Candlemas 2006
February 2, 2006

by Jane Sherry & Curtis Lang		print version
		print version (graphics)

Welcome to the Candlemas, February 2, 2006 edition of the Satya Center newsletter. Warm greetings from your Editor, Curtis Lang and your co-editor, Jane Sherry.

Today’s newsletter provides a spiritual perspective on current events, astrological influences and seasonal festivals that are shaping the world we inhabit and energizing each one of us, touching us in the profound depths of our consciousness.

After yesterday's Global Newsletter, it is especially important to understand the connection between spirit & political action. If we oppose war and greed and defend freedom under siege, then we must first recognize these negative aspects of ourselves.

It is incumbent upon each of us to confront our own warlike natures, our own war within our hearts & to release anger, fear and rage. If we do this in conjunction with working for peace, freedom and justice we will truly revolutionize ourselves & our world.

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"Candlemas - In The Belly of Winter" by Jane Sherry.

Within frozen depths does warmth stir, and mud rises.
Seeds of air & fire, water & starlight move into the cold and wet places
that awaken from slumber.

Enlivened by bird seed, scattered over my snow cover,
I dream of spring, pulse quickens,
gardens form pictures in my body.

A spark, a heart quickening; fire-seeds
scatter out of my womb into the night,
into the dawn.

The greatcircle of the year draws around
again, the small flame enters the chamber.
A new year hastens us to wakefulness.

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The Candlemas Festival

Today is the festival of Candlemas, called Imbolc by the ancient Celts. Candlemas is one of the holy cross quarter days of earth honoring peoples, and marks the midpoint between the winter solstice & the spring equinox. It is the time of quickening. It marks the time of stirring, rousing, and enlivening out of the dark of winter's slumber. And this moment brings, within our collective memories, the promise of renewal before the spring, awakening us to the new year. Now is the time when farmers and gardeners envision new cycles of planting. This month, seeds will be planted in greenhouses and on warm window ledges here in the Northeast.

Our bodies begin to stir, although parts of us still slumber in inner soul work. Restless desires begin to form as we watch the birds scatter seed in the snow & mud. During the lulls between winter storms, you can see stirrings of early beloved spring weeds, such as great mullein, motherwort & nettles.

Birds are much busier flying in and out of their bramble shelters. A new kitten makes it's way into our hearts and home. As we eat seaweeds & brown rice, along with the end of the autumn's harvest of roots & winter squash, we start craving the tender greens & fresh wild weedy salads of spring.

As I dream of spring snows fertilizing the land, spring gardens draw pictures in my mind. I smell wet ground, unfamiliar and new, in this place on earth I do not yet know with the intimacy of gardening. I dream of where the worms hide under leaf mulch, along with baby snakes under rock walls, barely begun before winter, more falling down, than standing guard over garden beds. Planning for tender turnips, lettuce leaves, mixed with violets, nettles & dandelion as I search out my box of seeds saved from our garden before the move.

My own belly stirs with our Mother Earth's as I plan for meals, for love, for poems not yet read or written. We give thanks as the wind howls outside, bringing more snow, rain, sleet reminding us, winter is not yet finished with us. There is still time to dream.

Pluto at Galactic Center - Curtis' Cosmic Report

Venus turns direct on February 2nd, Groundhog Day, and the ground is prepared for new realities to unfold and flower over the next year and well into 2007. Pluto, planet of transformation, will be at 26 degrees Sagittarius, which is the degree of the Galactic Center.

During this winter season, the Sun is also located near the Galactic Center where the Milky Way intersects the ecliptic, an area sacred to the Mayans, known as the home of Hunab K’u, the Creator God, the Center of Consciousness that manifested our Galaxy through a whirling “cosmic womb” in space. Hunab K’u was also thought to be the gateway to other galaxies beyond our own. The Mayans believed that all activities in our Galaxy were directed and shaped by Divine intelligence manifested as periodic bursts of energy emanating from this Galactic Center.

Modern astronomers have verified that there is a “black hole” at the center of the whirling disk which is the Milky Way, and that this “black hole” emits and swallows stars.

In March of 2005, physicist and astronomer Dr. Scott Hyman announced the discovery of an intermittent signal coming from the Galactic Center, which seems to be intelligently directed. See "Strange Rumblings at the Center of Our Galaxy".

The last time Pluto was at 26 degrees of Sagittarius the Industrial Revolution exploded onto the historical stage. This revolution was a cultural, economic, intellectual and political revolution that shifted humanity from the paradigm of a farming culture to the new form of a machine culture. During this period of accelerated change, humanity's spiritual task has been to develop an acute sense of self-consciousness, and strengthen the ego-forces.

In 2006 we will experience the beginnings of a new cultural revolution. Some have called this the "End Times" or "Times of Chaos".

According to Dane Rudhyar's "Astrological Mandala", the esoteric meaning of planetary placement at 26 degree Sag is “A Flag-Bearer in a Battle”. At this time, each and every one of us is challenged to identify with the best and highest in the collective consciousness, just as the flag-bearer in a battle provides his or her comrades with a focal point for their collective identity.

