I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

— J.R.R Tolkien, from The Fellowship of the Ring

These are not easy times, as today’s tragedies in Belgium remind us yet again. As often as not, public events raise weighty private concerns. Frequently, living through and coping with those concerns feels like anything but a heroic and triumphant journey worthy of story and song.

Even so, there will be other people and other times to follow your life. From their perspective, sometime in the future, what you are living through now will not provoke the fear or uncertainty you may now feel.

What people unborn will perceive of your times is the choices you and others make, and how those actions influence the nature of times and lives yet to come. Admittedly, there is little comfort contemplating posterity during trying times. It is entirely appropriate to be involved with what is happening to you now.

You need to eat. Your wellbeing requires adequate shelter and clothing. In all probability, there are also others depending on you to do your part in order to get their needs met.

Yet, it is part of being human to understand that cause and effect is just as much a long-term as it is a short-term phenomenon. With that understanding, you have the means to rise above the times given to you and transcend your immediate concerns. That is no small thing. While we cannot be certain, it is at least possible that only humans who are actively ‘being’ can consciously conceive of, and work to create, times that represent an improvement on what has landed in your lap.

Creating tomorrow is no abstraction. In one way or another you do it every day. Admittedly, nobody changes the world by themselves. The result of your life is a collective and cumulative thing. There is no doubt, however, that you do your part. What is in question is whether your part will be done in conscious awareness and with conscience.

As regards to long-term consequences, the most crucial choices are often matters of timing. It is not only your daily routine that adds up to determine what those in the future will find in their laps. Indeed, the actions that usually serve as turning points are those taken when you are faced with an unexpected or inconvenient situation. Given the astrology concurrent with this moment in your life, your most important choices may involve whether or not to abandon your routine and respond to something out of the ordinary.

The astrology now is anything but ordinary. Observing comparable examples of exceptional astrology in the past, and correlating those examples with events taking place at the present time, often reveals that extraordinary astrology corresponds with extraordinary circumstances. It’s an indication that people at any given time are indeed part of something more than just their life and times.

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Of course, anything out of the ordinary can seem like nothing more than a pain in the neck at first, especially when your hands are full already.

With hindsight, however, unusual moments often prove to represent a chance to pick your spot and make it count for more than usual. Among the more specific implications of the approaching lunar eclipse and Libra Full Moon tomorrow is that timing will be crucial. In order to see an applicable situation, be alert for anything happening that seems like bad timing for you — at least on the surface.

If you catch yourself saying something like, “Oh no, I don’t have time for that right now,” let that be your cue to look again. What you see may be a more important moment than usual. What you do, especially if it requires you to change your plans against your wishes, could very well make more difference than you can foresee.

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By Rob Moore

I’m just gonna go ahead and ask that we not think this week. Or at the very least not think when we don’t need to be thinking. In the case of thought withdrawal, might I suggest thinking, “I feel.”

The Here and Now by Rob Moore.

“I feel, I feel, I feel, I feel…” Over and over until that nanosecond we come into the truth of it. More to follow about this practice, which has improved many a tense situation for me.

Quite a bit is going on in the days to come which has the power to elicit some changes in how we feel, as well as how we choose to approach things. In addition to the Sun entering Aries on Sunday, it’s the first day of Northern Hemisphere spring, which truly brings a feel all its own. And just days later on March 23 is the penumbral lunar eclipse.

This week on Planet Waves FM, Eric offered a rather deeply formed interpretation of this upcoming eclipse. Opposed by the Sun and Mercury in Aries (the self), the eclipse of the Moon in Libra (projection of self) was suggested by Eric as a call to ‘feel our own presence’ when we enter the room. In the simplest of terms, this means ‘being present’ but it also implies engaging — at least energetically — in the dynamics of our current environment.

A few weeks back I was at a private but very well attended fetish play party. The very nature of this periodic gathering is about feeling the vibes between one another and taking our cues from there. This means trading in talking and hashing out plans for purely heeding what our feelings and physical responses reveal is most mutually desirable.

