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Reality Shift 2011 - My Inner Reality

by Guru Rattana, Ph.D. - Issue #179, March 1, 2011
Planetary Alignments
Reality Shift 2011

The next phase of planetary revolution is happening NOW!! The movement and signature of the outer planets - Pluto, Neptune, Uranus and asteroid Chiron - define the nature of global evolution.

The outer planets are the farthest away from the Earth. Their passage through one sign of the Zodiac is thus longer than the planets that circle closer to the Earth. The inner, personal planets (Mercury, Venus and Mars), which in general move through one Zodiac sign in less than a month for Mercury and Venus, and almost two months for Mars, affect us in a more intimate and transitory way. It is easier to identify, interpret and respond to their impact. The much longer cycles of the outer planets designate generational periods that influence the collective consciousness. Everyone is immersed in the same sea of change. If we use the outer planets as indicators, we are in the midst of a planetary reality shift - big time!

In November 2008, Pluto moved out of Sagittarius into Capricorn, where it will stay through January 2024. That gives us 16 years to revamp our political, economic and social institutions. This deep cleansing, exposure of corruption, and falling apart of structures that do not serve the collective good, is obviously in process. Do you witness becoming less reckless and getting more serious about your financial affairs? Fiscal and public responsibility are aspects of the Pluto in Capricorn purge.

Chiron moved into Pisces April 2010, where it will stay through February 2019. That gives us 9 years to heal our hearts and emotional bodies with authentic love. When Chiron was last in Pisces for 6 years (1960-68), our theme song was 'All we need is love'. Can you feel the return of the sixties vibe?

We are now witnessing two more dramatic planetary movements that will influence our lives for many years.

Uranus moves into Aries March 11th, where it will foment Aries flavored revolution through March 6th, 2019. Willful, individualistic and angry cries for freedom will be heard around the globe for 8 years. This has already begun in North Africa and the Middle East. I will discuss the Aries factor in the next issue. Jupiter's quick and dramatic tour through Aries, from January 22nd through June 3rd, initiated an expansive and exciting dynamic to the mix.

Neptune enters Pisces April 4th where, until April 2025 it will support our Divine connection, and blow away illusions that get in the way of authentic spirituality. We have 14 years to tune into and learn to operate from unconditional compassion and love!

Pisces New Moon March 4th

On the Pisces New Moon March 4th, six celestial bodies are in Pisces. We are currently swimming in a lot of Pisces energy. The Sun moved into Pisces February 18th. Then Mercury moved into Pisces February 21st, followed by Mars on February 22nd. Uranus is there until it enters Aries on March 11th. Chiron is also in Pisces. God/Goddess are trying to get our attention!

If you feel spaced out, unable to make decisions (and don't care :+), you are not alone.

If you are indecisive, wait until Aries kicks in. In the meantime relax into the flow of life. When Aries energy kicks in, we are off and running again. Mercury enters Aries March 9th, followed by Uranus on March 11th and the Sun on March 20th. Jupiter has been in Aries since January 22nd.

Neptune enters Pisces April 4th, where it will stimulate our urge to merge until April 2025 - 14 years. Joined by Chiron in Pisces from April 2010 until February 2019, we have a lot of support to heal our Pisces wounds, and to forge a powerful Divine Connection as the foundation for our inner reality.

Virgo Full Moon March 19th

At the Virgo Full Moon March 19th, only the Sun, Mars and Chiron will still be in Pisces. Uranus and Mercury will have moved into Aries. The Moon and asteroid Juno will ground us in Virgo. It will be easier to feel confident and to make choices, except for the important factor that Mercury goes retrograde from March 30th through April 23rd. Get your ground work done during this time so you can take off at the end of April.

Make it an exercise in awareness, to monitor how you feel and the state of your mind, emotions and body during these weeks. It is important to experience how your mental, emotional and physical states shift, and are impacted by planetary energies. This awareness makes it easier to recognize how you react to, and are impacted by, different energies. Adjust your activities to current influences. If you do so, you will feel more emotionally balanced and you will be more productive. The more we take advantage of the available energies, the more we can align with their highest expressions and claim their gifts.

