Gratitude is the rocket-fuel for a peace-filled life
Thanksgiving. Gratitude. Do you take these concepts seriously? Do you know how to put them to use? Do you realize that they are actions and not reactions?
Thanksgiving needs a new name
Somehow, the notion of “thankfulness” came to be associated with a strange blend of “stuff I’ve earned” and “how the external world is benevolent to me.” In both cases the fallacy stems from an erroneous sense of separation from what is considered “outside of me.” How would your emotions and decision making change if you completely realized and accepted the fact that you are an integral component to every other action and event in the universe? In other words, you’re perfect — flawless — as you are? This second.
Perhaps you’d feel grateful.
Astrology and Self-Awareness
Like many who study and practice astrology, when I look at a natal chart, I perceive that I’m looking at a blueprint of a soul at birth. When I progress the chart over time, I see how that soul unfolds in response to other souls, other events, and even how it responds to whatever narrative it’s telling itself.
Suffice it to say, it’s always an interesting read, and I can almost always see elements of myself in those blueprints.
Not all of these maps are terribly “balanced.” Some reveal a powerful drive towards extroverted mania; some show an entry into this world that is pock-marked with hits from lost parents and a world that sees a soul that is just “too different.” A common theme with more than a few is that the Native was set off on a journey with powerfully-reinforced messages that pushed them to accept a role or self-perception than is narrower than what their soul understands to be true; but they bent and contorted themselves to try and integrate and reconcile the irreconcilable until… well… various forms of dis-ease appeared.
Then they come to me with the same question: “What do you see in my chart?”
I realize that what they’re really asking is, “Can you help me validate what my soul feels about myself?”
Your Self is Much Bigger Than You Know
Astrology sites are replete with discussions that pit “free will” and “determinism” against each other in a battle to the death. Ultimately, it’s a bogus fight, because these two positions are simply harmonious sides of one coin.
A helpful astrologer will show you that you are indeed a “cog in a machine,” but that the machine is more immense and magnificent than you realize. If you accepted how incredible Everything Is and Your Role in Everything, you might not be so bent out of shape.
The machine has a mind of its own. And you are that mind. And I am that mind. Deep down, we all recognize this singular source, even if we can’t — or won’t — admit it to ourselves, or others.
Do you practice yoga? Do you know what your teacher and classmates are saying when they bow and say, “Namaste?”
“The God in me recognizes the God in you.”
Forgive me for yet again quoting one of my favorite luminaries, the late, great Alan Watts, who said,
“You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.”
And again,
“You are something that the whole Universe is doing, in the same way that a wave is something that the whole ocean is doing.”
No wave is indistinguishable from the entire ocean. The ocean is. The ocean waves.
And here You are. You wave because you’re being waved. It’s all a big Cosmic Dance, and you are both movement and music.
“But Sam, I don’t feel any of this. I just feel like a pee-on at my office, with a lousy boss and tons of bills to pay. And my laundry is behind.”
Part of transitioning from this unaware state to an aware state is mental knowing. Astrology can show you, for example, the sheet music that is you, and give you a clue as to which notes kick in when, and if the tune that is you happens to be a toe-tapper or a bit of a dirge at the moment. And like most music, if you don’t like it at the moment, give it a chance; it’ll most likely morph into something fresh in a bit.
But the sheet music isn’t the sound. To get the sound, you have to play.
When You Know Your Self You Know Peace
It’s a hard concept to put into words, but many have given it a pretty good go.
Jesus said that heaven is within you. He also said that you create your own reality, a-la “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” The Hindu tradition speaks of the individual as atman, which is but a manifestation of brahman — the universal One. Taoists speak of, well, the nameless, formless, eternal Tao. Astrophysics speak of the relationship of dark matter to mass, but fall short of embracing a unified theory of, well, all things.
But — isn’t that what all the signs, especially what our innermost guts — seem to be telling us?
