Wholeness and the Dance of Polarities
by Guru Rattana, Ph.D. - Issue #50, September 18, 2002
These times require penetrating understanding, profound meaning and depth of spirit. The purpose of the New Millennium Being is to offer insights and techniques to use with your Kundalini Yoga practice, to help you achieve a deeper level and quality of existence.
As I wrote in Issue 43 on the Pluto-Saturn Opposition, the nature of Pluto's transformation is DEATH AND REBIRTH. We may not physically die, but a total revamp is required if we are to survive and thrive during the transition from the Pisces to the Aquarian Age. The magnitude of the shift signaled by the Pluto-Saturn opposition may take us years to fully grasp and integrate.
The Pluto-Saturn death and rebirth process seemed to continue without reprieve until late summer. August 26 Pluto went direct. With both planets going in a forward motion and Saturn moving much faster than Pluto, the distance widens, and the opposition and dynamic tension between them no longer exists.
Slow Death and Rebirth
As we wake-up to the fact that the old is definitively over, it will take time to reorient ourselves, reinvent our psyche, and realign with new circumstances. We are currently in this readjustment phase, where anything short of rebirth isn't enough. We not only have to sort things out, we have to reassemble the pieces of our lives.
Actually it is going to take some time to realize the true nature of the dramatic shift that we are engulfed in. The old system and structures are not going to die without a fight. New ones are not going to magically be created without labor pains, serious reflection, wise choices and careful action. Many of us are going to try to hold on to what we know because it feels safer, less threatening, and just plain easier to do so. Of course, what we want to hold on to may no longer even exist. Relationships, jobs, retirement funds, may simply be gone. In many visible ways we are being forced to let go.
It is going to take introspection to make peace with the past and accept our new circumstances. We have to give up our desire to resurrect some illusion of a perfect time that never really existed. We have to learn from our mistakes. We have to leave false gods behind. We have to gain wisdom from our experiences. We have to integrate what worked and didn't into a new level of understanding. We have to step forth from a new position of maturity, humility and power.
It takes willingness to awaken to a new reality, to accommodate to new demands, to work out new modes of doing and being. It takes courage to accept and flow with the unveiling of the new. It takes effort and patience to clean up your karma so you can act as a free agent. It takes will to fearlessly act from your own truth. It takes consciousness to know what your own truth is!
Living in the Unknown
Most of us still do not know what hit us. We may outwardly try to pretend that we are OK, but inwardly we are freaking out, emotionally distraught, scared and angry. Intuitively we know that more sweeping changes are yet to come. We may have just experienced the tip of the iceberg. The new ocean we are swimming in seems formidable. I think that what is challenging us the most is the fact that we do not know what the future will bring. The root of our fear is that the future has not been decided yet. We cannot know for sure or predict with certainly what will happen.
The root of our anger is that we are responsible for our personal and collective future. We have to create both our personal and collective futures. We are used to simple answers. We are used to looking to outside authorities and letting the system take care of us. There are no longer easy, simple answers. (There never were). We cannot pull out old textbooks and get the answers. The past models do not work. In fact, the past models just make things worse. The system is not going to automatically take care of us. (It never did). We have to figure out what to do for ourselves and for our world.
Courage to be Pioneers
We are all being tested to the core. Can we maintain our Divine Connection during these intense times? Do we have the emotional maturity to act responsibly? Do we have the courage and confidence to step forward and be pioneers of the Aquarian Age?
We are living in a new world. The frequency of the planet has shifted. Earth now vibrates at the level of the heart. There is more light on the planet than ever before, but we have to live at this higher frequency to experience the love that the increased light makes available.
To make the transition to a heart-centered world, we have to change our basic mindset and belief systems. We have to erase sabotaging thought patterns and substitute empowering ones. We have to gracefully accept and embrace dramatically altered life paths. We have to be willing and able to live in transition. We have to learn to surrender to and trust the unknown. We have to connect with the unknown inside ourselves, listen to it, trust it and follow it. This is the only way we can end control, manipulation and exploitation. This is the only way we can end pain, struggle and anguish. Without our internal authority as our guide, we submit to external authorities and become victims of a system eager to take advantage of our naïveté.
