Transformational
Astrology
May 2012
Henry Seltzer
The Astrology of May features Mercury, Venus, Uranus and Neptune. Mercury conjuncted Uranus in the last week of April as it recovered from its recent retrograde, and also at the time of the April 21st New Moon that set the stage for the current monthly cycle. Venus, moving through the sign of Gemini, ruled by Mercury, herself turns to retrograde motion on May 15th. This retrograde of Venus leads up to a special time, when she disappears from the sky for 8 days, preceding her heliacal rise in mid-June, as she becomes the Morning Star. The Mayans believed that this symbolic journey through the underworld was a time of uncertainty in the daytime lands of her normal habitation. This is also another extremely Neptunian cycle, as have been the last few months. The April 21st New Moon closely aspected Neptune, bringing that numinous and otherworldly energy quite strongly into the picture, and Mars is also opposed to Neptune as the current month begins, which further emphasizes Neptune’s shape-shifting qualities.
The enlightening and unpredictable energy of Uranus is also highlighted in the current cycle by the above-mentioned conjunction of Mercury and also by an inconjunct aspect from Mars, just as Mars opposes numinous Neptune and Chiron, the Wounded Healer, at the very beginning of the month. Beware of accidents, and of unintended emotional mishaps. There is an implied wake-up call here, perhaps involving an increased sensitivity to the past and to the pain and injury provoked by early trauma as well as an idealistic determination to rise above such ancient wounding. Jupiter also aspects Uranus, from the beginning of the month until the Last Quarter Moon of the 12th, increasing the potential for intuition and for optimistic assessments.
The Solar Eclipse of Sunday, May 20th, represents a powerful time, taking place in the first degree of Gemini and thus sextile to the Aries point. Mercury rules the sign of Gemini and is found in Taurus, in conjunction with Jupiter and in aspect to Saturn and to newly retrograde Venus. Both thought and emotion are brought to the fore and in combination, granting you an unusual opportunity to come to a better set of ideas concerning your earthly situation. Since Venus is exactly trine Saturn, your love-life and relationship energy is inward and somewhat stifled, but intensified. In addition to the important relationships in your life, you are seeking to concretize as well your dreams and your artistic impulses
By the time of the Solar Eclipse the Uranus-Pluto square is less than 2 degrees away from exact – and therefore showing up even more markedly. The hour is growing late for our decade and for our century as we strive to turn things around. This applies to our personal lives just as much as to the cultural situation, and the one is a holographic impulse to the other, so that there are no small actions. We are enjoined to think and feel our way through the difficulties of our current situation, imagining a better future for ourselves and then screwing up the courage to act from highest principles. Nothing else will suffice in this crucial time period as we bring to the planet and to ourselves the bounty of fresh understanding and renewed determination to make a difference, this time around.
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Vision and Mission: Setting the Course and Staying On Track in Business
Susan M. Obijiski, L.M.T., R.M.
Creating a Vision and Mission Statement will benefit every business- small or large – by clearly defining business purpose and identity.
A Vision Statement articulates high-level goals and provides the opportunity to create a ‘word picture’. What do you want your business to be, how will you interact with customers and employees, what is your community focus, and market? Close your eyes! Envision your surroundings, employees, clients, and services; how you will work, and what makes you unique. Choose your words carefully!
“Our vision is to be the world’s most dynamic science company, creating sustainable solutions essential to a better, safer and healthier life for people everywhere.”
A Mission Statement must be concise. This clarity tells your customers who you are.
WHAT product will you deliver and what needs will you fulfill?
HOW will you create, sell and deliver products, and how does this delivery cycle fulfill customer needs?
FOR WHOM are your services created? Not everyone is your customer; not everyone needs your services. Consider the age, income, lifestyle, location, education, and interests of target customers. This will help you market to the appropriate customers.
“Our mission is to provide personal vehicle owners and enthusiasts with the vehicle related products and knowledge that fulfill their wants and needs at the right price. Our friendly, knowledgeable and professional staff will help inspire, educate and problem-solve for our customers.”
Use your Vision and Mission for guidance when you consider a new idea, product or opportunity to ensure that your decisions support your goals. |
Feeling Frisky? Herbs for Fertility
by Susun S. Weed
For thousands of years knowledge of the herbs and wild plants that could increase fertility were the secrets of the village wise women. But after the holocaust against European Wise Women (the “burning times”) and the virtual extermination of Native American medicine women, this knowledge virtually disappeared. In fact, many people erroneously believe that “primitive people” had no means of controlling the likelihood of pregnancy. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Many common plants can be used to influence fertility, including red clover, partridge berry, liferoot, wild carrot, and wild yam. Some of these grow wild, others are easy to cultivate, and, with the exception of wild carrot, all are also readily available at health food stores.
One of the most cherished of the fertility-increasing plants is red clover (Trifolium pratense). Common in fields and along roadsides, it has bright pink (not really red) blossoms from mid-summer into the chilly days of fall. A favorite flower of the honeybees, the tops (blossoms and appending leaves) are harvested on bright sunny days and eaten as is, or dried for medicinal use. The raw blossoms are delicious in salads and nutritious when cooked with grains such as rice or millet.
To make a fertility-enhancing infusion, I take one ounce by weight of the dried blossoms (fresh won’t work for this application) and put them in a quart size canning jar. I fill the jar with boiling water, screw on a tight lid, and let it steep at room temperature overnight (or for at least four hours). Dozens of women have told me that they had successful pregnancies after drinking a cup or more (up to four cups) a day of red clover infusion.
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Book Excerpt - The Struggle for Your Mind- by Kingsley Dennis
Chapter 2
The Modernity Project
The Rise of Scientific Technique
The term modern usually conjures up images of progress, development, and betterment. After all, we have been led to believe that to be “modern” implies that one is at the forefront of change. And so it is with many “modern societies”: that they are developing a way forward that is supposedly for the betterment of the citizens. Further, that this Modernity Project, which is a form of science, technology, and organization for postindustrial societies, is the inevitable result of positive progress. As philosopher Bertrand Russell suggests, science also means that techniques are now available for the better analysis, management, and control of the people. This form of scientific technique is in some ways the “inevitable” outcome of increasingly mechanized and rational societies. With improved methods for the organization and management of social practices, more highly concentrated forms of power and control are made possible. This is what is now meant by social forms of technique.
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A Conversation with Sean Meshorer
Author of The Bliss Experiment:
28 Days to Personal Transformation
Q: Why Bliss? Is bliss better than happiness? How do they differ?
Bliss is a far more advanced state of being/awareness/consciousness than happiness. There’s nothing deeply transformative or permanent about happiness, it’s incomplete. We can be happy, then fall into unhappiness.
Happiness requires external situations and relationships to reach fruition. Bliss doesn’t require any kind of outer relationship with the world—not even a positive one. Another crucial difference: happiness can be pursued and to some extent, requires action. Bliss, on the other hand, is a state of being. It is about stripping away all that is not bliss.
Seeking bliss helps with stress, anxiety, and depression. It makes people more successful, better able to see and seize opportunities, have more friends, improve social relationships and, importantly, it is the most effective, all-encompassing, and enduring solution for our global challenges.
Q: You say that happiness is an important steppingstone on the way to bliss; can you elaborate on that?
Ultimately, the ability to feel happiness and then bliss are skills. We can choose to put ourselves in the position to feel greater happiness and to tune into bliss. Many of the skills necessary for happiness are building blocks of bliss. They don’t give us bliss themselves but we need them under our belt to have the tools necessary to access bliss.
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