If you can’t have light without dark, if you can’t have positive space without empty space (in fact, the so-called “empty space” is what defines the limits of the mass of things we can experience with our senses) then, where in the universe can something…go…wrong?
Everything, including you, as you are right now, in what ever situation you find yourself, simply is. And to call it anything other than complete is to ignore the facts of the cosmos as they exist.
You don’t lack. You aren’t broken. The universe is not your adversary. And everything you do has a profound affect upon everything else.
That whole butterfly flapping it’s wings thing? Yeah. No, really. Yeah.
Gratitude is a Byproduct of Self-Awareness
This realization is what all the mystics of all the ages have been pointing to, and whenever they apprehend it, they have equally mind-blowing words to describe the response:
Bliss
Joy
Euphoria
And so forth and so on.
These are words that go beyond our modern concepts of thankfulness or even gratitude. Ultimately, our culture almost invariably defines a state of gratitude as a response to an external action. It’s as if we just can’t shake the feeling that the universe is acting upon us. We are little hapless tidbits, lost in a big, cold, crushing Entity, and whenever a crumb is handed over to us, then, and only then, do we experience the sensation of gratitude.
This is a gross misunderstanding of the awesomeness open to you.
Becoming aware of your inseparability from the breath that is woven through every star and the gleam in every ray of light would provide for you far more than a sensation of goodness — you would be the goodness.
Understanding who you really are, at the very least, would mean that gratitudewould permeate you.
What is the difference of feeling like the king of the world, and being the king of the world?
Practicing Self-Awareness. Fueling Gratitude
“OK, Mr. Astrologer Man, so you’re full of eternal sunshine and rainbows all the time ‘cuz you can see the neon road map to heaven whenever you pull up someone’s chart?”
Well. Yes, and definitely no.
As Paul wrote in his first letter to the church in Corinth:
“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”
We have all experienced glimpses of our place in an eternal universe; holding our first born child, standing out alone in a cornfield in the dead of a clear winter’s night looking up at a trillion distant suns, riding a horse at full gallop, seeing a crystal clear rainbow after a fierce storm, playing a piece of live music when you and the instrument are no longer two entities, running or cycling during those moments when every stroke and breath blends into a timeless, effortless movement…
Glimpses. Brief awarenesses. But at some point, the eye blinks. At some point, a worry enters, or an old jealousy, or a regret, or simply…the phone rings.
And with each chest-shot of this glorious fullness, we do feel the indescribable, permeating love that we’re told is the fuel of the universe. For those of us who have a regular, disciplined practice of meditation and study, or of consistent work with their hands in the fields (both of dirt and plants, as well as the field of humanity) those glimpses can sometimes turn into extended looks.
Gratitude is a verb
But keeping the awareness ongoing, this, to say the least, requires practice. Diligence. Stuff you have to actively do. And it goes beyond turkey dinners and subsequent participation in Black Fridays. It requires a commitment to an understanding of Who You Are, and that You are not separate from Me, or the Sun, or your boss, or your cat, or the person on the news who just shot up a bar.
Knowing how your chart reveals your character and your predispositions helps. It’s a powerful first step. Seeing your Solar Return chart for the year helps. You can watch for where those events — the ones we label interruptions — are likely to come knocking or ringing (or emailing or SnapChatting.)
Once you start integrating, you can stop dividing and labelling. Then, you can start experiencing in long gazes, rather than just short peeks. And with each successful glimpse, the distance between the next one can get a little shorter. Before long, you have an ongoing drumbeat of awareness, and people are wondering why you’re that much quieter, that much more grateful, that full of thankfulness.
Summary
The concept of thanksgiving has lost its meaning. The fact is, gratitude is an action, not a feeling, and once practiced, it has powerful transformative effects
The first step in transforming our notion of gratitude is in realizing that you are not separate from the universe; there is no “outside” thing or set of events acting ON you; you are The Thing
Using astrological consultation as a way to visualize your place in the universe — literally seeing your blueprint upon which you and time, in concert build, can help you to integrate the components into a Whole
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