AI and You: being human is your big advantage
Issue 33 Volume 8          18 August 2025

Technology is moving in a direction where artificially, a computer will be able to think a million times better than human beings, because thought is fundamentally computing. Data is assimilated and then it comes out with something sensible from that. As computers evolve, a computer will be able to do this far better than a human being. This evolution is not even going to take a very long time. It will happen in a short time. Then there will be no value for human thought. All the thinkers will be out of business!

But that is only intelligence. That is not consciousness. Our thought, our emotion, these have nothing to do with consciousness. Once everything is well, what are human beings supposed to do? Human beings are supposed to be joyful, blissful and do something that no mechanical thing can do. A robot can do everything that you can do – except it cannot meditate because there is no consciousness. So, ultimately, only meditators will be employed!

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, yogi, mystic, humanitarian, NYT bestselling author

Dear wonderful neighbour and fellow traveller;

For many professional healers, therapists, and life coaches, a legitimate question is, “What effect will AI have on my business model?” A quick search and you find AI emotional support therapists, life coaches, even corporate coaches tailored to your company, and, yes, even AI astrologers… what to do? 🤨

Long past simply receiving search results and auto-generated text, one can now receive guidance and support from an AI “therapist” created to look like whoever makes you feel comfortable. One such website explains how you can have a “therapist” on call 24/7 who will “understand and respond to your emotions, offer tailored insights, and guide you through difficult situations.”

“Whether it’s stress at work,” it continues, “relationship struggles, or just needing someone to listen – your AI Therapist is here to help. You can open up freely and explore your thoughts without worrying about being judged. Your AI therapist provides a safe, empathetic space to sort through your emotions, offering guidance and support when you need it most.” Of course, tucked away at the bottom, there is a disclaimer that reminds us that the AI bot is not a licensed therapist and is for educational purposes only. 😁

As a yogi and mystic, I am not concerned. Even if astrologers become extinct, I do not approach life from a place of rigid necessities. Being spiritual means I am flexible and like water, I simply fill whatever container is offered. Masters of human consciousness know very well that a human being can be in chains while living a life of luxury while the person in prison can be in complete freedom. We are not always in control of what happens to us, but we are in complete control of our experience.

Nevertheless, the game is being played. If you are a creative or a healer or therapist concerned with the approach of AI, simply become more of what it cannot — more human. Being human is something AI will never do. Why? Because AI exists only in a physical reality, but a human being’s consciousness goes far beyond the physical, mental, and emotional. This is what makes us human and why human potential is unlimited. It’s in our nature and something no machine will ever possess no matter how many Hollywood movies show otherwise. 😉

 🤗

David 🔆

Moon Planner
Has the Moon got you hurried and harried?

No worries! The Moon represents the feminine and your capacity to receive and recognise the resources you have available to fulfil your emotional needs.  Too often, we get distracted with what is not ours and miss out on the available opportunity, experiencing disappointment and disillusionment, or worse, we become like my hairy friend, Monsieur Lou Garou. 🤭

New Moon in Aquarius
Saturday, 23 August: New Moon in Virgo (07:06 BST )
New Moons are best spent quietly in meditation and reflection to allow for latent insights to rise to the surface so you can allow them to work their magic.

This Virgo New Moon is a powerful opportunity to gain insight into the health of your connection to the material world. Both the Sun and Moon have just entered Virgo giving insights into new beginnings or helpful modifications to old methods. Ketu (South node) is also in Virgo giving you an opportunity to dig into your past and uncover unhelpful ways you are negotiating your way through the world. Ketu challenges us to rise above survival mode and embrace new directions. When we energise the Ketu-Sun-Moon dynamic as a friend, we become more indrawn, aware, and perceptive. This in turn brings insight which can happen suddenly, in meditation, or even while dreaming during sleep.

