In the midst of chaos, dissolve into stillness

I was recently at a restaurant, meeting a friend for dinner.  As we sat trying to talk, the noise level in the restaurant was so high that we could barely hear each other talking.  Meanwhile, I glanced out the window to see the beauty of the sun setting quietly over the sea. I realized how much we live daily in this cacaphony of conversation, communication and media bombardment.  The internet, social media and the connectivity through modern technology can all be powerful tools, but they can also be distracting, overwhelming and even dangerous. We are flooded with information that is sometimes educating us, increasing our awareness and helping us to understand each other, and, at other times, it can be used for disinformation, distraction or propaganda.  Information and technology are neutral in and of themselves, but they can be tools for healing or destruction.

 

We are also in a time of intense polarization in which we see competing beliefs and opinions vying for power and control.  We are surrounded by opposing beliefs and intense emotional conflicts over ideas and perspectives.  It is hard in the midst of this cacaphony to know what is real, what is true or even what is meaningful.  

 

How are we to navigate these intense times?  

 

This lunar cycle speaks to this dilemma that we are in as we move through these turbulent times of transition and transformation as a planet and as a global community.  

 

On September 9th (2:01 pm EDT), we begin the new lunar cycle with the New Moon, Sun and Mercury next to each other in the sky in the sign of Virgo.  This is the energy of the analytical mind and our efforts to organize our reality and to “think things through.” Opposite them in the sky is Neptune, which is now at its closest to the Earth in 2018.  

 

Neptune carries the energy of dissolving our certainty and our illusion of control. This configuration is guiding us to let go of our wish to figure things out, to use our minds to give us a sense of security and control.  Neptune is guiding us to dissolve into the not-knowing. Neptune also reminds us that we are not separate. We are part of the oneness of all that is.  

 

In the sky, the New Moon, Sun and Mercury are under Leo the Lion near the star of Regulus.  The message is clear.  The Lion is guiding us to live from our hearts and not from our minds. We are being called to let go of the ego’s desire to control life with our intellect and to surrender to the unknown, to the mystery of all that is and to the awareness that we are held in love, a love beyond our comprehension.  

 

During this time of the New Moon, Mercury is also part of a grand trine with Uranus and Saturn.  Saturn in the sign of Capricorn represents our desire to have a collective sense of structure and certainty and security, while Uranus in Taurus is guiding us to open to new ways of seeing and being and to attune to the laws and rhythms of the Earth and the Cosmos.  

 

Our collective structures, including our intellectual paradigms about the nature of reality, are all in chaos right now.  Our prior beliefs in Newtonian physics gave us a sense that we lived in a mechanistic and predictable universe.  Now, with our understanding of quantum physics, we realize that even matter is not solid and that electrons can be particles or waves depending on how we interact with them and observe them.  Our beliefs and perspectives shape our reality.  In our anxiety, this has made us even more fierce about clinging to those dogmatic beliefs that give us some sense of control.  We are also susceptible to leaders who give us a false but comforting sense of the world in clear delineations of right and wrong, good and bad, insiders and outsiders.  

 

This New Moon is gently letting us know that our efforts to control the world around us and to have that mental certainty are not only illusory but destructive.  We humans have created chaos in our fervent quest for security and control.  It is time to surrender and to open to seeing the world and each other from the heart and from the eyes of the soul.  When we do this, there is no good or bad, right or wrong, we see instead the diversity and complexity of all that is and realize we are all part of that whole. 

 

As we move into the time of the Full Moon on September 24th (10:52pm EDT), the Full Moon is now beneath the ecliptic and close to the stars of Cetus, the whale.  The Full Moon is guiding us to dive deep into the sea of emotions and intuition.  

 

As we allow our efforts to live from our minds to melt and dissolve, and we open to the energies of this lunar cycle, it allows us to drop into a deeper way of knowing and being. We stop talking and start listening. We tune into our own deep emotions and are more willing to truly open to each other. Beneath the chaotic cacophony, we are all longing for connection, to be heard and seen and understood.  We begin to realize that we do indeed live in a global community and a holographic universe where everything and everyone is part of the whole, and everything mirrors everything else.  

 

Allow this lunar cycle to melt your mind and open your heart.  Allow these energies to dissolve your rigid beliefs and polarizing ways of being and to open you to seeing with the eyes of the soul.  When we do this, we dive deep into inner stillness and into the awareness that there is no separation.  We find that place of calm in the midst of the storm.  We feel held in the love of the cosmos, and we remember that we are all one.