Mars Square Pluto

Transcript:

0:06
Hi everyone, this is Acyuta-bhava from Nightlight Astrology and I am live today to talk about Mars is square to Pluto. So this is a transit that has been in the works for a little while now it's going to perfect by mid next week, but the transit is already within about one degree of perfecting. And so it's a good time to just sort of check in with this transit see where it's at talk about what there is to learn from this transit some of the different lessons that are going to come up with a transit like this. And and hopefully that helps everybody to be ready for it. So I've got a lot of things to talk about today. I've got my I've got some notes, and I've got a one of my favourite books, I'm going to draw on a little bit.

1:21
So Mars square Pluto is going to date back to this summer. We've had several passes of this transit, Mars entered the sign of Aries, where it began a whole sign square to everything in Capricorn, Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto back in the end of June, in the middle of August, Mars squared Pluto, then Mars went retrograde in the middle of September. And then by the middle of October Mars squared Pluto again, now we're coming up to the third and final square of of Mars and Pluto by the middle of next week, which is, by the way, happening right at the time of the winter solstice. And the winter solstice is, as we know, the moment of the great conjunction. So we have a Mars Pluto dynamic happening essentially, on the winter solstice, which is really quite powerful.

2:25
I recommend for everybody to get the most out of this, that you look at those previous dates, what was happening for you in mid August, what was happening for you in mid October. And you can sometimes pull the thread all the way through in order to get the the deeper message or lesson of the transit. And so it's not just a one off thing. It's something that's been building, it's a theme that's been developing. So you can go back and see what was happening and see what you can find. If you do I'd love to hear your thoughts and reflections in the chat section. We have live chat right now. So you may not be able to remember to put in the live chat at the moment, but you can put it in the the regular chat after the video is is posted after the live session is done. So I'd love to hear that from you guys.

3:15
Now, before I dive into all of this, I just want to take a moment as you guys know, I have 14 days left in my annual Kickstarter, we are at 781 backers as of the recording of today of this live stream. And with 14 days left to go we have 219 backers left to meet our stretch goal for the year which is 1000 backers. I want to dive into why the stretch goal is so important and why we have to keep pushing to try to get there. So every year the basic goal that we set of backers is based on a loose total of previous kind of a previous analysis of how many people tend to result how many backers tend to result and what kind of final income after taxes are taken out after Kickstarter fees are taken out, etc. And the main function of that basic goal is to provide enough support for the overhead for the year for three staff members for all the different things that we do throughout the year have different subscription services and stuff like that. And then also, in particular, our speaker series, which we make free to hundreds and hundreds of people. We pay our speakers really well like well above the industry average for you know, a two or three hour talk. And we do that to support other astrologers and make those educational series free. We create tonnes of need based tuition scholarships so that people sometimes people, like a large amount of students that come through my programmes might be paying $20 a month because you know, they're a single mom who's you know, only part time employed, and they're trying to do something for themselves for personal enrichment, or they're on disability or something else like that. So we were one of the only programmes that I know of any way there could be others, but they're one of the only programmes that I know of whose focus it is to make sure that astrological education is very, very accessible for people. So in order for that, to sort of go off, our Kickstarter has to go off.

5:23
That provides me the space and flexibility to really do that. So that I don't have to be bottom lining everything in every you know, every offering, I don't have to turn the speaker series into a for profit situation, we have the stretch goal then gives us the ability to push toward goals in the future. For example, our biggest goal in the future right now is to set up a donation based reading clinic because great astrological education is really accessible. But right now as a full time astrologer, my clients schedules booked out till next September, and you know, I have to I have to keep like, you know, average rates or like normal rates. But that means that a huge amount of people are going to be priced out of an astrological reading. I don't like this personally, because I believe that this is a spiritual service that shouldn't be only available for people who have a lot of money. So I feel like the goal for the next three years is to gradually start building a donation based reading clinics so that essentially people can come in like they do to my classes, there's a sliding scale, and you can say, okay, you know, I can pay $30 or $40, for an astrology reading. And I have a staff of readers who need experience, right, they need to get experience reading. So they're, they they're reaching their some of their goals. By getting that experience and developing some confidence in their skills as a reader, they're getting paid from that, and people are getting affordable readings. So I'm, that's not something I'm going to take any profit from, it's just something I want to set up so that, you know, my sort of my legacy in my work as an astrologer really makes sure that astrology is accessible for people in all income ranges. So the stretch goal is a part of building that when we reach our main goal, it's like we maintain what we're doing. And then the stretch goals are helping push and build new things down the line. So we we have 14 days left to go. And we still need 219 backers to get to that stretch goal.

