle. The more specific and clear, the better. (For example: I want to be clear on my passion and purpose, without hesitation or reservation; or, I want laser clarity on the next steps I must take to discover my passion and purpose.)

6. Next, make two colorful drawings: one reflecting or representing how you are feeling now and one reflecting or representing how you will feel when you manifest or achieve your goal. Your drawing can be abstract, a picture of or impressions of your goal, creating or coloring in a mandala, making a collage--whatever comes to mind and occurs to you spontaneously.

7. Now, while holding your intent on the goal or manifestation, in your mind and in your heart, shuffle four different tarot decks. Draw one tarot card from each deck (or select four runes), to aid you on each of the four levels of body, mind, spirit and emotion. (All four tarot cards can also come from one deck or you can use a deck representing each level of awareness...follow your intuition...do what “feels” best!) I interchangeably use SARK, Voyager or Motherpeace decks for the body and spirit. Goddess Cards and Medicine/Animal cards work well for the mind and emotions. However, I often switch them around, or I'll introduce another deck that I am attracted in the moment.

8. Next, reflect and write about the impressions, messages or insights that you receive from the cards or runes images in your notebook/ lunar diary. Write freely and do not stop writing for at least 5-10 minutes.

9. Place the four cards or runes on your altar or nightstand so you can stay focused during the next two weeks on your creation. This visual reminder also allows more awareness and insight to filter through your consciousness and your dreams.

10. (Optional) After reflecting on the cards or runes and recording information obtained, I pause to allow a musical representation come to me. I jot down whatever comes to mind. It can be a song, lyrics, or one or more vibrational notes. Initially, what you hear or what comes to mind may or may not make sense, but the lyrics, notes or rythym are usually clear by the Full or Disseminating moon. If nothing immediately comes to mind during the New Moon Ceremony, do not force it. Often the music or song will come to you in another way…usually in the dream state.

11. Finally, write a clear affirmation for your manifestation, say a prayer of thanksgiving and drink the water in your bowl, imagining the flow of your wish and its outcome into each cell of your body. (Optional: use the water as the base for a flower essences combination.) Do not blow out the candles and allow them to go out naturally.

