Pisces Lessons - The Urge to Merge

by Guru Rattana, Ph.D. - Issue #145 - February 29, 2008

This issue offers an in-depth analysis of the Piscean and Neptunian archetypes. I also discuss how we can resolve the Piscean paradox at a time when we are transitioning from the Piscean to the Aquarian Age, and give guidelines for using your practice of Kundalini Yoga and meditation, to take advantage of Piscean energy to establish your connection with the Divine.

Planetary Alignments

• The Sun entered Pisces February 19th at 10:50pm PDT (February 20th at 5:50am GMT). The Sun moves into Aries March 19th at 10:49pm PDT (March 20th at 5:49am GMT)
• Virgo Full Moon/Lunar Eclipse February 20th at 8:30pm PDT (February 21st at 3:30am GMT)
• Pisces New Moon March 7th at 9:15am PST (5:15pm GMT)

Every Planet except Saturn is direct through April 2nd, when Pluto goes retrograde. Saturn goes direct May 3rd. The direct movement of the planets creates a feeling of forward motion. We are being supported in taking action and getting things done.

The Virgo Full Moon/Lunar Eclipse February 20th, and the Pisces New Moon March 7th, both create openings for new beginnings and directions. Many of the major planets consolidate in Pisces and Aquarius during this time. Uranus in Pisces conjuncts the Pisces New Moon. The astrological context favors access to expanded states of consciousness, which leads to new insights, revelations and the exploration of dimensions beyond the rational mind. It is time to call our Soul into our body and to get busy offering our gifts to the world.

Pisces is the 12th and final sign of the Zodiac. When we get to Pisces, we have reached the last phase of our journey on Planet Earth. Our goals, needs and desires shift dramatically. During the first 11 stages of our journey, our focus is on learning the lessons associated with the individualization process. Our goals include developing our will and building a solid sense of Self.

Soul Desire to Unite

Our most basic Pisces/Neptune need and goal is to experience union with something vaster than ourselves. Our basic soul desire is to merge back into oneness with the Infinite.

Pisces and Neptune are masters of mystery, illusion and fantasies. Understandably, there are a lot of illusions around Piscean and Neptunian goals and lessons:

1. We don't give up our Self. We expand our experience of Self.
2. We don't disappear and become a non-entity. We merge our being with the Infinite and establish our finite presence on Earth.
3. We don't surrender into helpless nothingness. We let go of our limited perceptions of reality so that we can serve humanity. Pisces is the last sign. We are still here on Planet Earth. We still have work to do and service to offer. We aren't dead yet!

Establishing Our Divine Connection

Establishing our Divine Connection is required in our Pisces stage of development. To establish an authentic and lasting connection with the Infinite, we must:

1. be able to step out of our analytical minds, and
2. leave our need to control at the entrance of the rabbit hole to Infinite reality.

To lift the veil that separates us from the cosmic realm of divine oneness, we must:

1. awaken our mind,
2. open our heart, and
3. become conscious enough to experience the unity of all life.

False Attempts to Merge

It is tricky dealing with Pisces and Neptune, because we may aspire to God-consciousness, but with rare exceptions humans aren't there yet. In our unconscious, un-awakened state, the need for union still exists. Lost in asleep mode, we don't know how to get our need for Divine Connection met, so we try to cover up our deep psychic suffering with false substitutes. We are driven to try to satisfy this desire in unhealthy ways. We create problems, pain and suffering for ourselves when we attempt to fulfill this need with (1) substances, (2) circumstances and (3) relationships that are NOT the real thing.

Dysfunctional responses to the urge to unite with something vaster than ourselves include many forms of addictions:

1. substance abuse,
2. workoholism,
3. codependence,
4. martyrdom, and various forms of
5. renunciation.

Our illusionary and delusionary attempts, to fulfill our deep soul desire for unity, lead to disillusionment and deception of ourselves and others.

Illusion Formulas

The most basic Piscean/Neptunian illusion is that the experience of union is to be found in temporary, worldly substitutes - someone or something outside ourselves. These false unions can be with:

1. addictive substances,
2. mommy and daddy stand-ins/partners,
3. religious or political ideologies, and
4. material possessions and identification with financial and social status.

One identifying formula is "I am a ----- because I relate to, believe in, worship or belong to -----".
You can fill in the blanks with your illusion of choice. We all have them! Part of our Pisces' healing is to identify what we are using as substitutes for our Divine Connection. Once we know how we are trying to get our unity need meet, we can shift our strategy.

