What's Needling You?

Several times today I felt my clothes attack me. Once when I was out walking this gorgeous autumn morning. I plucked at the label on my shirt, and went on. An hour or so later I felt the stab again. The label didn't seem that rough, but it certainly was bothersome. I moved it and thought about cutting it out later. Then I visited my favorite consignment store, where I tried on both pants and shirts (hence removing all my clothing, and getting dressed again.)

Driving to the library, I felt that stab again. Perplexed, sitting at a red light I reached carefully to the point of pain and to my astonishment withdrew…a needle and thread! I burst out laughing. How is it possible that my pants (for this is the color the thread matched, though I don't recall mending them recently) made it through a wash and dry cycle, onto my body, then off and back on, all with a needle intact?

It's another example of Spirit's delicious sense of humor. At first I thought, "needle in a haystack," though no resonating images came to mind. But when I wondered what might be "needling" me, I had to smile. There are so many irritants vexing us these days, as Uranus and Pluto square off in the heavens and we face our underworld demons and rebellious, quixotic, breakdown/breakthrough events here on earth.

The key is to follow the thread to magical, mystical moments in positive expectation, unattached to outcome, unafraid. It's a tall order, and one we are all capable of stepping up to and into. We're swinging wildly between connected, congruent, 5D transparency and understanding, and 3D anger, disappointment, overwhelment. It's OK; it's all good. When life needles you, find out what you need in that moment, and thread your way to the next adventure. Haystacks have baled. We can, too: bundle with your besties, and carry on…

Imbolc / Candlemas: The Light Returns!

February 2nd goes by many guises. In the U.S., it's popularly celebrated as Groundhog Day, when a small furry rodent supposedly either sees his shadow or doesn't, and the result determines whether we experience six more weeks of winter. The day has far deeper meanings than this — but yes, it is a potent moment to watch your shadow!

Celebrated cross-culturally, the day is both a Christian and Pagan holiday, known variously as Imbolc, St. Brigid's Day (Bride's Day), and Candlemas ("mass of the candles", which in the Catholic religion marks the end of the Yule season).

In Celtic and Earth-based traditions, Imbolc ("in the belly") is one of the most powerful portals on the Wheel of the Year: the exact midpoint between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox.

A harbinger of Spring, Imbolc celebrates the return of the Light in a profound sense. It's the first "cross-quarter day" on the Wheel, which honors the two Equinoxes and Solstices, as well as Beltane (May 1st), Lammas (August 1st), and Samhain (October 31st).

At Imbolc, the energies begin to pulse with renewed life and hope. Fire festivals are common. Vicki Noble, co-creator of the Motherpeace Tarot and author of Shakti Woman: Feeling Our Fire, Healing Our World, which affected me profoundly during my own awakening, writes, "Traditionally a time of transformation and initiation, Imbolc brings 'big dreams' and a raised vibration …

"With powerful Pluto in the physical sign of Capricorn (until 2024), we look forward to momentous planetary and personal change. As old structures crumble, inside and all around us, imagine yourself sitting safely inside of Kali's dance of liberation."

What most astonished me was discovering that St. Brigid (in the Irish tradition) is the Patroness of Midwives. Since my birthday is February 4th and I've long referred to myself as a midwife for our global rebirth, it was a clarifying reminder of "what we know, before we know that we know!"

You'll find a wealth of enlightening lore on Myth*ing Links, a wonderful site replete with information and inspiration concerning all aspects of mythology, which is the focus of this month's Live Your Light What Shines newsletter.

Excerpted from Mythi*ing Links:

"The three-aspected springtime fire of the Goddess Brighid, especially linked with the recent festival of Imbolg, is very much connected with healing. For the surge of fire, experienced in Northern Europe as slightly longer hours of daylight, restores us in three ways. First, it gives us a lift of physical and psychological energy. (It is well known that daylight deprivation inclines people to depression and lethargy.) Secondly, it pleases our souls, because it not only brings the presence of spring flowers but inclines our thoughts to love and romance. Thirdly, it can increase our creativity. As our spirits lift, we are more likely to be inspired with new plans and projects...