12. Give the offering as guidance or insight directs, at the first available opportunity.


© 2009 by Dana Stone. All Rights Reserved.

~~~

Dana Stone is an International Coaching Federation Certified Empowerment Coach with over 30 years of successful managerial and executive leadership experience. A graduate of the University of California, Davis, she holds several leadership and teambuilding certifications along with extensive training and experience in energy principled therapies including metaphysics and quantum healing. Her unusual combination of executive leadership and experience in the intuitive healing arts enhance her value as a catalyst and coach in both business and personal matters. Dana brings a unique perspective and blend of art, science, business and intuition to help all clients achieve personal and professional success." Visit her Astral Coach website.

Photo credit: NEW MOON © Zuboff Dreamstime.com

Next New Moon: Apr. 24 at 8:23p PDT. Adjust for your time zone in the US or World.

DREAM DATE: Don’t forget Joyce’s appearance on Paranormal Connection on Monday, 9:00 pm PDT.

Get Guidance from Your Dreams!

Mark your calendar for your “dream date!”

April 20, 2009 @ 9:00 pm PST

Watch Joyce Mason’s lively interview with Dänna Wilberg, host of the Paranormal Connection in the Sacramento area on Comcast Channel 17.

Anywhere else, watch on the web on Access Sacramento. Click on WATCH 17.

Here's a hint: Log on early! The web stream only holds
2000 viewers - if you are unable get online, call Access Sacramento: 916-456-8600. Let them know you want to watch "Paranormal Connection."

Topics covered include tips on remembering, recording, and deciphering your personal dream code. Hear some amazing results that speak for themselves about why you might want to play with your “Dream-Doh.”

Can’t make the web- or telecast or want supplemental information on this topic? Visit Joyce’s Dreamwork page on her Writer Joyce Mason website.

DREAM © Adpower99 Dreamstime.com

Chiron’s Key Word Corner: Hero

This is the first in a series of periodic posts on Chiron’s Key Words. Since Chiron is my astrological specialty, I am delighted to share materials previously printed in “Chironicles” newsletter (1992-95) and newly developed writings about the centaur planet. Some astrologers believe Chiron is Virgo’s ruler.

Chiron was a mentor of heroes. The New American Heritage Dictionary (NAHD) defines mentor as “a wise and trusted counselor or teacher.” Among the future heroes taken to Chiron as boys for his sage guidance were Jason, leader of the Argonauts, who brought the Golden Fleece from Colchis; Hercules, renowned for his great strength; and Asclepius, the Greek god of healing.

Although the key word, here is hero, it is important to remember that behind every hero is a mentor. Hero and mentor are tightly interwoven terms that need to be taken together to enhance our understanding of why the Chiron myth was rediscovered in 1977 at a crucial juncture in human history—and what it has to tell us about our own lives.

Heroes aren’t born, they are cultivated … Behind every hero is another hero.

NAHD contains three definitions of hero that can help bring home Chiron’s message: (1) In mythology and legend, a man, endowed with great courage and strength, celebrated for his bold exploits, and favored by the gods; (2) Any man noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his life; and (3) A person prominent in some event, field, period, or cause by reason of his special achievements or contributions.

Mythical Chiron himself fits all these definitions.

In other words, behind every hero is another hero. It might be your mother, who sacrificed her life and own pursuits for her children. One of mine was a priest who told me my conscience was my most important authority, even when because of it; I disagreed with the Church.

Your hero may be a special teacher, aunt, or uncle who somehow showed you the ropes, taught you to do your best, and how to live life to the fullest. An excellent example was the teacher played by Robin Williams in the 1989 movie, Dead Poet’s Society. The hero behind the hero teaches us how to seize the day and make the most of our gifts. He or she identifies and nurtures our special skills—what, deep down, we’re really good at and absolutely must share to feel whole. Even the suicide of the young man in Dead Poet’s Society, whose father would not let him express his acting talent, is a strong metaphor. It parallels Chiron’s message:

If we do not do what we love, we die—if not literally, we die in spirit, bit by bit.

Mentoring is what astrologers are supposed to do for their clients. Even though Chiron was an astrologer, this assignment isn’t just for stargazers. We’re all supposed to get it and pass it on—develop our ability to cope creatively, to become living examples of overcoming, not just for ourselves but also for those less experienced. Heroes in training are those who have not yet conquered what we have managed to overcome.

Living on this planet is a heroic adventure, and in the School of Life, the roles of teacher and student are intertwined and ever reversing. Often, teachers learn as much from their students as they teach them, sometimes more. Their dance is a pas de deux.

Now, for the new definition of hero (mine). It is a spin-off from Barbara Hand Clow’s synthesis of the Chirotic energy and what it does for us at best:

A hero is someone who acts unselfishly from his or her Higher Self in urgent circumstances.

Nowadays, everything is urgent. As just one example, time is running out to heal our ecological crisis. Heroism is the epitome of being in the now (one Chironic concept) and fully in your body (another of Chiron’s concepts). Heroism is the ultimate right/left brain merge. It is a product of developing intuition, what Clow calls “…our lost oracular and divination skills reaching a holistic level of integration where we act without the intervention of conscious thought.” (Rainbow Bridge, p. 7.)

Imagine going through life knowing that whatever comes up, you will know instinctively just what to do—when and how to do it.

Instinct doesn’t mean you have to become Nostradamus. Instinct combines knowledge, wisdom, and those signals you get from the pit of your stomach. If you could trust you’d always know just what to do, what would there be to fear?

Life without fear is Heaven on Earth.

The real reason for heroes isn’t to create some sort of idealized knight in shining armor, a Neptunized, mythologized god we always expect to save the day and keep us codependent. Rather, heroes are there to reflect the best in us—our own magnificence. They shine the spotlight on the superlative nature of our own masculine/feminine merger, where we save ourselves by being there for ourselves and trust inspiration to flow through us the very second it is needed.

There’s a hero in everyone. Chiron is here to turn each and every one of us into a star.