7:20
It's surreal, because this is my seventh Kickstarter, I believe it is. And when I started, it was like maybe 100 people or something that were backing me. And it literally was just allowing me to get by to like, pay my rent or whatever. And now to think that I've been able to build out a staff because of your help that I've been able to build an audience that you know, we have streamlined content five days a week, all of this is completely possible. Because all of you have been like, Hey, we like this content, we share it, we subscribe, and it's worth it to us. So you know, thank you because I wouldn't be here and a lot of astrologers wouldn't be here making content and providing people with that spiritual GPS unless the audience through into Patreon or to Kickstarter or to whatever the astrologer is doing. So I just wanted to take a moment to really explain that to people to explain what the stretch goal is, and to say thank you for your support. I'm going to put the link to the Kickstarter in the chat box right now. And I aske if you're able to donate anything, it helps. Remember that when you do, you can pick up discounted, tuition, half off to all of my programmes, you bundle them, and you get even more than half off. There's reward readings. And there are different recordings that I make totally exclusive to the Kickstarter. So there's the link in the comments section. If you're watching this after the live stream is done, it'll be in the comment section or the description of the video. And yeah, just deeply thank you. And thank you to everyone. I mean, we're you know, we've we're already at 781 people out there who have said, Great, I support this work. So thank you, thank you seriously from the depth of my heart. As I give my life and soul to this every day, if you watch the video, you'll see that my day begins in the in the beginning, you know with you know, I work out I do my yoga, I mantra meditation for 90 minutes, I read sacred scriptures. And only after all of that is done, which takes me sometimes three to four hours. After all of that is done. Then I sit down and I write what I'm going to do for the day as I did this morning. And then I present it and then after that I see clients and answer emails and develop curriculum for my programmes. And that's my life. It's like I joke about this but it's true that I'm like an something like an astrological monk. So I'm in it not I want this to do well not because I'm interested in banking, but because I'm interested in building something in the world that can that can endure and that can be passed on to generations that the spiritual vocation of astrology can survive and that others astrologers can feel like they can make a living doing this. Because of that doesn't live on it, people don't see that as a possibility that the profession can fall apart in historically it has, it's gone through dark periods where, because people stop valuing it, it can die off. So what I'm interested in is building something that can last and then handing it off, handing it on to people to keep it going. So, at any rate, thank you all for letting me wax you know, philosophical about that for a moment. Alright, as promised, we're going to get into Mars and Pluto today, I also wanted to wait for more people to kind of come into the stream so that I don't get into everything and people haven't gotten the gist of it.

10:39
So there's a lot to say about Mars square Pluto, one of my favourite books is the archetypal Universe by Renn Butler. And Renn Butler has this great it's kind of like an astrological cookbook, and it's for archetypal combinations of planets. It's my one of my favourite desk references. For years before I went to YouTube, my practice consisted of here's the transit for the day. And then here's like 30 to 40 bullet points of of word combinations that are representative of the planetary elements that are combined in the aspect. And so when I found that someone had basically done what I was doing, but put it into this really beautiful well organised cookbook, and much better than what I was doing to I think I was just so excited because it's it's like one of my most reliable desk references to even just get the wheels turning for my own creative, you know, my own creative juices kind of flowing. This book is really helpful. I like to promote it all the time. I also actually gave a I gave a blurb to it in the beginning of the book, so that was that was really cool to to be. Yeah, it was cool to be included in it. Anyway. So Mars Pluto, here's the Mars Pluto dynamic that's in the sky right now perfecting the middle of next week, right at the same time of the great conjunction. This is what we should be watching for.

12:06
"Intense willpower and courage, drive and passion, determined efforts toward renewal and regeneration, volcanic catharsis tendencies toward brute force and ruthlessness over exertion, vulgar or core sexuality."

12:24
The passionate intensity and drive willpower and determination dynamic, purposeful action these are all Mars, Pluto qualities, qualities of assertiveness and decisiveness, courage and resolve guts and gumption, a capacity to blunder through or forge ahead despite opposition, high and sustained levels of energy, powerful reserves of strength and endurance and ability to heal or transform situations through cooperative effort, profound physical or renewed renewal and regeneration of volcanic catharsis and healing sessions, feelings of sexual empowerment primal energies, regeneration towards through sexuality, shadow qualities, tendencies toward excessive machismo, over exertion, a sense of escalating heaviness, feeling drawn into situations that draw out and test one's aggressive tendencies, urges toward brute force and ruthlessness, etc.

