Full Blue Moon in Taurus 🌕 The Unspookable

This weekend, we welcome a Full Moon on Samhain/Halloween, Dia de los Muertos/All Souls’ Day, All Saints’ Day, and a Blue Moon on October 31st. Mercury is still retrograde, and we are in the middle of an election that can only be described as tragicomedy. Kids are struggling to stay in brick-and-mortar school, the slightest scratchy throat brings paranoia, friends ‘n family relations tense up when it comes to heated topics such as anti-vaxxers, mask-wearing, race relations and oh hey, what about the environment?

After all, we are about to experience a Full Moon in the fixed earth sign of Taurus, tightly conjunct Uranus, the Great Awakener and planet of disruption, earthquakes, tornadoes, Kundalini rising, surprises and shocks, the totally unexpected and the flat-out bizarre. What’s a body to do? How to cope? Do we hide out like trolls, burrowing even further down into our bunkers? Hold our breaths and stress out? Implode in a news consumption frenzy?

Is there another alternative? Of course there is. 

Come along with me…

Imagine if you will that you are in a carnival or adventure theme park. You’re around twelve years old, and about to board, for the very first time, a massive wooden roller coaster. This could be the Giant Dipper at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, or the old Cyclone at Coney Island.  You’re simultaneously scared, and super excited. You’ve absolutely no idea what to expect once they strap you into your seat and pull the safety bar over your lap. Such is the nature of our upcoming days on Planet Earth…

Or, apropos of the season, imagine you are touring a pitch-black Halloween funhouse at night – terrified – as you put your hands through black curtains to feel something in the dark. “It’s the decapitated bloody head of Lizzie Borden’s axe-murdered mother,” your guide whispers to you. Your brain knows it’s actually a mannequin head with a wig soaked in greasy oil – after all, you know it’s not real! – but it’s fully freaking you out, nonetheless.

You place your hands in the next hole in the black curtain. “These are the eyeballs,” your guide whispers. You know it’s a bucket of peeled grapes but – O.M.G! – it sure feels like eyeballs! Completely grossed out, you turn to see a posed couple in turn-of-century garb soaked in blood. You know it’s ketchup – it’s got to be! You’re about at your limit when you see a man dressed as Freddy Krueger revving up a chainsaw in the corner. Quickly, you try to get out – get out! – of the haunted fun house.

Are you having a good time? Stumbling into the outdoor courtyard, you squeal, groan, and laugh with your friends and say simultaneously, “Never again!” and “That was so great!” “Totally excellent!”

Yes, you know it’s a haunted house. You know it’s a nightmare. And, you know deep in the truest part of yourself, that the truth of who you are IS SAFE.

“We live in illusion [and] the appearance of things. There is a reality. We are that reality. When you understand this, you see that you are nothing, and being nothing you are everything. That is all.” – Kalu Rinpoche, as quoted by Ram Dass

At this time of wild world happenings, we may have the luxury of getting spooked. This is the luxury of consciously experiencing the power of the human mind. The ability to believe. To believe that the stories you hear, imagine, watch are, in fact, real.

We all know about suspending disbelief, such as when we are watching a scary movie on Netflix, or tripping through a haunted house. Yet the real angst – the suffering – comes when we actually suspend belief. Suspending belief gives an appearance of a happening – which is all perspective – the illusion of a duration in time and space. Belief gives the appearance the quality of realness. It is a quality like stickiness – this belief stuff. The appearance seems to stick due to the nature of the mind. Embodied understanding of this illusion is the key to freedom – true happiness.

When you get spooked by what you hear, see, smell, sense, simply STOP. Halt, and wait. Do it quietly and internally, on the spot. It’s easy to watch the nature of the mind.

Can you allow yourself to watch the movie of current events, even feel the blood pressure rise, the sweat on the palms, the rising pulse, i.e. the somatic responses labeled as anger, fear, anxiety – when you tune into what appears on the movie screen known as “The World”? Can you realize it is a response of the conditioned mind, perceiving conditioning itself, and that it is all Consciousness playing the starring role, writing the script, and producing the show?

You can see the mind grasping concepts like a Venus flytrap snaps its jaws shut to claim its prey. It reaches out and gobbles up an idea – some news bit, something a friend sends you on social media, some advice or opinion from a family member about this or that. Whatever your mind takes in, consumes, it then must alchemize, digest, spit out the junk. It adds more work. Not ultimately a problem, nothing to blame, but also not necessary.

