Namaste

Carnival is over.  Thank God.  I am often asked if it is a time when I get an influx of clients.  No.  Not because I can’t.  The pulse of this period is simply too vibrant so most of the time I stay in the ambiance of my home until it passes over.  The phone calls reach me here and based on the conversation I decide whether I should go out, but for the past few years I have stayed in.  So there I was, watching a movie while waiting for the Calypso segment of Dimache Gras when the phone rang.  Unknown caller.  I answered.  A question was asked that totally caught me unaware.  Pardon me?  The male voice on the other end asked again: Would you like someone to suck your vagina?  Ooohh!  Well right now I am watching a movie and I can’t seem to process two things at the same time so you will need to call me back another day when I’m doing nothing and can focus on the question.  He said okay.  I turned off the phone.  There were other calls before that, but this took the cake.  Just after lunch the next day he called again.  I hung up the phone.  This guy must be a salesman.  Is he selling the service on his behalf, or for someone else and getting a commission?  Later that evening I put it back on and it rang.  Number visible.  I answered.  A man who addressed me by name inquired whether he could have a massage that evening or the next day.  I was still in suspicious mode, so I told him next day.  Said he wanted a deep tissue massage.  Doable.  He promised to call the next day on his way over.

Carnival Tuesday morning he came.  A young man who said his neighbor (who is a maxi taxi driver) gave him my number.  It was written on one of the signs he has near his windscreen.  Very interesting.  He is a public servant who did some cement work recently and pulled a muscle in his back; he runs a few marathons and pulled a muscle that makes dorsi-flexion painful; he had a few knots and hoped I could mellow them out.  Okay.  That’s enough for us to get started, and we did.  I asked when is his birthday.  September 24.  He wanted to know why I asked.  I told him it would give me a broader view of who he is so that my mind does not limit him to an aching bundle with knots.  An astrological conversation ensued.  I told him he was channeling Virgo.  He insisted he was Libra.  Accepted, but there was a time in history when Libra was considered part of Virgo.  Besides, only those who are born from the 1^st to the 10^th are given some exclusivity to a sign, the others are influenced by neighbouring signs.  He wanted a feel good astrological pronouncement.  I grew up seeing the little horoscope section of the papers that usually read like a weather forecast: today the sun will shine on your life with all its glory, except for a few scattered showers of criticism from a close family member during midmorning hours, but don’t lose heart, the rest of the day will have fair weather.  Nice.  That was never enough for me, and if I’m going to talk astrology, then I’d have to do it my way.  Not sure he will return.  In the end he wanted to know when I massage a client if I am treating the muscles, balancing meridian and chakra, as well as easing zodiac tension among their inner planets/stars.  All Therapists do that and more, but not consciously.  We embody more systems than we are aware of.

I remember standing outside a Christian bookstore in a mall browsing their selection through the glass.  One that stood out was: Praying the Names of God.  It had Hebrew letters in the background including: Yod Hey Vav Hey.  This is sacred to belief systems that use Hebrew letters, yet it can be applied to everyone.  We are practically praying to ourselves.  How?  Let’s lay it out…

Yod	Nitrogen	Fire (Male)	Light	Aires, Leo, Sagittarius
Hey	Oxygen	Air (Male)	Gas	Libra, Aquarius, Gemini
Vav	Hydrogen	Water (Female)	Liquid	Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces
Hey	Carbon	Earth (Female)	Solid	Capricorn, Taurus, Virgo

Each human being is made up of the four gases, and when we die the elementals (Elohim?) collect the various parts of us that belong to them.  After death of the physical body, it is said that the rest of the elements take about 40 days to be dissolved in the universe.  If this does not happen the person’s consciousness will remain linked to its earthly life, and having no body and being bound here it can be quite a nuisance to us who have.  Hence the religious ceremony celebrated 40 days after is an attempt to definitively liberate that soul.  Each of us belong to at least two of the zodiac signs – the one the sun was in at birth, and the one the moon was in.  So in the case of my Libra client who projects Virgo, maybe his moon sign is.  Sometimes we meet a person who says they are a particular sign, but to the best of our knowledge they don’t behave like people of that sign.  Maybe they are projecting more of the attributes of their moon sign.  Moon sign calculators are available on many websites and aid in our acquiring a more rounded view of ourselves.  It is this holistic version of astrology that has captured my attention.  It helps to dissect things and learn, to have some exclusivity and specificity, but then we must put things back together to get a proper perspective.

