A Lunar Eclipse
The Earth’s shadow will prevent the Sun’s rays from reaching the surface of the Moon (for a semiduration of 26 minutes), as the Moon will be completely engulfed within the tail of the Earth’s magnetic field.
The Eclipse, therefore, brings an added challenge to us. Those of us in darkness at this time will be deprived, albeit for a brief time, of the reflection of the Sun’s stimulating brilliance; and the Moon, though ghostly in appearance, will be naked in its power.
Astrologically, the Moon stimulates our conditioned reactions to past memory, those memories that shape our life and attitudes. And presently the Moon is in Gemini, as we say, reflecting to us a more aware focus via our surface consciousness, as well as the need for communication with others close to us, and being more open to things that may have inhibited us in the past.
In terms of human behaviour, Gemini is the least judgemental sign in the zodiac wheel, but also the most irresponsible. Responsibility requires a certain amount of judgement, and personal values. Every frequency of the zodiac has a plus and a minus in its expression, as this is how we view dualistic reality. Our consciousness may be briefly eclipsed tonight if we are not mindful!
The Sun stimulates our Heart-Mind, our inherent Spiritual Wisdom and capacity for Compassion. And it is presently emphasising for us the Sagittarius frequency, which itself stimulates Wisdom, Truth, Harmlessness, and deeper Introspection into the workings of the universe.
A Full Moon always provides a polarity of energy with the Sun. This Gemini-Sagittarius combination can lead to greater Wisdom and Insight if we use it wisely. It can be highly productive for inspirational ideas that we can develop for the benefit of our society and culture.
When we see the full face of the Moon, that is a complete reflecton of the Sun’s Light on the Moon’s surface, there is an added dimension of consciousness there. Perhaps, this is why it can be more difficut to fall asleep, or even to want to, during the full moon phase (apart from the obvious effect that the strong moonlight may have on the pineal gland, regulating sleep): the Sun’s Light is making conscious the patterns of the Past.
Many people try to avoid this fresh Light by indulging in intoxicating liquids (the moon resonates with all watery fluids) or recreational drugs. While many spiritual traditions employ special meditation rituals during Full Moon days, as this time can lead to higher consciousness through self-understanding.
As the eclipsed moon emerges from the shadow of the Earth, it begins to resemble a Crescent Moon. In Chinese Taoist Alchemy, the Crescent Moon is a symbol of "the emergence of the ‘light’ of the primal mind from the ‘shadow’ of aquired conditioning"1. This ‘aquired conditoning’ is exactly what the Moon stimulates in us astrologically.
The timing of this eclipse tonight is very interesting:
- The Sun (our Heart-Mind) is very close to the Transneptunian Point, Cupido, at this time. This invisible force stimulates Compassion & Peace/or anger-hatred if ignored.
- Cupido, itself, is squaring Ceres, asteroid of family, grief, grains that nourish—churning up family issues, or stagnant grief. All grief is a form of attachment, which is why it generates anger.
- And the Sun and eclipsed Moon are both squaring Astraea, the asteroid of karmic balance, which can lead us to feel the urgency of repaying a prior kindness (no matter how ancient), or resolving a past state of our ignorance, even when this seems to involve a stranger.
- The Transneptunian Point, Zeus, is trining the Gemini South Node, bringing the urgency for Wisdom to prevail over the Past. This can be a very healing time to clear the staleness of our Past before the New Year!
For those of us in the Asia-Pacific region, the Earth’s shadow will cover the Moon tonight, and we will be put on alert to not fall into the darkness of loss of Heart as the Sun will not be shining it’s Light onto our Past Memories, the Moon; & we may make the mistake of repeating the Past, instead of gaining wisdom from it.
Mindfulness is paramount. The Lunar Eclipse lasts for only a brief time, but it only takes one brief moment to make a decision, or take an impulsive action, that may affect the rest of your life, happily or sadly.
No matter what time-zone your location, use this day wisely. Let go of the things that no longer support your Path. Sit, meditate, contemplate, and be open to a new vision that will support your New Year ahead!
Buddha Blessings!
Kerrie Redgate (Changchub Dolma)
Notes:
1 From the Glossary of Understanding Reality: A Taoist Alchemical Classic by Chang Po-Tuan (trans. Thomas Cleary). © 1987 University of Hawaii Press: Honolulu.
And many thanks to Steve Selby for making his lovely Lunar Eclipse photograph available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic License.
Last year, 2010, I was living only a stroll from a long, glorious, natural beach on Australia’s eastern seaboard. Always a surprising delight. Every dusk the colours were so fabulous! Exquisitely striped expanse of sky in aqua and salmon-pink, reflected in the flat silky-wet sand. And the almost-metallic blue and pink colours of the water, with aqua-green wave-tops! Just magic. 
