Giving Up Yourself to Find Yourself?

Giving Up Yourself to Find Yourself?

[The forecast for Thursday has already been posted.]

One tragedy in connection with Gurdjieff, from my viewpoint, is that while he strongly emphasized, taught, and dramatized a particular method in what might be called the "occult tradition" or "spiritual tradition," that method as he used it shows very definitely how wrong all such methods can be. It also shows how effective they can be. 

What is wrong about them? Their subordination of the individual, the chela, student, or learner, to the teacher or Teacher. Gurdjieff did not claim to be G*d or an agent of His, directly, for the tradition within which he worked was not essentially theistic. But even more than most theistic gurus, he taught the utter subordination of the will of the learner to the will of the teacher. After subtly inducting his students into his system (as the spider guiding the flies around the first circuits of the web), for months and months of good teaching (I call it good because it has helped me and a great many others), he gradually tries to take away from them their own will and identity. But, of course, he claims that the purpose of this is to give them their own will and identity.

That, in two sentences, is the essential paradox of the Gurdjieffian system commonly known as The Fourth Way.

I thank Gary Lachman, again, for summarizing much of the teaching in a laudably perspicuous and accurate manner in his book "In Search of P. D. Ouspensky." As I read it it brings back to me my own struggles with the Fourth Way, although I learned it never from Gurdjieff and his writings but from the writings of Ouspensky, which did in fact help me enormously through a very difficult period of my life. I worked with all the techniques Ouspensky taught in his own book entitled The Fourth Way (transcriptions of his talks with disciples in, I believe, mostly London). It is a book I would in fact recommend to anyone struggling with a hard place in his or her life, although as a matter of fact I do not believe it gives anything near to a complete answer to the problems of human living. 

It does have some essence of Gurdjieff's sternness, which apparently most of us need:  We are machines. We are not conscsious. We do not have will. We are acting as automotons and do not "remember ourselves" (a great deal is included in that process of "self-remembering" which I cannot point out in this essay). Ouspensky, at least to my memory, does not take the final leap which, according to Lachman's account, he took with his students in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and elsewhere: They cannot awaken without a group. (This is common to many occult teachings and teachers, from the Roman Catholic Church--"no salvation outside the church"--to the Sabian Assembly--the seeker must dwell within and work within an invisible fellowship of fellow seekers.) But even more, they cannot awaken without giving themselves over to the teacher of the group. Here is the critical and crucial step which I consider not only extremely questionable but perhaps very wrong (even suicidal, some might say). 

As Lachman puts it: "In order for the group to be effective, it must have a teacher. Unlike the students, the teacher is a man who has woken up [I prefer the term awakened--HHH]. He has escaped from prison, has overcome his mechanicalness, and can lead others out of the trap. But in order to be freed, the pupils must relinquish their will, which in any case is illusory, and submit wholly to the will of the teacher. The first step was to recognize unequivocally their absolute nothingness; until they do they will still feel that they have a right to their own ideas, their own judgments, their own views on how work on themselves should go, in which case nothing can be done for them. 'When a man begins work on himself,' Gufdjieff told them, 'a man must give up his own decisions.' He must no longer think for himself. This will be difficult for a man who has not realized that in submitting to another he loses nothing because in reality he has nothing to lose. He must first realize that, as he is, he does not exist and, as such, should have no fear regarding submitting himself to the will of another." 

A crucial step indeed! I am not sure that Ouspensky, Gurdjieff's most famous pupil, ever took that step himself, and in fact I would have less respect for him if he had. In fact, Lachman's book is in some ways an explication of what happened with Ouspensky both before and after he outwardly broke with Gurdjieff (though he never denounced him) and then, much later, with Gudjieff's "system" itself. But that does not deny the value of some of the preliminary steps in that system. I still believe it very helpful to work with some of them. 

It is complex and I cannot hope to give an explanation or much less a solution of all the difficulties in this piece. I am less than half way through my second reading of Lachman's book. More to come.

Do you have a self? Are you a self? Do you remember yourself every second of the day, or do you become a mechanical semi-conscious entity pushed around by your desires and the forces, individuals, institutions and media around you? Gurdjieff is to be praised, I believe, for asking us these questions.

HHH
Wednesday, March 15, 2017  10:14 PM

Message for Thursday 16 March 2017

Thursday 16 March 2017

~Pregnant Group Consciousness~

Moon in Scorpio
moon in the Via Combusta ** <

until leaving it at 1:53p PT | 4:53p ET | 8:53p UT   ***

There are three "hard" major aspects under two degrees, and no "easy" aspects of that strength, so it is not surprising if things seem hard. Sun-square-Saturn (which happens four times a year but of course not at the same months every year) brings out character through facing difficulties. The danger is that one will just give up, feeling it is pointless. One may be modest and reserved, feeling restricted.  It is necessary to fight against limits with self-discipline, that is, cutting out too-easy side-indulgences.