It very useful for our mental and emotional well-being to recognize shifts in planetary energies, and to know that we are not the only ones being affected. If you use these massive doses of Pisces (and Mercury retrograde in Aries) to build your inner reality, you will make yourself much less susceptible to tempting illusions, reduce stress, and enjoy the cosmic nectar that is feeding our souls..

The Water Element and the Ocean of Life

With the influence of Neptune and Chiron in Pisces, we must make it a priority to upgrade our relationship with our emotional body. The water element connects us to our feeling nature, our emotional richness, and all expressions of the Sacred Feminine. Together, the water signs embody the nurturing aquifer of the Divine Mother's love that flows through our being. It is Her love that holds and feeds us as we grow into sensitive, loving and spiritually connected human beings. Without Her, we become insensitive, cold, calculating monsters.

Awakening the Divine Feminine within the psyche of both men and women involves the three signs of the water triangle:

In general, in Cancer territory we are dealing with the part of our psyche that relates to personal karma; Scorpio deals with relationship karma; Pisces' arena is collective karma.

In terms of emotional development, Cancer introduces us to our feeling nature. We take our first exploratory steps inward, and begin exploring our non-verbal sensory reality. Scorpio activates our fear of losing ourselves, and thus motivates us to build our willpower and establish energetic boundaries. Pisces urges us to give up our limited ego identity, to find our soul identity, and to enjoy the bliss available from attitudes of acceptance, allowing and forgiveness, ie. aligning our will with Divine will.

Transformation of Our Emotional Body

Although current planetary energies focus our attention on Pisces' issues and gifts, to gain a level of maturity in relationship to the third, and final, water sign we must address the overall challenges of them all. The fundamental problem related to the water element is that we are emotionally and mentally immature and out of control. We are unaware of the extent to which we are run by our subconscious emotional conditioning. We are caught in the murky web of accumulated systemic emotional pain. So much so that we consider our anguish normal.

To avoid our pain we go into denial, escape into our heads and shut off our feeling mechanism. The price we pay for emotional escapism is high. Emotional stress is a contributory factor in most diseases. We can't avoid pain without also distancing ourselves from the pleasure, that is available only by being present in feeling awareness in our physical and subtle bodies.

The water element communicates and expresses through feeling. In general, our feeling faculty is very undeveloped. This is understandable, because of the intensity of pain we would feel if this faculty operated in high gear. However, in low gear, we are unable to access higher levels of spiritual bliss. We live in a dull state of emotional shutdown. Neptune and Chiron in Pisces are going to change all this. Pisces and Neptune attune us to our spiritual ecstasy channel. Chiron creates the context for healing, so that we can reach this transcendent goal.

Our emotional body is being activated and challenged to 'grow up'. This developmental process requires feeling everything. We are obliged to feel pain, so that we can transmute and free our emotional body from the dross that prevents us from experiencing pleasure. Feeling transformation happens through unconditional allowing, acceptance, forgiveness and love - all higher expressions of the Pisces archetype.

Paradigm Shift

Individually and collectively we are in the midst of a profound reality shift. Let us be forewarned that we can't skip over the painful part of the transformation process. It is important to understand that what we feel is so much more than temporary and easily definable discomfort. Our emotional body stores lifetimes of accumulated abuse. Our pain is connected to everyone else's pain. The primal source of our emotional/water element pain is the denigration of the human experience, the abuse of the feminine, disrespect for the Earth and disconnection from the Primal Mother. In our emotional body we compute the collective human and planetary pain, that has been stored in the collective unconscious for thousands of years.

Six celestial planets in Pisces signals a time of deep emotional healing, which requires becoming conscious of the larger picture, and acquiring a deeper understanding of what all of humanity is going through. Our individual and collective crises are all part of the evolutionary planetary paradigm shift. We each face our individual dramas, which are part of the web of our collective dramas. Our interconnectedness means that we feel it all. It also means that our healing facilitates global healing. As we heal, we help each other.

We are engaged in systemic change which involves:

  1. liberating our emotional body from eons of systemic abuse,
  2. reawakening the Divine Feminine in our psyche, and
  3. embracing a more gentle, caring and heart-centered attitude towards ourselves, others and all life.

