“Keeping Our Small Boats Afloat,”

as Robert Bly encourages, we are grateful, increasingly dedicated to “keeping our small boats afloat when so many have gone down in the storm.”

*Honoring our luck – the many supportive opportunities afforded us by the generous sky-earth story…

When a friend was asked for his definition of “maturity,” (Saturn) he replied “to have access to all of one’s resources.”
Astrology is one of the great master languages of inter-relatedness, granting us such access, and especially now.

*Remembering the alchemical work of transforming complaint – into Medicine,
(there are two “why’s” in Hebrew and Aramaic. One is a howling complaint, and the other “why” is “to what purpose?”
When Jesus on the cross says “O God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” – tis the 2nd “why” he engages. “Hmm to what purpose?” tis a wondering
rather than a complaint.

and

*let anger lead us to desire. Grrrr – into, “so what do we desire?!”

 

 

Saturn Quintile Jupiter:
We are deepening our on-going dedication to “syncretism as a sacrament,” guided by all of our re-search, retrieving all of our customized guiding affinities…and artfully introducing them to each other, so they can mate…creating our own unique, customized, wise Trickster selves.

I am dedicating to Sufi-Wolf -Egypto-Aikido-Bodhisattva Coyote for starters….
as we brew together all guiding traditions from which we derive the encouraging discipline necessary for supportive solace.

Let’s welcome the great Morihei Ueshiba, founder of Aikido to our ancestral council, (in accord with the Egyptian iconography of transforming the energy of the adversary into our ally and protector. Let guiding supplant blocking.)

“The Aikido I practice has room for each of the world’s eight million gods and I cooperate with each one of them. The great Spirt of Aiki enjoins all that is Divine and enlightened in every land. Unite yourself to the Divine, and you will be able to perceive gods wherever you are.”

 

 

Mercury-Uranus conjoining, cultivating eloquence, and the liberating grace of language.
Morihei engaged “kototama “language of the spirit.” “Koto means word, language, speech; tama signifies spirit or soul.” “It is the language of poetry, prayer, incantation, mythology and philosophy as well as the animating resonance of music.”

All are pathways to participatory dreaming the world into being…Language grants us access to the realm it describes…If we can speak of it,we can journey there, and partner with Mysterious potencies.

 

 

Sun quintile Neptune: Let all natural facts be social strategy metaphors. Become like what we love in order to form a protective alliance.

“Let those kototama percolate inside you, firing the blood until your entire body is congealed into a kototama. Imagine yourself expanding into a large circle, voice the kototama, and then sense the universe gathering within. This practice creates light (wisdom), heat (compassion) and energy (true strength.)”

Wondering about Kototama, which may be verbal mantras, like the Pattern on the Trestleboard, which begins “All the power that ever was or will be is here now.”

Let’s think of all of our own versions of kototama, wisdom sayings, poetry, all as prayers for collective well-being.

We can change in an instant now, I am willing to consider the following sage council, which would be a radical re-structuring of time for me…(We are encouraged to engage in the sacramental practice of experimentation…)

 

 

Morihei: “Rise early in the morning to greet the Sun. Breathe in and let yourself soar to the ends of the universe; breathe out and bring the cosmos back inside. Next breathe up all the fecundity and vibrancy of the earth. Finally blend the Breath of Earth with that of your own, becoming the Breath of Life itself. Your body and mind will be gladdened, depression and heartache will dissipate, and you will be filled with gratitude.”

Worth a try…

In keeping with the Wizard of Earthsea: “return to the water-fall that gave you your true name. Do not be the stick swirled in the stream, become the stream. Then go forth…”

We continue to honor by embodying Trickster Guidelines: “speak to the part of everyone we would like to dance with the corresponding parts of ourselves.”

Releasing all critique that is an impediment to blessing, while keeping the frisky liberating energetic spice of discernment.
Critique as Compassion with sizzle….

Let our gifts be engaged to increase, rather than impede intimacy, to embrace rather rather than fending off Wonder…

releasing all sneaky obeisance to snark purchased at the cost of our freedom…lest we be poisoned by our unmetabolized venomous insight;
embracing the art of irony, holding multiple stories, what is, and what should be,
tapping into discrepancy as a vital Trickster fuel…

Let Deeper Dedication be the antidote to depression….

and as always moving our emotional default setting to “Woof*Woof wanna play?!”

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{All quotes are from “The Essence of Aikido” compiled by John Stevens}

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