We may feel that we been in prison with COVID19 due to the lockdowns. And while that is certainly true the prison mindset goes deeply into the structures of modern culture and even to the bedrock of the matriarchal and patriarchal epochs. We believe we are free when this is an illusion of both the horizontal and vertical hierarchies that were established thousands of years ago.
Using set theory we can examine the illusions of freedom based on our ancestry corresponding to the mental, emotional, genetic and cultural actions, habits and beliefs both conscious and subconscious that have become increasingly obvious in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.
[with a nod to Eric Clapton – Cream and “Wheels of Fire”]
We – Americans are at a crossroads. If we succumb to going “back to normal” the default position when our “candidate wins” then it may be doomed by in-action.
Cross-checking my concerns with large pattern astrological events such as the birth of the United States in 1776 and now, we have a Pluto return. The Yugas in Hindu/Vedic texts under new corrected mathematical calculations report that the Ascending Kali Yuga — the most chaotic and devolved epoch is close to ending in 2025 followed by a 300 year cusp or buffer period. The Kali Yuga is reflected mythologically with the United States Pluto Return.
Both Pluto and Kali are about destruction to create something new. This kind of destruction is outside everyone’s control. It’s like surfing in a tsunami. Alchemically this is the Phoenix Bird on fire that rises from the ashes.
The question is do we succumb to fear, falling back on false mythic memories of comfort in the last 50 to 80 years and create fascism? Or do we venture into uncomfortable territories facing fearful challenges with a bold new philosophy that can be applied to us collectively and individually with inclusion in mind?
The Favorites of The Mob-Boss of America: the poor, the people who never learned “critical thinking” (they may believe “critical thinking” are others that criticizing their thinking) and more…
Question: “I’m struggling with how literally millions of Americans are complete morons. Can anyone help me understand this?”
Some answers: Besides fear, the education system, too much media especially action films that excite and dull the emotions and make life profane, the internet as bible are in-part responsible for the dumbing down of Americans.
The Bigger Context – the Epoch
We all experience existential fears in the form of anxiety, denial, depression, rage… and there are usually two variations of responses that both fall into a patriarchal mode amid a larger context long cycles of many thousands of years. [the end / beginning of the Mayan Long Count Calendar, The Aztec/Toltec Prophesy – end of the 5th world – patriarch, beginning of the 6th; and the Ascending Kali Yuga ending in 2025 followed by 300 year buffer until the next ascending cycle begins and many more prophesies indicate major reasons for the responses to fears regarding the transformation that is upon us.] One side (now in power) does not want to face the fears in themselves so look towards something, somebody to vent the blame.
Responses to Fears
They are the poor in spirit, sad people who cave into a patriarchal leadership myth of the all-powerful, strict but kindly father because of emotions and beliefs divorced from a reality that is on the cusp of transformation. Other people who embrace their emotions both “negative” and “positive” that are companions to compassion and inclusiveness stand on the opposite shore. Some of these empathetic people work to balance intellect with empathy which in the short term allows understanding and eventually wisdom to arise and flourish.
The empaths/intellectuals operate from a place of inclusion of the others who are willing to discuss and compromise in some way. Believers in the strong individualistic father know their intellect and/or beliefs give them the right to exclude others they believe are inferior to them. Those that cling to the “Strong Father” often romanticize the past and long for a white male dominate culture like the 40s, 50s and 60s, etc.. Those that eschew the patriarchy may have begun in rebellion (and some remain there) but many now realize that a more egalitarian structured culture where inclusiveness and cooperation are employed is essential to the survival of the human species.
Divisiveness and The Mob-Boss Thug
These two factions live in the context of increased divisiveness characteristic of the end of a larger epoch based on mercantile materialism. These power-hungry groups would rather live in a bubble of comfortable complacency rather than face fears and deal with them directly. This is part of all human nature – to seek comfort. Right now, the includers have in recent years have mistaken liberal leniency for compassion and the part of result is a mob boss as a so-called leader of the United States. He is actually a leader of only “Red States” so he can be dubbed the leader of the Divided States of America. The excluders found that the Mob Boss spoke to their fears and longing for the “rugged-individualist type”. However, the Mob Boss reneged on all his promises while tricking the people with charismatic zeal into uniting behind his all-powerful God-like Mob Boss Image.