Closer to the Present
The death of the past and the potentiality of the future bring us closer to the present. There is nowhere else to be except in the present. This is good news, for consciousness is born in the moment. Awareness exists only in the present moment. The more we are in the present, the more we tune into our own heart. The more we listen to our own heart, the more we know what we came here to do, and the more motivation we have to alter our life course so we can do it. Knowledge of what we are here for helps us release the illusions of the past, and get on with our destiny path. Once we know what we have to do, we certainly don't want to waste our time and energy giving our creative energy to dying dinosaurs. It's inspiring and motivating to be in our truth. It is energizing to get our assignment and take steps to manifest it. The more conscious we become, the more we realize that we have a responsibility to live our truth and make our contribution. Only consciousness equips us for the task at hand.
Death of the Patriarchy
What has died is the patriarchy, the male-dominated, mentally driven, idea-based system founded in lust, anger, greed, pride and attachment, and committed to exploitation, manipulation and suppression of all forms for the feminine - women, the Earth, our bodies, our emotions and our direct internal connection with the Divine.
The death of the patriarchy should not be interpreted as a condemnation of men, or as a position that women alone should take over the world. The death of the patriarchy does not automatically guarantee equality, equity and respect. The demise of the patriarchy does not miraculously set into place a new system. The majority of both men and women are still unconscious and extremely dysfunctional. If we weren't, we would not have created and supported the current system. Unempowered and asleep women, who submit to dominating men, are as much to blame as the unenlightened men they have given birth to and raised.
CLAIM and BLAME are not part of the new operating manual. We are all in this together - men and women, all colors, all ages, all belief systems, all inhabitants of planet Earth. The cultivation of an empowered feminine, and the alignment of the masculine with truth and integrity in both men and women, are basic requirements for our individual and collective rebirth (and survival!).
Dealing with Opposites
Our world is polarized in many forms of what each side considers "right and wrong", and the good guys and the bad guys. Polarities are part of the nature of the Universe, yet the Universe runs very smoothly. Somehow we got off balance down here, and systematized polarities into polarization and conflict.
A critical piece that will determine the future of the world, is finding ways to peacefully deal with and integrate human expressions of polarities. Men and women are one set of polarities. Masculine and feminine energy and modalities are another set of polarities, that exist in both men and women. Dark and light are another manifestation of polarities. Humankind has been preoccupied for a very long time with trying to define and deal with conflicting definitions and interpretations of darkness and light. What is good and what is evil?
We are so caught up in the mindset of either/or, that we often miss the existential truth of polarities, which is WHOLENESS. The more we get caught up in thinking we have to make a choice between opposites, the crazier we get. The more we base our operating structures on one or the other, the more dysfunctional we become.
Witness the dissolution of corporate structures, which epitomize the isolated patriarchy motto - "Father knows best. He can cheat and get away with it for he is all powerful and answers to no one, not even his own hidden consciousness". Witness political structures worldwide founded on the Big Daddy principle. Witness all the men and women in the world, who thought that being taken care of was better than taking responsibility for their own lives, and easier than actively participating in governments that are supposed to "serve the people".
On a personal level, witness the frustration, depression and ennui that exist in the human psyche. The more pent up our emotions, the more estranged we are from our own spirit. The greater the disconnect between our mind and our feelings and body, the more we witness strange behaviors, violent demonstrations of wrath, and crazy outbreaks of irrationality. More than a politically motivated interpretation of the Koran, is the matter with people who would kill others and themselves in the name of God. And how about all the other outrageous things we justify in the name of freedom and peace?
