Seeking Stability in the Time of Madness

Posted by Eric Francis Coppolino

jan20-2019

Think of tonight’s eclipse in Leo as peering behind the typical ego structures that we’re used to; a look behind the gloss and the posturing. A glimpse at something human about us.

The current eclipse of the Moon in Leo is another reminder that we need some grounding and stability in our lives. Yet it seems like every new development in society, whether social or political or technological, threatens to up-end everything.

jan20-2019

Total lunar eclipse in July 2018 over Tuen Mun, Hong Kong. Photo by Eddie Yip/Flickr.

I would note, again, that we are having to go through this without the usual social resources that make being human bearable. The majority of our social contact (all of it, for some people) is through the robot. No dog could tolerate this; humans are not made to. It would be nice to say that at this rate, we will go insane; however, it’s already happening.

Look at the world. Consider what people are going through. Glance at a news website and imagine that every one of those “news stories” affects many, many people; and events are spiraling out of control.

In the 1960s, Marshall McLuhan said we were living in a maelstrom of information. Today, one week’s news would have kept a newspaper busy for a year. Everything blurs by and we are left dizzy and disoriented and in disbelief. The lies, the developments, the sense of the bottom falling out, seem to increase exponentially.

And there is that constant, lingering feeling of some missing nutrient: like you’re eating all the right foods, but still hungry, as if there’s one trace mineral that you’re not getting, one vitamin that you’re overlooking. A craving but you’re not sure what it’s for.

I’ll tell you: it’s social contact. And not just any, but contact in an environment where people are willing, at least to some degree, to let their guard down and be sincere. I’m not trying to say that there was some golden age of peace-and-love good vibes; what I am suggesting, though, is that I think the social environment is become more hostile, standoffish and even aggressive.

To some degree, you’ve always met someone’s publicist when they introduce themselves to you. Now, however, we are “interacting” with all the tools of the public relations industry going at full strength: the press photos (selfies) and the news releases and the branding and the posturing and the updates. This is all a gloss sprayed over (so far as I can tell) people having the inclination neither to be sincere, nor to trust. Today, you have to seem sincere — that’s enough for most, but not enough to provide that missing nutrient.

Underneath the gloss seems to be a level of hostility, or what seems like righteous anger. Any woman can (for example) express anger at any man merely for being polite. I know exactly what’s going on in these transactions, though I cannot see how this serves any purpose except for alienation. However, if alienation is the goal — because vulnerability and human contact are too scary — then it’s working perfectly. And we all get to live in a colder, angrier world, in a time when we need one another the most.

The more we learn to live without the oxygen of social contact, the more we will become like the anaerobic robots that surround us. In order to have social contact, we will need to do the thing that seems the most counterintuitive at this time in history: to trust one another, and to let one another in.

Tonight’s eclipse of the Moon takes place in the first degree of Leo, meeting the newborn Aquarius Sun. The Leo-Aquarius axis is where the individual (Leo) meets the group (Aquarius). The two signs, like all sign pairs, condition one another. Aquarius — associated with electricity, science and technology — represents the energetic qualities embodied in digital consciousness.

An eclipse in Leo pulls back the veil, and reveals something deeper on the personal side of the equation. Think of the eclipse in Leo as peering behind the typical ego structures that we’re used to; a look behind the gloss and the posturing. A glimpse at something human about us.

17 thoughts on “Seeking Stability in the Time of Madness

  1. Pisces SunPisces Sun

    Glad you brought up the axis because I think we don’t consider this enough in astrology yet it exists in every aspect (pun intended). With eclipses, our awareness of the existence of axis is heightened. Leo’s attributes of pride, leadership, & ego juxtaposed with Aquarius’ attributes of machines and humanity is this lunar eclipse. Our present-day reflection: to what extent do We merge with the machine? But it is also, to what extent do we merge with each other as much as it is to what extent do we recognize the wholeness in ourselves?

