Not One Thing or the Other.

Jupiter and Saturn are in opposition tomorrow.

Not being an astrologer (but certainly agreeing with the influencing of these huge bodies on our planet) I don't know much about what this means and, until recently, I didn't understand the nature of 'in opposition' until Eric Francis explained it.

It seems that when planets are in opposition to Earth they are positioned either side of us, Earth sitting in the middle. (In conjunction would therefore mean that we all line up - Earth and the influencing planets.) It boggled my mind to think of Earth sitting between Saturn and Jupiter, affected by the relationship between these two extraordinary rotating masses of energy. And it got me thinking.

Most noticeable in my life right now is the wrestling (and therefore nesting) of opposites, such as optimism and pessimism, depression and happiness and so forth and the awareness of how I, as a human, often do not choose my approach to Life (optimism, happiness), it is instead a given, an inheritance. As I awaken to the empowered nature of being alive I am beginning to see how even 'givens' might be un-choosen. Hmm. Well its 4.30am and as yet my command of the English language is sporadic, but you get my drift.

By this I mean, once I see that I am not just the unwitting victim of an inorganic past, I can change how I relate to the world as I change how I was taught to see the world, and therefore how my brain processes the world. This requires personal work which includes the impersonal influences that are always working with this seemingly personal only being that I call Myself.

Ah-ha... you mean Jupiter and Saturn?

Well not only Jupiter and Saturn but yes, thanks for the segue.

Jupiter whose gravitational influence has helped shape the Solar system, along with the Sun, is also believed to play an important protecting role in using its massive gravity to capture or expel from the solar system many comets and asteroids that would otherwise threaten Earth and the inner planets.

Astrologically, Jupiter is associated with the principles of growth, expansion, prosperity, and good fortune. It is also associated with the urge for freedom and exploration, humanitarian and protecting roles (oh, and with gambling and merrymaking, woohoo!). Described as temperate, benign and the greater benefic, it is regarded as warm and moist in nature, and therefore favorable to life.

Saturn is the second largest planet in the Solar System after Jupiter. Because of Saturn's large mass and resulting gravitation, the conditions produced on Saturn are extreme. The interior pressures and temperatures are beyond what can be reproduced experimentally on Earth.

Astrologically, Saturn is associated with the principles of limitation, restrictions, boundaries, practicality and reality, crystallizing, and structures. Saturn governs ambition, career, authority and hierarchy, and conforming social structures. Considered sad, morose, and cold, it is the greater malefic and symbolizes processes and things that are dry and cold, and therefore inimical to life. The famous rings of the planet Saturn that enclose and surround it, reflect this principle of man's limitations.

The glyphs for Jupiter and Saturn are similar, the 'crescent above the cross' and the 'crescent below the cross' respectively.

So, are you still with me?

We have moons of Jupiter and rings of Saturn, extreme planetary conditions and favorable planetary conditions, protection and adversity, benefic and malefic influences.

We have in my mind at least, the comparable Chesedic and Gevuric associations of Everflow and Boundaries according to the Etz Chaim and study of Kabbalah, (as influenced by Jason Shulman so perhaps not as traditional as Wikipedia lays it out).

And, as I stated in the beginning, we are about to be sitting directly between these two seemingly opposing forces.

My experience of being between opposing forces is that I need to chose one or the other; there is a lineage aspect here and also the truly human aspect of - from the perspective of my egoic self - not being able to tolerate dissonance, wrestling and opposition without the knee jerk reflex of siding one way or the other. (Much the same way as I can't tolerate electric shock treatment without violent muscular spasms. OK, a little dramatic.)

So as I wondered about the coming affects of Monday and my own tendencies towards a more Saturnine attitude to Life, and thus the natural progression in thinking about movement towards 'the other' - that is, that during Monday's opposition I might be cleansed of my pessimistic attitudes and find a more jovial outlook (forever) - it occurred to me that the more important aspect, or lesson, of Monday is about the not choosing one thing to the exclusion of the other. (We can't actually, but yet we believe we can and that life is made up of this or that, you or me, here or there, life or death and so on. It's an illusion and a persistent one.) What we may come to understand is that the affect of Jupiter-Saturn opposition lies in the relationship between Jupiter and Saturn and not their separate influences pulling us this way or that. That in fact the opposition is a 'something else' that occurs when the two planets line up and is comprised of their relationship, including all of what they are and yet different.

And even as we are influenced by this specific unified energy, we are also learning the nature of relating objects and how the world is made up of these 'other things', not this or that or even this and that, but the relationship between this and that. Something else entirely even as it includes the this and the that.

Ultimately it may not be so much about choice in the either/or context, which continues to separate the world up into packages of this and that, but the growing realization that this and that, you and me, yes and no are not real in the separate way we have been taught to see them and therefore we do not have to choose between them. One thing is not one thing only, it's the relationship between what we call this and that and there are no separate only entities anywhere. Not even as a You or a Me.

This is, I believe, an aspect of non-duality in its immanent form.

So, did I make my point. Any point? It feels like a meandering post, one where the punch line was such a long time in coming that most of my audience drifted off to see the bearded lady and other more interesting freak show exhibits. No?

Good. Have a great Monday.