Happy Birthday Douglas Adams

Douglas Adams

Thanks to google for reminding us all that today (Monday 11th March 2013) is Douglas Adam’s 61st birthday.  Happy Birthday Dougie!

Adams is, of course, a Piscean, but notice the cluster of planets with his Sun.  He has a near exact (cazimi) conjunction with Mercury and Jupiter, along with a close conjunction with the north node.  This suggests bags of imagination (Jupiter and sun in Pisces) plus the ability to spin a good yarn on the back of it (Mercury).  North node brings success in putting this across.  Pisces can have a dreamy eyed universal quality and Jupiter makes an excellent guide.  Perhaps its feisty Mars in Aries that images the freedom loving hitch hiker touring the universe.

Sadly google are imprecise about Adam’s birth time and place.  If anyone knows this information I’ll be happy to post an amended chart.

Night sky in March

A quick update on the most recent ROE talk on the Night Sky in March.

On this occasion I learnt that the Equinox does not necessarily literally mean equal night (and day).  This is related to the width of the sun’s disc itself and the effects of refraction and means that we can actually see the Sun after sun set!

Another thing that was news to me; a crescent moon with the “horns” turned up and to the right is a morning view of the moon.  In the evening a crescent moon will turn it’s “horns” up and to the left.  (But surely an evening moon will be a waxing crescent whereas the evening moon will be waning?  What say you?)

The big news this month however is that, we just need a break in the evening clouds in the west, to have a chance of seeing a comet with the naked eye!

I gather comet Panstarrs has already been visible in the southern hemisphere and you can find the pictures and a viewing guide here.

http://earthsky.org/space/comet-panstarrs-possibly-visible-to-eye-in-march-2013

On 10^th march the comet passes the Sun (from our point of view) and can then be seen each evening just after sunset and gradually rising higher in the western sky, passing to the left of the square of Pegasus and then onwards and upwards towards the Andromeda nebula and to Cassiopeia.  I would think a good view to the western horizon would be ideal.  Perhaps Craiglockhart Hill or even the Braid Hills, looking west.  To get a sense of what the square of Pegasus looks like open the link and scroll down to the image. http://astronomypictures.wordpress.com/category/asterism/

Pegasus was a winged horse who was born from the head of the gorgon Medusa when the hero Perseus chopped off her head.  His father was Poseidon the god of the Oceans and he was said to bring food to the muses.  For more on the star lore of Pegasus see what Deborah Houlding has to say here:

http://www.skyscript.co.uk/pegasus.html

wishing you clear skies

Janet

Seven Ages of Starlight

This programme on BBC 4 is a very lucid description of the life cycle of a star.  I was however, a little taken aback at the uncritical adulation awarded to Nicolas Copernicus for his “discovery” that the earth goes round the sun.  Students of history will realise that this presentation is a little simplistic.  For something to be discovered, we must have a pre existing idea that it is there.  It’s rather like the discovery of America by Columbus.  He had an idea that land would be there.  He thought it was India rather than America but he was still proceeding on a theory that the world was round and therefore he could sail to India without having to round the southern tip of Africa.

My confidence in Copernicus as a great scientist was thoroughly trashed by Arthur Koestler’s book “the Sleepwalkers”.  Now of course Koestler wrote his book in the 1950′s and he had an agenda; he wanted to show that “progress” is not a straight line but has travelled in ups and downs, through quirks of fate.  He writes that “The basic novelty of our age is the combination of this sudden, unique increase in physical power with an equally unprecedented spiritual ebb-tide”.

Now Koestler himself has undergone a process of personal denigration for failings of character and this has helped to undermine the value of his work.  All the same, Copernicus has not recovered in my opinion from Koestler’s damning opinion.  “The figure of Copernicus, seen from the distance, is that of an intrepid revolutionary hero of thought.  As we come close, it gradually changes into that of a stuffy pedant, without the flair, the sleepwalking intuition of the original genius; who, having got hold of a good idea, expanded it into a bad system, patiently plodding on, piling more epicycles and deferents into the dreariest and most unreadable among the books that made history.”  Koestler traces the path whereby the core idea for which Copernicus is famous, took hold amongst his successors.  It was an idea whose time had come, written by a man who was keen not to promote it too noisily.

