Brutality Beyond Belief

This is not the kind of thing I ordinarily do. But to stay silent and not do anything is impossible. On Sunday night, "60 Minutes" aired a piece about the epidemic of rape and torture in the Congo that has reached epic proportions--the sexual violence in the Congo right now is the worst in the world. It is called a War against Women, but it's also directed at young girls, and it makes what I can imagine life in a concentration camp look like a vacation compared to the type of rape and dis-memberment that is happening right now in Africa.

The good news is that a group at: www.womenforwomen.org are helping the victims and greating a support system to help a woman go from victim to survivor. They have a sponsorship program that enables us to help one particular woman for a year for $27 a month. You can choose to write to her or not. But basically you are saving a life......this charity has received the highest possible rating for a non-profit, in that the proceeds go directly to the women. I beg you to consider.........

North Node Cancer

North Node Cancer, South Node Capricorn

When you work a long day, its good to come home and rest, and when you feel the need for help, its good to feel comfortable enough to ask for it. But for you, there can be a resistance to these very natural things. Somewhere in your past, either earlier in this life or in a previous one, you've worked hard pursuing your goals and doing what needed to be done. You’ve come into this life with an attitude that knows how to survive by being practical and by adapting to the harsh realities of life and making a living. (Some of you have even allowed an almost pathological sense of caution or reserve to develop in response to having to keep a stiff upper lip.) Now it’s time to soften, relax, and heal from being in a competitive and sometimes pressured environment.



Now it's time to shift focus from “them to you”, and to take the emphasis off the goal and onto the process of life unfolding. How do you feel about what's happening? That's the question to consider. Part of your soul purpose is to heal from the limitations of your past, so there’s a necessity at times, to cry a few tears…to simply feel. It’s not giving into self—pity though, and you won’t linger long in that place, for the balanced attitude of your Capricorn/Cancer axis is one that innately knows how to hold the tension of the opposites.


After your first Saturn return around the age of 29 the emphasis will turn even more towards nurturing yourself, your family, and your friends. Home, heart, and hearth become a priority. There's a desire to feel secure and at home with those you love. You may want to feel a kind of “heart security” you may never have experienced before. In the past you may have had times when you’ve had to shut yourself down emotionally, and now you realize you've missed something in the focusing on the goal rather than the process. Some of the sweetness and joy of life won't happen if you're focused on goals and ambition rather than taking the time to tend to your inner life.



Cancer North Nodes are nurtured by being by the ocean (or any bodies of water) by delving into their family history, and by honoring the good part of traditions. The family karmic inheritance is usually strong, and it would be good for you to sift through the positive and negative inheritance you've received and to see what part of it you may be unaware of. Cancer, being ruled by the moon, fluctuates in its moods and has a wild and loony side as well. No other sign can be so content cleaning out its closets one moment and dancing on the beach by the light of the moon later the same day. With your North Node here you’ll want to honor this intuitive and lunar side of yourself because it’s the fertile soil of your Soul. Take time to slow down and feel whatever comes up for you, and when you feel you’ve outgrown your current life, dare to let go of the past and open a new chapter of your life. Cancers, like the crab, periodically outgrow their shells and need to bravely release their fears and defenses to bring new dreams into reality. The pull of continued growth and evolution through regeneration and resurrection is strong in this Cancer/Capricorn axis.

Soul Purpose: In this life it’s important for you to heal from duty and necessity—you may need to cry a few tears to unblock your emotions and express your true feelings. You may also want to make it a priority to give and receive love, and to watch what happens when you tend to the process of life rather than the goal. Dare to risk new beginnings that lead to metaphorical death, re-birth and resurrection, taking calculated risks. Use your sense of humor to repair, entertain, and mend bridges between family and friends.

Shadow: Honoring of the demands of “sheer practicality” can be an excuse to not be in touch with your feelings of sorrow or joy. By not allowing the feminine and “lunar or looney” side of your personality out, it can make you appear to be a bit of a glum “Eeyore” at times. Another defense mechanism you might be tempted to use could simply be an appearance of pride—the kind of “hubris than cometh before a fall.”

