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A conversation on compassion
Sunday 4th March 2018
Compassion
noun
1. A feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.
As with anyone born in this current timeframe, I have a lot going on in Pisces. My zero-degree sun, nadir, some asteroids and a rather juicy Venus/Jupiter conjunction in the latter degrees. Venus exalted in her selfless love and compassion here, Jupiter domiciled and 'expanding whatever it contacts'. My love nature has been an area that I need to apply some wisdom to.
Transits wise, March 4th sees a conjunction, of Venus, Mercury and Chiron. All at 27 degrees of Pisces, quite a mix. Infused with Piscean Neptune and Jupiter essences, here we have ourselves a most beautiful opportunity to have a think about the meaning of compassion. Hot on the heels of the Virgo moon, a chance to consider how we offer help to others on their healing journey.
I have been distilling these ingredients of wisdom, thought patterns, healing, love, compassion and spirituality these last days. I seem to attract people and experiences in rapid succession when I have words that need to be written. Helping to give direction to my mental meanderings. I know I am on the right track when they show up thick and fast.
I try to teach those who come to me some key approaches to understanding astrology. Most importantly, is that we are all made up of ALL the signs and planets - they each reside within our make-up somewhere to a greater or lesser extent. Next, that each of these planets and signs have a whole range of protentional expressions - they are not fixed things that will behave in a set way. I also encourage minds away from the good vs bad judgements we all too easily label these energies with. One of the biggest realisations of my thirties was that everything in life is essentially neutral. It 'becomes' something when we place meaning on it - meaning being entirely subjective.
Not until we have the wisdom (Jupiter) of age and have experienced how things play out with time, can we adjust our thinking (Mercury) to a more neutral stance as we see the bigger picture (Pisces).
Pisces doesn't just see the bigger picture, Pisces feels it - to the very core. Pisces knows it. Super empathic, but the only water sign without a shell of protection, (the other water signs being Cancer the crab and Scorpio), the danger for Pisces is to merge too deeply with the emotions of others. Such strong 'knowing' and desire to help can make a martyr of Venus, the goddess of love, as her cup runeth over here.
Anyone who has truly suffered for a prolonged period, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, will have gone through various stages of suffering which include the helplessness that accompanies the loss of perceived control over their circumstances. This so often leads into victim behaviour. The desperate need to be saved from the insufferable hell they find themselves in. A deep disempowerment adopted by the stricken individual to fill the gaping cavity left by the departed identity. Which gave them so much meaning they are now lost at sea without it.
And you know only too well, beautiful soul, that we are all suffering at some level.
The desire to save, heal, love, self-sacrifice for the sake of the sufferer can be almost as intense for those nearby. To take away from the victim ths pain and make it better for them. Especially In a society which praises 'heroism' and short-term impulsivity and 'kindness'.
And of course, in the case of children, or adults in an acute situation of danger or pain, then this is entirely appropriate.
But what I see so very often is the negative effect of chronic compassion, for both parties involved. Like our stress response, compassion was not meant to be switched on to the same situation indefinitely. That is enablement.
Because above all else we are creatures of habit. We love nothing more than the security of familiarity, even when it hurts us, or even others. The human capacity to endure is both a blessing and a curse.
Mars, still challenging Venus in square aspect, is trying to conceive courageous compassion. He wants you to have a love so strong that you have faith in the sufferer even when they have lost all theirs and everything seems bleak. Faith to know they are being asked to dig deep and find the resources within, to get themselves out of their reluctant rut of personal disempowerment. Because that is what they came here to do! Each incarnation presenting us with new challenges. And with each one overcome we progress in our completeness.
In the world of courageous compassion, we need to witness these longer term sufferings of others, often in dismally predictable cycles, with a graceful respect for what will become in the process - be with the pain without trying to fix it. This requires us to step outside our ego needs to be a 'good person' in human terms and see the situation from the higher self. In this way the victim has no option but to hit rock bottom - the place that they can finally kick off from, propelling them up up up possibly to newer heights than ever.
The greater the challenge, the greater the possibility - or, the possibility of greatness. Some of the most successful people have the most challenging charts.
God does not give us a challenge we can't overcome. Period. There would be no point in that. The miracle that you are, (please stop to consider that for a moment today!), was not created to be subjected to pointless suffering - there is ALWAYS a reason. A lesson. A purpose behind it. The astrologer helps you find that. What an honour! As Rumi said, "The wound is where the light enters".
When I see a chart, which carries the signatures of potential great challenge, I have a deep sense of reverence. I feel I am truly in the presence of greatness for this person must be very special indeed to be gifted such challenge. What treasure they must hold within!
We stand in the way of their wonderous discovery when we wrongly will to alleviate their 'suffering'. We must stop playing God, and allow them to find, and then share with the rest of humanity, their greatness so we can ALL rise.
Astrology has taught me that life is not a random set of experiences but a beautifully choreographed dance, designed to deliver us to divinity.
Namaste
