Digging Down On the Weekend

Actually, I'll back up a little further than this past weekend, because around the edges, I've been experiencing a subtle (or maybe not-so-subtle) transformation. I know from the Law of Attraction that you "attract" best when you are most passionate (which, of course, can work against you when you are passionately against something!), and as I guess has been evident, since moving back east last fall, I've continued to feel like I was in neutral mode. Not enthused, not finding my tribe -- thankful to be exposed to new (and old) people, places and events, and yet still not meaningfully connecting in what I sense is more of a future direction for me.

Several months ago, I started to connect online with others at the overlap of spirituality and the environment, and this has actually kept changing and evolving. It led to my feeling more open to listening to lectures and videos in that general area, and then to even more "New Age" material such as astrology, angel channeling, etc. I mean, I am an Aquarian, and while this has been a recurring motif in my life for years, I kept it as far under wraps as I could during the period when I hoped to make new inroads into English church music. Now that this is just simply not going to happen, I feel a little more freedom. 

A broad spectrum of people in these fields say that this whole month from late March through April is likely to be energetically powerful, and these folks are also (overall) much more genuinely optimistic than most other people I am encountering. Like me, they see Love growing stronger and stronger as time goes on, so to that extent, I've been feeling the warmth of knowing that I'm getting closer to my tribe.

But then my feminism kicks in. I genuinely want to hear more about the astrology of this crucial time period, and to feel the waves of Love coming toward me from other dimensions, and perhaps even to feel the presence of archangels or heavenly guides. No matter how nutty it is, is sure beats the actual news! Yet there is still a patriarchal "upwards and outwards" focus to all this that I do not dismiss entirely, but must question as a woman. If Love is increasing in presence and power right now, how is this affecting what is underfoot, below the surface, even way inwards, to the center of the earth? At Earth's very core, as at my very core.

Yesterday, this led to a brief, frenzied channeling of writing that I hope I will share with you, at least in part, next time. I'm probably the last person in the world to expect to take an interest in earth sciences, geology, geophysics, and seismology. And I doubt that I am really going to do that in any normal way. But my inner search for balance just kind of takes over. If Love is increasing throughout the universe, it is doing it at the center of all the planets as well as in ways that we will see with our eyes. Our personal heroine's journey is often down and in (rather than up and out), and perhaps Earth's is as well. 

Outmoded words

This topic has come up at least once before in this blog, but I can't find the post so I'll plow ahead, and ask you to forgive any overlap.

I'm finding that I have become ultra-sensitive to the use of words -- whether they are used to embrace or used to split people apart. At the core of this is the fact that I now understand that I am a "post-duality" being (in a sense, both "post" and "duality" are, themselves outmoded words!), someone who either came into this lifetime pretty integrated, or have come to that place through time. Either way, at this point, I see the world as one, as whole, as undivided -- and (at least increasingly in this coming era) oriented to the Love of the Goddess. 

I don't know whether this evolving new paradigm will have "dictionaries" in quite the same sense as we've known them, but there are increasing numbers of words that I am certain will not be in the dictionary, not because they have been "outlawed", but because they will no longer be used -- the underlying conditions (conflict, war, ownership, greed) will no longer exist. Of course words and word roots specific to war and separation of all kind are on this list (battle, fight, anti-, against, enemies, countermeasures...) as are conditions that have traditionally been necessary for non-combatants during times of strife: security, protection, safety. A truly loving civilization is inherently safe, so there is no need to arm or build walls to protect people. I remember when I lived in Manhattan and walked/bused/subwayed all over town on my own. I was never scared enough to learn martial arts or buy sprays or other protective gadgets. However, I do remember at times gripping my set of keys in my palm in such a way that the individual keys stuck out between my fingers, so that I could lash out if necessary. Such instincts will soon be as outmoded as certain words.

