Archived Lunations:
Go into the Place of Greatest Darkness
New Moon
Solar Eclipse
January 14, 2010, PST
January 15, 2010, EST
25 Capricorn 1’
Just do it.
This is what those people say who are trying to cheer the rest of us on. If you know that there are things you should be doing and steps you should be taking, stop thinking planning, wondering and wishing. Get to work. Just do it, they say.
What we have to do may not be rocket science, and we may even have done it before, however we are not disciplined or consistent with it. We are capable, but we remain frozen if we don’t believe in it, and we won’t believe in it if we do not do it. If we don’t do it, we will never know.
Do it and then we will have the opportunity to iron it out as necessary. Doing provides the insight that helps us make the adjustments that will take us over, under, around, and through any obstructions.
Darkness and whether or not it frightens us into submission and inaction is behind our lack of initiative. Mars, the planet of industry, work and action is assigned to the direction north. North is called the place of greatest darkness. It is also said that gold comes from the North. Joseph Campbell, a mythologist, describes this darkness by saying that each must enter the forest in the part that is darkest for her. In that darkness is your richness. That is what you have to know, Cinderella, so that you don’t turn into a pumpkin caught in the grips of time.
Beneath and Beyond the Ordinary Daylight World
When it comes to the wholesale change I want to bring about in my life, I am talking about a life that I have never had before. A part of me may not be sure that I can have anything other than the unhappy familiar.
In order to go where I want to go, I must abandon my old thinking completely so that I can enter the forest and get through to the life on the other side of it. “And the tearing down thou seest is but the assembling of material for a grander structure. For more than temporary change, we must submit the old materials and allow them to be burned free of their dross.” (Book of Tokens)
For example, I watch television when I could be doing something more creative and on target for the grander structure. In order to change the effectiveness of my action, my work and earnest, meaningful play, I must use television time for the work that must be done repetitively and consistently. Doing something else “burns” the wasteful television time.
Recently, I tested this. I had the blues and blahs following something I read about discipline. Having identified television as a saboteur, I told myself I could do anything I wanted to do, except watch television before 9:00 p.m. I took a nap. After 30 minutes I still had a whole afternoon and evening ahead of me. I went to work. I went to believing in myself and backing myself up. I stopped just once for a small meal and went back to work. My blahs had been funky and painful. The productive work broke through and left me feeling much better about myself. I have been able to repeat this.
The power to work toward and manifest our dreams is activated, enforced, and reinforced by action. When we take a step into the darkness, we discover that there is terra firma underneath our feet. Or we take a step and find out that we are borne up on the wings of angels. Keep on stepping. Keep on flying. Keep believing. The suffix of the word justify is facere meaning do. Just do! is supreme counsel.
Free From Blame
Another meaning of justify caught my attention: “To free from blame, declare guiltless, absolve.”
Many of us are walking around in pain for which someone else is the blame. It is like being connected with a sick Siamese twin. You cannot fully live your life with sick anger and past hurt connected to you. Blame and the resultant crippling you claim is being mired in Cancer, lacking consciousness and connection and giving in to destructive feelings.
Let him off the hook. Don’t stick him with the burden of blame. Declare him guiltless. Absolve him.
Not easy? You could chew on blame, twist on it, suffer on it; live a full un-ease allegedly caused by him (or her). You could entertain an empty, lonely future. You could perpetuate the wounding and never fully recover . . . or you could be empowered. Responsibility means the ability to respond in a way that is even, balanced, just and true.
The Sun, Moon and Venus are conjunct the North Node in Capricorn, sign of responsibility. Back in July, the New Moon Solar Eclipse was conjunct the South Node. In Qabalah, North is the place of greatest darkness. In the chart, the North Node is the direction pointer. Go North, though it is a more arduous journey than following your South Node. The more arduous journey is to take responsibility, grow up, and be disciplined and professional. The easy way is to give in to old feelings, family/familiar patterns, memories, and insecurities.
It may grate you a little to own responsibility, but owning it means you can pick up your bed and walk. As delicious as blame is, the power to be and have different and see differently is even tastier and more adventurous.