Be watchful: Moon-Ketu naturally pulls us deep into our emotional mind allowing us to distinguish between helpful and unhelpful needs. This is especially true on the 24th when the Moon passes over Ketu. We should look upon what we discover with detachment and simply address them as something that needs to be addressed. If we become entangled in what we discover, we may find ourselves in the blues or depressed. What you discover is not you, but a reflection. As always, everything is a mirror pointing us back to ourselves not as a torture, but to help us see the false ideas we need to let go. ☺️

Eighth House Astrology: reclaiming our birthright
Issue 32 Volume 8          11 August 2025

The loss of sensitivity to variant information that we all experienced as babies created an unbreachable gap between us and the physical world. At the same time, it served to tune our perception to our environment, allowing us to navigate it efficiently and successfully… even if it left a large portion of reality forever outside our reach.
Susana Martinez-Conde, professor of ophthalmology, neurology, and physiology and pharmacology at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, Brooklyn, N.Y

Q: Are you saying that thought has a kind of possessive quality which stays, gets stuck, and then becomes habitual? And we don’t see this?
Bohm: I think that whenever we repeat something it gradually becomes a habit, and we get less and less aware of it. If you brush your teeth every morning, you probably hardly notice how you’re doing it. It just goes by itself. Our thought does the same thing, and so do our feelings. That’s a key point.
David Bohm (1917 –  1992) was an American scientist described as one of the most significant theoretical physicists of the 20th century who contributed unorthodox ideas to quantum theory, neuropsychology and the philosophy of mind; from Thought as a System (1994)

“To perceive a world of hard objects that had either a positive or a negative value must have been utterly necessary for our ancestors’ survival,” don Juan said. “After ages of perceiving in such a manner, we are now forced to believe that the world is made up of objects.” (…) Don Juan pointed out that, since we are drafted into that system (collective reality) by being born into it, from the moment of our birth we imperatively strive to adjust our perceiving to conform to the demands of this system, a system that rules us for life. Consequently, the (spiritual masters of olden times) were thoroughly right in believing that the act of countermanding it and perceiving energy directly is what transforms a person into a (person of knowledge).
Carlos Castaneda, The Art of Dreaming, relaying a conversation with his teacher, don Juan, about how and why we begin to embrace the collective reality

Before developing perceptual constancy, three- to four-month-old babies have a striking ability to see image differences that are invisible to adults. They lose this superior skill around the age of five months…
Susana Martinez-Conde, professor of ophthalmology, neurology, and physiology and pharmacology at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, Brooklyn, N.Y

Dear wonderful neighbour and fellow traveller;

What is reality? Is it the reflection you see in the mirror each morning or in the social feeds that appear on your phone each day? Perhaps you find reality is the stillness inside when thoughts die down and the breath is deep and long. In truth these are all real, but are only real insofar as they are relative to where you have placed your awareness.

Scientists and philosophers speak of the waking state reality as a consensus opinion into which we are all indoctrinated not long after birth. This is referred to as the “collective reality” and arises from our social conditioning. After my daughters were born, I would marvel at their obvious connection to something they were seeing and interacting with that was beyond my perception. Unfortunately, research shows this is largely lost by the time they reach 4 or 5 months due to the strength of the collective reality which is focused on survival. As adults, whatever lies outside this reality is not experienced due to ‘cognitive blindness’.

When I was young, my car enthusiast cousins would see older cars going down the highway and call out not only the make and model, but the year it was manufactured. To me, I only saw a hunk of metal that looked like any other “old jalopy”. Later, after I owned a classic car business, I too was speaking such language. Instead of seeing “just a car”, I saw, for example, the unique lines of a ‘54 Chevy Bel Air which easily distinguished it from a 54 Plymouth Fury though both are made by General Motors.

Yogis and mystics have said the purpose of meditation is to experience our ‘death’ so that when the time comes for us to pass on from this life, we can do so consciously. Otherwise, they tell us, the experience is so jolting we lose the ability to direct our awareness into the higher states of consciousness that are available to each of us. There is more to this story, of course, but the point is clear: without engaging in a regular spiritual process whether meditation, ecstatic dancing, shamanic ritual, or other time honoured technique, the deeper layers of who we are will not be in our ‘reality’ making death a jolt rather than an embrace.

This process is not something to engage in ignorantly. There are countless stories of people without real knowledge of the process bringing themselves harm. Everything is energy, including us, and just like you would not let anyone wire your house that was not a certified electrician, you need a ‘certified’ spiritual master to guide you through the layers that make up who you are. 