Genuine compassion can only be developed when we let go of our focus on ‘self’ to identify with the life within other beings. Ants are busily going about their daily business when humans smash them into the ground, ending their personal endeavours for their community and home forever. And as for eating cows… something I can never comprehend!
I have witnessed a family of cows closely follow a distressed horse all around a large paddock when he was crying for his missing horse companions. The cows were concerned and very present for his deep distress. I have also seen another of the horses from the same paddock shield one of those cows from the intense summer sun when she was sick and could not stand on her feet to move to shelter. The horse stood perfectly still, right next to the cow, for 20 minutes, exactly shading her prostrate body and head. He neither ate the grass nor shifted his position, until the heat was too much for him as well, and he retired to the shelter of the trees, to his companions. 
And I won’t start on the intelligence and the love within domestic cats and dogs! Even tigers in captivity, when raised with love and respect, will respond in kind. 
Next time you meet a creature unlike yourself, no matter how tiny it may appear to your relative judgement, greet it it with love and kindness. In time you will find you have hard-wired your brain to believe in such qualities, and all of your relationships will then prosper with softness and love and real awareness. This is a path to happiness. Fear, aggression and dominance do not create joy. 
I recently changed to a new carrier for my mobile broadband and mobile phone. Why? The last one, despite my pleas, was sending me bogus text messages at 2:20 in the morning!
Appearing Compassionate and Accepting to a large invisible company will usually not get your issue resolved. But neither will a wall of gunfire. We are certainly being tested on our Equanimity at these times. But this does not mean we have to accept bad policy and a wreckless disregard for our, the customers’, wellbeing. Without the customer there is no business, no business means no shareholders, and no shareholders means no money in the bank for the CEOs! Some businesses have to learn the hard way. I had absolutely REFUSED this telco’s call-centre staff-manager’s ridiculous 10-day plan, and in no uncertain terms! Though I did apologise to the first line of defence, the young Indian call-centre woman, for upsetting her day, acknowledging this was not her fault. But without my passion for SERVICE PLEASE! I would have gotten nowhere.
Why do so many people imagine The Buddha as a squat, rather round, jovial fellow with a big tummy they feel compelled to rub? How can this be, as Buddha almost starved himself to death in the forest before his Enlightenment? He then lived as a wandering monk from offerings of food from devotees, and was never described as ‘fat’! So, how many Buddhas are there? And is this Jovial One really a Buddha?
It is believed that Pu-tai was a previous incarnation of the next Buddha who is to be known as Maitreya. The name Maitreya is derived from the Sanskrit term ‘maitri’ (or ‘metta’ in Pali), which means ‘loving-kindness’. 
The surprise over the official recognition of Hollywood action star, Steven Seagal, as a 17th-century High Tibetan Lama can also be explained in this way. 
So what of Maitreya? It has also been said that the present High Tibetan Lama, H.E. 12th Tai Situ Rinpoche (who has a wonderfully infectious smile and giggle!), is an emanation of the future Maitreya Buddha. Interestingly, his reincarnation lineage as the Tai Situpa began in the 14th century; and before this, he was Marpa the Translator (1012-1097) who brought many Buddhist teachings to Tibet. As mentioned, Ch’i-t’zu (Pu-tai) died in 916. So these dates are congruent with successive incarnations. Establishing a connection with the presence of H.E. Tai Situ Rinpoche will also assist us in finding the future Buddha in our time of darkness and confusion in our lives to come.
Just saw 5 minutes of a ridiculous documentary on TV, about the ‘Disaster Year’ of 2011. It seemed amazing to these commentators that the entire ‘Ring of Fire’ region around the Pacific should be so unstable at present… 
The horrific events in Japan these past days, in Christchurch New Zealand, and in Australia’s vast flooding, have shocked us all into realising how delicate our existence may be, and how powerful are the planetary forces we live with each day.
Can Human Research Trials Be Accurate Without Astrology?
Data is gathered on the differences between these two groups. This is correlated as a pile of percentages; and proclamations are often made as to the effects from the events or substances on human behaviour or psychology.
There is something dramatically amiss with this style of research. Something that Modern Medicine has also never taken into consideration.
It is not enough to say that the human brain produces such and such chemical substances, or that a human ought to have two eyes and one nose. The differencres in how we each react to substances or external events will vary dramatically across all trials, and even on different dates.
The science of astrology has taught me to respect the magnificent differences in the way in which the human mind creates its body. Without elaborating on the theories of quantum physics and reiterating what the ancients of Asia had been expounding through their systems of healing, regarding matter as energy and consiousness (I will leave that for a forthcoming book), I will relate here directly the evidence of astrology.
