mysteries

Waning Moon in Scorpio: XVI The Tower

Posted on by Faye Dancing Cloud

The Tower depicts the Divine bolt of lightning piercing the heavens to strike down any structures we have built in attempts to elevate us over larger powers. At this time, unexpected catastrophes  occur that serve to level the ideological constructs that we form of ‘the way things are.’

The Tower started as one of my most dreaded cards. When I saw it in a reading, I would prepare the seeker for the worst possible outcome. Now, I certainly still consider it to herald a life-changing, probably unfavorable event, but I work to emphasize the potential that comes with this event: a blank slate. Everything that existed before this is swept away, allowing for the seeker to rebuild their life on a true foundation, based on honesty, trust, and love. This is not to say I downplay the disaster implicated by this card. The most extreme devastation occurs when a person is strongly invested in a certain outcome, but even when loving non-attachment is achieved, such widespread destruction and magnificent suffering are painful to watch. The Tower card says nothing if not, “This event will be radically different than what you expect, or even desire…”

With the destruction that the Tower depicts, we have a chance to let the reality soak in: nothing is permanent. Everything is subject to change in some form or another. To practice non-attachment is to invest in the ways that our Spirit grows as a result of our activities; those are the things we can always carry with us. The Tower gives us the impetus to depart from our material values into the realm of Spirit.

What has been destroyed, was built on a false foundation. It can be a powerful blessing to have something like that removed all at once, rather than the structure standing over time, crumbling slowly, to collapse after even more trust has been poured into it. Combined with Luna’s transit through Scorpio, this card amounts to a breakdown of structure in terms of secret codes being exposed, sexual liberation, and violent passions breaking through the surface. Incidentally, February 13th brought riots in Greece resulting from a vote by its government for further austerity measures (see http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/jan-june12/greece1_02-13.html).

What structures in your life no longer serve you? How have secrets been exposed, today? How are oppressive structures breaking down around you? Are you suffering because you built something on that false foundation, or celebrating your newly found liberation?

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Transforming Your Patterns

Posted on by Faye Dancing Cloud

Transforming patterns of behavior, thought, belief. Functionally: difficult. Conceptually: easy. Paradox? Maybe. Our brain reverses concepts on the abstract level more easily than we change our habits of action. Momentum v. inertia.

War. Peace. Sex. Chastity. Pollution. Purity. Violence. Love. Abstinence. Indulgence. Life. Death. Order. Chaos. Vulnerability. Protection. 

We cast the ideas behind these words as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ when the Truth stands out: everything has a place in everything. No thing has an inherrant good or bad to it: it is our own attachment to the outcome that imbues it with these qualities. That is not to say that ‘good’ and ‘bad’ don’t exist; it simply means that good and bad are relative terms, existing in the context of the unique perspective of the observer.

When we see this Truth, we become free from dogma; tradition for its own sake, law and order for its own sake, become empty structures. We can appreciate the chaos that facilitates creation and be at peace with nature and ourselves.

Some people might think this implies an immorality, an excuse to behave in whatever way our bodies tell us. We do not give up our free will when we practice non-attachment. We do not give up our full enjoyment of any pleasurable experience. Morality and ethics are transformed from “What does my creed tell me to do?” into “What effect am I causing in the world around me?”

In essence, we can focus on what vibrations we are sending out. If our vibrations hurt those around us, we then have the power to change those vibrations, our actions, and the effect we are having on the world around us. We become fully empowered to create our own reality.

In the process of stepping out of my past, defining myself as the Being-ness that I am, the past has tried to cling to me. Dreams of my late grandmother and her house have haunted me this past month. The house I grew up in, the common denominator of my young life as my family relocated, is not an altogether happy place in my mind. It’s a place of waiting, being fenced in, exploring inner worlds as the only ones open to me. I dream of being trapped there, trying to escape only to find myself there again the next night or the night after. The Goddess, and speaking to me through dear friends and books, helped me to stop my struggle against these messages trying to come through. I needed to step back from my social circle, momentarily, to look inward. What was my past trying to tell me?
To me, personally, detaching from my past has meant a denial of that past. At times, I have wanted to erase everything about myself and start over. This simply is not possible. All the things “about me” are irrelevant whether or not I deny them or not, and denial is a continuation of my relationship with my past, and who I have thought of as “Who-I-Am” is really not me at all: just a collection of stories and statistics about me.
Many of us carry the marks of a hurtful family legacy by engaging in patterns of thought and behavior that uphold the pattern. An object in motion tends to stay in motion: thoughts and actions, too. If thoughts become things, I affirm every day to heal and forge something new.
Every morning I woke up from these haunting dreams, I would wake up to the reality of being some place else. I live in a place of my choosing, with objects I have chosen to surround me, for my health or detriment. I can choose to detach from this stuff, and appreciate those things that serve me – and in the end, everything serves my highest and best. Even difficult experiences (and sometimes especially) are valuable teachers. As always, you are welcome to leave your thoughts here. Have you worked with non-attachment in your life?