In my article two weeks ago, I alluded to my inner conflict early on about taking the necessary steps to enter the fetish world. Well, I discovered long ago how attuned these individuals can be, as well as how well they are able to stay truly in the moment. From there, any doubts inside me about the value of these connections evaporated completely.

At this particular event, I had been noticing this very good-looking guy standing rather conspicuously in pretty much the same spot all night. A bit puzzled as to how it could be he wasn’t drenched in sweat from intense action by this point, I meandered to his side. Very soon thereafter, with the opening of his word-hole, the mystery was solved:

“So, I’ve been noticing the couple over there by the bench. The guy is someone I used to see in college and the chick goes to my gym. I never would’ve put them together but that goes to show you what I know, right? So why haven’t you asked me what I’m into yet? Okay, well, I’ll just tell you my big thing is boots but not just any boots…” And blah, blah, blaaahhh ad nauseam.

Truth was my heart went out to this guy tremendously. Here in the epicenter of intuitive feeling, he was trapped inside his own head. Not trapped so much as listening to its false insistence that foregoing analysis for feeling would be his demise. Quite to the contrary, it would be his release into freedom. It would, however, be the demise of that voice of limit and fear. The exact reason the voice insists so fervently. (Exhibit A: The Mighty and Powerful Oz.)

For much of my life I lived inside the confines of the analytical brain. Don’t get me wrong; it’s freaking awesome for analyzing facts, figures and data. It’s how I’m able to compose these sentences for you right now. There comes a time and a place along our path, however, when analysis has taken us as far as it can and it comes down to going with the gut. Heeding our intuition. Acting on instinct.

I spent my youth aiming to get into a prestigious design college. When I finally got in, you better believe I completed everything fully and on time and I gave 110 percent. I mean I literally gave more than I had to give, as several times I collapsed from exhaustion. Meanwhile, these ‘whatever, dude’ lackadaisical types would tack one great-looking idea on the wall that wasn’t even the assignment and get acclaimed for it. Sure, they’d get a C-minus for the class, but they also got flown to Germany to meet with the heads of design teams.

This was perhaps the single most important principle I learned from that entire educational curriculum: “Follow what calls you and fuck the facts.” Okay, well, perhaps more responsibly: “Allow what calls you to be what shapes the facts.” And so it is has been in my emotional, physical and sexual connecting.

Whether with an individual or a scenario like that fetish play party, I first collect all the ‘real world’ hard facts I can about what is going on here. If I’m not comfortable with what’s at stake, I will pass completely. End of discussion. Once I feel a situation is one I can respond to comfortably and naturally, I enter wholeheartedly. I then, for all intents and purposes, pass the baton to my instincts and my feelings, both the deep-within kind and those along my physical borders. Essentially, I let go into the energetic swirl and enjoy.

Believe me, any ways of living that work splendidly for me these days are the result of ongoing learning curves of meditation, grounding and centering. It is only fairly recently that I became able to meld fully with casual partners while possessing an understanding that it was actually wise and mutually fortuitous to do so.

Even after I had received some formal training in meditation, I was turned on to a completely unrelated practice that turned out to be invaluable to bringing my self fully into the moment. One of the keys of meditation that escaped my understanding for years was that attempting to still our thoughts is practically futile if we haven’t first joined with our feeling center.

During a facilitated group to rise above our fears, the counselor asked us to say over and over, “I feel, I feel, I feel,” all the while scanning for what we truly did feel. I suspect the first thing I felt back then was anger or irritation at being asked to do stupid shit like this exercise. Whatever the case, the next step was to go with it; to feel it. To just sit there and feel angry. “I feel angry, I’m angry, I’m angry…”

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Turns out that if we really, honest-to-God get in there and give everything we’ve got to feeling angry, it dissipates into something else. Quite often it reveals fear that’s been underneath the surface. If so, we chant, “I’m afraid, I’m afraid, I’m afraid…”

Once again, if we get in there and feel every ounce of that fear, it rapidly dissipates into something else again. After all is chanted and done, when we give ourselves permission to feel what we truly feel — without judgment — it turns out to be the shortest path to peace and feeling okay inside.