Now the wanna-be dictator #45 has us poised on a cliff with vile threats as lures to jump and kill ourselves or embrace him either way we become dead ducks. Millennials and many others are protesting in the streets during a pandemic to lead us back towards democracy and break the back (vote the Boss out of office and his zombie mob of brainwashed Republicans) of this dictatorial thug. The excluders live from fear and intellectual elitism that values intellectual labors over every other type of labor, therefore they should rule.
The circular argument ensues…
Mob Boss:
Everyone should be like me.
Embrace self-interest to the exclusion of others, be greedy and make more money for me, win at all costs even if it breaks laws, be revengeful. [However only the top 1/10 of 1% can fully play this game as equals.] My others will be rewarded by making more money in an ever-growing economy that serves me. I know that it may take many, many years for all of you to make money anywhere near to what I make, so your worship of me and my money are important for you as a dream you maybe could attain. And you don’t have to see that while I have eliminated certain promises I have made in 2016 and maybe since then I am in the process of replacing them with something much things that are much, much greater. It’s so great I can’t tell you about it right now. This new things are the gratest.
We all know the interpretation: Mob Boss promises and then changes his mind and plays bait and switch games, blame games, racists games, divisive games and conspiracy games etc. to exclude his base while appearing to include them in the fear – making money game. The making money game can only happen when the 99.9% gain an egalitarian footing with the 1% and above. Then many more prosper.
This is eons behind where it could be and where it must go if less people are to suffer due to the many injustices on the cusp of a new epoch.
Being a Change Agent
Those of us (the silent intelligent and empathic majority) that have seen the larger context of transformation of the epoch are likely change agents. According to astrologer Jeffery Wolf Green people that born between the mid to late 1930s and now are amongst the change agents – having been alive when the matriarchy (the Aztec/Toltec 4th world changed to the 5th world). Once awakened, we are part of a much larger movement to help move us into the new world.
You know who you are.
We are the change agents to move us from fear and tyranny to an era of cooperation, community and partnership with all beings.
Its very clear that there is overwhelming opposition to the Trump campaign and there are enough people to defeat him, but…
Trump, as the vicious sociopath without a moral compass or compassion for those not in his camp — he plans to crush his opposition and become the President in name only — aka the Führer / Dictator of America.
Opportunistic Means:
· Use of the Pandemic to divide and eliminate unwanted voters
· Evictions of the Middle, Working Class and the Poor from their homes
· Planned failure of the US Postal System and the chaos of its demise (in October)
· Stacking the courts with lifetime appointees of conservative judges — in Trump’s pocket — like any Mob Boss
· Destroying the US Economy by hurting the 99% through a variety a means
· Encouraging China to dig dirt on Biden (and other countries ie Russia)
· Lack of effect cyber safeguards on the election
· Use of Voter Suppression and Purging already in place to reduce a non-existent problem — voter fraud.
I could go on, but we already know his tactics and philosophy (make money, win, and get even).
He has ignored the Pandemic from the beginning and is making a profit and eliminating those he considers irrelevant to the election based on numbers alone. His transfer of more money to the rich- while withholding needed funding from the middle class, the working class and the poor adds to greater divisiveness from his point of view for the purpose of winning. Only the rich — who continue to support his grab for power are either oblivious to anyone but themselves or see the 99% as expendable fodder for serfdom and slavery to the predatory capitalist machine.
[Of course, he is oblivious to showing compassion towards the 99%. His focus is so narrow he only sees acquiring more money and power at the expense of the US Economy and those who are not with him. The US Constitution is there when he can get an advantage from it and inconvenient when he cannot. This is the convenient floating morality of negligent criminal behavior at its very least.]
As money runs out for the unemployed of the 99% they are or will soon be evicted as renters or those that default on their mortgages. The homeless population will explode and most like be worse than The Great Depression and tank the US and world economies for years to come. And it will be especially bad in the US in an increasingly destitute dystopia.
A population that is homeless will need an affordable mailing address and / or a physical address to remain registered to vote. Without an address many will be automatically eliminated from the voter rolls.