13:17
So, you have two ways of understanding Mars as far as I've seen it in my practice over the years, Mars Pluto. One is, am I using my will and service to something transcendent? Or am I constantly fighting and struggling to overcome forces in the material world, and by means of that struggle, I hope to conquer dominate and win some kind of very temporary sense of strength or victory or pride. And there, the distinction can be, you know, really subtle sometimes, which we're going to talk about today. Sometimes we think we're doing something that's very good, and that's even supposedly transcendent, very virtuous. But ultimately, it's still being fueled by the desire to be victorious and victorious for the sake of the ego sheltered within good intentions is potentially a big problem for Mars, Pluto. On the other hand, nobody's perfect. So there's going to be some mixture of selfishness and good intentions with Mars Pluto, always. But on the other hand, there is this way in which Mars Pluto, like the the Mars, the Mars connection, which I brought up many times in many videos to the word martyr, and to the idea of dying or laying down one's life for something bigger than oneself. That that becomes a very real part of a Mars Pluto dynamic. Or it can even indicate in very small ways that I'm not feeling like I have something that is worth exerting myself for that's bigger than myself and my own selfish interest. And sometimes the Mars Pluto dynamic comes along as a way of saying, Hey, you know, are you giving your blood, sweat and tears? Remember that in ancient astrology, in all cultures in India in the West, that any form of divination required sacrifice. The sacrifice could be, for example, preparing or purifying yourself with a teacher over many years. For example, in India, many of the lineages of astrology teachers will require purification periods where you're chanting mantras just to prepare you to study Jyotish or just to just to prepare to study astrology. In the west to we have lineages that say, any form of divination requires sacrifice. Sometimes it was animals, you know, God forbid, that's not the kind that I'm into, right. But the idea that you have to have some skin in the game, when you're studying astrology, you can't just sort of show up and say, give me some answer, I want it. Because that selfish interest is frowned upon by the gods who are the mouthpieces of the Oracle, they speak on behalf of Godhead. So when you have that oracular, you're approaching the Oracle and you don't have some sense of sacrifice of your own will of your own ego of your own selfish interest, you're less likely to develop a healthy relationship with the Oracle. Mars, Pluto as a as a planetary combination is, in some ways all about saying, look, are you living your life with some skin in the game, some sacrifice that you're making for something higher, and it can start and very basic ways it doesn't, you know, we don't have to have it all figured out right away, a good intention with the hope of using our will or our power or force in the world, so to speak, our agency to do something good. And we don't know what will come of it, but we're just trying to do something good. You know, that's a step in the right direction. So it's not like we have to have it all figured out. But it's very different to be in that conversation than it is to be constantly bottom lining, what am I getting? Am I winning? Am I victorious? Am I conquering something? Am I dominating something? Am I coming out on top? And that consciousness, we become more aware of it in us, we become more aware of its subtle presence in us. When we start looking very carefully at whether or not we're intending to do something for others or for something bigger than ourselves, the more that we become aware of whether or not I have a good intention, or I have an intention for something bigger, ironically, the more we become aware of those voices within us are those desires within us those impulses that want to will us towards something selfish. It's like you can't really know how selfish you are until you try to do something for other people, then you start really running up against it.

17:46
There is a truth that's very basic that I know is uncomfortable for a lot of us but the truth is that in order to do good, we have to struggle with it. There's like an internal battle that we have to take on within us. Are we are we actively fighting the voices and demons within us, that want to co-opt our will for selfish purposes. And it almost matters that we fight that battle more in micro cosmic everyday ways that in some macro cosmic, heroic Hollywood story kind of way. For me, in other words, like, the way that I locate this is in terms of, you know, am I being a good parent today? Or am I handling this situation at the dinner table when my daughter doesn't want to eat or you know what I mean? Like, it's the small ways that we have to look and figure out if the selfish voices in us are trying to co op the way we're using our will our strength, our decision making and stuff like that. So, um, because it's very easy for you know, for me, I'll just be transparent with you guys. It's easy for me, you know, to gloss over the mistakes I might make as a parent where selfishness just totally takes the wheel and to kind of gloss over and be like well you know, I do good work in the world. I help people with my spiritual stuff on YouTube, you know what I mean? And we can do the same thing politically, or socially or culturally because they well I believe in the right things or I support the right causes are I'm a good person and you know, I retweet the right things or stuff like that. But we're when it comes down to how we interact with someone, you know, in a contentious situation on Facebook or something like that. Well, that doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that I that I acted really selfishly or was really aggressive or domineering because, you know, overall I have the I have the grand epic is moving toward, you know, moving toward toward the right direction.

19:59
So one of the Mars Pluto things is really also really important is that yes, there's there can be this way in which Mars Pluto is very volcanic. And it can, it can represent big explosions of pent up energy and stuff like that. Remember, Pluto is like atomic, Pluto is related, for example, many transits of Pluto in the past have been associated by many great historical astrologers with the development of nuclear energy, the splitting of the atom. Pluto is very, very, very small too, it's very, very distant from us here on Earth, and really, really small. So there's also this way in which that which is tiny can become the source of something splitting wide open and exploding. Eventually, if I don't tend to those micro cosmic atomic particles of selfishness, in my parenting, or in my marriage, or in my friendships, or as a son, or a brother, or, you know, as a friend, or whatever the case might be, eventually, those selfish atomic particles, they just explode, and all of a sudden goes, What was it? How could that have possibly triggered this huge massive event? It's because those microcosmic moments have potency. There's something about how we act or behave in those small moments that tell us who we really are and what we really feel about things. And it's easy to give up and to not want to take the fight to the atomic level, take the fight for goodness in our hearts to the atomic level. Because we think, well, there's an endless amount of atoms, you know what I mean? It's like particles of sand on the beach, how could I possibly, how could I possibly conquer all of that? How could I possibly overcome all of that, and so we feel atomized to death by you know, like a minute death by a million paper cuts when it comes to the micro moments of selfishness. So we think how could I possibly ever overcome them? So we find ways of dismissing them, and then feeling good about ourselves. Because Well, I'm, overall I'm doing the right thing, I've got a YouTube channel or I have the right political view or whatever the case might be. This is the seedbed of future hypocrisy, right? I watched it happen with my father to a certain extent. So he was a Methodist minister, who on the macro level, the image was right, you know, what I mean, on the micro level, frustrations, difficulties, etc, were consuming him one paper cut at a time. And, you know, it's something that really eventually led to a nervous breakdown for him and departure from the Ministry, this is something that I wrote about in my book. So don't underestimate those small moments, and take joy in being strong and brave, when it comes to small things, hey, my tone of voice was a little off, I owe you an apology. You know what I mean? Because that and that also is is honestly that it leads we lead by example, when we're like that. So these are really good. It's a good Mars Pluto thing to talk about the atomic, and there's a lot of ways that that culture will try to co op this idea. I feel like, like, micro aggressions, and, and, and things like that, which I'm not really a big fan of, I don't not talking about policing other people. But what I am talking about is, you know, really getting in there and taking the struggle for virtue and goodness, into small, small spaces. Because that's how big things become authentic things, as opposed to the big things being like, sort of cover ups for all of these small things that we're constantly getting beat up by, within ourselves. There's a need, there's a real like, dynamic with Mars, Pluto about power and powerlessness. And that can be a big part of the conversation. Destructive elements of nature can be a part of the conversation, what is the place for those destructive elements. The other thing that's really important, is when we end up having to tend to those small places within ourselves, it doesn't help if you come in, and you you locate somehow with your microscope of goodness, you locate the small little thing, and then you say, you're bad, you need to be good, right? Because then that little thing, which has its own kind of sentience, its own little wave pattern of reality. That little wave pattern starts saying, well, I resent you for saying that I'm bad. You know, I'm probably more than just bad and nobody likes to be pigeonholed even our bad thoughts and patterns. And so the bad thoughts and patterns will they have a voice, they have a little reality inside of our mind, and so they'll start to rebel, then they'll start to come back at us somehow. And so one of the instructions that we see in all great world religions, all great spiritual traditions, is that when we go into correct something, we don't correct it through, you know, willful aggressive elimination. We sort of bring it like, you know, when I'm thinking of, like, we've had, I had a few dogs in my life, when you're teaching a dog how to walk with you on a leash, or even, you know, thinking of my girls and teaching them good habits or behaviours. If you hit them over the head with, you're wrong, you're bad, you did it wrong versus positive encouragement. It's a totally different result. Right? One is someone who does things right, but is totally afraid. And the other is someone who is doing things right, because they believe that they're amplifying the best within them, the best is getting amplified. So we have to also enter into talking about the darker qualities of our ego or in our selfishness, it's like you have to be a coach to your own shadows, you have to be a loving parent or guide or friend, you have to sympathise, show compassion, you know, so a sense of humour is absolutely vital. Mars, Pluto sometimes wants to take everything seriously, and sees the problem and then wants to address it. But it ends up using the same energy of the problem itself. And so we have to, you know, learn how to kind of adjust the problem with compassion, with humour, with grace and with forgiveness. And that's not easy to do, either. It requires that we slow down.

