Cosmic Weather Forecast
Welcome to Satya Center’s Gemini Solar Festival, Sagittarius Full Moon June 2015 Festival of Humanity Cosmic Weather Forecast, brought to you by your Editors, Curtis Lang and Jane Sherry.
The Cosmic Weather Forecast for June calls for intermittent Neptunian mental fogs and associated astral glamours punctuated by flashes of intuitive solar insight characteristic of the Summer Solstice.
We all need a break from the Long Emergency. We are in a marathon run, not a sprint. There are no fast fixes to humanity's problems, only long-range solutions will be viable. So let us take the time this Full Moon to be gentle with ourselves and our loved ones.
This Full Moon marks the third great spring spiritual festival following Easter and Wesak, known as the Festival of Goodwill, or the Festival of Humanity.
The Full Moon occurs this Tuesday, June 2, at 9:19 AM PDT, or 12:19 PM EDT at 11° 49’ of Sagittarius, opposed by the Sun at 11° 49’ of Gemini.
The Summer Solstice ushers in the new season of summer on June 21st at 9:38 AM PDT, 12:38 PM EDT. At that time Neptune, planet of spirituality, astral glamour and consciousness-altering substances will have gone retrograde, as of June 11, the same day that Mercury, now retrograde, goes direct.
Although the series of seven incredibly tense Uranus-Pluto squares marking the high point of the Grand Cardinal Cross configurations that have dominated our cosmic weather forecasts for the last seven years are now thankfully part of our shared history, Uranus remains in Aries square Pluto in Capricorn with only a single degree or so of separation this month and for the rest of the year.
These aspects are associated with epochal structural failures and flaws in global financial and political systems. Global risks in financial markets and in geo-political relations remain at historically high levels, and this cosmic weather pattern remains a generator of financial volatility, rising and massive economic inequalities, accelerating climate change, military confrontations, massive human migrations and refugee camps, civil wars, and religious conflict on a global scale.
Here in the foothills of the East San Francisco Bay area, Jane and I have been enjoying the sunny skies and cool evenings after a humid, rainy, hot month in Florida, and we also had a three hour rain event a week ago, at a time when the rainy season is officially over! We were thrilled. The drought in California continues and snowpack in the Sierras is zero (!!) for the first time in history, so we have cut back on watering the yard, and take infrequent showers.
Our friends and family have been encountering massive floods in Houston, more unseasonable rain and August heat in Florida, and a sizzling spring in New York.
Across the country, we see drought or flood, winter or summer, unseasonable extremes of temperature during spring and fall, to the point where it almost seems that we have only two seasons instead of four.
For those of us whose spiritual practice involves staying in tune with the cycles of the seasonal wheel of life, and with the lunar and solar cycles that govern life on Earth from afar, the disruption of normal seasonal weather patterns is ominous and deeply disturbing.
It is very difficult to deny that climate change is accelerating in 2015, ten years after Hurricane Katrina and three years after SuperStorm Sandy. Extreme and unseasonable weather events are no longer black swan events but have become weekly items on the evening national TV news shows.
However, there are no easy answers for the myriad of problems triggered by runaway self-inflicted climate change, the failings of the global neo-liberal financial system, the decline of the American Empire, or the burgeoning war of all against all we see on the world stage.
We can see the global conflicts between classes, ethnic groups, religions, ideologies and traditional Great Power nation-states everywhere we look. These conflicts are writ large in the Middle East but also visible in the unprecedented scale of human migration in response to the disruptions in key systems of the current global civilization.
It is most appropriate to focus on the plight of refugees around the world during this June Full Moon Festival of Humanity, and to open our hearts to those uprooted from their homes and now cast adrift in a global society that has no use for people without wealth and highly marketable skills.
The UN refugee agency reported last year on World Refugee Day, June 20, 2014, that the number of refugees, asylum-seekers and internally displaced people worldwide has, for the first time in the post-World War II era, exceeded 50 million people.
The UN reports there are over 10 million refugees and internal displaced persons in the Middle East, with most of those coming from Syria and Iraq.
Africans in small boats make the dangerous long journey into Europe, and many will be turned away by European countries, or treated as a lower class of human being with no human rights.
Rohingya from Myanmar are leaving their country, fleeing violent Buddhist extremists, and Myanmar’s neighbors make no secret of their disdain for them.
