SPRING 2022’s BIG QUESTION: What’s Next When Your Old Storyline is Finito?

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"There's been a quantum leap technologically in our age, but unless there's another quantum leap in human relations, unless we learn to live in a new way towards one another, there will be a catastrophe. If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.” —Albert Einstein For more: Einstein Quotes

Dear ONE,
HAPPY SPRING FORWARD! We’re now fully in the energies of the Karmic Pluto Return of the US in structure-ruling Capricorn which will continue to intensify through 2022 and beyond. This transformational transit is affecting each of us individually as well as globally, with the Russian invasion of the Ukraine setting up one of the ongoing themes of a massive acceleration of the natural cycles of Plutonian death and rebirth.

We’ll be witnessing, on the world stage and in our own personal realities, endings and beginnings speeding up as old ways of thinking as well as outmoded structures in society will become obsolete and fall away much faster as our new normal. For example, fossil fuel is limited and will become increasingly less viable over the next few decades as it feeds global warming among other harmful side-effects, whereas solar and wind are unlimited sustainable resources.

So too, hopefully, will autocracies begin to all fall away, fueled by a rapidly awakening global population with an exponential desire for freedom which will grow infinite wings in this Aquarian Age. All the above events are inspired and powered by the continuous Quickening of planetary, cosmic and galactic energies encouraging the evolution of consciousness.
For more: THE QUICKENING

However, we do need to remember that, because Pluto moves so very slowly, when it transits over sensitive points in birth charts—whether of individuals or countries—the effects are profoundly deeper and more powerful than any other planet. This means that, while death and rebirth are inexorable, falling into despair during this preliminary disintegration phase is short-sighted and inordinately stressful.

Throughout this time, a more skillful means for maintaining peace of mind is by keeping our hearts open with compassion as we hold an exceptionally long-range view on human evolution. It also helps to work on cultivating faith that, out of the ashes of what has died, a new beginning will always arise. How could it not be so?

This Spring is the perfect time to reevaluate our current personal storylines to make sure we’re investing our precious life-force energy in goals which feed our souls and not just our ego desires for more, better or different. For, while we all create many different types of narratives with preferred outcomes about who we are and why we do what we do at various stages of our lives, timing is everything in terms of what we choose to make the most important focus of attention.

During this Plutonian process, all of us will experience a rapid increase in the number of old storylines Falling away as they no longer serve our highest good—especially wherever we have 27-28 degrees of Capricorn in our birth charts. The good news is that after one door closes another does open, but there is usually a waiting period—sometimes short and sometimes long—in which it’s drafty in the hallway.

This “hallway” is not just a state of limbo, but rather, it’s an internal elevator of consciousness in our vertical channel. This hallway is helping us ascend—sometimes kicking and screaming—to the next level of awakening. So, when the new door opens for us—which always occurs in perfect timing with the Flow—it will be at a higher level of awareness, which we’ll certainly need to make the best use of all the new FGOs (f**kin growth opportunities) coming our way.

One of the reasons I was strongly guided to use the word “finito” in the subject line, (which I discovered later after looking it up) is because, while in Italian “finito” means finished, in Spanish, finito actually means “finite” (as in the opposite of infinite:). Accordingly, when we realize some of our old doors have closed, it’s most important to choose our next storyline wisely so that our goals are continuously deeper and more enduringly fulfilling.

As budding cocreators, we each get an important cosmic vote when we place our “order” with the Universe, then take appropriate actions in the Flow and, most essentially, turn over timing of results to Divine Will, which is always for the highest good of all concerned. I call this Spiritual Pragmatism.

When I do karmic astrology readings, one of the decisive factors used for psychic predictions of future probabilities is based on where one is at in any given 30-year Karmic Saturn-Return cycle, as each of these major time periods signifies quite different legs of the journey in any given incarnation.

Each Saturn-Return cycle necessitates reprioritizing what we choose to devote our energies to, as our criteria needs to evolve with each cycle as we evolve. For, based on where we’re at in our karmic development in linear space and time, different standards apply if we want to manifest results which are timeless rather than ephemeral.

When our storylines concentrate on fulfilling desires solely on the little self/ego/personality levels—which I call horizontal development—then, sooner or later, while we may get some short-lived satiation and happiness at the fulfillment of a chosen desire . . . inevitably, there will always be a letdown as disappointment and disillusionment kicks in.