To be clear, I am not speaking of your typical meditation class that seeks to connect you to a state of peace and wellbeing. As far as I know, these are fine. Hospitals offer them, universities teach them, and you can find countless websites and books dedicated to their techniques. I am speaking about when you want to ‘die’ while still alive, when you feel ready to explore what is essentially in astrology your 8th house. Without the protection of someone who has combed the depth of their being and can guide you through the depth of yours, you risk opening doors that are better left closed.

Is exploring yourself to this degree necessary? At the end of the 4 day retreat where I was initiated by Sadhguru into the basic meditation process of Isha Yoga, Sadhguru told us, “Do this every day for 6 months and your life will become more pleasant. Commit to this for life and you will become liberated.” In essence, it boils down to this: are you satisfied with a pleasant life or an enlightened life? There is nothing wrong with choosing a pleasant life; most do. It’s more a matter of are you doing what is necessary to live to your highest potential, i.e., the highest potential for a human being? There is nothing wrong with driving a Ferrari down a country road at 50MPH enjoying the scenery, but understand, you could also be driving that Ferrari on the open road at 160. 

I have been actively seeking an answer to “what is reality” since I was ten years old. There have been lots of detours and lots of pit stops, but somehow, I have enjoyed the company of realised masters, both men and women, who have selflessly and freely bestowed their grace. They have asked nothing of me and have accepted me just as I am. Only in my mind did I at times not believe I was worthy enough to receive their love. They were and are an open conduit of grace, and no matter who appears before them, that conduit is always open fully.

Day by day, month by month, year by year, I learn to ‘plug the holes’ in my life so I can hold what they have to offer. This has allowed me to experience deeper states of consciousness and, yes, realities. What we call “the world” is just a small fraction of what is available to us.

I urge you all to embrace your 8th house with great enthusiasm. It is the core path you are meant to trod in this incarnation. In the middle of the bumps and bruises, there you are, resplendent as always. Take the time to get to know your 8th house. After all, it is a part of you, a shining, mysterious, enigmatic part of you that holds the answers you seek.

 🤗

David 🔆

New! Astro Chat! An open-ended discussion that works best as either a follow-up or a general exploration of your current situation and circumstance. Designed for the budget conscious or anyone seeking a review of their current astrological trends and trajectories. Audio file included. Contact me here.  £45/hr online

Eighth House Astrology: Lifting the Veil
Issue 31 Volume 8          04 August 2025

Reality is merely an illusion, although a very persistent one.
Albert Einstein, German-born theoretical physicist best known for developing the theory of relativity

Your entire life is a Virtual Reality, because you are seeing it only the way it happens in your mind.
Sadhguru, yogi, mystic, author, humanitarian, and self-realised spiritual master

The quicker you are in attaching verbal or mental labels to things, people, or situations, the more shallow and lifeless your reality becomes, and the more deadened you become to reality.
Eckhart Tolle, German-born spiritual teacher and self-help author

For a sorcerer (one who sees beyond normal perception), reality, or the world we all know, is only a description that has been pounded into you from the moment you were born. The reality of our day-to-day life, then, consists of an endless flow of perceptual interpretations which we have learned to make in common. I am teaching you how to see as opposed to merely looking, and stopping the world (letting go preconceived notions) is the first step to seeing.
don Juan, Yaqui Indian, shaman, and teacher of Carlos Castenada; from The Teachings of Don Juan (1968)

The world that you’re seeing isn’t the true world. All of this that I’m seeing right now is just a virtual reality. It’s like you’re born with a headset on playing a video game. That’s your reality. But if you’re the programmer who wrote the code for the game, you know that there’s an entire world outside of it. And as the programmer, you can do miracles.
Donald Hoffman, American cognitive psychologist, author, professor emeritus in the Department of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine.

Astrology Monday:
Just the facts, please! 
An American icon from 60s television, hard-boiled detective Joe Friday always insists on “just the facts”.

This week’s no-nonsense forecast:
Saturn and Neptune both retrograde since mid-July…
…and both in Aries for the first time since the 1700s! Saturn and Neptune proceed hesitantly in “forge ahead” Aries; however, when retrograde, these two planets underscore a beneficial change of direction that supports a more truer vision. Use August to reevaluate where you’re going and most importantly, where you want to go. This is an amazing opportunity to get on track.

