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Sagittarius - Gift Consciousness

by Guru Rattana, Ph.D. - Issue #187, November 25, 2011

I have been back home in San Diego for 3 weeks now, from my 10 week European teaching tour. A friend asked me how I feel. My response was - "More at peace". Then he asked me, how could I explain this? I reflected for a brief moment. No tangible explanations came to mind. I could have said - 40 years for yoga and meditation, but although my personal practice certainly made a difference, it isn't the real answer. I answered what seems true to me, "It is a gift".

Are you experiencing 'gifts of consciousness'? This issue is about how we can participate in making ourselves more available to receive spiritual gifts, and to live in 'gift consciousness'.

Planetary Alignments
Solar and Lunar Eclipses - November 24th and December 10th

The Solar Eclipse on the Sagittarius New Moon (November 24th), and the Lunar Eclipse on the Gemini Full Moon (December 10th), offer us yet another opportunity to upgrade our consciousness.

The Earth, humans and all life on Earth receive energy from the Sun and Moon (as well as from the stars and planets). This energy is not just light. This dynamic, multi-dimensional energy is encoded with information, which affects our physical, emotional and mental realities. Our biology, our emotional state and our consciousness are constantly being impacted by our interaction with these cosmic forces.

"Every second, billions of megawatts of ultraviolet, infrared, X-ray, and radio waves are beamed from the Sun. Every six months, the orbits of the Sun, Moon, and Earth align closely enough to form an eclipse, interrupting these transmission of electromagnetic energy".(1)

Solar and lunar eclipses, which happen in pairs two times a year, are both evolutionary markers and forces for transformation. Eclipses are turning points when change is both available and required.

  1. The Zodiac signs of eclipses indicate life lessons, where we are both challenged and ready to claim a certain level of maturity, and move on to the next level.
  2. The interruption of the cosmic flow of energies breaks up old patterns, making it possible to expand our perception of reality and the way we interact with life.
  3. Our receptivity to new information and experiences is facilitated and upgraded.
  4. These are extra potent times when old programs can be released, new awakenings can happen, and deeper levels of perception and experience are more accessible.
  5. Our capacity to become aware of a more profound, honest and meaningful inner reality is significantly increased.
Sagittarius Reality Shift - The Perpetual Polarity

At the solar and lunar eclipses, the Zodiac signs of the Sun and Moon define the nature of our lessons and opportunities to advance. The Gemini/Sagittarius polarity pair deals with our perception of reality - our assumptions, belief systems, worldview and thoughts - how we use our mind to see ourselves, others, the world and the Universe. We are invited to wake-up, to clear out some more fog, to step out of cultural conditioning, and let go of wounded programming, so that we can take a giant step forward to embrace our authentic soul self, and to experience our oneness with all life.

For the Gemini/Sagittarius polarity, PERCEPTION is the key word. How we perceive the world and ourselves depends upon:

  1. the structure of our mind,
  2. the receptivity of our perceptual faculties, and
  3. how information flows through, is blocked by, or interpreted by our mental, emotional and physical bodies.

Quantum mechanics has determined that there is no objective reality. "The observer shapes what is observed. As soon as our attention focuses on something, all other probabilities collapse; what was an infinite wave of possibility becomes a particle of matter".(2) HOW we focus our attention, WHAT we pay attention to and HOW we pay attention, are thus extremely important.

Sagittarius Points its Arrow to the Heart

At the Sagittarius New Moon, the Sun, Moon, North Node, Venus and Mercury are all in Sagittarius - symbolized by the Centaur - half human, half horse. The Centaur reminds us that no matter how lofty our spiritual goals, we are human, and we live in primate bodes with basic physical, sexual and emotional needs. It is important to acknowledge that the Zodiac archetype representing our spiritual journey (Sagittarius), lives on the Earth in human and animal form. Sagittarius teaches us that embracing, not escaping, our humanness is required to reach our spiritual goals.

The archer's drawn bow, with the arrow pointing toward the sky, encourages us to direct our lives from our hearts. It tells us that the more conscious we become, and the more we awaken to our soul identity, the more meaningful, more purposeful and happier our human journey can be.

The Sagittarius archetype is about:

  1. waking up from our unconscious sleep state,
  2. finding our truth,
  3. forging new frontiers,
  4. opening ourselves up to new possibilities, and
  5. having experiences that expand our horizons.
From Agitation to Peace

The fire signs (Aries, Leo and Sagittarius) experience agitated emotional states. The primary emotional issue for fire signs is anger. Anger is how our suppressed emotions, shame, not feeling loved, feeling rejected, and lack of self love and acceptance show up.

