INTO THE HEARTLAND
There’s a lot going on this month, with the Sun making his way through Libra, Mercury turning retrograde in Scorpio (3rd to 28th October) and not one, but two eclipses (8th and 23rd). The theme for October, as I see it, is relationships peace, balance, reflection, change and transformation.
As I started typing this newsletter, the words from an old Cosby, Stills, Nash and Young song popped into my mind, which really describe the energy in October, for me.
People come and go
Living other lives
Running everywhere at such a speed
Never taking time
To open up their eyes
Never knowing where life leads
Take another breath
Take another chance
Take another look at who you are
And get ready for your life
‘Cause it’s such a crazy dance
So open up and you’ll go far
We’ve been running so far away
From where our lives belong
Will we ever get back to the rhythm of the heartbeat?
Do you ever feel sad
For those whose hearts have turned to stone?
You are not alone
It’s time to take it slow
Time to take a rest
Time to leave the fast lane far behind
Life is hard enough, I know
But you can only do your best
To get it in your hearts and minds
There in the heartland people everywhere
Try to share their hopes and dreams
In the heartland on any given day
You can find your way back home
Take a few moments to click here, close your eyes and listen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FshJSYhHOEg
Many of you know by now, that when Mercury turns retrograde, communications, travel arrangements and electronic data can go seriously awry, so, you’ve got a couple of days – back em up!
However, it’s also an opportunity to… “take a take another breath, take another chance, take another look at who we are”. Mercury will be spending the first part of its retrograde cycle in Scorpio. This is the “rota rooter” transit of the mind, designed to take us deeper than normal, and ferret out those ancient ways of thinking, communicating and reacting that no longer serve us… particularly in terms of our relationship to ourselves and others (Libran influence).
So this month, let’s get those gloves on and dig around a little, find those smelly, musty, dank old corners in our psyches, sweep them out and bring the debris up to the surface.
Some plumbing prompts :
Are the words you utter to yourself and others helpful or harmful; kind or unkind; loving or hateful?
Where do you find yourself trotting out the same old lines, silently or aloud over and over again? … this always happens to me …; I’m a fool or a failure….; This is just the way I am and have always been…; I need to protect myself from getting hurt…; My relationships never work…; Communications between Humphry and I has always been like this….; This will never change…; I’m so sick and tired of X,Y,Z,….; I’m really trying to change this …: Maybe I need to accept that I’ll always be, depressed, tired, unwell, poor (pick your poison)….; I’d love to do this, but I can’t because…..: and a common theme song for many of us… I just can’t seem to be able keep to the promises I make to myself, get fit, give up what doesn’t serve me and do what does.
Over the next few weeks, we all have the opportunity to make honesty our mantra. Why is it that we don’t stick to the promises we make ourselves, but do stick to those we make to others? Why is it that we keep putting off what we know is good for us? Why… really?
Is it perhaps because we don’t really believe we deserve to be healthy, hearty and whole?
What if… we fake it till we make it? What if we said… Just for today, “I’m going to behave as if I really like and honour myself, as if I deserve to be happy, whole and healthy”. How would our lives change?
Mars in Sagittarius is encouraging us to step out of the old hackneyed ways of doing things and change our paradigm completely. I listened to something by Liz Gilbert the other day, where she said our Fears are the most boring things about us and I think I agree. I know that I am mind-numbingly bored with mine.
She went on to say ” We think our fears are precious and special, but they aren’t. We are precious and special, but our fears are not. Fear only ever tells you one thing: STOP. Whereas creativity, courage and inspiration only ever want you to GO. GO = motion = change = fascination = possibility = growth = LIFE. STOP = well, nothing. And nothing is always more boring than something. So…go do something.”
The Lunar eclipse on 8th October is all set to get us going, to catapult us out of the old and into the new, if we allow it to. The Moon in Aries (new) is alongside Uranus (Change), both of which are fanned by the Airy Libran Sun (relationships and balance), square Pluto (change and transformation)and in a beautiful trine to Mars (action) and Jupiter (expansion) … so it’s a major opportunity for global and personal challenge, change and transformation.
Lots of people I know are experiencing this intensely, with physical, emotional and interpersonal issues literally coming to a head. All this is teaching us that there no such thing as certainty and all we can really do is be awake, aware and curious, and ready to embrace change.
As the song says “Its such a crazy dance, So open up and you’ll go far’
The way I see it, we need to keep dancing into the Heartland, even when the going gets tough… actually, especially when the going gets tough. Whenever we are tempted to reject, repress, walk away, numb… we need to notice, open, breathe, soften and stay with it.
Over the next few weeks, we will be balancing the polarities in our lives – the need for radical independence, personal freedom, the expression of our own unique identity (Aries) and the need to co-operate with the significant people in our lives in a balanced way (Libra) The polarity is independence vs interdependence, self involvement vs compromise, my needs vs your needs, my perceptions vs your perceptions.
If tensions run high, which is a possibility this month, we’re being asked to step back and take a few breaths before launching into defence or attack, so we can see both sides of the story more clearly. If we do this before reacting, we can often see the truth about what’s really going on, speak our truth and look after our own needs, whilst simultaneously considering the other person. With Libra being the sign of the scales, the idea is to (constantly) be aware of and adjust the weight we give either side of the polarity, so as to get it into and maintain balance.
This is the THE time to transform patterns of viewing and relating to ourselves and others, which may have been around for most of our lives. Although we’re often really invested in changing how others should behave, it really is usually about us and not them… because as we know, the only person we can change is ourselves.
We really can, in the next few months, discover the kinds of songs we sing, dances we dance, what our movements are like and whether it would serve us to perhaps change the music, update the choreography, re-write the lyrics and find our way back home.
Please see my blog for details about my October workshops http://michellemcclunan.com/art-workshops/
In Life and light
Michelle
Michelle McClunan 
