Today the Sun enters the earth sign of Taurus, so our focus begins to shift more to the corporeal, solid, and sensual aspects of existence for the next few weeks. Meanwhile, people are preparing for yet another seasonal pagan holiday distorted by religious leaders who called it Easter in place of the spring fertility goddess Ostara (see comment below for more info). More plastic wrapped candies and fake eggs are sold each year around this time to accommodate an ever widening sphere of influence as the human population grows and its resources dwindle, just in time for a “celebration” of the blue green globe we call our home.

Forgive me for not jumping up and down for joy. We have a serious collective situation in our midst, that if we choose to ignore could haunt us for the rest of our lives. I’m sure that most who read this are already aware of earth climate changes and pollution and are doing whatever is so far known in order to lessen the earth’s toxic overload. It is perhaps no coincidence that this year’s Earth Day on April 22nd coincides with the last quarter moon between two eclipses and the Grand Cardinal Cross between Pluto, Uranus, Jupiter, and Mars which has recently had a close brush up with the Earth itself. This much emphasis in cardinal signs means action must be taken – consciously and purposefully, otherwise action will be taken in ways we do not enjoy.

The concept of the movie Idiocracy hits on some truths about what people have been doing to themselves and the planet, and was so painful for me to watch when it came out a few years ago that rather than laugh as it was designed to it made me sick to my stomach.

To quote Machaelle Small Wright in her recent post on her Perelandra website:

“Yes, the fallout of the Industrial Revolution and poor decisions on the part of industry and governments play a role in this. However, I believe they are responsible for only 50% of the problem. We individuals are responsible for the other 50%. All the issues resulting from that which shall not be named boil down to one thing: What scientific and industrial developments do we want to include in our lives and how much do we want to use them? Industry and governments may look big and out of control but, in actuality, we individuals are the ones who are in control. You know how to change an industry’s crappy, problem-producing product? Stop buying it. If a company’s sales suddenly drop, you will be shocked at how fast that company will change the product in order to regain those lost sales. “

I have long appreciated Machelle’s unique approaches to living peaceably with the environment and its innate intelligences. Her methods seem only natural and about as down-to-earth as we can possibly get, especially in comparison with the way so many of us have been trained to see ourselves as separate from the rest of nature. Like Machaelle, I would like to propose that without beating ourselves up over anything that we’ve so far failed to do, we simply take inventory over what products and habits we may be using that conflict with the ecosystem and begin to replace them as much as we are able to.

Life is a process rather than some static thing, and so long as we are moving progressively rather than regressively – evolving rather than devolving then we are on track. Static areas of life are where pain, sickness, and disease develop because energy has become stuck or blocked. When we notice stuck energy within ourselves and the Earth we can start with whatever we know and are capable of doing to get that energy flowing again.

On a relative note, astronomers have very recently discovered a new Earth Cousin, which very likely may support similar forms of life. This comes as no real surprise to me, because it always seemed quite silly to think that we on Earth contain the only intelligent life forms in this vast Universe. It also wouldn’t surprise me if about twenty years down the line life on Earth begins to migrate to some other sustainable planet that is discovered. Let us hope and pray that whatever happens we live with grace on this Earth while we are here, treading lightly and not leaving a bigger mess than we are capable of clearing up.

Remember, just as in dysfunctional relationships we never escape their dysfunctional patterns by running away from a person who reflects them to us and jumping into the arms of another. If we haven’t faced the real culprit of our relational issues we will continually meet up with the same resistance and obstacles as before. We break abusive patterns within us and our own responses to stress. Only then will the chains of pain and vicious cycles of death and rebirth shift into a liberated state of awareness that we can so far barely fathom.

May we celebrate Earth Day with humility, gratitude, and reverence, offering her any token or action that says “I see you, feel you, appreciate you”.