Fire represents Spirit. Connecting with Spirit is the key to transforming our agitated, conflicted inner reality into a state of peace. To do so, we must experience a perceptual shift (accompanied by a visceral experience), in how we view and relate to our human circumstances, each other, and above all ourselves.

The Game of Life

Both the Sagittarius and Gemini archetypes engage us in life's activities. It is in our mundane, daily tasks and encounters that we confront our issues, and are given opportunities to learn our lessons. It is critical to keep our arrow pointing toward the goal of inner peace. Our touchstone for evaluating how we handle our life, moment to moment, is whether our actions, words, thoughts and choices come from, and lead us to, deeper states of inner peace.

It is unlikely that the world is going to change to make us more at peace. Don't count on your relationships changing to respond to your neediness. Don't expect your partner to adjust to make you feel comfortable with your neuroses, or to live your lies. It is not going to happen. Relationships don't eliminate our issues; they show us our issues.

The most workable way to proceed in life, is to give up living from a fantasy that anything or anybody in our environment will change. This is not to say that it will not happen, but counting on it and focusing on changing our circumstances, instead of ourselves, is a formula for frustration, anger and failure.

To achieve inner peace, we have to change our inner reality and how we deal with life. In the process, those around us might shift too ... and if they don't, well, the good news is that we are different and more at peace within ourselves. The goal of learning our life lessons is to pave the way to inner peace, and to cultivate our ability to handle our life situations from our heart.

The Rings of Your Mind's Circus

This is a good time to take an inventory of the issues, circumstances and people in your life. You will notice patterns, problems, and situations that run like themes through your life. These circumstances will probably remain about the same. What can change is how we live, and relate to, our life.

I remember years ago a man who, after experiencing the same patterns of dysfunction and dissatisfaction, had the habit of moving from one ashram to the next. One day he asked Yogi Bhajan if he could move to yet another ashram. Yogi-ji's response was, "Yes, son, but keep in mind that wherever you go, you have to take yourself with you".

The introspection called for at this time, is to identify what beliefs, reactions, attitudes and thoughts we take with us, wherever we go. These scripts are habits. Once identified, habits can be changed. If you honestly seek inner transformation, it is essential to identify the explanations, rationalizations and justifications that give you permission to be a victim, and thus keep you drowning in your dysfunctional patterns. This is not to negate your pain, or to condone abuse that you may have suffered. This exercise exposes, and helps you stop, indulging in mind games that keep you a slave to misery. Keep your arrow pointed toward inner peace and your heart!

From Unconscious to Conscious

For eons, it has been the human condition to live unconsciously. As we move into the Aquarian Age, it is becoming more and more feasible to reach higher states of consciousness, and to live more conscious lives. Unconscious is a bankrupt way to live. Pushing ourselves, trying to figure everything out from our dualistic mind, attempting to control and manipulate our external environment and others - all dictate a stressful modus operandi, which is not highly effective, not much fun, not heart-centered and not peaceful.

In its unconscious state, our fire energy usually makes us feel agitated, negative, judgmental, reactive and angry. Fire energy must be used to take action, and to create. We can't meditate away our fire energy. The Sagittarius archetype represents contemplation in action. Sagittarius is about the state of our inner reality, while we carry out our daily activities and routines and co-create with universal forces.

Whether you are a real estate agent, salesperson, yoga or school teacher, a healing professional, social worker, etc., life works better in a contemplative, neutral, relaxed and flowing state. Whatever arena we have chosen to live in, the game is the same - to upgrade HOW we do what we do. We don't try to change our circumstances or our relationships. What is required is to become more conscious, and to live conscious lives.

Higher/Meditative Mind

The higher mind is the territory of the Sagittarius archetype. Awakening our neutral mind, to the extent that it is always available to us, allows us to significantly upgrade our existence.

  1. Access to our meditative mind makes it possible to be more productive, more effective, more creative, and more conscious.
  2. From an observer stance, we can see more clearly and evaluate more fairly.
  3. Above the fray, we can take an objective look at how to be more effective, and gain access to solutions not available in our dualistic mind.
  4. From an 'above time' perspective, we can slow down enough to relax, to release stressful patterns and not be attached to the struggle mode.
  5. Out of our dualistic fight, we are able to operate from curiosity, availability and receptivity.
  6. Life becomes more interesting and more fun. Our challenges become adventures. Every day awakens us to a life worth living ... and that is ultimately the gift.

The observer sees more. The listener hears more. The feeler feels more. With our awareness faculties awakened, we move into a state of perceptual depth. Through a perceptual shift, we enter the dimension of magic and miracles.