This is a natural and emotionally organic outcome of any peak experience in this plane of duality and polarities. We don’t get highs without lows, and vice versa. The French don’t call the letdown after the peak of sexual climax the “little death” for nuthin:).

This is especially so if orgasm is only experienced as part of a horizontal, ego-based storyline, rather than as a vertical, soul-level and beyond timeless experience of merging with the Tao (Source or the Divine) through the vehicle of making love with a partner (a dual cultivation) as a form of spiritual practice.

We can also think of this letdown feeling as a kind of psychic post-partum depression that comes after any creative birthing process. Those of us who identify as cocreators, whether as literal artists, writers, actors, etc., or working with Life itself as our greatest work of art, always feel an anticlimax when one of our dreams, goals or horizontal storylines completes.

When we’re primarily focused on external validation through fame and fortune in other’s eyes, the letdown can be devastatingly empty on the inside. As Ted Turner, founder of CNN, famously said, after making his first billion:
“Acquiring such wealth and prestige is just like climbing a very high ladder, reaching for just an empty paper bag.”

Conversely, sometimes we’ll reach a point, especially near the end of a Saturn Return cycle, of despairing that our dream or desire will ever be realized. And yet, at the same time, we may feel resistant to unhooking ourselves from enmeshment in a particular storyline because we’ve invested so much in it. This creates a parallel theme of chronic low-grade suffering triggered by our attachment to this unrequited desire which then becomes a habitual emotional component of our ego-identity.

Sometimes, the Universe protects us from realizing our desires too soon—i.e., on the ego timetable rather than the Divine timetable. This is because, if we get too much romance, fame, money or success before we’re emotionally and spiritually mature enough to handle it, there’s a tendency to allow this complacency with good fortune to feed the ego in a way that harms our souls karmically as one can witness among many in the public eye whose egos have become quite bloated, unpleasant, and unsightly. For more: Hungry Ghosts

Other times, my readings have encouraged clients, whose soul assignment is specifically about personal power development, to get on with developing inner soul qualities and strength of character by creating some sort of creative “product”—whether it be a book of writings, art or photography, a performance piece, a musical CD, children or a business among many other expressions—that is an authentic expression of their soul.

This creative process of manifestation in 3D allows them to move through their karmic limiting beliefs of unworthiness, habitual ruts of indolence and sloth, or fears of failure or success which have become equally terrifying and immobilizing.

I remind them that fulfilling their mission of stepping into their power as cocreators has infinite range and depth. Whereas, no matter how much applause, money or fame their ego and society mistakenly think is the true measure of success, without vertical soul development in tandem, the peaks are fleeting and, in the long run, hollow on the inside. Inner poverty is rampant among the wealthy and famous, and the more they acquire the deeper their sense of hopelessness and despair.

“The planet does not need more successful people. The planet desperately needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of all kinds.”—Dalai Lama

So, from the Spiritual Pragmatism of the soul perspective, it’s really not about how many books we sell, how much applause we get, or money we make. True success is realized when we focus on fulfilling our soul assignments and opening our hearts more. Earth School is the vehicle for karmic healing and soul growth, and our awareness of this higher truth accelerates the learning curve.

Once we choose to finally let go of the “woulda shoulda coulda’s” of the ego to clear our vertical channel, we can actually begin to hear all of our angels and guides in other dimensions applauding and cheering us on in our journey home. That’s when we start getting more and more priceless glimpses of inherent bliss spontaneously arising when we viscerally feel that we’re doing exactly the inner and/or outer work we took incarnation for. Once this is experienced and we can let go of any regrets—at any time up to and including our last breath—then there will be no more karmic do-overs on this theme carried into future incarnations to complete.

It helps if we can deprogram ourselves from the mass consciousness view (always the lowest common denominator) of looking for others to endorse our success. But rather, it’s up to each of us to validate our own inner journey and open our vertical channels to receive Divine Heart support through all higher dimensions all the way through to Source.

“You don’t tell the quality of a master by the size of his crowds.” —Richard Bach

Some of the hardest psychic readings I’ve had to deliver have been for those whose ego dreams have not been realized on their ego timetables enough to feed their hungry ghost tendencies. Then, what happens is over many decades the probabilities finally shift and certain doors do close. So, once they hear the reading, if they move into denial and are absolutely unwilling to cut the cord, I get to be the “hatchet man.” Tightly-held delusions may lead to disillusionment in 3D when they are reality-checked from the higher more objective perspective of the Akashic Records, after all.

