I once heard a wisdom keeper say we all really only have one purpose here on Earth. That purpose is to serve, to offer, and to give back more than we take. The only way we differ is in HOW we serve. This service then is less about WHAT we are doing and more about who we are when we are doing it.
This point is an important one on the heels of a challenging few weeks. Solar Eclipses always stir the mud and set an energetic cycle lasting well into the year. The last New Moon Solar Eclipse in Aquarius fed the fire of liberation, freedom, and revolution we will be feeling for months to come.
And revolutions are notoriously uncomfortable.
After all, freedom by definition means we break through the confines of the status quo to broaden the once established horizon.
On a macro level, the revolutionary spirit is alive and well. There are very real and complex issues that are rising to the surface.
We are being offered a choice point…
Revolution or Reaction
As always though, take the macro to the micro and reflect on your own life. No doubt, opportunities demanding freedom have arisen in your life where you can choose change or status quo, to write a new story or reread the old one. Truths have been revealed, an avenue to revolution in your life has been awakened, or a vision of something more has flashed into your awareness.
Enter the Virgo Full Moon.
Which acknowledges the importance of revelation in relation to the necessity of action.
What are you going to DO about it?
The Full Moon highlights what it means to give and what it means to take. This dynamic balance certainly shows up in our collective consciousness in the teeter- totter of hustle versus flow, selfishness versus collaboration, and my rights versus our rights. Always complex and in flux, (just look at history, and you witness the dynamic spirit of exploration mixed with the narcissism of imperialism) this is our very human struggle.
Perhaps one can argue selfishness is an innate human trait. They would be right. So is fear. They are both sourced and linked in self-preservation. Both are housed in the ancient reptilian part of our brain whose primary purpose is to keep us alive. To the limbic system, every threat (perceived or real) is an emergency status level now that must be dealt with immediately. It is a bit like lighting a match with a blow torch. It gets the job done but its overkill. That part of our brain doesn’t reason, doesn’t think, and doesn’t pause. It just reacts. Which, of course, is part of both its superpower and liability. In a real emergency automatic works much better than contemplation. Yet, the problem is if left unexamined and unchallenged; this part runs the show resulting in a present that is simply recreated from our past.
Just as important though, is our innate ability to grow, to change, to consciously evolve and choose a different way. We can also put new information into the system and get new results.
Because we have THAT part of our brain too. The God part. The choice part. The growing part. The one sourced in truths bigger than fear. The opposition of Virgo and Pisces reminds us of this. Always working together, Pisces touches heaven and Virgo brings it down to earth.
Service is how we offer ourselves to the world. With Pluto moving through Scorpio and going retrograde March 8, we are certainly being reminded of how we source that power.
We can serve from …
Response or reaction. Openness or defense.
Skepticism or cynicism.
Story or Truth.
Love or Fear.
We always have that choice.
To serve sourced in Love means we are connected to our very being and purpose. It is to be an extension of something bigger moving through us. We inhale, and we exhale. We take it in, and we offer it back.
When we live from that place, every breath can become a dedication, a reminder, a prayer and a mantra to simply be the vessel through which life flows. It is simply showing up to life as an extension of support and with the high honor and privilege to give back. Life then becomes a practice in presence, not distance and trust, not control.
Where are you being called to serve?
In time of confusion and disillusionment I often ask my self that essential question. Within its answer lies your path forward.
Lord make me an instrument of your peace
Where there is hatred let me sow love
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith
Where there is despair, hope
Where there is darkness, light
And where there is sadness, joy
O divine master grant that I may
not so much seek to be consoled as to console
to be understood as to understand
To be loved as to love
For it is in giving that we receive
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned
And it’s in dying that we are born to eternal life
Amen
Prayer of Saint Francis