Koestler credits Aristarchus of Samos, more than 2000 years ago, with setting out the principle that the earth rotates around the sun.  This he says was clearly understood by authorities such as Archimedes and Plutarch.  That the idea did not take hold was due to complex factors such as the availability of the books of Plato and Aristotle throughout the middle ages.  These men developed a cosmology founded on philosophy rather than observation or mathematics.  Plato needed the cosmos to be orderly; an idea that lived for many centuries afterwards.

In pursuit of Aristarchus and other cosmologists of the ancient world, I am off to St. Andrew’s University at the weekend.  There the classics department are exploring ancient cosmologies.  This should be good.

 

Thinking about the setup of the labyrinth walk this morning, I came to the issue of timing.  Can everyone complete the walk within the session?  Can everyone do this and still take their own time?  The walk is a metaphor for our lives.  All of us are different; we proceed at different speeds, have different backgrounds, and make sense of what is happening in different ways and at different times. When confronted by blocks or challenges we respond in different ways.  We want to make the space for this to be evident; some people will pass us along the way.  We will sometimes pass by others.

And yet people coming to an event like to know when home time will be, when will we finish? Can they also have a complete experience, make the full journey to the centre and return?  Can this be done to time?

Then it occurred to me that life is not like this.  It offers us no guarantees.  Everyone will know someone who has been cut off in their prime.  Do we not feel that this is the more painful outcome; that it is good to have run our full course, lived a full life, rather than be thwarted in this way?  Worst of all is the loss of a child; no chance of full expression, potential unfulfilled.

Then I thought that this experience of being cut off in the labyrinth process might also be a useful experience; a part of the metaphor.  That it would be good to say to people, this might happen.  The labyrinth, like life, offers us no guarantees.  We may find ourselves just setting out, or part way round, while others are reeling in the boundaries we so recently created.  How does that feel? In Meeting today I also recalled the image, often reported, from near death experience; of travelling down a tunnel towards the light.  In the deep psychic reality of the labyrinth, do we in some sense always make this journey and ultimately always reach the light?

Not always in this world though…

A further matter is the business of the journey of return.  Though the journey into the unknown is an achievement and an act of courage, the hero’s return is not always welcome.  When one person grows, questions their assumptions and their scope is extended, the consequences are felt beyond their personal self.  Growth and change reverberate out into their wider system.  This can be experienced as provocative and unwelcome.  Why are you coming back with all this stuff?  Changes may be going on here that affect me!  I haven’t chosen this, why can’t you keep this to yourself?

Systems do not always welcome disturbance.  We may feel we are heroes who have faced our fears but our wider system (home, friends, work…) would rather not know.  It threatens their identity.

I remember reading an article by Margaret Wheatley on the Bhopal disaster.  The CEO responsible at the time was distraught at what had happened and intended to use all his powers and resources to help the victims.  Wheatley’s analysis was that he was ultimately unable to do this because there is a profound conflict of values between his CEO role and his intention. The business he headed up could not retain its identity and continue operating while also making restitution to the people of Bhopal.  Identity is a vital survival trait.  People and systems all feel the need to retain their identity, even if this is ultimately limiting or even destructive.

Food for thought.

Dark Mountain Labyrinth

One of the facets of the labyrinth that appeals to me is the business of being stopped in our tracks.  The labyrinth is a single path leading to the centre.  This gives us confidence at the outset that we will achieve our goal, as compared with a maze, that offers us alternatives along the path without certainty of success.  The labyrinth takes a circuitous path.  Now we think we are heading for the light, now we have to stop and turn away from it.  It reminds me of Michael Lutin’s weird image for Saturn in Libra “Columbus sails to the west to find the east”.

