...we too were born to be raised as loyal subjects of love imperative, demanding to be lived whole through us.
~Laurens van der Post,A Mantis Carol
This month, in honor of father’s Day and the Summer Solstice, the Emperor came forth to shine his message: Let Love Rule! Which is not only a message of letting the heart lead us forward with love but also a reminder of coming into our mastery as spiritual beings having human experiences. (As I started this article, Lenny Kravitz’ song rang clearly through my head so click on the title to enjoy the song and the sweet video.)
In the Sun/Moon Tarot deck, the Emperor sits, holding an earthly globe, in a throne with the sun rising up out from the mountains behind. Bees float above him, and a lamb is at his feet. A shield with a double phoenix leans against the throne. When the Emperor comes into a reading he is acknowledging the querent’s path of mastery in his or her life.
The Phoenix shield represents having been through the fire. In his book, Fate & Destiny, Michael Meade, (click on the link to hear Michael addressing this) the eminent mythologist and story teller, speaks about how a part of us, before birth, chooses the exact right fate into which we must be borne in order to manifest our Destiny. I like to think of this as the idea that Our Wound is the Doorway to our Gift.
I said: What about my heart?God said: Tell me what you hold inside itI said: Pain and sorrow.God said: Stay with it. The wound is the place wherethe Light enters you.
~Rumi
Imagine the idea that the dysfunctions and wounds we are born into, our challenges in life, are custom made for us, by us, before we are born. I was born to a father who just was not able to to be a healthy father to the two girls he raised, especially after the age of 10. In fact, since my parents were divorced within 9 months after my birth (me being the youngest of 2 daughters), it seems to me that our parents came together not only for their own life lessons but also, very specifically to bring us into life. And, as my father left my home almost immediately after I was born, I have always had a feeling of not being good enough to be close too, of being unlovable and therefore discarded by men.
None of this was true, of course, but rarely do the wounds we incur at the folly of our family dysfunctions ring with reality of our inherent lovability; the child-mind and infant experiences are purely emotional, instinctual and the world is experienced as self, and so when these things happen, most children do tend to blame themselves.Here is where the wound is created. Many times these wounds are repeated generation after generation, we organize them as sociological, biological, effects of nature or nurture or circumstance, and yet on a spiritual level, from the stars eye view, perhaps something more healing is going on.
Brother stand the pain; Escape the poison of your impulses. The sky will bow to your beauty, if you do. Learn to light the candle. Rise with the sun. Turn away from the cave of your sleeping. That way a thorn expands to a rose. A particular glows with the universal.
~Rumi
It took me until the last few years, after my father died in 2012, to truly come to this realization and finally be able to flip the coin for myself in order to change that discarded feeling into the opportunity to really cherish myself, to love myself. And, for that matter, to open my heart to my father and be truly grateful, not only for the gift of life, but also for blessing me with opportunity to love him more, when parts of me didn't feel he “deserved” it. He did the best he could and he offered me a beautiful life lesson.
In fact I believe that I, my spirit, chose this situation for that powerful lesson of self love in this lifetime. A profound part of my healing process included landing in Zululand to work with a community and school there and being a given a Zulu name, as all westerners who come to volunteer there are. In Zulu, names have meanings that are related to the essence of the person as the people see them. The name I was given by the teachers at the school I worked with was Thandeka, which means Lovable.
[There is] no greater beauty possible in nature or man than that of the uncared for and rejected, rediscovered and redeemed for growth through love....the gratitude of life which comes flooding in over one as one experiences again how pervasive and always near is this mystery of love as though it were delegate in the blood and bone of ourselves.
~Laurens van der PostA Mantis Carol
And while I have had oodles and oodles of proof from infancy and childhood, through adolescence and early adulthood on up to now, that I have always been loveable, there was always a part of me that held myself as unlovable and discarded and discardable, until only just recently. In that transformation, in learning to truly love myself, I began to open and feel all of the love that has always been around me since my birth. Including the incredible love my father always held for my sister & I in his heart. I see now what I could not see then; Bless that 20/20 hindsight! And I see clearly that the life I was born into was tailor made for me to learn to love myself and everyone else.
No mirror ever became iron again;No bread ever became wheat;No ripened grape ever became sour fruit.Mature yourself and be secure from a change for the worse.Become the light.
~Rumi
The bees buzzing above the Emperor speak to bringing our gifts forward into our lives in ways that sweeten the world with our work. The artist, Tricia Soroya, whose paintings were hung at Paradise Found on First Thursday this last May, has a magical painting of the bee and its message to her, paraphrased above, about what the bees are here to teach us, brought me such sweet tears of recognition.