The abuse, control and manipulation of the patriarchal paradigm penetrated deep into the human psyche, causing both men and women to operate from this abusive mindset towards themselves and each other. We felt obliged to 'hold it together' to survive, and resort to 'the end justified the means' strategies. Neptune and Chiron in Pisces are teaching us that we have to be able to relax, to let go of control, and to be kind to survive and to thrive as more functional and joyful human beings.

Neptune and Chiron in Pisces make sure that the patriarchal mold, that has held the matrix of domination and control in place, will not only be cracked, it will vanish. They are supporting us in freeing ourselves from the stress and struggle of being tangled up in belief systems, and control trips, that force us to silently suffer deep existential pain. The web is unraveling as we disassociate from the old rules, let go of the past, and allow ourselves to be held in the arms of a loving, supportive universe. Pisces reminds us - it is all about love.

What is Real and What Is Reality?

The Pisces archetype deals with the most fundamental existential questions:

In modern astrology, we associate Pisces with the final stage of our human journey, when we release our ego identity, establish our Divine Connection, and reconnect in oneness with the Infinite. Ideally we want to use Pisces energy to have these sublime experiences, but to get close to these goals we need to examine how we fall prey to the illusions of the Pisces archetype. In traditional astrology Pisces and the twelfth house, which operates under Pisces influence, were associated with karma and our 'undoing'. The first astrology book I read described the twelfth house as the "House of Troubles". Now I understand why.

Pisces Dilemmas - the Issue of Control

Pisces confronts us with an existential dilemma in the arena of 'control'. When we enter Pisces territory, we are definitely not in control. We must learn HOW to live with this humbling (and exhilarating once we humble ourselves) fact of life. There is no way we can control the universal forces that impact our lives. The Piscean mysteries of life include some very good news. Although universal forces operate independently of our control or desires, the fabric of our being is a unique tapestry of these forces, i.e. every cell of our being is created and animated by the substance of universal prana. Our basic 101 Pisces lessons include learning how to experience 'God in me, me in God' reality, and learning how to swim in (navigate, let go, relax and enjoy) the infinite sea of existence.

The plot of our Pisces paradox thickens, as we realize that one of the most basic human survival techniques is to try to 'be in control'. Our attempts to control are part of our journey to become more conscious, to make wise decisions and to take responsibility for our choices and their consequences. Our 'control mechanism' operates through our 'rational' dualistic mind. One of the tasks of Pisces' polarity, Virgo, is to optimize the analytical functions of our rational mind. Without the faculties of our rational mind we get lost in the infinite sea.

The problem is that our rational mind does not naturally connect with the universal mind. When our rational mind dominates our reality, its limited arena distances us from 'God in me, me in God' experiences. Its calculating functions preoccupy our mind space. Our rational mind lacks the awareness and sensitivity needed to tune into the subtle universal forces that impact our lives. We must awaken our neutral mind to have access to these faculties and experiences.

Choice, Not Control

How do we find a solution to these dilemmas, and extricate ourselves from the Pisces paradox? How do we let go of control, wake-up from our sleep state and establish a conscious connection with universal forces?

It is important to understand, that exercising our free will is about consciously dealing with the necessity of making choices, NOT about being in control. The more conscious we are, the better able we are to make wise choices that set us free, instead of further ensnarling ourselves in our emotional web. Our shadow, our fate and our karma are games we play to get our attention. When we identify these games and choose to stop playing them, we step out of karma, transmute our fate and move forward on our destiny path.

Making choices is tricky business when Pisces' waters are murky. We are not alone in our private pool. We are bobbing around in the turbulent ocean of the collective unconscious. It is hard to identify our separate identity. We are not sure whether what we are feeling is generated from within or absorbed from without. Does this feeling belong to me, someone else or everyone?

Without a solid personal inner reality, our blind spots create accidents, and unseen obstacles get in our way. We have nowhere to go to get advice, and no way to find the support we need during these challenging times. At some defining moment, we finally realize that we need a way to clean out our sabotaging beliefs and programming. It is in our inner sanctuary that we sweep out our sabotaging cobwebs, find the guidance that we need and access deeper levels of truth. We have to have our own therapist office readily available inside our psyche. We have be able to reorient our attention inside ourselves so that we can access our inner guru.