The defining test of illusionary formulas is when we:

1. lose our boundaries, and
2. lose our connection with Self.

If we are dependent upon and energetically and psychologically enmeshed with a false god, we have been swallowed up by some Neptunian illusion of transcendence.

The Illusion of Auric Blur

Addictive substances - drugs, alcohol and food:

1. numb the emotions,
2. dissolve the sense of self, and
3. weaken, and even make holes in, the aura.

Instead of a strong, coherent and integrated aura, the energy field around our body disintegrates into a porous, gray cloud.

Auric blurs create illusions. We feel like we have merged with something larger than ourselves, because we no longer have clearly defined energetic boundaries. We get a fuzzy feeling because we have become energetic mush, not because we have merged with the Divine.

The temporary, phony euphoria is a result of anaesthetized emotions, which lower our ability to feel. We get sucked into the energy fields of drugs, alcohol, TV or junk food. We have merged with the lower frequencies of mass consciousness, but not with the higher realms of God consciousness. We have merged with some form of JUNK, not with Spirit.

False Mergers are only Temporary

Escapism and self-abandonment are Neptunian traps. Just when we think we have found the Divine in our out-of-the-body meditation, we are rudely awakened to the fact that we have to go to work, answer the phone or make a meal for the kids.

The most painful Neptunian alarms sound when we try to merge with an addictive substance or another person. The most debilitating codependence is created when we identify with someone else, to the extent that the boundaries are blurred between us. We are engaged in a serious addiction, if we feel threatened and anxious by the loss of the relationship.

If we feel like we will die if our messy merger is terminated, chances are it will end. The temporary euphoria of oneness is rudely interrupted by painful shocks, that hurt like no other wound. Being ripped apart from a substance or a lover creates an auric pain, that only the real thing can heal. (Kirtan Kriya is the meditation given by Yogi Bhajan to deal with this situation.)

Waking Up is Required

The most critical requirement for merging with the Infinite, and the only way to avoid deceptive substitutes, is to be awake and aware, and to experience our own authentic Divine Connection. We are bound to fall into Neptunian traps when we operate out of asleep consciousness. When we are asleep, we attract unpleasant situations to wake us up!

In-the-Body Emotional Ecstasy

Pisces is a water sign. The water element corresponds to the emotional body. What we do with our emotional body is of critical importance. Our escapist tendencies are fueled by the desire to escape emotional pain.

Pisces' goal is NOT:

1. to escape from our body,
2. to transcend our worldly existence, or
3. to avoid feeling.

Pisces, as the last water sign, invites us to experience our authentic self, and the Infinite, inside our mind and body, and to feel this pleasure with emotional intensity. Pisces seeks, and can only be satisfied, through the experience of emotionally engaged, full-body, not out-of-body, bliss.

Wine is the Catalyst to Awaken Our Unconscious World

Both myths and religions consider drinking wine to be a special part of the ceremony that awakens humans to another state of consciousness. Wine is not supposed to be a substance to cover up, or to escape from, emotional pain.

Wine is the symbol of the catalyst that makes it possible to access the deeper realms of being where:

1. we let go of our inhibitions of guilt and fear, so that we relax and enjoy life,
2. our creative powers flow, and
3. our Divine Connection happens.

There is a special life-force that renders the mind and emotions available to both the creative and spiritual worlds. Wine represents this universal energy.

Artistic creation happens when the creative powers of the unconscious and Nature overpower the rational mind, and detach the mind from rational thoughts, the ego and self-consciousness. The infusion of Divine energy elevates our consciousness, so that our union with the Divine is possible.

Wine is the symbol of the substance or force that awakens us to our unconscious world. The unconscious can deliver us to the gift of authentic inner joy, or uncover hidden demons of fear. What we access in our unconscious ranges from:

1. destructive and primal, animalistic urges,
2. our innate creative expressions, to
3. connection with our soul and Source.

Which Wine do We Choose?

The question is which wine do we choose. Different wines produce different results. Wine can be:

1. a brew that leads drunken excesses,
2. a tonic that helps us let go of and transcend past emotional traumas, or
3. our cup of bliss.

Lower grade wines can incite our basest nature and evoke savage cruelty and brutality. In many myths, excess imbibing of the fruits of the vine lead to debauchery and undignified behavior. Too much of the seductive substance can lead to insanity and madness.

Other unauthentic wines produce states of fantasy and delusion. The illusory world may be less physically destructive, but it is emotionally and intellectually damaging. And it renders us unproductive and dysfunctional.