Many Indigenous Americans have only US Post Offices Boxes as mailing addresses which in the past have been able to keep them as registered voters. With the imminent failure of the US Post Office said to run out of money in October — one month before the election those without homes or those that rely of receiving mail at the Post Office may experience chaos with regard to mail-in balloting. Another link in the chain of a valuable infrastructure of commerce (for small businesses — like mine), voting and low-cost shipping.
Amongst the 99% who are unemployed and homeless the economy which relies on the consumerism of the middle and working class will collapse as individuals and families become homeless because the government that is supposed to serve them couldn’t care less.
However, Trump’s GOP pals are beginning to see the message and like rats jumping a sinking ship are beginning to balk at his policies especially when it threatens their re-election. Now is the time to put pressure on House and Senate members in each state to save the Postal service, to provide relief for those who are in danger of being evicted as one step to save the economy.
Systemic Racism clearly exists but as a white male living in a mostly white, small city I have known this kind of racism exists. Because, currently I have no black friends, one Asian-American acquaintance; I am not confronted by systemic racism daily so I haven’t felt it, until recently. But I am a part of white male privilege and I have used compartmentalization to screen out the privileged system I am a part so I don’t feel its affects until recent events: the brutal murder of George Floyd. And the constant barrage of bigotry against people of color, non-Christians, Hispanics and so on.
This makes me a racist.
I am part of the system and up until now I have only been tacitly fighting against the systemic injustices (monthly donations to the SPLC, ACLU etc.). I have not used my privilege to help level the playing field. Inaction while pleading ignorance is inaction, indifference and systemic racism.
Anyone who is different is often shunned by their community and/or persecuted.
Most white people don’t think they’re racists when they are; because of prejudices of an exclusion mentality (us and them). On an individual basis of meeting a black man, woman, an Asian man or woman, or an indigenous American there is a kindness that may exist and treating people as equals in-person (taken out-of-context of “privilege”). As a group whether the people are thought of as different or consigned to a lesser-than position than another group then this is part of systemic racism and is most likely an unconscious response.
One reason we may not be aware of as members of a white privileged class is one of systemic laws that arise out of the Jim Crow Laws after the Civil War to redlining (economic denial of people of color based on segregation and location for private sector benefits as well as government benefits thus keeping people of color — mainly blacks — in economic slavery). In 2013 the Supreme Court struck down part of The Voting Rights Act of 1965 on the assumption that racism had been eliminated and as a result opening up states’ rights to discriminate against blacks and people of color. This along with gerrymandering to keep politicians in power — mainly Republicans currently. These are examples of systemic racism — and have been hidden from well-meaning liberals by Mainstream Media. Once again, here is the out-of-sight / out-of-mind rubric at work. It’s easier for privileged whites and white males to say they are not racist because of the body of laws that exist systemically to keep black people and people of color enslaved are hidden from public view.
“pull yourself up by your bootstraps”
Anyone who is different is often shunned by their community and/or persecuted. They may take up positions of isolation to feel safe. This is a two-tiered process of racism at work. Isolation in more obvious examples lead to segregation. Those who are shunned from the white communities are put in positions of “out-of-sight / out-of-mind”. However black people have contact with white people in the course of daily life. Due to many hundreds of years of oppression / slavery from injustices related to: economic, educational, social, police harassment, brutality and death and the (in)justice system including needless incarcerations of young black males, voting rights prejudices, bias and bigotry (written into law) are some of the examples of systemic racism.
If you were born into white middle- and upper-class culture you and I are a part of systemic racism whether we admit it or not. The first step in resolving a problem is admitting there is one.
The “Pull-Yourself-Up-By-Your-Bootstraps” Metaphor
What does this mean?
If it were so simple that’s what people with profound depression, or people of color would easily do if circumstances were fair or the playing field was all equal and level. The “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” metaphor is usually spoken offhandedly by those that consider themselves strong individualists often from white middle class or upper-class families (or disenfranchised white male members of Right-Wing or Neo-Nazi radicalized groups). They are firm believers in the American Dream: work hard and achieve your dreams. They have no idea that the American Dream is only available to those with privilege and wannabes (see end notes on wannabes). Being so entrenched or enamored with(in) the system of privilege they deny their place in it.
