#30 The Sun, The Moon & The Act of Letting Go

The other night was the full moon. A typical practice on full moon nights is letting go of something. I wasn’t quite sure what to let go of. I often feel like my body is holding onto so much, but it’s not clear what. So a little reflection on what to let go of got me thinking about the process of letting go itself.

The importance and significance of it. And strangely, in letting go of the need to let go, it dawned on me that integration, the process towards what Carl Jung called individuation or developing one’s self, is only possible with separation. If there is no separation, no letting go of something that we once felt the need to have, or at least the desire to have it, then there can be no integration of that item under the hood of one’s personality. The state of our being remains subject to its influences.

Letting go doesn’t necessarily need to be a physical act, it can be a psychic or mental one, in which an idea or belief is no longer identified with, or attached to. It then falls away from the self and becomes something ‘other’. It’s fascinating how the process of letting go seems to be the essential step to becoming more whole. In the hole that results from the separation, something else must take its place. Perhaps it’s a greater understanding or a creative spirit that now has space to come into existence as a result of this wider perspective. And from this place, a deeper, more intimate relationship with the essence of the thing, the object, or the being can be established.

The dance between the sun and the moon reflect this process beautifully. It is when the sun is completely opposite the moon, most separated from its partner, that the moon shines its brightest. The sun sees the moon for what it truly is, and under this light of this awareness, the moon begins it’s journey back around to be close, or together with the sun again. 

And just like that, my body started to loosen its grip on itself. 

#29 Creativity vs. Chaos

So many things seem to be going wrong in the world. All of these people pointing fingers, but what is actually the issue? Is it that there is a select group or pathogen sabotaging us as a means to inflict pain or gain control? Perhaps. Or perhaps it is essentially just chaos… the force of entropy itself whose nature is to test the strength of our structure. A dark force, that can only be navigated by finding common ground, developing a shared vision, and organizing effectively towards the destination. An open mind and clear communication (between and within people) bring light to that darkness and allows growth to emerge from contraction, and creativity to prevail through chaos.   

#28 The Trifecta of Being

Thinking, feeling, doing. Three key parts of the human experience. One is rational, using the brain. The other one you might call emotional or intuitive, using the heart. And doing is the by product of the two, the action that is taken as a response to the thoughts and feelings coursing through one’s being.

If these are the core elements to the human experience, then the question of how to improve the human experience leads me to wonder whether or not we have any control over these elements. Are we truly the captains of our ship? Can we be the masters of our own destiny, if we are subject to the whims of these processes? Or do we actually have the ability to sit back, witness the thinking, feeling and doing taking place, and transform / transmute them if we see fit?

We’re not our thoughts, or our emotions, or our actions. They are indicators of the state of our being, shaped by our perception of the world, and guided by the stories we hold about them. The same thing can happen to two different people, but each will interpret it differently based on the lens through which they see the world. 

Widening our perception, and our ability to see a more beautiful story, can do wonders for our lives, but it requires an opening of our being. An accepting of that which is – all thoughts, feelings, and sensations - an allowing for all things to flow through our systems, whether desired or not.

More thoughts, emotions, and behavioral patterns will course their way through the mind, heart and body. And with this, we gain access to a wider range of human experience, as well as the ability to begin to weave the thoughts, feelings and behaviours of our being towards the experience our soul desires.

#27 Stories of Substance

We all have a story. A past, a present and a future in our hearts and minds that define who we are, or at least, who we believe ourselves to be.

This story shapes us – it either limits or empowers. Story, is what we all have in common. Yet at the same time, it is the thing that pulls us apart. Religions, ideologies, economies and societies are all stories, often waging war over difference in perspectives.

Narratives frame our view and shape our worlds, and in turn we try to shape the world in their image. Empires rise and fall. Heros are born and die.

Stories are tragic, yet they are the fuel which keeps us moving forward. Stories define and divide, but they are also grounded in the divine. They are the fabric of our souls, and let’s not mistake our many designs, for the substance in which they all reside. 

