New Moon in Gemini: Celebrating the Master Teacher

Erin at Royal Bombay Yacht Club

Namaskar,

On this New Moon day in the mutable air sign of Gemini, the Twins of Duality and Interconnected Opposites, I happen to be halfway around the world back in the arms of my beloved Mother India.

It is auspicious that this New Moon falls on the 100^th Centenary birthday celebration of my Gemini teacher and advaita master, Ramesh Balsekar, born on May 25, 1917. It was my great honor to be of service at this gala event when the team asked me to be the Master of Ceremonies.

Pictures and highlights will soon follow. For now, I’m recovering from facilitating the full-day ceremony for one of the biggest experiences of my life! Fellow teachers, students, lovers of our guruji, family members, and bhakta devotees – all of us joined together at the Royal Bombay Yacht Club to celebrate this great man, who dropped his body on September 27, 2009. Ramesh's teaching and grace touched us to the core, transmitting the knowledge and understanding that surpasses suffering.

Erin and Ramesh, 2008

Since I was so busy in Gemini fashion (I myself have Gemini Moon and Gemini Rising – apropos for the M.C. role!) preparing speeches, invocations, and introductions over the past days, and since it takes an enormous amount of psychic and spiritual energy to hold space for such an important event, I don’t have any photos yet. But they’ll roll in from my Indian friends soon enough, and I’ll be able to share more with you. 

It was a day rich with eminent speakers, Sufi concerts, video premieres and book launches. All to celebrate our love for this great Teacher and the understanding that, as Ramesh used to paraphrase the Buddha, “Events happen. Deeds are done. But there is no individual doer thereof.”

Ramesh S. Balsekar, Advaita Sage

In the meantime, here are a few snippets from my opening speech:

So how did I get here as the MC for all of you today? Perhaps a few words from Guruji himself might explain it perfectly:

“Consciousness has written the story, Consciousness has made this production, Consciousness is acting all the roles in this drama and Consciousness is experiencing all the pleasure and the pain through the instruments which are human beings. What is really happening is ever since life began, life has always been the existence at the same time of interconnected opposites. Since the story has already been written – all that happens is that the movie is taking place and all we can do is witness it.”

In other words, as Ramesh used to say, THE MOVIE IS IN THE CAN!

I don’t usually speak much about the Teaching. Ramesh’s transmission of advaita lives so deep inside of my being, it is as if he is inside of me himself. I wouldn’t be up here today if I wasn’t asked, and perhaps I’m just the only one who was willing. As I said, it is for the deepest love of my Teacher. This love for the teaching is so far beyond the beyond that if I sit in presence with one of you and convey its enormity, I will simply cry and cry and cry, oceans upon oceans upon oceans of gratitude.

We all know our dear Ramesh was a big lover of jokes. And his biggest joke for me was when, about a year after Guruji passed away, I was back in California, literally hanging laundry on the clothesline one morning, and from one moment to the next, I simply realized. . . there was a realization in this body-mind organism that there is NO ONE THERE. So simple, so subtle, it is an event hardly worth mentioning, and at the same time, it is the most incredible, important and relieving thing that could have ever happened. In my own words, I describe it as the realization that there is no single central operating mechanism. As Ramesh would put it, there is the total apperception that there is no doer.

We all have our own way of putting it into words. That’s one of the best parts of our beloved Teacher’s transmissions: no one is parroting anything. Just as Ramesh never parroted his own master, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj. Our Guruji had his own style, and as he put it, his own concept of enlightenment, to which I say: worked for me! And so many of us here today…

Blessings to each of you. I'll be returning to the U.S. in just a few days. Sending full-power love and gratitude from the arms of Mother India!

Namaste,

Erin

Mumbai in the hot, hot season - taxi cab

Erin Reese is an author, spiritual teacher, counselor, and modern psychic reader based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She works with clients all over the world.
 

For readings and spiritual counseling by Skype, phone or email, contact her directly at erin@erinreese.com.

Mumbai, Indian Ocean - Magic and Mayhem

Full Moon in Libra: Individual Social Justice

Liz Greene's Mythic Tarot

Tonight we have a Full Moon in the cardinal air sign of Libra, the Scales of Equality and Justice. Beyond the limited reach of "political correctness" lies the realm of social justice.