I didn’t want to give up the privilege of wearing a man’s body
So, they make idiotic, cavalier statements without understanding their so-called “superior” status in the world of privilege and dismiss others without it who often find themselves in positions of slavery.
Privilege and Exploitation
We shun or are afraid of others for their differences most times unconsciously. It has been my choice to isolate and privilege has allowed that option. From privilege comes advantage. From advantage comes exploitation.
Let somebody else do it.
Privilege, advantage and exploitation can easily be rationalized away as a racist stance by power-possessors and those who have money and the power that massive accumulations of money create. The bubble of Republicans before and after Trump has been one of male white power in a world being transformed by an influx of non-whites in numbers to the United States. Fear, prejudice and bigotry have been and are being manipulated by many Republicans to hold onto their power. Blame the Blacks, Hispanics, the Muslims, the Asian-Americans, the immigrants, the other to foment racist furor in those afraid of the changes.
Money and Transformation
And yet everyone who has some money would like to hang-on to it even if it means depriving others that may need it. The thought is – let the rich pay for the changes needed for economic transformation. Let somebody else do it. And so everyone thinks the same way whether its economic justice for all or remedying the climate crisis.
There may be an unconscious element at work in electing a president and other representatives. When we elect them, we trust them to do the right thing much the same as a child trusts a parent. We the people often leave the practice of democracy to others to our elected representatives and activists rather than joining with activists in a truly participatory democracy. After all we have had a marvelous tool to help us in participating in democracy computers and the Internet – but again for the privileged who can afford it.
If everything isn’t addressed at once from my pocketbook and yours. By everything I mean:
Replacing Privilege with the Public Good
Economic equity and justice
Healthcare for all administered by Government through heavily regulated Insurance, Big Pharma, the AMA.
Justice for All (especially for those that can’t pay for it)
Prison Transformation
Investments in Public Education
Investments in the Postal service
Investments in Public Infrastructure
Balancing Police and Defense Spending with Public Investment
Investments in Methods that Save the Planet from the Shortsightedness of Predatory Capitalism from industry and consumer/citizens point of view
Replacing Predatory Capitalism and its singular focus on profit to the expense of all else, to a longer-term system based on human and planetary health.
And more… (I’m sure I’m leaving something out.)
Let’s not leave anybody out because we cannot embrace our shadow and own the darker elements of our psyche. The first step in solving a problem is the admission that we have one.
*Wannabes – are people who live outside the American dream who may or may not be privileged. They are often NOT people of color. They believe so strongly in The American Dream and being the strong individualist that the public good does not enter their rubric of the American Dream. They look to and worship those that – in their eyes have achieved the American Dream and sacrifice all for either worshiping their heroes or amassing more and more money to achieve the Dream. But “More” is never enough.
AUDIO FILE to listen while you read (with maybe one reading error):
So, it’s come to this?
I started a reading a piece based on a lecture based on book called, you got it: “Doing Nothing”
It had nothing to do with nothing. It was a ploy, a tease, a ruse, a lure to get me to read an article about the meanderings of a creative artist’s mind. I felt irritated – however the artist had some brilliant pieces of art she had photographed and a chuggingly slow river of tangential ideas, images and sensations. I suppose if one weren’t withdrawing from the intoxication of USA productivity and strung-out on random stuff it could seem like nothing relatively speaking. If it wasn’t titled “Doing Nothing” I might have liked it.
But I was anally attached to finding out how to do nothing, which, of course is an oxymoron. And I’m still attached aka stuck in the fucking past obsessing about not finding nothing. Go ahead – smile and feel embarrassed for me. And I’m being serious.
Let’s face it – no can do nothing at any time. But—
If we rule out autonomic functions such as blood pimping around in our arteries and veins or breathing then we have at least pretended we can make a space for maybe doing nothing.
Here’s the thing though – and I know I’m splitting hairs (very hard to do by the way) – as a nation of workers who eschew down-time and laziness the idea of doing nothing seems more Zen and cooler than acting lazy.