Listening to the news, I have become intrigued by how many of these soon-to-be outmoded words start with "re-" -- perhaps an etymologist could help explain this! Oddly, all of the ones I came up with are verbs. Here goes: retaliate, resent, react, resist, renounce, revoke, renege, remove, repulse, restrict, rescind, reject/eject, retaliate, restrain, reprimand....there must be dozens more, perhaps hundreds. It's like, I hear these words and the feeling in my body is so unpleasant, I know that they represent something that isn't part of me. I suppose it is old paradigm indeed that my body is, itself, "rejecting" these terms. Perhaps as this process we are going through progresses, body signals will feel more like minor nudges, and before too long, I'll hear the words so seldom that they won't really matter any more.

Interestingly, I came up with a few "re-" words that will probably last well into the new paradigm: resonance, respect, and reassurance.

I think when I wrote before, my thoughts were on the avoidance (another outmoded word!) of using "anti-" in the name of movements and organizations, that it is much more forward-thinking, for instance, to be "for peace" than "anti-war". But right now, in our current picture, the whole conflict paradigm has become excruciatingly painful, including all its lingo (wherever it is used, even in sports, spirituality, etc.) Using more love-and-peace-leaning language may at the moment require a conscious effort, but before too long, the outmoded words will quietly disappear from our lives. We won't want to experience the pain.

...and Thinking some More

Although I am incredibly hopeful, joyful even, when I think about the Love-filled paradigm that we are entering (see previous post), that doesn't make this current moment any easier.  Hearing the early morning news (and occasionally watching the evening news) has become by turns heartbreaking, absurd, astonishing, embarrassing. At times the news is even laughable, for about one minute. No amount of knowledge about the "love to come" can take away the excruciating pain of what we see before our eyes.

Yet there is a clear truth at the center of it all about what this paradigm is, and arguably has been for generations. I still cannot forget the moment when (I was in my twenties) a successful businessman said to me, "Our system is 'kill or be killed', Liz. If you can't learn how to kill, you will be killed." Obviously, he was talking metaphorically, how in the world of finance you have to be cutthroat and brutal to survive. I replied that this was ridiculous, but inwardly, I suspected he was right, and, yes, I've been "killed" over and over and over. It is a miracle (the miracle of friends and love) that I am still alive. Yet even in the New Age milieu, there seemed to be this acceptance of the system, and an embrace of goals like bigger houses and cars, more income. All of us have at least taken for granted the conveniences we've enjoyed, and yet we have not wanted to look too closely at how people overseas work for us in near slavery, how Americans have experienced wildly, painfully different economic realities, and how the earth has been pushed almost past the point of complete devastation. This is a teaching moment, a moment of a different kind of brutality -- brutal clarity. It's almost too bright to look at, but this is not the moment to turn away. It is happening because a higher quality of Love is making its way to us, and these old conflict-driven assumptions and beliefs are on their way out the door. These beliefs and people will not be able to tolerate a higher spiritual vibration.

"My" hawk came by yesterday, giving me an extra jolt of joy. Thank you, hawk.

I've been Thinking

I suppose this will come as no surprise to anyone who follows my blog, or even reads it occasionally. Yes, I think constantly. My brain never turns off, or almost never; thinking is my "doing".

In the last few years, during and "after" the pandemic, once I finally acquired a computer again, I was very slow to do what most people had been doing during that time -- using that means of connecting with people and learning new things. I was still doing most of my learning through books (often older ones), and trying to figure out where on earth (literally) I might find kindred spirits, yearning for the physical closeness of a bricks-and-mortar community or partnership. I don't think I went down these old roads simply because of my age. I wanted as much as possible to learn my spiritual lessons in my own life, to learn from within, not so much from the cacophony of ideas without. Of course I've been exposed on and off to a lot of spiritual wisdom for which I am extremely grateful, and when possible here I've tipped "hats off" to these teachers. But I've tried to quickly incorporate what I needed to learn, then move on, on my own path. The downside of this? Too often having believed I am alone in some of my visionary thoughts about the present and the near future. And that has been lonely.