    Self-promoting now exists on a mass-scale but so does our interaction with each other. Progress? I suppose that depends on the metric. It was not that long ago where few people of the earth pondered such things since so many were focused on surviving. Now, we have more people that have mastered surviving and are able to ponder the meaning of their lives albeit with the aid of machines. Have we progressed? I don’t know that answer. But all of this points to being in the “Age of Aquarius” we more of humanity, perhaps, can consider not only their relationship with the machine, but also with each other because of the aid of machines. We live in a pool of information, contributing and taking from it, knowingly and unintentionally. For us, the absence of information, from a machine or otherwise, might be what we are seeking—a gap, a pause, a stillness.

    1. Amanda PainterAmanda Painter

      “…to what extent do we merge with each other as much as it is to what extent do we recognize the wholeness in ourselves?”

      Now that is a great question, Pisces Sun. Also, I appreciate this perspective you offer:

      “It was not that long ago where few people of the earth pondered such things since so many were focused on surviving. Now, we have more people that have mastered surviving and are able to ponder the meaning of their lives albeit with the aid of machines.”

      We — at least, in many developed cultures, especially of certain socio-economic status — do indeed have different or extra things to ponder.

      It seems that “Mind the gap”** is morphing into “Where’s the gap?”
      ;)

      ** audio reminder on the London Tube…

      1. Sue Edwards

        “…to what extent do we merge with each other as much as it is to what extent do we recognize the wholeness in ourselves?”

        Your Vision served you True Pisces Sun, as far as I can tell. We can only give as good as we got. To the depth that I know and Understand myself, so do I also know and understand all others. Before I can embrace Humanity, I have to embrace the human in me.

        “It was not that long ago where few people of the earth pondered such things since so many were focused on surviving. Now, we have more people that have mastered surviving and are able to ponder the meaning of their lives albeit with the aid of machines.”

        I would cite Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory. Self Actualization is at the top of his pyramid. It comes after all our other needs are satisfied. A man who works all day to buy a bowl of rice for his dinner that he eats on a dirt floor, doesn’t have time and energy for hobbies.

        It’s Self Actualization, leading to Self Awareness and Self Realization that Humanity is undergoing the process of. Momentum has been building in that direction and is now a force that is unstoppable.

        It takes a well developed and coordinated Personality in order to merge with the Higher/Greater Reality. Mankind has been cut in two, with Personality on one side and Soul/Spirit/Higher Dimensional Self on the other. Healing comes from merging the two.
        Polarity is ending.

        East, which focused on the development of Spirit is blending and merging with the West, which focused upon Personality development. Just as the Southern Hemisphere, which focused in the Heart, is merging and blending with the Northern Hemisphere, which focused in the Head.

        It might look awful due to the ways and means it is being accomplished. That is just the appearance. It IS being accomplished.

        Of what use is connecting with a Higher Reality if I can’t bring it down to earth? How can I translate ideas into forms that benefit and uplift if I’ve had no Personality development?

        For me, personally, I’ve got no use for sitting on my ass and “omming” a few bars. My Blessings in Life have been Personality development and coordination. Fo the Soul purpose of experience integration. Where the two become One.

        1. Pisces SunPisces Sun

          “Of what use is connecting with a Higher Reality if I can’t bring it down to earth? “How can I translate ideas into forms that benefit and uplift if I’ve had no Personality development?” Wow, I want to begin by thanking you Sue and everyone else who added their comments to my comment as well as to Eric’s posting. Of course it was Eric’s work and only my observation of his work. But the beauty and synergy of ideas and love-filled space is awesome! I listened to Eric’s PlanetWaves FM edition on MLK yesterday and your quote, highlighted above made me think of MLK’s chart. His Sun is in the 10th house and his MC is Taurus– MLK was translating ideas into forms that benefit and uplift — his Sun is in the 10th house, and he was grounded in Taurus. II agree with you regarding your “soul purpose of eperience integration.” It is the spirtual experience, manifesting in life form that makes life so rich and interesting but also evolving or at least learning via eperience (in this life time and thereafter).

          I was unaware of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory, I will seek this out, thank you.

