DARTH PLUTO MEETS SHOCK JOCK URANUS
THE FIRST DAYS of July shudder and quake into an intense, shadow-erupting full Moon (conjunct Pluto/opposed Mars) on the 8/9th. Notice: awareness is being pummeled with emotional content. Digest! Egos feel extra-vulnerable now and are, therefore, prone to icy assertion and control. The slightest tinge of a threat or ultimatum escalates fast. Best to postpone potential conflicts of will until July 10-16th when the planetary cinema pauses for a welcome intermission. Until then, give girth and yield to the Beauty Way.
Yes, yes, the previously-numbed, game-changing confession of your true feelings will demand that you make significant changes in the structure of your life and relationships, but your motivation for making them needs to be cleansed of ego-hardening reactivity first. Ask: Is the urgency to act now masking a distrust in the ease-full flow of the Tao?
Mantra for the month: Stick up for yourself: be empty!
The fallout of Pluto’s personally (and politically) revealed secrets naturally culminate in a period of enlivening, out-of-the-blue changes at the end of the month when the new Moon squares Uranus on the 23/24th. Individually and collectively, there is an existential push to get all the cards on the table in the first half of the month- no matter how upsetting. (Thank you, Darth Pluto) Out of this dark clarity come some disruptively alive realizations that jolt us into a more daringly singular, regime-changing period at the end of the month. (Thank you Shock-Jock Uranus).
“Awake” means noticing when you’re out of your league!
July is jabbing at us to master the art of “optimal distance.” How near or far away do we need to be from a person, place or situation to preserve our vision of them as beautiful and perfect in the eyes of God? How quickly can we become aware of our mounting emotional reactivity so we can pause for a perspective-giving walk, reschedule that meeting or simply look away until we can muster a soulful response? Remember: You are not escaping; you are moving closer to your true nature: the tender witness.
And why, exactly, wouldn’t you pause to find this hallowed optimal distance? Perhaps because it means outing the fact that you have reactivity in the first place. Perhaps your ego considers in-over-your-head reactivity an embarrassing demonstration of your spiritual ungrown-up-ness and you want to preserve your awake self-image. Oh well. As humbling as exposing your need for a time-out may be, the alternative during this month is rather fierce: emotional manipulation, breakage of trust and stinging regret.
The point is: don’t over-shoot. Humbly confine yourself to environments and relational dynamics that do not over stress your ability to stay empty, present and minimally reactive. Should you pull off this strategically supported equanimity during this month’s emotional push-pulls, you have surely sidestepped a boat load of drama and suffering downstream.
A Beautiful Problem
Another word for what we’re talking about here is “meditative relating-” which sounds great, but is a hard sell. Why? Because meditative relating preemptively steers us clear of egoic train wrecks that we’ll never know we avoided because they never showed up in the first place! Ha! Now there’s a beautiful problem!
New to meditation and self-inquiry? No problem. July will likely push you to pause deeper. How? By scaring you with some ominous, barely-avoided interpersonal drama. Be grateful. July is inviting ego to lean back into the cozy place it’s spent its whole life searching for: timeless presence.
How klutzy or elegant will you be during July’s optimal distance dance? That depends on how willing you are to take a breath and let intense, witness-numbing urges die on the vine so you can feel into what’s actually going on. Here’s a few possible scenarios.
Preconception:
I’m on vacation. I should be feeling relaxed and light-hearted.
Presence-born Insight:
Actually, this is what true lightheartedness looks like: awareness incandescing as the tender witness of robotic, conditioned points of view and the emotional automation that they spawn.
Preconception:
I’m missing out on a deep connection or a once-in-a-lifetime worldly opportunity by stepping away to tame my tongue and meet mind’s agitation squarely.
Presence-born Insight:
Yes, I may be. But in the longer arc of my life, I am breaking the habit of following ego-driven ambitions that, when satiated, land me in one hollow victory after another. By pausing to self-reckon I am increasing my ability to accurately feel and sense into which relationships and paths are spiritually fulfilling, born of timeless presence and effortless flow.
Some astrologers see a an ominous portend in the transits of July as it sets up the transformational themes that will play out during eclipse-ridden August. Lest you think I’m one of them, I close with this quote from Nisargadatta Maharaj:
Once you realize that the road is the goal, and that you are always on the road, not to reach a goal but to enjoy its beauty and its wisdom, life ceases to be a task and becomes natural and simple. In itself, an ecstasy.
~Nisargadatta Maharaj
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