Suddenly, that has changed. Over the course of about five days, one video led to another (you know how that happens), and the next thing I know, I'm hearing some of my most deeply held beliefs and observations coming out of the mouths of one or two other wise ones. I mean, it's out there, a tribe of people really, really on my wavelength in a way I never thought possible. OMG. My vantage point may be a little more feminist and Goddess-centered, but still, there is serious overlap. I have more kin than I thought.

So, before I listen to too much of this material and lose track of where it is all coming from (although in the end, Source is the source, right?), I'm just going to list a few key things about these times, some of which I have written about or alluded to, and some of which I haven't yet because of fear. When you stop thinking you are alone, fear evaporates. "Here goes nothing":

• I knew 20 or 30 years ago that the 2020's were going to be the beginning of a big transition, a time when we would all start to see certain things clearly (with "20-20 vision"), and that this would lead to a complete change in human society by 2050 or so. I gather from what I am beginning to read and listen to that many visionaries are pushing that time frame up to the 2030's or even sooner!
• This whole Love thing -- the idea that, moving forward, the only sustainable creative products will be ones conceived in Love -- is bigger than I realized. Yay!
• I've been thinking for a long time that more love will mean big changes to the scientific world, and that everything we've learned will have to be rethought yet again. Because so many of these constructs (along with medicine, economics, politics, etc.) are based in human notions of conflict and fear, they simply will stop working as models. I also think that our worst inventions (the biggest affronts to the Goddess) will simply melt away, perhaps alchemized into new, more natural products that help our evolving Earth home, not hurt Her. And we will find cleaner, more spiritually evolved ways to travel, communicate, build, etc.
• Those of us trying to reconnect to Earth as we know her to be (under all these human trappings) should not be surprised as She changes. We can't go back to what things used to be like, even in Nature.
• There is a quality in these times of washing the slate clean, starting with a new canvas, like an artist. I personally think that we may (in some technological respects) return to the so-called Dark Ages, and that the current human population may be reduced in numbers by a huge percentage. But we need to remember, there is no death in the divine mind, and spirits will be changing form in order to support the increased level of love throughout the universe. People (and animal and nature populations) who leave us are simply moving on to do other important work in other incarnations.
• I was reminded again that it is not only OK, but actually optimal, to focus as little as possible on the words and actions of the least wise and loving amongst us. Such focus adds to their energy, not the energy of love. Fighting, resisting, even "standing up to", maintains duality and conflict-driven energies. What an amazing gift that we are being given such clear lessons in this regard! So, yes, we need to stay on top of the news and understand what is going on, but for my part, each day I try to pivot really quickly into, "Knowing this information, what part of the new paradigm can I create today?"

Well, that's enough for now. But really, what we see on the news is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Everything on earth is undergoing a (literal or figurative) seismic shift, and somehow we must not be afraid. The shift is in the direction of more love, and if you think about it, what's not to love about that?!

Goddess Words 41: Round

When things are too topsy-turvy, add another Goddess word to the new foundation we are building. Today's word? Round. 

I often try to go back and imagine why a word came to be on the list I created two decades ago. Why "round"? Well, even acknowledging that I am far less connected to my physical body than a lot of people, it is impossible to be a woman on this planet and not notice that there is much that is round (or orb-like) about my body. My eyes, my cheeks (yes, both kinds!), my breasts, my earlobes, my lips, my chin, my stomach, my inner organs, my womb, my knees, my heels, my finger-and-toenails, my shoulders...I've lost weight in recent months, but when I was heavier I was even rounder; pregnancy is round. I remember when I was taking life drawing classes, sketching in the body's underlying circles was often the first step, whether the model was male or female. While I try really hard not anthropomorphize divine beings, even the Goddess, I cannot help but do that just a bit. It isn't even having seen prehistoric imagery of goddesses and fertility figures, it is a feeling of roundness that I attribute to Her. The roundness of arms embracing, of the arcs of the movements of our limbs. It is the essential difference between the shape of roundness and the shape of pointed straightness. Between bowls and swords, between balls and arrows, between cups and knives. 