Maybe, the closest seemingly non-action state we can take is Za Zen Meditation. If it weren’t connected to the idea of mindfulness it would be an excellent cover for laziness. I mean sit and just “watch” all your thoughts and ideas et cetera coming and going. The one who watches is the mindfulness give-away so it’s not as close to doing nothing as I might imagine.
There’s lots of apps – one of which promotes “doing nothing” for a certain number of minutes – but in reality it’s listening to rain and sounds of nature as a mediation. Anyway, you get the idea.
The idea is that as workaholics who love to work, work, work – even if you love what you do and in your spare time you work and improve yourself – if you’re filling up all your time with stuff to do then you’re never celebrating laziness. Here’s what I think – Americans love to be busy, even when they’re in downtime. So, when some American says:
“I’ve been doing nothing,”
it really means they are doing something that seems like nothing in comparison to a super busy lifestyle. They need re-grooving in the cognitive think department – unless they are attempting to market “nothing”. Marketing “nothing” is got to be the perfect scam, because you can make up anything especially if its tangential, has no plan and seems like the positive side of laziness – though I don’t see how doing nothing is more positive than being lazy.
I thought of calling this dictionary the FKO Social Commentary Dictionary – after my initials, but would that give a flippant and a wrong message. You get the idea.
So, I thought “O”
As in Oh or “O”MG.
“O” is the first and last letter of my last name letters and could signify – “what goes around – comes around.” Maybe it is an endless cycle of karma or in a higher realm dharma.
Stupid– as in stupor – could be a zombie-like absence operating as if conscious from a place of shock and emotional regression. In short, a dissociative state brought on by triggers. It was once thought of as being struck by too much of “something” – like information and then by fear choosing a non-rational or irrational answer. Cognitively operating from this place empowers the user via the uses of anger, rage and righteousness that arising from being overwhelmed superseding logic based on faulty premises. When this happens, the person falls into the ocean of stupidity.
Another nation, Torpor is where the block of non-voters live & who can blame them?
Then there’s Stupid’s cousin and sometimes spouse Ignorance. There may be a lot of inbreeding between Stupid and Ignorance, but not always. This is a common disease amongst the moderns – probably originated in the autoimmune cue. Stereotypes come to mind, but to repeat them is to dip into elitism where ignorance also breeds and may fall into the stupor.
Ignorance – to turn away or not pay attention as in ignore. Unlike stupor ignorance arises from increasingly narrowed states or focused frames of reference brought on by fears and anxiety of the other especially when the other is unfamiliar or strange. Everyone shares ignorance to some degree except perhaps those that are enlightened. When ignorance begins to feed their spouse/cousin information then Ignorance and Stupid are super-glued together dance partners headed towards the flat edge of the earth and fall off into the sluggishness of torpor. Another nation, Torpor is where the block of non-voters live and who can blame them? Sometimes seeming non-voters might be suppressed voters by those noble Night Riders the GOP protecting us from those minority illegal voters, right? Wrong!
In fairness haven’t we all been falling into occasional stupor and ignored some things out of fear? (To be dealt with in another installation of An O Social Commentary Dictionary.)
Entrenched Ignorance and Stupidity often produces children of Prejudice, Bigotry, Racism, Misogyny, Homophobia and some more I’m not recalling in this instance. They huddle in camps, groups, communities maybe smoke too many cigarettes, vape, drink or do opioids in nations named Xenophobia – A Nation set out to blame the strangers.
Pointing out the ignorance and stupidity in others by identifying their logic is a fruitless endeavor, they are too much inside to see that the macro ideals are arising from a fear/anger base. For instance, I have a relative that rarely listens to me, talks non-stop and told me that we wouldn’t have to worry about climate change because we’d be dead by the time the worst comes (each of us has no spouse or children BTW). Mischievous me interjected: “What about reincarnation?” The next time we talked – or they talked, they told me “I don’t want to be reincarnated as an Indian.”; meaning a person residing in India – and from the tone of their voice they meant a poor person or an untouchable. I said “It’s highly unlikely that you’ll remember this life (meaning their current life). And, wow, you’re a racist.” Oops – didn’t follow my own advice. They denied it, said they were friendly with Indians living nearby on the same street in the USA. Nevertheless, they were friendly in-person but had a racist bias towards a group but denied this. Then they segue-wayed into their disgust of younger people that expressed themselves with ink, said that tattoos were unhealthy for the skin – I interjected that tattoo artists had to have licenses from the board of health. But their anger / fear found its mark and would not have stopped save I had an upcoming appointment. All that anger feels so sad.
