THUNDER ON THE MOUNTAINS

If you wonder how the modern world evolved to the point where we’re allowing the beautiful mountans of Appalachia to be blown off and discarded like trash in order to more profitably and easily extract the coal—-perhaps this long quote from Richard Tarnas’s book COSMOS will provide you with the answer.

RICHARD TARNAS:
“…the course of history brought about a deep schism between humankind and nature, and desacralization of the world. This development coincided with an increasingly destructive exploitation of nature, the devastation of traditional indigenous cultures, a loss of faith in spiritual realities and an increasingly unhappy state of the human soul, which experienced itself as ever more isolated, shallow and unfulfilled.
In this perspective, both humanity and nature are seen as having suffered grievously under a long, exploitative, dualistic vision of the world, with the worst consequences being produced by the oppressive hegemony of modern industrial societies empowered by Western science and technology.
The nadir of this fall is the present time of planetary turmoil, ecological crisis and spiritual distress, which are seen as the direct consequences of human hubris, embodied above all in the spirit and structure of the modern Western mind and ego.
This second historical perspective reveals a progressive impoverishment of human life and the human spirit, a fragmentation of original unities and ruinous destruction of the sacred community of being.
Something like these two interpretation of history here described in starkly contrasting terms for the sake of easy recognition, can be seen to inform many of the more specific issues of our age. They represent two basic antithetical myths of historical self-understanding: the myth of Progress and what in its earlier incarnation was called the myth of the Fall. These two historical paradigms appear today in many variations, combinations and compromise formations.
They underlie and influence discussions of the environmental crisis, globalization, multiculturalism, fundamentalism, feminism and patriarchy, evolution and history.
One might say these opposing myths constitute the underlying argument of our time: whither humanity? Upward or downward? How are we to view Western civilization, the Western intellectual tradition, its canon of great works? How are we to view modern science, modern rationality, modernity itself?”

A Wise Quote From a Genuis

I ran across the following quote from Einstein yesterday. “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” – Albert Einstein

It’s not too late to open our minds and hearts to recall the sacred gift of intuition granted to us at our birth. It awaits hopefully to be rediscovered and renewed. How many times have you learned something new and then discovered you had already known it before you learned it. You had just forgotten it for awhile. It had been waiting in the back of your mind for you to remember.

Lost Yet Found: My Inner Journey – Part 4

“As above, so below”.  The structure of the solar system continues to reflect the structure of the human mind. There is proof of this. Many of us have reflected on the historical synchronicities connected with the timing of the discoveries of Uranus (the American and French revolutions), Neptune (the Communist Manifesto, and Spiritism), and Pluto (nuclear energy and the widespread cultural integration of psychological language).

“But the discoveries of those three planets were just the first few drops of rain in the desert. Since 1992, there has been a downpour: not just one new planet, but a deluge of them. …….The solar system has become more complex. Has our sense of the complexity of the human mind also deepened in the past two hundred years? Do we simultaneously entertain many more avenues of perception and belief systems than did our great-grandparents? ……..Developments in astronomy are still reflecting cultural sociology……..The new solar system is real.”   World-famous Astrologer Steven Forrest in The Mountain Astrologer, August 2007.

I’ve learned there are many pathways to the Truth; but there are also many Truths.  The search for my own truth finally led me to astrology.  It may not be for everyone but it works for me.

 Over the past twenty-odd years the most exciting development in astrology has been the discoveries by astronomers of new planetary objects.  As Steven Forrest says, the solar system has become more complex.  In accord with the “as above, so below” the new discoveries reflect what is going on “down below”.

Names were chosen for the new discoveries, ephemerides were created going back many years.  The newly named objects had been there all along, waiting to reflect our evolving consciousness. Which reminds me of a time years ago; I was having trouble with my computer, calling for help from the IT trouble shooter.  He fixed my problem, saying “You were not in sync with the host.”  Perhaps that’s what the new planetary objects were waiting for – for us to get in sync with the host.  Synchronicity. 

As I searched the new ephemerides online and read the results of research by top astrologers (thankful for the Internet!} I was amazed at the new understanding I gained of my own natal chart.  Contacts with the new discoveries were revealing a side of me I’d lost touch with. I found myself going back to my personal history, watching events unfold that had seemed to come out of the blue.  I checked the progressions and transits of the planets and house cusps for those times.  Synchronicity.    

To be continued

Lost Yet Found: My Inner Journey – Part 3

“We are born at a given moment, in a given place and, like vintage years of wine, we have the qualities of the years and of the season of which we are born.  Astrology does not lay claim to anything more.”    The Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist Carl Jung was one of the major forces responsible for bringing psychological(having to do with the mind and its processes) thought and its theories into the twentieth century.