***

English blues rock guitarist, singer/songwriter Eric Clapton has these Cancer/Capricorn Nodes. Often viewed today by critics as the greatest guitarist of all time, his music—and life—has always been grounded in the blues. When Eric was 9 years old he discovered that he and his brother had been deserted by his real parents, and that they’d been raised by his grandparents. When his brother died unexpectedly, Clapton became, in his own words, “a lonely and nasty kid.” (Maybe just an Eeyore?) He tried playing the guitar but found it so difficult to learn that he almost gave up, but the connection to his emotions through the “blues” pulled him through and kept him at it. So instead of shutting down his feelings or being out of touch with them, as South Node Capricorns can do at times, he reached for them—through ‘the blues.” One of his more famous songs in his later life was called: “Tears in Heaven,” that came out of the unexpected tragic death of his son.


Before this, at one point in mid-life, Clapton let his emotions slip into serious drug abuse, but with help he was able to get clean and later opened a drug rehabilitation clinic which he still financially supports. Clapton has mixed the professional Saturnian hard working nature of Capricorn with his fluctuating emotional life to make a powerful impact in the world of music. He uses his music to connect deeply with the promptings of his heart, and in healing himself, he heals all of us.
(c) elizabeth spring www.elizabethspring.com

Bitterness; the Silent Disease

Bitterness; the Silent Disease

“Anger is a short madness.”
Horace 65 BC

Anger is a short madness, but bitterness is anger that has been boiled, simmered, and then found so unpalatable that it has been thrown into the deep freeze of our unconscious psyches. We may think that we have done our ‘anger management’ by cooling and repressing our anger, but in most cases, it’s still alive and not well. It needs to be thawed, re-heated, and disposed of properly. Refrigeration doesn’t work well, as cooled anger turns to resentment and bitterness. It has an annoying tendency to leak out at inappropriate times-- upsetting good relationships, disturbing our dreams, and filling us with a vague discontent.

Anger is what we feel first in the face of injustice, and repeated anger becomes deep-seated resentment at whoever and whatever is upsetting us. It turns cold and bitter. And the worse part is that it can turn us bitter even when we think we’ve hidden it so well! It can show on our faces, in our expressions, in our tone of voice. It gives us indigestion, insomnia, back pain, and unexplained headaches. We want so much for it not to de-freeze-- we want so much to forgive and forget, but proper disposal of toxic pain isn’t easy. Most of us need help with it.
Bitterness is a crusty disease that grows on unprocessed anger. It is particularly dangerous for us as we age, because many therapists, including myself, believe that it plays a part in heart disease as well. The heart is both a physical and emotional organ that reflects how we treat it. Most of us are trying to exercise away the excesses that have deposited themselves as fat—but what are we doing with all that un-dealt with pain in our hearts? With the years of frozen anger?

First of all, it needs to be acknowledged. Yes, it’s there. Maybe you call it disillusionment with your career, or maybe you say it’s how your sister cheated you out of part of your inheritance, or maybe it’s that romantic love never quite came through for you. You may have the regret of the ‘enabler’ or the one who had to sacrifice a large part of her life for another. Maybe you blame someone or blame yourself. What matters most though, is the story we tell ourselves about it.

This story needs to be re-told and re-framed. If you will investigate, research, and delve deeper into the place where you hold this bitterness and pain, you can gain a wider perspective and a deeper understanding of the whole picture. You need to have someone who can deeply listen to your story, and whose opinions you trust. Allow them to help you understand it from a variety of different perspectives. Allow them to help you put it into a story that makes some sense (not easy!)

The psychologist, Carl Jung, once wrote that all adult neuroses could only be healed by a spiritual perspective. Perhaps you can find a way to infuse the story with love towards yourself and others. The last step will be to tell the ‘deep freezer of your subconscious’ the new story of how and why it all happened, and how you see it now.

As a psychotherapist and astrological counselor, I often look at what I call the family karmic inheritance. This is the legacy of inherited sins and blessings that get handed down the generations, and I believe it’s responsible for more psychic distress than we realize.