The term social justice means different things to different people: some balk at the concept or are tired of hearing about it; some welcome it and dedicate their lives to the matter. Whatever your personal position, a good discussion of social justice is going to raise some eyebrows, or at the very minimum raise some intriguing points of view. This is Libra’s pet terrain – the perspective of self meeting other, where we discover if ever the twain shall meet.

INDIVIDUAL SOCIAL JUSTICE

We don’t often hear the term “individual social justice.” Heck, I may be one of the first people to coin the phrase, for all I know. Maybe the words ‘individual’ and ‘social’ technically cancel each other out; perhaps it's a complete oxymoron. But I’m going to turn grammar on its ear and do it anyway. Since I’m an artist, writer and free-thinker, I reserve the right to play with these terms and do so in public.

To me, individual social justice is an act that involves standing up for oneself individually, yet has a far reaching impact on the culture as a whole. That culture may be a society, family, organization, institution, or partnership. As a humanitarian-minded Aquarius, I do think about my greater brotherhood and sisterhood and all-genders-in-between-hood. I see how standing on the sidelines and being abused, or discounted, or harmed by another person’s actions or non-actions has a much more far-reaching effect than JUST ME. The world is watching; we are all connected. The elders, the children and the neighbors are observing our behavior. Do we stand up and advocate for what we feel to be fair and just, honest and healthy?

I know it’s downright scary, even terrifying, to stand up to a bully, whether that person be a playground chump, a politician, a boss, professor, or a misguided partner.  Perhaps you are afraid of being exposed by speaking up, that you might experience a counter-attack or receive undermining that’s worse than what you’re putting up with now; however, if you get the right support (hint, hint) and you muster your courage – no matter if it takes days, weeks, months or years – you will find the power to speak up skillfully. You will reclaim what is rightfully yours: your dignity, your serenity, and your peace of mind. 

At this Full Moon in Libra, we are experiencing a cardinal t-square involving the Sun and Uranus in Aries, opposing Jupiter and the Moon in Libra, all square Pluto in Capricorn. A need for freeing oneself from shackles and chains is arising, and there is tension that must be worked through in order to gain that liberation. Pluto's potent presence makes sure the lesson is bone-deep – we are not playing small. Our actions will have consequences for the greater culture and for past souls and future folks. Uranus opposing Jupiter shakes the ground, changes the playing field significantly. The cosmic pot is being stirred in order to propel us forth in our personal and collective evolution.

Yes, we need to tread carefully with thoughts, words and actions as Mercury and Venus are both retrograde and wires are easily crossed, things feel messy, toes are stubbed. But, the theme is clear: In order to experience the healthy Libran gifts of harmony and balance, we need to stand up for Individual Social Justice. If you need support to find the right strategy, reach out for a helping hand. Your trusted guides and loving mentors - seen and unseen - will be more than happy to be there for you. How do you think they got where they are today? They walked through the fire with courage and faith, just like you are doing right now. For all of us. Thank you.

Erin Reese is an author, spiritual guide, astrologer, and modern psychic reader based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She works with clients all over the world.

For readings and spiritual counseling by Skype, phone or email, contact her directly at erin@erinreese.com.

 

Lucky Spring 🍀 Client Reading Special!

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Erin Reese is an author, spiritual guide, astrologer, and modern psychic reader based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She works with clients all over the world.

For readings and spiritual counseling by Skype, phone or email, contact her directly at erin@erinreese.com.

Celebrating International Women's Day

To all my sisters around the world...

I love you.

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

Celebrating the strong, powerful, vulnerable, sensitive, caring, ferocious, wild, irreverent, sacred, nurturing, fierce, soft, wise, playful, sweet, spicy,

phenomenal goddesses that we are!

And honoring the men who love and respect them!

Bless you. Bless us all.

With love,

Erin Reese

Erin Reese is an author, spiritual guide, astrologer, and modern psychic reader based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She works with clients all over the world.

For readings and spiritual counseling by Skype, phone or email, contact her directly. She can be reached at erin@erinreese.com.

The Upcoming Pisces Eclipse: Learning to Flow

Dearest readers,
I am publishing this article early. The sensitives and empaths may appreciate the extra support as we draw nearer to the solar eclipse next weekend.
Spread the word.
Love, Erin

Katsushika Hokusai, The Great Wave off Kanagawa (1833)

On Sunday, February 26, we have a New Moon plus a Solar Eclipse in the mutable water sign of Pisces, the Fish. All New Moons usher in fresh starts, yet with a solar eclipse, it's more like a fresh startling of the heart being stretched beyond its previous capacity. This eclipse is, quite simply, the doorway that you are swept through to transcend your former definition of self.

