Inspiration

I believe in the moon, her palette of stars her cycles of light. The day consumes and burns But in the night I turn myself To the heavens of her still-peace, Her rabbit face of gold and silver Set in the amethyst sky. Her changes-only fodder In becoming potent, feminine, radiant. More lovely than Ariadne, or Athene. Oh lunar Goddess, grant me Stability in metamorphosis, Resilience in surrender Grant revolution upon revolution Of dark birth, adumbration, illumination.

We are in the fires of change. If you do not know it yet, you will. Make no mistake, this time of planetary metamorphosis will transform us all …unless you are a mushroom. Sometimes we can see changes creeping in on little fog-feet silently, softly approaching. More often, it’s a searing gust, a wild flame, burning ego and heart in equal measure. Zen uses the symbolic, ‘Setting our hair on fire,’ to ask that a Practice be one of waking up, of giving all to the flame, because all too fast it will be too late. In the primordial element of fire we are scarred from the burns. With fortune, those scars help purify. The difficult task is to not only love the scarring, but to use them to become a Phoenix, rising from old ashes. We are being asked, or yanked, to move from ego to heart, from a good ol’ boy’s CW, to spirit. Another request of this transformational time is to surrender outcome. How are we to know what our Phoenix is to look like? Will it have much relation to the old self? In the immolation of terror, loss, depression, and anguish, will we emerge stronger, wiser, more grateful? Will becoming a change-agent make us more conscious of a depth of being? Or will fear harden the heart, and build a higher wall of defense? We have been stuck in grooves, and ruts of what used to be. That world is disappearing. When the known landscape lies burned and barren, only the essential is left. Only seeds that can survive 300 degree heat will germinate. Only strongly rooted trees rise again. The essential Self that moves through this landscape walks in quiet power, grateful to be more alive, able to receive each moment, knowing that whatever……

Let us evolve as the heavens instruct: At sunrise, burst with light upon a new day; at each monthly new moon, surrender to the darkness of renewal; at the four seasonal crossroads of Solstice and Equinox, set road-maps of intention, and re-balance. Heaven and earth propose opportunity after opportunity for new life. Jim Harrison said, “Listen to the gods. They’re shouting in your ear every second.” As the ancestors knew, relationship to Gaia’s innate wisdom is paramount to earthly survival. We ignore her directions and gifts at our peril. The faster she spins, the greater our need for her proffered moments of re-charge: morning birth, new moon dying, quadrant shifts to point the way, and in between, passion. When we throw ourselves deeply into life, we must take time-out for regeneration. We are of the earth as well as on the earth. She is our mother and instructs brilliantly, if we would but listen. In these fading days of summer she says rest. Lin Yu-T’ang wrote, “If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live.” This is the Yoga of balance, the Yoga of strong Practices. Asana: Hanumanasana/The splits. This is a lovely pose to do on the grass, sinking toward the soil, contemplating great thoughts, and surrendering the ‘shoulds’. Prop the legs and groin with soft pillows if the muscles are not yet long enough. They will be with practice. Try to keep the hips flat, facing front, back leg rotated in. Bring hands to the heart in the Angeli Mudra and offer Mother Earth her moment of gratitude. Health Notes: This pose lengthens and strengthens abductor muscles of thighs and groin, helps with sciatica, and gives one a sense of being young again. When did you first do……

