written on the stars, written in the body

i've been reflecting lately on autumn, and the relevancy of its energy in our collective experience of life. (if you haven't noticed already, most of my blog tends to illuminate the parallels--or at least the mirrors and poignant reminders--displayed by the natural world in accordance with human emotionality and suffering...somehow it becomes a little more tolerable when i notice that no being really escapes what life has to offer). obviously, fall is a time of transition--the days rapidly lose light, the temperatures sink towards frosty and snow bearing, and our expulsion of energy, like the sun, wanes. the two astrological signs that dominate this season are libra (the balancer, the emblem of justice) and scorpio (the sign of birth and death--or, in other words, the ultimate in transformation). autumn gives us the opportunity to balance out, to breathe more, to notice the light...and then scorpio moves in, and leads us--sometimes painfully, especially when we resist--into the darker sides of ourselves and our world. because of this, scorpio gets a bad rap. but what she's doing is a great service to all of us. she's providing us with ample tools to analyze and explore the mysterious elements of our self-created depths, and she gives us the freedom to destroy what limits us, and to open to new possibilities, even if those possibilities over-winter and don't sprout until spring.

i've noticed that i tend to be drawn towards transition and the times where people make themselves vulnerable to change. i find that i want to witness when people give an aspect of their identity to death, and when they create space for something new to come to life, even if that something new is unknown, and perhaps even scary.

this fall we're entering a huge unknown transition as a collective. I have a sneaking suspicion that we're even on the edge of a deep, radical social and cultural transformation. not just because of the political scene, but also due to a rising desire for a spiritual climate change--something that unifies us while simultaneously divinizing our own personal truths.

in the stars (since we've been talking astrology), we're moving into a 2 year phase during which saturn (the planet of structure, form, and order) is in opposition to Uranus (the planet of instigation, transformation, and Waking Up). opposition means only that we will feel some friction--it need not mean that there can be no common ground. in fact, there is great opportunity with these two ideologies sitting across from each other. what kind of new conversations can we have? how can we create and transform our common structures--homes, schools, workplaces, communities, etc-- to allow us to wake up, be present, and allow the inevitable transformation of our selves, our identities, our needs,and our lives?

Despite what astrology predicts, i feel this shift happening in my heart. in fact, it seems that our hearts are the actual container for this kind of change to take place. regardless of culture, regardless of experience or family genetics, education or economics, we all have a muscle in our center that pumps the same lifegiving fluids through a structure composed of the same basic DNA. and the vital nutrients pumped by that heart and through that blood are found in the air that we all breathe and the soil we all walk on. simply enough, our depth of connection comes with our breath and our mindless ability to assimilate and transform our environment into what makes up our being. Then, when you add the mind to it all, the details (and perhaps the diversity) are mostly given by choice and perception.