False wines lead us into confusion, chaos, pain, and suffering. They perpetuate our separation from Source. Lost in the duality of separation, we experience existential suffering, which we try to get rid of by numbing ourselves to the unbearable emotional pain.

Consequences of Bad Wine

The consequences of imbibing bad wine are unfortunate. The realization that our attempt to merge has failed can drive us to despair. The prolonged separation of Self from the Divine can drive us insane. The inability to experience within ourselves, the union between the Divine Masculine and the Creative Evolutionary Feminine, that torments our psyche.

• We don't know where to turn.
• We don't know what wine to drink.
• We imbibe too much of the bad wine, and too little of the good.

How to Identify the Best Wine

When we drink bad wine, we are driven deeper into the lower realms of our unconscious, where we experience mental and emotional pain and suffering.

When we drink Divine wine:

1. our creativity is aroused and blossoms forth.
2. We eagerly participate in the process of creation, and offer our gifts to the world.
3. We are emotionally engaged in a very satisfying way.
4. We embrace the flow of the evolutionary unfoldment of our soul.

We experience joy, when the wine we drink makes it possible for our psyche to walk through the doors that once separated us from our Creator.

Touchstones for Choosing the Best Wine

Not good signs:

1. When the high experience disappears, do we have downers?
2. Is the temporary euphoria ecstasy followed by agony?
3. Do we experience extreme mood swings, no moderation, and get lost in the sea of emotionality? NOT A GOOD SIGN.

Good signs:

1. Does our experience bring us happiness, freedom and peace?
2. Do these experiences get stronger, come back easier and last longer?
3. Do we feel more present in our body, more grounded, more aware and more stable?

Kundalini Yoga - The Divine Wine

Divine wine is not an alcoholic beverage. Divine wine is universal energy and life-force. Three powerful ways to imbibe this life-force are by partaking of this energy through (1) the breath, (2) divine mantras, and (3) devotional chanting.

(1) The Breath connects us to the prana which enlivens and sustains us. Each inhale delivers the universal life-force that pervades everywhere and persists regardless of form.

(2) Divine Mantras carry the frequency of universal energy. The sounds act like a bridge between physical and non-physical realities

(3) Devotional Chanting not only taps the higher frequencies encoded in divine mantras and the Word, it engages the emotional body. What we do with our emotional body is of critical importance. Engaging our emotional body in devotion provides the glue that integrates the Infinite and the finite.

Divine Mantra Meditations to Release Addictions

Yogi Bhajan has given Kirtan Kriya or SA TA NA MA Meditation to bring the aura back to wholeness. The sound current is a healthy way to cultivate an experience of union with the Divine. The delusionary substitutes for union with the Infinite, must be replaced by energies that embody Divine substance. When we experience the Divine and oneness within, it is possible to be compassionate and be in relationship, while maintaining the boundaries of our own identity.

When one is suffering from severe auric pain, it is best to do the 31 minute version of this meditation, but there is also a 11 minute version. This meditation is explained in depth in my free online Kundalini Yoga course Lesson #15.

Following Kirtan Kriya (page 177) by Wahe Guru Meditation for Surrender (page 167), both in Relax and Renew 2nd Edition, is a very powerful combination. After clearing the subconscious, and opening the third eye with Kirtan Kriya, this meditation uses the breath to pull in prana, and then projects the Wa He Guru, which means ecstasy, out the third eye.

First practicing a Kundalini Yoga Kriya is essential to stay grounded, and to absorb the effects of the mantras in the physical and emotional bodies. We must develop the lower chakras along with the upper chakras. The Pituitary Set #3 on page 75 in Sexuality and Spirituality, 2nd Edition is a powerful (and short to medium length) set to develop the first and third chakras, while simultaneously activating the third eye.

The important thing is to do whichever kriya and meditation you choose with awareness. Be aware of drinking infinite energy with every breath, and be present to the nectar that resonates with the sounds of the mantras.

References and Footnotes

"Virgo Lunar Eclipse, and Pisces New Moon", Austin, Stephanie, The Mountain Astrologer, Issue #137, Feb/March 2008, p. 103-4.

"Archetypes of the Zodiac", Burt, Kathleen, Llewellyn Publications, St. Paul, 2002.

"Neptune: Where More than Two Worlds Touch", Forrest, Jodie, The Mountain Astrologer, Issue #119, Feb/March 2005, pp.57-66.

"The Astrology of Fate", Greene, Liz, Samuel Weiser, Inc., York Beach, Maine, 1984.

"Saturn - A New Look at an Old Devil", Greene, Liz, Samuel Weiser, 1976.

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