Ongoing
Mercury Retrograde? Great!
Thru August 11 Mercury is retrograde in Leo. Mercury in Leo wants you to learn how to gauge people and situations accurately — does the potential in your head match with realistic possibility? If, yes, march onward. If not, try plan B.
Uranus in Gemini!
Uranus entered Gemini for four months, giving us a preview of his ways for the next seven years. On November 8, 2025, Uranus exits Gemini and returns to Taurus, then on 26 April, 2026: Uranus re-enters Gemini, beginning the main phase that will last until 2033. Hint: Uranus is is your authentic nature crying to be freed. If you are struggling, it simply means you are not honouring your authenticity. You are living a lie and Uranus wants to put an end to your falsehoods and pretence. Let it show you the way.
Jupiter in Cancer
Jupiter in Cancer is an opportunity to improve your self-image through service, creativity, and abundance when you seek to act upon your highest intentions. Keep your Jupiter pointed high. Jupiter can become distracted and very ordinary if you allow it to serve your passions and your need for comfort and pleasure. Nothing wrong with these as long as they don’t take the lead.

Quick World View
Earthquakes, volcanoes, floods… and the iron fist of karma
As mentioned in previous issues, Saturn represents foundations, including the ground, and this means more geo disturbances. On cue, Saturn, the planet of difficult karma, is showing us his bad side with a recent Russian earthquake and tsunami, Flooding in Texas, Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki volcano erupting, and now more earthquakes in Russia and a volcano erupting that has not done so in 175 years… whew! Unfortunately people have lost their lives and 160 are still missing in the Texas flooding. As mentioned previously, if you live in an area for high risk natural disasters, have a plan and also a “go bag” in case you have to either evacuate or hunker down for a few days. The US government has a nice webpage on what your kit should contain: Build a Kit.

Note: After a short return to Pisces, Saturn is in Aries for 3 years… ouch! 😬

Be prepared. 😉

Our house!
In the middle of our…
Our house!
Was our castle and our keep…
Our house!
In the middle of our street…
From Our House, a 1982 hit from the English band Madness, sung at the 2012 Olympics in London

Dear wonderful neighbour and fellow traveller;

On the heels of the transformative Saturn/Neptune dance in Aries, this issue of the newsletter hints at a new direction for me which emphasises Vedic astrology’s inherent focus on revealing the ultimate reality, a primary aspect of which is lifting the veil of the 8th House, the house of the unconscious mind. A long time ago, Vedic astrology became influenced by Greek ideals and Persian intrigue until it became a system of prophesies and prediction.  Thus, it is my experience that in today’s world, one must turn towards the West where Vedic astrology’s spiritual emphasis is more often allowed to shine through. 

Prophesies and predictions are inherently limited because they only address the known universe which is ‘known’ through the five senses. This is why gurus like Sadhguru, Muktananda, Yogananda, and many others caution about using astrology as a tool to predict the future. What are we predicting? It’s like making a prediction in a dream.

This is not to say astrology is not offering valuable information into trends and trajectories — it absolutely does, and this is what I want to emphasise more as it relates to karmic tendencies. Along with the nodes of the Moon, the 8th house holds the key to our subconscious. Opening the door and peering into the darkness, we come face to face with the karmic tendencies that keep us stuck. Knowing your 8th house gives you a leg up on retaking control of your inner state. 

Much like the song Our House, the 8th house in your horoscope is your castle, your keep — the stronghold where your buried past lies protected by your egoic mind. The 8th house is the shadow mind Carl Jung urges us to illuminate. It is the unconscious that will never see the light of knowledge… unless we open the gate, push open the door, and peer inside. This takes self-effort not because we can do anything ourself, but because right effort attracts grace, the force of God that transforms from within.