Jupiter opposite Uranus is disagreement about anything and everything, yet with a zest for pressing one's point. Pluto square Jupiter is also a wish to force people to adopt one's viewpoint. If not "force," then convince tellingly, which almost amounts to the same thing. The "world savior complex" comes out. However, if you are really a world savior, I am flattered that you are reading this. 

Perhaps the reverse of the "savior complex" is the desire to place all one's own burdens on a savior, whether Jesus, Sai Baba, the Mother, or anyone else. Of course, these individuals, if Avatars, have invited that very thing and so it is not wrong to do it! One finds out, however, that their way of dealing with one's burdens is, in some cases, "tough love." 

Do you have a spirit companion? Don't worry if you don't know. I don't know, really. I know whom I have invited, as it were, to be spirit companions, that is, very exalted beings, but not much more than that. Anyway you might become aware of someone invisible working with you today. If you feel on the defensive, this individual may protect you, through increasing your will-power so that you can defeat any enemy. There is also mind-wealth, or intellectual skill developing.

Being open to the truth in every way is a wonderful ability. One sees or senses the whole earth, as it were; even the heavens. One can harvest, it seems, anything in the world for one's own use. However, if one gets overeager on a false trail one could come to grief because of impracticality, or projects which just can't cut it.

That which is splendid is a sort of protection, forming a magic circle. It unfolds to you new forms of beauty for you to understand or interpret in your own way. Yet there is a warning that one could undergo reversal if one is not careful, and faithful to the Highest. 

Some victories require a crowd to make them fully glorious. You could be exhilarated just being with a large group of people bringing different facets of themselves into play. Then you are able to channel wonderful potentials, even if you see others around you failing to do anything of the kind. The group consciousness can be your servant rather than your master, and then you are also serving the group. 

{Thursday}  ~Pregnant Group Consciousness~

Cosmic Piper

Charlatanry? Science? Life?

[The forecast for Wednesday has already been posted.]

The struggle to be something one is not is the struggle of life, it seems. I am not at all sure that people ever stop doing it--ever stop trying to be something they are not. And perhaps it is healthy to be doing that. To put it in one word, it is aspiration.

Daily schedules are one way of doing it: trying to keep up with an exercise agenda, for example. If one fails one day, one can try again the next. Does anyone ever really keep at it every day without fail? I take such stories with a grain of salt. Maybe in fact some of the old (or current?) Indian yogis in fact adhered to the extremely Spartan disciplines we hear about--but I would not be surprised if the stories have been exaggerated.

Someone, a very nice lady, offered to pay me a small monthly amount for the forecasts I publish for free. I am calling them Messages now rather than forecasts--it seems to me less pretentious. I feel, not insulted, as she hoped I would not, but a little embarrassed by her offer, for it raises the question, are my efforts really worth a monthly fee? I tend to be very modest about my work in astrology. It is after all a "science" of hypotheses pasted to anecdotal experiences pasted to speculations pasted to attempts de novo. One can only try. To charge someone for it seems rather egoistic. To charge for painting a house seems normal; it is for one's time well-spent. The result, so to speak, is guaranteed. To charge for hypothetical projections into the future seems like pretense if not charlatanry. No result is guaranteed. I would include the predictors of stock market prices in that judgment, although in fact they charge much more than astrologers, and are not embarrassed to charge $500 a year for monthly predictions of the stock market, getting that amount from hundreds or thousands of takers. It is a quite large "industry." I find that shocking. 

It is true, of course, that I spend an enormous amount of time researching and writing the forecasts. I am not sure that makes it right to charge for them. But to accept someone's voluntary donation--I suppose there is nothing wrong with that. Still I feel it puts pressure on me to perform, and perhaps I prefer the feeling that I am offering something gratis so that I do not feel compelled to continue doing it or to spend even more time than I already do perfecting it.

The word "charlatan" is interesting. Are there really any conscious charlatans? Do not most or all of them actually believe in what they profess? One might call the stock-market predictors--"Only $49 a month for these amazing expert projections!"--charlatans, I suppose, but they will point to their past successes (not to their failures) to claim that their approach is based on something "scientific" or semi-reliable. And of course they will offer some limited guarantee, something like a three-month trial (after they have gotten your credit card information). Still they get plenty of takers. Charlatans? Probably that is stretching the word.

When reading about the "guru" G. I. Gurdjieff, I often think, "charlatan," but perhaps I am being unfair. Writing a book "Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandchildren" filled with outrageous poppycock seems to indicate that one is honestly proclaiming oneself a charlatan, which means that it is impossible to feel that the victims of the deception are any other than willing victims. Perhaps that is not "real" charlatanry, or perhaps "out-and-out charlatanry" is in fact honest because the victims have been thoroughly warned. Believing in one's own deceptions is a trickery of self-deception not unknown to the peculiar human mind. Proclaiming openly that one is a deceiver and then gathering up the proceeds from the deceived is perhaps one way of making a living, if one could live with oneself while doing it. One might say that it is closely allied to the art of the stage magician. Yet he is basically honest, for all he claims is "What you see is what you get." 

