Forecast: Late Friday, Saturday, Sunday, May 4-6, 2012

Sun in Taurus and Moon in Scorpio, 2012

Beginning Friday 4 May at 7:21p PT | 10:21p ET | 2:21a(Sa) UT
through Saturday 5 May
/moon goes void-of-course Sunday 6 at 5:15a PT | 8:15a ET | 12:15p UT
until Luna enters Sagittarius Sunday at 6:40p PT | 9:40p ET | 1:40a(M) UT

~Choice of Liberation~

This is the period, the Full Moon of Taurus, in which the Wesak festival in Tibet is celebrated, or always was at any rate unless the Chinese in accord with their horrid karma are adding to the record of their crimes circumvention of a venerable and powerful ancient Mystery ceremony.

Let us pray for the people of Tibet, and for the Chinese invaders to be converted or otherwise changed so that Tibet may have freedom to be a pocket of liberation from the "modern world" and its robot tyranny of ruthless economic exploitation.

The Taurus-Scorpio axis of the zodiac is charged with powerful energies, the energies of desire as well as those of the stymying or conquest of desire. Are you not feeling something of this? As if you had to get to a deeper level beyond superficiality? At times I think "What am I to do?" and everything which comes to my mind seems pointless. That is the verge of Buddhist enlightenment, perhaps, or of the road leading to it. Although I am a Christian and not a Buddhist, it is obvious to those who study the teachings of Jesus that He taught liberation from "sin" or wrong desire. Some friends of my parents, non-Christian, said when I was a child, "The preachers say everything is a sin, so what is left?" I sympathize with their comment. Opponents of Buddhism might make similar statements. What is left when "desire" vanishes? Or are there appropriate and approved desires, or can our desires be transformed into aspirations of a higher, deeper and more spiritually exalting nature? (Sri Aurobindo's answer, expressed inadequately.) Can Buddhists or Christians have fun? Some of all this might be in your consciousness. You are participating, somehow, in the Wesak ceremony.

Would that the Chinese communist-capitalist greed-tyrant-monsters might participate also, somehow.

Of course, spiritual mediation is good at this time, as also the study of truly sacred writings.

Whether or not we are entering the summer doldrums of the stock market, as last year at this time, it is likely that most will be feeling they need to be stricter in their economy. (That aids the Buddhist program of liberation from desire.) This need not be pointless worry but could profitably be a careful scrutinization of where your money is going (and where it is coming from). This could make you unpopular if it made you so intent on it that you failed to relax and be friendly. (Freedom from worry has been promised by both the Buddha and Christ Jesus to those who follow their teachings.)

Is it better to struggle on, or to sometimes give up for a while and just let things be? I leave the answer to you. Obviously we all need our moments of complete rest. This is true rest when anxiety dissipates. Often for that to happen, one needs first to finish some essential task or other so that one's conscience is clear. Or else postpone some of it to a definite time and place (when the moon is not void-of-course as it is most of Sunday, making that, appropriately, a day of rest).

When worrying about one's own finances, it is good to care about those who have even less, and aid in some way which makes sense to you. The sincere attempt is good no matter the outcome. Sometimes a struggling penniless person will refuse a gift if it hurts his or her pride. That does not mean it was not noble and right to offer it.

There is guidance, along both the material and spiritual paths, if you are open to it. Even those who do not "believe in" the Invisible are often guided by It in ways of which they are unconscious. Such is Grace. "He is kind even to the unthankful and the wicked," said Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.

When we feel restrained by life, held as slaves, it is well to recall that, as Hebrew prophets and Christian apostles have said, to think of our "masters" as representatives of G*d aids in the quickest real resolution of the issue, rather than to rebel. A hard teaching, at times, but one which protects those who attempt to follow it. (This does not in any way refute my position that the Chinese occupation of Tibet, for example, is thoroughly wrong. We have to struggle with such matters as best we can; the Dalai Lama is a superb example. He did not give up the struggle for freedom, but did not let it become violent.)

No one is really abandoned. It is well always to have faith in the future; or in Him or That which assures a happy future to those who remain faithful.

{Late Friday, Saturday, Sunday} ~Choice of Liberation~

Cosmic Piper