Bangladeshis fleeing a flooding country head for Malaysia and Indonesia or anywhere else they can afford to reach by boat, land or air, never sure if their precarious pilgrimage will end in death, impoverishment, captivity or a forced return to their sinking homeland.
Central Americans and Mexicans looking for jobs and family in America are fleeing oppressive political conditions, economic deprivation and often, environmental disasters, despite the arduous journey and the immense barriers at the United States border.
As we ponder the plight of these global powerless refugees, it is time to connect the dots between global climate change, political instability, economic inequalities, and plain old human rights abuses. It is time to consider a new, spiritual approach to these intractable problems, which none of our political leaders, wealthy plutocrats or billionaire techno-entrepreneurs have been able to address in a meaningful way.
The Gemini Solar Festival of Humanity is the day that the Ascended Master Guides and Teachers of all the Mystery Schools of the East and West join together to spark the flame of inner wisdom that activates the higher mind of humanity.
This Full Moon is the moment when the Ascended Masters light the flame of unconditional love in the heart of humanity, creating a link between the cosmic wisdom of higher mind and the compassionate action that springs from an open heart chakra.
And this is the moment when the Summer Solstice message of love emanating from the Cosmic Consciousness of the Spiritual Hierarchy is now manifesting on Earth.
Pope Francis, one of humanity’s most prominent spiritual teachers, is promoting a new fusion of spirituality and social conscience in his new encyclical on climate change and its effect on the world’s poor.
Pope Francis is no radical, but his reign has seen a distinct resurrection of the social activist wing of the Catholic Church.
So far there is no evidence of the resurgence of what was known as “liberation theology”, a variety of Catholicism that was popular in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s in Latin America and among radical leftists, hippies, and spiritual seekers in the United States. Liberation theology emphasizes liberation from social, political, and economic oppression as an anticipation of ultimate salvation.
For liberation theologists it is vital for all spiritual people to take action to correct the flaws of human society, and liberation theology sees evidence in the life of Jesus to support the idea that social activism is inseparable from spiritual practice.
As we celebrate the Festival of Humanity this week, let us all ponder the plight of suffering humanity.
Let us confront the enormity of our mistakes and our ignorance, that we have come so close to destroying the nurturing environment that makes our continued existence possible, and ask for the grace and guidance that is available to us all to help us find the necessary solutions to our social, economic, political, religious and environmental conflicts and social problems.
Above all let us ask for courage! As part of this week’s Festival of Humanity, we ask for help from the Divine in becoming courageous in all we say and do.
Let us be courageous in confronting the need to redesign and restructure existing power relations in society.
Let us be courageous in daring to confront the trans-national corporations that are raping our environment.
Let us be courageous in confronting the political elites who have so far been ineffective in curbing the worst abuses by polluters, plutocrats, and lawless banksters that are diminishing the quality of life for the 99% so the 1% can attain the commanding heights of society, where they can obtain seemingly infinite profit and power.
Let us be courageous in confronting the purveyors of fundamentalist doctrines of every religion and let us be fearless in uniting the inner work of spiritual practices with the social work that must be done to create a new civilization on planet Earth that will work to repair the environment and provide a basic level of human rights and a basic quality of life for all of humanity.
Pope Francis’ encyclical will be released this summer and it comes at a crucial time of accelerating efforts by a wide array of nations to reach new, more profound agreements on very ambitious targets for limiting carbon emissions, curbing burning of dirty hydrocarbon fuels, and taking additional steps to prevent runaway global climate change from altering our human-friendly eco-system beyond the point where human civilization can thrive.
“It is becoming clearer that last year's sweeping deal on climate change between the US and China was an historical inflexion point, the beginning of the end for a century of fossil [fuel] dominance,” reports prominent financial journalist Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in an article in the May 27 edition of the London Telegraph. “At a single stroke it defused the 'North-South' conflict that has bedevilled climate policy and that caused the collapse of the Copenhagen talks in 2009.”
“Todd Stern, the chief US climate negotiator, said the chemistry is radically different today as sherpas prepare for the COPS 21 summit in Paris this December. ‘The two 800-pound gorillas are working together,’”, Evans-Pritchard reports.
