New Forms for Old Symbols

What an amazing time to be alive!

There’s so much going on, it’s hard to know where to start!

Let’s begin by looking to the sky and see where it leads us.

Today’s powerful new moon and partial solar eclipse comes hot on the heels of the lunar eclipse just two weeks ago and just a day before Neptune moves into Aries, after 13 or so years crossing Pisces.

Symbolically, eclipses are about endings and new beginnings. With the two most recent eclipses falling in Aries, opposite Libra we’re being invited to look at how we’re living our lives and to consider how our sense of I-am-ness is in right relationship with others.

And Neptune is all about becoming a more spiritual I-am!

I find it fascinating to notice what’s naturally happening in my life and see how it relates to the symbology of significant astronomical events.

What endings and beginnings are you noticing in relation to the way you’re living your life?

Let’s explore more deeply.

One way that astrologers interpret cosmic events is to consider the Sabian Symbol for the highlighted degree in an astrological chart. The Sabian Symbols hold an energy and story for each of the 360 degrees that make up a circular chart.

As we enter the story it can reveal some deeper meaning, allowing us to open to greater self-awareness, a new understanding of our relationships and what’s happening in the world around us.

Today, the sun and moon are at 9 degrees of Aries which holds the story of a person teaching new forms for old symbols.

How wonderful that we are being taught to look with fresh eyes and to re-interpret the symbols that have been guiding us for so long!

I love beginnings, all the anticipation and excitement of starting something new. Then come the trials; some obstacle stands in our way, or the birthing pangs become intense.

Yet, these are the exact challenges we need to mature. If it’s a true beginning, there’s no going back!

The same is true for my excitement about fresh interpretations for old symbols.

We could face some challenges, so let’s look at the process more deeply. Perhaps this preparation will support us in days to come.

Neptune often reveals illusions. Our path ahead may contain disappointment and disillusionment.

Have your gifts ready, we’re about to cross a line and the threshold guardians require payment! Perhaps keep willingness close at hand. Willingness to see things differently, willingness to be changed, willingness to grow.

And be attentive to your witness self or mature adult aspect, who notices and names what’s happening for you. I’ve got to know my witness self pretty well. I call her Sophia and she’s highly sensitive. Currently she’s attuned to inner seriousness, agitation, disappointment and disillusionment. I get a strong nudge to look at what’s going on when Sophia notices one of these feeling states.

Again, let’s go deeper.

I reflected on Seriousness at the full moon, so on to Agitation.

Thanks to the Gene Keys teachings I’ve learned that Agitation, like Seriousness is a heavy, low frequency shadow state. Agitation also has a key position in my profile. And I’m beginning to be grateful for it, because it pushes me toward growth.

We all feel agitated sometimes. The good news is that we can escape its clutches through Initiative. A little more on this later.

On to Disappointment.

I spent a lot of time, especially as a single mother with young children, spinning multiple plates in a vain attempt to “protect” myself and my children from the emotions that arise when disappointment comes knocking.

Inevitably, the crash would come. A friend couldn’t come around to play, a promise made turned out to be hollow and meaningless. Efforts were not recognised or rewarded; this person didn’t have my best interest at heart. Or I was being coerced or manipulated in some way. Or sometimes the supermarket simply ran out of the favourite breakfast cereal!

Disappointment is still teaching me about humanity, mine and that of those around me. It was such a relief when I could just admit to feeling disappointed, to enter in and allow myself and my children to feel the sadness, or grief or anger.

And as the emotions passed the illusions that we’d been unwittingly supporting revealed themselves. So, disappointment can lead us straight into the lap of disillusionment.

As one with a powerful imagination and propensity to drift into the realms of fantasy, I love some illusions. As a young child, my mother eventually refused to take me to the pantomime because, being completely caught by the story, I wailed or sobbed so loudly that I was deemed an embarrassment!

And yet, when I did go, I always wanted to go backstage to see how the magic had been created. Even at a tender age, I seemed to want to understand. I wanted to be allowed to choose whether to play along with the illusion or how to engage with the entertainment. Perhaps I wanted to know what my part was in this game.

Now I’m older, I want to understand the underlying motive and impact that the illusion has, both personally and collectively. Is this illusion for entertainment? Is my part to play along and laugh with the performer. Or is there something more sinister going on?

I wonder, what deception is hidden in the illusion?

A couple of years ago, I was deceived by a team of fraudsters. They caught me in one of those perfect storm moments, where I was spinning too many plates, and was anxious about the cost of a trip I had planned but was unsure about taking.

Even as I write this, I can see how I’m protecting myself by describing the mitigating circumstances.

It feels very vulnerable to simply say “I was deceived.”

I know now that I fell for the same classic scam that thousands of other people have fallen for. Someone calls, tells you they are from the bank and that someone is, right now, stealing your identity and your money. A clever illusion is created, I was caught in the game.

Then comes the fall. The horrendous moment of realisation that this has all been a malevolent trick and I’d been stripped clean.