          Your analogy to the four corners of the earth and their bearings somehow affects their approach to thinking has me, well, thinking…

          I continue to be grateful to each and all of you for your input, PW is a beautiful sharing community. You can tell love permeates everywhere beginning with Eric. And Eric, after listening to your last podcast and hearing about your perspective on men having to ask women ask further and endure their rejection, I am sorry that I am unable to alter the dating space other than to inform others (including my son and daughter) by explaining that in this day and age, recognizing the humanity in each of us is a much better approach than playing games with ones heart.
          Namaste’

          1. marie hawthorne

            Yes. Finding and honouring the human and divine in all of us. An old idea that seems to still have some course to run?

  2. Geoff Marsh

    Well, of course, Eric, all of this is true, but …

    This is where we now find ourselves, and this is what we have to deal with. But when my dad was 19 he went off to France and lived in trenches fighting the Germans. Around him in those burrows were decaying horses, from the guts of which would burst forth battalions of hungry rats looking for their next meal.

    So this Robot from Sirius is able to ask all your readers: Would you sooner be who you are now or would you prefer to be my father as he was at your tender young age?

    Well I’m glad we’ve sorted that one out. If you are still a-goggle-eyed at internetelevision then you deserve to be brain dead. Get a life. Pick yourself up off the couch of consciousness and make a statement about existence that reflects the reality surrounding you. Like Eric just did. But don’t think for one moment that it’s yours, or that it’s the only game on offer, because it’s not.

    Go out there. Mine asteroids. Invent 5D holographic entertainment. Get your DNA primed for maximal reproduction in order to produce kids with IQs that would make Einstein seem like a dunce, and tell your kids they’d better learn Lunarese or they won’t be able to talk to the terminal on the reception desk of their honeymoon hotel on the Moon.

    The future is bright. But it might not be orange.

  3. Sue Edwards

    Beautifully and Well spoken Eric.

    It took me a while to absorb, trying to Understand the insight, perspective and experience. It is very different for me. For me, this difference has made a World of difference to me and for me.

    I don’t base my Identity on anything outside of my Self. My ego is attached to Being, not being as in being defined by any physical condition, like female, or white, or from a certain country.

    If the “outside is a reflection of the inside”, then if I clean up my inside, the outside will change to reflect it. To me, this is what I mean by a shift, from being outer based to inner based. Encouraged, fed and motivated by our egos Desire for Power. That definition is being kicked upstairs. It’s going Quantum.

    Nothing encourages looking within for our sense of Identity like being stripped of our attachments to all our outer ones. Humanity is the Lotus, growing up through the (astral) waters. Or maybe a lily? The whitest and purest lily is the one that grew up in the muckiest muck.

    I consider it is up to me to tell the World who I am, not the other way around. I tried allowing the World outside of me to tell me who to Be. It didn’t work. Had the same experience of hungry and never satisfied. I didn’t like it. So I changed and found what I had always been looking for.

    Me.

  4. Patricia Proctor

    This is a lot to absorb, and I love all the perspectives. But, Sue – the ego’s desire for power – that’s it in a nutshell. We just came through 2 days of mind-boggling slamming of a group of high school students, because they are white male Catholic and wearing MAGA hats. Never again, I can only hope! Just like the kids from Florida last year, it turns out they were the only adults in the room. Next time I see a full mind and body slam of a teen on the news or social media, I swear I will go berserk. Our young people have become the soldiers in the trenches of WW1, working in the midst of rot and decay and scurrying rats. What can I do to help them? That’s all I want to know. I have pholus at 0 Aquarius, and I think that’s what the eclipse is about, for me personally. Drop the ego power trip, for one. I don’t have to be right all the time, for two. Be kind, and kindly point out flawed thinking, for three. Getting killed for no reason (literally or figuratively) is a thing these days. We have to stop it.

  5. Sue Edwards

    Thank You Patricia, for joining in and sharing your perspective. It helps me to know what I’ve got to share that might be useful.

    I wrote “encouraged, fed and motivated by our ego’s desire for Power.” I didn’t say that ego was going to get what it wanted or sought. Only that the desire was being used, duped into going on a journey. Led by illusion to a place we’d run like hell away from if our egos understood. The very last thing our egos want is the collapse of our glamours and illusions.

    The only way to have any Real Power over Reality is to be able to face it. The more we let go of our illusions and glamours, the more we face Reality, unclouded and masked by them. It’s an expansion of Awareness. The key is Understanding that we’re only allowed to ‘see’, what we can mentally and emotionally cope with seeing. Which is why leaning how to be Self governing is essential.