Many of these horizontal dreams manifest as storylines that they can only be happy if whatever external person or thing they desire is possessed. There have been many times where clients have reacted by kicking and screaming and wanting to play “kill the messenger” (c’est moi). It’s a good thing that after channeling readings for fifty years, I’ve finally recovered from being a people pleaser:).

Sooner or later, if they want to get unstuck and move on, they will need to own that their goals and desires have reached a point of diminishing returns in the probabilities. This occurs because of: mental or physical illness, lost opportunities and inaction, depletion of their storehouse of vital life-force energy or a declining of creative gifts and/or mental acuity, among other reasons.But regardless, once this higher perspective reality-check is accepted, then an acceleration of karmic lessons can commence followed by a higher-level of new more fulfilling, meaningful goals which feed the soul.

We can be sure that any storyline of unrequited desires that has not been released will be carried into future incarnations. And, we can also be sure that all unrequited desires will eventually be fulfilled, but not necessarily in the form or at a point in our development where we still even want this particular goal. There does tend to be some cosmic humor amidst the fine print in this type of unrequited karmic desire contract. Thus, the warning: “Be careful what you wish for!” delivers a deeper meaning from this perspective.

So, unless and until we are able to consciously cut the cord of attachment to horizontal dreams for primary sustenance and go for the clean sharp growing pain of releasing this form of ego-fulfillment to validate our identities, roaming rates for excess karmic baggage will apply.

For those of you who are in your first karmic Saturn return cycle up until age 30, (or know someone who is), it’s important to recognize that this is the leg of the journey where much of the karma or unresolved issues to be addressed from past lives will get activated internally by our childhood circumstances and how we respond to these by the personality predispositions of our birth chart. Both chosen by our souls exactly for this karmic activation.

Then, later in life, as we mature, we get to choose differently from a more empowered stance to heal the karma we took incarnation for as a foundation level of soul purpose. For more on this metaphysical philosophy: LEELA

As we move into our twenties, it’s the optimal time to have as many adventures—in learning, traveling, developing different aspects of being and romance in multiple varieties—including “scenic side trips”—before we make the major decisions in terms of life choices—career and relationship-wise—as consciously and responsibly as we’re able by around age 30. Then, we’ll have no regrets later if this most major party phase is enjoyed fully in its proper karmic sequence.

It's very common for some souls to bottom out by age 28-30 on self-destructive behaviors as part of their adventures and get clean and sober in different ways. For more: The Nature of Addiction: It’s Only Human

It’s also unfortunately quite prevalent for some personalities around age 28-30 to “check out” by overdose, addiction to sick excitement leading to death, or actual suicide, as getting on the main track of the 2nd Saturn cycle appears overwhelmingly impossible to them.

In addition, it's very sad that most millennials and gen-Xers entertain themselves with so much social-media that they reach a point where their smartphones seem to be like a literal 24-7 appendage. This is causing more than half of the world’s population to lose or not develop the capacity to be fully present and communicate deeply with another real live human being without constantly distracting themselves with superficialities. This primary relationship with digital life is unlikely to change on a mass scale especially as we’re in the Kali Yuga (spiritual dark ages) now.

“Younger people, for the most part, who have grown up in our social-media era, have no personal memory of how things were before, and no immunity to the seductions of digital life. What we are seeing—and bringing on ourselves—resembles a neurological catastrophe on a gigantic scale.”—Oliver Sacks, neurologist
For more: New Yorker Article Quotes

Looking back on my own twenties, while I did party and have more than enough adventures exploring future options, my only regret is that I didn’t allow myself to “stop and smell the flowers more” and give myself permission to play without the emotional undertow of anxiety or judgement that I was somehow “behind schedule” if I wasn’t hard on myself. Self-love and self-acceptance are certainly one of the main learning curves of this cycle.

The major personal and professional decisions we commit to by the end of this first cycle will set the tones and themes for our 2nd Saturn-Return cycle from age 30-60. This karmic cycle is definitively the time to work diligently in fulfilling our horizontal ego desires, while simultaneously growing through developing the timeless character traits and soul qualities aligned with the assignment we took incarnation for.