Someone asked if Jesus was hinting at astrology when He said: in my Father’s house there are many mansions…  The zodiac signs are called houses and history attests to Him choosing twelve disciples who bore one of each of those signs.  The next time you get a chance to look at a painting of the Last Supper, observe how the disciples are grouped in 3s.  3 months of spring with Aries at the head of table, (the start of the Jewish year); 3 months of summer with Mary Magdalene as Virgo, 3 months of autumn with Libra’s hands outstretched like the scales of justice, and 3 months of winter.  And of course, we have the Sun in the middle.  Either Da Vinci had a great sense of humour, or he was communicating something.  And if the Master hand-picked one person from each house and encircled himself with them, then we must at least consider there being some merit to this zodiac thing.  Further, He opted for baptism by John the Water Bearer/Aquarius, when he could have had it done in the synagogue by a Priest.  Is Christendom respecting the precedent set by Jesus in having baptism exclusively performed by those of Aquarius birth?

Okay, let’s keep this personal.  With regards to the yin-yang symbol, the Mathematicians have said that the area of the two inner circles equals one-half of the outer one, yet the circumference of them both is identical to the latter.  A paradox where two and one are united yet there can be no two without the first one.  Yang is electric, yin is magnetic, and those two influence our lives all the time.  We live in an electro-magnetic field therefore we live in sex each moment of the day.  Atoms everywhere are doing it.  Should I therefore accept that the caller who proposed oral sex was really saying that my magnetic pulse needs an electrical recharge?  The collective awareness of the times we are living in strongly projects that sex is dirty, and this notion has subconsciously disturbed relationships that could have been healthy.  While I may seem moral, ethical, professional, etc. in not accepting the man’s offer, I do have to ask myself whether this is my will, or the collective consciousness projecting its will through me, and debarring me from a mind-blowing experience.

In the early stages of my practice, having stumbled upon the Chinese Body Clock, I created a pie chart in Excel and filled in the 12 meridians giving each a 2-hour slot which amounts to our 24-hour day.  In this new age there is much talk of us being the microcosm of the macrocosm, but like astrology, that talk is often meaningless until we can relate to it.  I currently have my Chinese Clock as the background picture on my laptop and every time I see it I am mentally adding more systems.  For example, the 12 bodily systems, the 12 cranial nerves, the 12 cell salts, the 12 meridians, the 12 zodiac signs, the 12 sons of Jacob and the 12 crystals assigned to them, the 12 disciples of Jesus, the 12 Imams.  Is there a connection?  When we look at the zodiac signs, six have an electric/yang/male pulse, while six have a magnetic/yin/female pulse, and just like the meridians, there is a strong flow of energy in a particular one every two hours.  (Hip! Hip! Huraaay!  I’ve been automatically recharged).  We could therefore map the twelve on the twelve and practically follow the rhythms of our body, emotion, mind, and spirit throughout the 24 hour day, i.e. if we have time to pay attention to such matters.

Or we can say: Jesus paid it all.  He did the zodiac journey for all of us (and it killed Him) so that we don’t have to die trying.  He condemned things like the law, and money changers, yet we remain proud of our legal and banking professions while we demonize the study of the stars.  Astrology is probably discouraged because it makes us ask questions that are supposed to be taboo.  If Jesus is called the Lamb of God, which tells of an Aries birth, why do we celebrate His birth on December 25?  That’s Capricorn, a goat.  This is one reason why we leave religious conversation out of our therapy rooms.  Too many conflicting views, but what is really happening is spiritual (not religious) truth critiques our conventional conditioning and we get defensive as we desperately try to maintain the props that support our illusions.  Therefore, in imposing Jesus on those who have no interest, we should consider that we don’t want our belief system contaminated by the imposition of astrology.  There are at least seven levels to a concept and seven ways of experiencing them, as facilitated by the seven major chakras, but there are some things I don’t want to think of/experience, and there are others that you don’t.  We are even.