I am too much a scientist, implicitly, to be able to do any such thing. "The truth" is to me more real than money, at some basic level of consciousness. And so to take money for something less than true seems like skating on very thin ice. 

One difference between Gurdjieff and his best-known pupil P. D. Ouspensky is that the latter could not by any stretch of imagination be considered a charlatan. His seriousness emanates from every pore of his consciousness and writing. It was that differeence between them, perhaps, which led to Ouspensky's separation from Gurdjieff even though he continued to promulgate many of G's ideas and methods. I am re-reading Gary Lachman's excellent and readable "In Search of P. D. Ouspensky" and enjoying it immensely. The dialectic between the two men is explored tellingly and without much obnoxious condescension or presupposition about what the whole drama really meant. A good writer on such "occult" topics has to leave the occult occult to respect it properly. Lachman generally succeeds at that.

Message for Wednesday 15 March 2017

Wednesday 15 March 2017

~Peaceful Realism~

[At present I am not certain that the usual lunar indications I used to put at the top, with star ratings, are really helpful to anyone, so I am leaving them out. We will see how things go. The sense of futility right now has to do with the aspects mentioned below and I am feeling it--wondering if these forecasts are really helpful to anyone. If you think I am wasting my time, please let me know--there are other things I could be writing.]

The "ides of March" this time includes an increasing two-degree square between the sun and Saturn--always a bummer--with the moon in the Via Combusta until Thursday afternoon--always a dose of uncertainty or malaise. 

So we carry on. Grouchiness can be the mood. I have been guilty of it. Snow or rain or uncomfortable clammy cold can be the weather, as it is for many on both North American coasts, for example. With Luna also opposite Mars today, disagreements on some matters could be intense.

We have only two more weeks of the Bright Hermetic Epoch, and with the Dark beginning on the 27th (a Monday) we can only hope some of the "work" on the medical care bill is finished by then, else it may slip and slide into chaos for another two months (the DHE will last until May 21). With all the skepticism about government everywhere, one wonders whether or not the DHE might be a blessing, it it means that peculiarly self-defeating plans and proposals go nowhere. We shall see (if we are able to see at all what is going on in Washington or anywhere, an increasing problem it seems to me. Does the Information Age mean just Useless Information?). 

But don't despair, the coming two-month DHE does not mean gloom in regard to life in general, just a slowdown in rationally motivated and organized planning. The softer, easier side of life can go well at those times if other factors are helpful.

We turn to the symbols for Wednesday, for believe it or not I have found them to be the most reliable indicators of daily trends, even when hard to interpret:

~Truth and goodness may reside within the breast of a revolutionary, but also within the breast of the conservative folk he is trying to change. Then what? The spectacle continues. At the current time, neither revolution nor conservatism mean what they might have meant in other periods. Meanwhile the good people who chop wood, grow orchards and tend sheep or herds may have the real secret of a happy life.

Charubel fingers the egotist: "He will never utter a good word for anyone, and will never acknowledge merit. There is no one so great as himself." Remind you of anyone? (In a room of 20, maybe 19?) Finesse is needed to discriminate among individuals, because their influences on one's own destiny may be divided into various contradictory rays. "He or she makes that harder for me; but helps me with this."

There is a trend toward adventure, company, and changes. Those who participate may have exaggerated opinions of themselves, or may idealize others involved, which is healthier. Courage along with faithfulness to ideals and to special individuals make the way happier.

Caring and generosity cure many ills. This could be specially true when there has been grief or sadness requiring that someone reorient his or her life without someone previously relied upon. Disappointment cannot be allowed to become discouragement. Someone kindly and beautiful in spirit whom you appreciate is there for you, invisibly or visibly, to give you hope for coming blessings.

{Wednesday} ~Peaceful Realism~

Cosmic Piper

Channeling and cooperating with Charubel (John Thomas), the unknown Signor Borelli, Sepharial (Walter Gorn Old), Elsie Wheeler, Marc Edmund Jones, and Whomever the former may have channeled. 

Goodbye, or Hello, or Whatever . . .

Monday, March 13, 2017  10:12 PM

I am wondering if there is anything left for the human race. I am not sure there is. Perhaps our planet is ready to be dissolved?

I have struggled since 1999 when I got my first computer to write daily "forecasts," now called "messages," based on astrology, and it appears that out of the billions of human beings on the planet, to whom they are all available for free, there are approximately five who care to read them and think about them.

I had said that I would write them even if no one but G*d and myself read them, and I did that for many years (it is now almost eighteen years). (Eighteen years happens to be the period of a complete cycle of the zodiac by the moon's nodes.)

