The Twenty-Ninth Degree on 10/29/09

 

 

Saturn is at 29 degrees of Virgo in the tropical zodiac.  We’ve discussed endings here and here and here.  Endings, the balsamic phase, the 29th degree, the mutable signs, the 12th house, all have a common intention towards completion.  You have to have an ending if there’s going to be a beginning.  This isn’t high math………….it’s just the way it works.  

George  had a really interesting post this morning.

Why do you play the harp?

  I  returned home from the 2009 Harper’s Escape on Sunday.  The tunes are still running thru my head, awake and asleep.  I am filled with joy and gladness that so much joy and gladness can be shared with harps.  Yes? 

40 of us gathered strong under  gloomy, doomy October skies to learn a few tunes, in community with each other.  Angels as well as devils showed up. Spiritual energy/vibration allowed it to be all okay, just as it is.

Om shanti. Peace to all.

On Sunday, we performed as a sort of harp orchestra at the local public library.  We were quite the hit; a waiting line stood patiently outside the room for the entire performance hoping for a seat to open up.  

I was relatively pleased and content with my own ‘performance’, noticing with every breath how the inner critic is still alive and well! 

But, once again I was amazed and awed by the sheer diversity of our group.  The harp is what brought us together and held us in-common.  Regardless of color, creed, culture, or zodiac sign, we worked together for an entire weekend to create a concert for the public.  Peace is always possible.

Astrologically speaking it was a weekend of Neptune/Chiron/Jupiter & Moon energies.  Sweet, serious, and silly all together with lots of food, drink, and water…….it rained a lot.  The balsamic phase of the moon was occuring in Late degrees of Libra.  Read more about balsamic, it’s very important to understand our human need for deep rest.

 

Gotta go practice……I’m haunted by the Harris Dance.

Too Cool!

Were you born between 1971 – 1973?

(I’m using a very wide orb here)…..

if so, then Saturn is coming up to conjunct your natal Pluto.

Heavy.

Dense.

Solid,

and sometimes Immovable.

Patience is key.

A good time to establish a yoga practice to re-generate your stress and turn it into skillful action and right thinking.

Easily said.

Difficult to practice.

Find a spiritual  teacher.

Commit.

Breathe.

On the road – Looking for the harvest

Hello World,

I noticed the last quarter moon in the morning sky.   The harvest is in……………or not.

I’m blogging from 20815.  Later.

Mars in Cancer……Om Shanti

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33213245/ns/msnbc_tv-countdown_with_keith_olbermann

A Case Study – Yoga Therapy & Astrology

CASE STUDY

A typical yoga therapy session:

Female, 49 yrs. 5′5″, 180, thining dyed hair, round.  Although I do not have a birth-chart  to refer to, the fact that she is 49  is enough to remind me  which cycles usually dominate our life experiences during the years around 50.

Chiron’s cycle is approximately 50 years.  The wounded healer,  heals.

(Do a search for Chiron over there on the right side of this blog for more posts on Chiron.)

She arrived before me for our session and was eager and willing to fill out intake forms.

We spoke about the program and this session in particular. We agreed to follow the yamas & niyamas for our work together.

She describes herself as exhausted, and can feel some obstruction in the heart & throat area. She recently suffered from pneumonia and continues to be concerned about her health. She felt it was a wake-up call of some sort and wanted to pay closer attention.

She is frustrated with her current career. Although she loves being a teacher, she feels stuck in her current position. It feels like a long, hard struggle and she’s out of energy.

We discussed different yoga practices that can be of benefit to her if she chooses to commit to a ‘practice’ at all.

For the experiential part of our 1st session we spent time doing a seated body scan thru the kosha’s. Periodically, I would ask her to write/draw/record her awarenesses on some paper.

By the time we finished with the kosha’s she had experienced quite an ‘energetic’ shift inside and was quite amazed at what she had discovered. Most notable was that the entire left side of her body was numb when compared to the right. The imbalance was enlightening in and of itself to her in that moment.

We completed our session with savasana, pranayama and meditation.

During meditation, we explored Anjali Mudra in some detail paying attention to the sensations in each fingertip, it’s proximity to the heart chakra, its guiding the energy upward, etc.

I guided her back to the previously blocked throat area and encouraged her to chant om for a short while, and I noticed that each om sounded stronger than the one before it.

She felt like there was more work to be done, and seemed quite at peace and possibly enthusiastic about what might come next.

She left feeling well-balanced, energetic, and relaxed.

I could have taken an entirely different tactic with this women, and spent our time together working more on asana’s and that would have been okay, too. However, in my mind, asana’s and Chiron just don’t go together very well unless you have a committed client who will be returning often. At this point in time she was unable to commit to more than one session at a time. (I usually encourage everyone to commit to 6 sessions, however that can be a financial/economic burden in 2009.)

Chiron and Neptune are closely aligned these days (2009- 2011), so for those clients around 49 yrs of age, their particular crisis in this moment requires spiritual (neptune), healing (chiron).  As yoga therapists we must utilize our skills to activate and integrate the vijnanamayakosha & anandamayakoshas, as well as practices for the physical body.  We can only teach/share what we have learned for ourselves so please do not neglect these more subtle areas in your own training.  Learning a symbolic language such as astrology can help you develop buddhi, and increase your ability to trust the intuitive mind as much as the logical mind.  Yes?   Understanding health is only as good as  your understanding of how ‘all is one’.   Chiron and Neptune traveling together will bring up various types of health crisis for everyone until we get it, that our belief system is as important as vitamins, exercise, or anything else we do for health purposes.

Much of what happens during yoga therapy sessions happens on the subtle & causal layers of the body.  For many, yoga therapy is a safe, non-invasive, and gentle way to address deep-seated obstacles that prevent us from being fully human.

Om shanti.

Let the mind, be the mind.

Let the mind be the mind.

Behind its restless activity,

just one layer deeper

is stillness, and beneath

even that, is an ocean of mystery and truth.

Swim in this eternal sea

until you know yourself

to be infinity, and bring

that knowing back into

your day.  Why struggle

to be what you are already?

Let the mind be the mind

but don’t bind yourself

to its limited reality.

Trust your experience of

vastnes.  Trust the truth

that never loses potency

or disappears in fear.

Let the mind be the mind

and identify not with

thought, but silence.

…from Limitless by Danna Faulds.

Change or not?

A person once asked Confucius,

“What surprises you most about Mankind?”

Confucius answered,

“They lose their health to make money and then lose their money to restore their health.

By thinking anxiously about the future,

they forget the present,

Such that they live neither for the present

nor the future

and they live as if they will never die,

and they die as if they had never lived.”

The Journey by Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew

what you had to do, and began,

though the voices around you

kept shouting

their bad advice–

though the whole house

began to tremble

and you felt the old tug

at your ankles.

“Mend my life!”

each voice cried. 

But you didn’t stop. 

You knew what you had to do,

though the wind pried

with its stiff fingers

at the very foundations,

though their melancholy

was terrible. 

It was already late

enough, and a wild night,

and the road full of fallen

branches and stones. 

But little by little,

as you left their voices behind,

the stars began to burn

through the sheets of clouds,

and there was a new voice

which you slowly

recognized as your own,

that kept you company

as you strode deeper and deeper

into the world,

determined to do

the only thing you could do–

determined to save

the only life you could save.

 

Mary Oliver

Pulitzer Prize for poetry