Freedom, Healing & Responsibility
by
Sarah Varcas
Today marks the completion of a cycle which began at the Full Moon on 13th June 2014. Back then we were considering the reality of who we are as opposed to who we think we are or should be. Freedom was the watch-word and the freedom to be ourselves without needing to hide, deny or pretend about any of it was the goal. Now, two and a half months later, we have an opportunity to look back and see how well we have embodied that freedom and how much our attempts at doing so have changed our present reality.
The cycle completing now has had its challenges for sure. Alongside freedom (Uranus), it has also been about healing (Chiron) and responsibility (Saturn). It is often tempting to see freedom and responsibility as opposite ends of a spectrum, when in fact the healing power of Chiron teaches that they are simply two sides of the same coin. True freedom comes not without responsibility but with the responsibility to use that freedom for the benefit of the collective, not simply for personal gain. The freedom to be who we are rather than what society tells us we should be comes entwined with the responsibility to use who we are to the best effect possible, to ensure that our contribution to the collective energetic field is spacious enough to allow others their own contribution and powerful enough to make a positive mark on the world around us.
With the current Neptune/Sun opposition, we are challenged to embody a loving response to life rather than one characterised by self-deception which serves only to keep us comfortable, even if that comfort is with our own misery. This reminder to love, love then love some more marks out the completion of this cycle as something of a water shed, for the best way to fulfil responsibility is as an act of service which enriches our own consciousness even as we offer ourselves to the service to life itself. The Sun’s current presence in Virgo helps us embrace the path of humility which allows authenticity in service rather than egoic self-seeking. It encourages recognition that if we need others to need us simply to feel good about ourselves, we actually need them to suffer for our benefit which is a somewhat dubious state of affairs! The heavens right now remind us that none of this is about us, it’s about life fulfilling itself through us, which is an entirely different order of activity and development.
We may encounter some disillusionment at the completion of such a cycle, as we discover that perceived rewards of a spiritual path prove to be yet more illusion. The notion that we will eventually arrive somewhere ‘spiritual’ once we’ve made enough effort leads us to believe we are lacking or have failed when we don’t recognise our present as that destination! But arrival is a figment of the imagination and hugely over-rated. We are on a journey the nature of which is change and growth not the end of growth and a very long stop-over at a place of our choosing. We can’t begin to imagine what life has in store for us from this vantage point, so to take it upon ourselves to define the required outcomes would be ludicrous!
These past few months have presented the challenge of embracing both freedom and the responsibility that comes with it. Not the hedonistic freedom of ‘I can do whatever I want whenever I want, regardless of the consequences’, but the awakened freedom of ‘I am life itself and once I step out of my own way I cannot help but be what is needed right now’. This stepping out of the way is something we can do over and over, every time we spot that we are over-thinking, scheming, fearing, controlling, manipulating. Every time we find ourselves trying to shape life rather than live it. As the year progresses towards its end we will encounter the next stage of the Uranus/Pluto square. Knowing how to be life rather than shape it to our own ends will be a vital part of what is needed to make the most of the energetic opportunities available to us. Most of us have had plenty of opportunity for practicing surrender to the way things are since the square began back in 2012, but the passive surrender of ‘I give up the fight’ is very different to the active surrender of ‘Life, make me what I need to be’. This active surrender, an offering up of ourselves on the altar of planetary evolution, is called for now, and as we respond to the call we will come to recognise the power inherent therein and the creativity which awakens within us once we resolve to act for the greatest good and not simply to appease the ‘little me’.
Sarah Varcas
