And so today Jupiter in Libra squares Pluto in Capricorn.
Let’s take a look…
* The obvious and mundane manifestation here in the US involves the ongoing legal investigation into the president’s finances, election meddling with Russia, and his potential attempts to avoid, dodge, or manipulate this process through various plots.
* What’s happening in the news is a gross reflection of an archetypal theme that is timeless, and that’s the theme of injustice and corruption. Where do injustice and corruption come from, and how might we understand these themes in our own lives right now?
* First let’s imagine a perfectly balanced scale. The image of perfect reciprocity. Let’s imagine that this ideal state of balance represents love. In love, we are not merely becoming the same as the object of our love. Rather, we are experiencing the giving and the receiving simultaneously, so that what goes out from us toward the object of our love is exactly what we experience coming into us, as we are the object of the other’s love as well.
* This is the image of union between the soul and the divine. As we offer our loving service and devotion, through all our activities, thoughts, feelings, moods, and attitudes, without any thought to what it will “get us,” we enter into the kingdom of heaven, where what we offer in service is being reciprocated ceaselessly just as we give ceaselessly. We get the love that we give, and not because it’s owed or deserved but because that’s exactly what loving service IS…it is the living and perfect equilibrium, the center, the home, the heart of heaven.
* It requires freedom to enter into this relationship. Freedom can also choose to exit this relationship. This is because love is open and love is free.
* Now, imagine, while resting on the scale, rather than staying in the heart of devotional service, we stop choosing to serve in the spirit of love, and we choose instead to admire the object of our love on the other side of the scale. Our service stops, and we enter the flow of admiration rather than love. Loving service instantly, subtly, unconsciously, has now become the choice to compare and the choice to judge between ourselves and the other. The blindfold has been taken off the one holding the scales, and now we are fixated on the object of our devotion.
* This is the beginning of idolatry, of objectification, and its first seed is envy. The scales have tipped.
* The scales have tipped, and we have violated the blindfolded oath of divine reciprocation. We are not identical, and yet we must stay intentionally blind to all comparisons that would tip the scales, focused instead on total absorption in devotional service. We must learn to see by means of love in order to see ourselves at all. This is why justice and fairness are balanced and blind at once.
* Envy removes the blindfold, looks where it shouldn’t, and hence objectifies the object of devotion.
* Envy peeks where it shouldn’t. Envy is secretive. We hold envy in our hearts frequently, but we don’t allow ourselves to see it or show it. So much of our lives is envy masked as love, masked as a duty, masked as our work, masked as service.
* Over time, we cannot hide our envy because its fruits grow large and bitter, and they lead to the destruction of the objects of our love. Until we find ourselves alone, the only object left. When we are alone we realize we do not want to be alone, we want to love.
* In order to love again we have to learn to see again. We have to see with the heart, which means the blindfold of the eyes is put back into place, and our love song can start to be sung again as we once more see with the heart.
This process is, in a sense, “real justice.” Real justice reflects the miracle of love and its infinite free and open invitation to each of us. It is the definition of fairness. All choices outside of loving devotion are an ongoing exploration of justice, infinitely allowed but with only limited effects. This realization is called grace, and we need more of it.
Prayer: Teach us to forgive. Teach us to see. Teach us to love. Bless us with your grace.
Let’s take a look…
* The obvious and mundane manifestation here in the US involves the ongoing legal investigation into the president’s finances, election meddling with Russia, and his potential attempts to avoid, dodge, or manipulate this process through various plots.
* What’s happening in the news is a gross reflection of an archetypal theme that is timeless, and that’s the theme of injustice and corruption. Where do injustice and corruption come from, and how might we understand these themes in our own lives right now?
* First let’s imagine a perfectly balanced scale. The image of perfect reciprocity. Let’s imagine that this ideal state of balance represents love. In love, we are not merely becoming the same as the object of our love. Rather, we are experiencing the giving and the receiving simultaneously, so that what goes out from us toward the object of our love is exactly what we experience coming into us, as we are the object of the other’s love as well.
* This is the image of union between the soul and the divine. As we offer our loving service and devotion, through all our activities, thoughts, feelings, moods, and attitudes, without any thought to what it will “get us,” we enter into the kingdom of heaven, where what we offer in service is being reciprocated ceaselessly just as we give ceaselessly. We get the love that we give, and not because it’s owed or deserved but because that’s exactly what loving service IS…it is the living and perfect equilibrium, the center, the home, the heart of heaven.
* It requires freedom to enter into this relationship. Freedom can also choose to exit this relationship. This is because love is open and love is free.
* Now, imagine, while resting on the scale, rather than staying in the heart of devotional service, we stop choosing to serve in the spirit of love, and we choose instead to admire the object of our love on the other side of the scale. Our service stops, and we enter the flow of admiration rather than love. Loving service instantly, subtly, unconsciously, has now become the choice to compare and the choice to judge between ourselves and the other. The blindfold has been taken off the one holding the scales, and now we are fixated on the object of our devotion.
* This is the beginning of idolatry, of objectification, and its first seed is envy. The scales have tipped.
* The scales have tipped, and we have violated the blindfolded oath of divine reciprocation. We are not identical, and yet we must stay intentionally blind to all comparisons that would tip the scales, focused instead on total absorption in devotional service. We must learn to see by means of love in order to see ourselves at all. This is why justice and fairness are balanced and blind at once.
* Envy removes the blindfold, looks where it shouldn’t, and hence objectifies the object of devotion.
* Envy peeks where it shouldn’t. Envy is secretive. We hold envy in our hearts frequently, but we don’t allow ourselves to see it or show it. So much of our lives is envy masked as love, masked as a duty, masked as our work, masked as service.
* Over time, we cannot hide our envy because its fruits grow large and bitter, and they lead to the destruction of the objects of our love. Until we find ourselves alone, the only object left. When we are alone we realize we do not want to be alone, we want to love.
* In order to love again we have to learn to see again. We have to see with the heart, which means the blindfold of the eyes is put back into place, and our love song can start to be sung again as we once more see with the heart.
This process is, in a sense, “real justice.” Real justice reflects the miracle of love and its infinite free and open invitation to each of us. It is the definition of fairness. All choices outside of loving devotion are an ongoing exploration of justice, infinitely allowed but with only limited effects. This realization is called grace, and we need more of it.
Prayer: Teach us to forgive. Teach us to see. Teach us to love. Bless us with your grace.
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