During battle, the flag-bearer has a tremendous responsibility to the group, because if the flag falls to the ground, then the entire group undergoes a collective depletion of energy, and as a consequence a symbolic defeat can result in a major setback. At this time Pluto, the symbolic agent of TRANSFORMATION is transiting through Sagittarius, the sign of TRUTH - or PHILOSOPHY and RELIGION.

It appears that it is time for religions to be renewed or reconstructed, and each one of us has the responsibility to connect with our own inner truth, and to connect that experience of inner truth and enlightenment with the shared experiences of the collective consciousness.

The Holy Spirit works through all spiritual traditions and all religions of the world, none of which is perfect, and none of which is the exclusive pathway to truth and enlightenment. Yet all who travel the pathways of Spirit have much to share with one another, and if they could but see the bigger picture, they would see that their different paths all lead to the same goal of inner truth and enlightenment.

Pluto in Sagittarius is the Cosmic Hierophant, empowered to utterly transform existing spiritual traditions and religions so that they may be of higher and better utility to their practitioners.

Part of that higher utility, in the dawning Age of Aquarius, is that each spiritual tradition and religion must become the conduit and the expression of the New Age energies of Universal Brotherhood and Sisterhood, in the form of Global Community.

Pluto is the Irresistible Cosmic Alchemist, and those traditions, religions and individuals who act as agents of spiritual transformation, holding high the flag of inter-denominational co-operation and common spiritual truth, will find themselves vastly empowered by this Pluto in Sagittarius moment in history.

On the other hand, those individuals, spiritual traditions and religions seeking to arrogate to themselves exclusive rights to inner truth and proclaiming themselves the exclusive pathway to spiritual enlightenment will find themselves in a life and death conflict with the emerging forces of the New Age, and with the irresistible transformative energies of this Pluto in Sagittarius moment.

Let us choose our path with care, and let us proudly serve as examples and as standard-bearers for the collective consciousness of the emerging global human community of spiritual disciples dedicated to the ageless wisdom teaching of the spiritual masters, both East and West, who have declared, “The paths to Truth are Many, the Goal of the many pathways only One.”

Top Satya Center Stories

There are so many new contributors and new articles this month by Satya Center practitioners & writers. We are happy to announce two new additions to the alt.healer directory this month.

First, we'd like to introduce you to Kimberly Errigo, a Certified Personal Coach, Shamanic Practitioner, Flower Essence Therapist, Healing Touch Practitioner, Ordained Interfaith Minister, Pipe Carrier & Ceremonial Leader and Fellow Seeker. She brings the spirit of her belief in the sacred and her belief in our own intrinsic ability to heal, to all of her work in community and in individual counseling. In addition to her alt.healer listing, she has contributed the article, "Four Ceremonies" (http://www.satyacenter.com/four-ceremonies), a wonderful offering for each of us, to encourage us to cultivate our own abilities to heal ourselves.

Our other new alt.healer practitioner this month is David Haines, a longtime Qiqong & Tai Chi practitioner and teacher. David has created the wonderful "Twenty Minute Body/Mind Routine-Tai Chi & Qigong for Busy People" which can be ordered from him or his website. It is a great way to jump start a gentle, yet thorough healing movement practice for spring or for the rest of your life.

Herbalist and frequent contributor Susun Weed brings us a quick checklist of things women can do to ameliorate some of the discomforts of PMS: water retention, mood swings, sore breasts, and indigestion in "Ten Tips For Women with PMS".

Astrologer, Jonathan Pearl brings us an informative article entitled "Aquarius Foods in Mid-Winter" with some helpful tips for keeping those New Year's resolutions by adjusting your diet to seasonal requirements. Pearl says, "Since Sun in Aquarius gives us an opportunity to increase our knowledge, we eat to support our minds."

Satya Center contributor and poet James Bertolino, has sent us his new offering to Nature, "Nature's Poem", which exhibits more than a dash of poetic "attitude". Once again, James brings his tremendous love and powers of observation creating a short yet potent paean to the Great Mother.

Top Stories from Around the Web

[Note: these stories are excerpted from published stories on the internet. They can be viewed in their entirety by clicking on the linked titles]

Holy Impatience: an interview with Matthew Fox
YES! Magazine, by Sarah Ruth van Gelder, Winter 2006

. . . SARAH: You’ve described two different views of God. Could you talk about what those are and also how people come to have one or another view of God?

MATTHEW: The punitive father-God—who has been named by George Lakoff, too—is the God of patriarchy and fundamentalists. It’s afraid of chaos, of eros, and the lower chakras. And it’s the God of original sin and empire. You build empires by getting people to shape up out of fear, guilt, and shame. There is a lot of that in religion, especially Western religion.

But the other face of divinity, or tradition, is a God that’s both mother and father. And like any loving parents, love comes into the picture. It’s interesting that the first name for God in the Hebrew Bible is Emmanuel. Emmanuel means “God with us,” not “God over us,” not “God judging us,” not “God condemning us,” but “God with us.”

The Christian tradition picked up on that very early with the name Emmanuel applied to stories of the birth of Jesus, a God with us. That kind of God is a God of justice and compassion, not a God of vengeance and exclusivity.