26:46
The point is that when we do these things, this is actually the definition of strength and power, even in martial arts paradigms, variety of different martial arts paradigms. And I have friends, some friends who are into mixed martial arts and stuff like that, they've told me a bit about this, if you read the famous texts, The Art of War, there's similar statements made in that text, if you're going to go into battle with an opponent, and you just lunge forward at that opponent, you're in a very vulnerable position. Whereas, f you kind of flow with the the situation, oftentimes, maybe perhaps even you could say, and then like a defensive fighting posture or something like that. The wild aggression of the opponent can easily be used against them. Everyone knows this, I think this is pretty basic. But it's the same thing when it comes to dealing with little elements of our own shadows or darkness. We go in and we try to correct it through heavy handedness. It doesn't, it doesn't work. So it's like learning to fight with yourself is an is an art form. And if it turns into a sport that you enjoy, oh, my God, self improvement is no longer let me beat my shadows, let me come become a good person, instead of a bad person, it becomes an enjoyable thing to learn. And to correct oneself. My Guru always says I live to be corrected. Because there's a sport in it, there's a play in it, there's a joy, there's a sense of discovery and curiosity, when we understand where something is coming from within us, but then we still can kind of overcome it and turn it in a direction that's constructive. These are all Mars Pluto dynamics.

28:38
So a few specific lessons that I wanted to talk about today. In our world, when we get identified with the material energy, the constant flux and change of material circumstances and outcomes, and we get really identified with it, as opposed to understanding that we are a spirit soul. There's always a pressure to win that's placed on us, right? There's always this pressure to win, to get it right. To be conquering hero like that. And it could be you know, I'm going to be the world's greatest political activist or I'm going to be the one who sees the truth and says it to everybody, hey, don't you see the conspiracy? Here's the truth or don't you see the the unconscious in yourself or in the world or some particular way in which some something is being run or operated? Don't you see the Bill Gates is the devil or you know, whatever it is, I'm just kind of, you know, winging it here. But we get this sense of like, I'm going to be made, right, so far as I'm on the winning side. Right. And again, it's usually these big macro cosmic issues that we get identified with, the president, the government, the political party, whatever. It is some big huge thing and some big historical issue. And again, I'm not saying that they're not important, but the pressure that we place on ourselves to win or to be victorious or to be on the victorious side of some particular virtue or some righteous cause. What a burden it can be as well. This is another part of the story, which is that that can be a huge burden on us. So I'm reminded of the I'm going to pull up a verse from the Bhagavad Gita, which is one of my favourite verses.

