Sometimes light pours through the smallest of cracks during the darkest time of the year. This is the celestial season of the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, where in our darkest hour the light begins to seep back into our awareness and linear time with incremental advance. Most times its too subtle to tell, but it is there, gradual, second by-second, minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour, day-by-day. Soon, we are swimming in the (lux)ury of radiance and the dimmest of days are behind us.
In my last post, it might have seemed that these are days to be gotten through and endured. Make no mistake, I think our greatest challenges lie ahead, some sort of reckoning lurching towards us in the season of night. Something Titanic (To be re-released in April of 2012 in 3D).
What is the most audacious act of social, civil and religious disobedience you could ever partake in? Is it squatting on the outskirts of Lloyd Blankfein's summer estate? I'll tell you what it is; It is loving one another. It is acting as though the person in front of you is the most sacred being on the planet. Its listening with full intent while another speaks. Its seeing through the steely wool gauze of chemicals and metals in our sky and realizing that we are flying through space, wheeling amongst stars at incredible speeds, voyagers on a breathtaking cosmic journey. It is knowing deep in your heart what is right and wrong and living from the conviction of that place; unimpeachable congruence as an agency of wisdom and truth. Its honoring and standing up for those that can't. Its seeing the divine in the most wretched and despised of our species, yes, for even the smallest spark dwells therein. To affirm and decree this is the most outrageous and courageous stance you can take. Its affirming that you are alive and have been given the chance to test yourself against the crushing gravity of these times.
Before the Sun shifts from Sag to Cap on the solstice, we can tap into the exuberance and optimism that is the beneficent font which flows ceaselessly from the archer of vision and insight. When the Sun shifts, a sober, saturnine appropriation of our affairs and the world shifts with it. The high-flying benevolence of Sag moves into practical application. Capricorn becomes the stage for enacting sagacious strategies. Here, there is no loss of momentum, only a continuum, a wheel of evolution, cycles of being that we can integrate at its every turn. Give thanks and praise to all that's God and good and prepare to move to the next level.
SURRENDER DENIED
It was December of 1989. I was in Ocean Shores, Washington. It was Christmas Eve. I had been up late with Mad Max, a consultant. We talked about the nature of psyche and the shamanic experience. He went to bed and I stayed up for a while watched the scene from the Vatican, the one that had been played out thousands of times before. A year earlier I was midnight mass tripping on E at Grace Cathedral, newly engaged and feeling like anything was possible. I traveled on a photon beam through time. I was the baby Jesus. I was the straw in the manger. I was the lambs bleating their ancient song. I was the starlight in the cold clear eve of a new age born. I was the approach of magic on camels through the silent night. That was then. A year later in the heart of my Saturn return in Cap in my 2nd House, it was rough sledding. I was restless. The Seattle winter was cold in more ways than merely physical. I struggled to find meaningful work, caught in the riptide of a local backlash against Californians, I felt like I was living in quicksand.
After Mad Max went to bed I pondered the concept of faith, God, all things eternal and my soul. Something strange and very uncomfortable occurred. A voice came to me, well more than a voice--a voice and a presence. It essentially said to me that "If I could let it all go and surrender, that I could be at one with God in my conscious awareness. This was not some sort of generic, New Age, universal oneness trip. It was clearly personal and felt very "Christian." As I lay in bed, my semi-naked wife next to me, in the hush of the night, I was being asked to give it all up. I had no guarantee if I'd still want to be with her, or if my goals would remain the same and if the world would hold the same meaning as it had. It felt like a conversion moment. I thought about it. I liked my edge. I liked my ego. I liked the drama of duality. I could not say goodbye to the "little i." And then, the moment passed. The angel moved on.
MUTE WITNESS
MuteMath, one of my favorite bands has just released "Odd Soul" their third and best album. I've been playing it non-stop since I downloaded it last week. Sonically, it's amazing. Songs like "Blood Pressure" and "Walking Paranoia" are fueled by muscular funk, riding the hot rails of rapid tempo shifts and air-tight-time signatures, whomping baselines and sweet harmonies. They'll throw down 70's jazz fusion, pro-rock, North African rhythms, Cajun shuffle, all in one song. It's inspiring and breathtaking. They take huge risks sonically and thematically. Born again Christians, Odd Soul is at once an affirmation of their faith, (see the cross on the lapel in the CD cover art) and a deep query regarding the roots of that faith. They're not taking anything for granted. They're working it out in sound. Its dynamic, frenetic and inspiring. Perched between the expectations of their charismatic traditions and the secular marketplace, they're carving out a deeply respectable niche as brilliant musicians, fixed on an uncompromising vision. I cannot recommend their latest work enough. Its helping to push me through patches of dead space and the growing shadows of despair.
In many ways, their music/soul is reflective of Neptune and Chiron in Pisces. They, along with Tim Tebow are giving Neptune/Pisces/Jesus a new slant that feels transcendent. Tebow apart from his offseason Summer job, shearing foreskins from indigenous people is one of the good guys. Yeah, he sings hokey songs about God and points upward like most believers do when something important happens, but there can be no denying the essential nature of his goodness. Each game he plays, he flies a child with a serious illness to the game and puts them up at his expense. He brings them to the game and onto the field and talks to them. He meets them after the game for more connection. Bash him if you will, but if you don't think we need more of this type of care in the world, Christian or not, well, I'll say my own little version of a prayer for you.
Neptune and Chiron in Pisces fleshes out the failure of faith, especially in the realm of false profits/prophets and in its wake something profound, holy, sacred and untouched by the degradation of the world can emerge. Maybe that angel from Ocean Shores has circled back today and is spreading its message on virtual wings.
How much would you be willing to let go and surrender for peace and an unshakable love in your heart?
Its recently come to my attention after close to three years of blogging and breaking it all down, that we need a new vector, a different approach. All of the symbols are out in the open. As SB 1867 passes and the troops return home, there is a feeling of endgame in the air and yet I am giddy. I am filled with an optimism not truly fitting for the tenor of our times. There's a new spirit coming and its going to surprise and lot of people, even so-called "true believers." When it calls, listen very carefully.
"Blood Pressure" by MuteMath from Odd Soul uploaded by them on this writer's birthday.