Feelings are like ripples on the water: ever changing and beyond our ability to fully contain. This is why allowing them to be felt and allowing them to move on by is what frees us inside. So if the idea of feeling your own presence in the presence of others sounds like a tall order, I would suggest giving yourself a free pass the next time you walk into such a room. Just this once, feel, feel, feel what you feel with no attempts at being socially gracious or correct or poised. This is about you right now.

And, hey, if it sounds more like your thing, set out to feel, feel, feel your next intimate connection. Feel the excitement, feel the fear, feel the energy and keep on feeling till you feel the bliss. If it helps, let your partner or partners in on your experiment. Oh, wow… how incredible would that be? Everybody feeling what they feel… in the moment… feeling each other… feeling together… feeling fully… feeling now.

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By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

Doesn’t it seem as though we’re finally deciding who we’re going to be when we grow up — or at least as we face some of the most difficult and far-reaching existential challenges of our species? I heard two pundits arguing this morning. One, a Trump supporter, said, “Oh, calm down, this isn’t the end of the world,” to which the other replied, “It might be.” Now there’s a progressive dog whistle if I’ve ever heard one.

There is a sense that this moment, this election process, these decisions we’re making, are for all the marbles. That comes on the heels of all the twists and turns we’ve witnessed these last weeks, months, years. It’s been a lot to take in, a lot to pull through our intellect and into our intuition, and now — as we enter this equinox, sandwiched between potent eclipses — we’re being asked to move on that information under a powerful Aries stimulus.

As the first sign of the zodiac, Aries is like a baby just born and howling: it isn’t easily ignored. It’s in constant motion, pursuing its desires, riding the headwinds of its passions and establishing itself as the initial impulse of the universe. Its enthusiasm sweeps everything along with it. If we needed a fire lit under our bum to get us up and moving, Aries comes with a BIC and a grin, so consider this a warning: if you’re still just sitting there, undecided, you’re likely to get scorched.

This has been another of those weeks when we’ve been hit with so much incoming information, it’s a chore to untangle implications, but it’s worth a try. It’s a dangerous form of denial to think that what these political figures do has little or no impact on our lives (and I think it’s high time we had a lot more impact on theirs).

Having lost the nomination in his home state on Tuesday, “Little Marco” Rubio has exited the race, in fact has abandoned politics altogether. He tells us that after his senatorial tenure is up, he will become a private citizen, and gladly. Surprised? I am. I figured we’d be dealing with him decades down the line.

And now, despite Trump promising riots if he’s denied the nod by any so-called ‘rules,’ establishment Pubs have come together to do anything they can to stop him, including holding their noses to embrace Ted Cruz. Once again, focusing on the horror that is Donald keeps us from recognizing the horror that is Ted.

I’m seriously distressed that someone like Ted Cruz (who is more to the far-right on the political scale than Trump has ever been) should fall heir to establishment approval, no matter the goad. The implications are frightening. Should Trump lose, he will pout for a while, then shrug and go on to make more deals and more money and more outrageous statements, but what will his disappointed followers do, now that race/class violence has received blanket approval? We will be forced to deal with overt racism, one way or another.

Keeping his pledge, Obama nominated a SCOTUS candidate, throwing Republican legislators into a frenzy of ideological panic and obstruction, which pundits tell us is unprecedented. While no shock, it also comes with an unprecedented amount of truthfulness: the conservatives have no intention of giving up hope for the continuance of a conservative court and they’re not afraid to say so. That court has been their ace in the hole, the object of their plan to establish a minimalist government and Federalist nation, for decades.

They will snub Obama’s candidate unless Hillary wins, when they will happily vet the nominee for fear she would propose someone farther to the left. Essentially, this proposed candidate is, historically and by current opinion, acceptable to the Pubs except that he comes with Dem bona fides, nominated by the black guy and set to take the place of a justice so beloved of the archaic right that public outcry might throw Nancy Reagan out of her resting place next to her husband in order to give Nino her spot in the continually radiating warmth of St. Ronnie’s bones..