Does the end justify the means? I used to think so. Now, seeing the means are the end, and the end simply another piece of the means… I don’t agree with the old quote. Looking back, each time I gave gravitas to ‘justifying the means,’ I was more careless and cruel, worse, I gave myself permission to be so because the end result was seemingly fabulous. We are creating a new world. Old ways and mean-means cannot apply. We need new tools that help us rise above, move through, and embrace this frustrating, frightening, exciting, changeable Universe we are creating by thought, word, and deed….Indeed. Perhaps we need to re-visit old and favored sayings? “The devil is in the details.” So it is, but do we want it there? “What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.” Is revenge that important? “All is fair in love and war.” Only if the ends justify the means. Before ‘throwing the baby out with the bath water,’ let’s hold on to the keepers: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” “Fear always springs from ignorance.” “Gratitude is the heart’s memory.” If means and ends are one and the same, then ingrained/unconscious habits in thinking and speaking, outdate and drown us in the devil’s deep blue sea. Multi-tasking demands attention in every moment. Distractions tweet at every turn. Mindlessness is the sugary icing on every devil’s cake. As we are entering the Aquarian age, we must abide by its Uranian rulership: Energy is first, and thought-forms of that energy are the electromagnetic playing field. We are responsible for creating every heedless idea, word, and action of our ‘means,’ for they are the end…and the beginning. Asana: Pick a pose where the means are the end, like Happy Baby….…

Torpid heat closes Buddha’s eyes, His immutability facing mine. Our low force of gravity matching, Inscrutable selves fleshed-out In long grasses. Only breath shuttles between Back and forth prayers Asking release, Wishing wings, not weight Not the dense, hopeless wasteland Of unalterable law Unanswered desire. Rather, redemption In wings of dragonfly/butterfly/moth. The Red Hawk’s scream soaring Above cadenced Cicadas. Life rising and falling on the heat In a fever to live If only a single season. This, this transmutes Unalterable laws, unanswered desires. Asana: Baddha Konasana/Cobbler’s Pose. Sit on the floor, drawing the feet closely into the groin, soles together, knees on, or toward floor. Lengthen spine, and gaze ahead, or close eyes. Hands can rest on knees, or come into any mudra desired. Health Notes: This is a calming, restorative pose, wonderful for meditation, and Pranayama. It is also beneficial for relieving sciatica, and urinary disorders, as blood is stimulated to flow easily to kidneys, bladder, ovaries, and prostate. It helps prevent hernia, assists when there is irregular menses, and eases pain of childbirth, if practiced regularly beforehand. It also helps prevent varicose veins in a pregnancy. Astrologly Notes: Leos, and/or those with strong Leo energy, have powerful physical hearts and therefore usually strong constitutions. It is the emotions of the heart that unbalance Leos. This energy is all too easily hurt by not feeling appreciated, or loved enough. Sitting in Baddha Konasana, taking time to appreciate oneself, to feel loved by the Universe in simply being, is an antidote to Leo dis-ease. Ayurvedic Notes: Charaka, an ancient Indian physician and sage who codified Ayurveda principles and practices, wrote thousands of years ago: “One who wishes to protect the heart, circulatory system and vital essence should avoid, above all else, those causes leading to mental stress and instability….” Sitting……

You know the saying, “between a rock and a hard place.” Between Scylla and Charybdis is tantamount to the same, except it’s more nuanced and poetic because Homer wrote it. Scylla is a rock on the Italian side of the strait of Messina. Charybdis is a whirlpool standing opposite, which once upon a time Homer personified as a female sea monster that devoured sailors. ‘Between Charybdis and Scylla’ calls for more tenuous maneuvering than figuring out how to shimmy between ‘a rock and a hard place.’ It is about the avoidance of one danger exposing you to the destruction of another. If Charybdis is the yin ‘monster’ of the chaotic, instinctual feminine, ready to devour whenever we fall deeply into a sea of emotion, then Scylla is the un-yielding yang of the jagged rock of our masculine. This face-off puts action, and stability up against the inchoate, watery feminine. Who wins? Depends on where and when you fall overboard, and who pushes you…no? Since this demanding passage lies within as well as without, it is a journey we all navigate, often. It can be the fine line between attempting perfection, without a willingness to fail. It is the equally difficult journey of doing ‘a slide,’ that is taking a risk knowing it cannot be done well. Before you even begin you know you will slide home by your Charybdian hairs. It is simply all about being on the journey, and making the most conscious, informed choices in each moment, and this comes only by diligent navigation. More often we wreck ourselves on one side or the other, reeling from imbalances of over-reacting. But if our pilot is seasoned, the years of Practice having formed a strong heart, with muscle at the ready, and well-honed instincts alert, then we have a……