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sandman2412 · 4 months

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Our relationship with the world needs adjustment. And it all begins here, in the mind. Let’s put this in a relative sense. You finished studying in school and now to get into the field you want you have an exam for certification. You worked your ass off on this test and you’re expecting good results once all is said and done. Now I want to break this scenario down into three components:

The Positive, The Negative, and Perspective.

(+)

We associate the positive with the good and where we want to be. As if the positive is all we should consume. However, the truth of the matter is “ignorance is bliss” and if we live attached solely to what feels good, we live blindly to what we are capable of, what needs change in exchange for abundance. You got a 95% on the exam, now certified and achieving what you set out to do. You ride this high into work, overconfident and affirmed by passing. Yet your supervisor and coworkers question your ability and how fit your are for the role, due to basic or minor oversights in your work. Come to find out these oversights derive from the 5% of of exam material you’ve rendered meaningless in the light of your grade. Carrying yourself as if it was insignificant carried into your work, interrupting your reliability and quality of service in the workplace.

(-)

We associate the negative with where we don’t want to be. As if it is some bad omen that our lives are shambles, and there is some truth to that. The question is how do we respond to our darkness/dark moments. See the positive is like action and the negative, what’s acted upon. Darkness only grows where the light doesn’t shine, and as our own sources of light in life, our darkness should serve less as justification for debilitation and more as an indicator of what needs attention, what needs to be tended to. You got a 75% on the exam. Failing the exam already put you in a bad space, but missing the bar by 5% made it terrible. You act as if nothing happened, you isolate yourself, you remove yourself from your world and your passions, and in the end, wallow in self-deprecation. Not only were you confronted with negativity, but you affirmed it closing off opportunities for joy through taking action, instead expanding negativity through inaction. Which brings me to the third component, perspective.

(♾️)

The thing about positivity and negativity is they represent two sides of the same coin, unable to exist without one another. The key is in allowing the randomness/unpredictable nature of life to flip the coin, accepting which way it falls. Acceptance, because our circumstances are something we receive (negative) but our response (positive) is how we return and affect our circumstance. That is the power of the human condition, bestowed this level of consciousness and intellect to remain rationally detached from our circumstance, observing and honoring our emotions (not acting through them), and responding with what the moment needs. If I score the 95%, that 5% of error (or negativity) should act as an indicator of growth, strengthened or addressed through attention, focus, and action (positivity). If I score the 75%, I should be looking at the silver lining, applauding my attempt to go after where I want to be and doing everything to retain my motivation (positivity). By maintaining my desire to act and channeling that energy to lessen my margin of error through review, education, and correction, I reopen my future to myself. I affirm my ability to do what I believed and in the end, could be of more service to the world because of my trials than my peers simply being forced to return where I failed (negative). If we could bring the positive where we feel negative, and parse out the negativity hiding behind our positivity, how beautiful would life be?

~ Slade

(Was nervous to share, thanks for reading 🙂)

#enlightenment #spirituality #spiritualgrowth #knowledge #positive #negative #perspective #thoughts #writing #balance #esoteric #equilibrium #philosophy #faith #microcosm #esoterik #wisdom #astrology #slade

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sandman2412 · 4 months

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“Anybody can be angry, but to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, that is not easy.”

— Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics

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sandman2412 · 4 months

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Sending out intentions through faith is like increasing the flow along the River; invisibly, and subtly shifting the current in the direction that is being called upon. As the subject of these manifestations, it is not about seeing the current increase in speed, force or power, but knowing the purpose of your ends will come to term, as the universe generates the means for these ends to be. The more powerful your alignment is with your actions in the world, the more certain you can be that your kingdom is on the way.

~ Slade

#astro community #astrology observations #manifesation #pluto #mercury #Saturn #aqarius #capricorn #astroblr #astrology #thoughts #12h #writing #Jupiter #intentional living #intentionality

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sandman2412 · 4 months

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Lovers Quarrel

Beware of what’s irreconcilable,

That rift widening every time we label the other as liable.

No matter the fashion of expression,

No matter the feelings behind your objection.

On different sides of the same faction,

Butting heads bloodied by each infraction.

Leaving love to loosen in pursuit of concession,

We allowed our confessions to animate aggression.

Almost like we aren’t fitting for embrace,

Almost like there’s no joy for us in this case.

I wish you just understood,

And I’m sure you’re saying the same thing.

I really wish we could,

So this love could see another Spring.

~ Slade

#writers and poets #poetry #thoughts #writing #writers on tumblr #lovers #love #quotes #prose #pain #twin flame #Venus #pluto #asthetic #Slade

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sandman2412 · 4 months

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It hurt so bad I didn’t know where to put the pain.

I couldn’t dismiss myself from deserving the blame.