Each one of us has gifts we agreed to bring forward in our lifetime, as a part of our agreement to being here, and integral part of integrating heaven and earth. And as we learn to love our struggles and challenges and see them as the portals for the gifts we have deep inside us we start to become masters in our lives, co-creators with universal energy, Creator and life. The sweetness of this, what it offers the world, is beyond compare.
Both Prince and David Bowie, tremendous creative artists and cultural game changers, are beautiful examples of individuals who honed their gifts, went through their fires and brought forth the very best of themselves regardless of what the status quo approved of. And both of them have impacted the world tremendously. Now that they have passed, all of their gifts, including those of commitment to the authenticity of the individual and the the courage to be oneself, no matter what, have been passed on to all of us. These incredible human beings have become our ancestors, and are now on the other side, helping to guide us as we move forward in the Age of Aquarius, honoring the differences in ourselves and others, as an integral part of the whole of existence.
Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.
~Rumi
At age 20, after seeing Dances With Wolves (around the time of the 1st Iraq war), I wept for weeks about being a human being, especially a white person. I wanted to be a dolphin, not a human being, the species that appeared to be double fistedly destroying the mother on which we lived, all for the profit of a few. I was mortified at how we were treating the planet and each other. I was laughed at for refusing bags at stores and bringing my own; I was called the Recycle Monitor at one job where a gal in the office would look me square in the eye as she dropped her soda can in the trash instead of walking 4 feet to the recycle bin.
I used to think I needed to help change everyone around me so that the world would become a better place. So much so, I imagine I came across as a pompous, righteous, zealot, and well, I pretty much was. I would only work with and relate to people who embraced my same mission and perspective, I had no patience or compassion for those who were so obtuse as to not realize the peril we were in and make a change. I was even Vegan for about 6 weeks, (linked is a video called “If Meat Eaters Acted Like Vegans, making fun of that kind of behavior, I resembled it so much I could not stop laughing) and they were 6 of the most judgemental and self righteous weeks of my life.
Yesterday I was clever so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise so I want to change myself.
~Rumi
At one point in my 30’s, after a particularly embarrassing loss of temper with a 9 year old child, I realized that it is my own toxic environment I need to clean up and keep clean. I realized that when I lose my temper, yell at someone, it is actually the equivalent of a nuclear bomb. I understood that negative thoughts towards myself and others is noxious pollution of the most extreme kind. And that looking inside for those things I have judged outwardly has been a continual process of self mastery that involves self reflection, adjustment and increased self love. I often wonder, where, in my own life am I putting profit over my humanity, where am I taking the body I live in for granted and treating it as if it is only here to serve me, and not the other way around (or at least a mutual service and honoring).
Recently a dear friend offered to me the idea that as we shift ourselves, do our own work, we actually influence a similar evolution in 144,000 other people, unconsciously, just in each small act of our own self mastery. WOW. For me, that is what is represented by the lamb sitting at the Emperor's feet and the world he holds in his hands. It's the idea that as we do our own work, we are shifting not only ourselves, but also affecting, resonating positive transformation and change with, all of the world; we are being leaders. And from that place we can see the next step in our journey.
Matt Kahn, one of my favorite spiritual teachers, put forth (in this link, and in his book Whatever Arises, LOVE That: A Love Revolution) the recognition that the path of enlightenment, the high road, can only be traversed when we get down off our high horse. That high horse is actually a vehicle of Neediness, Righteousness, Victimhood and Entitlement, none of which are in the least bit enlightened. Instead they are actually cues to us that we are experiencing fear and darkness that we must open up and bring the light of love to ourselves by doing our work, by acknowledging and then mastering those aspects of ourselves. It’s time now, in the new paradigm in the new age, to do everything in a new way. It’s time to let the heart lead, ask the ego to take the back seat and the mind to serve the desires of the enlightened heart.
We are all in different stages of cultivating the Emperor within, we are all in the continual process of mastering of ourselves. Once we are able to acknowledge that we are all doing the best we can, we are able to see the godlight in ourselves and in each other, and from there we become infused with the light of love. And ready for the next level, the next onion layer, of self realization and opportunity to love and honor ourselves, each other and all of creation more. This is becoming the Emperor of our lives, mastering that which would hold us as slave if we let it. It is from this place that our heart is ready to lead the way, from here we activate the highest qualities of the mind to be in service to, and through, the heart.