Can you see beyond the appearance of good and bad, notice that it is all conditioned preference? Whether the emphasis is on personal freedom, the environment, justice, health, responsibility? Or mystery, intrigue, shadow, conspiracy theory, the Dark, the Light, peace, conflict, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera?

Currently in the world play (lila), as always, it is much simpler to stay seated in the Self. Know that You Are the Eternal Self. Rest there. If you are not seated (or seeded) in the Self, it’s going to be a sticky mess when it comes to picking up ideas, notions of intentionality, cause and effect, and playing with them as if they are real. Check to see if you are truly ready for the PG-13 movie, let alone the R-rated director’s cut.

If, on the other hand, you know the Truth of Who You Are, as Consciousness, then – ONLY then – it’s no problem at all diving headlong into the land of maya, with politics, pandemics, plans, or purposes. Once it is all seen through… when there is no suspended belief in any of it – then go ahead and play fully in the divine lila game – the fun house. Play in it, and be happy all the time.

Live in samsara and be happy all the time

Nirvana and samsara are one.

Erin Reese, M.S. is a contemporary spiritual teacher, author and guide. A modern mystic with over thirty years of experience, Erin Reese offers incisive, practical intuitive readings to her clients worldwide. She is a counselor, guide and mentor to those seeking an alternative to traditional psychotherapy or business coaching. Erin also offers non-dual meetings and retreats on embodied liberation and freedom from suffering.

*Weekly nondual satsang in the advaita vedanta lineage is held Thursdays, 9am Pacific. Email Erin for more information. The November 13-15 retreat in the High Sierra has one spot remaining!

New Moon in Libra: Truth, Unfiltered

Today, we welcome a New Moon in the cardinal air sign of Libra, the scales of balance, justice, equanimity. The seventh house of the horoscope is Libra’s home – the domain of self and other, formal marriage, contracts, partnership, you ‘n me. While it is the natural house of “we,” most of us don’t realize is also the traditional house of open enemies – those situations where the disagreement or confrontation is clearly on the table. The seventh house of Libra is also the terrain of counseling, and other close one-to-one situations (like meetings with an attorney or consultant or advisor), and of course, therapy.

Since we’re on the subject of therapy and counseling, let's enter today's edgier realm.

This past month, I’ve had a couple of dreams about my former therapist. In waking life, she was a fantastic practitioner – masterful in attachment therapy and Jungian psychology. We worked together intensively every single week – see you Tuesday at 11am – for over three years. A large chunk of cash, to be sure, and worth every penny. I will forever be grateful to her and our deep work together.

In these dreams of late, I’ve seen her as a crunchier, older version of her usual, polished, fashionable self. Her dream self smokes cigarettes, has a side gig as a bad pizza delivery person, has personal friendships with past clients (verboten in licensed therapy), and lolls about in red crushed-velvet robes on the therapy chaise lounge, making herself and others more comfy. She’s undergoing early menopause, her face is aging. She hates spiritual platitudes and pop positivity psychology, and rejects formal religion. She’s a rebel, and a somewhat unkempt one at that. Truly, she simply doesn’t care.

After having two of such dreams, I got the message. This dream therapist is an integrating aspect of my own self and my own work with clients and students. While I wouldn’t be so messy, unbounded, sloppy, or careless, I might also not be following the usual cultural expectations of traditional therapy. I would bring my rock-and-roll, bohemian self to the fore, use the F-word, hear about your favorite beer, and be so frank as to make a person start to feel more Frank herself.

Truth, Unfiltered 

A spiritual teacher is going to tell you the Truth. By being and embodying the truth, sans artifice. The boundaries of one’s personality are seen and experienced as that which they truly are – edges, hues, skeins of color and light indeed, but they are no longer identified with. 

When a person works with a spiritual teacher, they’re not going to receive traditional talk therapy or trauma/attachment work, though that might be an aspect of it. Working with a spiritual teacher is a facing of your self, and even more True, it is a facing of the Self – where is your soul aching to go, what is Life Itself longing to express? Where are you telling yourself a story, where are you believing the lie, perpetuating the lie, indulging in the lie?

Spiritual teachers are not necessarily going to help your egoic self feel better, though you may end up that much closer to knowing you are truly Free, and that is the ultimate “feel better.” Embodied liberation does not come and go. It is not contingent on outside people, circumstances, politics, health, finances, relationships, and all of that. It is not a state.