Wholeness: The Dance of Masculine and Feminine Polarities
The bottom line is, we have become so entrenched in one polarity that we have lost our wholeness. Whenever the feminine principle of life is ignored, we witness what is going on in the world today. The true expression of the masculine has also been perverted.
The highest expression of the masculine is individuality. The empowered masculine enables us to take right action from an independent stance, which is neither controlled by ideologies nor motivated by unresolved emotions. All these centuries were supposed to tune us into the ability to identify ourselves independent of our tribe. When we are able to establish our separate identity, we are no longer open prey to external authorities, who wish to control us for their own profit and pleasure.
True democracy is founded on the idea that we can think for ourselves. True freedom is founded on the ability to individuate and establish our personal direct connection with the Divine. If we are listening to anyone other than ourselves, if we cannot find our own answers within ourselves, if we do not take action for ourselves, if we don't trust the unknown, we have not mastered the essence and lessons of masculine power.
Enter the feminine polarity. The reality is we cannot master the masculine without the feminine. The feminine is our ability to go inside, to connect with our emotions, to feel our feelings, to be comfortable in our own body, and to honor our own energies and rhythms. Neither the masculine nor the feminine are functional without the other. The feminine ability, to simply allow the flow and be in peace, needs masculine energy to take conscious action to meet our needs. The feminine urge to merge needs the masculine ability to individuate, to not get lost. On and on, the dance of polarities continues to tease and support each other in creating more dynamic and pleasurable experiences of wholeness.
Sun/Moon Opposition at the Full Moon
Every month the Sun and the Moon give us a lesson in wholeness. The Full Moon teaches us how to reconcile opposites. Rising at sunset and setting a dawn, the Full Moon shines its light into the dark sky of our consciousness. At New Moons and Full Moons energetic doorways open. The possibility of mental clarity at these times makes our minds more available to receive insights.
The Full Moon can deliver us to clarity or trip us into lunacy. How the Full Moon teaches us, and how we receive its lessons, depends upon our relationship with feminine and masculine polarities. If our feminine is receptive, we can receive penetrating insights that clarify previously clouded situations, illuminate restrictions that are keeping us stuck, liberate us to take appropriate action, and enlighten us with an expanded perspective.
How we receive the messages and lessons from the Full Moon depends upon how we tune into the polarity of the Sun and the Moon. If we align with the Moon, the feminine and its essence, we will take these times to REFLECT. Contemplation and observation are the modus operandi of the Moon. Just as the Moon offers itself to receive the light of the Sun, we still ourselves and open our inner world, to be illumined by the light of awareness offered to us by the Moon.
We are also at choice to identify with the Sun, which symbolizes action and will. The Sun PROJECTS its light upon the Moon. If we adapt the modus operandi of the Sun, we project our inner conflicts and questions outward. They are reflected back to us in circumstances. Just as the Moon is the mirror of the Sun's projected light, our relationships become the mirror of our inner turmoil and emotions. Working out misunderstandings with others is another way to gain a clearer perspective of ourselves.
Polarity Encounters and Resolution
Polarity encounters often mirror an unconscious or neglected aspect of ourselves. "What we repress or deny in our personalities, what we shove into our own personal darkness, will often attract its expression in the outer world". Those who deny their anger often attract someone who expresses it. Those who claim a virtue that they have not mastered, may attract someone who certainly has not mastered it.
Both inner and outer resolution are important in our human growth process and routes to enlightenment. The goal of both is to resolve the fundamental opposition by achieving wholeness.
Oppositions show us that different points of view can both be valid. Nature demonstrates that opposites are complementary. Nature teaches us that peace and harmony can be found by acceptance. The Universe shows us that power is achieved in the compassionate dance. Our daily encounters in the world coax us to embrace our inner contradictions, challenge us to compromise, remind us of the necessity for balance, and offer us the reward of wholeness if we surrender to reality.