I shall continue to set up the daily charts, as long as G*d allows me to have a computer, program, and a printer which prints them, but it appears nobody else is worthy of them but G*d and myself, so those are the only two who will read them.

I shall post here, for the ghosts who might visit this site, some other musings, either astrological or non-astrological, in case anyone cares. I doubt it.

I think that the human race has perhaps passed its peak? Do you have any evidence to the contrary?

I find that out of the billions of people on the planet only a few thousand care to study the writings of Sri Aurobindo, and less than a hundred (the actual figure) care to study the writings of Marc Edmund Jones, and these are the two most intelligent individuals who lived on this planet during the twentieth century. So it appears that humanity is finished.

We could maybe just watch TV series for the rest of our lives--I just watched two episodes in one of them--and wait for the end of the human race, however it comes, either with a bang or a whimper.

Do you have another plan? I would be happy to hear it.

I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, but I do not know what He has in mind for the human race. Perhaps he is as weary of it as I am? Can the blood he shed continue to save us even when we no longer believe in it, or in Him? I doubt it. His blood will not cover us unless we read, study, and ponder His words. I do that every day. Do you?

What then is your own personal plan for the salvation of humanity?

We need to keep studying and thinking, and only the deeply spiritual teachers and writers are worthy of study. Among them are the writers of the Psalms (there are 150 of them) and the writers of the four Gospels: Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John (there are 89 chapters). Studying them every day might be your own individual salvation.

I have studied many other teachings and systems. Among the writers I might recommend are: First, Sri Aurobindo. Mary Baker Eddy. Charles Fillmore (an esoteric Christian who founded the Unity movement). Hegel the supreme philosopher. If you were to begin with those, you would probably be led to others who might help you. Some of them I shall not mention because I believe no one can find them through a recommendation from someone else. It has to be an individual discovery.

As for Marc Edmund Jones, whom I mentioned before, very few (one out of ten million) are able to read or understand him.

The same is true of Hegel, of course. It was said in his day that only three individuals on the planet understood him. I doubt that it is any more than that in 2017.

So, watch your TV series and movies. Maybe that is all you are capable of. I do it almost every evening, and feel ashamed, and yet I also get some thrill and some illunination from doing so. Every human being, including the authors and directors and actors in the TV series and movies, has some intuition or awareness of the Supreme and of His plan. It is masked of course. Even I have some insight and intution, perhaps. That is why I shall continue to write and post here even if no one reads. As for the daily forecasts, perhaps they were too strictly bound in system and formula to be helpful and this more liberated method of just saying what comes to be will be more helpful to you, me, and all. Or not. Let me know.

Do I talk as if words alone were our salvation? Perhaps that is because I was born with Jupiter in the sign Gemini. If you get your salvation from something else--working, giving, counseling, talking, sharing, instructing, taking care of a famly, dancing, performing music, listening to music, hatha yoga, athletics, finance and philanrhopy, or whatever--may that salvation be real for you. I get it mostly through study and thinking and meditation.

So we all have different paths, and that is a given. I knew that when I started writing the daily forecasts in 1999. I had hoped that I could articulate something here in the daily "forecasts,' recently re-christened as "messages," which might appeal to anyone in any walk of life or of any background or predilection. Perhaps I was actually doing that, and nobody except five people in the world told me that I was doing it. I don't feel that five is enough, I am sorry to say. Maybe I am greedy? I want adulation? Maybe I am a great sinner. Only G*d knows about that.

Anyway it seems that a wholly different approach is needed, and that I am beginning today. It will be more wordy. I am a thinker and the only way I know to communicate my thoughts is the English language. If you can read that and choose to do so, you are welcome and I would be happy to hear your responses to what I am impelled to say.

I have to say a lot, and then more, and then a lot more, because the Truth is infinite, and we are all beginners in approaching it. So let us be the Fool and the innocent child and the Nowhere Man.

Hugh Howard Higgins
(formerly Cosmic Piper)

Goodbye

From now on I post no "forecasts" here because nobody cares about them. I shall write my own unedited opinions, and if you don't like them, go somewhere else, please.

Guys, I am finished with posting Messages here. I posted one five hours ago and no one has "liked" it or commented on it. Obviously I am barking up the wrong tree. Have a good life.

Message for Tuesday 14 March 2017

Tuesday 14 March 2017

}Struggling Toward the Crown{

Moon in Libra   ***

At least I can say, no matter what the problems, there is more energy than in recent days, and thank Heaven for that. 