You may notice that you have our mother’s eyes, but have you noticed that you have some of her passive aggressive traits as well? Do you know what she was holding her anger about? Can you discover how far back it goes? Could you be overly sensitive to authoritarian figures like your grandfather, or experiencing a similar conflict between the demands of creativity and family that he once did? How bad did it get? Once you know the nature of the inheritance you can look at it how it’s showing up in your life. Old, long, and difficult inheritances can be particularly insidious. When you become conscious of the “sins of the father’s” you not only begin a healing process for yourself, but you stop the inheritance from infecting your children.
Generations of maternal and paternal legacies influence us in subtle and no so subtle ways. In some families (such as the presidential Kennedy’s) there has been mention of a family ‘curse’. Although that is an exaggeration for most of us, almost everyone inherits a mixture of psycho-spiritual legacies that need to be sorted through. We need to pull out all the stories we can from the family deep freezer.

You can’t be fueled by bitterness, but you can be fueled by anger. Bitterness eats you up, whereas anger can fuel you to do the emotional detective work that heals. It can help you find your voice and your courage. If you are feeling depressed, stuck, or cynical its time to do the psychic de-freezing. This is the time to act, not to “depress.” You may have to admit that your attempts to sublimate and distract yourself from your difficult moods aren’t working any more. This is a good thing, because it means the time is right for you to make a positive and perhaps radical change.

As an astrologer and counselor, I find that there is a grace and energy that shows up when we do things at the right time. If you have no family members who are alive, or who won’t tell you true stories; you can find powerful hints as to this inheritance on your astrological chart. And when you allow yourself to feel strongly about your feelings, rather than freezing them, you allow an opening for grace and serendipity. Call it what you will: God or chance or synchronicity, but whenever you decide to melt the frozen chunks of bitter memories with the healing warmth of tears and heartfelt stories, you invite in powers and graces beyond your rational mind. I believe we ‘summon the Gods’ with our open hearts, and that the Soul is ruthless in finding its way home. Blessings on your journey home. (c)Elizabeth Spring http://www.elizabethspring.com/

Gemini North Node

Gemini North Node, South Node Sagittarius

Gemini North Node, South Node Sagittarius


“Thou shall not tell too much Truth” was once said to a friend of mine with this Nodal combination. She was told this as a child and then it reappeared later in her life as a repeating dilemma. When she told her Truth, and lived her life by her Truth, she often got “slammed by the Universe”. What was wrong?


After some discussion, she was the one who retrieved the answer. In telling her story, her opinion, her “Truth” in the Sagittarian South Node manner, she spoke it reactively, without reflection, and the abruptness of it often hurt people. Sagittarius suffers at times from “foot in mouth” disease, but more seriously, she realized that by adding more tactfulness as well as by being more objective and “contained,” she could still live and speak her Truth, but in a way that didn’t injure herself or others. She realized that this reflection and containment allowed her to see how life was much more differentiated into many shades of gray, rather than the black and white of her first reactive perception.


This Nodal axis takes the raw experiences of life and puts them into a crucible that produces either wisdom or bitterness. By the reflective “cooking” of these Nodes, the raw anger and bitter injustices of life can be distilled, and transmuted into a compassionate wisdom.


Gemini needs new experiences. A good idea for North Node Gemini is in the motto: "Let's do something different!" Your Soul longs for new experiences and different perspectives, and you may not even know it. You may think you've seen and done it all before....but now it's time to do it differently. Earlier in this life, or in a former life, you earnestly pursued Truth and developed a powerful self-convincing story of how Reality is. However it wasn't the whole Truth; you got the view from the mountaintop perhaps, but not from the valley or the marketplace. You may have been a cloistered monk, nun, or an opinionated scholar in a former life, but it was lonely, and now it’s time to ride into the market-place and take a fresh look at things.


