What Is Love? – Part Two

So I thought all week about a story to share with you about having a strong Pisces influence in my chart…and well, there’s so many to choose from I couldn’t choose one. So I’ve chosen to give you a summary of my experiences and what I’ve learned from my collective experience of Pisces.

I have Moon in Pisces in the 7^th house of my astrology chart. What does that mean? And how does that show up in my own life experience?

• Moon represents the emotional and intuitive center of self. It also represents of a person’s feminine energy (even in men).
• Pisces is the 12^th sign of the 12-sign zodiac, and it represents how a person is of contribution and service to others (and to themselves as an extension of others) through empathy and emotional expression with and/or to the world. It also represents inspiration, imagination, idealism, philanthropy, compassion, empathy, beliefs, dreams, fantasy, illusion, delusion, victimization, and martyrdom. It is most often associated with spiritual or religious practices and principles.
• The 7^th house represents partnerships and one-on-one relationships of all kinds. It also tends to be the filter through which we assess other individuals. It’s often the house associated with ‘love’ (though I’ve found it to be more objective in regard to partnership).

In my past, once I’d get an emotional or empathic ideal in my head about someone or something, my mind would almost immediately align with that emotional ideal – I’d become emotionally and mentally invested. Once I was invested, it would be tough for me to let go and move on completely from that ideal. Even after I said I’d let it go, there was still a part of me hoping and wishing that my dream or ideal would come through or come true. I’d be so attached to manifesting my ideal, I’d let other things in my life that I really needed for my own well-being and needed to be responsible for in my everyday life simply fall by the wayside. I’d make choices to seek out and align with the other person and their best interests (or what I believed to be their best interests) rather than to make choices in my own best interests for my own life. I’d give them my money or resources or time – even if I had to borrow it from elsewhere to give it to them. Or I’d cancel appointments or activities that were important to me to be of assistance to them or to participate in an event. I’d choose to martyr myself for the relationships.

Inevitably, that is when the core of my idealism would surface – my emotional idealization of partnership. To me, partnership means equal contribution, and fairness and balance are of paramount importance to me in partnerships. There have been many times in my life that I have emotionally withdrawn (and eventually completely withdrawn) from relationships in which I felt I was treated unfairly or in which I felt I treated someone else unfairly. I had definite ideals about give and take in relationships believing that I’d get what I wanted in exchange for what I gave, or that I should give to others in exchange for what they have given me. And sometimes, that exchange would occur, but definitely not in the way I wanted it or expected it. When my desired outcome wouldn’t show up, I’d play victim to the circumstances or blame the other person/people for not reciprocating…or I’d internally beat myself up for not being able to reciprocate their contributions to me. However, there were times where my desired outcomes did show up…but I’d miss them because they wouldn’t come through exactly as I hoped, so I didn’t (or wouldn’t) see them and I’d miss out on the blessings.

I now see how these denials and rejections of my own needs and of others’ offerings were acts of force – my feeble attempts to control the outcomes of those relationships. And whenever we try to control or force an outcome, we rarely get what we truly want – we rarely experience love. Instead, our wants come at a price. For me, that price was often the emotional fulfillment – the love – I was seeking. Many of my past accomplishments were emotionally empty for me as result.

Yet I’ve learned from my unfulfilling experiences that what I truly seek emotionally is the opportunity to make a positive difference in someone else’s life, in a group, or for the whole mankind, and that I want (and need) to be acknowledged for that contribution. I seem to receive that acknowledgment more clearly and deeply when it comes from a one-on-one interchange – when I can understand how who I am or what I’ve done affected another individual and how their life is affected for the better. It’s my intention that we all recognize our equality with and among each other., that we all recognize the love that is present and waiting to be tapped into.

I also have developed an amazing objectivity in my relationships and partnerships. Instead of allowing myself to become emotionally invested in partnerships or relationships right away, I now consider what our roles may be in each others’ lives – looking at why have we come together, even briefly. In situations, I consider what the purpose may be of the moment or occurrence. I am ever increasing in my awareness of love in All-That-Is.

This is my experience of Pisces through the filter of my life experience. Thanks for reading it.

There’s more to be explored on the subject of what love truly is…but we’ll do that next week.

Until then…

~ Light, Love, and Blessings,

Grace

What Is Love? – Part One

As of 4:25p PST on Friday, February 18^th , we have entered Sun in Pisces. And in doing so, we enter the sign of love…in all its forms.

Yet, what is love?

We hear it exists, and many of us search for it and long for it, yet it seems to elude us.

The best way to begin explaining what love is may be to explain what Pisces is all about.