Sun square Saturn, in winter months, always brings bitter or difficult weather, as in the East of the U. S. today. I have been feeling it too in Seattle, which has for the past month been trying hard to live up to its reputation as the capital of rain, and this time of snow as well, and bitter damp cold. I attribute some of this to Neptune in Pisces, its own sign, the sign of the ocean and of oceanic elements of experience as wetness; but even more, the sun-Saturn square. When does it ease? I might say, technically but hypothetically, by March 24, or a few days earlier, maybe even near the first day of Spring next Monday the 20th. However, shortly after that we will have Venus going backward and squaring that same Saturn all the way through April. I place no bets on the weather. Let's look to the weather of our own thoughts and feelings, which we control. "We call on Thee whenever storm-clouds gather" sings Elvis Presley on Spotify as I write. And just after that, Lana Del Ray sings "God Knows I Tried." (I wonder how many others listen to both Elvis and Lana on the same playlist?)

Now the music is off (miss you, Lana) so I can get down to the brass tacks of the daily Symbols for Tuesday:

People wonder, when they try to be truthful and fair, why things go so slowly or they seem to profit so little. We need to be careful that we do not stir up wrath against ourselves unwittingly by displeasing others who are aspects of the One.

Those who traduce or slander others--which has become almost the fashion in political discourse for the past year--are in danger of minimizing themselves rather than those from whom they detract. Those who would reform others must look to themselves, or the purge they design for their enemies will turn to be their own. Being careless about their own duties adds to the degradation.

Everyone has a lonesome side and it may be evident today. "I don't fit in, so I'll be myself." Does that mean one can lord it over others? Unlikely, or if so there is a fierce term limit. Rather one ought to idealize someone whom one respects deeply. Then the crown one gains will not be a selfish delusion but one offered from Above where ideals originate.

The spirit of giving takes form even in regard to plants, birds, pets, or wild animals. Being a giver, one feels good about one's prospects; faith in one's own pot of gold increases, leading to the end of the rainbow. Fostering a gentle and amiable disposition, one manifests true beauty.

{Tuesday} {Struggling Toward the Crown}

Cosmic Piper

Message for Monday 13 March 2017

Monday 13 March 2017

}Escape or Shared Reality{

Moon in Libra  

|Karmically difficult or sobering third| of this week continues  ** |

until ending at 9:56p PT | 12:56a(Tu) ET | 4:56a(Tu) UT   ***

[Times given now are in Daylight Savings Time except for Universal Time, now four instead of five hours later than EDT.]

There are a lot of good indications. There are good people. They want to do what is right. They are reformers not by haranguing people but by being examples; they are philanthropists in the true not the show-off sense. Then they also gather together some goodness of life to share among intimates.

Have you not been considering complex or labyrinthine ideas or methods? There is nothing wrong with that in essence. The world does seem a labyrinth. Yet there is also a need to focus on the "island of living" which is yours, your home or bailiwick, and keep it cultivated pleasingly. This saves you from embarrassment and you will feel better when you conquer the laziness of sloppy housekeeping or office-keeping.

Strong sympathies make one impressionable, almost mediumistic. Then one may feel like flying off somewhere to escape the intensity of human thoughts and feelings swirling around one. Then there is a desire for escape into ease, perhaps to relax scantily clothed while dreaming of sensual pleasures. 

Getting back to a childlike friendliness is good, sharing what one has with all creatures and human beings, hopeful that the seasons of the year are bringing us better weather and happier possibilities. One's family or extended family is enough for one's care; by serving it one serves the world.

{Monday}   {Escape or Shared Reality}

Cosmic Piper

From Sri Aurobindo:

186. The contributions of evil to the good of the world & the harm sometimes done by the virtuous are distressing to the soul enamoured of good. Nevertheless be not distressed nor confounded, but study rather & calmly understand God's ways with humanity.

187. In God's providence there is no evil, but only good or its preparation.

--Thoughts and Aphorisms

Messages for Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 March 2017

Saturday 11 March 2017

\Mysteries of Loneliness and Connection/

Moon in Virgo   ***

|Karmically difficult or sobering third| of this week begins at 12:49p PT | 3:49p ET | 8:49p UT   ** |

(through Monday)

People feel isolated and reserved, not in sympathy with what is happening around them. Living alone, however, is not really possible. One can take flights of fancy, or be as insouciantly independent as possible. Yet even wild geese flock together impelled by something they can't analyze.

Maybe you have saved enough to be exorbitant in eating and enjoying yourself. Self-indulgence to a degree may be harmless, if it is not utter carelessness.

In love (or what passes for it in the realm of physical passions) one or another lies prostrate before the other, enjoying, as it were, the dependence or prostration. Then a deeper form of mutual fulfillment can arise through solicitude and care for each other. 

Transforming changes around one may present sharp issues, so that then one can discharge the strain through a transforming action-response. When the storm calms one knows better where one is and how to be helpful to others who are dependent somehow, or childlike whether they realize it or not.

{Saturday}  /Mysteries of Loneliness and Connection\

Sunday 12 March 2017

\Cautious Optimism/

Moon in Virgo--Libra

Full Moon of Pisces-Virgo is exact at 6:55a PT | 9:55a ET | 2:55p UT

|Karmically challenging or sobering third| of this week continues (until Tuesday)   ** |

/moon goes void-of-course at 6:37p PT | 9:37p ET | 2:37a(M) UT   * / |

Caution is wise, because in addition to the |difficult third| there are other warning-indications. Events may be sudden and unexpected. Yet there is optimism, even a hopefulness believing in better things coming this Spring. 

