The New Moon in Fixed Fire on the 4th of August at 12:13 pm BST, biquintile Saturn and Ceres, tridecile Chiron, trioctile Neptune and sextile Mars and Jupiter (in conjunction with Aldebaran and opposed Antares)
Artist unknown, quote from Hafiz
Beneath a sky drained of colour Little Spirit found herself wandering aimlessly through a shadowy expanse, twisted thoughts spinning around her head, heart heavy, desire thwarted, her hope seemed to have withered away. The once vibrant spark within her felt dim and fragile, consumed by the blackness of her sorrowful suffering as her hands chafe beneath the clouds of what could have been.
“Why must I endure this pain?” she cried out into the void.
In response to her plea, a soft, radiant glow began to emerge from the darkness. It grew brighter and warmer, revealing a graceful Presence who seemed to embody the essence of the stars themselves. Her presence was serene and comforting, and as she approached, Little Spirit felt a flicker of hope ignite within her.
“Why are you here?” Little Spirit asked, her voice trembling with curiosity.
Radiant Spirit smiled gently, her luminous verdant eyes full of understanding. “I am here to help you remember,” she softly replied, her timbre a soothing balsam to Little Spirit’s aching soul. “To remind you of the inner light that resides within you, even in your darkest moments.”
Little Spirit looked up, her eyes filled with tears. “But why do I suffer so deeply?” she asked. “I was doing the Work. I had set my intentions. I was clear with my vision. And I thought I had the gold in my hands, and yet all has been washed from me and my heart aches with unfulfilled desire?”
Radiant Spirit knelt beside Little Spirit, Her light embracing her like a warm, comforting blanket. “All suffering stems from desire,” she began. “Desire is the root of all pain, for it ties your happiness to outcomes and external circumstances. When these desires are not met, you feel a void within, a sense of loss and despair.”
“Is it wrong to want and hope?” Little Spirit asked, her voice trembling.
Radiant Spirit smiled gently. “Desire itself is not wrong, Little Spirit. It is a natural part of being. Yet when your desires are anchored in the Sea of Passion, they create attachments that lead to suffering. Desire comes from hunger and not from the Heart. Desire is not lOve, but longing and possessiveness. But when your heart is filled with com-passion, those desires no longer bind you to the Wheel, and are transformed into a substance – lOve.”
“How do I transmute my desires?” blurted Little Spirit, eager to learn.
Radiant Spirit placed a hand over Little Spirit’s heart, a warm glow spreading from her touch. “Turn inward and connect with your heart,” she instructed. “Feel the love and compassion that reside within you. When you align no longer desire, but can feel your heart’s purest intentions, those hungers cease to be sources of suffering and become expressions of your true self.”
Artist unknown
Little Spirit closed her eyes and took a deep breath, focusing on the warmth spreading through her chest. She felt her heart begin to soften, the tight grip of her desires loosening as she embraced the love within.
“Pain and suffering are teachers,” Radiant Spirit continued. “They reveal the attachments and illusions that bind you. By understanding and embracing your suffering, you can begin to see the deeper truths it holds – to find wisdom and enlightenment through the understanding of pain.”
Little Spirit opened her eyes, a newfound clarity beginning to dawn within her. “So, my suffering is a path to wisdom?” she asked.
“Yes,” Radiant Spirit replied. “Through your suffering, you can learn to let go of attachments and illusions. You can discover the truth of your being and the boundless love that resides within you. When you transmute your desires into the heart, you transform your pain into compassion, your suffering into understanding, and your darkness into light.”
“But I feel so lost and alone,” Little Spirit confessed. “The darkness inside me feels overwhelming. How can I find my light again?”
Radiant Spirit knelt beside Little Spirit, her radiance casting a gentle glow around them. “Close your eyes again,” she instructed softly. “Breathe deeply, but this time feel the air move through your heart.”
Little Spirit did as she was told, and as she focused on her breath, she began to feel a faint, yet comforting warmth growing in the centre of her being. It was as if a tiny ember, long forgotten, had been reignited.
“Your inner light is always with you,” the Radiant Spirit continued. “It cannot be extinguished, for it is a part of the very fabric of your soul. The darkness you feel is not an absence of light, but a veil that obscures it. It is there to help you grow, to teach you the strength of your own spirit. Remember that darkness and light are not enemies. They are partners each giving meaning and purpose to the other. The darkness you experience is a call to turn inward, to nurture and strengthen your inner flame. It is through embracing this balance that you can truly understand and appreciate your own light.”
Artist unknown
As Little Spirit absorbed these words, she felt the darkness around her beginning to soften, she felt her inner light growing stronger, illuminating the shadows that once seemed so daunting.
“Thank you,” Little Spirit said, her voice filled with gratitude. “I understand. My light is not something I need to find outside of myself. It is always within me, waiting to be embraced.”
Radiant Spirit nodded, her smile radiant. “Exactly, Little Spirit. Remember that you are never truly alone. Your inner light connects you to the infinite source of all creation. Whenever you feel lost, turn inward and trust in the strength of your own spirit.”
With these words, Radiant Spirit began to fade, her form dissolving into the surrounding glow. Little Spirit stood beneath a dawning Sun, her heart alight with newfound Hope. The darkness tattooed into her heart’s canvas now washed clean, and as she reached up and pulled down the stars into her inner-sky. No matter how dark her path might become in the time ahead, her inner lights would always guide her, illuminating the way forward with the unwavering starlight of her own soul. Her pain is not an end but a beginning, a path to discovering the true and deeper nature of her being.