30:48
So here is Krishna speaking to our Juna at the very end of a long conversation about the nature of reality of the nature of truth. And Arjuna finds himself in the Bhagavad Gita in this really profoundly difficult situation, right, he's on a battlefield, there is a righteous cause that he has to go to war. And yet by doing so he's gonna violate all sorts of different moral and ethical codes that he has. And he's really confused about it, he doesn't understand why the spiritual path couldn't just take him to a cave for meditation, and just transcending all of this crap. So Mars, Pluto implies that we have skin in the game, there's something here that we have to do. There's a mission, a purpose, a Dharma, there's a destiny path that we're here to follow. It's given to us by God that's given to us through source, and you can't flee from that, you can't check out of that, right. And for some people that might be participating in some pretty big epic narratives in human history, light versus dark and all of the stuff. But listen to what Krishna says at the very end of the Bhagavad Gita. He says, abandon all varieties of religion and simply surrender to me. I will deliver you from all sinful reactions, do not fear, that's from memory, I'm going to check it and make sure that I've got it right. It's 18-66. If you ever read the Gita, and you want to check it out, but yeah, it goes,

32:20
"Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender onto me, I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions Do not fear."

32:29
So at the end of the day, one of the things that I love about the Gita is it saying, look, it doesn't really matter if you win or lose on the battlefield, it matters, what kind of consciousness that you approach your destiny with, it matters what kind of consciousness you are cultivating while doing the thing that you're here to do. And that consciousness is what determines where your soul goes, and how the journey of your soul unfolds, not just in this lifetime, but in the next. And it's not so important that you focus on winning, or getting it right, for example, Arjuna's really concerned that by fighting, he's going to do something unethical or immoral and get it wrong. And he's also being told essentially, by Krishna at the end, like everything that you're trying to evaluate your sense of righteousness on all of the external circumstances and criteria by means of which you're trying to judge whether you're in the right or in the wrong and whether that lifts you up, or takes you down somehow, spiritually, or in the next life or what have you, is all totally superficial. It doesn't matter what the outcome of the battlefield is. And he actually says that at one point, he says, like if you win this is this is what's likely to happen if you lose this is what's likely to happen. But either way, if you do it with consciousness of source in your heart, that's what makes it an actual victory. Either outcome, winning or losing, without God consciousness, without source conscious, that makes it a total loss. That's a really interesting way of reconfiguring our idea of what it means to win or lose on the battlefield of life. So we have to fight we have to be on the battlefield of our Dharma of our destiny, but we get the opposite result that we are intending for if we aren't doing our destiny, from the space of surrendering to God and to the love of God and to source to the universe, whatever word you like to use, within our hearts. And that is one of the deepest meanings of Mars. Mars is a planet that can again it can signify basically two different things. One is going to be the selfish agenda of the will. And the other one is going to be the selfless agenda of the will. And that's what we're talking about. We're talking about some kind of selfless surrender of our will, just saying it's not my will it's the universe's let me be an instrument and I'll do my best With my own intelligence, but let me surrender my need for a particular outcome. And in that surrendering whatever the destiny path may be, that's where we actually get a good result. Otherwise, without that, we get the opposite of whatever we intend for. And it's a weird thing about Mars, you can will as much as you want, in the direction of something that you desire. But if that desire is coming from the ego, you get the opposite result. Whereas if, if we're surrendering something within ourselves, if we're doing that daily surrendering, I like to think about it like this.

35:36
What did Jesus say? He said, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. And what is the meek, it doesn't mean to be wimpy, passive. That's not what it means. It means to be humble, to be modest, to be gentle, to be receptive, to be listener, to be open, to be asking for the will of the Tao, which we're going to talk about in a minute or God, to flow through us. When we open ourselves like that as a practice all the time we cultivate the consciousness by means of which we feel that sense of fulfilment regardless of if we win or lose in in the world on the battlefields of the world. So that's really important Mars Pluto lesson. How do we lose each and every day, I couldn't think of a better way of putting it that's more provocative, but also, it's so true for me. Every day, I think of my spiritual practice as an opportunity, like a blessed opportunity to lose, to just sit down and lose the fight. Right. So let's talk about the word lose. Etymology of the word lose, to be lost, to perish, destruction or loss, the breaking up of an army. It also has etymological roots that mean to loosen, to divide to cut apart, see how that Mars energy is there to loosen, divided or cut apart, those are all Mars words, you also have to be deprived of something. You see, we think that the only way that we win is through amplification of things that we have or get. But when we experience that gain can also come through loss. That's when everything gets so interesting. And so I think of my job every day, when I chant the names of God on my beads every morning, before I create this content, that's what I do. And I think of that often as a time of saying, I give up, I am ready to be the loser today. By that, I mean, not great, not successful. And yet, there's such a relief, it's not a surprise that the word lose is so close to the word loose, they're very similar etymologically as well, which means to unbound. The burden of having to win all the time is a heavy one. And I'm not saying that there aren't things at stake in the world, I'm just saying that we can fight as if there is nothing at stake, we can move through our life and the duties and the complexities of life without placing that burden on ourselves. And when we loosen ourselves from that, we learn what it's like to feel victorious in defeat, to feel love in defeat or to feel love in loss. And if we make that our practice everyday to just say, That's it. I'm struggling as a parent, I'm struggling as an astrologer, I'm struggling, you know, whatever, all these different levels of life where we there's different tensions that are there. And we drop into something like chanting or meditation or a mindful walk in the park, whatever you do to connect to that source in your heart, that that's a space where you can be like, I'm here to lose. I know it sounds provocative, and some people are going to pick on the words and be like, I don't like that, whatever. But think about it just every day, can it can it not feel amazing to lose. I remember when I was in my MFA programme. Coleman Barks, who's a great Rumi translator came and gave a talk at my school. And he was talking about his daughter. It was a poem that he wrote, I believe, and he was talking about his granddaughters soccer team. And he went and watch their game and they lost that they got their butts kicked and the other team was like we are the winners. We are the winners. And as they were leaving her his daughter like stood up in the in the car and he was driving I guess like a convertible or something like that. So she stood up in the car and and started saying we are the losers we are losers. And he ended up taking that just like a good you know, he's obviously so steeped in Sufi literature. But the Sufi is have such a great handle on what it means to be just devastated loser completely in love. You know, with that lowly position. Jesus said, Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth. You know, can I get down on my knees once a day, you know what I mean, at least metaphorically and just be like, I am the loser. It's such a relief. It's so loosening, it takes us away from our bondage. Almost without fail, when we do that we start becoming instruments. When when we're able to do that, it's like, the universe just says, Oh, good, you're a willing participant. Now, I'll start using you in ways that you couldn't have possibly schemed up with your own will, you know, with your own way.