“Mr Stern claims that a constellation of states responsible for 60pc of global CO2 emissions are ‘already on board’ for a binding deal, aimed at limiting the rise in carbon to 450 particles per million (ppm) and capping the rise in temperature to 2C degrees above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century,” the Telegraph continues. “Climate scientists warn that we are currently on course for 4C degrees.”
A new comprehensive global deal on climate change is certainly cause for cautious optimism. A world that warms by 4° would be a world humanity would find extremely inhospitable.
"With increasing warming, some physical systems or ecosystems may be at risk of abrupt and irreversible changes … Risks increase disproportionately as temperature increases between one to two degrees Celsius of additional warming and become high above three degrees Celsius," according to the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, quoted in an article on CarbonBrief.org.
It is very exciting that we could be close to a major global climate change mitigation agreement, but it is important to look closely at what scientists say these numbers mean.
“The 2°C target has been said to carry an increased risk of sea level rise, shifting rainfall patters and extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, and heat waves, particularly targeting the Polar Regions, high mountain areas, and the Tropics,” according to a May 2015 article in Science Daily.
At 3°C of warming, Greenland would cease to exist, coral reefs would die en masse, and sea levels would be on track to rise about 7 meters around the world. This would be catastrophic, since approximately 634 million people live in low-lying areas near coastal areas that scientists say are at risk from sea level rise. That is 1 in 10 people on Earth who would become climate refugees in such a scenario.
“The author Petra Tschakert from The Pennsylvania State University and a coordinating lead author of the IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report says: ‘The consensus that transpired during this session was that a 2°C danger level seemed utterly inadequate given the already observed impacts on ecosystems, food, livelihoods, and sustainable development,’” Science Daily reports.
“A representative of the World Health Organization at the session stressed that there was no 'safe limit' for health, as current impacts and risks from climate change were already unacceptable, impacting people's health significantly and inequitably,” the article continues.
“This includes a rise in undernutrition, food- and water-borne infections, and excess deaths during heat waves, of which 10,000 have already been attributed to the 2010 Russian heat wave.”
“In addition to heat waves, science participants in the dialogue said that extreme events such as floods and hurricanes were expected to cause high risk in a 2°C warmer world. These events would put at significant danger disadvantaged populations in megacities like Lagos, Mexico City or Shanghai, people whose livelihoods are dependent on natural resources, and those at risk from conflicts over scarce resources,” Science Daily says.
This is a lot of information to absorb and the enormity of the picture we see before us is daunting. Jane and I believe that it is a vital part of our spiritual practice to look with eyes wide open at the changes in our world. We also believe it is a vital part of spiritual practice to confront our fears concerning the future of humanity and to spread the word to others about the need to take action to mitigate the worst consequences of global climate change.
We are not alone in this belief that spiritual practice and social activism are intimately connected. Pope Francis is very concerned about global climate change. It is quite vivid and real to him. Pope Francis also believes that working to implement radical social change is the only spiritual response to the global climate change crisis. In the absence of such change, the poor will suffer inordinately and the Earth’s ability to sustain human life may be permanently damaged.
Pope Francis sees that a “threat to peace arises from the greedy exploitation of environmental resources. Monopolizing of lands, deforestation, the appropriation of water . . .are some of the evils that tear man from the land of his birth. Climate change, the loss of biodiversity and deforestation are already showing their devastating effects in the great cataclysms we witness,” Pope Francis reminds us in an article on the Pope’s new encyclical at CBS Marketwatch.
“Genesis tells us that God created man and woman, entrusting them with the task of filling the earth and subduing it, which does not mean exploiting it, but nurturing and protecting it, caring for it through their work,” Pope Francis explains.
“We have created new idols. The worship of the ancient golden calf has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money” ... Pope Francis warns that “trickle-down economics is a failed theory” ... the “invisible hand” of capitalism cannot be trusted ... “excessive consumerism is killing our culture, values and ethics” ... and “the conservative ideal of individualism is undermining the common good.”
Pope Francis warns that capitalism is the “root cause” of all the world’s problems: “As long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world’s problems or, for that matter, to any problems,” as environmental damage does trickle down most on the world’s poor.”
“It is no longer man who commands, but money. Cash commands. Greed is the motivation ... An economic system centered on the god of money needs to plunder nature to sustain the frenetic rhythm of consumption that is inherent to it.” Instead, Pope Francis calls for a “radical new financial and economic system to avoid human inequality and ecological devastation.”
