Astrology's Present Moment by Barry D. Cowger - HTML preview

The 6 Tri-Septile @ 154.28 Degrees of Separation, or 4.28 Virgo

A Placebo's Enduring Sweet Spot

A soft-spoken yet confident, mature, well-dressed and attractive professional with good listening skills offers the subjects in a test study a clear, red, oval-shaped pill. The professional informs them that a large majority will experience significant improvement in their health and well-being after taking this pill, meditating for 30 minutes every morning for three weeks, and applying any of the ideas and principles in this work to their lives. Various awakening experiences are also described. After the trial, not surprisingly, nearly every subject showed a statistically significant improvement confirmed by their EEG outputs, blood tests, and overall well-being. Some have even shared their awakening experiences. This thought experiment simply reinforces what we already know: the finite mind is highly suggestible and adaptable, and perceptions create experiential fact worlds with immediate and long-term effects -especially when the finite mind has been "set-up" or influenced by meticulous detail from previous studies. This aspect portal, whether by phase or sign, is nothing less than a sword-wielding, corrective "off-the-charts" powerhouse force of nature. But like most swords, it cuts both ways that can be both beneficial and detrimental when the finite mind is unmanaged, out or control, feels trapped or dwelling in negative repetitive programming. There is a strong argument to be made for "information as health" whether it be physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual. This aspect portal will take them on journey's to explore the power and limitations of the finite mind. It will help them to understand what the finite mind cannot realize, where it can and cannot go.

Designed to Remember, Not Just Learn

An effective way to learn is sometimes the hard way, filled with crisis' and missing pieces that don't fit or make sense. Mental hyperdrive interspersed with periods of exhaustion and pointlessness is not uncommon. The unofficial term Present-moment Awareness Deficit Syndrome, or PADS, describes the personal and collective finite mind in a runaway state of unfocused chaos. Awareness is a new capacity providing the finite mind much needed rest, associated with alpha-theta waves. Like a thirsty traveler discovering crystal-clear well-water in the middle of desert-like, or barren, thought-streams. "Spikey" beta wave states are simply not entertained in awareness as theta-wave flow "states" are given a chance to develop. The brain's anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) grey matter volume increases in alpha-theta waves of mindfulness, experientiality, or meditation, as good brain health. The following paragraphs, presented in a "cookbook" format are intended to address the conditions in ways that are tailored to the celestial bodies. They provide more individualized details related to the limitations of the 6 Tri-Septile aspect portal listed below and how to go "beyond" it.

Sun/Leo: Breathe into and through your heart. Place awareness in the center of your body, not in your brain. Present-moment awareness is visceral and kinesthetic. Claim the space that your heart and physical body occupy. Breathing is changeable and ephemeral by nature, whereas the heart is a consistent and steady coherent field of energy that is more powerful than the finite mind on its own. The nervous systems in the body have their flow states, and the heart plays a large, if not defining part, in creating and maintaining that feeling or condition. When the Sun is involved in this aspect portal, the individual's heart is more of a heart-brain than merely a pump. It has thousands of neurons in its self-awareness. Connect and center through heart-brain awareness, not only through the finite mind. Meditating, contemplating or being in experientiality through the heart feels entirely authentic and is a fail-safe re-centering process in the "now."

Moon/Cancer: Take some time to pay attention to how you're feeling when you start to sit or meditate. Learn to identify and label your feelings, even if they seem contradictory or irrational at the moment, like items on a shopping or to-do list, then re-center in your feeling body. Avoid rushing into mindfulness too quickly or trying to suppress any feelings. Just like water takes time to settle, allow your emotions to even out naturally in their own time. Diet plays a big role. Bring more awareness to this. The yoga is to remain in your emotional body while observing how emotions shift from one to another. Force nothing. Do not try to change any emotional state. To awaken in awareness, emotional states are real and they are not. Emotion is, by nature, changeable and intense. Emotional brain-state cycles happen continually. Awakening is being them or riding them out, while also being attached to none of them because there is nothing to them. This is the paradoxical point in awakening. They are being taken through emotional brain-state wash-and-rinse cycle, because in awakening these states and cycles are real and they are not. With each return, the present moment becomes even more intense, satisfying, comforting, or "rich" in that deeper awareness. This paradox was previously unseen but becomes more obvious with each passing "now."

Venus/Taurus/Libra: Few things calm or bring peace or a deep contentment more than an expression or an experience of beauty. The beauty being seen "out there" is, spiritually speaking, nothing more than the beauty they are "seeing" through their nature. This is a worthy meditation the next time nature presents herself. An awareness that appreciates the beauty in the common and every day is also an awakening. Greater awareness knows this whether on or off the cushion. It can blow anyone away as if they've never seen or noticed what they have done a hundred times before without notice. Awakening to "beauty" can be one of the most powerful, profound and life-altering experiences or actions because it happened in the everyday or commonplace. That's what can make it so amazing or awakening. Pay attention to any task in awareness because the beauty of it may "lead" to awakening, or perhaps because the beauty was already present in the observer when it happened.

Mars/Aries: Be aware of the tendency to resist, or worse, fight the present moment or feel the need for such a moment to be different. The quality of the mind is likely to be hot, "spikey" or overly active. Generally, there is too much unnecessary mental activity or heat. Individuals with this placement or constellation are not instinctively contemplative. Allowing the heat to burn out in awareness may be a way through, rather than fanning, fighting or resisting it. Feeling the heat while not fanning it is a significant leap in awareness for these individuals. Fighting fire with fire is not the best strategy, as it can lead to destructive outcomes, or be physically or mentally injurious. Awakening through a life-threatening illness or injury is uncommon but not impossible, either. Periods of physical limitation or reduced mental capacity can also lead to awakening or living in the moment like no other experience has ever done. As mentioned in Chapter 1, excessive "instruction" can be counter productive because they need to learn from their own mistakes. The best approach is to provide gentle reminders. Some fires take longer to burn out than others. It is not an easy task, but they are not averse to challenges. The point of the spear is to go through the becoming fire of emotion and action, in the awareness that their experiences are largely – or entirely, a result of the same state that contributed to creating them.