There are other definitions of "round", of course. When it is a noun, it seems to have a community feel to it -- making the rounds to visit family, a doctor making the rounds of patients, a person paying for a round of drinks at a bar or pub. There is the musical sense, also somewhat communal: a round or canon features the same tune being sung (or played) by different voices, only coming in at different times. A single person cannot sing a round (except, I'm amused to see, in this new internet era where musicians can video themselves multiple times, and overlay them). 

Campfires are round, important discussions often happen around round tables, and as I have said before, future leadership groups will have a round (not hierarchical/top-down) feel to them. While the natural world has some straight lines in it, or seemingly straight lines like the horizon, for the most part, earth's natural shapes are round and orb-like. (I recently did a visualization, where I saw a waterfall within my body, falling downhill among "rocks" that were soft reddish-brown orbs, rather like beanbags. The inner "rocks" were my organs.) Our manmade world, by contrast, seems to be mainly straight, flat, and sharp-edged. 

What can I do today to help support a rounder, more Goddess-friendly world? I can try to stay inwardly soft and round, and not set up a hard wall of fear around myself. I can embrace one person, or bring a few people together in a circle. I can bake (or distribute) cookies or a round birthday cake or bread or pies. I can draw a picture with a circular edge, or search a thrift shop for a round frame to place a picture in. I can walk around a favorite tree, or draw a picture of the sun or the moon, or buy a set of circular oracle cards. It is a good time to celebrate roundness.

PS: On the first full day ot spring, I saw my first robins, two of them!

Two by Two

On this freakishly warm day in the northeast, croci are coming out, trees are just beginning to bud, a hint of green is on the grass, and for part of the day there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

The heat has brought out the hot-rodders. There have been many motorcyclists and fast cars recklessly going by on the road (most always in twos) at around 80 mph, earsplitting "vroom-vroom" cacophony. I guess this is a valid sign of spring. Not only that, but I saw two jet-skis race by on the local river. These guys must have been wearing wet suits; I don't care how warm the air is, but the ice literally just went out several days ago!

I feel a bit overwhelmed by these "macho" expressions of the joy of spring. Layered onto the events of our world, it's not uplifting. But just as I was thinking that thought, I looked overhead, and voila! First one eagle then a second!!!! I swear, if I get through the coming time, eagles, hawks, and other raptors will be one major reason why. Their magnificence is uplifting. 

Over the next few days? Colder again, well below freezing at night, possibly a little snow. 

The Spider

The other morning, as I was getting ready to take a shower, there was a rather significant-looking spider in the tub. Not a daddy longlegs or a baby something-or-other. One that looked like it could bite. And yet no matter how dangerous it might or might not have been, I couldn't bring myself either to kill it or to let it go down the drain. I did the whole "glass and sheet of cardboard" thing, and took it outside and let it drop into the yard.

I say this not to congratulate myself on my nonviolence. (One of my brothers would call me "holier-than-thou", but what he didn't understand was that I was just being me.) But this morning after hearing the news, I started to cry like a baby, because I simply don't understand. Why kill anyone, anything, larger than, say, a mosquito or fly? How does anyone believe that any being on this earth doesn't deserve to be here? Much less dozens or hundreds or thousands? And yet clearly our construct is actively based on that belief. This is not about today, or yesterday, or two decades ago, or two hundred years ago. It is about virtually all of human recorded history, people (most often men it seems) killing other people in all kinds of contexts. In school, I tried to understand. Like a good student, I memorized dates of wars, names of generals, political movements. I tried to accept that such-and-such an outcome had been good and another was bad, and I tried to accept that even though I might not be a warlike person, this was humanity being humanity, and that I was the odd one out. I was the one "not facing reality". I finally do not believe this anymore. It took almost 70 years and untold numbers of world wars and national and international tragedies to get to this point.