The charred warrior carrying what remained out of the flame.

~ Slade

#writers and poets #poetry #writing #prose #12 leo #rahu conjuct sun #pain #relief #thoughts #writers on tumblr #mental health #Slade

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sandman2412 · 4 months

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Info Dump: Ashlesha Nakshatra

Ashlesha nakshatra is the 9th lunar mansion in the Vedic zodiac, spanning 16.40' - 30.00' Cancer. The associated constellation with Ashlesha is Hydra and it's ruling deities are the Nagas, a cohort of superhuman beings that are part-human and part-serpent. A coiled serpent symbolizes this point on the zodiacal wheel.

Ashlesha is a commonly misunderstood nakshatra. Snakes don't exactly conjure fuzzy feelings. When describing the human personality, those with Ashlesha prominent in their natal charts are often noted for their propensity to behave in cunning, manipulative (often emotional), and deceptive ways. These natives are also widely recognized for possessing profound healing abilities as well as potential for enlightenment.

The symbol of a snake brings to mind a few extrapolations we can make about Ashlesha's nature. A particularly striking one, though, is understanding the serpent as representing Kundalini. Kundalini is a source of largely untapped energy inside of all of us that is located in the Muladhara or root chakra at the bottom of the spine. Associated with the lowest and most primal point of consciousness, the root chakra is concerned with our sense of survival and feeling safe. When someone goes through a Kundalini awakening, this sleeping energy is aroused and travels up the spine until it penetrates the crown chakra, like a coiled snake being charmed to life. Similar to a snake shedding it's skin, the person is transformed in this process.

Kundalini is pure life force and deeply sexual. One way those who have experienced Kundalini awakenings arouse this power within themselves is through the practice of tantra. Practicing tantra doesn't always imply sexual union, but it's one of the most potent forms tantra can take. Being in a state of extreme vulnerability during physical intimacy creates a perfect space for an awakening to happen. Similar to the way your body can't lie in the way it responds to another's, nothing that is buried in the depths of your subconscious is "off limits" during a transformational process. The person you hold to be "you," along with all of the corresponding beliefs, fears, and traumas, has to be discarded along with your socks.

From looking a little bit at how the snake is representative of transformation through arousing Kundalini, we can see that Ashlesha is a very spiritual sign. People with prominent placements in this nakshatra are usually interested in the taboo and occult, and often psychology. There is an interest in self-transformation in Ashlesha people that might be coupled with insecurity about how to achieve it. If we are operating from an unconscious place as represented by the sleeping serpent in the root chakra, it makes sense that these people have a reputation for resorting to manipulation and mind games (that they will beat you at every time). These behaviors are often rooted in a tremendous desire to feel safe and loved. If proper guidance is sought out and an Ashlesha person is willing to be really honest with themselves and tap into their less basal psychology, there is a lot of potential to heal and transcend some pretty gnarly subconscious material.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, Ashlesha people naturally have healing abilities in spades. The practice of tantra, a very Ashlesha activity, is not just about drawing up power that previously lied dormant, it's about bringing soothing calmness to the parts of ourselves that maybe we didn't even realize were wounded. You have probably seen the symbol of two snakes twisting around a winged staff at a hospital or on an ambulance - the Caduceus. The staff with the snake has been used as a symbol of medicine for thousands of years, since around 1400 B.C..

The Rod of Asclepius (represented by a singular snake twisting itself around a staff) came before the Caduceus. While the Caduceus came to be used by the Greeks in association with Hermes, patron of messengers, merchants and thieves, the Rod of Asclepius belongs to the Greek god of healing, Aesculapius. The Caduceus's use as a medical symbol as opposed to the Rod of Asclepius is actually due to a mistake made by a U.S. Army Captain in 1902. It's an interesting and a kind of funny story and you can read a little more about that here: https://www.caduceusmedicalgroup.com/for-patients/legend-of-caduceus/

Why are snakes used as a symbol of medicine and healing when they are also a widespread symbol of evil and harm? A couple reasons. The ability of snakes to shed their skin indicates longevity and their tendency to quickly switch from a resting state to one of action represents recovery from sickness. The use of the snake and staff as a symbol of medicine also has Biblical roots as seen by the story of Moses leading the Jewish people through the desert:

While wandering through the desert, the Jewish people became angry with God and Moses, demanding to know why they had been led from Egypt to die in a wasteland. In response God sent poisonous snakes to them, wounding many people and killing others. The Jewish people came to Moses and expressed remorse for forsaking the Lord and begged him to pray to God to have mercy on them. God instructed Moses to build a staff with a bronze serpent mounted on it so that anyone hurt by the snakes could look at it and be healed.