The Truth is unlimited, as You are unlimited. The Truth is not bound by an idea of what should be happening, or what might occur next. 

The throes of achievement, accomplishment, and aspiration come and go, no longer important – unless, of course, it’s what’s happening. Status, recognition, image no longer sub for the real thing.

Yes, it may look normal, it may look buttoned-up, professional, smiley and welcoming.

But Truth may also smoke cigarettes (unfiltered), loll around on the couch in red crushed velvet robes, and eat bad pizza. Nothing is excluded. Truth faces everything, because it is everything. And that's pure Love.

Truth. It's What's for Dinner.

Truth. It's what's for dinner.

It's what's for dinner, lunch, breakfast, and your midnight snack.

Truth. Open 24x7.

Erin Reese, M.S. is a contemporary spiritual teacher, author and guide. A modern mystic with over thirty years of experience, Erin Reese offers incisive, practical intuitive readings to her clients worldwide. She is a counselor, guide and mentor to those seeking an alternative to traditional psychotherapy or business coaching. Erin also offers non-dual meetings and retreats on embodied liberation and freedom from suffering.

*Weekly nondual satsang in the advaita lineage is held Thursdays, 9am Pacific. Email Erin for more information. The November 13-15 retreat is currently full yet there is a waiting list available.

Fun with Memes

I’ve been getting creative on Instagram and Twitter, finding new modes of creative, visual pointers to the Absolute. Here’s a few of late:

Full Moon in Aries 🔥 The Eternal Inferno

India, Future. Collage by Erin Reese, 2008

Today we pay respects to the Full Moon in the sign of Aries, the fiery Ram. In 2020, we've long gotten the hint: heat, hellfire, and anything goes. Planet Earth is fueled-up by Mars' long encampment in the sign of his ruler, the warrior Aries, squaring the stellium Saturn, Pluto, and Jupiter in Capricorn. This does not let up entirely until January 2021. Then, a new cast of cosmic characters will roll onto the scene for the evolutionary grand theater.

In the meantime, if you're still asking yourself how to make sense of "what the f*&@ is happening", well, there's the source of suffering right there. It can't be understood, at least not in the usual way. This is akin to Albert Einstein's truism, "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."

Aries is the "I Am." Pure, unadulterated existence. No shame, no blame, no pride, no guilt. Raw potency, intensity, volition without involvement. A crystal clear, fiery will that springs forth as uncompromising and inarguable as Life Itself, as Nature. Like Aries' I Am, YOU are a force of nature. Never separate.

A few words on that note, penned last week before satsang, apropos of our Full Moon in Aries:

THE ETERNAL INFERNO

 

You are safe.

You are safe.

So long as you continually tell yourself you are under threat

 

By this wildfire
By this pandemic
By this politician
By this, that
And the Other Thing

 

you are in a state of defensiveness, reactivity, and fear.

 ~

“STAY SAFE”?

You never were unsafe.

Come into trust.

Trust in what?

The Ground of Being. Existence.

 ~

Why be so attached to any of it?

Your house

This body

This marriage

This country

 ~

You are That, the substratum, the suchness, the Isness of Life Itself. You never were separate.

You are the pandemic. You are your despised politician, your racist, your activist.

You are the wildfire, tearing through the forest, the town, the home.

You are the love affair

You are the divorce

You are the death, the birth

The renewal

And the destruction.

 ~

Get over your small self

the “me me me me me”

See through it

The best joke on the cosmic comedy circuit.

Fully allow, see.

Enjoy this tragic-comedy-drama-hootenanny

Why be bothered if Rome burns

Or your house, body go down with it?

You are That which lit the flame

In fact, you are the pyre itself

The eternal inferno.

 

Erin Reese, M.S. is a contemporary spiritual teacher, author and guide. A modern mystic with over thirty years of experience, Erin Reese offers incisive, practical intuitive readings to her clients worldwide. She is a counselor, guide and mentor to those seeking an alternative to traditional psychotherapy or business coaching. Erin also offers non-dual meetings and retreats on embodied liberation and freedom from suffering.

*Weekly nondual satsang in the advaita lineage is held Thursdays, 9am Pacific. Email Erin for more information. The November 13-15 retreat is currently full yet there is a waiting list available.