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Held in the Balance
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing there is a field. I’ll meet you there. ~ Rumi
Given what is playing out in the national and world news this week, right about now we are perhaps in need of taking a break from the reports, and getting ourselves to this field that Rumi beckons us to. To this ever-available place of balance, reflection, and big picture seeing, above and beyond worldly affairs. I will return to this, but first, allow me to shift to some astrology, to put all the political happenings in context. If this part’s not for you, feel free to skip to the other delights below!
The Astrology of Now
Not surprisingly, the predominant theme of warring factions is very much part of the story of this month’s Sun sign archetype, Libra, particularly as we head into “eclipse season,” with the first of two eclipses being at this Saturday’s New Moon in 21° Libra. (The second will be at the Full Moon in Aries two weeks later). Eclipses on the collective level presage amplification of existing themes. The South Node of the Moon in Libra, and the North Node (where we’re headed) in Aries will stay in this tense I-Thou axis (with artillery), for the next 15 months, however. It’s been intensely hot as transiting Mars and Pluto have been square each other, putting already feisty Mars, ruler of Aries, on volcanic–action steroids.
The good news is that Mars moves on from that square as we speak. The bad news is that Mars has just entered Scorpio (ruler of Pluto), which can, in its lower nature, perpetuate the level of destructive ferocity and determination that we are seeing play out in horrific 3D in the Middle East right now. And, while we may think of Libra as the ‘go along and get along’ sign, there’s much beneath the surface. Libra aspires to peace and harmony, but it’s not necessarily good at getting there. When it fails, it resorts to the imbalanced Aries playbook, which is shades of war. Sometimes dark ones.
Compounding things, transiting Pluto in Capricorn—sign of traditional structures like nation-states and the US Congress—has just turned direct after being Rx for four months and is heading back towards Aquarius, a sign that can manifest as both freedom crusader and iron-fisted dictator, politically speaking, depending on the ‘soul maturity’ of the involved party. Pluto’s newfound forward motion gives its ‘death and transformation’ archetypal impulse even more oomph.
Further still, and training the lens back home and away from Israel, transiting Pluto is making its third exact conjunction with the US’s natal Pluto. This is its final pass over the conjunction point, marking the end of a full 360-degree cycle, begun in 1776. So it’s a big deal, when the planet signifying death and transformation comes to its original starting place (signaling a death and rebirth by its position), poised to release the dregs of the old, and don a new blueprint. As to what we will be seeing in the halls, or circus tent, of the US government going forward, all bets are off. Popcorn may or may not help.
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Libra in the Political Moment
A colleague pointed out recently, upon hearing that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had officially declared his presidential run as an Independent, that there has only been one US President who was neither Republican nor Democrat, and that was George Washington. So here we are back to the country’s origins, fitting right in with the US Pluto cycling back to its origins for a restart. Are ready to reconsider the two-party system? Maybe not, but while Washington may have been the only unofficially ‘independent’ President, there have been five candidates who put in a good run for Independent through time, among them John Anderson (someone I saw speak, and favored, back in my college days when I was first able to vote), Ross Perot, and Ralph Nader. While they didn’t get a huge percentage of votes, their candidacies did make a difference in the political arena. An interesting thing about Kennedy is that he is an anti-vaccine activist who, while controversial for this reason, appeals to both far right Republicans and a swath of alternative health-oriented Democrats. Perhaps a living example of how extreme yang can turn into yin and extreme yin to yang; in his candidacy announcement speech (he starts at 21 min.) on Indigenous Peoples Day, he struck a strong Libran note, with his promise of “a reunion of a hopelessly divided nation.” (I include the speech not as political advocacy, but in honor of Libra news! I also love that he honors the protection of the rights of and is strongly supported by Indigenous Americans.) Libra, surely the significator of politics, is about being ‘civilized’, polite, suave, and the social strategist. On the ‘civilized’ theme, however, the Senate recently waivered on their dress code when they attempted to honor the hoodies and shorts guy. Manchin said on the Senate floor that for 234 years, senators had assumed there were some “basic written rules of decorum, conduct and civility, one of which was a dress code.” And last week, they learned there were not. Thank God some Libran pluck was still in them and they are back to suits and ties, I say. (Call me old world, with my Saturn-Jupiter conjunction in conventional Capricorn.) But of course in these days of rapid political decline, the winners have been the ones with the loudest ties and the greatest mastery of the art of the deal and the con (and the counter lawsuit!). The presidential contest process counts, however; what gets said by the candidates is thrown into the cauldron for all to consider, so it’s good to have Kennedy aboard, is my sense. As was affirmed in a piece this week by David Leonhardt in The New York Times, with the Libra-Aries axis run more broadly amuck, hostile conflict is erupting not just in the Middle East, but across the globe, demonstrating the off-centered Aries impulse of ‘might makes right’ as the way to assert selfhood, or statehood. The simplest explanation is that the world is in the midst of a transition to a new order that experts describe with the word multipolar. The United States is no longer the dominant power it once was, and no replacement has emerged. As a result, political leaders in many places feel emboldened to assert their own interests, believing the benefits of aggressive action may outweigh the costs. So here we find ourselves, with a multipolar political world order, where diplomacy fails, and it’s every red-faced leader for himself. Vladimir Putin, I might add, is a Libra. |
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What Does Libra-Aries Want?