Ashlesha belongs to the Mercury-ruled nakshatras along with Revati and Jyestha. In astrology Mercury rules over things like communication, intellect, kind of brainy/cerebral things. It's not really considered to be a benefic planet (like Venus or Jupiter, bringing pleasant, positive things) or a malefic (like Saturn or Mars, bringing difficult, negative things.) Mercury is dual in nature and can go either way - you have the free will to use your mind for good or for bad. The duality of Mercury can be seen clearly in the symbolism of the twins as representing Gemini. This duality exists in Ashlesha natives in their ability to flip back and forth (doing this fluidly and often without realizing) between channeling their higher versus lower consciousness.

Since Mercury is the sign of intellect and communication, it makes sense that it is the ruling planet of the nervous system. What this means for people with heavy Ashlesha influence in their natal charts is that they are highly sensitive to their environment, picking up on subtleties in communication (including ones they aren't apart of) and social dynamics. It's also not uncommon to see Ashlesha people being fastidious when it comes to personal hygiene. Beyond bodily cleanliness, this high-strung nature is extended to the way the person relates to the world. Details of interactions are picked apart, and there is a concern for social technicalities and "rules." This is a more nit-picky sign than a big-picture one. Funnily enough, while Ashlesha is often critical towards other people, they are hyper sensitive to the same lens being applied to themselves. It's like there is a sentiment here of "I'm trying so hard to get these tiny details perfectly correct (because I know that how you do one thing is how you do everything) and you should know that so you have no right to point out my (very real) personality flaws."

There is an interesting polarity in Ashlesha because on one hand, it's a very primal and sexual sign. On the other, Ashlesha is concerned with cleanliness and purity. A celebrity example of this polarity is Marilyn Monroe, who was an Ashlesha ascendant. She might be the most well-known sex symbol to exist, yet this was largely a mask she wore in an industry that wanted to profit off of her. Those close to her described her personality as sweet and empathetic, and have said that she obviously possessed a great deal of intellectual prowess. Since her death and more has come out about her life, it's obvious that she was deeply unhappy with the way she was portrayed in Hollywood as being naive and overly sexual. She was attracted towards more serious roles even though she never really got a shot at one. Her marriage to playwright Arthur Miller is one example of her attraction towards intelligence and self-expression.

At the risk of looking Ashlesha through an overly male lens, the polarity of sexuality and purity that exists in Ashlesha can be related to the psychological concept of the Madonna-Whore Complex (MWC). The MWC is a term created by Freud to describe problems men have in relating to women, particularly those they are in intimate relationships with. Men suffering from this complex, whether conscious of it or not, place women into one of two mutually exclusive categories, Madonna or Whore. Women are labelled as being either warm, nurturing, and loving or sexually desirable but not both at the same time. When left unexamined, this complex can create hefty dissatisfaction in relationships if a man is either unable to experience sexual attraction towards women he respects or is unable to respect women he deems sexually attractive. Even though the MWC concept is outdated in it's support of a patriarchal view of society and heavy influence from Western Judeo-Christian principles, the problem it speaks to is one that still exists.

With a sensitive, mercurial nervous system and desire to explore transformative (often sexual) healing, we have Ashlesha as a character that is rigidly virginal while simultaneously having an intense (maybe suppressed) sexuality to them. This is a flighty and finicky person that has a huge yearning to be asserted upon so that their sexuality can come out of it's sleeping state and they can experience the pleasure and healing that they desire.

In the beginning of this post it was mentioned that the ruling deities of Ashlesha are the Nagas, beings that are part-human part-serpent. To understand the Nagas and what their ruler ship over Ashlesha means, let's look at where they dwell in the universe, how they came to live there, and the space that they created for themselves.

In Hinduism, the cosmos is conceptualized as being globular in shape and divided into three layers - similar to how the earth has it's cool outer crust, hot central core, and it's warm mantle between the two. The outer layer of the cosmos is called Swarga, where divinities and nakshatras (or stars) are. The middle zone is called Antariksa, where part-human part-divine beings live. The 9 planets used in Vedic astrology as well as the planetary gods exist here. The third innermost layer is called Buu, where we live on earth.

These three basic cosmic layers can be further divided into fourteen worlds. Seven of these fourteen layers are deeper within the core of the cosmos, or deeper inside of the earth, and seven lie above earth's surface. When Indra banished the Dragons and Nagas from Swarga, the outer part of the cosmos, they fell to Buu, the inner part of the cosmos. Being serpentine in nature, the Dragons and Nagas burrowed below the earth to avoid the gods policing their activity. Under the earth they created their own alternative paradise: Naga Loka, a world full of sensuality (the word Ashlesha literally means "to embrace"), pleasures, and what many would call hedonism.