Transmuting Narcissism into Community
Spirituality & Health Magazine, by Thomas Moore
November/December 2005

One of the tasks everyone faces in becoming a mature, soulful person is to transform large quantities of narcissism into a graceful form of altruism. Narcissism, as Freud said, is a natural and understandable attitude of youth. You're not sure who you are. You aren't certain about the world. You have anxiety about connecting with other people.

But eventually you experiment with friendships and romantic attachments. Still, you might be focused on yourself, anxious about being acceptable and lovable. Then you may get married, and the real alchemy begins. You have to learn how to be a strong individual who is increasingly open to another, and the learning is painful. Many marriages don't survive the test.

Parenthood is a similar form of alchemy. Day after day, you discover how to surrender your will and plans on behalf of your children. Sometimes it's easy to give up your wishes because you love so strongly, but most often it's a pain to say goodbye to fantasies of play or work that you've been looking forward to. That pain is a signal of the alchemy that is continuously transforming you into a porous, loving person instead of a hard-shelled narcissist.

At work, there are opportunities to convert your narcissism into a soulful personality. You can focus on money, prestige, and the power you wield, or you can learn the joy of serving others and being part of a team and a community. You will be tested in your dealings with partners, coworkers, and customers: will you protect your own interests exclusively, or will you be ethical and generous?

This process of shifting from narcissist to soulful person is the essence of the spiritual life.

Daring rescue of whale off Farallones Humpback nuzzled her saviors in thanks
San Francisco Chronicle, Peter Fimrite, 12/14/05

A humpback whale freed by divers from a tangle of crab trap lines near the Farallon Islands nudged its rescuers and flapped around in what marine experts said was a rare and remarkable encounter.

"It felt to me like it was thanking us, knowing that it was free and that we had helped it," James Moskito, one of the rescue divers, said Tuesday. "It stopped about a foot away from me, pushed me around a little bit and had some fun."

. . . "I was the first diver in the water, and my heart sank when I saw all the lines wrapped around it," said Moskito, a 40-year-old Pleasanton resident who works with "Great White Adventures," a cage-diving outfit that contracts with Menigoz. "I really didn't think we were going to be able to save it."

Moskito said about 20 crab-pot ropes, which are 240 feet long with weights every 60 feet, were wrapped around the animal. Rope was wrapped at least four times around the tail, the back and the left front flipper, and there was a line in the whale's mouth.

The crab pot lines were cinched so tight, Moskito said, that the rope was digging into the animal's blubber and leaving visible cuts.

. . .Moskito and three other divers spent about an hour cutting the ropes with a special curved knife. The whale floated passively in the water the whole time, he said, giving off a strange kind of vibration.

"When I was cutting the line going through the mouth, its eye was there winking at me, watching me," Moskito said. "It was an epic moment of my life."

When the whale realized it was free, it began swimming around in circles, according to the rescuers. Moskito said it swam to each diver, nuzzled him and then swam to the next one.

"It seemed kind of affectionate, like a dog that's happy to see you,'' Moskito said. "I never felt threatened. It was an amazing, unbelievable experience."

Happiness: the hippies were right all along
New Economist, January 18, 2006

Warwick's Andrew Oswald writes in tomorrow's Financial Times that The hippies were right all along about happiness (subscribers only). Oswald maintains that happiness, not economic growth, "ought to be the next and more sensible target for the next and more sensible generation":

 Politicians mistakenly believe that economic growth makes a nation happier. “Britain is today experiencing the longest period of sustained economic growth since the year 1701 – and we are ­determined to maintain it,” began Gordon Brown, the chancellor of the exchequer, in his 2005 Budget speech. Western politicians think this way because they were taught to do so. But today there is much statistical and laboratory ­evidence in favour of a heresy: once a country has filled its larders there is no point in that nation becoming richer.

 The hippies, the Greens, the road protesters, the downshifters, the slow-food movement – all are having their quiet revenge. Routinely derided, the ideas of these down-to-earth philosophers are being confirmed by new statistical work by psychologists and economists.

Meditation Moment

"The age of Pisces is coming to an end, and we are entering the age of Aquarius which, according to astrologers, will bring about great changes. However, you must not take this to mean that humanity as a whole will suddenly be transformed.

It is the possibilities of all human beings that will change, because there are new currents flowing from Aquarius. But only those who make efforts to harmonize with these currents will be transformed.

Heaven sends us waves of energy but it does not impose wisdom on us. We are entering the age of Aquarius, but those who do nothing to benefit from its influences will receive nothing. Astrologers and other disciples of esotericism everywhere are repeating: The age of Aquarius, the age of Aquarius.

That is all very well, but if you really want to enter the age of Aquarius you must prepare yourself to accept the new ideas this constellation brings: the ideas of brotherhood and universality."

-- Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov

If you wish to find out more about this wise Bulgarian spiritual teacher or consult the many titles by Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov go to http://www.prosveta.com



[Photo Credits: All nature photos by Jane Sherry. Photos of Kimberly Errigo & David Haines provided by the healers, photo of Vera Cruz crystal provided by Cynthy Johnson, Sagitarius clip art symbol.]