At this New Moon, we have the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Neptune, Chiron and the asteroid Pallas Athena all in the non-dual sign of Pisces. That's a whole heckuva lotta water, immersing us in the realm of Oneness, Divine Bliss. In Pisces, we enter the realm where the soul finishes up its turn on the great cosmic wheel of life, and dissolves back into the ocean of consciousness.

Emptiness is form, and form is emptiness.

Let-Go to Flow

Are you ready to dissolve your preconceptions of who you are, what you should be doing? The old way isn't working anyway. Indeed, it hasn’t for quite awhile. Any attachment or identification with a concept, a belief of ‘the way things should be’ is clearly dying off, dissolving. Holding onto fixed ideas of right and wrong will cause suffering. Perhaps this conceptual identification is related to the way you should behave, or should be living your life, should be feeling. Or what is good and proper and expected of you.

Well, it’s not working, is it? And it only keeps you in bondage. You’ve known it for a very long time. And now, it’s time to let go and flow, to see the uselessness of trying harder to fit into any box. At the end of the day, it all goes back into the cosmic soup of Oneness. That's Pisces.

Caspar David Friedrich, The Monk by the Sea (1810)

No matter where this shows up in your experience at this time of the Solar Eclipse in Pisces, the letting go to make a new beginning is exactly what is needed to bring you to next level of awakening. It could show up in a new career move coming into your life, one in which you must trust the Big Picture more than ever before. Or perhaps a new housemate, new baby, or membership in a business organization enters your world. Maybe you’re invited to teach abroad, live in a spiritual community, run a company. Maybe you decide to chuck it all and live in the woods and pull a Walden à la Thoreau, opting out for the foreseeable future.

Whatever is going to stretch your spiritual heart further, whatever is an expression of ultimate compassion toward self and other, whatever is non-identified with name and form, with right and wrong, with the way things ought to be – that is your ticket now. Trust the process. There is no other way, for it is what is already happening, and you are the experiencer and the experience itself.

To the Empaths in the House

Over the past two weeks, several empathic friends have described a phenomenon of feeling highly unsettled and sometimes overtaken by a stretching or pulling of the heart center. Others are overcome by spells of crying, weeping in a strange mix of awe and gratitude. There is a sense of being swept away, of being powerless over the tides, of what is sweeping in, what is being asked, what is happening.

At times like these, the intensity of universal love is so much that it is sometimes akin to pain. At times like these, it is important to be very, very gentle with ourselves. It is useless to try to control the waves. Don’t push the river. If you don’t know what to do with the energies, if the answer isn’t coming, or you don’t understand what is happening to you, through you, simply STOP. Wait. Sit there, lie there. Hang out. Meditate, on the spot. Forcing solutions is futile. The only thing left to do is FLOW.

Edgar Degas, Woman in the Bath (1886)

Detox and Recalibration Bath

At times like these, it can be useful to stabilize the nervous system, which largely impacts the emotional body, through a detoxification bath. My favorite method uses Bragg’s apple cider vinegar (ACV), baking soda, and sea salt. For an extra full bathtub, double the recipe.

1 cup organic apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup baking soda 
1/2 cup sea salt

Dissolve all ingredients in a hot bath. Soak as long as you like – a minimum of 20 minutes ideally. If you can, get your entire head wet.

This bath will do wonders for recalibrating the electrical frequencies, removing the EMFs we absorb in our environment through being in cars, cities, around toxic people or situations, excess computer work or cell phone use. It also helps to purify the body of candida and other yeasts, mold or fungus. It can help digestion, aching joints or arthritis, and skin disorders. Also, it restores the natural pH of the body which facilitates further detoxification. All of this is supporting the body to handle the new energy flow, and facilitates an easeful letting-go.

In-joy.

With deep love and respect,
Erin

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Erin Reese is an author, spiritual guide, astrologer, and modern psychic reader based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She works with clients all over the world. For readings and spiritual counseling by Skype, phone or email, contact her directly. She can be reached at erin@erinreese.com.