59: TANGERINE DREAMING
Weds 7th Nov 16.01 - Mooning Monthly Edition 59 wakes up with a fake tan....
All hail dear Mooners
The sun will be setting on Wednesday's Scorpio New Moon as the political picture begins to emerge post midterm elections in The United States of America. Commentators have suggested that the country is the least United it has been since the end of its Civil War, as political and cultural opinion and actions become ever more divisive and polarised, inextricably linked to the widening gap between the richest and poorest in that society.
Scorpio is traditionally recognised as a particularly secretive astrological house laced with ambition, prone to resentment and seductive, manipulative behaviour, so the scene is set across the Atlantic for a period of partisan translation of the votes cast to suit the political ends of those competing for power. It can safely be predicted that there will be an agenda driven tweet-fest whatever the vote count.
Today, the day of the midterm vote, is being touted as a day of reckoning for Donald Trump's first two years as President. The rhetoric of fear and loathing are at fever pitch and the misery of hatred is succeeding only in cloning itself. The media, historically proud of their role as arbiters of a fair fight, have been battered into submission; honourable, respected journalists with long, distinguished careers spent scouring for truth, are systematically hounded, discredited, fired or worse, murdered by those whose words and actions they have had the temerity to question.
The spin on any tactical gain made in either US political camp will be extreme. Power hungry agendas will continue on their intransigent, oblivious roads like runaway juggernauts. Noise levels will intensify as fevered rivals attempt to outshout their detractors. Anyone that dares to take issue with a point of view or present facts that contest official lines of argument will simply be dismissed as liars with their own 'fake news' agenda. The continual flow of disinformation is a contagion, a virulent plague of distrust spreading across the globe, to the sad point of poisoning the hearts and minds of those with a genuine reverence for the values of democracy.
So how to wade through the layers of deceit to the truth? And who's truth? Have we in fact become addicts to this self perpetuating world of distracting disinformation, creating as much of it in our own lives as we receive from fake tanned external sources?
Our ever mounting reliance on digital gadgets and social media is irrefutable. Our continual stream of selfies: moments of posted perfection with no reference to our underlying states of mind, represent our own reframing of the present into disposable but seductive memories of the past with which we then identify and by which we want others to define us in the future. Have we unwittingly become our own personal propagandists? The uncomfortable realisation might be that in or own lives, with our own confused agendas, we are playing the same game as the Tangerine Dreamboat, Donald T himself.
The philosopher Alain de Botton redefines this state of distracting addiction as a means of self avoidance:
"Addiction is any pattern of behaviour whereby you cannot stand to be with yourself and certain of the more uncomfortable thoughts and emotions that come from being on your own. You can be addicted to almost anything so long as it keeps you away from yourself and tricky self knowledge...and most of us are addicts. Thanks to all sorts of technologies and distractions we can have a good life where we can almost certainly be guaranteed not to spend any time with, or have to talk to, ourselves. And this, is a disaster for our capacity to have a relationship with another person because until you know yourself, you can't properly relate to anyone else."
Under this secretive, seductively manipulative Scorpio New Moon, let's not shy away from spending quality time with ourselves as a reliable route to compassion for others. Self love should be the greatest love affair we ever embark upon and yet it's the one most of us continually avoid. Perhaps there's a deep seated fear of being rejected by ourselves. That would be lols if it wasn't so frickin' tragic.
The suggestion here dear Mooners, is to actively seek opportunities in the next fortnight to spend time alone. New moons regularly present important periods of reflection in which we can reconfigure our outlook and ambitions by re-imagining our life intentions. These brief periods each month provide fertile ground in which to sow new seeds of intent, key to the process of manifesting our heart felt desires into a wholesome and bountiful future harvest.
As we seek to become increasingly self-aware of the habitual, self sabotaging, distracting behaviours that prevent us from fully focused intention, we create better informed choices about the thoughts, words and actions we can employ in support of those intents: the messages we broadcast to the rest of existence as desire. As these messages clarify, free from distracting thought and activity, we can find ourselves on a straighter, more direct path toward our goals and purpose, a process we like to call, on these pages, Mooning.
Up in the Northern Hemisphere, the Scorpio New Moon is a beautiful time of year to walk in nature. The autumn leaves, chorusing their swansong of vivid bright colour are a joy to behold in the landscape; to trample and smell on damp woodland pathways. Invite no one else to walk with you. Make your little journey alone even if only for an hour. Leave your phone at home. Photos will never do justice to the beauty witnessed by your own eyes if they truly open your presence to the wonder of the scene before them. Life was not designed to be lived through a lens.
We invite you to stand or sit still in silence and feel yourself as part of a living picture of perfection beyond the limiting judgements of thought. If possible, leave your thoughts at home with your phone. Inhabit your Self. BE what you survey. It is you....and you, dear Mooners, are awesome.
And in the silence and blessed solitude, let's share a positive prayer for our American brothers and sisters, as they seek on this Scorpio New Moon to clarify their own intents for the world they want to inhabit; the world they want to influence and hopefully share. Let's hope that they make a choice informed by love and compassion rather than fear and hatred. Let's hope they dream big, beautiful and in their longstanding tradition of Unity and Liberty.
In keeping with that prayer let's strive to clarify the intents in our own lives. Let's realign our thoughts, words and actions along a path naturally mapped out by our fervent desire to create benefit for all people, our planet and the dwindling variety species that we share it with. It is the ever prevailing path of self-empowered Love and it completely Trumps fear.
With lunar love 'til next time