One wants to speculate on what look like reliable probabilities, but "probabilities" are by definition not utterly reliable. So it is well to aim high yet keep one's eyes on the ground ahead. Being domestic and sociable in a simple manner has good results. 

{Sunday} /Cautious Optimism\

Cosmic Piper

Message for Friday 10 March 2017

Friday 10 March 2017

\Resourceful Determination/

Moon in Leo-->Virgo   ***

/moon void-of-course at 9:07a PT | 12:07p ET | 5:07p UT   ** /

until it enters Virgo at 2:08p PT | 5:08p ET | 10:08p UT   ***

We are moving into the high consciousness of the Full Moon (exact on Sunday). There is striving for power and concentration on goals. There is love of freedom through revolutionary ideas. There is a shakeup in gurus or spiritual guides (Jupiter opposing Uranus), although this can be going back to some guide one trusts but seeing him or her in a fresh light which seems revolutionary ("Now I see what he meant by that!").

Destructive acts or attitudes can be nullified; made less upsetting. We drop what does not harmonize with hallowed purposes. This could be important, because some with black-magical powers could use them cruelly. This happens half-consciously or unconsciously in some TV shows, movies, and fiction or drama. The sadistic creator of sadistic stories or characters is, without knowing it, being manipulated by evil geniuses who want in turn to manipulate us who watch the sickly malignant drama. Cruelty is the worst evil. There is too much of it. It is better to turn every iota of your superphysical energy toward the Good, toward appreciating and aiding others and yourself. Evil can ultimately destroy only itself.

One gets out of adversities through faith in true religious or spiritual teaching until one realizes it in one's experience. This requires vigilance. There is a focus on solid endeavor for income or for more intangible gain, when one sees carelessness for what it is.

Determination and direction of force needs to be allied with what is true; aimed toward manifesting the best. Faith in the friendliness of the universe, of animals, even machines, and persons, evokes kindly solicitude for all beings. This is not sappy but directed toward tangible orderliness.

Resourcefulness comes from staying with an unswerving course of action. We want to believe that we will attain dignity, honor, and success. Why not, when the purity of our background and motives cleanses us from wasteful error and carries us forward drawing on illimitable depths. 

{Friday} /Resourceful Determination\

Cosmic Piper

Message for Thursday 9 March 2017

Thursday 9 March 2017

^Honest Duck Will Become Swan^

Moon in Leo  ****

Labor is not to be shunned. It tests and strengthens us. We may get angry at impediments and reject them impetuously. This may not hurt anyone or ourselves, but punctuate our lives with self-assurance. 

A preacher, teacher, guru, or messenger from angels is important to you. A lack of caution or alertness could make you too dreamy, listless, or lazy. So it is well to hear the message coming to your inner consciousness and act upon it.

It is wise not to get lost in too many far-fetched quests. It is good to be open-minded, but not to be fickle and changeful. Someone virile and decisive could benefit you. At the other pole of things, being kind and solicitous to someone is a cure for your own ills or confusions.

For some, honors come only in the later stages of their lives. Meanwhile they have to act as if they were just ducks in the pond with the other ducks--before they find out they are swans. We cannot lose rewards for which we have fitted ourselves.

{Thursday} ^Honest Duck Will Become Swan^

Cosmic Piper

P. S.  From Swami Sathya Sai Baba:  Giving up the little ‘I’ is the true meaning of renunciation (Tyaga). Tyaga does not mean running away from the hearth and home into the jungle. It means sublimating every thought, word and deed as an offering to God and saturating all acts with Divine intent. This is the best spiritual practice to cultivate selfless love. Love gives for ever, it never asks another to give. Shower it, and you will be showered in return. Selfless love thrives on renunciation, they are inseparable. The essential reality of a human being rejects the ego as a blemish. When you sincerely investigate into the question, “Who am I”, you will find that everyone is included in ‘I’, and your love will expand limitlessly. Ego should not be allowed to express itself freely, as it smothers the spring of love. God is love, so all things created by God are filled with love.

Message for Wednesday 8 March 2017

Wednesday 8 March 2017

^Curing Conflict by Perspective and Reliability^

Moon in Cancer--Leo   ***

/moon goes void-of-course at 7:00a PT | 10:00a ET | 3:00p UT   ** /

until it enters Leo at 8:47a PT | 11:47a ET | 4:47p UT   ***

There were mixed signals in yesterday's (Tuesday's) chart, which I tried to explain. The T square formed by the moon was "heavy" for me--I had a difficult and challenging day but by prayer, spiritual study and divine help things worked out. I wondered for a while if I would even be able to write this forecast, because of technical problems. Informed prayer can solve even those, it appears. And I am grateful.