Techniques to Practice to Cultivate Gift Consciousness

There are many ways we can facilitate our journey into gift consciousness. Daily, committed practice of the following techniques can shift your mental perception and visceral experience of reality. Choose one or more of the following, and continue until you experience a shift. Then move on to another exercise. Don't try to do everything at once. Keep your practice focused and simple.

  1. Awakening your neutral mind peace channel is required (see Issue 152). A shift in consciousness does not happen in your dualist mind. Practice using your neutral mind for observation, guidance and letting go during the day.
  2. Notice the burden of opinions and the heaviness of judgments. You can significantly lighten your load by stopping your mind, as it automatically creates useless negative, or even positive, evaluations. Why waste your mental space preoccupying yourself with your personal view of the way things are? Notice if you wish/must, and then move on, or reframe your negative, judgmental thoughts into neutral observations, and then let them go.
  3. Change your thought patterns and ways of thinking by chanting mantras. Interrupt and neutralize negative and judgmental thoughts with a mantra.
  4. Pay attention to details in life. Make a habit of acknowledging what is, exactly the way it IS. For example, the leaves on the tree are green, or yellow. Notice that the fact things are they way they are is beyond your control.
  5. Practice gratitude during the day. Give thanks for everything, without selecting out only what you like. Be attentive to how your awareness, energy and projection shift.
  6. Be aware of your body and breath, without opinion, or trying to change either in any way. Notice they have a dynamic of their own, that will continue whether you interfere or not.
  7. Make a list of things in your life that are a gift, i.e. happened independently of your willful actions and grand schemes. Your list will be very long.
From Will to Gift

An authentic shift in consciousness happens with a shift from control to allowing and accepting. This is not a mental, willful shift. We can't control this inner reality awakening. Yes, we can and must participate in our awakening process, but at the point of the transformation, we realize that the shift is a gift from a power greater than our limited ego. We can want it to happen, but we didn't make it happen.

Our awareness and acknowledgment of a Force, the Source, beyond our control creates a perceptual reality shift in our psyche. Our consciousness expands. Our awareness becomes deeper and richer. Our mind is able to let go. Our emotions relax into the flow with natural forces. We become peaceful. This existential experience is a gift that moves us into a state of trust, surrender and gratitude.

Guru Rattana Online
Kundalini Yoga - Magic Mantra

The high frequency energy available these days makes expanded consciousness more accessible than ever before. Daily Kundalini Yoga and mantra meditation offers us the best gifts - inner peace and joy.

The Magic Mantra enables us to prepare our energy bodies, and our mind, to receive spiritual gifts. The mantra is:

This means that the real gift (gur prasad), is the awareness of the reality that we are one with the Infinite Spirit, and that everything is created from the same source (ek ong kar).

Sit in a comfortable meditation posture with your hands to heart level, palms up and elbows relaxed at the sides. Make a shallow cup with your hands. The sides of palms and Mercury fingers are comfortably together. Thumbs are out and away from hands. It is important to keep the edges of the palms and little fingers together. If there is a gap between your little fingers, adjust your hands to eliminate any space. Look into the hands but keep the eyes closed and chant in a monotone, letting the breath naturally find itself:

One cycle lasts 4-5 seconds. Continue daily for 11-31 minutes, for at least 40 days.

Comments: 31 minutes of this can get you very high! A couple of days practice can give you a certain stimulation which is beyond explanation.

This mantra elevates the self beyond duality, and establishes the flow of Spirit. It will make the mind so powerful that it will remove all obstacles. It is called the Magic Mantra because its positive effects happen quickly and last a long time.

This mantra MUST BE CHANTED WITH REVERENCE, IN A PLACE OF REVERENCE. When you meditate on this mantra, be sure that your surroundings are serene and reverent, and that you practice it with reverence.

This mantra and meditation is from Transitions to a Heart-Centered World 2nd Edition page 182.

Sagittarius Classes - Guru Rattana Online

Check out Guru Rattana Online classes for Sagittarius under SPIRIT/FIRE ELEMENT, for in-depth lessons on how to focus and direct your mind.

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 of all my classes.

References and Footnotes

"Sagittarius Solar Eclipse - November 24-5", Austin, Stephanie, The Mountain Astrologer, Issue #159, Oct/Nov 2011, p. 106.

"Gemini Lunar Eclipse - December 10", Austin, Stephanie, The Mountain Astrologer, Issue #160, Dec/Jan 2012, p. 103.

1. Austin, Gemini, page 103

2. Austin, Gemini, page 103

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