~~~

© 2009 by Joyce Mason. All Rights Reserved.


Photo Credit: SUPER DAD © Dragon_fan... Dreamstime.com


Coming Attractions on The Radical Virgo Blog

Chiron’s Keyword Corner is just one of several recurring features that will appear between stand-alone posts. To whet your appetite, here are some of the others. Many of the Toolbox Basic articles are beginner-friendly, yet still helpful to those with a lot of astrological savvy as a quick review tool when scanning for interpretations while reading charts. In fact, the Toolbox series, whether Basics, Rituals, or subcategories yet to come, will tend to require little prior astrological knowledge for understanding or use.

Hope this “preview” keeps you coming back for more at The Radical Virgo!

Toolbox Basics
Getting Your Chart Done
Signs & Houses
Aspects

Toolbox – Rituals

New Moon

Solar Return

High Signs
A series about how to bring out the best in each of the 12 signs and how they work together as a process for self-fulfillment.

The Gene for Astrology

I think I knew I was a Virgo in utero. I can barely remember a time that I didn’t know I was born under the sign of the Virgin. (That still seems like an oxymoron to me, Catholic upbringing and The Virgin Birth aside.)

My mom was especially good at remembering people’s birthdays. While she kept a calendar, I almost didn’t need one. Once I knew a person’s birthday, it was etched forever in my memory. To this day, I can tell you the birthdays of my first pen pal’s children, a dear friend, whose now 40ish kids I only met in person once in my life, when they were 5 and 7! This was one of my earliest hints that I had an aptitude for birth data.

When I went to my 25-year high school reunion in 1990, I reconnected with a good friend of my sister’s who had married a guy in my class. I was amazed at her dominant memory of me: “You were a free spirit, always looking for that something more.” The way she said it, I could see that far-off look in my eye as a teenager, a look that had an eerie similarity to a passage I later read in Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs.

Early Influences
Speaking of Sun Signs, Linda’s book, first published in 1968, the year before I graduated from college, had an enormous influence on me. Her description of Virgo was way more than the compulsive vacuum cleaning archetype. I know she planted the seed in me that would ultimately become “The Radical Virgo.” In something that could only be classified as a full-circle synchronicity, my article, “The Radical Virgo,” is linked on Conscious Evolution, a site that features the original Linda Goodman fan forums founded in 1999.

Linda never bought that Mercury was Virgo’s true ruler. She felt it was the distant planet Vulcan. Shades of Spock on Star Trek! He oozes Virgo. That series started in 1966. Maybe all this cool Virgo vulcanizing strengthened the image of the sign in our collective consciousness. No doubt the kick-butt conjunction of Pluto and Uranus in Virgo had a lot to do with this visioning of the V-sign at that critical time. Peace, love, and the words from “The Age of Aquarius”—harmony and understanding, sympathy and trust.

By my twenties, I was throwing zodiac costume parties. If I knew where to track down all my guests for permission to publish their photos, you’d see some remarkably creative costumes! (I love costumes.) How hard is it to dress like a Virgo? A white sheet and a shaft of wheat or a hyacinth in hand.

I think how we discover a passion or a gift is an important story. It is a developmental subtext in our memoirs we seldom consider. We tend to think more about where an interest took us rather than how it lured us and the pure poetry of its evolutionary arc.