Naga Loka, though technically an underworld, is not like hell. It is filled with pleasure rather than punishment and pain. One reason as to why Naga Loka is so beautiful is because it is tucked away from the sunlight - think of how neon and incandescent lights shine hypnotically at night or the bio-luminescence of some deep sea marine creatures. The absence of sunlight in Naga Loka also means that those dwelling there do not visibly age.

The word Ashlesha itself meaning tight embrace, entwining with another, and intimate contact, is a nakshatra associated with the taboo. This is not only because of the stigmatization of sex and sexuality by society, but also due to it's close relationship with the reptilian. Snakes and dragons are creatures usually representing evil and villains in all kinds of stories - Nagini in Harry Potter, the deadly cobras Nag and Nagaina in Rudyard Kipling's Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, and the serpent that tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden. When someone is called a "snake," we know that that person is being accused of being deceitful, sneaky, and underhanded. A pop culture example: Taylor Swift, capitalizing on her feud with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West in which Swift was accused of being a snake, created her album Reputation. The album is full of vengeful, vindictive themes, and takes full advantage of her assigned snake-like character by incorporating heavy serpentine symbology into her work.

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I credit Vic Dicara for the information about the Nagas and Naga Loka. If you're interested in learning about Vedic astrology check out his YouTube Channel.

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sandman2412 · 4 months

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Uttara Phalguni: Devotion, affection

The Phalgunis are the first pair of the 27 nakshatras - later coming the Ashadas, the Bhadrapadas.

Before Uttara Phalguni comes Purva Phalguni, symbolized by the front legs of a bed. Being half of a pair, Uttara Phalguni (symbolized by the back legs of a bed) is concerned with union - happy partnerships and communities. The attitude of Uttara Phalguni is a response to Purva Phalguni, a sign also concerned with union, but in a different way. Purva Phalguni has more to do with the initial attraction or "spark" that we first experience in new relationships. Uttara Phalguni comes along after the Purva Phalguni spark has died down and strives to make the relationship last beyond the initial excitement.

The bed as the symbol of Purva and Uttara Phalguni

The symbology of the bed encompasses themes of both of the Phalgunis. Love, marriage, sex, pleasure for yourself and others, rest, and rejuvenation are all things that can be associated with a bed. Purva Phalguni is more likely to see the bed as a supportive environment for weird kinky sex after a date. Uttara Phalguni seeks to sustain this attraction and, ultimately, transform the bed into one shared between two deeply committed partners.

Part of what makes Uttara Phalguni different from and complementary to Purva Phalguni has to do with their planetary rulerships.

Uttara Phalguni is ruled by the Sun. The Sun represents very masculine qualities and principles - the ego, your sense of self. It projects itself outward into the solar system, representing the doing nature of the Sun as opposed to the being nature of the more feminine planets (Venus, the Moon...). The Sun is the archetype of the father and embodies classically paternal qualities - someone generous, expressive of love and pride, who treats children and loved ones with respect and care.

Purva Phalguni is ruled by Venus, the planet embodying archetypal femininity - things like beauty, love, and pleasing aesthetics. These are the sexy and exciting things that help kick start new relationships and draw us to one another in the first place. Purva Phalguni magnetizes a companion towards her with her innate, seductive qualities and Uttara Phalguni follows close behind to build the relationship into something long-lasting with it's more fatherly approach.

Aryaman: God of community, friendship, marriage, partnership.

The ruling deity of Uttara Phalguni is one of the Adityas, Aryaman. He is brother to Bhaga, the ruling deity of Purva Phalguni. The Adityas are a group of 12 deities and make up (some of) the offspring of Aditi, a primeval goddess and mother to many gods.

Hinduism is known for having.. a lot of different gods. 330 million is a common estimate. With this in mind, it isn't surprising that some deities are not well-known. Aryaman is an important solar deity in the Vedic pantheon but relatively little information is known about him today. Some important information about Aryaman can be derived from his name, though.

The Sanskrit root of the name Aryaman is -Ri, meaning to go forward or to progress. The word arya, stemming from -Ri, means to come together or to form a bond. Putting the two together, the meaning of Aryaman is to progress towards union. -Ri can also mean something that is true and can stand on it's own. Aryaman as a name and deity carries the essence of truth. Aryaman is all about relationship and partnerships, so truth should be thought of with this in mind. True in the context of relationships means reliable, trustworthy, dedicated - prerequisite qualities to be part of a real partnership. This is what Aryaman embodies and stands for as a deity.

A song to listen to that has Uttara Phalguni vibes: If the House Burns Down Tonight by Switchfoot

I see the smoke piling up in the rear view mirror Yeah but I ain't ever seen it any clearer If the house burns down tonight I got everything I need when I got you by my side And let the rest burn

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Credit is due to Vic Dicara for most of the information I talked about here. If you're interested in learning more about Vedic astrology, his YouTube channel is a great resource to do that.

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