Our Deepest Desire and Illusion

Pisces and its rulers, Neptune and Jupiter, are benefic forces associated with Divine Love, compassion, spiritual connection, the power of prayer, and the miracles and magic of unexpected good fortune. There is a deep desire in every human to transcend the ordinary, and to enjoy the ecstasy of becoming one with the One. Poets, saints, sages and enlightened ones write and speak of the sublime experiences of merging with their Infinite Beloved. Those who have gotten high on recreational drugs sometimes share what seem to be similar transcendental experiences.

However we describe these experiences, or attempt to invoke them, our inner Pisces longs to drink the nectar of the Infinite. Our deepest soul desire is to be intoxicated by the mystical spell. Something inside us motivates us, to do what it takes to acquire this state of consciousness. Some methods work and some don't. We are going to define 'workable' methods as those that create a permanent change in consciousness, without damaging side effects and depressive downers.

Illusions and the Piscean Disappearing Act

A fundamental problem of the human condition, is that we don't know how to have authentic spiritual experiences. If we did, and it was easy, we would not resort to alcohol and drugs and go straight to the source. We take circitous routes through stories and human dramas because we don't know any better. In our asleep state, our ineffective attempts are guided by our subconscious, and are often futile and misdirected. Under the Pisces/Neptune influence we can get ourselves into a lot of trouble. We succumb to, and indulge in, a seemingly irresistible spell of illusion.

Illusions are produced deep in our psyche. The core problem is, that in our ignorance of what we want and how to get it, we are unwittingly controlled by deep-seated emotional needs and wounded programming. In this naïve state we are susceptible to both outside and inside control and manipulation. We set ourselves up to be deceived. Worst of all, we deceive ourselves.

The good news is that Pisces breaks down our control trips, and dissolves our illusionary reality. Pisces and Neptune are silent vacuum cleaners. These relentless and invisible cleaning agents keep going until we have cleared out our self-sabotaging conditioning, and expanded our awareness and sensitivity to the degree that we are available, for the higher experiences that they have to offer. Their methods include disappearing acts - now you see it, now you don't; the rug we stood own no longer exists; the flying carpet drops us without a parachute; illusions vanish in thin air, without warning or compensation.

Under Pisces' silent watch, we better have our inner reality to hold onto. If we don't, we are in serious trouble. If we do, healing, liberation and deeper levels of trust, surrender, love and forgiveness are possible. In surrender, the Mother greets and feeds our hungry soul. We awaken to the God/Goddess within. Our emotional energy that has been consumed in drama is transmuted to nourishment and sustenance for our soul.

Love Is Our Master Illusion

Humans are masters at creating and living in illusion. The area of 'love' in partnership is where we perfect our mastery of the unreal. We are so hungry for love that we project our inner need for attention and nurturing upon another person who, we convince ourselves, can satisfy our insatiable emotional needs.

Our deepest soul desire is to partner with the Infinite, to make the Divine our Beloved. Our greatest illusion is that our female partner is our Mother or that our male partner is our Father. Women try to find God in a man. In the process they exacerbate their neediness. They become subservient and codependent, and give away their power. Every man feels burdened by, and longs to free himself from, the weight of a woman's fanatical fantasies.

Men, suffering from the desire to return to the security of the womb, search for mother surrogates in their wives/girl friends. This burden is equally untenable for women. These are archetypal wounds and challenges that affect us all. Their source is not personal. The solution is not rational. We are in Pisces territory. We need an inner reality that attunes us, to both the stable/Father and the flowing/Mother universal forces.

Breaking the Grip of Illusion

The inherent and insidious problem with illusions is that we believe them. We worship them as our idols. We are emotionally controlled by them. We successfully deceive ourselves, by disallowing any rational thought or reason to seep into the tightly sealed box that holds our illusions in place. When the bubble bursts and our illusions evaporate, we suffer agony worse than physical pain. It is this unidentifiable pain, for which we can find no cure or consolation, that makes us resort to prayer, to search for solace in the Infinite, to finally give up control, and to surrender to Divine will.