Suddenly, the illusion evaporates. You’ll recognise the sensation – we’re left, stomach in boots, discovering that “the nice man from the bank”, the trusted official who was looking out for our best interest was in fact a thief and that we had been caught in an intentional web of skilful lies, deceit and manipulation.

I felt so – stupid. And somehow, I felt as if it was my fault. Strange how being manipulated has that quality to it.

Along with anger and anxiety, I felt shame.

I’m told that response is similar for many in that situation. I find some comfort knowing that.

Along with fantasy, I have a particular propensity to feel shame. It’s a recurring theme in my life, so I’ve examined it from many angles!

Currently, I’m exploring Richard Rudd’s[1] teaching that the core wound in each of us is both personal and impersonal, specific to our life experiences and collective at the same time. As the wound comes into our awareness, we are invited to transmute or heal it, for ourselves and for the collective.

This rings true!

Rudd continues that at our Core, one of six archetypes plays out in our lives as a primary theme, although inevitably, we see all of them at work.

No surprise, Shame is that archetype for me.

Happily, this teaching also offers a way out!

Here’s my interpretation of the first three of Rudd’s progression of the six archetypal wounds and his suggested approaches to transmute them.

Repression – an internalisation of our suffering due to unexpressed fear. The path out lies in self-honesty, noticing it as a background frequency in your life, in humanity’s life and just allowing it to be there.

Denial – when repression finally bursts out, it usually does so as anger. For me, rage might be a better word. There have been a couple of times in my life when repression has been unleashed, and I’ve felt rage rising through me like molten lava erupting from the core of the earth. It’s offered a powerful opportunity to practice equanimity!

Denial projects all its pain onto the world. So how do we work with denial without causing mayhem? This takes me back to the Pholus story – the lid comes off. Through the gift of Ease. Denial is denial, so we can’t chase it down, instead, we can notice the pattern in our lives and channel the anger into something creative, rather than destructive. Allowing the energy to flow through us dissipates it.

Shame comes when we’ve looked deeply into our true nature and see things as they truly are. Shame lingers behind those moments when, with complete incredulity we ask,

“how could we treat each other and the world like that?”

Our deep wounding crusts into self-loathing that’s so hard to look at, we do the whole plate-spinning, workaholic thing; being so busy that all energy and time is spent trying to prove our worthiness and avoid feeling the shame.

Rudd counsels

“. . . you must slow down long enough to get in touch with your feelings of unworthiness. You don’t need to understand these feelings. They are shared by almost every human being alive.”

Slowing down is hard when busyness has spun a protective shell around the vulnerable wounded core. Yet, when we do slow down and offer ourselves the grace of compassion and self-love, a deep-rooted humour can emerge.

We can laugh with ourselves, in all our ridiculousness and beauty, in all our gifts and faults! We can offer compassion and love to others. We can play our part in transforming the shame of humanity.

How wonderful!

Which of these archetypes resonate with you?

In what ways can you use your gifts to allow or transmute the painful collective wound?

Well,
When I started writing, I didn’t expect to go there! There’s a journey in every contemplation!

Let’s go back to the beginning, to the Sabian Symbol of 9 degrees of Aries – and the story of the person teaching new forms for old symbols.

It can be hard to give ourselves permission to interpret old symbols in new ways. It’s generally not encouraged!

How refreshing then, during a webinar I attended last night, students were being encouraged to be a bit naughty, to play and creatively engage with the resources, to contemplate the content and see how it could be applied to the everyday events of our individual lives.

I smiled as I listened; compliance and conformity have been drilled into so many of us. The ideas of the right way and the wrong way or of being told what to think, what to believe, which authors or teachers are helpful, and which are forbidden is commonplace.

Are we not free to think and explore and make our own choices?

Are we not free to choose our teachers and guides as we wish?

Are we not free to interpret symbols and metaphors in ways that our meaningful to us?

At the beginning of this contemplation, I said that I’d come back around to Agitation.

Now that I recognise agitation as a low frequency, shadow state, I take heed of it.

One morning this week I read a beautiful interpretation of a familiar parable, changed from The Prodigal Son to The Lost Daughter, by my friend and teacher Alexander John Shaia.

But one phrase just sent me into high level agitation!

Because I now know that the way out of agitation is initiative, I decided to allow Agitation’s energy to flow through me. A reinterpretation that speaks to my experience positively gushed onto the page!

At short notice, Alexander John very graciously welcomed the interpretation and invited me to share it during the Quadratos weekly online Gospel Reflection. Several participants also found this new way of looking at an old symbol meaningful and on further reflection I believe that it also speaks to our greater collective story.

The parable contains all the elements of a good story, hearing the call, a betrayal and departure from the familiar, trials and tribulations, gifts received and challenges to be negotiated upon the return.

I suddenly saw humanity’s story written there; the story of our separation from Mother Earth as we journeyed to discover our skills and limitations, to become authentic and sovereign in ourselves.

The moment that we are in or soon will be – is that moment of humbling realisation, as the illusions of the material world fall away.