Sing Along Now!
This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius,
Age of Aquariuuuus,
Aquariuuuuus,
Aquarius.
Here it is! What we’ve been singing about for forty years.
I’m in a book club. We usually read fiction but about twice a year we decide to include a non-fiction book. Recently it was 109 East Palace, by Jennet Conant -- about Robert Oppenheimer and Los Alamos during the early forties -- the time all the brilliant scientists gathered on a remote hilltop in New Mexico to be first in the race to build an atom bomb and stop the Nazis and the Japanese. Very good read. Fascinating. Especially if you live in Santa Fe -- the location of the book title address.
My copy of 109 was laying on the table in my studio. And I placed a book I’m about to read next to it. The book was Untie the Strong Woman, by Clarissa Pinkola Estes. It’s about the images and the icons of the deep Feminine, and how Her Presence has entered the collective of various times and cultures.
So there they were these two disparate books lying next to each other. I passed them by several times, aware of them, and not -- they were just books lying there -- Oppie, as Oppenheimer was called, blowing smoke from his pipe (how perfect is that!), and a beatific image of Mary, mother of God, rays of light streaming from her head, filling her aura. It struck me. I was looking at pictures of the two zodiacal ages we are straddling right now -- The currently ending Piscean Age and the incoming Age of Aquarius.
The Piscean Age, which we’ve been in for the last twenty-three hundred years (give or take), could be described as the age of the patriarchy, of power over others, might makes right, a time of secrets and lies (people in power got away with atrocious crimes, from mass murder to vast embezzling). Authority was outside of oneself... it was military and wars and bombs, and on and on. That time in Los Alamos is probably one of the most blatant descriptors of the age that is passing.
In the Age of Aquarius it is a time of equinimity and equality (harmony and understanding). In the Aquarian Age there are no secrets (think of some recent uprisings, Egypt for example where instantly information is broadcast to the world). We’re only on the cusp of this twenty-three hundred year cycle -- we’re not at the glory predicted, but the picture of Dr. Estes book, and the title, rang loud for the ingredient that needs to happen (in my humble opinion). Women must untie their strong woman. And men, who all have an inner feminine component, the anima in Jungian terms, must confront and/or coax out their strong woman as well. And it needs to be done by both, women and men. As Yogi Bhajan said: Each person must accept the responsibility to elevate and manage his or her own state of awareness, to deal with widespread and constant stress, to take actions and to make decisions on a vast, shifting array of problems.
The stage is set. We’ve had the women’s movement -- we’ve achieved some equality and respect -- the feminine presence is growing. But being like men is not the way -- we’ve tried that. Finding (untying) the strong woman is what it will take to balance and perhaps save our world. It will be the Feminine values of relationship, cooperation, and compassion, in the men and women who will sit down at the world tables. That’s when we’ll live The Aquarian Age.
After all I’ve just said, which sounds like I think I have the definitive answer, I don’t mean that. It’s just when I saw those two books together, that was the connecting piece in my imagination. As a woman, I know I’m inviting out my strong woman -- and I have friends, women of all ages who are beginning to stand stronger in the deep Feminine that they know. It’s the Feminine Face of God. This is powerful. But not power over, which makes it different from the last age.
The timing of these two books seemed a little uncanny so I decided to share my thoughts about them.
Anyway, this is my last blog on this site (I think). I began it for the 320 day study of the chakra system and that’s now over, or we’re beginning anew on the spiral. I will be teaching it again at Yoga Santa Fe, in Santa Fe, NM, beginning in January, at which point in time I’ll begin another blog. It’s been an incredible journey, I hope you look for me again, and I hope you Untie the Strong Woman, call out your wild soul.
Let peace guide the planet and love steer the stars!