My inspiration is also drawn from the Dark Mountain project.  This has that sense that the world is rushing headlong to environmental doom, coupled with the sense that we don’t have a ready fix.  It offers a cultural and poetic response to our reality.  There is the chance to stop and notice what is happening, to share with others, to cultivate a grounded sense of what is real.

This also says that our whole world needs to stop, will be stopped by our own destructiveness.  So what happens then?  Many of us are not adept at change, particularly when it touches our emotions.  The change process has been compared to grieving.  We may be losing more than just routine activity; perhaps our friends and companions or our sense of purpose and usefulness.  We may need to grieve for all the energy we have invested in something that now is cast aside.  This facet of the change process is now so common it is almost the source of a new kind of healing work.  For instance William Bridges work on transition.  He describes a process akin to the labyrinth.  One minute we are piling along, “doing away” as they say in Scotland, the next we are confronted by an end stop.  This generates its own confusion.  Bridges calls it the neutral zone, although we may feel anything but neutral while in it.  Redundancy is often not an affordable option cash wise, just as it is not a viable option emotionally and psychologically.  We thrash about at the end point, unable to see the direction we need to go in.  This situation obtains until our feeling life catches up.  Not always happy feelings but the deep sense of what is real for me, as lived on the Dark Mountain.  Feeling is vital to energy and only this takes us forward in our new direction.

Journey into the Labyrinth

I recently discovered Jodi Lorimer, labyrinth researcher and author.  Her book  “Dancing on the Edge of Death” is on order now but may take some time to arrive from the US of A.  Meantime I listened to the two radio interviews posted on her website.  Fascinating stuff.  Soon I was exploring pre historic cave systems, bull worship, recumbent stone circles in Aberdeenshire, the Minoan and Greek cultures and the work of M C Escher.  All this is clearly just a taste of what is to come.
I had thought of a journey into the unknown.  The caves were literally a journey into darkness.  There could be bears in there or sabre toothed tigers.  Why did the cave painters favour bulls, or were they bison or aurocks?
I had thought of dead ends, return points, circling around the centre, like a planet round a star.  The planet doesn’t hold a straight course when seen from an earth based perspective.  It strides forward but then recoils as if drawing breath before the next push.  Do we also alternate, working and resting, striving then pausing for food, alone and then in company; our lives a rhythmic Celtic pattern rather than a straight line graph.
Lorimer reckons the labyrinth must image something deep in our psyche to have such an enduring relevance.  The image is adaptable to our needs and time – once a place of shamanic power, then a crafted prison, then the pathway of planets, an image of cosmology, then a ritual for sailors or a spring fertility path, more recently a path of meditation.
It seems to be a pathway of both life and death.  Like a whirlpool, I feel drawn in.

Life past the peak?

Peak in relation to oil and Transition Towns has to do with the rate of flow.  As Dr Mandy Meikle told us, being told we have a million pounds makes us feel rich.  If we can only spend £10 a day we feel poor!

Peak in this sense applies to lots of things that we use regularly.  It applies to oil and gas; it applies to minerals; it applies to food and water.  Whatever we want on a regular basis has to be supplied at a rate that meets our needs, for us to feel satisfied.

Once we pass the peak production of any of these things, some people will start to lose out.  Indeed many people lose out already.  We appear to get by with ignoring this because, in practice, we deem these people politically unimportant.  (A moral scandal!)

The peak of oil and gas will pass; probably has passed.  In this new world we will need to count our wealth in different ways as we start to lose out on the things that oil and gas does for us.  Will we count it in:

• Beauty
• Friends
• Supporters and carers
• Our ability to demonstrate our skill and apply it for service
• Honouring our truth
• Trust
• Respect
• Joy
• Laughter
• Inspiration
• Self expression
• Having a voice
• Listening
• Capacity for extension in skills, learning and courage???
• How do the Buddhists count happiness in Bhutan?

