Breathe Easy

At the quarter moon, (a week or so before we hit the lunar eclipse), I want to talk a little about the tools we can use to deal with the very different background energies that we are being faced with.  On the one hand there’s some very stuck, very fixed energy that carries a feeling as though you have been put in an ‘escape room’, been given the challenge to find a way out, but it’s impossible to escape.   

 There is no door, no roof light and no way out.  Where do you turn?   The only means of escape is to enter the unconscious mind and facilitate some kind of flow.

 Astrologically I am referring to a square of planets, including the nodes (our karmic destiny axis) all in fixed signs – every which you go you hit a wall.   Your life is shaken and disrupted, and all you see is a future that is changed forever.  The background energy – a line-up of planets in Pisces - is chaotic, confused and veiled in mist but is adaptable, flexible and has no limitations or restrictions.   This energy is able to move across boundaries – in fact it does not recognise boundaries anywhere.  

 The only choice is to put trust in that apparent chaos and allow the mind to go where the way is veiled and foggy – to fly like the wind and go through walls and fences; to go within and find the middle way – the Madhyamika, a philosophy of Buddhism.  It is said that Madhyamika thinkers ‘emphasise the mutations of human consciousness to grasp the reality of that which is ultimately real beyond any dualities’.  

 The most basic part of human life is breathing.   We take it for granted – it is an unconscious reaction.   However, with the stresses and challenges of life, particularly our current circumstances, many of us are not breathing in an optimal way.  

 We have had more than two years now where many have been frightened to breathe for fear of catching germs.   It has been decreed that we should wear masks in public places.   What effect does this have upon the simple act that we take for granted – breathing?   What happens when we are anxious?  Do we breathe normally?  No, we do not.  When we are anxious our diaphragm tightens, and we breathe in much more shallow way.  

 In more spiritual cultures time might be spent on how to breathe in a way that will benefit us both mentally and physically.   Deep breathing into our diaphragms can allow our cells to become fuller with oxygen and, therefore, healthier and at the same time our anxieties can be relieved.  

 If we allow this fixed, ‘stuck’ energy to challenge itself with deep conscious breathing we can free ourselves from the ‘escape rooms’.   With our anxiety lessened and our cells full of oxygen we might also come to appreciate what certain cultures just know to be true – that there is a mystic force present within us all that can allow light to overcome darkness.   How do we know this?  We must trust in our more instinctive and gut inspired abilities.  More on this in another blog.