MARCIA SACKS

The Full Moon is  Saturday, May 18 at 4:11 p.m. CDT in 27° Scorpio. New moons are new beginnings. Full moons often bring things to a completion or contain the results of whatever occurred at the new moon. Rather than begin something new, it is best to take some time out over the next few days to contemplate what resources (personal, financial, emotional or spiritual) you need to finish projects already started. Scorpio energy is excellent for this type of reflection.

Venus and Uranus are conjunct in the Full Moon chart. New and unusual friends can pop into your life. Inventive and creative energy will spark new ideas.

The hardest but most valuable work you can do at a Scorpio full moon is letting go of old hurts, angers and resentments. It's a type of emotional house-cleaning. One of the things I learned from Marie Kondo's system of getting rid of old physical stuff in your home is to start discarding the easiest things first, the ones with the least emotional content. I think you can do that with forgiveness work, too. If you inventory your angers and discover you're still angry at Amazon for delivering a package in three days instead of two, that might be something you can practice forgiveness on to begin with.

​Find something or someone on your list that's easy to forgive and visualize yourself saying "I forgive you" to that person or situation. Imagine sending them light or other type of blessing. When you get good at that, try it with whatever is a little bit harder. And so on. When we call something a spiritual practice, it means you need to practice it to get good at it. Practice forgiveness.

What I've been thinking about the most since Sunday is a scene in Game of Thrones that was an unfortunately perfect visual of the Saturn/Pluto near conjunction which we experienced at the end of April. I'll describe it generally so that it's spoiler free - but if you saw it you'll know what I'm talking about.  In the scene, a battle seems to have come to its conclusion. However, the leader of the battle pauses for a moment. In that terrible moment all the angers, pain and resentments the leader experienced in the past flares up and overtakes logic and reason.  The leader re-mobilizes the forces and horrific destruction ensues. The viewer sees that the character's dreams for the future are destroyed in that moment.

If you don't use spiritual or psychological practices and techniques for dealing with the negative emotions of the past, these emotions will rise up at some point with destructive force. For the average person, it's not a big battle with thousands of enemies. It's often something simple like an argument with someone you love and have no intention of hurting. A pattern from your past arises and suddenly you put a lot more heat into the 'discussion'. In the blink of an eye, the argument has escalated.

In Kriya Yoga we learn to recognize the patterns through personal reflection and the use of astrology. Through meditation, we choose peace as a preferred state. Through forgiveness we 'de-magnetize' ourselves to negative patterns. When the karma arises with the urge to escalate a quarrel, we can select a different way to respond.

Do your emotional house-cleaning now, before Saturn and Pluto are exactly conjunct in January 2020.

In print:


​

My article Getting to Know Yourself Deeply is in the May/June issue of Yoga Chicago Magazine.

If you're interested in learning more about karma, I recommend this book:

The Laws of Karma by Goswami Kriyananda

The New Moon tomorrow May 4 is at 5:45 pm CDT in 14° Taurus. This New Moon will bring stability and an appreciation of the good and beautiful things in your life. Especially here in the Chicago area, we have hopefully weathered the last snowstorm of the year (5 inches on April 14!) and are seeing green grass and leafy trees.  The New Moon in Taurus is positive for things that have to do with working in the earth, like gardening, or enjoying the things that come from the earth like fruit, vegetables and grains.

For those of us who are still experiencing the Saturn and Pluto station retrogrades, struggling with heavy responsibilities and life frustrations, it might help to know that these will ease with time. Saturn went retrograde on April 29. I usually talk about a week or two after that for things to return to a more normal level, gradually improving day by day. It's only much later that you will realize that you have gained a skill, strength or expertise that will help you in the years ahead.

Speaking of Saturn and Pluto (whose conjunction will be exact on January 12, 2020), I realized that that aspect was illustrated symbolically by two things I watched this past week. The Game of Thrones episode "The Long Night" and "Avengers: End Game" both had similar themes. The forces representing Life fought the forces representing the annihilation of Life in a long battle. It's always interesting to me when fiction that grabs the collective consciousness so intensely at a particular point in time exactly mirrors the current major planetary transits. 

If you are interested in symbology and synchronicity, check out Ray Grasse's book The Waking Dream.

More books and classes:








Artist and Kriya yogi Gary Whitney has just published a book Song of the Avatar: Visual Riffs on the Bhagavad Gita.

There are many English translations of the great spiritual text the Bhagavad Gita.  My guru Goswami Kriyananda has one that is both poetic and mystical.



Artist and Kriya yogi Ann Brownfield Meara has a class called Meditation to Creation taking place this September in Sedona, AZ.

The Professional Astrology Course is online learning from the Temple of Kriya Yoga that can be started at any time. It is taught by Goswami Kriyananda via audio recordings and written texts. The course also includes live monthly webinars with Temple instructors. I am a program leader and instructor for this course. Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

If you would like to receive the Astrology Update blog as an email newsletter, message me here.

You can find me on:

• Facebook
• YouTube
• Twitter