And at long last, I'm thinking as much or more about the rights of the animal and nature kingdoms. Up until recently, I have never been a vegetarian for long. I felt I needed meat and fish for protein, and honestly relied entirely too much on so-called "cheap" fast food because of my limited income. I think that the rise in fast food prices during the pandemic started to wean me off of such meals. And now, most recently, I am living with people who are vegetarian. For the first time in my life, I have had at most one meal of fish or meat a week (on top of a weekly tuna salad sandwich, which I'm still rather addicted to.) I had already started to cook less meat from scratch, but I am increasingly finding I don't crave it at all, or can only eat a small amount when I do eat it. If I ever return to a situation where I can completely make my own dietary choices, I'm certain I will continue to eat a mostly vegetarian diet, only eating meat from a source that takes great loving care with the animals. At this point, I see too close a correspondence between our cavalier attitudes toward the lives of animals and the lives of other humans. And of course this extends to the land, the water, and the air.

In terms of the spider-in-the-tub, there is no way that its life was less valuable than my perceived comfort. I hope I let it loose into a place and situation where it had a better chance to fully live its lifespan. 

Synchronicities

It has been an interesting week or so, because I've experienced several very small synchronicities. Not large, stunning synchronicities (happening upon someone who says, "I have the perfect longterm housing for you, nearly free for the rest of your life!" ) but the kind that gets your attention. Two-and-a-half years ago, I included "synchronicity" in my list of Goddess words...clearly synchronicity is a right-brain quality that is a beautiful way of receiving communication from the Divine. It is a lens to seeing things differently, a way of learning quickly, not slowly and step-by-step.

About a week ago, I took part in a game of Scrabble. Someone wasn't sure if the word "dint" was really a word, and I assured them that it was (and of course, a quick check online confirmed this). But it wasn't a word I had heard or read often in the past. So, what a surprise -- "dint" has shown up in two different fiction books I've read in the last few days! (In both cases, a character was able to do something "by dint of" some qualification or experience.) I didn't really take a deeper meaning or message from this synchronicity, but it caught my attention.

Peter Tremayne's Bloodmoon, one of the Sister Fidelma mysteries, was on this same reading list. I took the book out of the library before I found out about this morning's blood moon (total lunar eclipse turning the moon a coppery red during its totality). Blood moons have often been seen as symbols of change and renewal; having the image show up in life in two different ways was noteworthy. I'm sorry to say that I didn't wake up at 2:30 this morning to see the remarkable phenomenon in person, but yesterday felt like a watershed to me in certain other respects, so I add it to my belief that we are in the midst of a time of rebirth. All of us are potentially being reborn.

Synchronicity three. For the last week or so, I was surprised that, after a period of seeing hawks and eagles at least every other day, these raptors seemed to have disappeared. Yesterday, literally seconds after I was mulling this over, a bird flew by the house. At first I wasn't sure what it was, because it was smaller than the hawks I have been seeing. But after a close look at my bird book, I identified it as a "sharp-shinned" hawk. They are smaller than the more common red-tailed hawk, their chests are rust-colored, and their tails (from the side or below) seem longer and squarer, not fanned out in a semi-circle. Again, perhaps there is no deep meaning behind the timing of this moment, except that it gave me the chance to learn more about hawks -- and, hey, it is satisfying to think, "I'm not seeing as many hawks", then a hawk flies by. It gives you the feeling that the Universe is on your side, that somehow you are a part of a big, inclusive net, the Love of the Universe.

Goddess Words 40: Leadership

I've talked about leadership around the edges, and even probably said that I feel like a leader who has never led. Certainly I have the capacity to lead, only the big issue is you need someone to follow you, and up until now, that hasn't happened (!) Maybe someday...But the Goddess Herself is a leader, so it doesn't surprise me that I added this word to the list all those years ago.

Because we are experiencing such interesting life lessons on this topic right now, I want to envision something totally different...just, if you will, for the fun of it.