Indulging your curiosities and breaking up your routines are good things for you now. Go to the bookstore, the cafe, get on the internet, and find new stories to tell. In this life you are challenged to be non-judgmental, to widen your perspectives, and to really listen to another person's truth in order to cultivate empathy and open-minded thinking. Your perceptual bias is changing, so that you can see things from many different angles—not an easy thing to do! Your reality may feel shattered at times, and you may wonder where your self-confidence has gone. Certain aspects of your life need to de-construct so it can be re-constructed in a new way. . By allowing yourself to follow your dreams and gently releasing old concepts of how it all is, you begin to break new ground. Life is breaking you open to enlarge your heart and widen your perspective; for you are being trained to be the compassionate communicator. You can be the one with new stories to tell that are grounded in personal experience. You're not just the book-smart armchair philosopher any more--you've walked your talk.


It will continue to be important for you to find ways to slow down, and simply connect with others in a way in which you each share the paradoxes and mysteries of life as well as your own "truths." That truth you came into this life with is in the process of getting much bigger. And as you do this, you'll find that writing, teaching, selling, counseling, and communicating in all forms can bring you great success. With your South Node in philosophic Sagittarius you've got some spiritual gold in your past, and now the trick is to take your old wisdom and new found “Gemini street smarts” and unite them. The world needs to hear what you have to say, that is, as long as you're following a path with heart. Keep checking in with yourself that your objectivity hasn't run away with your Soul. In your desire to embrace change, be gentle towards those who lead more mundane lives and don't be too quick to judge. You have so much to give!


Soul Purpose: It’s important for you to immerse yourself in the fullness and chaos of life; indulging your curiosities, being a communicator, and daring to risk your security for a life of adventure, both inner and outer. In telling your Truth and your stories skillfully, with objectivity and reflection, you awaken others to great insight. Communication is a key, but communication is not limited to words alone; it is inherent in the arts, healing practices, and in the “act of loving” in relationships.

Shadow: Your default pattern of letting your enthusiasm override your empathic listening, combined with a philosophic “know it all” attitude, could blind you to life’s complexities and wonders. If you are addicted to certainty, you will deny truths or experiences that run counter to your expectations and belief. Allow room for dialog and relationships that challenge you to expand your concepts of “how it all is.”

***

Maya Angelou, much loved American sage, writer, artist and civil rights activist has a Gemini North Node in the 10th house of career and public life. She has been called "America's most visible black female autobiographer". Angelou is known for her series of six autobiographies, starting with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in 1969. She has been telling her story! Her volume of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Diiie (1971) was nominated for the Pulitizer Prize. As testimony to her success, Angelou recited her poem, "On the Pulse of Morning" at President Bill Clinton's inauguration.
Emerging from a violent and emotionally impoverished childhood, her South Node in Sagittarius in the 4th house expressed itself through harsh experiences of poverty and abuse, yet she was able to skillfully find a way to speak her truth with reflection and empathy through her writing and lecturing.



“I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” represents Angelou's experience of racism and other forms of potential imprisonment: by drugs, marriage, or the economic system. This metaphor of the bird in the cage invokes the "supposed contradiction of the bird singing in the midst of its struggle". Maya communicates constantly (Gemini) the necessity for people to arise above conflict and despair, and to embrace life with renewed (Sagittarian) enthusiasm despite the circumstances.


Maya has used her Gemini survival skills and street smarts to rise above a childhood that could have imprisoned her—and as she says in one of her autobiographies: “Women who survive must be at once both tender and tough.” This combination of tender empathy, reflective thinking, and an intense desire to communicate expresses the essence of this Nodal axis.


Maya’s most common speaking engagements occur on college campuses, "where seating is sold out long before the actual event." When Angelou speaks, she sits on a stool and entertains the audience for approximately one hour, reciting poems by memory and following a flexible outline. Entertaining people, whether through poetry, music or acting, is a form of communication that reaches across boundaries and prejudice. Maya has been a public charismatic figure for most of her life, and is one of the world’s great wise women.
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All Nodal placements fall in a particular "house" or area of your chart. To understand your Nodes fully, you need to understand the house placement where your energy is best spent. Aspects, and sign rulerships, also effect the individual chart. To find out about readings oriented towards life direction and soul purpose, contact: http://www.elizabethspring.com/