After receiving initiation from the renowned siddha guru Swami Muktananda in 1981, I eventually became a staff member at the ashram of his successor, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda. Assigned to the kitchen, I immediately experienced the intensity and fire of helping feed 5000 guests on any particular day. One night, I decided to go to sleep holding a copy of the Guru Gita, Song of the Guru, to my chest. The text is a conversation between Shiva and his wife Parvati in which she asks him how to achieve liberation. Shiva answers her by describing the guru principle (grace), the proper ways of worshiping the guru, and the methods and benefits of repeating the Guru Gita. It is primarily a treatise on attracting and holding the grace of the guru, the grace of God. That night, I dreamt of Muktananda holding a large paddle and stirring a huge pot just like I did each day in the ashram kitchen. In the dream, he gazed intensely at me and repeated over and over “Duṣkarma! Duṣkarma!”

Upon awakening, I felt this was no ordinary dream and I wondered what the word duṣkarma meant as it played such an important aspect in the dream. This was waaaay before Google, the internet, even mobile phones. My older brother who shared a dorm room with me had a copy of the Guru Gita which had the original Sanskrit, a transliteration, and a word-by-word English translation. On a whim, I began searching the 182 verses of the Guru Gita for the word duṣkarma in the transliteration beginning with the first verse. Voila! There it was in verse 143:
Translation: It (reciting the Guru Gita) grants the power to paralyse all (hostile creatures), it nurtures good qualities, it stops (the fruition of) bad actions, and it also brings about the fruition of good deeds…

It was obvious through the dream, I was being told that my time in the ashram kitchen was an important aspect of removing bad karma, that by helping to feed 5000 people, I was burning up countless impressions from past actions in the fire of the kitchen. Yogis call this Karma Yoga, the path of selfless action, and it was through dharma karma, right action, that I was becoming free… Stir the soup and watch your karma boil away!  😁

Jupiter in Cancer
Have you been enjoying Jupiter in Cancer these past weeks? Jupiter represents the grace of God and to the sages, this grace was most accessible through the guru. Indeed, in Vedic astrology, Jupiter is called Guru and represents the ever present attribute of God that transforms from within.

The 8th sign of the zodiac is Scorpio and reveals the fundamentals of your own 8th house. The 8th house is the storehouse of difficult karma that awaits you from your past actions, the unconscious that you must enter and transcend. Thus, the 8th house represents death, disease, chronic illness, accidents, debt, and those “rocks” that fall unexpectedly from the sky and which, at times, can seem like boulders.

Yet, the 8th house is considered a moksha house in Vedic astrology. Moksha means liberation and enlightenment. Along with the 4th and the 12th, the 8th house leads one to spiritual liberation, transformation, and deeper awakening. Like the 12th, it does this through detachment from ego and material attachments.

More significantly, the 8th house refers to the death of ego, attachments, and illusions, leading to spiritual growth and self-realisation. The 8th house is associated with the process of purification, where an individual is tested through challenges and transformations that ultimately lead to higher wisdom and spiritual awakening.

The 8th house is the rocky road we must all travel in order to be free of karma. Karma, the enlightened ones tell us, is only real for those who believe they are a body and a mind. It is through the 8th house of our horoscope that we come to discover this truth and it is only by passing through the 8th house that we embrace our infinite nature…

More to come… stay tuned.

 🤗

David 🔆

Shadow Mind Special! Want to know the potential and possibility of Uranus, your “personal authenticity meter”? Contact me here.  £45/hr online

Moon Planner
Has the Moon got you hurried and harried?

No worries! The Moon represents the feminine and your capacity to receive and recognise the resources you have available to fulfil your emotional needs.  Too often, we get distracted with what is not ours and miss out on the available opportunity, experiencing disappointment and disillusionment, or worse, we become like my hairy friend, Monsieur Lou Garou. 🤭

Full Moon in Aquarius
Saturday, 9 August: Full Moon in Aquarius (08:54 BST )
Full moons magnify your emotional mind, good or bad. There is science behind this: just as full moons create higher than usual tides on earth, so there is a natural draw of fluids into your brain. Full moons are a great opportunity to access profound emotions through spiritual practice and alone time bringing you deeper insights and intuition.