Much as only a Republican can be a ‘real American,’ only a Republican-approved originalist of ‘great intellect,’ like his/her (ha!) predecessor can take the place of Antonin Scalia. The Pub obstruction in this matter — along with Mitch McConnell’s lame-ass explanation for it — is as blatantly unconstitutional as anything they’ve accused Obama of for years now, and that’s plenty.

It seems to me that the actual split in this nation — like the in-fighting of Shias and Sunnis in the Middle East — resides within the interpretation of the Constitution. This has been an Achilles Heel since our nation’s inception, i.e., those who did not want a unified government as opposed to those who did, briefly united by the need to get the king’s knee off their necks. Or, as Franklin put it, “A republic, if we can keep it.”

Nonetheless, hedging for much of a year to replace a significant American Justice IS unconstitutional obstruction and Robert Reich has a little clip explaining the situation and asking for your advocacy, thanks to MoveOn which has given him a platform for his series of highly educational cartoon YouTubes. Go here to watch, and pass it around.

Obama’s nominee, Mr. Garland, while a fine man and worthy judge, is not nearly liberal enough for either Bernie or me, and the nomination was my first concern when I heard that Scalia, like Elvis, had left the building. In such a divisive political season, there is no way to escape further rancor on this front. Many on the left counseled Obama to pick a true liberal  since the chance of confirmation was moot.

Instead, and not surprising to Obama watchers, our pragmatic Prez selected a moderate, and one who has very little track record on cases important to the left — those kinds of cases are often settled in the lower court — but we can’t welcome this judge with cheers and fireworks until we have some notion of how he sees Citizens United or Roe vs. Wade. The left has its bias, as well, and it might be a long time before we know much of anything. McConnell has refused to meet with Judge Garland, period.

In other news, Super Tuesday votes solidified the position of the presidential front-runners, which pundits tell us changes everything. Trump swept the votes as did Hillary. It seems all but impossible for Bernie to get the necessary delegates to win the nomination now, but his supporters remain enthusiastic, his message larger than his political aspirations and, as he’s financed by contributions alone, he is being encouraged to continue his march across the primary map.

I’m proud of my state for splitting the Sanders/Clinton vote so closely that it took two days to sort out, especially since the Dem Governor, along with Senator Claire McCaskill, who had already pledged her Super Delegate vote to Clinton, had issued statements saying that Sanders didn’t share “Missouri values.” Out of some 650,000+ votes, Hillary won Missouri by just a little over 1,500. With the vote so close to the bone, a recount is indicated but Bernie said ” … he would not request a recount of the state’s results because it would not be likely to affect the number of delegates awarded to the two candidates. “I would prefer to save the taxpayers of Missouri some money….”

Gotta give it to him, Bernie walks his talk and his message hits the heart. It’s a real tragedy that Trump gets billions of dollars worth of free ‘news’ coverage to spread his hate-speak, while Bernie’s message of reconstruction and remediation goes begging. His speech on Tuesday night was NOT covered by cable news as they were waiting for Trump to show up — not running a Trump response, mind you, but WAITING for one. This kind of easy dismissal is going to get even worse now, as Sanders is pressured by the establishment to bow out and get behind the presumptive, even though she appears somewhat wobbly in the general election against what will be, one way or another, a ruthless opponent.

Sanders, on the other hand, continues to grow his base. His answer to the anger issues driving Trump’s popularity is informed and intelligent, rather than bluster and bite. As a TruthOut op/ed put it:

However, what Sanders has tapped into is more than just anger. People have gravitated toward him not just because they are righteously angry at the way things are, but also because they see in him an earnest and lifelong passion for justice. They perceive in his campaign something that has been lost and needs to be recovered — an authentic (rather than opportunistic) sense that an ethical orientation in politics grounded on fairness, democracy, and the common good is not something that just “happens,” but something for which we must collectively fight.