#26 Spine of the Soul

Stories hold things together. They hold the mind together, bringing order and meaning to what’s often a chaotic mix of fleeting thoughts and ideas.

They hold information together, into a coherent series of bits that become more than just random factoids easily forgotten, but key elements of a scene, educational, inspirational or revelational that lodges itself in the memory.

In a sense, stories are the backbone of our lived experience. In a similar way, our own spines hold us up and keep our parts intact.

A strong spine keeps us alert, upright, and energized, just as does a powerful story. Is it a coincidence that the shape of a healthy spine, is the same shape as a vibrant story? I don’t think so.

They are fundamental patterns of mind and body, which find their reflection within a shared structure, foundation and fabric of soul.  

# 25 Cacao Ceremony: A Story Container

I just wrote about stories as being a type of crystallization, a preservation of passing moments over time. And this idea that when we see these stories for what they are, crystallizations which break down over time, we begin to see through them all into a deeper layer of who we are.

Of course, because I’m a cacao lover, this makes me think about ceremonial cacao, and the process of drinking it. It comes in a block, solid and crystallized. It may not be the beautifully tempered and glossy crystallization which the chocolatiers prefer, but it is crystallized nevertheless. Yet when we heat it up and melt it down, and then drink it, we are reminded that solid structures can become fluid. The biochemical compounds of the cacao are broken down and absorb into our bloodstream, and in effect the vasodilating properties of the theobromine open up our vessels and our blood flows stronger.

Our cells are flooded with more blood, and if breathing deep, more oxygen, coupled with more lymph being circulated and I’d make the case that the cascade trickles down to affect the hydration of our tissues. More blood flow, and hence more water flow throughout our body.

And fascinatingly enough (because interestingly doesn’t quite capture the feeling I’m trying to get at), when we are in these states of more flow, and our hearts are more and our tissues start to loosen, our mind opens up a bit as well. The limitations, fears, anxieties and doubts we often hold begin to fade a bit, and new possibilities, ideas and dreams emerge to the forefront.

In the same way the cacao is liquified in our cups, our minds and bodies liquify in the container of our being… the old stories begin to dissolve and we are faced with the opportunity to see new ones emerge.

# 24 A Short Story About Stories

Story is the articulation of the passage of events over the course of time. In a way, it seems to sort of freeze into place, or preserve the happenings of the present moment. The present moment leaves a wake behind itself. Expressing highs and lows of vibration, resulting in a wave like or spiral like pattern of peaks and troughs.

And the stories we tell, the recollections of events, take on this shape as they outline the patterns of this passage. If a verbal story is the crystallization of a series of events, can we draw a comparison with physical form… of matter? Rocks, crystals, plants, animals, the earth and human beings… we are made up of material that arose out of a present moment, and has taken shape for some period, before ultimately falling back into the source from which it sprang.

In this sense, perhaps we can say that a story is not only a verbal or mental construction, but can also be a physical manifestation. We don’t just hold stories  in our minds or books,. the world as we know it is literally made of stories.. it is a story. One that is constantly evolving, changing, fading away and reemerging. The story exists on multiple levels, from the most gross down to the microscopic and quantum.

Amongst life as we know it, it’s roots are in the DNA which constitutes the fabric of our being. Our DNA holds the story of our lineage… passed down through the generations… again, crystallizations of the events and experiences that have taken place over millenia… the byproduct of evolution and epigenetic imprintation. Yet, I think there’s something in many of us that says we are more than our bodies, we are more than this earth or the physical reality we live in.

We are not just our DNA, but there is something about us which underpins our earthly existence. There is something about who we are that transcends our lifetime… that extends far before and will endure long after our time here in this incarnation. But what is it? Our souls? Our spirits? Our true nature?

There seems to be some thread, some continuous sense of self which permeates the cycles of time. Which weaves together the revolutions of the universe, the manifestations of this reality, and all the stories which permeate it and their fleeting physical existence on this plane. The forms come and go, the surface level stories come to life but then pass away, and what is left, what lives on, what is revealed through these unravellings are the stories of who we really are.