On the individual level, the invitation in this season of Libra, further emphasized by Saturday’s eclipse, is to get centered in our authentic, grounded self, while still considering the needs and input of others. With eclipses said to be times of change and release of the old, this could mean letting go of relationships that may have become dysfunctional, or at least shifting entrenched ‘pleaser’ or dependency dynamics through Aries courage and self-assertion. It also invites us to focus on coming from the Libran ideal of thoughtful responsiveness, rather than knee-jerk reactivity (which Aries is prone to.) And, to practice tolerance, as there are intense vibes afield.
I feel that the work we do within ourselves—to stem our disingenuous, impatient, or untamed impulses—and instead align with our true nature, and the big picture vision for peace—can ultimately affect the larger community of life. It starts with our ourselves, and extends to our friends and family, our neighborhoods and networks, and ripples out from there.
Another aspect of this Solar Eclipse, which will influence the four weeks to come and potentially further, is of Venus in Virgo opposing Saturn in Pisces. Venus, goddess of love, when in Virgo remains whole and unto herself, even in relationship. And Saturn in Pisces (a 2+ year signature that I’ve written about here) is doing the work of letting go of conventional structures and rules, while keeping the beat behind inspired dreams and intimations. Also pointing perhaps to a re-scripting of conventional relationship, the ‘work’ (both Virgo and Saturn associated with this theme) being on maintaining independence while allowing flow, flux, and occasional fusion in relating. A tall order!
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The Relational Weave – An Inside Job
Of course, ideally, relationship work is also to be undertaken within oneself. One way to do this is through deepening in ‘the sacred marriage’ between one’s inner masculine and feminine parts, finding balance between our outward thrusting ‘yang’ (masculine) impulses, and our receptive, yin (feminine) ones. Air and fire signs are yang, so those with a majority of those energies flavoring your personal planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars, Venus) will likely tend towards the masculine way of being. Water and Earth signs are yin, so those with a predominance of these will be more self-contained, feeling-based, and grounded. In addition to thinking about how we might shift the emphasis to our weaker expression, whether it be yin or yang, Shamanic astrologer Daniel Giamario suggests that we can work on the inner sacred marriage by “owning” our Mars (for women), or our Venus (for men), and claiming the archetypal energies present in our 7th House of relationship.
Typically, in heterosexual relationship chart readings, one looks at a woman’s Mars for an indication of the kind of man she’s attracted to, and the area of life in which she’s likely to enjoy being with him, and the man’s Venus for the type of woman he’s attracted to, and the arena in which he’s likely to enjoying being with her. This holds true for same sex couples. One would expect to see a projection of a man’s Venus onto his partner, and a woman’s Mars onto her partner.
So owning the relationship signatures in our chart would mean working to embody and live those qualities oneself, not give or project them onto another. I’ll take myself as an example. Conveniently, my Mars happens to be in Libra! This placement is a bit of a conundrum, as unfiltered Mars energy, as established, asserts for its desires, indifferent to others’ needs. Put it in Libra, and its desire and drive is to make the partner, or the friend or colleague, happy, and pleased! Therefore, to claim that impulse within, instead of relying on a partner to charm and flatter me, the work becomes about pleasing myself! Or as Giamario posits, owning a Mars in Libra means admitting you find your own company the most pleasing of all!
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The Mystical Relationship
Another way of working on the relational balance within is that of making a relationship with God, with or through one’s own soul. It is this ‘field’ to which Rumi refers in the poem I quoted above–-beyond the struggles between right and wrong, beyond all of life’s ‘tension of the opposites’ (a necessary ingredient of alchemy). Here there is the place of unity and oneness, of joining one’s outer world persona with one’s higher self, a place “where the two seas meet.” This is discussed in the Sufi story of the mythical Green Man, Khidr, interacting with Moses, in which Khidr takes Moses to the place where the two seas meet, where spiritual teachings become a “living substance” that nourishes the wayfarer, as Sufi teacher Llewellyn Vaughan Lee writes.