The Rise of the Stupid from the Swirl of Ignorance
Part of the problem is that the education system (now more than ever is a training system and does not care about education) has thrown out critical thinking and compassionate self-examination. Other than elite private secondary education and some higher educational institutions the focus of learning is to learn how to do a skill etc. that is solely oriented towards tech, finance, or sciences with the emphasis on money, profit and whose vehicles are conquering mentalities.
Critical thinking be gone!
A good attribute of ignorance is a way of screening out the glut of weaponized commercialism thrown at people through media – including the internet. If we didn’t have a perceptual filter to ignore the barrage of information that assaults us daily we wouldn’t enter into zombie dissociative states and file mindlessly into massive stores and buy massive stuff. Right? Right? R-i-g-h-t… (Not a stutter). Although we could use critical thinking to screen out weaponized data – but OMG that might require some work, aghast!
Critical thinking be gone!
It’s all about me and carving my place out in the American Dream with as much money as possible so I can have a buffer from those in-control and blah, blah, blah…. I imagine some people think critical thinking is having mean thoughts about someone else.
Finally, there is so much loss – humans find loss unbearable – and loss begets grief. Rather than face the unbearable, grief gets rationalized, filed away, goes underground and becomes fear of change masked by anger and ignorance. We as a people – in general ignore our losses, act as if it was better in the past – pretense on some level and justify a steady state of rolling back progress or trying to keep things normal, while an existential crisis brews.
What did we all do when we didn’t see the negative, downside of thinking and communicating on Mercury Retrograde? I got a second-hand report that Mercury Retrograde starts affecting everyone 3 days before it actually goes retrograde. There is a phenomenon in astrology and astronomy where a planet appears to stand still in relation to Earth. This is called stationing. That three-day period has nothing to do with Mercury stationing. It has more to do with fueling the Chicken-Little hysteria and “The Blame Mercury Retrograde Game”. You too can play so you can go wild and crazy and up your stress levels. Sounds like fun, right? NOT! The three-day period before Mercury retrograde is usually less than half a day when stationing is in play.
Stationing Explained —– During the summer solstice the amount of daylight around June 21st only changes by seconds leading up to 6/21 and the same in the days following. It could be up to 20 days of only changes in seconds in the amount of daylight. This is an example of stationing in the Northern Hemisphere near or above the Tropic of Cancer in the continental US and other countries that fall near the Tropic of Cancer. Move further from Earth and stationing becomes longer and seconds moves to minutes and degrees.
Pluto (non-planet, though still considered a planet in astrology) takes a longer time to station than Mercury. Mercury going retrograde on July 7th took 10 hours 7 minutes of stationing before retrograding at 4:15 pm PDT. Pluto stations (appears to stand still beginning on 9/28/19 goes direct – out of retrograde on 10/2 and continues to station until 10/8/19 for eleven days of stationing.
Retrograde Mercury has gotten more bad press than any other retrograding planets. Mercury goes retrograde 3 times a year for 3 weeks.
Pluto and Mercury in retrograde —– Pluto an outer planet is the transformational planet. Pluto destroys in order to create something new from the ashes. When it transits a planet, a house – such as the ascendant read: personality presented to the world; or mid-heaven read: meaning of life and / or career – work, it wreaks havoc. But, since no one pays much attention this challenge is squandered by most. Pluto has been in retrograde since April 24 and will go direct on October 2, it will affect the greater population and world more intensely and those born in January, November, August and April in the most challenging ways on these dates: 10th through the 16th approximately. Pluto will have been retrograding 5 months, 1 week and 2 days. But, oh yeah, blame all of Pluto retrograding on Mercury. Just kidding.