"It seems to me that these three aspects of the Goddess's fire are linked, in many ways. If a person's creativity is fully expressed, their health is likely to improve. Love and romance can incline us towards creativity — people often write poetry (however badly) when they're in love.

"Nature's springtime fire increases our personal fire — that power which the East calls 'Kundalini'. (This is an electrical force said to lie coiled like a snake at the base of our spines. It is awakened by sexual attraction and by certain kinds of magical and mystical experience.)

"I believe there is said to be a biological connection between daylight, the pineal gland and stimulation of sexual/creative energy. In ritual and intuitive ways, it seems to me that this is what we are celebrating, when we light lots of candles on February 2nd, in honour of the Goddess Brighid (the Lady of the first stirrings of the Light, however we name Her.) And that this was perceived by our Pagan ancestors, in the days before anyone knew anything at all about the endocrine system and light sensitivity."

Caroline Casey's Winter Solstice Guide

From Coyote Network Newswire, the reverently irreverent, always topical, brilliantly quirky Caroline Casey, this take on Solstice as our ultimate turning point:

"Let's keep our appointment with this Mother of All Winter Solstices December 21st, when, for the first time in 248 years (last time, we didn't know about it, so we couldn't collaborate with the deftness available to us now) the Sun conjoins Pluto, (Mr./Ms. Death and Re-birth) at the Trickster Leader Redeemer degree, quickening customized dedication in each one of us.

This is the midnight hour of the year, and of 8,000 years of Empire in which humans had ceded authority (Saturn) to socio-pathic dingbats. Until now!

This Solstice poses the question: 'What must we die to, within and without, lest we die from.'

The I Ching chimes in: 24. The Turning Point - Winter Solstice

'After a time of decay comes the turning point. The powerful light that has been banished returns. There is movement but it is not brought about by force. Societies of people with a unifying vision are formed. But since these groups come together in full public knowledge and are in harmony with the time, all selfish tendencies are excluded, and no mistake is made. Everything comes of itself at the appointed time.'

From deep stillness comes replenishment and the gathering of strategy and wits. Not striving, but calm and merriment.

'The Winter Solstice has always been celebrated as the resting time of the year. In Winter the life energy is still underground. Movement is just at its beginning; therefore it must be strengthened by rest, so that it will not be dissipated by being used prematurely...

The return of health after illness, the return of understanding after an estrangement; everything must be treated tenderly and with care at the beginning, so that the return may lead to flowering.'

Now more than ever.

All of Creation is holding its breath, at this deep time, anticipating the birth, within each human heart, of wonder and willingness to cooperate with everything. May we kindle the warm glow of Trickster kindness, within us all, transform our emotional default setting to one of 'Woof Woof, wanna play!?!' Each moment awaits our imaginative dedication.

So let's toss all that is neither beautiful nor useful into the roiling cauldron of re-birth, that Time is so kindly providing us. (Let's compost all past-patterns of self-sabotage, personal and collective, for starters.)

Let's bow at the threshold of this New Year, to release and redeem all that we do not wish to take with us through the door. Remorse is said to be the highest of the negative states, the closest to clarity - because we see and feel all those times when we didn't respond to life's 'woof woof wanna play?!' When we fell for the compelling illusion of separateness, and forgot that we are all in one large, pulsing, shape-shifting according to collaborative intent, dream.

The Sufi, and we with her, gently pats her heart and whispers 'estafirahlah': forgiveness of self and others. And may 'forgive' mean 'to give energy for change.'

The protoplasm of reality is particularly susceptible to imprint now, by the power of word, language, story and metaphor. Allowing ourselves one true hyperbole: never before has the power of human storytelling been so essential in determining what dies and what lives.

Let us dedicate to animating the desirable story (to do otherwise would be complicitous with the evolutionary dead-end of empire. We suck the chi of our complicity from that which is dying, and exhale into the blooming of dynamic collaborative kinship We are here to re-dedicate to the responsibility of dreaming the desirable world into being.