It is not reason that redirects and transforms our mind. It is not a good idea that convinces us to change our ways. It is the experiential realizations (shocks) that:

  1. we are not in control,
  2. there are other forces in charge,
  3. there is a larger picture that we don't understand.

We can extricate ourselves from our suffering only if we recognize our limited understanding, and if we accept things they way they are, instead of trying to make them the way we want them to be. This is all a very humbling experience for our fragile limited ego. It is embarrassing to admit our naïveté, our stupidity and our emotional neediness. If it is any consolation, you are not the only one! The fragility of our human condition helps us be compassionate towards each other.

Confronted with the Pisces' paradox, what are our options?

  1. Denial and remaining unconscious. We tried that and it got us into deep trouble.
  2. More pain and silent ennui. We can hold out only so long before our suffering becomes too much to bear.
  3. Acceptance of the way things are. Getting real! Being honest actually works! And it takes work to elevate ourselves into this state of consciousness. It is time to get to work!
Wake-Up Calls

Under the spell of illusion, we act out our 'karma' (subconscious conditioning, externally imposed belief systems) until we get our own attention. Our unsuccessful attempts to find love and satisfaction outside ourselves are wake-up calls. Once we understand the nature of the human game, we can play it with more success. We can turn our awareness inside ourselves, and find what alluded us within our own being.

When we recognize our indefinable desperation, as the cry of our soul to get our attention so that we do what it takes to wake-up to Infinite Love, we can start to get real, and focus our journey on cultivating our personal experience of'reality' and 'love'. There are no superficial quick fixes. We have to discipline ourselves to do our spiritual and emotional work, which is obviously the reason we put off the inevitable for so long. The solution makes itself known as non-verbal sensitivity and feelings. Ideas, thoughts, beliefs, all end up in the illusion basket.

Warnings and Wisdom

As Neptune floats into Pisces for 14 years, it is going to be easier to have 'real' experiences. The downside is that it is also easier to be fooled and to fall into the net of illusion. A complicating and complex addition to the mix is that 'reality', as we thought we knew it, is going to radically change during this time. It will be simultaneously easier and more difficult to distinguish between fantasy and fact, as the foggy veil between physical and non-physical reality disappears.

Under the Pisces/Neptune influence we can 'lose everything'. We can feel devastated if we are attached to the way things were or the way we want them to be. If we have our inner reality to hold onto, we will more than OK.

Energetically, Pisces represents the collective unconscious. It is next to impossible to separate ourselves from this all pervasive energy. The more we cultivate our inner base, the easier it will be to find and learn to operate from a sense of soul identity. Without our identity (inner foundation/reality), we open ourselves up to be used and 'victimized' by collective and unidentifiable forces.

Always keep Pisces' polarity, Virgo, as a partner in your spiritual awakening process. Without grounding in physical reality in our body, our high vibration energy can be easily sucked off, and used by others and for planetary healing. There are no points for letting our light diffuse. The stronger we are in our own identity and inner reality, the more light we have to share. Containing our light is required, in order to be functional during this time, and to avoid being at the mercy of these all encompassing energies.

Yogi Bhajan

"Whenever you make yourself limited, you confine the ability of your soul to guide you. Without that guidance, whatever you do will be nothing but trouble, pain and tragedy" - Yogi Bhajan.

Commotion or Devotion

The primary tasks of the water sign are firstly to build our inner sensory reality, and secondly to train ourselves to use our emotional body to express devotion instead of commotion.

What is commotion? Commotion is created by fear, doubt, resistance, criticism, non-acceptance, denial and meanness.

What is devotion? Devotion expresses as trust, acceptance, allowing, kindness and love. When our emotions are expressed as devotion, the oil of love enters our subconscious and eliminates our existential pain. Make your fragrance kindness and your attitude caring. The nectar of love will flow from your heart into every cell of your body, and your pain will disappear.

Pisces Touchstones and Guidelines
Distinguishing between Reality and Illusion

The problem is that we do not know. We imagine. When imagination is our reality, we live in fear, doubt, duality or maya. Maya is a state of consciousness where we do not pay attention to God. We relate to physical reality and not to Infinite reality. We do not see the Infinite in the finite.