# 23 Thoughts on Why We Have Why's

I’ve been on a Simon Sinek kick lately, the proselytizer of “Start with Why”. The core of his message is the importance of organizations having a why.

Organizations with a why are more resilient, their people are more engaged, and more people want to work with or purchase services from them. The same goes for people who have a why.

If someone asks you what you do for a living and you tell them, more often than not, the conversation stops there or shifts course. But if instead of telling them what you do, you tell them what you believe and why you do what you do, then a sort of fascination or curiosity arises, and the conversation continues.

So what is it about the why that is so captivating? Perhaps it is that why (?), is the existential question, which, if asked enough times leads us into a bottomless pit of mystery. E.g…. Why does this happen? Well becapse of this? Well why that? Because of that? Until you go so far with the why’s until you hit the “I don’t know”.

Perhaps the biggest question of all, and the one we are all pondering deeply, whether we know it or not, is the question of “why are we even here”? It’s the thing that we are all trying to figure out on some level and in one degree or another, and all have our own answer to, and whether we say it or not, we live it.

But perhaps that is the reason why organizations and people with a why are so captivating… because they have a conscious articulation of the thing we are essentially all searching for.

But this leads me back to the last article I wrote about the value of a vision. To what extent is a vision valuable? When is a vision merely a projection of a wound… an illusion… fools gold in a sense? Or when is a vision a clear observation of that which truly is?

You could do down the rabbit hole of then saying that that which you think truly is, might just be yet another projection of a deeper wound. Yes yes, but what if the deepest wound of all is not actually a wound but a womb! That sacred gash from which we all must come, and must return… the beginning and the end… the infinite wormhole which bookends all time and space… I degress.

And nevertheless, the value of vision for one’s self is that it casts us on a journey towards a greater state of awareness… a journey away from self so that one may become more conscious of oneself. Like that feeling when one goes away from home for a couple of months or a year in search of paradise, only to then remember just how much they love their home… etc. etc.

The value of articulating your vision to those around you then becomes that it often reminds other people of their own ability to see, to have a vision or a dream of their own and to set out on a journey to achieve it.

Or sometimes it even evokes a sense of emptiness in the observer, a feeling of wanting to be that persion with the vision or dream, simply because it reminds them of that which they can have, or already have.

People seek the vision in the other as a means to fortify their identity, or they seek it as a means to fill the hole that actually holds their soul… ahh but if only they turned their gaze inward. Oh the paradox of the vision! They inspire but they also distract. They set one in motion, yet they also lead one astray. All the while, it’s in the distraction where the sacred wound is often found.. and it’s in the wandering away where the home is discovered.

I’m having a hard time following myself… but I do think Simon Sinek’s own personal vision statement in this sense is brilliant: to inspire people to do the things that inspire them. It is the posting of a vision that reflects back to the individual their own ability to have a vision and to pursue it. It is a recursive, almost autological type statement (thanks chatgpt for giving me a term for this) which embodies what it intends to help others to do.

In many ways I feel like this is what I’m striving to discover and articulate for myself through the writing of this very article, and blog. Is it that I want to help others discover that which I’m trying to share here? Seeing that at the bottom of everything is a gaping whole that we must face and embrace, and from which place we can create? And that not only must we go on this journey, but that the journey is inherently baked into the nature of our very existence… the fabric of our very being?

Yes, I think just maybe.

#22 - The Varied Value of a Vision

I go back and forth, regarding the value of a vision. On one hand, having a vision is helpful in the sense that it provides a picture, an ideal state of where one wants to head, or wants the world or one’s life to look like. It serves as a sort of target, towards which one steers their life. Yet on the other hand, at least, what I often feel, is that my vision is not what I actually need. That my vision is a distraction, a sort of projection stemming from a hurt place.