Leadership in the coming paradigm will have a circular, horizontal quality. Individual communities will have "leaders", yes, but the power will be shared with the whole community in a way that is hard to describe or imagine right now. Because people will no longer be brought up with the concept of "power over", that kind of power won't even be seen as desirable. People will literally understand to the core of their beings the old fashioned "golden rule" -- "if I hold power over another person or other people, then other people will try to exert power over me, and I don't want that." Enlightened self-interest will guide a warmer, more embracing kind of power by those community members who embody wisdom and understand the values of the Goddess. And "power" will move easily, spontaneously and frequently from one person to another. People won't fight for power, or start wars for power, or punish for power, or hold hostages for power. Such actions will be unthinkable. Conflict will be unthinkable, because we will understand that we are all one. We will remember the early 2000's, and not want to return to this time.

There will be little tension between people and groups about ownership of earth's places and regions, simply because it will be understood that Earth owns herself. We will embrace a less human-centered form of stewardship, turning to the wisest ones when making plans for land use, and only using the land in such a way that growth is sustainable environmentally. The new paradigm priority will not be human "progress" such as we've experienced in our current paradigm -- it will be to facilitate the healing of Earth and all beings living on earth who have experienced so much trauma. This healing alone may take many, many generations. Economic forms such as money, stocks, trade, real estate, even bartering will probably not exist in the way we know them. Love will be the currency. I know this sounds ridiculous to most people, but I'm certain that is the direction we are heading in. The only way that human culture can live sustainably on the earth moving forward is by dealing directly, and lovingly, with one another, other life forms, and the planet itself. 

Leaders won't always be women, but we women will start to understand how to use our unique qualities, strengths and perspectives, and find that they are more highly respected and honored as valid. In a less competitive world, the nuances and intuitive nature of our wisdom will be seen to "work" in a way that conflict no longer does. We will embrace completely new ways of problem-solving. Leaders (whoever they may be) will be centered in love, beauty and wisdom. They will be connected with the Goddess, and adept at bringing diverse people together in harmony.

I think women make natural leaders, but not in the old paradigm construct that is ebbing. This isn't about a woman becoming president. This is about women leading in the paradigm on the horizon, beyond presidents. 

So Poignant

This weekend, I've had the privilege (and fun) of cat-sitting, in a neighborhood not too far from where I grew up. I'm finding the whole experience to be almost unbearably poignant. So many of these houses remind me of our house, fifty-plus years ago, and the houses of my family's friends. I feel like I am in some strange time warp; except for the cars going by, it could be about 1970. And yet all I have to do is turn on the TV, and see news, ads, and shows that would have been unthinkable back then. There's a part of me that wants to run out into the street, and start yelling, "Don't you people understand what is in the process of happening right now?", but I know perfectly well that no one would listen.

I guess moving frequently has had one effect that I never really considered -- the passage of time is "about" a whole different thing when you move from place to place. Had I stayed in the Schenectady area all along, I would have measured time in other ways, perhaps the timing of jobs, or relationships, or (if I had had children) their ages. Instead, I'm completely unsuccessful at remembering when I lived where...it is all becoming a blur.

In my next post, I'm going to talk again about leadership in the new, upcoming, paradigm. It's not adequate to say, it will be the utter opposite of what we are seeing...(smile)

The temperature has jumped about 40 degrees in one day. We've raced completely through late winter and into summer. This adds to the poignancy...trying to remember what spring used to be like in the "olden days"...

Hollowed Out

I wasn't going to write today, because along with perhaps many millions of other people, I am feeling hollowed out. It's the realization that what we are watching feels like what I have experienced in so many situations in life, being told you just aren't worth anything, that your life has no value, that your interests and talents are worthless. And no matter how hard I have tried for decades to hold the faith, to know in my heart that I have "worth", what appears to be happening before our eyes is some kind of mondo bizarro truth serum, proving that the construct we live in did not, itself, move forward through history to become more inclusive and welcoming. It simply may not be capable of it. It grew out of a hierarchical world, with certain men at the top and the rest of us below, and a rubber band keeps snapping it back into that place.

So I've been uncharacteristically down, depressed. As much as I actively see and feel the return of the Goddess to our world, I still feel almost as stymied as I did six months ago, before returning east. I cannot intuit exactly where I belong in the midst of this tumult, much less how to get there. Still not quite seeing or meeting my kindred spirits, or feeling the strong, positive certainty that usually leads me to forward movement.