Illusions include thoughts, fantasies, beliefs and all mental constructs.

Reality is an experience that is always there and accessible.

When what we experience is the basis of what we know, our knowledge is real.

There is no separation. There is no fear. There is no doubt.

Yogi Bhajan said, "Every calamity is the test of our reality. Never be afraid of it. Whenever you face calamity with your reality you shall win, because God shall be on your side". In other words, if you put your attention on your inner reality where your mind has access to the universal mind, instead of focusing on your 'illusions' and fears about what has happened, you will get support from universal forces. Practice!

It is only our experience that can hold our mind. It is the desire of the experience that delivers us to the experience. Use your desire to have the experience of infinity and to feel that you are part of infinity. We do not need convictions or beliefs, but rather experience, which is the only thing that sets no limits on us and never stops giving new opportunities.

Relax and Renew, 2nd Edition, by Guru Rattana, Ph.D.

 
Relax and Renew by Guru Rattana, Ph.D. takes stress reduction to the level of spiritual resolution. The techniques offered in this book don't just cover up the symptoms, they completely cure the problem!

• New, fully revised and expanded 2nd Edition

• Over 100 Yoga Sets & Meditations

• 240 information-packed pages

• Relax & Release stress in 2-11 minutes

• Rejuvenate your Body

Kundalini Yoga - Guidelines for Building Your Inner Reality

In Issue 178, I set out guidelines for cultivating your neutral mind, which is where we build our inner reality. Below are some additional guidelines on how to direct your awareness to cultivate your inner reality.

All Kundalini Yoga kriyas and meditations awaken our sensory system and prepare our body and mind to experience our inner reality. The important thing is to use the spaces between the exercises and at the end of your practice to train your awareness.

The Exercise Set for Relaxation and Releasing Fear on pages 82-83 in Relax and Renew 2nd Edition, is the kriya I use to bring students into their experience of inner reality.

This set is also available in two of my online streaming video classes: 'Healing with Feeling' and 'Solar Plexus - Midnight - Gateway to the Heart'. Both are EMOTIONS/WATER SIGN classes. If you haven't already subscribed, you will need to do so to watch these classes. For a low monthly rate you can enjoy unlimited viewing.

Here are some of the directives I use during the spaces between the exercises:

Magic Mantra

Magic Mantra can carry us through our Pisces tests. Every mantra contains the universal sound current or Naad. We really only need one mantra. Mantras help us attune to the cosmic sound, making it possible to continually listen to, and feel, the vibration of the universal frequencies that permeates all reality. If we deeply listen to any vowel sound, we can hear the Naad in, under and around it.

It is a beautiful experience, to use sacred mantras to connect with the essential essence of the Universe. One such mantra is:

EK ONG KAR SAT GUR PRASAD
SAT GUR PRASAD EK ONG KAR

This means that there is a universal energy from which all is created. It is the ultimate gift to experience our oneness with this infinite force.

This mantra elevates you from the mass-consciousness frequency into the Infinite frequency. It takes you out of the fear matrix into the matrix of love. It opens the space for grace and divine protection.

Don't worry, this doesn't mean can't enjoy the pleasures of physical life. In a higher state of consciousness, different things make us happy. I have a friend who appears to me to be able to remain in this elevated state of consciousness. Life's dramas are his entertainment. He simply remains in his heart-centered state of enjoying life, and blessing others with his light. His philosophy is very Piscean - 'no expectations, no disappointments'.

There are three meditations using this mantra on pages 181-2 in Transitions to a Heart-Centered World 2nd Edition.

References and Footnotes

"Pisces New Moon, Virgo Full Moon", Austin, Stephanie, The Mountain Astrologer, Issue #155, Feb/Mar 201l, pp.105-6.

"The Water Houses", Forrest, Jodie, The Mountain Astrologer, Issue #155, Feb/Mar 201l, pp.27-33.

"Looking Back - Using Astrology to Make Sense of Your Life", Morrow, D.H., The Mountain Astrologer, Issue #155, Feb/Mar 201l,pp. 14-17.

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