Wanting to change the world? An insecurity within my own self. Wanting to help other people become better people? A sense of unworthiness within. The list goes on and on. But I share this not to downplay the role of a vision, or dwell in my fleeting nihilism, but rather, to illustrate the point that a vision has a very dynamic nature to it. It’s value seems to lay in the fact that it puts the mind and body in a sort of motion, towards itself,  through which one can further refine their vision.

What I mean is, you know, visions, often closely associated with plans, often fall through. They serve as a nice starting point, but when you actually get on the path towards it, detours pop up and the route changes. And along the way you realize that the best parts of the ride wasn’t the destination in itself, but all of the little experiences along the way.

So perhaps it’s through the process of headed in a direction, towards a vision, despite whether it’s “right” or “wrong”, that we actually refine our true vision…

I used to want a million dollars so built a business selling products that were making people sick… until I realized what I was doing, so shifted and started creating another product I thought was helping people until I realized it was making people dependent… etc. until I realize what I was doing and decided to stop selling stuff altogether and be a yogi preaching the ways of self realization… until I realized that I could be serving more people from my unified self so I started selling products and experiences with the intention of simply spreading all the good vibes that I cultivated to amplify joy and love in the world.

This is an exaggeration, but what I’m getting at is that I think it’s a common pattern that our visions becomes clearer and clearer as we pursue them. And as we pursue them, we become more skilled at seeing and envisioning until we get to the place where our vision is no longer a projection into the future of a state we don’t currently have, but is instead a simple observation of all that is truly right in front of us, and the beauty and rightness of what it is.

Our vision recedes from out to within… and what reveals itself is less of the phantom image projected from our wounds and holes, and instead the realization of the beauty radiating out from the presence of our souls. And from that place, we can replicate that state from within, rather than pursuing it out there…

#21 - The Linearity, Circularity, Spirality & Singularity of Time

It’s fascinating how time passes. It moves in circles… you can see it in the way the seasons change, or generations come and go, or civilizations rise and fall. It’s as if time is a template, out of which forms emerge… bearing shared archetypes, but expressing themselves in different styles.

Yet despite the sort of circularity of time, I think it’s fair to say that there is also a linearity to it as well. There’s this sense that what happened before is behind us, and what is still to come is ahead of us. This understanding, that the moment as it exists right now, will never exist again. Putting this into perspective gives life it’s precious quality of fleetingness, that life is short, and that we must make of the most of and have gratitude for what we have now.

Yet back to the circularity, there is this sense, at least in many cultures and world views, that we will have another chance, another shot, another live in a time to come. This idea that the soul will continue in a karmic wheel of death and rebirth.

Oh the paradox, these feelings of time. I feel like there’s a tendency to fall into the trap of linearity, and then once circularity is discovered, to condemn linearity as short sighted, narrow minded way of thinking. But what if both can exist, and must exist simultaneously? What if time, is not linear of circular, but is instead spiral? That it moves in a circle, and in a direction at the same time. That the patterns repeat themselves as one makes their way around the circle (or the circle makes its way around one), and that there is also a distinctness of each moment that will slip away into the wake of the path of time, never again to be found in its exact form?

For me at least, this makes the most sense. Baked into this model, I also find what I think might be an explanation for what seems to be the changing speed of time. You know, that feeling as you get older, that time is flying by. When all of a sudden a year feels like two months, whereas it used to feel like a decade? Sometimes I feel crazy when I think about how quickly the last 4 years have gone by. The 4 years before that were like an eternity, and the 4 before that were like a straight up lifetime. I could chalk it up to this notion that I’ve just got more things going on which is keeping me busy or distracted… but that’s not a satisfying reason for me.

I think what might be happening, is that our lifetime passes, we move further and further down along our spiral, spiraling ever inwards towards our omega point. Our own singularity, in which our life makes its way to its end… spiraling around and around the years ever quicker, in tighter and tighter circles, as we move in the direction of our end point. It’s as if the black hole of our ending, is beckoning us towards it, while we spin down the drain of life.