Wow, that kind of social change would definitely require a much-expanded Festival of Humanity! Stay tuned for more from Pope Francis. And tune in to your own Intuitive Spiritual Guidance this Full Moon week. Ask for insight, vision, and guidance in how best to seize golden opportunities to be of maximum service to the world.
Let us also keep in mind that the Grand Cardinal Cross passageway through the last seven years has been but a wake-up call to humanity. Each of us is in the midst of a world-historical transformation of our entire global civilization on every level of society.
The tension and the need for fundamental change is also something we’re each experiencing on a personal level as well as a global level.
It is understandable that there is a part of each of us that seeks to escape from this very difficult path humanity is now forced to tread, through the actions of our own ancestors, our karma, and our own mistakes and ignorance.
I talked to a family member recently who has had more than a fair share of inter-generational battles, health crises, and job-related migrations the last few years how they were doing recently.
“It’s like this,” they explained, bringing their hands up to cup their eyes. “I put on my blinders and what do I see?” Gesturing out the window. “I see a beautiful little garden and a lovely lake. All is well in my world now. That’s all I need to know and all I need to deal with.”
We all need a break from the Long Emergency. We are in a marathon run, not a sprint. There are no fast fixes to humanity's problems, only long-range solutions will be viable. So let us take the time this Full Moon to be gentle with ourselves and our loved ones.
Let the keynote of this Full Moon Festival be loving kindness. Let us take a moment out from the various emergencies we face and simply connect with loved ones. This is a great time of year to refresh ourselves by spending time in nature, so visit the beach, the mountains or the woods, and allow yourself to be inspired by the sublime beauty of this Creation.
Remember that we are in the midst of a collective spiritual initiation designed to elevate us to a totally new level of consciousness. If things are a little tough right now, that indicates that the transformation is deep and thoroughgoing, and that, ultimately is a good thing.
The Sabian symbols for this Festival of Humanity on June 2 are upbeat, even auspicious in tone, and so let us surrender to our own intuitive spiritual guidance and become the solution to the world’s problems, as we allow ourselves to heal our own wounds and issues.
The Sabian Symbol for 12° Sagittarius, the placement of the Sun on June 2, is A flag turns into an eagle, the eagle into a chanticleer heralding the dawn.
Here is a symbol of Annunciation. The transformation of traditional Americana, the flag and the eagle, into the heraldry of a New Age. The rooster is a symbolic wake up call for all of us individually and collectively.
This is a call for us to accept peak spiritual experiences and to courageously share the good news of total global and personal transformation with all the world!
This is a call for us to hear the call of the heralds of the New Age, within the silence of our own prayers and meditations, and to heed the words of Spiritual Teachers like Pope Francis, who seek to elevate us and to help us become connected with our own divine nature.
The Sabian Symbol for 12° Gemini, the placement of the Moon this Tuesday, is even more revolutionary in character. An African-American girl fights for her independence in the city.
Here we see the traditional Gemini need for liberation. Gemini is symbolized by the Twins, who represent the egoistic personality and rational mind, on the one hand, and the intuitive holistic pattern-recognition of the Higher Mind, on the other hand.
The girl fights to liberate herself from the objectifying gaze of the racist other, who perceives her as a myth they hold in their head, unable to see her true self. She fights to destroy the social stereotypes that are confining her.
Those who conform to society’s view of what a solid citizen should be, with the proper skin coloration, education, religions and economic status, also have the same need for liberation from the limits of the ego-self and the social consensus.
We seek liberation from our own bad habits, and from the pre-conceptions we have received from our families, our ancestors, our religious teachers, our educational system, and the media, mass and social.
For only in this way can we truly be free. Join us in freely choosing to participate in some simple meditation practices this Full Moon week, which are designed to spread Love and Light to all the members of our huge, diverse human family. And if you want to take action to send money to the world’s refugees, here are some websites to visit.
International Rescue Committee
“This New York-based charity was formed in 1933, after Albert Einstein asked Americans to help refugees from Hitler’s Germany,” reports Forbes magazine. “George Rupp, a former Columbia University president, became president and CEO of the relief group in 2002 and has tripled its total budget. IRC now operates in 40 countries, helping to care for (and sometimes resettle) refugees from conflict zones. The key to affording such expansion, says Rupp, is training local hires to do the work. ‘It’s much cheaper to operate with locals than it is to support expatriates or an entire international team,’ he says. As conflicts drag on, savings mount. The IRC first started helping Afghan refugees in 1980 after the Soviet invasion; today it’s still in Afghanistan, with a 99% local staff.”