A mission to be me?

These insights are a mixture of the Light group back in June, along with Steven Covey and the idea that a statement of purpose or identity can be long!  all encompassing, take account of significant relationships and above all be rounded enough to be fairly true.  The other thing I like about his approach is that you can live with it and change it.  I don’t have to be stuck with the wrong mission for life just because I wrote it.  Then again it provides an anchor against which I can test my activities and planning.  Why am I doing that?  Is that what matters?  And so on.

Existence is a Unity.  Life in one, whole and indivisible.  Reality is single, whole, alive, governed by Intellect.  I am an expression of life’s longing for itself, as are all other forms and manifestations of life around me.

It is my purpose to grow into myself; to become wholly true to myself in all circumstances; to do this through extension in knowledge, feeling, physique and attention to life’s desire of me.  Of these, extension in knowledge is a constant theme.

Over the year I have learnt about many things, psychology, astrology, mysticism, hypnotherapy, shamanism, history and pre-history, how we learn and our destructive and parasitic behaviours collectively.  Now I am learning about my own ancestors, their lives and their part in informing mine.

A number of relationships have become important to me.

Current themes include:

• Behavioural change
• Astrology
• Home as a base for reflection, activity and relationship
• Growing herbs as a way of forming a more constructive and appreciative relationship with the land and the natural world
• Heart and Soul
• Quakers and the Light

Astrology is the means whereby I express my sense of self and seek to renew other people’s sense of self.  In terms of knowledge it is a pathway to a knowledge of all knowledges.  It has a place for all knowing.  It encompasses the known in the mirror of symbol, myth and metaphor.

Ducks bemused by bike near Linz, Austria

Learning from the Light

It is only in adult life that I have begun to appreciate how difficult I sometimes find it to know how I am feeling.  It seems a kind of fog can surround my emotions and make me appear neutral, when really there is movement underneath. 

The idea of being known, deeply and appreciatively, is profoundly attractive.  Agreement is not so important, indeed the conversations that take ideas and stretch and extend them; are the ones I usually most treasure.  Obviously, to be known I have to be able to express myself, show a willingness to share, to at least unveil the sense that there is something there.

Alice Miller also makes the connection between feeling and energy, Luna and mars.  When I know how I feel, I can engage my energy and passions one way or another.  Luna and mercury are also vital.  To link the feeling life to words, to give voice to something real, surely lies at the heart of poetry.

Today at the light group, I permitted some truths about this situation to reveal themselves.  I had already worked out, from my family tree excursions, that a lot of powerful stuff went on in my grandmother’s life a decade before my mother was born.  This will hopefully be the basis of my SAA talk on rectification and family history, later on this year.  I began to absorb the sense that it was these trials and tribulations that were hidden from my mother as a child.  Her family left the family home area soon after she was born and never returned there to live.  When she visited her grandmother and her aunt and uncles, there must have been a strong sense of things unsaid; things she picked up that were not for discussion; too much pain there.  Then again, I’m sure her parents wished to protect her from the family suffering; no need to go over old and painful ground again and what was the point?

Well now I think the point would have been some greater openness and emotional honesty.  I was certainly brought up with the idea that it is not safe to share your true thoughts and feelings about anything outside of the family.  I still think these things need to be done with care and with respect.  However, I also think that the light helps us to own our own feelings and not project our troubles elsewhere.  We gain a surer sense of our own strengths and depths.  We are not caught up in blaming others.

I find this insight useful to connect with the Stephen Covey idea about priorities.  The business of giving ‘voice’ is clearly important to me.  I recently dreamt that I was protecting a shaman, protecting the heart and throat chakras, to allow her to do the inner work.  So rather than making a chore of writing, just another task, I need to make some space, for this clearing in words of the heart sense of things.