Jupiter/Sag/Pisces: With a mind naturally inclined towards enthusiasm and seeking expansiveness, these individuals find spaciousness and boundlessness to be their natural state. Meditation can be incredibly beneficial to them, as they can quickly make great strides by realizing their essential nature beyond the mind. However, they may also spend years chasing an idealized image of "spirituality" instead of embracing the loving truth of the present moment. Another common refrain is, "once I get that, then I will be okay or will put in the time to be more aware or "spiritual," which is likely just another image. Wasting time is no good. Seeking a teacher to validate their intuitions and experiences in meditation can greatly benefit them, provided the teacher has already been there. Eventually, they may reach a point where they cannot progress further on their own, leading to a test of humility or deflation. Being optimistic is a great resource, but it's just another state and can't directly lead to awakening. Humility and deflation can be a big test toward a full-blown experience of "surrender" or awakening, simultaneous with a crisis as one of the best/worst things that ever happened to them. Feeling lost or defeated may be a path they walk for a time. On the other hand, their indomitable spirit is one of their great gifts for which they are deeply and sincerely thankful.

Saturn/Capricorn: Thought forms of mass, substance, structure, or "weight" can manifest during meditation as remnants of self-identifying thoughts or judgments regarding the physical body's perceived reality or composition, which may still linger. In awakening, these limiting thought structures are intended to weaken or crumble. The image of a camel passing through the eye of a needle serves as a good metaphor for massless awareness that passes through all things or survives all time. This unburdening can be felt physically like dropping unnecessary dead weight. Awareness may begin to sense parts of their body as numb, cold, or absent of sensation. If this occurs, it is important to allow awareness to acknowledge it and follow its natural course. Self-determination and focus are valuable skills, but control is an illusion, that can be daunting to relinquish due to deeply ingrained programming or habits. All histories or narratives will eventually conclude, but awareness itself has no history or end. Awareness exists without enduring anything. Paradoxically, their ability to accept limitations, little progress or difficult times is a commendable and redeeming quality. A mature and focused mind, capable of distinguishing between reality and what is not is a trait often exhibited beyond one's years as they continue to mature or evolve spiritually.

Uranus/Aquarius: An often difficult combination, inherently stressful to the body, nervous systems and mind. Generally speaking, not a desirable constellation or combination at least in the beginning. Spend time developing consistency and routine because one is often ungrounded, mentally overstimulated, or has a pervasive sense of urgency or quickening which may be relative to the priority of awakening or liberating the finite mind from its self-imposed box. In terms of fundamental Consciousness and the finite mind, conditioning or deconditioning on any gradient has no direct connection to awakening. Awareness and awakening are non-states that are not reached by any state. Awakening is neither the direct product nor result of any relatively deconditioning condition. These are perceptual errors from which these individuals are trying to awaken. There may be a "leap" that occurs, but the finite mind did not "make" that happen, no matter how refined. Developing skills and routine are important, even though they are conditions or states they point in the right direction.

Neptune/Pisces: Often a very desirable combination for meditators, but paradox abounds everywhere here. Imagining no boundaries is a non-state that mirrors awakening, but could only be realized when no one is looking. Doors or other portals may appear out of nowhere and open on their own, but no one will walk through them. "Surrender" is not something any finite mind state can do or realize, but would only know of later, comparing what was true in the past to the potential future being lived "now" to know that surrender did indeed happen. Primary or ontological-level suffering is unavoidable because we're human. Even awakening may not make suffering cease or be any less difficult or painful. Spiritually, expect or hope for nothing. Many potentials are indeed realized or "gained" and sometimes for no reason at all beyond any cause-effect or understanding. Grace is an awakening experience that can happen for no apparent reason at anytime. Awakening happens in the peace of mind and in the love of all transient, and sometimes painful, experiences.

Pluto/Scorpio: A Finite Mind's DMZ in Awareness

The finite mind's DMZ or demilitarized zone, is the relatively passive or inert repository of the conditioned mind's emotional and mental anxieties or previously unclaimed or unfinished "deaths." It's a tough neighborhood and the finite mind cannot find its way out. While there may be no active dying taking place, there's no peace or apparent life in it, either. It's a dead zone, but it's not without life. Generally speaking, this is how many encounter the present moment. "You mean, this is the present moment, or what everybody's been talking about?" Yes and no. As they, and most everyone else find it, it's the last place they want to consciously spend any time in. The finite mind wants something to happen. But give it time, like a magnifying glass discovering its focus. The chemical reaction or the alchemy of awareness needs time to work. In the meantime, thoughts and feelings of powerlessness will come in their attempt to turn them away. Some living hells are exactly that. This is the turning of the Earth or wheel of evolution in the DMZ. They can't go back, and yet nothing is happening either. It feels like no man's land, or that nothing could ever happen here but that's not entirely true. Any DMZ will be reclaimed when it has reached its end. Mercurian Plutonians are compelled to follow their mind's evolution to its non-state end as the mind's idea of "death" but this doesn't do the trick, even though it's a step in the right direction. Something is still alive, but it's not found in their mind's idea of it. A process is still happening and can't be forced. Gains can be sudden and not progressive or incremental. It may come as a "do you want to continue or not?" after the experience of absolute powerlessness is known to their core and not a moment before. The DMZ they initially encountered is not a dead end because a larger and far more powerful force of awareness or awakening experience is once again moving through it.