It seems to me that the basis of spirituality at this time is learning to live again. By that I mean learning to engage more courageously with life, in all its variety. In the over-crowded conditions of modern life, encouraged by our religious and spiritual education to recognise and hold down what we find to be negative in ourselves, we have become fearful of life and of ourselves. We hold ourselves in, and find a safety in realism, which is imposing the parameters around what is achievable; in forms of spirituality which encourage us to perceive materiality as a trap; and in self –criticism which impose standards of conduct upon ourselves.
None of these constraints is undesirable per se, not now nor at any time in the future. Man cannot be constructive without self-awareness; it is the foundation-stone of all that we stand to achieve in our lives, just as mastery on the material plane releases us to other, higher worlds. We have to know ourselves, collectively and individually, but also we have to balance out the cramping effect upon our minds and our lives of this knowingness formed from how things have been.
We do this through investing in possibility.
After seven years of holding a space for others in Lapland, I have seen how the fear of the unfamiliar has, in so many cases, won out over all other considerations, as if Western Europe and North America will be recognisable landscapes at the start of next year…
Still, that is as it is. The only decision worth making is the one we can make work, and where there is no room for the challenge of the unknown we have to stay with what we have, and the illusions of safety and permanence that it supports.
We do not move on in consciousness without breaking new ground; and amongst the new tricks we old dogs have to learn now is how to become more accepting of the mechanism of learning from our mistakes, which we will surely make if we expose ourselves to the challenge of breaking into new areas of experience. We will not do this if we are too serious about ourselves, or about the process of learning. It is not perfectibility which makes us either useful or interesting to God: that is the remit of the angels. It is the ability to pick up when we have run off the road, to find a new direction and to carry on, which enables mankind to pay its way in the System. Mankind’s way of learning is unstructured, frequently extreme and often dangerous, but it generates intense flashes of light which vitalise worlds higher and lower than our own.
The lily is a symbol of regeneration; and the sweetest flowers will grow on the rankest ponds. The lily is associated with the sign Scorpio, and esoterically, Scorpio governs both the human kingdom and the process of forming the Egoic vehicle which makes Men out of human beings. Many years ago now, Master DK said that a Master has come from the very heart of darkness. Yet I could never share this generous insight without provoking a negative reaction from squeamish people who want everything connected to spirituality ‘to be nice’, because they fear life and do not trust the awesome capacity for regeneration which is contained within in the human experience, because the angels work so hard for us, and because we learn so effectively from the things which cause us to suffer.
So much opportunity in the past decade has been lost by a distaste for the raw materials of experience and for the uncomfortable, often undignified place of needing to find out how to move on. We prefer to plug in and go.
Amongst those with Pluto in Libra (now rising 40 years old), there is a distaste amounting to horror at being considered ‘unready’ and at being addressed as if they have anything yet to learn. Rather than listen they will talk, to prove that they know as much as you. There is no place here for teachers, except perhaps to give endorsement to what they themselves have to say. I am wary of this consensual approach because I can see how readily it is leading to mediocrity. This generation is breaking no new ground. Knowledge is something to be worn in public: fashionable and formulaic, designed
to earn peer approval; and whilst they are catching each other up
in the flattering notion that we are all people of knowledge, what place and recognition are they giving to those who are way out in front in terms of their awareness and understanding and who are not saying the familiar, recognisable, things? But that is for them to find their own way through: they must organise their own learning. My generation, by contrast, has expected too much of its teachers: we wanted them to fix life for us and end our sufferings in a way that spared us the sacrifices involved in doing it for ourselves. Of course they could not do this, and then, we were not always sure if we had a use for them.
All spiritual systems are cages, although that term may be too pejorative for many. Yet if a cage is what keeps the inmate in, and those things which threaten him out, then this is exactly the job we are asking our chosen system to do for us whilst we grow in strength, wisdom and self –reliance, and can deal spontaneously and consciously with all that comes our way. Then we can be released into life.
It is what is going on within the frame, if anything, which is spirituality, not the cage itself. This is often forgotten and we lovingly polish the bars whilst our spirit languishes within them.
The New Age offered many frames, some of them very ornate and intriguing to the inmate, and most very flimsy: preparing us, perhaps for being released into life. Because released we are being as the traditional cages disintegrate. Do not wonder if the spiritual ideas that once inspired you now fall flat. The world is changing and we with it. We have to find new frames to contain us whilst we grow in strength and awareness in this unfamiliar world. The concept of Planetary Service is just such a frame. But perhaps we have become jaded with the shooting up of hope and exhilaration which can accompany the meeting of new ideas, only to find that the flame of inspiration soon subsides into routine. This happened so often when so many new ideas were being released amongst us. It was the price that we paid for having so much made available to us.
Who benefits from a commitment to Planetary service? The Planet, perhaps if we can get our own projections out of the way, truly understand what might assist its processes, and act accordingly; us, without question, if we stay true to our intention to serve and permit it to regulate our time and energy, to become resourceful and to learn more about our Planet.
As our last undertaking before the events at the end of this year, DKF-Koruna will be completing the Vingelot Astrology Programme with Part Three: Astrology and Planetary Service which will focus upon star paths and how we can make ourselves part of energy triads which can assist the process of manifestation upon the material plane.
This will be backed up by a seven day residential teaching event in Lapland, entitled Opening a New Chapter.
In the past five years, DKF-Koruna has run a number of events designed to introduce Lapland and the work to be done here. In truth, most of those attending have been too full of personal anxieties, issues and preoccupations connected to re-locating to be available to the teaching.
That phase is now over. The autumn events represent the final phase of the Koruna Project’s Education Programme which commenced with The Red Letters in 2005. Their aim is to introduce a new kind of knowledge, and the emphasis now is firmly upon the teaching.
There is no charge for the teaching, only for board and transportation. These events are not for astrologers exclusively, but for those with a space to listen, and learn something new from an Initiate.
Suzanne Rough
DKF-Koruna 2012
RDKF – Koruna - Autumn 2012
Opening a New Chapter
A seven day residential teaching event in Lapland for astrologers and non-astrologers An opportunity to view the Northern Lights
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