Sanders’ recent political campaign is just another chapter in a book that he has been writing over the course of 50 years — a book that gives life to something that has been stomped on by the neoliberal agenda, but has deep roots in the psyche of most Americans: compassion and care for the other.

There it is: the description of the movement Sanders has headed, whether he gathers the necessary delegates for the presidency or not. While Trump justifies the violence that has become his trademark by insisting that his supporters are passionate about their love of America (white, male America, of course), it’s Sanders who has given us a clear sense of “We, not me,” and compassion for those who have little or no power in the political system. Mrs. Clinton, in an obvious attempt to appeal to both Sanders progressives and black churches in Memphis, speaks now for “love and kindness” as well. If that’s the new Dem position, we win no matter who takes the most votes.

Passion whispers “This feels good to me, I want it.” Compassion, the higher octave of passion, whispers, “This is good for us, this heals us.” The obvious choice is for some level of mutual concern for one another, but we’re still deciding if that’s worth our active participation or our passive approval, our disdain over matters too chaotic to invest in, or our intent to stand with one another to remedy what ails us all.

In this active eclipse window, we’re urged to make our choice, and make it wisely. Perhaps some of us will remember the secret: that we are spirit in a human shell, sharing a mortal experience with one another, and more powerful than we know. In a world filled with “Gods, godding,” whichever experience we decide for, we will have.

In 1854, Henry David Thoreau published a reflection on his experience while living alone in a cabin on Walden Pond in Massachusetts. Although his time at Walden was over two years, Thoreau used the annual cycle of Earth’s seasons to structure his account.

As Saturday segues into Sunday for most of you reading this, the cycle of seasons will renew again with the vernal equinox, when Sun enters Aries just after 12:30 am EDT (04:30:07 UTC) on Sunday. In the case of this year’s renewal, it would be especially appropriate to draw upon Thoreau’s meditations to observe the occasion.

Foremost among Thoreau’s musings to take as your inspiration this equinox is his famous admonition to simplify.

That’s because the astrology surrounding this Vernal Equinox is complicated enough to confound all but the most proficient astrologers. There is no doubt that those complexities are reflected by the often bewildering state of affairs in the world at large at this time. It is even distinctly possible that your own life at the moment is more than a little perplexing.

What better way, then, to participate with the Sun’s initiation of another cycle around the zodiac than to do so simply? With the occasion of St. Patrick’s Day and its frivolities now behind you, a change of pace might be just what the cosmic doctor ordered.

To set a sustainable pattern for the next 12 months, you might want to consider spending Saturday evening quietly, reflecting on the miraculous combination of factors that make Earth’s season’s possible. The Earth spins on its axis. That rotation is stabilized by the Moon orbiting Earth at just the right distance. Together the Earth and Moon orbit the Sun, also at just the right distance.

At one point in its orbit, the northern pole of Earth’s axis tilts directly toward the Sun during the Cancer solstice, precisely as the symbolic Sun is entering the sign Cancer. Six months later, on the opposite side of its orbit, and with Earth’s southern pole tilted toward the Sun, comes the Capricorn solstice and the simultaneous beginning of solar Capricorn.

Precisely in between the solstices, when neither pole is inclined toward the Sun, come two times of equinox. One such occasion is in September, just as the Sun enters Libra. The vernal occasion, the renewal of all earthly things, comes every March.

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With every equinox, the Sun is observed to be directly overhead at Earth’s equator.

Furthermore, no matter where in the world you are, the length of your day will be equal to that of any and everybody else. Equator, equal, equinox — it is so simple, yet without comparison anywhere else in the universe that we know of. If such a time is not worthy of a similarly simple yet solemn observance, what is?

You may choose to experience this weekend’s equinox in solitude, like Thoreau. You might instead elect to spend the miraculous transition to another season in the company of others. Whatever your preference, at least consider taking some of the time in as simple a fashion as possible, if for no other reason than to remind yourself that breathtaking awe need not always be accompanied by shocking confusion.

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