That sounds so morbid, and I’m sure there is a lighter way to frame this, but in a sense I think that’s what’s happening. Yet, science tells us that time actually slows down in a black hole. And while on one hand this might throw my whole theory out the window… it actually makes me think that there is more to the story. That perhaps, right at the point where time is moving the fastest, time is also moving the slowest. Perhaps the world spins faster around us, as we sink deeper and deeper into the timelessness of our own soul.

Then, right at that still point of complete darkness, when all is warped and stretched and pulled apart, we are spit out the other side. Time slows down to a complete stop and then we reemerge on the other side, ready to slowly start speeding yet again quicker and quicker along another roller coaster ride of a drop down to our next destination.

More to come on this strand of thought…

#20 - A Filamentous View of Being

Recently, I came across the work of Karen Kirkness, a yogi, anatomy scholar, and author of the book Spiral Bound. Her work is rooted in the concept that our bodies, and nature for that matter, is composed of spiraling patterns. From conception through all the stages of physical development and anatomical manifestation, the spiral is making it’s way through the structure of our being, from the cellular level all the way up through the tissues and limbs. It’s fascinating, mind blowing, and clearly is a portal of information and practice that penetrates beyond the physical body and into the structure of time and space itself… I’m getting carried away, but the other night after some studying, I voice noted just a little reflection and musing on what I’ve been learning. My hands have been in a very strange sort of constricted, dried out type of pain, where it’s uncomfortable to sit and write…. so instead, I spoke…

From our skin down to the intracellular matrix  throughout our bodies, we are composed of filamentous, thread like structure. Even the collagen which makes up these threads, at its molecular level is spiral in nature. It’s funny, I looked up, collagen spirals on Google and came across these beef skin dog foods, that are in the shape of a spiral. It’s crazy how spiral at the micro level of being scale all the way up into the macro level.

Not only do the spirals exist in these connective tissues of the body, but they also manifest through way in which our body develops from the womb. As an embryo, our hands and feet popped out of our torso, spiraling upwards and downwards, respectively. To this day, those spiraling motions still exist in our limbs, and you can see it simply by lifting your arms and pressing your feet into the ground and witnessing the direction in which your hands and feet want to spin naturally. The spiral has been with us from our conception up until this point in time and it threads our body together from infinitesmal to the life-size forms.

And as we continue to develop through childhood into adolescence and adulthood, we move through spirals of time living through the seasons, circling and circling yet progressing forward through time… it’s the circling in a particular direction which creates the spiral.

And as we look back on the stories of our life with their ups and downs and peaks and valleys, they create the wave form… a two dimensional view of the spiral. By the description of the spiral, it might seem as if I’m saying everything is a spiral. And yes, I sort of am, but at the same time there’s something more to it. Just as a blanket is nothing but threads of yarn, it is actually something more. And so are we, in our lives, nothing but threads of a mysterious substance, yet also so much more.

#19 - I Stopped Working Out, and Started Working In

It’s been almost 6 months since I’ve worked out… like gone to the gym to lift weights. If someone would have told me one year ago that I’d skip the weights for that long, I would have told them they’re crazy.

A couple of years ago, during the peak of physical pain I was experiencing, I started to take up a pretty intense workout, weights and running routine of about 5 days per week. I developed a lot of strength, and my body was looking fairly chiselled, and I learned to do some cool pull up flip things and even how to do a handstand. But no matter how much I worked out, I always felt extremely tense, tight, and my body parts felt tweaked and misaligned.

Towards the end of my workout phase, I started to find myself spending half of my 1 hour weight training time doing extremely slow, almost meditative-like movements. Just allowing myself to feel all of the micro movements within my body. I wasn’t getting my full workouts in, but it felt, good, relaxing, opening and energizing, as opposed to clenching and stressful.

