Thurs/Aries 18°

(For last year’s meditation on the Sabian Symbol for this degree: click here)

Excerpting:

Show us a person suffering from low-status body language, and we’ll show you a person who isn’t in hot pursuit of her dreams. Show us a person who cultivates high-status body image and we’ll show you an individual with a better shot than most of reaching her goals. It all comes down to constitution, which elegantly carries the dual meaning of the body’s ability to remain healthy and withstand hardship and the formal creation or establishment of something new. Etymologically, we see that these seemingly disassociated notions of physical integrity and the putting forth, the statement, of a mission are intrinsically linked. One’s self-image, which a person might actually mask to varying degrees of success from others, can’t help but be affected by the ability to stick to whatever program one sets out for oneself. Again, it is crucial that we disconnect self-image from the fruits of our labor, instead allowing ourselves to draw power from the effort and determination itself. As the Buddhist nun and author Pema Chodron prescribes, we should indeed “abandon all hope of fruition,” not strictly to save ourselves from disappointment but rather in the acknowledgment that fruition is an indefinable term. And, whether one is too lazy to get up and go after what they want in life or someone for whom enough is never enough, we realize that fruition is mostly an illusion. What we want to cultivate, energetically, first and foremost in our lives, in any case, is a continual lust for life via our most primal instincts and interests, as well as our enthusiasm for new ones. Though we may not be dealing with the individual on the soul level here, we are undoubtedly speaking to the spirit in all of us designed to solely cheer on one participant toward his or her personal Good.

            Let’s imagine again that you are the only person on the planet. The human experience is thus determined by you alone, which, for most people would be impetus enough to do things “right”; then again there’s nobody else to whom to do, or even wish, ill. There’s no lying or stealing or any other misdeeds the Judeo-Christian western world has received commandments against perpetrating. We wonder if Sartre had this particular thought in mind when he said, “hell is others.” Alone in the world, you are the protagonist, if only by default. So you get to wear the white hat because your personal good invites no comparison; but, let’s face it, left to your own devices, with a striking dearth of vices, you’d want to create as good a world as possible. It’s just for you after all, and don’t you deserve it? In the metaphysical landscape of “Genesis” where the first cosmic energy “lives”, there is nary a seven deadly sin, let alone an original one, in sight. Lust is no no-no, but rather a most natural drive, whether it be for life purpose or sexual fulfillment. In the latter incarnation, obviously, it behooves us to revisit the existence of others.

            In consideration of the 1st Cosmic Energy, we must understand that our libidinous drives aren’t separate from the other manifestations of lust in our lives. Ask any non-heterosexual person, even those who were aware of their orientation since the playpen, if the repression of ones sexuality is limited to that one aspect of their existence and they will surely tell you: No. It impacts the whole of ones being; and that coming out has a sweeping, freeing effect on their entire life. Forthrightness—a word that combines the notion of forward motion with the might of doing right—is thus more than just simple honesty or frankness about oneself. Rather it denotes the ability to further ones own personal good. Sexuality, which is at the core of our being, is the clearest example of that cardinal-fire spark within us, perpetually being ignited, that which most poignantly animates us. Sex is life, which cannot exist without it; and so our sexual energy, associated with the first “root” chakra, incidentally, should be our prime mover, not simply for the intention of pouncing on whomever strikes our fancy, but in our approach to what we must pinpoint as our purpose(s) on the planet, whether it be a vocation or series of avocations.

            When we casually say that this or that activity turns us on, few of us realize how literally such a statement is meant to be uttered. And the manifestations of desired enterprises, or lack thereof, can have reverse effects on us as well: It is a documented truth that people who don’t pursue their true callings, instead settling into some imitation of the life they ought to lead, often experience a dwindling of their sex drive. The libido (Latin for desire, synonymous with wish) is typically the first casualty in a life of compromise. We dare say, then, that it is as important to admit to yourself what it is you truly want to be in this world as it is to come clean about your sexual identity. Not doing so is tantamount to leading a closeted life of a different sort, if not a brand of suicide, bringing about a kind of spiritual death.

            What stops us from embracing our destiny callings are all the myriad “reasons” against pursuing them by which we are barraged. But these warnings and justifications are only ever a product of our so-called nurture, not our intrinsic nature. They are learned, from outside influences, whether they be discouraging parents or teachers or, more overreachingly, societal groups with handy statistics stacked up against the probability for our achieving success, just another word for illusive fruition. Those people or institutions that discourage us do so out of fear, presumably, for our future unhappiness. When, in truth, it is a fear projected from typically well-meaning but nonetheless toxic detractors who were themselves no doubt discouraged by others, and so on and so on, back through the annals of time. There is also an argument for believing that society has been purposely designed to derail our individual dreams and herd us into fearful collectives to suit the purposes of a select few puppet masters, but we needn’t delve the realm of conspiracy theory to get the crucial point across: It is called discouragement for a reason. For it takes away our courage, which is the very essence of our beloved warrior archetypes still ever-ready to rally their forces within us as embodiments of the 1st Cosmic Energy. To take it a step further, the word courage itself simply means the moving forward along a specific course. And what exact course that is only you know, but…have perhaps let slip your mind. Well, dear reader, we are in the business of putting that head for self-realization back on courageously squared shoulders.

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