Astrology lured me all right. It seduced me and sucked me into itself, like a comet being captured by the Oort Cloud. Once I moved to California in 1973, it was inevitable that I’d be pulled into astrology’s orbit. On the Left Coast, the ‘60s and ‘70s never died, and by 1980, I found myself taking classes with two fantastic teachers, Gavin Carruthers and John Ruskell. One of their most impressive classes was Family Astrology, where we saw themes carry from the charts of grandparents to the latest generation. There was a lingering rumor in my family about the paternity of one of my cousins. Once we put his chart up with the rest of the relatives, there was no longer any question in my mind. He was an astro-genetic clone of our grandfather!

In this early experience, I learned to hand-compute charts with a calculator, thanks to a special method Gavin devised. (Did you guess he’s a Virgo?). Since I was always math phobic, I was the happiest person on earth when computers took over this drudgework and I could concentrate on interpretation.

Gavin and John weren’t just great astrologers and teachers; their passion for the art was contagious, and their star school in Gavin’s downtown Sacramento apartment was always creative to the max. I was exposed to so many great people through their classes and workshops. This is where I met Donna Cunningham and the late Jim Lewis, inventor of Astro*Carto*Graphy.

Astrology Career Arc
That’s how I got hooked. By 1988, I hung up my shingle and became a pro. I did readings, wrote articles, gave presentations, went to conferences at home and abroad, published the international newsletter Chironicles (1992-95), and took 18 people on a trip to Greece in 1996 to share what we knew and to learn more about Chiron, my astrological specialty.

I also was guided to let go of it all, just as my work peaked. While this “stop work order” stunned me, I always listen to my inner guidance. My article on my Writer Joyce Mason website, Being Chiron, tells more about my long hiatus from astrology and my current return in a new way.

Listening to inner guidance—reading the signs all around me, not just the astrological kind—is what brought me back. (For those want more details, read my article, Your Cosmic Tractor Beam, if you haven’t already.)

Power Places
I have had some startling realizations along with this magnetic pull back to an old familiar place. My power, both as a person and a writer, is somehow inextricably linked to astrology.

On my birth father’s side, I am the great granddaughter of a Greek Orthodox priest. Our family is from the Island of Kos, Greece where astrology was transferred from the East to the West. Although I do not know of any family member who practiced astrology, somehow this bit of history of our family’s place of origin vibrated in my DNA.

I am programmed to astrology and to “bridge work” in astrology, which is probably why I fell in love with Chiron. Chiron is the archetype of merging from one place to another, or as Barbara Hand Clow called Chiron in her book title, the Rainbow Bridge Between the Inner and Outer Planets.

So, that’s my astrology story, and I’m sticking to it.

I would love to hear yours, whether you’re a new stargazer, an ongoing student, or a professional astrologer. Please comment and tell us how you started your star trek and what you’ve learned from it, so far.

~~~

Photo: Joyce as Virgo, 1969.

“God Is Not An Aries”

I coined this expression for a friend with five planets in Ram, whenever it’s obvious that she and God operate on different calendars. I told her once, “You need to practice the P-word.” She had no idea what word I was talking about.

Short on the P-word, Patience: Aries typically want everything yesterday. The Ram charges forward, horns first, bursting with exuberant, fiery energy.

God cannot be an Aries. The answers to our prayers and most manifestations take much longer than an Aries would wait. Unfortunately, most of us are pretty “Aries,” Aries or not. All America is on fast forward. Reminding my Aries friend to enjoy “getting there” has never been very effective. What may be better for us all, during impatience, is understanding why we “just can’t wait” and why we may want to learn, even cultivate this virtue.

Aries are visionaries. This goes for those who are literally an Aries and others, when they are acting like one. Aries begins at the Spring Equinox, the time for planting. Within each seed is contained the entire cycle of life. Aries sense the whole story. It must be murder to have to wait and see if it ends up like his or her considerable intuition is hinting.

So it is for all of us at the beginning of our creations, whether a new business, relationships, or project. Aries is ruled by Mars, the male, yang, or outgoing energy. Mars is “going for it.” We are all acting Aries or Martian when we initiate/create something, especially if it has never been done before. Aries are the pioneers of the zodiac; in their case, that’s often.

Americans move fast because of their affinity to the Ram. We expect Cup-a-Soup relationships, instant financial return, and spiritual enlightenment without the bother of meditation, prayer, affirmations, and study.

Speaking of Mars and Martians, I remember Robert Heinlein’s book, Stranger in a Strange Land. Stranger is about Valentine Michael Smith, the Man from Mars, who ends up a religious superstar in an obvious parallel to the story of Jesus. Smith was slow by Earth standards and often said, “Waiting is fullness.”

I’ll always find it amusing that Smith, the Man from Mars, preached patience. This shows that within all Mars-ruled Aries is the seed of their complementary or opposite sign, Libra.

Libra is ruled by Venus, the planet of love and relationship. Librans’ sense of values is crucial to them, and they are idealistic. So when we are most Aries, the prescription is to become more Libra-like and review our ideal.

In Edgar Cayce on Mysteries of the Mind, Henry Reed states that authentic will is approached not through willpower, but through a willingness to be influenced by an ideal. “Waiting is fullness” when we are willing not just to have something, but when we’re waiting for the outcome match our spiritual vision. Aries wants to be first, but the price may be settling for second best or something picked before it’s full bloom.

Next time you’re Rambunctious, waiting with Aries impatience, weigh these thoughts on your Libra Scales.