40:35
There's another thing that we like to think about with Mars, which has to do with again, and I've mentioned this a few times today, the righteous cause, right, so there's like, there's always this feeling like if I have the righteous cause that's what makes me a good person. But I want to read you something and I'm pulling on all sorts of things today, pull in Bhagavad Gita, we're gonna pull on the Bible. That's right, we're gonna pull on the Bible. And then we're going to pull on the Tao de Ching here in a minute too. Let's read Galatians 2 16 through 20. This is one of my favourite verses, it was one of my father's favourite verses growing up. This is from the New Living Translation. This is obviously written by Paul, and he's saying,

41:13
"Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we may be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law, for no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law." He goes forward and says, "But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ. And then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law," he's talking about religious law, "would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not." goes on to say, "Rather, I'm a sinner, if I rebuild the old system of law that I already tore down. For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law, I stopped trying to meet all of its requirements, so that I might live for God. My old self has been crucified with Christ, and it's no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me."

42:29
Now, again, take aside the Christian lingo for a minute and just hear what he's saying, if we think about God, or source consciousness in a much more universal way, not just to the confines of Christian doctrine. If we think about what he's saying, then what he's saying is you are not made right by being good. By following or adhering to religious observances, or any kind of textbook way that goodness is defined. And you know, what, I see a lot of the opposite of that in the world right now. I find such a conundrum as a liberal person, and I don't really care what people think I'm just going to be honest. I find it it's a real conundrum, as someone who considers myself liberal, who wants to see, you know, more opportunities for people, who would love to see, you know, better healthcare for people, etc, more goodness in the world in a general sense. And I often really tend to sympathise with more liberal views of of the world. And yet, one of the things that bothers me is that I see a lot of what I would just call godlessness all across the world, right? It's not just confined to any one group or place, but I see a lack of a god centred consciousness and the cultivation of that kind of consciousness within these messages or movements politically or socially or culturally. And so I see the attempt to be right, by virtue of doing or saying, or being on the right side of things. And it's maddening. It's maddening because it's not by virtue of of thinking about or signing up for or waiving the right virtue flag, right in the world that we're made, actually whole in the heart. That's not it. It's only through the adoption of a spiritual life that that happens, secondarily to that as a byproduct of that goodness can flow into the world. But one of the symptoms that you will see when people have it reversed, where source consciousness is not at the centre of your life and your adherence to virtue, as though it is the law is at the centre is when people are condemning other people because they're not doing the right thing or saying the right thing. When there's like, an emphasis on you're cancelled, you're, a demon, you're a bad person, if you don't believe or say or think these particular things. And all of that I find completely repugnant. That's just me. I find it completely reprehensible and it's so triggering for me. I just have to back away from it. I feel like I'm becoming a political because it feels to me like the political things that I'm interested in are just laced with self righteousness. It's like a landmine of people who are going to cancel you or demonise you if you don't say or act or behave in exactly the right way. And I think that gets right into the heart of what Mars Pluto is about why it's been so tense this year, in certain ways. I mean, this has been with us ever since June. And it's the feeling that if you are on the righteous side, then you're good. And if you're on the unrighteous side, you're bad, and that is legalistic thinking and it can cloak itself, like a wolf in sheep's clothing in all kinds of virtues. But it doesn't change the fact that for 1000s of years, spiritual teachers have been telling us the same thing over and over and over, which is that adherence to the good in a legalistic manner is not what gets you there. It's not what changes your heart, it does not change souls, it does not change hearts and minds. It does not transform people. It just doesn't, it condemns people, we have had people who believe who have believed in something good and used it as a mechanism of self righteousness for 1000s of years and every country on the planet and it doesn't work. I don't care how good it is, it doesn't work. But that's what we're seeing, right? And in these specific verses, that's what we're seeing. So another example, that's really important. Another thing that Jesus taught us disciples was, he's teaching them to pray. And he says, Don't be like the hypocrites out on the street, who say all these flowery things and say, all the right and the good things, but they're hypocrites. They treat other people like crap, they build their egos up on the righteousness. They think that they're higher and mightier than everyone, they can't have compassion for those they oppose. They don't see themselves as a part of a whole including that which they oppose. So, you know, don't pray like that. And he tells him instead to pray in a more private, modest, humble manner. And he says, you know, and then he says, He gives the Our Father prayer, right? He talks about Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. So it's glorifying source, right? And then Thy kingdom come and I will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So the prayer is, yes, let goodness come into the world. Yes, let the truly good, heavenly divine things infiltrate and come into this world, right, but not by my will. Right? Not by my righteousness, not by my claim to some elevated position of goodness. I'm praying in the secret. I'm praying in a quiet place. And, and it's only through that kind of gentleness, that meekness of spirit, that the righteous things flow through. They don't come by banging drums of virtue, they just don't. And I find that I don't think I'm alone in that frustration. I the past two years, I have felt so afraid to talk about this, you know, to just come out and and talk about it. And I felt torn inside because in some ways to talk about this poses the risk of making it look as though I oppose good things in the world. And I think that's a place that a lot of people are stuck in right now and afraid to talk about, interestingly enough, what is Mars Pluto fear, and it's fear and righteousness, they come together with Mars, like the the soldier who takes up a position of righteousness because they're afraid. Or the person who is afraid of getting it wrong. Those are Mars, Pluto dynamics where fear and will and courage and these things get really dicey. Well, we tend to live by fear, can we let go of righteousness each day, that's another thing that we can do every day in our spiritual lives, we can basically get into a position that says, Please take away my righteousness. Please take away any claim that I have to being good or better than anybody else. And I mean, anybody. That's a radical, that's a strong prayer. And it can be done in small places in private where nobody sees it. We don't have to blast it out, you know, on our Facebook feed to everyone saying, Hey, everyone, I just want you to know I'm not better than you. I'm not better than anyone. It's like, No, we the only way that we can actually realise any of this is in private places, to enjoy becoming the loser, to enjoy abandoning our righteousness, you know, and to enjoy the uncertainty of whether or not we're really as good as we think we are. You know what I mean? And if we can't allow the ambiguity of our own moral character to have some existence once a day, for 10 minutes to just feel ambiguous about whether we're as good or awesome as we think we are, we're missing out on a whole depth of meaning that exists in our soul that's there for us if we can just allow ourselves. The only reason that we don't is because we're afraid. We're afraid of being weak. And again, this is Taoist, it's yogic, it's Buddhist, it's Christian, in our weakness, something else is strong. And coming in contact with strength other than our own is actually empowering.