Pisces is “ruled” by Neptune. Neptune represents imagination, intuition, idealism, inspiration, and romanticism. There is an abundance of creative and visionary energy here as we experience inspired ideas and allow ourselves to imagine or dream, and those ideas and dreams allow us to create and develop ways to have our visions become the reality of our lives. Many artists, performers, or writers have some strong element of Piscean or Neptunian energy present in their astrological charts. Yet, creativity takes many forms. It’s not just arts-oriented. It’s also new ideas, new ways of doing or approaching things, or even new ways of thinking or perceiving things. It’s the process of manifesting something from nothing other than an inspired thought or idea that seems to come from nowhere….and that can be done in anything!

However, Pisces and Neptune also represent illusions and delusions, fantasies, daydreams, impracticality, and naivety. For people who have strong Pisces or Neptune influences in their charts, they may experience a great deal of deception from others or be very deceptive themselves – using their creativity to push the realities of matters aside. Either way, it is usually a by-product of deceiving themselves. The self-deceptions usually come as result of believing so strongly in their own fantastic and romantic ideals that they act as though they are real in an actual and practical sense. They share these ideas with others as if they are tangibly real, only to find out that when they aren’t real or practically tangible, they’ve let a whole lot of people around them down. But most of all, they have let themselves down. It can be a devastating process, but one in which the true meaning of love can be given space to be explored and experienced.

There are some who will face their self-deception and blame themselves to an extreme, taking on a martyrdom complex. There are some who are not willing to own up to their self-deception, and they will likely take on a victim complex declaring that others (if not the whole world) is out to get them, or they shut down, run away, and/or hide to escape the truths and realities they don’t want to face.

Yet in between the two extremes, there is healthy self-responsibility – simply taking responsibility for the deceptions they created, and in that moment, being ready and willing to face the true and practical reality of their lives in a balanced and healthy way. That is when healing can begin and when true romance, true creativity, and true prosperity can abound in our lives. We can share our visions and ideas and creative energies with others for the simple reason that we choose to and we are open to see what can be created not only through giving to others, but allowing ourselves to receive from others as well. In doing so, we create opportunities for all of us to experience the beauty and wonder of life: true love.

A few posts ago, I mentioned that many of us resist the good that comes to us because deep down, we know the rewards don’t belong to us – we didn’t do the work for it. When I say “work”, I mean “sharing”. It’s about actually sharing your creativity with others, making your contribution to the greater whole so that you may feel worthy of receiving and experiencing other’s creative offerings to you. But it requires trust and belief in yourself and in those around you, and it requires a willingness to recognize:

• what you have to offer to others,
• what others have to give to you,
• what you each and all have to give to everyone,
• and what each and all of you can receive from others if you allow yourself to be open to receive it.

Our creative energy and expression is our love. And the experience of loving is sharing – both giving and receiving. Share your creativity, and feel the love in your life.

I have quite a few personal stories on this topic, as I have Moon in Pisces in my own chart. I’ll share one or two of them with you next week. In the meantime, please comment and let me know what opens up for you! Post a comment here on the blog, or open a discussion on the Facebook page. I really enjoy receiving your feedback. Thank you!

Until next week…

~ Light, Love, and Blessings,

Grace

All We Need Is…

The idealistic notion of Valentine’s Day is turned on its side a bit this year. There’s likely to be a very romantic energy this week, with the Aquarius Sun gradually moving into a conjunction aspect with Neptune also in Aquarius (within 3° orb on Monday, exact on Thursday at 1:58a) – romantic idealism is definitely in the air. However, both the Sun and Neptune joining forces in the sign of Aquarius means this isn’t so much about one-on-one romance. In fact, now, more than ever, this is about the idealism and romanticism of the human condition and our idealistic notions of society and humanity at large. Now that much of the political combustion of the last few weeks is beginning to reveal its progress and effects, the revolutionary ideals that sparked the flames now have space to be implemented. The question becomes…exactly how do we go about bringing these ideals into reality? There maybe even a bit “why the heck did we do all of this in the first place?”. These questions may be the major presence in our thoughts this week as we begin to distinguish the after effects of what has been happening over these last few months, especially in the emotional and political renewal of the last couple of weeks.

The Full Moon in Leo brings up questions on a personal level as well. The Full Moon is always reflecting the light of the Sun, making it a mirror of the sign energy of the Sun. In this case, the Leo Full Moon is reflecting the light of the Aquarius Sun. Leo energy on its own merit is always about your radiating your light for others to see, but when it is reflecting Aquarius energy, the questions are rooted in what the motivation or reason is for radiating your light:

• Are you being yourself, or are you being who you think you need to be to have others like or love you?
• Are you trying to look good for others?
• Are you really shining your light for your personal fulfillment and everyone’s benefit, or are you shining it to fill your own emotional need for attention and acknowledgment and for your own ego-based satisfaction?