I bring this up now, not because I feel 100% in optimal health with zero pain, but because after 6 months of not working out I’m beginning to feel my body fall into a new alignment. My hips are opening, knees are unkinking, toes are spreading out and my torso is expanding. Sounds sort of crazy to say, but it’s as if my body had been held in this perpetually tight and wound up state… my muscles were getting stronger but in the process, my body was getting further locked into a pattern that wasn’t actually ideal for the flow of energy and blood and breath throughout my system.

Now, it’s not like I haven’t been doing anything with my body the last 6 months. I’ve started training in Bagua Zhang, a Chinese martial art which is rooted in spiral movement. It’s aim is to align with and leverage the naturally occurring spiral patterns in the body for martial power. Rather than rely on muscle strength, bagua develops tendon and fascial strength (although I’m not sure if strength is the right term… springiness, elasticity, bounce, pop, vibrancy?) and gets one in touch with these lines of force in the body system in order to harness their flow of energy using the least amount of physical exertion as possible.

So I’ve been practicing the fundamental movement patterns of bagua, allowing my muscles to de-tensify and even dissipate a bit, in order to create space for a new structure and strength to emerge. It’s absolutely fascinating. I’m still in the beginning stages of the process, and while I’ve started to incorporate some more body weight movements and exercises back into my routine (yes, I am doing these at the gym now, albeit without weights!), I am still largely focused on deprogramming my fascial and nervous systems to allow for the new forms to take hold throughout my body. 

#18 - Wiring and Firing Together

A company that wires together, fires together. A little play off Joe Dispenza’s concept of neuronal activity. It is essential for information to be flowing across an organization at all times. Information designed and shared in such a way that it is aligning people towards the mission or vision of the company. Information is energy, and the energy must be flowing in order for the parts of the business to be connected, and collaborating with each other towards the common goal. This is what company health looks like. Company disease is when there is a void, that is consuming the attention of everyone, trying to figure out what is going on and where the company is headed. The story must be provided. In this way, people can then focus their time and energy on living their story, and playing out their own role in the grander narrative they’re a part of. To be aligned with the story of the company is to be aligned with the source of energy, the fire, the light that keeps the company on and moving forward. This is what transformation looks like. When the story is activated and is pulsating across the organization. It is the fabric of the culture, the foundation of the future. It must be identified and aligned with, communicated and expressed, in order for people to attune their own frequencies to that of the company. This is when connections happen, when there is an understanding that takes place, a harmonizing of frequency, and and interweaving of life force, story and purpose.

#17 - January 15, 2025 - Patterns All the Way Down

Life moves in seasons and in cycles, which contain infinite multitudes of seasons and cycles within themselves. For example, we’re living within a season, within a time of day, within a state of mind, within a period of one’s life, and so on and so forth.

I started thinking about his after listening to Tony Robbins talk about the seasons of one’s life. He pulls the concept from the thinking of Jim Rohn and his book The Seasons of Life, and in it is the idea that there is a proper time for everything. Just as the year has 4 different seasons, for each of which there are specific activities that resonate with the period or not (planting seeds in the spring, reaping harvests in the autumn, bundling up in the winter…).

They extrapolate this out to the notion that there are times in one’s life when it makes sense to pursue different sorts of things and embody different types of actions. 0-22 years old is spring time, 22 - 40 something is summer, and so on. The philosophy of numerology also dives into this from a different angle, with the thought that there is another grouping of seasons that run in 9 year cycles. Year 1 is for discovery, 2 is for community building… and on and on.

The numerology piece may be a stretch for some, but the idea of seasons is largely common sense. Yet when we zoom out and consider the anciently held hermetic principle of “As above, so below” “microcosm and the macrocosm” then we might yonder to speculate that the patterns run all the way down. That within each season is the whole spectrum of seasons… within spring there are days that are most spring like, or more summer, fall or winter like. That within each day there are moments which embody qualities of the summer (noon time) or winter (midnight). And within each moment there are states of mind that inhabit each of these seasons.