The image of the two seas meeting suggests two currents coming together, and such a meeting is never easy, as anyone knows who has been awakened, if just for an instant, to the Divine within himself or herself. There may be a period of grace that is given at the beginning, a time of peace, bliss or inner joy that comes from reconnecting with the Divine. But this is always followed by the turbulence and uncertainty that comes when the two seas meet. This is the inner turmoil the mystic knows so well, when nothing is certain, when the patterns that define our human existence are affected by the more powerful currents from the divine sea, by the vast swells that come from the beyond.
Another lens on the inner dimensions of relationship comes from author and teacher A.H. Almaas, founder of The Ridhwan School. Almaas points out that deep down, in relationship we are harkening after the positive merging we felt with mother in early infancy. We think,
“ I have to have somebody who loves me. I have to have somebody who sees me, who values me.” It is true that it is useful and supportive at the beginning, but if you continue depending on it, this will stop you from owning and being who you are. Being who you are, being your essence, should be completely independent of any other factor, inner or outer…Essence is the life, essence is the fulfillment.” ~ From Elements of the Real in Man, pg. 126
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Heaven and Earth In the Balance
I can tell you one place where I saw the two seas meeting this month, and that’s in my first siting of a hummingbird’s tongue! I love my garden’s denizen ‘hummers’ (move over hulking military jeeps), and I recently noticed a new kid on the branch of my Arbutus Marina tree, my backyard spot for feathered friend activity. This new hummingbird was a little more squat, had different coloring, and was a LOT fluffier! She was a riot to watch, as she preened and fluffed repeatedly. And she stayed, and stayed, and stayed on that branch, sometimes stone still for up to a minute as I watched with my binoculars. Until suddenly there emerged from her beak this long, thin, clear beam, shooting way out into the air. What was that? She showed me again, and again. My jaw fell.
I then discovered, thanks to Google, a video about the hummingbird’s tongue, and how it splits and feathers at the ends, for better sucking power. Witnessing this with no foreknowledge was a blessed phenomenon of finding heaven-in-earth, in my book, from this miraculous little creature, ever-present in my daily rounds here at home, whether inside or out, for I hear her winged whir day and night, on all sides of the house!
Sticking with my ‘miraculous earth’ theme, we come to Italian science researcher, author, and ‘plant listener,’ Monica Gagliano, author of Thus Spoke the Plant. Libra is all about collaboration, and in a recent podcast, Monica discusses how she works in collaboration with plants and the earth. She points out that “by encountering each other, we change each other.” She strives to open and listen to plants without preconceived filters, as we do (ideally!) with each other, and also considers planetary change on a vastly big picture scale. “The earth has ideas for rebalancing that we can’t conceive of, 300 million years after the First Ice Age.”
This relates to my personal musing that, while the delicate balance of the Earth’s systems has been dangerously affected by human activities, resulting in global heating and now rampant weather disasters, there is still a principle of balance at play. We here in Sonoma County, CA had been stuck by destructive wild fires and thick smoke for many weeks of the summers three years running from 2017-2020, making me think our climate and ecosystem was ‘wired for wildfires and it might be time to move.
But right after I explored doing that, the focus shifted. In 2021 we saw the intense fires move up to Oregon and Washington, as well as Canada, and have since had three years’ reprieve here, including very little extreme heat (knock wood!), while meanwhile this year the eastern part of North American has been hard hit by heat, fires, smoke, and floods. The array of climate disasters seem to me to be being distributed globally, leaving almost no area untouched. One could say that Mother Earth is ‘spreading the word’, in a balanced way, to all of her corners that we are out of balance!
This brings to mind the classic 1980s film, Koyaanisqatsi, a powerful visual tone poem about life, and what passes for life, on Earth that some will have seen back in the day. In the Hopi language, koyaanisqatsi means “life out of balance.” The film, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, features mesmerizing footage and music by Philip Glass, with no words. It’s a full-length film, but if that’s daunting, I recommend checking out at least the first few minutes (better than watching the trailer, which I find disjointed.)
Wishing you peace and harmony in your relations, deep listening to the more than human world, and an eye and ear for beauty in the remainder of Libra season.
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Further Meanderings
Robert F. Kennedy Announcement Speech – https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=A9opkWJn5aE&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
US Senate’s New Dress Code – https://www.npr.org/2023/09/28/1202300653/senate-codifies-dress-code-unanimous-vote
Where the Two Seas Meet, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee – https://goldensufi.org/reflections-on-the-life-of-a-mystic/
Hummingbird’s Tongue – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2oN1obkauc
Monica Gagliano, The Songs of Gaia – https://www.scienceandnonduality.com/audio/23-the-song-of-gaia?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Sounds+of+SAND+First+Anniversary+🎉&utm_campaign=Sounds+of+SAND+One+Year+Anniversary+Email+%28Copy%2
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All photos copyright Diana Badger 2023