***
Fixed Fire – Leo
You do know that within you a light blazes? Veiled by the shroud of your mortal form, your luminous essence is your ‘Sun’, around which so many facets of your reality orbit, just as the planets ‘Sufi’ swirl around Sol, our stellar light, in our solar system.
In astrology the Light Within is known by another term – Leo, which is one of the twelve consciousness dominions that make up humanity’s overall consciousness singularity – a sign that is being rejuvenated during the union of the Celestial Lights on the 4th of August. Comprised of an ethereal element called Fire, or Light, and an internal movement of energy known as Fixity, the zodiacal sign of Leo exists within each living and non-living being. It is that state of awareness that ultimately serves to remind you that you are a spherical star soul, a light being inhabiting a sophisticated biological vehicle – your body!
But you would be forgiven if you have forgotten that, so deep the conditioning has been to separate you from your Light. Aside from a world obsessed with form, this amnesia is a profound mystery as to why it takes place. Perhaps it is merely a sacred act of concealment that allows your soul to embark on the journey of human experience because it is through the challenges and trials of our everyday life that you begin the quest to remember your stellar nature.
Each moment of beauty, each instance of suffering, whispers of your forgotten heritage. The light within, though often dimmed by the relentless pursuit of worldly desires, never truly fades. It flickers, waiting patiently for you to recognise its presence. The distractions of the material world, with their alluring promises, often lead you astray, casting shadows over the innate brilliance of your soul. Yet, in moments of stillness and introspection, you can catch glimpses of our true self, that fragment of Divine Light that resides within.
Desire
Being still is an arduous path amidst the countless distractions of the modern world, many of which are ‘intentionally’ designed to keep you chained to the ever churning wheel, a prisoner of karma and ever feeling separate from your true Divine Nature.
You are ‘encouraged’ to follow your passion, that you deserve a ‘better’ life, and that you are entitled to freely express your desire. Yet all suffering arises from this obsessive pursuit of desire – your ambition or the passion of your soul. A quest stoked by the media, by advertising and by consumer capitalism, you are told that you deserve more, the partner of your dreams, the ideal career and that if you focus enough on those dreams, you can make them manifest.
The focus fuels the ego as it is all about you and what you desire, coaxing your ego to become larger and larger, and to become more entitled. Little time is encouraged to journey inwards and to question who you are and whether what you ‘do’ is reflecting your Divine path.
Art by Nitzotz
Lust is another term for passion, a term more commonly become associated with sexual desire. Lust, however, has more to do with the hunger of the soul to possess and claim for itself something/ someone, a drive placing your ego’s needs above anyone else’s needs. In astrology we associate both desire and lust as being part of the less conscious expression of the planet Mars, a planet active in the fore ground of our collective psyche in recent weeks and seminal to this lunation.
Free from Desire
Buddha’s teachings state that to live is to suffer and the path to enlightenment is the middle way – a path between desire and sacrifice, or self-focus against other-focus. I recall recoiling against that notion when I first read about Buddha, having been reared within the Christian tradition that sees suffering as torment and torture. Yet, there is truth in what Buddha says. As humans we do suffer because of our desires or passions. I know that is strange to state, since passion is seen as a virtue and something that can direct your will to achieve and make manifest your heart’s desire. But if you dig a little deeper into the etymology of the word passion you discover that it literally means ‘to suffer’, and over time, like lust, has become synonymous with sexuality, the ‘original ‘sin’’ of the Christian philosophy causing us to ‘fall’ from Grace and forget our true origins.
But everything has its antonym – a higher, more conscious expression of its telos. Lust is the opponent of love, just as the Watcher of the West, Antares is a ‘higher’ expression of Mars. This stellar being reflects not the passion of the desire nature but the serenity of the heart-nature. Lust is self-focused, arising from the heat of your root. Love on the other hand, arises beyond the heart but is expressed through the heart, a place that can be reached through Ruach, or the sacred breath.
Aldebaran, the Watcher of the East, is the gateway through which the wisdom of the ‘mind’ is opened, and stands directly opposite Antares, reflecting the visions that arise to remind you of your spiritual nature, when you raise up your sexual energy through your heart, via your breath, opening up the pituitary gland, the seat of in-sight. Mars is aligned with Aldebaran during this coming lunation.
The myopic pursuit of passion takes you from your Divine Light, distracts you from truly sustained nourishment, isolating you within yourself and removing you from compassion, a state of being that fosters your interconnectivity, along with heart-centred joy. This is not to say that desires are there to be flagellated from your being. No. As mentioned, the middle ground of recognising the ‘heat’ of desire, channelling it up from its root and directing it through your heart, the physical seat of your Light, is what the path is. It is not an easy journey, as countless daily reinforcements place the emphasis on your ego and the nourishment of your desire nature.
Awakening the Heart-light
This journey of remembering your Divine Nature is the essence of spiritual awakening. As you peel away the layers of forgetfulness, you reconnect with the cosmic origins of your spirit. You can begin to see that the light you seek externally has always been within you, waiting to be kindled into a radiant flame.
Artist unknown
Suffering is not a curse but as a gateway to deeper understanding and growth. Life is not just a series of events but a sacred pilgrimage back to the truth of your stellar essence. Through acts of love, compassion, and mindful presence, you can reignite this inner light, embracing your inherent divinity. The astral-conditions of this forth coming lunation offer you the conscious realisation of enlivening your analeptic memory and supporting you to live free from Desire, if you can take the time to recognise those enemies of your sOul and to breathe them up through your heart, as opposed to acting blindly from them.
Thank you for taking time to listen to Little Spirit and reading a brief explanation of her journey.
Completed on the 29th of July 2024 at 04:43 BST