    To me, the behavior of the young men was disRespectful. It is also an indication of their ignorance, emotional immaturity and lack of substance of character. It is what I have come to expect from Trump supporters.

    All the hub bub in response is just as emotionally immature. Offense can only be taken. I didn’t observe the elder surrendering his Power over Reality. Those that did take offense, surrendered the Power over Reality to the ignorant and emotionally immature kids. Who cares what those boys think? Had it been determined that they do?

    I am immune to emotional manipulation and taking offense is one of the tools of it. As a Sovereign Being (like we all are) I govern my own emotional states. It’s only what I think about myself that has any Power over my Reality. It doesn’t matter what other people think about me. It doesn’t matter how other people feel about me. It’s not about me. It’s about Us and me Honoring and Respecting others. That includes Respecting someone’s choice to take offense. It’s simply going to have no effect in changing or dictating my behavior.

    The boys were Rude, yes. DisRespectful, yes. As they have been taught to be, yes. We can only give as good as we got. Why don’t they “got” substance of character?

    Those boys sowed a lack of kindness and consideration and those boys reaped it, multiplied by the Universe. That’s called “Justice”.

    I’m not saying they deserved what they got in response. I am saying they asked the Universe for it.

    1. Patricia Proctor

      I’d say you need to watch the videos, because they were not being disrespectful at all. They are guilty of being from Kentucky, and that is about it. The elder will reap what he sowed – and already is, because he isn’t even a Viet Nam veteran, as he claimed. He got into the kid’s face and drummed. The drum is representative of a heart beat, and the songs are calling on the spirits of the air to do whatever. I’ve seen it many times – it is never good.

  6. Sue Edwards

    I have watched the video Patricia and the boys were being rude and disrespectful. It all depends upon what we’ve been taught IS Respectful and theirs is a lowly standard.

    1. Amanda PainterAmanda Painter

      Sue — there are apparently several videos of the event, and three parties involved in different protests/rallies who ended up interacting: a group calling themselves the Black Israelites, who were taunting the Catholic schoolboys (who seem to have been there for an anti-abortion rally “The March for Life”), and the Native American group there for the Indigenous Peoples March. If you check out yesterday’s Democracy Now, there’s more to the story than the original video implies:

      https://www.democracynow.org/2019/1/22/i_was_absolutely_afraid_indigenous_elder

      The Washington Post also filled out and walked back some of their original reporting:

      https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2019/01/22/who-are-black-israelites-center-viral-standoff-lincoln-memorial/?utm_term=.86f7ad04a7a1

      A little hard to tell exactly where the truth lies in all of this, imo. Who was the more “at risk” group? Whose responsibility was it to try and “neutralize” the situation? Is everyone telling the truth about their motivations and intentions?

      MAGA hats automatically symbolize racism and oppression; at the same time, it seems the Black Israelites went on an active verbal attack first. I find it complicated — and all the initial reports missed the complexity and nuance of the actual situation.

  7. Sue Edwards

    I read the article Amanda and watched the various videos. What I ‘see’ most of all is a lot of emotional Self indulgence and willfulness, without any claims of Responsibility or Accountability for it or the consequences of it.

    It’s all Drama. It’s all Glamour. Humanity is addicted to both. Which is the reason I ignored it until it was mentioned here. I don’t feed drama and my purpose is to dispel Glamour, not support it.

    They boys’ purpose of “Anti-abortion” was disRepectful of individual Sovereignty at its very core and indicative of the Catholic teachings. Their religion belongs in their church and not being shoved into other people’s lives that don’t want it or in the public’s discourse. They can keep their “mea culpas” to themselves. They are not at Liberty to abuse other people with it. Besides, not one of those boys will ever be faced with the experience of being pregnant. What a woman chooses to do with her body and her Life is Her business. Without that Acknowledgement, there is no Love for Life being expressed, much less Respect for it. “Pro-lifers” do not Love Life as much as they serve Fear of Death. The code and the Value system is different between the two.