My timid search for what lay behind the door in the back of my mind eventually led me to the study of Astrology: I’m now an advanced student, still learning.  Over the past few years professional astrologers have explored the meaning of newly discovered bodies called Dwarf Planets or  minor planets, along with specific asteroids and Trans-Neptunian (Kuiper Belt) Objects.  When I checked the ephemerides for their positions at the time of my birth I was amazed at how they tended to explain my natal chart.  Indeed “as above so below”.

Today Huya the Rainmaker, a TNO,  is transiting both my Lunar Return Midheaven and my natal Moon.  A New Moon arrived a few days ago, following my Lunar Return.

Although Huya was named for a Venezuelan rain god, different tribes of indigenous peoples throughout many countries have been adept at making rain.  The shamanic or spiritual way was once practiced worldwide. It used intention, prayers and ceremony to open the heart and mind of the seeker to contact unseen forces that exist in nature.  Most Native American tribes also included a rainmaker. In the shamanic tradition a person could become a rainmaker after a long apprenticeship.

I have a long way to go but I feel I too am working on an apprenticeship. Whatever gains I may make in this life, I hope to carry over into my next incarnation.

My American Indian heritage is very scant. As far as I know it began when a great grandfather took a young Cherokee bride way back in the pioneer days in the southern mountains of Appalachia.  Her name did not survive in our genealogy yet a legend was born.  Traces of her has appeared ever since through one descendant or another.  Not only in physical traits but also in spirit.

For instance I had a great grandmother who was a “Bee Charmer”.  My mother told me Great Grandma Polly Stamper could walk among the bee hives unprotected, talking gently to the bees and they gave her all the honey she wanted.  Whereas Great Grandpa could cover up from head to toe and still get stung. 

I’ve never felt an affinity with bees but I have always loved the rain.  The crashing thunder sending a thrill through my body, flashes of lightening across the sky bringing anticipation of things yet to come.    

I have hope for the future.

To be continued.

Lost Yet Found: My Inner Journey – Part 2

“The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.”  Ralph Waldo Emerson

During the birth of my youngest child I had an out-of-body experience.  She was breech, the labor had ceased and the doctor was struggling to deliver her.  I suddenly found myself in the corner ceiling of the room, watching.  “Mother!” my doctor said sharply and I was instantly back in my body.  While I watched from above I was filled with an incredible joy.  In those few moments I knew the answer to everything.  I had complete understanding which no words could express.

 “You are a soul with a body, not a body with a soul”
Francisco Coll

Your body is made up of the things of earth right now, but the real you, the soul, is part of the Universe, the All, or as described by religion, God (symbolized by the solar system on the chart). Whatever you call it, you can learn to consciously tap into it and use the wisdom to enrich your daily life. The moment a person finishes their job here on earth, or when a person becomes so confused that they destroy their body, the connection between the soul and the physical body is severed. When you pass on, your body remains here and goes back to dust because it is composed of the things of planet earth. Your soul, the real you, will leave the earth because the law of gravity cannot keep it here anymore. The soul or intelligent vibration no longer has a physical body to serve as an anchor, so it moves out and returns to the universe or the All. The person of science calls it the universe or the cosmos, while the religious person calls it God. No matter what you call it, you are one with it. There is no separation. The only separation we have is the one we think we have. Once you understand that your physical body cannot exist without oxygen, the rays of the sun, the vegetation, or the pressures of the universe, you’ll realize you are the total component of all things. Religion says you are the expression of God, and science says you are the total component of the universe.   The Inner Peace Movement, Dr. Francisco Coll

I didn’t realize for a while I had opened the strange door in the back of my mind.  Since the few moments were so brief I suspected my imagination had played a trick on me.  Later I made friends with a woman who belonged to an occult book club.  She loaned me books in one of which I read about out of body experiences.  Also learning of other paranormal experiences that seemed familiar.  The door in the back of my mind began to open wider.

One night the friend visited and we discussed contents of the books.  I was surprised one was written by Arthur Conan Doyle; he was a spiritualist as well as the creator of Sherlock Holmes!  Shortly after my friend returned to her own apartment I felt a cold draft surround me. Then I began to feel as if some foreign entity was trying to get into me through my eyes.  I kept them lowered, ducked my head and slowly slid along the wall to the phone to call my friend.  She returned.  “Why is it so cold?” she asked.  “Did you have the patio door open?”

“No,” I said.  She came through the door into the hallway which was toasty warm; no outside door had been opened.  Still keeping my head bent I told her about the fear that had come over me, of something trying to reach me through my eyes.  “Get your Bible,” she said. I did.

She turned to the 23^rd Psalm and began to read aloud.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Although I came from a Christian home and had memorized this Psalm in Sunday school I hadn’t realized it was used to ward off evil.  Later I learned there are other such verses in the Bible.  Thankful for the protection of the Lord’s Prayer, I admitted I was not quite ready to finish opening the door in the back of my mind.  Not yet.  But some day I would be.

 To be continued