50:35
There's another thing that's interesting. I'm reading the Lion, the Witch in the wardrobe to my daughter right now. Or you could see my Narnia poster in the background. So she's finally old enough to listen to books and stories that without pictures, and it's it's like, oh, my God, I'm in heaven. It's so exciting, because we can read books that I've been so excited about for a while, you know, I love picture books, too and Narnia actually has some really great illustrations in it as well. Anyway, so we're reading the Narnia Chronicles. And there's two kinds of magic that exists in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The White Witch has a form of magic that exists that can turn people into stone. It's a very Saturnian kind of magic, all the descriptions the white which are very Saturnine. Apparently, it was actually the white which was actually based on Saturn. There's a really great book called Planet Narnia. And actually an interview that I did with the author of planet Narnia in my archives, if you look back, he's an Oxford scholar who discovered all the underlying planetary symbolism in the Narnia Chronicles. And you guys know, it feels in my channel, I love talking about this. The kind of magic that says tit for tat, eye for an eye, tooth for tooth, you did something, you got to get something bad, you're either righteous or you're or you're punished. You know, you're you're good and you get good things or you're bad and you get bad things. That's the white Witch's magic, that's all time bound and Saturnine. Aslan, who's like a solar Christ redeeming figures, a lion that comes in. He ends up giving us life for Edmond one of the young children who ends up sort of betraying his his brothers and sisters, and he's this really complicated character who kind of commits this, you know, egregious sin. So, Aslan steps in, dies for him in a very Christ like way, but then he comes back from the dead. And when he does, he says, there is a deeper magic before the dawn of time, that says, when you do something out of love, the linear laws of good and bad, of tit for tat are broken, they're destroyed. Love destroys those laws love usurps those laws. That's what we're talking about. And no one thinks about Mars in terms of the Passion of the Christ, you know, that the which is the, the way in which we suffer with things in love. And by doing so they're transformed, they're reborn. This is alchemical symbolism that is not just Christian in nature, I've been going down that path today. Again, some of you might be allergic to that. But this is symbolism that is present in so many different mythic and world religious traditions, that when we access the consciousness of love, we bypass in a good way everyone's like, Don't spiritually bypass don't spiritual bypass, I'll tell you right now, I'm totally interested in spiritually bypassing the laws of materiality that say, You're either right or you're wrong, you're a victim or you're a redeemer, you're, you're a sinner or saint. No, with love, we bypass those laws, and it's in our best interest to do so. Love bypasses those laws. And, and that's exactly what Aslan says, He says, Love skips over those time bound laws, it's something that we can do every single day, we can burn with the passion of love, which is why it feels so good to be the loser to be defeated in love to be made unrighteous in love and to just crumble under the weight of our own deficiencies. It's such a relief, we go from losers to loosening. So even line the witch in the wardrobe, a little kids book, teaching kids at a very young age, hey, it's actually kind of a good thing to love and to, like, lose the fight.

