Sometimes synchronicity feels like the only thing that can pierce the numbness of a day like today. I was driving to walk Pine Point Beach for a while this morning, in hopes that the wide-open horizon and sunlight and rhythmic crashing of the waves would help me feel a little more grounded. My go-to radio station was playing something annoyingly innocuous, so I changed the station, to be greeted by the angular, smashing chords of Nine Inch Nails’ “Head Like a Hole.”
“No, you can’t take it / No, you can’t take it / No, you can’t take that away from me…”
I cranked it up, felt myself tear up for an instant with something like grief or catharsis at its brutal, vague-yet-so-clear lyrics and their sonic-emotional force… the sense that its stanzas speak in multiple ways to the dictatorial ambitions of you-know-who and the visceral resistance so many of us are feeling (or need to feel).
Don’t get me wrong — I am very much of the stance that compassion and empathy are essential tools for us in moving through the crippling polarity of our world. I am also very aware that incremental concessions to fascism-in-the-making cannot be allowed.
An ad came on. I switched the station.
Suddenly there was R.E.M. reminding me to stand in the place where I live and think about direction; to check with the Sun if I am confused… reminding me that my feet are going to be on the ground, and my head is there to move me around.
Whatever the song actually “means,” in that moment I heard Michael Stipe reminding us all to stay grounded…to recognize our ability to make choices, to mobilize, to be guided by the Light…to “Be here now” as Ram Dass put it, because clinging to the past and obsessively fearing the future keep us disconnected from our power in the present moment.
Reminding us to think about the place where we live, and wonder why we haven’t before. Like, really, really think about it: about how we’ve gotten here over the decades and centuries, about how little we seem to know about the people living not all that far away from us in our country, or in our neighborhood…
An ad stared to play, so I switched the station back again.
There were the crunchy guitar riffs of the Alien Ant Farm cover of Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal.”
I was at the beach by that time, so I turned off the car and got out, my mind filling in the stupidly apropos chorus:
“You’ve been hit by / You’ve been struck by / a smooth criminal…”
Of course, it’s not just one criminal. Many have paved the way for this outcome over the years, over the generations. But yeah — one convicted felon in particular seemed to fit the bill.
Astrologically, I (and most other astrologers I know) have been tracking since 2008 the ways our governmental/corporate landscape has been coming apart at the seams and restructuring itself: emblems of Pluto bulldozing the solid structures and foundations of Capricorn. The process has been exposing the rot at the heart of so many things, the facades of which have been shielding (not necessarily hiding, but protecting) the gradual accumulation of power by a few.
Now, during these final weeks of Pluto in Capricorn (it makes its final entrance into Aquarius on Nov. 19), we’re seeing just how much toxic sludge has spread among the populace — especially many who do not possess individual power. This election has coughed it up for us all to see again. Kind of like the dark green crud I coughed up this morning, as I get over this cold I’ve had all week.
If we cough it up, we can spit it out rather than holding it in our physical-emotional-spiritual-political bodies any longer. We need to know this is there, so we can work to keep it from getting any worse.
Note: If you are feeling numb, terrified, grieving, seething with rage, and so on: it’s okay. Feel those feelings. If you can do something creative with them, great. If not, maybe just try to move your body outdoors, barefoot on this unseasonably warm day. Find a way to use the energy besides just letting it eat you up from the inside — and ask for help in that effort if you need it. Please contact me if some Soul Work or an astrology session might feel supportive to you.
With love and a huge hug,
Amanda
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