Wednesday looks a little less difficult (although I am leery of making promises). By late afternoon and evening Luna will be broadly trine Venus, which is comforting and socially pleasing.

Poverty, with "a hard life," is a fact for many, although most of you readers will be free of it in its most difficult forms. You may sense it in someone else, sympathetically. Loss of income, or loss in one's professional life, may threaten, yet be defused. 

Some have their hardest trials in youth, and are relatively healthy and comforted in maturity. Yet for all, carelessness and lack of caution can lead to loss. So it is well to remember the lessons most learn during their youthful striving years.

Interpreting the symbols for the degrees--which have proved their accuracy over the years--I sometimes have to lighten them, for their worst forms appear only in the lives of those whose karma is heavy. "Two daggers crossed," representing "wounding," is a harsh one, which I take as suggesting that differing opinions or other disagreements require (a) a legalistic sense of how to cope with such differences successfully plus (b) an attempt to see the other's viewpoint and so defuse (or de-dagger) the situation. A solicitude for others' well-being goes far to remove causes of conflict. Then one may feel that one is something like "a child giving birds a drink at a fountain."

One could move from obscurity toward prominence, although some, having attained prominence, prefer to retreat to obscurity. That could be specially true if they see the spiritual ideals for which they have suffered working out as realities within the growth of humanity. Then, their work done, they desire to be out of the limelight. They know that the world is reliable and sustaining to those younger souls who accept the cosmic ordering as it organizes their lives and those of their neighbors if they just do what makes sense and comes naturally.

{Wednesday}  ^Curing Conflict by Perspective and Reliability^

Cosmic Piper

P. S.  176. When I look back on my past life, I see that if I had not failed & suffered, I would have lost my life's supreme blessings; yet at the time of the suffering & failure, I was vexed with the sense of calamity. Because we cannot see anything but the one fact under our noses, therefore we indulge in all these snifflings and clamours. Be silent, ye foolish hearts! slay the ego, learn go see & feel vastly & universally.

177. The prefect cosmic vision & cosmic sentiment is the cure of all error & suffering; but most men succeed only in enlarging the range of their ego.

179. Live for God in thy neighbour, God in thyself, God in thy country & the country of they foeman, God in humanity, God in tree & stone & animal, God in the world & outside the world, then art thou on the straight path to liberation.

--Sri Aurobindo, Thoughts and Aphorisms

Message for Tuesday 7 March 2017

Tuesday 7 March 2017

~Calming Impetuous Tensions~

Moon in Cancer   ***

The moon forming a grand square in cardinal signs, and other indications, suggest fighting or disagreeing. (I give "negative predictions" like that only to warn you against such tendencies. so you can find some way of transmuting them.) People feel impetuous and want to "blow up" something they don't like or believe in, but probably find that their anger does not really harm anyone.  

There are strategies for remaining true to a group, a religious or spiritual path, or allies. You may perceive what they are. It is wise to prevent carelessness in regard to money or possessions.

Getting ahead of oneself could lead to something like a catastrophe, and so it is wise to curb one's impatience. A creative concern for other people is a remedy for much potential folly--that is, a kindness and givingness.

There are some sublime indications, with Luna trining the Pisces planets: Something like the harmonies of a celestial choir. We all need such harmonizing overtones to lift us beyond pointless worry. We get our rewards, eventually, for what we have done and suffered.  There could be surprising or unusual pleasures, especially if one does not seek them too strenuously.

{Tuesday}  ~Calming Impetuous Tensions~

Cosmic Piper

Message for Monday 6 March 2017

Monday 6 March 2017

~Wise Choice Enabled~

Moon in Cancer

|Karmically difficult or sobering third| of this week continues until Tuesday morning

** |

This is the day that Mercury conjoins the sun while going fast-forward, in other words, it is the very center of the Bright Hermetic Epoch. I always say at these times that you may be exactly "on" in your thinking and planning, so you can trust whatever your methods are--whatever you have figured out for yourself. If you have been trying to decide on certain things, approaches, methods, techniques, schedules, and so on, you might want to write down today or tomorrow what you have found out and decided upon. You are likely to be in tune with your deeper self and best destiny.

Business can be handled carefully and well. Although we remain in the |difficult third| of this week (based on the Luna-Saturn cycle), there could be good happenings socially if one is sensitive to the deeper feelings and worries of people. Fun and friendliness could help to rescue them from moroseness. There can be peaceful insight.

A parental figure is important, anchoring you. We all want something deep and lasting (the Pisces emphasis, plus Venus retrograde).