When we resist what we perceive as an opposition or threat to our reality, we inevitably attract conflict. We feel unstable and insecure. We feel resentment, which leads us to be critical and judgmental. We feel stalemated as we are pulled in two directions at once, with no viable alternative at hand. Unable to take appropriate action, we become a victim of bad timing. Whatever we resist is what is standing in the way of our wholeness. Whatever confronts us points out our limitations. Whatever we refuse to embrace deprives us of peace. Whatever we judge usurps our happiness.
The smiling Full Moon shines resolution into our consciousness. The Full Moon invites us to relax into the dance of give and take. It encourages us to open our minds to dispassionately listen to the other side. It coaxes us to open our hearts so that we can hear the other side with empathy. Empathy towards another, opens the door for them to treat us with empathy as well. Empathy + empathy = compassion = resolution = wholeness.
Negotiating balance in relationship with another is an important way to reconcile Sun/Moon and male/female polarities. Finding common ground is how we rise above our human differences, and create peace instead of conflict in the world. Synthesis is birthed in the heart.
Still Learning from Pluto and Saturn
The Pluto-Saturn opposition has highlighted the pressures and lessons of oppositions. We experience the energies of oppositions at times like this, when the planets oppose each other. When we were born with planets in opposition, we are challenged by this energy all the time. The Pluto-Saturn opposition has challenged our attitudes, toppled our belief systems, and left us naked in front of the truth. "Oppositions reveal. Just as Luna on Full Moon nights fully accepts the light of the Sun, so must we accept whatever truths shine toward us".(1) The truth that sets us free is often confrontational, but its resolution is intended to move us up a notch. The truth can lead us to the realization that we are all one, that we are each divine beings here to experience love. Whatever the truth, oppositions are a turning point in consciousness.
The Pluto-Saturn opposition "happened" for each of us in one pair of houses. We may be more aware of the upper house challenge:
- Seven - relationship
- Eight - what we create together in relationship
- Nine - spiritual path
- Ten - career
- Eleven - community, group associations working for a common cause
- Twelve - connection with higher power, karma
We may be challenged to our maximum, and at our wits end, trying to figure out what to do in one of these areas. Welcome to the human experiment! I suggest examining the opposite arena, and investigating how we can attain a greater degree of mastery in this area. Cultivating our foundation (the first six houses), may be just the key for unlocking the doorway to our outer challenge, and the light that reveals the truth that sets us free.
Complementary Arenas of Life
The birth chart is divided into twelve houses or arenas of life. The first six are at the bottom of the chart and represent the time from sunset to sunrise. In other words these houses exist when it is dark, when the sun is down. These are personal arenas where we learn basic skills for navigating life as an individual. The six houses above the horizon represent the time from sunrise to sunset. They are considered arenas of life where we interact with others and the world. The first six arenas deal with our inner life and personal development. The second six arenas deal with our outer life, interpersonal interactions and social integration. Our inner skills require that we get in touch with our feminine side. Our outer participation requires a mastery of masculine skills. Although both require elements of each, this simplification allows us to understand the importance of our inner connection in our personal development.
The lower 6 houses and the upper six houses are complements. The skills we gain in the first six arenas are requirements for successful interaction in the upper six arenas. A study of the first six arenas helps us understand the complementary of opposites, how our inner reality creates and makes possible our outer reality and the supportive nature of the feminine for the masculine. Working with the issues of the first six houses facilitates our sanity during these times, expedites our emotional maturity, and contributes to the activation of the mature masculine and the rebirth of the empowered feminine.
In forthcoming issues, I will examine the dance of polarities between the first six houses and signs of the Zodiac, and their corresponding complements in houses 7-12 and signs.
References and Footnotes
"Moonwatching. Part Six: The Full Moon", by Dana Gerhardt, The Mountain Astrologer, Issue #104, Aug/Sept. 2002, pp. 31-35
"Basic Concepts of Astrology", Greg Bogart, The Mountain Astrologer, Issue #104, Aug/Sept. 2002, pp. 51-58.
1. Dana p.35
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