~~~


This bit of astro-humor ran in the April 1995 edition of Chironicles in celebration of the Spring Equinox. It honors the sign that starts the natural New Year and the beginning of the zodiac. I am posting it on an Aries New Moon! This article has been evocative in the past—angered more than one Aries who disagreed that God didn’t share their sign! Made others ponder: If God had a sign, what would it be? Since bearers of each sign of the zodiac claim theirs is divine, some more than others, that could be quite a debate! Whatever your sign, this is the time to celebrate Aries. And, of course, The Radical Virgo welcomes your Comments.

(Dedicated to Jessica Lynn, the woman who inspired it, and one of my three long-time, close Aries friends.)

Virgos of the World UNITE! Get Radical

Welcome to the launch and first full post of The Radical Virgo blog.

Let’s start at the endbeginning, because every ending melts into a new beginning:

“We are strong, we are invincible, we are Virgos. What other sign could single-handedly accomplish a global reorganization? So, Virgos of the world, UNITE! Get radical. After all, it’s your job.”

—The Radical Virgo by Joyce Mason (1992)

Maybe you’re wondering why I’m starting a blog inspired by an article I wrote so many years ago. “The Radical Virgo” is timeless, reposted numerous places on the Internet since its original publication in The Mountain Astrologer. I have gotten trickles, even streams of readers, who tell me how much the article has changed their concept of Virgo—even their lives, if Virgo is their Sun sign and/or they have an abundance of planets in Virgo. I have noted in web searches that the term “Radical Virgo” has been coined and propagated, applied to some of the world’s most Radical of Virgos, such as Amy Winehouse.

But why am I really here? It took just one reader named Phix, a Radical Virgo himself, who took me literally about that last paragraph in my article, highlighted above. He asked innocently enough, “Where do I sign up?” (Hey, is that an astro-pun? Sign up? Since we’re talking the upside of Virgo here, maybe it’s a double pun, and you can guess why I like to call myself a Wordgo!)

Back to Earth: In the intervening years, our tools for interconnection have become sophisticated and global. The ability for Virgos to unite and organize in a big way on issues of healing and wholeness are now literally at our fingertips. We finally have the tools. Now we just have to get organized.

Organizing Virgos—Piece of Cake?
Well, it sounds good in theory; in practice, it may be only slightly easier than herding cats, especially if the Virgos we’re talking about are Radical. But we do love words, ideas, and mind-shares. (Cats, too, in most cases.) That’s what I’m counting on!