This Aquarius Full Moon packs a powerful influence from retrograde Pluto. Though by degree the aspect is not so strong, in Vedic astrology, there is still considerable influence when planets share the same sign:
— Moon influence on Pluto: if unchecked, your emotional needs (Moon) can stir up trouble from your karmic pot (Pluto). Instead, use this time to investigate the unfulfilled needs within you that are begging for attention. Some will arise from past trauma and need to be released while others may be your authentic nature seeking expression. Your task is to find out which is which. Pay attention to your inner state and especially any triggers: those people and things that make you want to pull your hair out. Whatever bothers you on the outside is a reflection of who you are on the inside. Yep. It’s true. 🤭
— Pluto influence on the Moon: Pluto indicates real transformation is possible when you allow your yearning to know who you are wash over your emotional needs. With courage, this wash will wash away those needs that are holding you back. I say courage, because you will likely find that what you have been giving your life to is a dead end and will never fulfil your needs. There is something else deep inside you Pluto wants you to discover… 😉
 
Mother’s milk from mother Moon: Gurumayi of the Siddha lineage once shared with us two practical ways to imbibe the full moon energy. The first is to simply go somewhere quiet and gaze at the beauty of the full moon for an extended time paying close attention to the source of the feelings that arise within you. Another is to leave milk in a clear, covered glass overnight in a window sill where it will catch the full moon’s rays. In the morning, consume the milk. Milk easily absorbs positive energy as well as neutralise negative energy, Milk is also used to purify jewellery of negative energies or unhelpful karmas that may be associated with the jewellery maker or previous owners. You can also do this as a jewellery rejuvenator every six months or so to keep your jewellery energetically fresh. It is best to use organic whole milk, raw if possible.

Instead of trying to produce ‘good human beings’, we need to create joyful human beings. Joyfulness is the greatest insurance against all evil.
~ Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, yogi, mystic, humanitarian

Astrology Monday:
Just the facts, please! 
An American icon from 60s television, hard-boiled detective Joe Friday always insists on “just the facts”.

This week’s no-nonsense forecast:
Venus dances for Jupiter… will Jupiter respond?
Venus enters Cancer with Jupiter on 31 July. Jupiter is your highest intention; Venus is your love of comfort and pleasure. Who will win? The one you put most trust in, of course! Hint: Jupiter does well in Cancer and helps you triumph over adversity. Venus? Venus likes to compromise; in Cancer this does you no favours. Be watchful of sacrificing your integrity and higher goals for the need for human love and touch. 😉

Ongoing
Jupiter is your all-season pass
Jupiter in Cancer is primed to expand your inner wisdom. Through the summer of 2026, your highest possibility can be realised when you give yourself over to discovering your highest intention. No, it’s not easy — but it is essential for a joyful life.
Mercury Retrograde? Great!
July 18 thru August 11 Mercury goes retrograde in Leo. Mercury in Leo wants you to learn how to gauge people and situations accurately — does the potential in your head match with realistic possibility? Very possibly it does NOT, so step back, don your objectivity lab coat and look again. Now you’re ready to take action! 
Saturn Retrograde? No worries!
Saturn will be retrograde from now thru 28 November. This brings an opportunity to review your plans and fundamental vision; are they realistic? Practical? Supportive of where you want to go? In short, now’s the time to review, review, and review your plans. Tweak where necessary — abandon ship and climb aboard a more seaworthy option if the one you are on is sinking.
Uranus in Gemini!
Uranus entered Gemini for four months. Uranus is is your authentic nature crying to be unchained. If you are struggling, it simply means you are not honouring your authenticity. You are living a lie and Uranus wants to put an end to your falsehoods and pretence. Let it point the way.

Quick World View
Donald Trump and his administration have a string of victories around the world that is making lots of people nervous, especially those who have a vested interest to see him fail. Such people want more wars and more division because that is how they maintain power. Jupiter in Cancer promotes honesty, fairness, and the rule of law, and helps bring justice to those who have been practicing corruption at the highest levels. Perhaps it’s time we all gave Trump a second look and resist branding him a bigot and buffoon because nervous people say it to be true. Jupiter in Cancer is a boon for Trump; not so much for the wicked. 😉

Hint: If you have trouble believing Trump (or any politician) is up to any good, lean on your Jupiter’s Joy. Jupiter in Cancer can give one a powerful ability to “see” — when looking through joy tinted glasses, the world suddenly reveals its mysteries. 