Let me clarify. It is not my intention to say that wanting attention or acknowledgment is a bad or wrong thing to want. I am saying that most of us have a tendency to present ourselves as wanting something for everyone, when we really want it for ourselves. When the Aquarius-Leo axis is at its worst, we are demanding attention and acknowledgment from others and willing to do whatever it takes to get it or we are refusing to shine our light claiming to be doing what is best for everyone else involved (or maybe even thinking we are avoiding getting everyone else involved by repressing our light) – it is ego-driven.

However, when the Aquarius-Leo axis is at its best, each person recognizes their unique contribution to humanity and shines their light to share it with others. In doing so, each person recognizes and is recognized for their one-of-a-kind contribution to the greater whole – it is love-driven, selfless while allowing also the self to be expressed. The acknowledgment is symbiotic and essentially so – each person acknowledges that they have something to offer to humanity and in offering it they acknowledge humanity. In turn, having that expression being received and implemented by the whole of humanity acknowledges and encourages that person’s contribution to it. In this Aquarius-Leo polarity, we each and all have an opportunity to look at what we’re really up to in shining and sharing our light, both individually and collectively to increase our awareness of what we are capable of being in and for the world.

Speaking collectively, as we project those personal questions onto the greater whole of humanity…are we now setting up our new world order to be who we really are, or to be who we think we ought to be at this stage in humanity’s evolution? What is our collective motivation – are we doing what we are doing for the greater good of all, or for the benefit of who we want others to see us to be?

Herein lies the irony of Valentine’s Day. We have this day that we have made about the expression of the ideal of love and romance through gifts and physical affection. Yet if we look at the astrology of it, its timing in the sign of Aquarius each year advances the Sun’s entrance into the epitome of romantic idealism – the sign of Pisces – the following week, initiating our transition into a larger inquiry of what true love really is. And as we choose to place our focus and energy on tangible and physical expressions of  love tomorrow, as the week continues we may find ourselves asking…

…exactly what is love, anyway?

 Just a (not so) little something to think about. Until next week…

~ Light, Love, and Blessings,

Grace

We’ve Only Just Begun

The New Moon in Aquarius didn’t only bring forth new perspectives and changes on personal levels – it brought a great deal of new and true to the emotional awareness and responses of the world at large.

The Lunar New Year brings forth emotional renewal, as the Moon represents the emotional center of all matters, let alone one’s individual astrology chart and being. In the wake of its occurance each year in the Western Astrology sign of Aquarius, the Lunar New Year is practically a barometer of the emotional wellness of our world and our collective society. At the point of the New Moon in Aquarius on Wednesday, February 2^nd @ 6:31p PST, the Sun and Moon were both moving into conjunction with Mars in Aquarius, making note that taking action (and assertive and/or aggressive action at that) will be a major theme over the next 3-4 weeks. And the events of the world will likely be the results of people and groups of people who seem to be acting on collective logic, yet who are really acting on their emotional truths beneath that “logic”.

On a global scale, we see this occurring in the events in Egypt, Tunisia, Sudan, and Jordan, as these countries are re-aligning their governments through rebellion, referendum, revolution, and reign – it’s no accident that all of this is happening in Northern and Central Africa and in the Middle East – in the lands where “civilization began” (and possibly humanity itself). It seems the shift of world consciousness is (also) beginning here, and it’s starting straight from ‘the heart’ – from the emotional investment people in these regions have in transforming the way their lives and cultures occur.

I mentioned last week how many people feel powerless in their ability to live into their inner truths because they are waiting for others to tell them what those truths are (a.k.a. – waiting for others to do the work for them), or they are waiting for others to validate their perspectives. What is happening in the world right now is the result of what happens when people find other people who share the same perspectives and/or who have a similar inner truth. When we can find others who share our inner clarity and our passion to pursue it, there is strength and power in numbers…especially when that strength and power is emotionally charged.

This is why it is so important for each of us to tap into what is really true for our individual selves from the inside out. Once we are clear for ourselves about what is important to us, we can find others (individuals, acquaintances, associations, etc.) who are in alignment with who we are committed to becoming and/or what we are committed to bringing forth in the community (if not, the world) around us. Ultimately, we must be interdependent to survive. Even if we find ourselves looking to the natural resources around us to support us in our sustenance rather than other human beings, we cannot do it alone, and we are not meant to – we are symbiotic beings, and whether we like it or not, we depend on living entities other than ourselves to have our lives be fruitful and fulfilling.

Moon is in Pisces, conjunct with Uranus in the same sign later today, may have emotional reactions occur rather unexpectedly and unpredictably on the large scale (as well as on a personal level). We must understand that at this point, we are now all collectively attuning to the emotional energies behind these shifts, and that actions rooted in these emotions are likely about to surface, for better and worse. There is plenty more to come out of what is happening in Africa…and it will spread out of Africa to the rest of the world in ways appropriate to the regions awakened by the expansion of this energy of rebellion and revolution.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is only the beginning.

Until next week…

~ Light, Love, and Blessings,

Grace