Raise Your Hands

Humor aside, I’m not egotistical or Virgocentric enough to believe that the V-Sign alone can change the world. (Do note, though, that in sign language, the letter V is the same as the two-fingered peace sign!)

Each of us, regardless of our astrology charts or unique spiritual and genetic imprints, holds the destiny of the world in our hands. Each of us and all of us. Virgo is closely connected to the centaur planet Chiron, which rules hands, and folks, we need all hands on deck holding Planet Earth together at this time in our space travel through the Milky Way Galaxy.

There are symbols and patterns found in the sign and mythology of Virgo that represent the start of a cycle, culminating in wholeness. Virgo is the first of what I consider the four transitional signs: Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius. They take us from Self (starting with Aries and culminating in Virgo) to One Other (Libra and Scorpio) to Many Others (Sagittarius through the remainder of the zodiac). Read “Wholeness and the Inner Marriage,” my other oldie but goodie article, to get the details of my theory on the Chiron Sector (the four transitional signs), which pivots on learning the most evolved lessons of Virgo. We all have “something in Virgo,” even if it’s only a house in our chart that falls in the sign. Everyone has some part of their lives touched by Virgo, and now we can see how Virgos touching each other from the mind and heart can impact a planet that can use some hands-on healing.

Some Thoughts on Blog Culture
This blog will evolve to whatever it’s supposed to become, but here are some thoughts I’d like to offer as guidelines that make sense to me, open to comment and discussion:

• Let’s talk less about chart analysis here and more about symbolic meanings and practical applications of astrological ideas. I’d like a place where we talk more about the forest than the trees.
• Do not necessarily limit discussions to Virgo and/or Chiron, my astrological love and specialty, or Mercury, Virgo’s traditional ruler. Virgo may be our starting point, but wholeness is everything.
• Keep fun a part of the equation! Laughter is a great teacher, and when we’re having such heady conversations, we need a few laughs to bring us back into our bodies. After all, Virgo is an Earth sign.
• Share links to this site and help it grow. If you have the “Radical Virgo energy,” you’ll help draw in others who do, too.
• Let’s share ideas. There’s nothing wrong with differences of opinion, even heated discussions, but “The Radical Virgo” has multiple planets in Libra and lots of Neptunian sensitivity. She cannot bear unkindness, unfairness, or disrespect. She reserves the right to decline to post anything that does not foster word peace. (How did you like my imitation of Miss Manners back there? A Virgo? Probably. Radical? Not.)
• Remember, you don’t have to be a Virgo (Sun in Virgo) to play! (See sidebar, What Is a Radical Virgo?)

The Virgo Union
I envision this blog to be completely interactive—not just my blog but ours. I hope you will Comment often, and when you have a lot to say (longer input), contact me about guest blogging. My friends often call me The Queen of Synchronicity. I was editing some educational material today, just before writing this article. Within it, union was a glossary term: A group, especially an alliance or confederation of people, parties, or political entities, formed for mutual interest or benefit.

What could be more mutually interesting or beneficial than a better world? It’s up to us to see how this ongoing, online get-together morphs into its own identity and where we take it. Astrological insights? Social activism? Service projects? Changing minds to change the world?

Join me in this great experiment to harness the energy of becoming our highest Selves. Think about that quintessential characteristic of Virgo—to be self-reliant. Self-contained. Like snowflakes, each of us is programmed in a unique pattern—each one beautiful, needed, and transitory. (Put us all together, and you’ve got a White Christmas.) When we melt back into the water cycle (another endbeginning), we just come down to Earth again in another form. But before we can give our Selves, we have to be our Selves—to have a Self to give.

We don’t have to seek perfection; we just have to see the perfection that’s already there. The I, Thou, and Us of it.

We need to see it, sort it, and make bread from the remaining grains of truth.

Come. Union!

~~~

Photo credit: HOLDING WORLD © Jennbang Dreamstime.com