“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exist.” — Hannah Arendt in her 1951 work, The Origins of Totalitarianism.

Dear wonderful neighbour and fellow traveller;

Jupiter is in Cancer and this means enormous possibility, but only if we resist the allure of the external world (Venus and Mercury) and allow our highest good to show us the way forward… Jupiter in Cancer means Joy, and it is Joy that leads with Love…

Each week, I never know what this newsletter will become until I sit down and write, usually the weekend just before the Monday it arrives in your inbox. At times, inspiration comes from a simple observation experienced in daily life, or a headline from the news. For this issue, believe it or not, I searched for images that matched the phrase people as lemmings. 😁  However, instead of lemmings, I somehow found the wonderful photo of the little girl bringing joy to the world in her own way and my theme for the week…

Economic elites and powerful groups have attempted to reshape society to fit their worldview since Day One. Today, they seek to mould us common folk into ‘good people’ primarily through over-reaching legislation and organised education: you WILL be good — or else! To this end, the UK has recently been standing front and centre. Hate crime laws are being enforced that give grandmothers multi-year prison sentences for losing their cool on social media, private schools are being taxed out of existence, and 16-yr-olds have been given the right to vote in national elections even though they have been deemed unfit to get a driving license until aged 17 or buy alcohol or cigarettes or be drafted into the army until 18.

Such “good” is not for any real good, but to acquire and maintain a grip on power. Vaguely worded hate crime laws are a convenient way to censor public opinion, dissuade debate, and discourage dissent. Private education is a threat to the “company view”, and allowing 16-yr olds the right to vote is a simple and inexpensive means to expand an impressionable voting base. These are not done in the interests of society, but to ensure the powerful and rich remain in power.

Yet, we remain largely silent. Why?

Neil Postman (1931 — 2003), a cultural critic who warned against our increasing reliance on technology to make us happy, wrote “We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn’t, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held. Wherever else the terror had happened, we, at least, had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares.

But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell’s dark vision, there was another – slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.

How many of us will rock the boat that feeds our hunger for happiness? J.D. Salinger, author of Catcher in the Rye, the quintessential novel of teenage angst and loss of innocence, wrote in Nine Stories: “The fact is always obvious much too late, but the most singular difference between happiness and joy is that happiness is a solid and joy a liquid.” Happiness arises from the pursuit of form; joy is an intrinsic part of our nature and takes the form we give it.

In 2015, I took an advanced 4-day, 3-night residential programme with Sadhguru at his ashram in Tennessee. At the end of this incredibly profound retreat, I walked to a pond to sit with myself and reflect on the previous days. It was a sunny afternoon and I noticed the clouds and the surrounding pines reflected in the still pond. As I sat, a comforting wave from an all-encompassing Perfection washed over me and I experienced myself in perfect harmony with the world around me. In this state, there was nothing to change, nothing to do, or think; there was simply the experience of perfection, not as I thought it to be, but as it was, exactly as it was: the trees, the pond, the dragon flies that danced among the lilies, and the small fish I could see just below the water’s edge. Most of all, I was a part of this perfection. Perfection, I discovered, is a state of mind.

Does the world need changing? Perhaps. Perhaps we will all hold up signs and march in unison along the boulevard. Perhaps we will be compelled to glue ourselves to a work of art, or admonish a Holocaust survivor for being Jewish. Or maybe, just maybe, we will understand that our limited perspective is what drives the world’s problems. Stuck in the pursuit of happiness, we have forgotten to simply be joyful…

I encourage all of us to step back from our political party, our social circle, even our family and friends, and certainly our knee-jerk reactions conditioned upon past trauma. There is only one way to do this: be joyful. Let happiness come and go as it may, but let us discover the state of joy within. We may indeed change the world, but not because it needs to change. We will change the world because Joy and Love and Compassion compel us to do so.

This year, Jupiter in Cancer invites you to discover your Joy.

 🤗

David 🔆

astrologyofjoy.com


In this issue:

• Weekly Planning Forecast
• Astrology of Now: The Shadow Mind
• Hero’s Journey: Free App

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