{Monday} ~Wise Choice Enabled~

Cosmic Piper

Messages for Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 March 2017

Saturday 4 March 2017

}Re-Enlistment in Purpose{

Moon in Gemini [beginning at 2:07a PT | 5:07a ET | 10:07a UT; v-of-c in Taurus (** /) before that]

***

|Karmically difficult or sobering third| of this week begins at 9:15p PT | 12:15a(Su) ET | 5:15a(Su) UT (until Tuesday)   ** |

Since you have a mission to accomplish, you are impatient with those who would impede it. You cut through obstacles with convinced determination. If this requires careful, accurate measurement or study, you do not shrink from it. Drilling yourself and others to make things more precise is a good thing. 

One could feel lost, even at home; needing to re-enlist in some responsibility which will make life solid and satisfying once it is carried out again. Some who attain high success fall from their position through presumption and resulting decadence. It is important to maintain family and other traditions which have put one where one is. Emotions and thoughts mingle in a heady stew of semi-sexual feelings and impulses which can open a door to revelations of fulfilling purpose.

Going where one wishes to go is quite possible. One could make interesting discoveries. The world is friendly to those who see it clearly. Your incisive force drives you on a distinct, direct path, undeterred by clouds of doubt. You have made a place in life and maintain it by singing your distinctive melody. 

Pruning plants or trees symbolizes cutting back on endeavors which would waste time and substance. Then you will feel you have made yourself ready to rule and command from a place of security. You reformulate opportunities you have lost, rather than just pitying yourself. The mistakes were just to teach you something, and once you have learned it you are ready for new adventures, re-established in self-confidence. 

{Saturday} {Re-Enlistment in Purpose}

Sunday 5 March 2017

}Self-Assured Recovery from Drift{

Moon in Gemini   

|Karmically challenging or sobering third| of this week continues (until Tuesday)   ** |

Some people dream of the past and the future, not doing much of value in the present. Or is that just a careless release they need temporarily? Meanwhile there seems much to argue about and disagree with. Rather, one could tune in to a flow of inspiration which grants ingenuity to meet unusual developments everywhere. 

Modest individuals, unassuming, willing to work at unglamorous tasks, are good people providing the needs of others. Some however may seem lazy, because they are lonely; or are they lonely because they are lazy? Feeling lost, they cling to whatever they can. Lacking applause, they could learn to rest secure in their own creativity, independent of support, while refusing to become disillusioned by lack of recognition or attention. 

{Self-Assured Recovery from Drift}

Cosmic Piper

Message for Friday 3 March 2017

Friday 3 March 2017

\Invisibly Equipped/

Moon in Taurus   ***

/moon goes void-of-course at 7:21a PT | 10:21a ET | 3:21p UT   ** /

Things are quite mysterious. But what are "things"? That is one of the mysterious questions. Pisces (wherein Mercury, Neptune and the sun are tightly conjoined) is the sign of questioning, of wondering, and therefore of mystical insight which penetrates to truths beyond verbal formulas. Since also the moon is void-of-course, we may be either perplexed, wondering if anything at all makes any sense, or, if prepared by spiritual training, able to sense marvelous truths beyond words, realities both visionary and musical, "Magic of the boundless harmonies of self, Order of the freedom of the infinite" in the mantric poetry of Sri Aurobindo. 

There could be prosperity shared or enjoyed in tasteful ways.

One could attain to a high position, either literally or more likely in mind, memory and anticipation. Consciousness is reality. Erotic attractions have their lure and their sting, or else stimulate toward something ineffable and loving beyond them.

Rustic and simple work is the support of humanity on the economic level and is never to be despised. An earnest soul makes good use of his or her bodily powers. Singing silently or aloud while working shows that energies of higher planes are involved in and supportive of the labor.

Brilliant ideas or discoveries are possible, even if, or especially when, one feels outcast and isolated. One is equipped with more than one needs, regardless of momentary loss or helplessness, and can choose out of a liberality of invisible gifts from On High.

{Friday}   /Invisibly Equipped\

Cosmic Piper

Message for Thursday 2 March 2017

Thursday 2 March 2017

\Providing Relief/

Moon in Taurus   ***

Luna is happily placed in Taurus, and her aspects are smooth today. There should be some release of recent pressures. Realism and good vision are with us as Mercury approaches the sun at the center of the Bright Hermetic Epoch, so we can plan and arrange things wisely. 

Someone reserved and studious may have devious motives or secretly harm others. It is good to be systematic in finding the truth. We can put strife and warfare behind us, and be living examples of what is best in past human leadership.

The part of you which is a natural commander or ruler is fortifying itself and finding allies. You maintain your dignity and position. Sexual impulses are put in their best place so that they reveal possibilities rather than drag into entanglement. 

Whatever expands your mind keeps you seeking and learning. You want to guard and cherish someone extremely important to you. The two of you circle around a common center. Together you sing your individual songs of life in harmony.

Someone who begs may disturb you yet benefit you indirectly. People who are lost feel isolated and hopeless, famished physically or emotionally and needing help. There are ways to aid them through heightened sensibilities aware of their promise and of one's own. 

{Thursday} /Providing Relief\

Cosmic Piper