So this started to get me thinking. How do all of these layers of time interact with each other? I’m really not sure. But I think what this view indicates is that down on the quantum level, where time and space shrink down into the invisibles, that the cycles and seasons essentially collapse, into a vacuum.

There are so many of these patters overlapping and interweaving that they become so dense, that a sort of vortex is created. At our core, we live in a time and space that is so dense that it collapses in on itself… and opens into a deeper and more expansive dimension of our being.

What would be the implications for this? Perhaps that at any moment we can tap into that center, into the eye of the vortex, and step into that place of greater perspective to be able to observe many of the different layers of the place in time that we are in.

This ability wouldn’t erase the fact that I am 31 years old, or that it is 9:01 PM, that I’m living in New England and it’s 12 degrees out. But it reveals to me that I can step back, or look within, and be aware of these facts, and take on a wide enough perspective in order to better see the larger patterns that my mind and body are swirling in, and do my best to live in right harmony with these patterns, take the best actions in alignment with their flow (e.g. building my visions, getting some sleep, wearing a coat… maybe drinking some herbal teas that warm my inners :)) and ultimately leveraging the place I’m in now, and the elements I’m moving through, for the greater good.

#16 - October 30, 2023 - Unwinding the mind and body

“I need to unwind.”

If you were to ask me what this meant 2 years ago, I would have said to relax, to settle down, to calm the mind and body. But there is an actual, literal unwinding that takes place when one ”unwinds”

Not just in the metaphorical sense, as if there is some sort of ball of wires in the mind that must get untangled in order for one to properly rest. But in the physical sense as well.

When one truly unwinds, there is an unfolding of the facial layer underneath the skin, that penetrates the entire body. From head to toe, winding around the body like a sort of serpent, there is a fascial ribbon that extends across and throughout the muscles, bones, organs and ligaments.

When one is stressed, this ribbon tightens, like a boa constrictor would. The vascular, nervous and energetic channels close up, and flow of blood, of water, of air of energy comes to a slow.

Yet when one relaxes, when the body loosens from it’s rigid posture and the mind decouples from the ideas and objects it’s often tethered to, the ribbon begins to loosen, and that which it holds begins to unwrap. The body unwinds, and true, unrestricted being, springs forth.  

#15 October 14, 2023 - Thoughts on Astrology

Many people will say there’s no scientific foundation to astrology.

They ask, how is it possible that a planet millions of miles away has any influence on us here on Earth? They say they are too far away, their gravitational force is too week, that they are just masses of rock with no conscious will to be exerted on planet Earth, on humanity.

I used to think something similar. Yet at the same time, there has always been this sense that there is some truth to the Zodiac. There has always been something about my sun sign, my birth chart, the unique placement of the planets and stars at the time of my birth that I do resonate with.

I would go out on a limb to say that most people probably do resonate in some sense with theirs. Or at least, they get excited to talk about themselves, and reflect on their unique quirks or habits that set them apart from the other, that was born under a different Sun or Saturn.

If nothing else, the sun and the stars, planet and the moon tell us something about the nature of the universe. The ways they move across the sky, the patterns they make and paths they take at different times of the day, and seasons of the year. There is a relationship that these celestial bodies have with each other. There is a relationship that they have with the Earth. And thus, there is a relationship that they have with us, as inhabitants of this planet.

Again, one might say that they are still too far away to have any sort of influence on us. That we may be in relationship with them, but they still do not have any force or power they can exert over our minds, our bodies, and being.

Nevertheless, we are in relationship with them. If not a physical relationship, then at least there is a mental relationship with them. Our awareness of their presence, has a psychological effect on us. Through our awareness of them we can observe their patterns of movement, and learn what it is their made of. We can learn something about the nature of the universe — that is, the space — that we all find our homes in.

And therefore, with the assistance of the stars, the planets, and the unique patterns they make in the sky, at our birth, and every waking moment, we can learn something about the nature of ourselves. If only we look deep enough.