Part of Being a Change Agent —– People who know a little folklore about Mercury Retrograde and not much about astrology or other retrograding planets load more importance on Mercury Retrograde rather than take responsibility for their feelings, behaviors and decisively act. Other Western Astrologers get into the fear game too, in my opinion, and many don’t as well. Many Western Astrologers talk about the shadow period after a planet retrogrades and goes direct it covers the degrees it went over while retrograding and this has significance. This is astrologers being influenced by predatory capitalism and sloppy thinking after all a retrograde “motion” is an optical illusion. The only “shadow” experience doesn’t have to do with a shadow at all. When a planet retrogrades, our experiences are one of increased intensity due to the planet’s proximity to Earth. Retrograde is indicative of two factors astronomically: 1. It “appears” to go backwards across the zodiac in relationship to our point of view on Earth (Animation Gif of Retrograding Mars); and 2. The retrograding planet is as close to Earth as it will be in the course of its orbit around our star, the Sun.
Retrogrades are About Intensity —–Vedic or Jyotish Astrologers interpret retrograde motion as an increase of intensity of the attributes of the retrograde planet due to its proximity to Earth (as close as it will be in its orbit). Western Astrologers believe that the energies of the planet are turned inward making life difficult and, in my opinion, setting up a victim mind-set. When it goes direct its orbit is farther away from earth, so less intense.
Taking Command during Mercury Retrogrades —– Once a belief has been created, perceptual filters formed where like-others and/or community shares a belief then free-floating fears and anxieties become attached to the belief and it is re-enforced. This can be said of any belief.
One example of a Change-Agent is a willingness to examine beliefs especially ones based on fears and anxieties even if they are mild.
Possible steps to overcoming beliefs that block our path towards personal truth:
Observing oneself dispassionately with regard to gathering information. If judgments arise suspend them, differ them and/or soften them. Don’t go into fix-it mode. Observing is the first step. You are gathering information about yourself. (see also Autogenic Training);
Once you have enough data – say for example 9 weeks of periodic observations you made during 3 weeks before, during and after a Mercury Retrograde period. During the next Mercury retrograde period (approximately every 4 months) put in an experiment with actions that counter your normal (9 weeks – 3weeks before, during and after) Mercury Retrograde behaviors with the rubric that the attributes of Mercury are more intense. (the next Mercury Retrograde period is October 31, 2019 and ends on November 20, 2019).
The object of the experiment isn’t necessarily to make your fears associated with Mercury Retrograde “go away”. It is to “test” that if a different way of thinking or acting has any overall effect on your state during Mercury Retrograde. One way of implementing this test could be the following: Anxiety goes up or a fear appears and an immediate thought is Mercury Retrograde. When you catch yourself thinking it’s because of Mercury Retrograde ask yourself – “Is the intensity of the situation right now influencing my feelings, thoughts and actions in any way?” If yes then ask yourself – “What are the challenges I am being presented with right now.” Choose one challenge and with your mind’s eye confront the challenge and overcome it, or soften the challenge with you mind so it doesn’t appear so daunting.
This has been an experiment and is by no-means complete.
A final note: “I get sensitive to Mercury Retrograde” —– Inherent in this quote is that sensitivity is not desirable especially during Mercury Retrograde. More likely Person A is feels more sensitive due to the fear’s others have and is sensitive to those fears. Sensitivity has been given a bad rap in our culture.
Once one identifies that sensitivity isn’t a bad thing where one is made to feel a victim for being “too sensitive”. My mother used to project her feelings of upset onto me and I would burst into tears. She would admonish me for being too sensitive and tell me to “act like a man” and be angry with me. Really, I was expressing/acting-out her suppressed feelings of frustration and grief without realizing it. Practice is needed in identifying the emotions of others and building a strong sense of self in dealing with others emotions and my emotion response. Sensitivity is actually a strength when we’re (the sensitive empaths) are not being overcome by others emotions.
This requires skill building and a new mindset to see that sensitivity is a good thing.
I currently operate two businesses out of my home so my need for driving has been reduced to three to four days a week.