The human system is composed of five elements (which vary only slightly in the Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, and Indian Ayurvedic systems) in a unique balance. And this balance changes subtly from day to day. These are not the same as the Western phenomenal elements, but are more subtle, yet ultimately impact upon the physical body:
These are only quaintly brief introductions to these five elements, but the point to grasp here is that these subtle elements impact upon all levels of our being: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual.
All of these elements, and their relationships to each other, can be read in the astrological chart of any human mind (or that of any animal, if an accurate birth time has been recorded). The elements (both mixed and pure) are found not only in the signs but also in the houses of the various planets in the chart as varying frequencies; with each planet, itself, stimulating a certain element.
For example, an individual with a predominance of Water and Earth qualities in his her birth chart will have a slower digestion than another individual with a predominance of Fire and Air. The former will usually struggle with keeping her weight down to a healthy level, as her body will physically hold more water within its Earth element; and her bones may be heavier and denser than other elemental types. She will also hang on to many of the things or people in her life as emotional security; and a connection with the past is important to her.
The Fiery-Airy person will often be thinner, with lighter and finer bones, not hanging on to much in life, and seeking change and stimulation, rather than emotional security and stagnation. Also, a predominance of the Air element can cause one to be supersensitive to brain-altering drugs. Even the temperature, and humidity or dryness in the air of a research room, can affect the mental and emotional responses from an Air-type person, as opposed to a Water-type. (This is also strongly evident with kinesiology2 testing.)
Yet, the elements are only one small part of an astrology chart. Each individual expresses a unique moment in time from the beginning of his or her life, when the earth’s field had been humming a symphony of sounds, stimulated by the movements in the heavens. And each moment in time is absolutely unique. Every planet and asteroid in our solar system produces a unique tonal frequency that affects the brain which then creates the body from the template of the mind).
Birth is therefore a resonance, between our mindstream’s frequencies of thought and the frequencies above. There are no coincidences in astrology. Birth is always perfect timing, no matter the circumstances of the birth. And each moment, as each person, is unique.
The other vast difference that can occur between research subjects is a little more metaphysical. This involves the process of Reincarnation. My own research has shown that the mindstream flows from body to body, from one life to the next. We create our new form based on the ideas we had previously gathered in the mindstream, just as we create and recreate our physical form throughout life, dependent upon our attitudes and varying emotional conditions as we respond to the ongoing frequencies in the earth’s field.
Brain Study of Fatigue in Pilots
These differences occur not simply due to childhood conditioning (which has never proven anything substantially—many indivuals have risen above a challenging childhood), but to spiritual maturity that can only be developed over time as we learn to live with the cosmic influences and with each other. This takes a very long time! Especially the cities of the world are made up of vast differences in “soul age” (mindstream accumulation) of the individuals cohabiting in these huge communities.
And all this is not to mention the unique past-life associations we each have with a variety of substances and scenarios that can trigger deep and unique responses within the body and the mind!
So what is a human control group? It is a collection of vastly different people of varying elemental constitutions, widely varying beliefs, and hugely varying levels of tolerance to situations and substances!
Obesity Rates in Canadian Population
So can the statistics (averages) from human trials ever be truly scientific?
I think not.
At least while astrology is not being used as a benchmark for each individual’s likely responses, we cannot begin to ascertain the disparity we are likely to find between each of the subjects of both the control group and the testing group, before any trials even begin!
All of the information listed above can now be gleaned from an accurate astrology chart. And I look forward to a future (possibly after Pluto moves into Aquarius in 2023) when astrology will be utilised in all scientific studies to narrow the margin of error that is occurring now in research institutions around the world.
Astrology is the most marvellous “Rosetta stone” that humanity has ever stumbled upon. And it is a work in progress, as we develop and mature as human and spiritual beings.
Buddha Blessings!
Kerrie Redgate (Changchub Dolma)
Notes:
1. Copyright © 1983 Ted J. Kaptchuk (N.Y.: Congdon & Weed, Inc.)
2. Kinesiology is a biofeedback system, a specialised art of gathering information from the body and mind via subtle muscle responses. See Your Body Doesn’t Lie by Dr John Diamond for a good introduction.
For your interest: the Obesity graph is from a study by Margot Shields and Michael Tjepkema. The pink areas illustrate the percentage of people considered to be obese, and the green areas show the precentage of people considered obese and overweight. I am not, in any way, making any comments on this particular study, one way or another, and am using this graph purely for illustrative purposes.
Thanks again to Wikimedia Commons for providing the images for this blog post.