The Moon will light up the early morning sky in her full glory on Sat., August 9, at 3:55am Eastern Time. Those humans who have watched the skies for patterns since the dawn of time have noticed some things about this part of the sky. One of the things they have noticed is that when the Moon moves among this particular grouping of stars, our listening tends to sharpen.
This past month I had the great good fortune to spend a week camped in the redwoods of the Santa Cruz mountains. While there, I heard things I am not usually able to hear – both literally and figuratively speaking.
At about day three, my system had wound down enough from the frenzied way I had been conducting my life, and began to attune to the natural world around me. My body, my speech, my gait, my thoughts, all slowed way down.
When I am really present to the life surging through the veins of the natural world around me, I drop beneath the layer of human concern.
Doing this requires letting go of what my thoughts are demanding I give my attention to, which is why it’s much easier to do when you’re not attending to daily life, and much easier to do with the help of the natural world (which doesn’t operate at the level of human thought). Most of us don’t drop beneath this layer except maybe in meditation, or in some peak human experiences, yet we know it is possible to live this way and still be perfectly functional in the world we humans have created. Not only can we still be functional, it is arguable that we are more effective at creating true, lasting change for the better, since our actions become aligned with the Way of Nature. We know it is possible to be this deeper layer more often because some who walk among us live at this deeper level, always present to the current moment, always listening to What Is, always immersed in the thrum of the whole. They serve as examples of this distinct possibility available to every human being.
Dropping beneath the layer of human concern requires deprioritizing abstract thought, instead sensing the environment and your relationships within it. The human concern circus consists of abstract thoughts not terribly related to anything except other abstract thoughts that often keep us distracted from the issues important to our heart and soul. This layer of human concern requires constant fabrication. Thoughts that instead come quietly, almost imperceptibly, more as whole body sensing than as abstract thought, originate effortlessly from a different, more embodied place and are usually easier to detect when we ourselves have become quiet. This layer of “thought,” if it can even be called that, very much assists us with the issues important to our heart and soul.
It can be helpful to cross over a threshold to signal to your body, mind, and being that you intend to enter this place beneath or beyond the layer of human concern. Thresholds can be physical, or they can be defined by time. The New Moon is possibly the best time-based threshold for this kind of work during a month, but tomorrow’s Full Moon carries some of this threshold quality due to where it will be traveling in the cosmos. We can use the layer of abstract thought to help us cross the threshold by entertaining the fabricated thought, “At this Full Moon, I will drop beneath the layer of human concern, in order to see what is revealed to me.” By doing so, you will cross a threshold at the Full Moon, instructing your body, mind, and being to prioritize whatever you discover there.
My suggestion to you is to listen deeply at this Full Moon. Spend an hour outside doing as close to nothing as you can. Sit in the presence of a tree, or a bug, or a plant, or another other-than-human being. Watch your breathing and body slow down. Watch your thoughts transpose from the buzzing, jagged ticker tape octave to a deeper octave, more akin to a river or a stream.
From this place, listen. Listen deeply. Listen deeply to discover your deeper intentions laid bare. Spend some time at this layer of causality, marveling, giving thanks, and making any prayers for change in the way the Earth greets each new, morning Sun – as the whole universe dancing.
The planetary weather surrounding this Full Moon:
Exact conjunction between retrograde Saturn and retrograde Neptune opposite Mars:
The mango tree in our back yard illustrates this transit so beautifully. After a prolific season of fruit, our tree suddenly began dropping its leaves, showing signs of sickness and decay. Quite in the midst of all this, a batch of new leaves sprouted from the bare branches, displaying the uncontainable creativity of life to renew itself.
Right now in our world we are at a collective rite of passage where much fruiting of the old collective human organism is behind us, and after the fruit, we see bare branches, exposing the sickness of the organism. Simultaneously, we are turning a new leaf, creating a new season for the human organism. This new season is based in the old – what comes before defines the possibility of what comes next. Sickness surges but then eventually recedes, only to surge again, in tune with the inevitable cycle of becoming.Sun in Ashlesha conjunct retrograde Mercury while Moon in Shravana is conjunct retrograde Pluto:
Your listening will be captivated by something important, compelling, revealing. Best to decide you’ll train your attention to something actually important to your heart and soul, rather than to what any random force decides what is important for you.Jupiter Venus together in Ardra, rising:
An abundance of identities, all vying for attention, giving rise to the question, which of these paths do I take since I can’t take them all? This might look like having too much to do, or having an embarrassing number of social circles that all want your engagement this weekend, or having too many media options you want to ingest. Enjoying each for the joy they bring, being in admiration of the abundance, letting the options inform you through contrast and comparison, and mourning (or at least acknowledging/ marking) the ones you let go – this is the fun and the social anxiety of this particular combination.