    Then there’s the Black Israelites. They’re certainly something, with issues galore. “Active verbal attack”? I saw what I can liken to a tick’s attempts to suck Life blood from others. (Same thing the boys perspective was doing). And I don’t have to allow the tick to attach. Really, in observing such Ignorance, why would I credit it as other than a weak person’s desperate attempts to feel better about themselves?

    Attack? Did the boys need to have their reality fed and supported by that which is outside of them? And perceive when it wasn’t, as being “attacked”? Why would they care what another thinks when it’s been determined they don’t? So we’re talking outer dependencies here and those dependencies not being supported.

    Then there’s the Native American elder banging his drum in musical accompaniment of it. Living around Native American Reservations most of my life, the one thing their culture struggles with, is Identity issues of Victimization. Quantum-ly, it’s a radiation of “I’m a Victim”. So being victimized or looking like a victim always appears. Self denial attracts self being denied; conflict attracts conflict.

    What everyone has in common is a lack of Self Respect and the attendant Quality and Quantity of substance of character that goes with it. Everyone locked in a parasitic Relationship pattern of benefiting one at the expense of another. All takers and none with anything to give.

    Being freed, cleansed and healed from the wounds inflicted by such a pattern is what we’re passing through now. This pattern is not to the benefit of the Whole of Humanity. There is no place for it or groups and cultures attached to it in our Future. The energy of the Universe has been withdrawn from supporting it.

    I suspect is has to do with what I shared with Eric. Being outer directed and dependent rather than inner directed and secure. Like consumers who do not produce.

    When it comes to our belief systems, we’ve consumed a lot of crap and it’s these beliefs that are causing our emotional issues.

    Imagine you’ve spent the day in Nature and coming home, you discover you’ve got a tick attached to you. Are you going to worry about offending the tick when you pick it off? Are you going to stop if the tick feels threatened? Or are you going to stand up for your Life’s blood, Life’s energy, your health and your well being?

    Since so many are outer dependent, often it is assumed that everyone Is.

    I guide to take an inner inventory of our Quality and Quantity of substance of character. Is there Worth there to back up and give substance to all our appearances of wealth? Especially in Light of how many of those appearances are just being rented.

    1. Amanda PainterAmanda Painter

      Amen, Sue!

      “What I ‘see’ most of all is a lot of emotional Self indulgence and willfulness, without any claims of Responsibility or Accountability for it or the consequences of it.

      “It’s all Drama. It’s all Glamour. Humanity is addicted to both. Which is the reason I ignored it until it was mentioned here.”

      An excellent summary. To be honest, I only watched part of the video when it became clear that I questioned a statement Eric was making on a PW FM addendum note Tuesday and needed to check things before chiming in. If it had not been for that, I suspect the whole ugly drama would have slipped by me relatively unnoticed. I’d heard about it peripherally, of course, but had not gone searching it out, had not clicked on the videos in my FB feed when they first went whizzing by.

      “When it comes to our belief systems, we’ve consumed a lot of crap and it’s these beliefs that are causing our emotional issues.

      “Imagine you’ve spent the day in Nature and coming home, you discover you’ve got a tick attached to you. Are you going to worry about offending the tick when you pick it off? Are you going to stop if the tick feels threatened? Or are you going to stand up for your Life’s blood, Life’s energy, your health and your well being?

      “Since so many are outer dependent, often it is assumed that everyone Is.

      “I guide to take an inner inventory of our Quality and Quantity of substance of character.”

      It all makes so much sense. Like many humans at this time, I’m aware that I have a level of “outer dependency.” But I’m also becoming increasingly aware of those around me who do not seem to have much “inner dependency” to balance it out, or which they care to cultivate more than the “outer.” The core of my personal “spiritual work” has focused on that kind of inner presence — strengthening it, growing it, being clear in it, expanding it…whatever phrase is most accurate. It’s an interesting shift to feel — though I’m still very much practicing.

      1. Sue Edwards

        “I warn you, whoever you are, Oh! You who want to probe the arcana of nature, that if you do not find within yourself that which you are looking for, you shall not find it outside either!” – Inscription on the frontispiece of the Temple of Apollo on Mount Parnassus, Greece, 2500 B.C.

Leave a Reply