In Chinese medicine, the heart is considered the Emperor. And, in this new age, the brilliant and spectacular mind no longer has the role of telling the heart that what it wants is not logical or reasonable and therefore not possible. No, no no. It is time that we allot the mind its proper place, that as servant of the heart. To use its incredible powers of organization, analysis, forethought and reason in order to further the goals of the heart.
The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of... We know the truth not only by the reason, but by the heart.
~Blaise Pascal
You and Your Heart Jack Johnson
We are beyond the dawn of the Age of Aquarius, we are at the breakfast table, eating our Aquarius Wheaties! And really, who is a more fabulous spokesperson to be on that New Paradigm Wheaties box than Caitlyn Jenner, just as her previous incarnation was in his time? Doesn't she ask of us to let go of all of our preconceived notions of what is right, appropriate, normal, etc? What an opportunity Creator took to ask us to love, as Rumi put it, “out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing”. Yes, let’s meet there!
What a courageous person to make such a monumental change in this lifetime, in such a powerfully public way, and to actually be able to profit for herself and her family as she does. What if all of us were able to offer our authentic selves and profit from it as we open the world to transformation at the same time, simply by being so true to ourselves, that not only does the world take notice, it changes with us. This Is what I wish for everyone of us in the world: That despite the haters filled with judgment and fear, we love ourselves, and the world so much that we are willing to offer ourselves, in our authenticity and let come what may.
Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
~Rumi
We do not all have to be famous singers or Olympic athletes, all we need to do is be our authentic selves, no matter what we imagine the outside world might think, do or say about it. Won’t it be amazing as we all not only cultivate the mastery of life in ourselves, but also see and honor the mastery of life in each other. This is the meaning of “Namaste” the divine in me greets the divine in you. What a blessing it will be as, from our highest place in our journey of self love and self mastery we call upon and greet, actually elicit, that from everyone we meet.
Be certain that in the religion of Love there are no believers and unbelievers. LOVE embraces all.
~Rumi
Love is the bridge between you and everything.
~Rumi
As I have been preparing to write this article, I thought a lot about love. One night I woke in the middle of the night with the song Sea of Love by The Honey Drippers, and I had this powerful realization that if we could only see the world through the eyes of Love, we would all be swimming in that See of Love. And it's such a difficult thing to do sometimes. Especially when we feel like life itself is working against us. But is it really? Or is it only always giving us the opportunity to love more, to put on our love colored glasses, look and feel through our hearts, in the present moment rather than make judgements out of pain and fear. One thing I know, in my own heart, is that I always have the choice to love, even when, especially when, it's hardest to even imagine loving a person, place or thing whose “best” does not look anything like mine, or anything like I think it should.
I recently heard Vandana Shiva, an incredible woman, environmental activist and physicist who is a champion of seed saving, bringing light to the problems caused by enforced use of GMO seeds and pesticides, and helping heal the farms of India (and everywhere else on earth, from the unconscious greed and & corrupt politics of Monsanto & GMO seeds). She said she does not hate Monsanto, in fact if Monsanto were right in front of her she would give it a hug. And she means it. She knows that she can’t do the incredible work she is doing to heal and re-member the right relationship between humans and the earth with any hatred in her heart. She knows and says repeatedly that it has to be done intelligently, proactively, diligently and with love. And that the earth itself is responding to the love of the many organic farmers that are honoring her with seeds of love.
Sowing the Seeds of Love ~ Tears For Fears
Our beautiful responsive planet is upping the yields, raising the water tables and enriching the relationship between planet and organic farmer as they reach out and honor the age old relationship of mutual love and honor between human and earth.
With life as short as a half taken breath, don’t plant anything but love.
~Rumi
And, so, let’s do it my friends, let’s make that effort to master our fears and fall in love with our flawed striving selves; to let love rule and catch the Love Train! (with the Ojays).
Your acts of kindness are iridescent wings of divine love, which linger and continue to uplift others long after your sharing.
~Rumi
And whenever you need a little help, remembering your love for all, and stepping out of judgement and fear, you can always do some Ho’oponopono, that’s what helps me.
Ho'oponopono
Divine Creator, Father-Mother-Child as One,If I, my family, relatives and ancestors have offended you, your family, relatives and ancestors in thought, deed and actions from the beginning of creation to the Present, we ask your forgiveness.
Let us cleanse, purify, release, and cut all negative memories, blocks, energies and vibrations and transmute these unwanted energies into pure Light.And it is done.
I LOVE YOUPLEASE FORGIVE MEI AM SORRYTHANK YOU