#14 October 3, 2023 - Keep it Loose, Keep it Tight

“Keep it loose, keep it tight,” sung Amos Lee. Neither one is right or wrong, but they are both needed. Like the strings on a guitar – too tight and they’ll snap, or too lose and you’ll just have a sloppy mess. To tune your instrument just right, so that the strings are nice and taut, and when strummed, resonate a beautiful note. That is the art. That is life.

#13 - October 1, 2023 - Communicating What We Believe

How is community built? Simon Sinek, in one of his speeches, talks about how it is a clearly articulated belief which organizes people around it. When someone has a strongly held belief, rooted in clear values, and it is articulated in such a way that it resonates with others, those others will gravitate towards the message.

In my last entry I mentioned how it is the process of remembering that which we share, that brings people together. That is what a clearly articulated belief does as well. When we hear one from others, it reminds us of something that we already believe in, that we resonate with deep in our bones, and it calls forth this belief or understanding within us.

If we wish to initiate this process, of finding the common ground with others and building community, we must first find the ground within us. The foundation on which our sense of self in this world relies, the values and visions that we hold to be true. We must commune with the core of our being, the source of our beliefs, and then, we must communicate that essence out with the word.

#12 September 25, 2023 - Communication & Finding Common Ground

Communication, community, commune, common. Looking at this family of words reveals something about the nature of communication.

Communication is not just about talking or speaking itself. On one level, it is about sharing ideas. Transmitting  thoughts and feelings through words, but also other forms like body language. And on another level, I would say it goes beyond the sharing of new ideas, and is about remembering that which we already share.

It is about being with another in such a way that a common ground is found, and an understanding takes place.

#11 September 23, 2023 - Thoughts on the Fall Equinox

Nobody really knows exactly why the leaves change colors when they do. That’s what my father in law told me the other day as we drove down the road to pick up a car from the shop.

He told me about the combination of factors that affect when the leaves in New England begin to shift from green to orange to red. The temparature, the elevation, the soil, etc. But what is that X factor, that determines the day the first color turns, or when the whole forest finally bursts red in full force?

The question reminds me of a lecture Terrance McKenna once gave, on the nature of time. He explored the idea that time itself, has a quality to it. We often talk about the quality of a place, and the effects it has on the environment within it. But what about the time, in which the environment is taking place?

Time changes, and with time, the environment changes, we change. When you really think about it, it’s a bit absurd that we don’t account for time as a relevant factor when conducting any sort of science experiment. Morning, evening, fall, summer — unless it has some obvious physical effect on the subject, due to temperature, or sunlight, or noise or something, then it’s not measured or taken into account. But perhaps there is a deeper element to time, that does have a meaningful influence on the event being observed.

The I Ching, the ancient Chinese book of changes, is based on this understanding. That there is a quality to time, an archetypal dimension to moment we are in, that is important to acknowledge and consider. That it has an impact on our minds and bodies, as well as the decisions and actions we take.

The practice is to pick up a handful of special sticks, and the way in which they drop determines the ‘hexagram’ which you are supposed to read, for insight into your life at that moment.  Leaders of those times would consult the I Ching to make important political and business decisions, and perhaps they still do. It was held to be a powerful and reliable source of wisdom and guidance into the best way to navigate life and weather the changes.

It’s worth noting, that the number of hexagrams within the I Ching also corresponds to the number of codons in the genetic code – 64. More recent philosophies such as Human Design and The Gene Keys have noted and built upon this fact.

Is it possible that the qualities of time that the I Ching depicts, is not only influencing ourselves and our environment, but that it is actually inherently woven into who we are at our core? That these qualities of time are actually qualities of ourselves, and as the wheel of time spins the circle of life manifests itself, and nature expresses the colors, sounds and seasons encoded in the fabric of its being?

I like this explanation, of what is behind the beautiful kaleidoscope of change that we witness in the autumn, New England leaves. And yet as I write this, I also wonder if I’m simply trying in vain, to fill the void left by a question, that is ultimately best left unanswered.