One of the things Mr. Libra mentioned was his father’s insistence on using the little yellow book to do his farming.  He asked his father what about the trees that grow in the forest.  They have no Farmer’s Almanac.  He father did not respond.  The real question is: why are we taking guidance from upstairs to grow plants that are lesser than us, but neglect their relevance in our daily lives when we were admonished to know the signs of the times?  Yes, but we thought it was that other big bang that will signal the end.  Ooooh!  We need to start with knowing the times of our life.  Like a heavy menstruation during full moon, but a light one during new moon.  Like who represent the 12 signs in our life and what contributions do they make to our development.  Like what foods our mouth loves, but our body hates, etc.  For the seeds we are to burst forth into mono or dicotyledons, experience full growth, and bear fruit, we must be God…for it is God who created all, thus God is the main ingredient in re-creation…if only as the acronym:

Generate	The Creator	Cardinal	Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn
Operate	The Preserver	Fixed	Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius
Dissolve	The Destroyer	Mutable	Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces

Thus the cardinal signs are people we need on our team when we are getting things started.  Great ideas and energy, especially Aries as they bring the fiery energy that gets the plane off the runway.  But they can be deeply upset with their ability to help others while they catch their tails realizing their own dreams.  Life insists on interdependence, not independence.  The cycle of creation and destruction is limited, so we included a third party to lengthen the cycle – the Fixed signs fill this gap as preservers.  When things are good, we love them.  When things are bad we swear they are from Hell. The fixed sign folks help us to sustain those bright ideas into fruition.  They are capable of tunnel vision as they run a straight line to the goal.  Here too the backlash can break them if something goes awry and the basket falls because they would have put all their eggs in it.  The mutable folks facilitate change.  They aid us into making swank with sugar.  But we insist that what we really need is the pounds of sugar we had, not the little that remains diluted in water.  In time we come to appreciate their concepts of reconstitution.  When a cycle comes to an end we need our mutable friends break it to us gently so that we can get to the next phase of life.

None of this has to resonate with you.  I think of the man who looked at his TV and saw the 9/11 catastrophe of planes crashing into skyscrapers and felt no more emotion than if it were a movie.  In another house a man sees the same thing and is transfixed while his blood crawls.  Difference?  The former has never gone to that site and has no experience at or in it.  The latter rode the elevator where he overheard conversations, smiled with folks along the corridors, and even took a photo outside the building.  The site is part of his reality.  While some planets/stars have a minor influence on us personally, there are those that pull our strings every time because we were residents there and our conscience holds those memories though we are on earth.  We sense the events there via resonance and respond accordingly.  We participate in their existence, and they in ours.  If there is upheaval on Jupiter and our soul journeyed (sojourned) there in the past, we will feel it. How could we not, when are made of the same elements?

I remember sitting in Church and feeling an encompassing cloud of fear.  We had gathered to pray and praise and feel good about ourselves, but mostly to escape Hell.  I’d say there is a worse fear than Hell, it is: dying like men.  The Bible insists that Ye are Gods…  Aren’t we just a little curious about the truth of that statement?  Quite possibly, self-knowledge makes the distinction between being god or man, but our conditioned consciousness makes it difficult to understand the significance of the two.  As someone said: Everything is backwards, everything is upside down. Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, psychiatrists destroy minds, scientists destroy truth, major media destroys information, religions destroy spirituality and governments destroy freedom.  So to say that we are Gods/boundless with any amount of certainty is no easy thing.  Yet we are boundless because the soul is.  But a large percentage of us have had our boundaries violated in dysfunctional families and the idea of being boundless can convey that we are defenseless and therefore still open in our adult lives to anything, abuse included. Yet we keep feeling a need to transcend the mundane and find the truth, but every time we pursue truth we encounter belief systems that carry guilt and fear, cultural and religious taboos, popular psychology, and a series of irrelevant concepts patched together passing off as words of the wise.  Some say they were actually borrowed from those who pretended to know.  Hence they feel out of harmony with human nature and seem better at alienating us from our Source.  The point we need to see is that the more we center ourselves in spirit, the element that is superior to the other four, the more we will recognize ourselves to be a subtle, expansive, and healing presence.  If that isn’t God, I don’t know what it is.