When I worked a 40 hour per week job about 20 miles from my house the commute time to work ranged from 45 to 50 minutes with moderate to heavy traffic on the way to work, and 20 to 30 minutes returning. I worked swing shift and a couple of graveyard shifts.
increased stress and anxiety
When I was working I practiced the art of being on-time, which is arriving 5 to 15 minutes early if possible. With the USA work ethic is a frantic obsessiveness to gain every advantage and never stop working. Such illusory notions as multitasking have been introduced to give us more time to do everything and this is: The Myth of Multitasking
Trying to compress more activities into a finite time can lead to maddening outcomes with increased stress and anxiety. Down-time can lead to creative leaps in our work when we appear to be doing nothing but day-dreaming perhaps.
The Peace System or cooperative automobile driving – works.
When I was commuting to work 4 to 5 days a week using a car I purchased it gave good gas mileage. Now that I am working from home and ninety percent of my trips are short and local gas mileage has dropped (admittedly not very good planning – unforeseen health challenges forced me to retire earlier than I had intended). To work on the ecology of it I drive less. This means planning trips even short ones. I apply the same principles of arriving on time to driving to a destination like a friend’s house, the Post Office, market, or bank.
Driving is about intention followed by executing actions
Drivers, Roads, Traffic, Traffic-Lights, Freeways, Police are part of the largestPeace System in the world. Each of us gets a license to drive a car by which a certain set of rules are applicable. The Police are there as part of a safety-net to ensure that the rules are followed so the system runs as smoothly as possible. When we follow the rules, we can move from place to place safely. The Peace System or cooperative automobile driving – works.
I give myself enough time
Driving is about intention followed by executing actions. Intention/action moves can be carried out with a calm compassion, with thoughtlessness, with humor, with thanks, with rushed anger and entitlement (or wild abandonment) etc. I depart (most of the time) 10 to 15 minutes before an appointment so I can have a stress-free drive, use intention effectively and work on being patient especially with drivers who think they are control the only car on the road. If I am turning the car I try to use my turn signal at least 500 to 1,000 yards before the turn. This is about good communication (with intention).
Projecting an intention towards another driver allows me to be more aware of possible unpredictable actions they may take based on their distractability or in other words driving defensively. Also I find that keeping my speed within the limit allows me to minimize wait times at traffic stops even in heavy traffic to some degree.
Driving becomes pleasant when I give myself enough time to do it. When I give myself time to work and lie idle as long as I apply a modicum of awareness to what I am doing.
I go to Starbucks to buy iced tea mostly because they are located less than a mile from my house. I have a rewards card and they recently bumped the required number of points for a “free reward” a drink up 25 points without any warning.
I have an allergy to wheat – but not wheat gluten. I also am lactose intolerant and eat very little meat.
Because of the bump in points I decided to unload regarding the no-food choices and the bump in reward points even though I didn’t expect any satisfying results. What I didn’t expect was to be treated as a non-person:
In the first email to them I enumerated the wheat allergies etc. I did write that I could eat wheat flour made from ground wheat berries but that regular wheat flour caused an allergic reaction of bloating, an energy crash and at least 24 hours of a depressive mood. In the second email I bemoaned that they had misunderstood my first email by misreading that I was allergic to wheat gluten and had not read all the way through to read and understand the lactose intolerance and almost no meat in my diet.
The second email was worse than the first. They obviously had been trained to see any wheat allergy as a gluten allergy and ignored the lactose intolerance and the meat. They treated me like an idiot. They wrote that the Greek Yogurt was gluten free – duh, but because they didn’t read / acknowledge the lactose intolerance issue, after all Greek Yogurt is made from dairy products.
I receive emails about “members” deals once, twice of three times a week. Because they are all about marketing and greedy capitalism and less about customer service. I felt demeaned by their communications. My new strategy has been to take an opposite anti-capitalistic stance and buy only ice tea and skip the occasional soy decaffeinated mocha. Also, I stopped hanging out there, although I like the staff.
I am weaning myself off of them and transferring my business to maybe Peets and just reducing trips out.
Starbucks didn’t understand me and showed their true colors of marketing to me as just a consumer instead of a person. I didn’t fit into their capitalistic marketing system and I am glad of it. Regarding their emails – now I ignore 90 percent of them because I don’t want to feed their market-greed values.
Rant done. Copy to blog. Link to Starbucks, maybe…
psychesweather 