54:24
So at any rate, I live life by the pressure of what I fear. This is another thing is that we often also with Mars, Pluto, we live our lives as though there's basically two things that we want, we say, either I want something that I don't have or want to avoid something that will be painful. And as long as we're living in that consciousness, that's not a consciousness of love. Love is essentially the practice of staying completely open. And being very careful to not let our desires, our selfish interests guide the way, or our fears, so there's three passages from the Tao de Ching that I want to read that I think you'll find interesting along these lines. This comes from an online translation that I like to use from Taoism.net. So this is chapter 13 of the Tao de Ching

55:16
"Favour and disgrace make one fearful. The greatest misfortune is the self. What does favour and disgrace make one fearful mean? favour is high, disgrace is low. Having it (favour) makes one fearful, losing it makes one fearful. This is favour and disgrace make one fearful. What does the greatest misfortune is the self mean? The reason I have great misfortune is that I have the self, if I have no self what misfortune do I have? So one who values the self as the world can be given the world, one who loves the self as the world can be entrusted with the world."

55:56
It's identical to Jesus saying the two greatest commandments are love God with everything you've got and then love other people as you love yourself. It's the same teaching we're saying, look, as long as you're in this solo cage of your own desires, your own righteousness, your own, you know, defeats or you know triumphs or whatever, then you're in the favour and disgrace game and the favour and disgrace game, just like you know the the cancelled culture whatever like this, this kind of thing. The favour in disgrace game makes one fearful. The greatest misfortune is the self. What does favour in disgrace, make one fearful mean favours high disgrace is low, having it makes one fearful of losing it, you know, losing it makes one fearful. So this is favour in disgrace make one fearful what is the greatest misfortune is the self mean, the greater the reason I have great misfortune is that I have the self. Now what he's saying is not that the truth is that you have no self. What he's really saying is that if you cling to yourself, right, if you if you try to possess yourself to be self possessed, isn't that the? Isn't that the banner of modernity? Or postmodernity? That I'm self possessed, I am my own agent, I have all the dignity agency sovereignty in the world. Right? It's it's trying to hold to that, which is an impossible task that brings misfortune. So he says, so one who values the self as the world in other words, one who sees oneself in everything and everything in oneself, which is the same teaching that Jesus gives us the same teaching we find in the Upanishads or the Vedic scriptures, that when you see the divine in everything, you're that's what it means to see with an equal eye. That's what it means to see, through the lens of equality. It's a radical step. And so one who values itself as the world can be given the world one who loves the self as the world can be entrusted with the world. How about the 17th chapter of the doubt a Ching.

58:01
"The highest rulers, people do not know they have them. The next level down, people love them and praise them. The next level down, people fear them, the next level down, people despise them. If the rulers trust is insufficient, have no trust in them, proceeding calmly valuing their words task accomplished matters settled, the people all say we did it naturally."

58:25
I love this because sometimes in the Battle of Life, we think we've got to get everyone to do the right thing to be the right thing. We've got to get society, the world in the right policies, we've got to get everything in place in the right way. But the highest rulers, the people that lead us to that, if we want to be leaders in the world, which is a Mars Pluto thing, let me be a leader of something of deep importance, transformative importance, we want to be like that we want to be an advocate. We should do it in a way that the people around us that we have any influence on end up saying I did this on my own. I did this naturally. That's very different than trying to enforce our will. The Tao de Ching gives us gradations Oh the next level down people love them and praise them look how good you are looking out virtuous you are right the next level down people fear them I'm afraid of you I better do what you say, the next level down people despise them. Oh, my God, I can't stand that person. The best rulers are the ones that people don't know that they have that get them to do the right things well, understanding that they brought it out naturally from within themselves. That's a Mars Pluto lesson for us. Finally the 19th chapter

59:36
"End knowledge the people benefit 100 times, end benevolence abandon righteousness, the people returned to piety and charity, end cunning discard profit bandits and thieves no longer exist. These three things are superficial and insufficient. Thus this teaching has its place. Show plainness, hold simplicity, reduce selfishness, decreased desires."

59:59
Beautiful teachings from the Tao de Ching another one of my favourite sacred texts. I am an equal opportunity employer when it comes to sacred texts. I don't carry any kind of allergy around with me about, you know, the New Testament, the Old Testament, the Psalms, the Proverbs, Sufi texts, Buddhist texts, I mean, anything that speaks the truth I'm interested in. My favourite texts happened to be the Bhagavad Gita and the Srimad Bhagavatam, which come from the bhakti yoga tradition. I like them for a lot of reasons. But I just want to say that today so that people understand that, some people will mistake reading from certain texts as espousing some, you know, some kind of factional loyalty. And the intention is actually in today was to bring out these texts to help us really get into the Mars Pluto stuff. Stir the pot really strong today, because this Mars Pluto dynamic is happening on the winter solstice, a pivotal time of year, during a great conjunction, how are we going to be tested? And how are we going to respond. So that's what I've got for today. Thank you all for listening so much, I really, really appreciate all of your support, have to do one last little plug for my Kickstarter. I'm going to put the link into the box we're at, we're in the 780s we need to get to 1000. That's our stretch goal. When you support my work pick up a different lectures that I offer different readings that I offer as rewards and discounted tuition to my online astrology, training programmes, stuff like that. We're trying to get to 1000 backers by the New Years. So still a little bit of a ways to go. I appreciate everyone who's pitched in so far. You can find the link there. Thank you all so much. I hope you have a great day. I have a little bit of bonus content that'll be coming out over the weekend. And then big week next week. Really big one hot so I'm looking forward to unpacking it with you guys soon. All right. Take it easy, everyone.