Saturnalia: Deeper Dedication is the anti-dote to fear, as feeling useful is the anti-dote to depression. There - that's handled.

So, let's visualize and dedicate, wherever we are on Solstice, and journeying on into this powerful winter, that we are offering our unique and necessary Medicine, into the collective cauldron brew, and ladling ourselves a cup of All-Heal.

Trickster Medicine is really the sine qua non that brings all the other medicines into bubbling accord to produce the elixir of Dynamic Reverent Ingenuity."

New Cycles, Sustainability, and Aiming High

Astrologer Dorene A. Carrel offers a wealth of cosmic wisdom for the latter part of November, which includes the major American holiday known as Thanksgiving:

"On November 26, Pluto enters Capricorn, beginning a new 16-year cycle of collective and personal transformation and rebirth, resulting in far-reaching changes in government, business, finances and communications. Capricorn rules our own authority, as well as all of the structures of government and society. The new term 'sustainability' is reflective of this cycle, as we collectively deal with growing climate change issues and limited natural resources.

"The New Moon occurs on November 27 at 6 degrees of Sagittarius, which is also the traditional American Thanksgiving holiday. Sagittarian themes include education, teaching, religion, philosophy, travel and expansion. This lunation aligns with both Mercury and Mars, bringing a fiery energy to our daily activities and communications. There will likely be livelier discussions (or perhaps disputes) at family gatherings. The symbol for Sagittarius is the archer, reminding us to aim higher in our lives, as well as to find and follow our own higher truths."

Adds Mary Jo Wevers, "In the coming years the energy of Pluto in Capricorn will penetrate old rigid and inflexible institutions, exposing arrogant and authoritarian leaders who are severe, aloof and insensitive to the needs of people. We can expect corruption to continue to be uncovered as we see institutions which are obsessed with holding onto power in order to consolidate wealth come under scrutiny.

"The public mood may seem pessimistic, overly cautious, even paranoid as it witnesses the decay and death of old structures that formerly provided some semblance of security. Yet, just as the power of Pluto is degenerative, it is also regenerative. As we eliminate the old structures that are no longer serving humankind, we are opening up new ground and opportunities for new, wiser, more responsible foundations to be laid for the future."

Summer Solstice & Last Chance Pluto Dance

We're on the cusp of the longest day/shortest night of the year (in the Northern Hemisphere; the seasons are reversed for our allies Down Under). Everywhere, it seems, we're cooking, both literally in solar heat waves, and metaphysically, as the global mental meltdown accelerates to warp drive, preparing us all for the Shift of the Ages.

Here's an article I published last year that's still relevant:
Summer Solstice: An Opportunity to Become More Whole

This Summer Solstice is also aligned with the full moon, increasing the potency by a factor of 240M (the approximate distance from Earth to Moon in miles; it's 384,000 km).

As for Pluto, astronomers can call the planet of transformation whatever they like, but they can't demote its preternatural power. Pluto danced with our Galactic Center multiple times in 2006-2007. From now through November, we're in the final passage this lifetime, since Pluto's orbit is just under 250 years.

In her e-zine Cosmic Time, astrologer Allison Rae says, "The planet of creative destruction passed back and forth in exact alignment with the black hole at the center of the Milky Way in 2006-2007 before entering Capricorn in January this year to begin wreaking havoc with the structures, systems and institutions of the material world. Now he's moving retrograde into the late degrees of Sagittarius, closely conjunct the Galactic Center, to reconfigure the infrastructure of our minds - our ideals, beliefs, philosophies and faith.

"If you want to have fun with it, let go of what you think you know. Surrender to higher truth. A new life is waiting on the other side of this historic transit. Deep meditation and shamanic journeys are perfect for this communion. Try it before bedtime and notice your dreams.

"It's time for what's been lurking in the individual and collective subconscious to be healed, transformed, reunited with Source. Dancing with Pluto is intense, to say the least. The payoff is deep, lasting change, a new worldview and a new life, as we merge with Essence, the Core."