July Full Moon 2016

‘If there is fear of any sort, the mind is confused, distorted and therefore it has not clarity. And there must be clarity for that which is eternal to be. To observe the movement of fear in oneself, and to remain with it so completely, without any movement of thought, is the total ending of it’. - Krishnamurti

‘The real question of the moment between dreams is whether we can bear the vibration of this new feeling of the unknown which carries with it the taste of a different quality of intelligence, but which at the same time utterly exposes all our illusions about ourselves.’ - Joseph Needleman

It’s as if we are in the moment between dreams where we could suddenly wake up through the break down of old reference points if we can bear what is happening, if we can constantly dissolve insecurity into observation, stillness. Illusions held in place over lifetimes are falling apart. The theme of fragmentation is moving into a new accelerated phase of surreal meltdown, chaos littered with knife-edge choice-points. It’s as if collectively like lemmings we have jumped over a cliff and instead of hitting the ground we are falling into space: what once seemed solid reality is revealing itself as vast emptiness. The question is how do we deal with this enforced leap into consciousness? Will we discover the ground by hitting it before we finally learn to fly?

Birds make great sky circles of their freedom. How do they learn ? They fall and falling they are given wings - Rumi

We seem to be entering a new phase of transition, seemingly more disturbing and shocking but also full of extraordinary potential. While the theme of the last several years was the clashing of entrenched power against a drastic bid for truth and freedom (Pluto versus Uranus) the fallout and fragmentation from that encounter is now commingled with the ongoing challenge of Saturn and Neptune, structures dissolving into chaos, reality-meltdown or cleansing the doors of perception. The illusions that have been upheld as reliable points of reference globally and culturally since aeons are being revealed for what they have always been…

'I am standing in the lucid dream Of your life. To wake up In the middle of your dream Speak now: say I AM AWAKE' - Philip Wells, The Fire Poet

Neptune (illusion, magic or spiritual inspiration) is undermining Saturn (material stability, authority, reality).We are riding a massive wave of confusion, deception, collective hypnosis or spiritual realisation: nothing is what it seems to be! Only by returning to source within ourselves will we be able to navigate through this extraordinary unfolding dreamscape. Saturn embraces Neptune in spiritual discipline, art, meditation. By letting literal descriptions go we can come home into the realisation of insecurity as the ground of being, pure awareness. This gradually reveals the way ahead from inside out, free of the consensus hypnosis promulgated around us.

Full moon at Solstice on 21st June fell in the black hole known as the Galactic centre, reawakening the imprint of winter solstice eclipse in December 2010, preceding the ‘Arab Spring'. Full moons and eclipses at solstice are rare. The preceding one was a solar eclipse in summer 2001 for-shadowing ‘9/11’ and the next which is on summer solstice in 2020 falls on exactly the same point as that of 2001.

The last new moon in Cancer on 4th July was opposing Pluto, king of the Underworld. But he can’t be opposed, beaten, subdued or eliminated, only transformed, in the same way that unconscious emotions can’t be repressed, only brought to consciousness, dissolved into wisdom through pure perception:

‘There is no demon becoming a god. Non-recognition IS the demon. Realising IS the god. Gods and demons are primordially inseparable. If we realise the primordial view we realise their inseparability. A god degenerates into a demon by being bound’. Adzom Rinpoche

The current full moon again in Cancer is battling against Uranus the rebel/awakener which for the last few weeks has been in 'shock and awe' connection with Mars. At the end of its retrograde journey Mars has been almost stationary for a whole month around its turning point at 23* Scorpio and during that entire time has been provoking or provoked by both Uranus and Chiron, manifesting in the collective as drastic action, violence, reactivity, shock.

At an individual level this same energy can bring positive transformation and empowerment. It calls for healing and more healing through the dissolving of emotions into consciousness with scrupulous self awareness. Anger can manifest as mirror-like clarity when free of self-grasping, fear or attachment to outcomes. It returns through sadness to stillness. This energy is needed to galvanise our awakening. Our unconscious reactions are fuel for the collective nightmare and our impeccability can truly change the world.

'It’s only when we experience our connection to infinity that we’re able to dream powerfully. In fact, it’s our sense of separation from infinity that traps us in a nightmare in the first place. If this sounds like circular thinking, you’re right. Which came first, the nightmare or the sense of separation from infinity? The answer is that they occur simultaneously'. Alberto Villoldo 'Courageous Dreaming'

The hard hitting rawness and insanity of the last weeks should start to ebb as Mars finally moves away from the influence of Uranus and Chiron, although at new moon on 2 August when Mars will reactivate Pluto, there is the potential for violent power struggles. This energy could come to a head in the collective as Mars joins forces with Saturn (authority) around the next full moon (18th August) but at an individual level if we complete our inner work we should enter a fresh alignment of Will with wisdom, a seeding point of new visions for the path ahead.

As Saturn starts to move forward again through Sagittarius from 13th August we can pick up realisations that were first glimpsed last December, finally putting into stable structures our updated understanding of the most magnanimous, wise, passionately inclusive leap of faith into a new world. This long drawn out transition time is a huge test of faith. The challenge is to heal the misunderstanding by the literal mind (Saturn) of the energy of Neptune: compassion, seeing with the heart.

Compassion is the radicalism of our time – The Dalai Lama

Neptune represents both victim and rescuer, the polarity of identities that hypnotise us to forget who we are. But Neptune also represents the spiritual wisdom of pure seeing which can dissolve all the paralysing identification with pain into the heart of consciousness.

Neptune demands that we permit our hearts to be touched. The question is whether we have enough inner stillness and space to bear being touched or not. Either we do or we react with fear, helplessness, irritation, restlessness, all the familiar defences.

To bear is the disorientating leap with a movement beyond our control, as the lemmings discover their eagle nature! To not bear is another turn in the wheel of personal suffering, maintaining the illusion of control…

Lying awake, calculating the future, Trying to unweave, unwind, unravel And piece together the past and the future, Between midnight and dawn, when the past is all deception, The future futureless – TS Eliot

The last conjunction of Saturn and Neptune was in November 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down. Brexit comes at the final quarter of a full cycle of these planets. They will come together again in 2025. When we glimpse the bigger picture of ebb and flow, the patterns that repeat or bring variations on themes, then we gain a vantage point from which to observe ourselves in this moment of time differently, resting in a sense of a timelessness which can witness the rise and fall of civilisations with equanimity.

‘A new civilization, any civilization including ours, is not only a miraculous gift. It always comes into existence out of the impossible. There are really only two kinds of people in existence. There is everyone who has been trained to live either for today or for tomorrow stuck in all the cycles of endless preparations and expectations, dutifully digging holes and then falling into them, always busy trying to plant something fresh in the well-worn patterns of the old. This is called waiting for the new moon. And then there are those who know how to work in perfect stillness, imperceptibly bringing the future into being. That is called waiting for the new sun’ - Peter Kingsley