Forecast-Meditation for Tuesday 17 February 2015

Tuesday 17 February 2015

}Fortification, Affection, Guidance{

Moon in Aquarius; Sun in final two degrees of Aquarius

Moon on course

Part of Fortune in 12 means the "dying moon" but this can be a good time for internal fortification, realizing oneself in a deep spiritual (or a less-deep psychological) manner. Practical plans are only partly understandable so it is better to focus on the immediately attainable, and give oneself a break from haste or worry. 

I have to risk seeming "johnny one-note" by emphasizing repeatedly the Dark Hermetic Epoch (about two months, ending March 2). It goes on almost half the time, as night is almost half the time, and is not bad any more than night is bad. But some things are more appropriate at night, and some more appropriate in the daytime, as everybody knows. The same for these deeply important and useful Hermetic Epochs. In the Dark one, going on still for two more weeks, we go through what seem more crises than usual, more confusions than usual, and so on. We re-think things, review them, and if we are spiritually aware we can reconstitute ourselves--or rather we can let the Highest reconstitute us through the processes He puts us through at those times. They can be excruciatingly difficult. Which may be why the Master Jesus said, "If you want to follow me, take up your cross and come with me." The cross, fortunately for us, is seldom literal torture but is a burden we willingly take on because we see it is what we have to do to be our real selves rather than something we wouldn't want to be if we thought about it for a minute.

I sometimes feel helpless in explaining what these long periods mean except by giving my personal experiences. Yet this is not my personal journal. But those of you who are accompanying me on this journey do not often report what you are going through at these times, so I do the best with the material I have, which comes from my own life and lives of friends. 

Today I want to report the following, which are paragraphs written by the amazing astrologer, occultist, theologian, psychologist and philosopher, Marc Edmund Jones. They came up today in material of his I am helping to proofread. Written in the 1930s as Bible commentary, they remain unique and unsurpassed. The following is from Hebrew Suffering, Lesson III:

"The Hebrews are not to be blamed for their difficulties but rather are to be delivered from them because the false prophets have led them astray! This at least is the burden of the special appeal to God for help. The divine answer is most startling to anyone who has failed to think the matter through. These false prophets cannot be held responsible, the voice of God affirms, since He did not send them. In other words the prophet as a responsible person is given that responsibility because he is speaking for something higher than himself, not just because he is speaking, and if he is false in the sense of not really representing the divine will then any power or credence that is given him is by human consciousness and acceptance. Actually it is quite evident that the factor of man’s reaction to suggestion is the remote but real cause of his situation. The true prophet leads him upward by enhancing his rapport with the eternal reality and the false prophet encourages him in destructive ways by merely echoing his own selfwill. The false prophets cannot be made scapegoats for all their fellows because their power is humanly derived, and in the way that water cannot rise above its source in any free flowing of itself so false prophecy cannot rise above the everyday wishful thinking out of which it gains its substance. The false prophet himself is no better and no worse than the opportunist in any field of human endeavor. Recompense and penalty are the same. His achievements are their own reward, since subconsciously if not literally he seeks the immediate acclaim of his fellows and his punishment is simply the short tenure of his unstable gains in catering to a superficial favor. The true prophet is an actual link between human and divine estate, and there is always suffering to keep its channels deep and its sympathies broad and its effective relationships constant. 

"Any good in men ever leads them forward and the real sincerity of the false prophets must be understood if the work of true prophecy is to be evaluated. These others were stirred by patriotism and if their wishful thinking was founded in feeble ratiocination their motive was yet sincere. Subconsciously these spiritual yes-men of Jeremiah’s age were caught by the temptation to offer palliation in distress, and let prophetic comfort end just there. It was satisfying to others to be assured that their blind self-interest would not exact the terrible toll that was forecast. It was an easy if superficial way to the souls of fellow-creatures to flatter them thus and give them every expansive satisfaction of the moment. 

"Real prophecy is characterized by greater breadth and marked neither by blindness to the menace of general social carelessness nor by empty or futile mass scolding of everybody and everything in sight."  

What a challenge to me! I am trying to be a "true prophet" rather than a false one, but I am aware of how fraught with danger that attempt really is. How often have I misled you over the years? I don't know! I never get any complaints. But my conscience has to monitor every word I write. I do not want to be a "spiritual yes-man" comforting you in a false way of living with which you will have to come to terms at some later point. Neither do I want to be a constant scold (nor could I, unless I were scolding myself also). 

I turn to poetry because, within it, I am trying to give room for your own High Self, your own G*d, to interpret what is said in symbolic language (which might be truer than anything more prosaic, for those who can awaken to its particular truth for them).

An earthquake unsettles the community and individuals who 

Quake in turn. A reversal's a chance to recover something

Unknowingly lost. Oh, let's go to choir practice! That settles

The nerves. Then we meet the one for whom we've waited long.

The centaur has a bow and he has an arrow. He is a horse.
He is a man. The horse-bow powers the man-aimed arrow.

As he looks for a target he scries prismatic colors and follows

Where they suggest. A beacon on a high rock reveals all. 

Ah, there is a butterfly, dropping its chrysalis behind it. A baby

Watches and smiles knowingly. The Kingdom of Heaven belongs

To both. A man observing them becomes inspired to follow his

Instincts toward cosmopolitan success and lasting affluence. 

{Tuesday} {Fortification, Affection, Guidance}

Cosmic Piper