From CharityNavigator.org
Charity
International Orthodox Christian Charities
International Rescue Committee
“After two years of conflict, aid agencies report that a third of Syria's population has been driven from their homes by violent conflict,” according to CharityNavigator.org. “This includes 5 million people who remain inside Syria and 2 million who have fled to neighboring countries – including Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan - to escape the civil war. These Syrian refugees, of which 1 million are children (the equivalent of all the children living in Los Angeles and Boston combined), are dependent on humanitarian aid for food, clothing and shelter. The highly-rated charities listed here are providing these services and more (such as medical assistance and schooling for children).”
“Be sure to consider what it is that you want your donation to accomplish and to find a charity offering that specific type of aid. To do that, simply click on the charity’s name and view its rating page (where you can learn about its Financial Health and Accountability & Transparency).”
Practices for the Festival of Humanity
During June’s Full Moon Festival of Humanity, the love of Christ and the wisdom of the Buddha are showered down upon the Earth. At this time, spiritual disciples of all paths and lineages and religions around the world receive inspiration and instructions concerning their roles and duties for the upcoming year.
The Hierarchy of Spiritual Guides and Teachers overseeing humanity’s spiritual evolution join with the Cosmic Christ and provide a roadmap of the coming seasonal cycle to all disciples, planting the seeds for all the spiritual activities that disciples are being urged to undertake during the next year.
Most importantly, the Hierarchy and the Cosmic Christ engulf the entire planet with a powerful high-frequency energetic charge known as The Will to Good, which is distributed through power-spots around the world to all willing recipients.
This energy acts as a powerful stimulant, strengthening the will forces in struggling humanity, and acts as a beneficent power surge, impelling disciples on all paths to internalize the energy of Goodwill, to act with Goodwill toward all, and to strive to establish right human relations in all their activities.
The energy released on the Full Moon Festival of Humanity circulates throughout the etheric body of planet Earth for three full nights and days.
The Festival of Humanity is one of the three great Festivals that were established by the Theosophists during the early part of the 20th century as part of a drive to establish a global spiritual practice that would embrace all religions and spiritual paths around the world, uniting the wisdom teachings of East and West. Alice Bailey, who coined the term “New Age”, was the instrument for telepathic communication from Ascended Master Guides and Teachers who wished to create these Festivals as the cornerstone of a new spirituality for all humanity.
The following information is from the Lucis Trust website, and the Lucis Trust is the organization that is carrying forward the work of Alice Bailey in the present time worldwide.
“The widespread sense that [humanity is] reaching a turning point is founded in the esoteric recognition that our planet is facing a crisis so sweeping that it is affecting even the highest levels of existence upon our planet, in preparation for the attaining of a new balance,” explains the Lucis Trust 2012 newsletter concerning the three great spiritual festivals. “The timing of this crisis was underscored in a passage from the writings of Alice Bailey dated February 1949 which spoke of ‘the finality of the decision which the next two generations will be forced to make’. If a generation is approximately 25 to 30 years, that time of decision is now.”
“The new group of world servers is the name given in the Alice Bailey writings to the subjective network of servers who act as a mediating group, a bridge, between the Hierarchy and humanity. Its members are all those men and women of intelligent goodwill who are actively engaged, consciously or unconsciously, in serving the divine Plan. This group includes representatives in all fields of human endeavour who are working to establish right human relations and to bring in the new ideas on which a sounder, more integrated world, in which the forces of spirit and matter are more correctly balanced, must be based.”
All those who wish to participate in this Festival of Humanity with the New Group of World Servers would do well to set aside some time during the evening of the Full Moon and for the next two nights for deep meditation.
To enhance your receptivity to these beneficent energies try these activities on the three nights of the Festival and throughout the coming week:
If you are unable to meditate at the exact time of the full moon, choose a time within 12 hours before or after the full moon to be part of this global meditation.
Simply sit alone, or join with other like-minded individuals and visualize the planet Earth surrounded by a grid of light.
The Christ Consciousnes