Having said that, there was a really neat moment just now, symbolic of so much. If you had asked me from the ages of 6-50, I would have probably said that I "am" one of the choristers in the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, and that singing choral evensong in those choir stalls represents my home. If you had asked me from 50-65 how that had changed, I might have said that in spirit, I had evolved into more of a member of the Tallis Scholars, singing a wide range of Renaissance and newer music, but outside the actual cathedral milieu. Just now, I realize I have morphed again. "My" choir is Voces8, and the video best representing who I am now is the one where they are singing "The Saddest Noise" in Grand Teton National Park. Never mind whether they did or didn't actually tape the music on the mountainside, it's the juxtaposition that counts...gorgeous, clear, bell-like choral tones in the wilderness. Recently, someone suggested I sing music of evensong to the trees and birds, and I've done it a few times. It feels a little odd, but wonderful. My actual new dream, at 69, is to be part of an elite choir singing choral evensong outside, in the English countryside or in the ruins of an ancient abbey. I want to hear the stones and the whole landscape singing with us.

And if, in this hollowed out world of ours, this is a "worthless" dream, so be it.

PS: Near the end of the pandemic, I heard Voces8 in Duluth, and it was so unbelievably thrilling, I don't have words for it. The entire audience was masked to the hilt, but once the music started, we were free. And if I am not mistaken, they sang "The Saddest Noise".

 

So big

I had drafted a new post but let it sit for a day, as I sometimes do, and by this morning it seemed completely wrong.

Everything that's happening now is so big, and then, taken together with other big things, is even bigger still. It is all completely overwhelming, and completely and hopelessly old paradigm. Unfortunately that means the old paradigm fear-based solutions or responses are also unlikely to work. In an odd way, this is encouraging to me, as it underscores my belief that Goddess and Love energies are in the ascendant, and everything on earth not in alignment with Love is rising to the surface to dissipate into their "native nothingness" (a phrase evidently used in Christian Science (which I have never explored) and Florence Scovel Shinn (whose books I have read and resonate with). But being a witness to current events, hey, living on this planet at all at this time, will be extremely painful for all of us. There will probably be no exceptions to this. I wrote on and off for a long time about "softish landings", and for many of us, that will be the best case scenario...that by focusing on Love and the things we find beautiful and hopeful, we align with what's coming, not what is hurting us now. That may snatch some of us to relative safety from the most potentially painful crash landings.

In a time like this, it's hard to focus on what we want, and yet crucial. What do I really want? Health care, or good health? An end to war, or people actively loving one another? Money, or a rich, beautiful life? A job, or perfect self-expression for someone with my unique gifts?

And what does the Goddess want? What does Mother Earth want? That we gently release the construct that has precipitated all these crises. That we understand we are one with the most brilliant stars in the sky. That we take a Love perspective into account before we do anything new from this point on. At the very least, that this be our intention from the moment we wake up in the morning. I'm "preaching to the converted", I know. The handful of you who read this are probably already doing some of this. And we will have to watch in horror as others go on a completely opposite path. But in the end, Love will be all. Nature will do what She needs to do, and beauty will find its way into the holes and crevices of the dying paradigm. New growth will birth out of the darkness.

Rabbit, rabbit

Years ago, I picked up the habit (when I remember) of saying "rabbit, rabbit" early on the first day of the month. I didn't even really know why it was done -- I see that it's an old superstition to bring good luck. Interestingly, if I recall correctly, in my old Medicine Cards (Carson and Sams), rabbit represented "fear". So maybe we all may need good luck getting through what is ahead, the manifestation of some of our worst possible fears. 

I guess I go back to "the thing speaking for itself", and trusting our guts. Yes, we are seeing what we are seeing. It's that bad, it's that self-evident. The good thing about all diplomacy and convention being stripped away is that you see the truth.

Is what we are seeing "the way of the Goddess"? No. About its 180 degree opposite. I'm going to start new months from now on saying, "Goddess, Goddess", because we need Her now more than we need so-called luck.