It's not the external choice of career and/or primary mate relationship that is most important here, but rather the “muscles” or inner strengths we develop through dealing with external challenges. This spiritual resistance training of life pushing at us to make us stronger is the true vertical goal within the horizontal journey.

These inner strengths we’re here to develop, especially and optimally in our 2nd Saturn Karmic cycle, are epitomized by Saturn’s favorite attributes (which were all anathema to me when I was still enjoying the adventures of my twenties): Delayed gratification, patience, perseverance, allowing time for things to develop in the Flow and not pushing the river, discipline, hard work, etc.

By age 58-60, as we review the past 30-year karmic cycle, it’s time to reevaluate how we’ve done in terms of horizontal and vertical accomplishments. Then, decisions need to be made as to what has served us well in the past but now has become baggage—on inner and outer levels—and what we want to take with us into the next Saturn cycle. This can also be a dangerous time for the ego, if the little self/personality is still overly-attached to goals or outcomes that have become more unrealistic to be manifest going forward within the nature of linear time.

Many souls at this stage also choose, albeit not always fully consciously—to check out—although perhaps not as dramatically as at the review stage of the last karmic cycle. However, if one does not whole-heartedly recommit to the maintenance of the life-force energies necessary for another 30-year karmic cycle, it creates an ambivalence about being in the body. This then begins to play out—sometimes slowly and sometimes quite quickly by age 60—through soul sickness which then manifests as some form of physical illness over time.

The solution to heal this ambivalence is the realization that feeding our souls, in terms of developing the inner soul qualities we took incarnation for as our assignment, mission or purpose, is far more timeless and infinite in scope than feeding our ego desires, especially after age sixty.

Over time, but certainly by age sixty when we begin our third 30-year Karmic Saturn Return cycle, which I call “The Victory Round,” we’ll hopefully have reached a point of maturity where we begin to experience the highs and lows, losses and gains of Life with more equanimity, as we expand the emotional range of our humanness to an acceptance of duality as one of the hallmarks of 3D.

If we have done our due diligence karmically in terms of horizontal development of external goal achievement and so forth, we’re ready to begin to run around the field of our lives waving our authentic flag or banner of Being as we commence our Victory Round, and consciously make having more pleasure, joy and bliss the criterion of all choices, major and minor. For more: On Pleasure, Joy and Bliss

It’s not so much that we switch to vertical storyline fulfillment after age 60 in an either/or scenario. But rather, it is a reprioritizing of placing soul-feeding storylines before attachment to outgrown ego desires for identity or validation.

Just for a moment, imagine how it could be if our character building and healthy ego development, as an expression of our soul’s unique individuality, are fully in bloom by age sixty. Then, like a rocket ship taking off vertically into orbit, parts of our ego and attachments that no longer serve us naturally fall away as we accelerate into a priority focus on vertical ascension at higher frequencies in other dimensions of consciousness in our Victory Round while still fully embodied. Yee-haw and Yay!

More and more of us are getting to experience for the first time in any incarnation, the final karmic cycle, from age 90-120. As we’re all living much longer in terms of longevity probabilities than ever before. I have many old friends and clients in their nineties still enjoying Life just as it is.

This is a time where we can still be open to fulfillment on the personality levels. But added to this, is the embracing of a path of full surrender in the Flow. This way, we can enjoy graciously receiving whatever pre-loaded karmic gifts we have already invested in and paid for in previous cycles, in this and past lives, while at the same time being grateful for all as Divine gifts.

This is when we allow our storyline to be more of a priority focus on vertically aligning towards our true identity of a Light Being in multidimensions, so that our transition, when we choose to drop our bodies, will be as seamless as possible, with the faith that death is absolutely safe.

In the meantime, this final Saturn cycle is truly about enjoying what is, just the way it is, without any more woulda shoulda coulda’s or regrets. Ideally, this phase of life is a bittersweet unwinding of a primary relationship with Life horizontally and a deeper merging with Source as our new primary relationship, which was there all along anyway, hidden amidst the busyness of our first three karmic cycles and now fully revealed.

When we look at the position of the Moon’s North Node of Destiny in the birth chart in karmic astrology from a soul perspective—it becomes clear once we understand our make-up—that our souls chose our birth charts as a template to evolve through, but not to necessarily get overly attached to, as we grow beyond this initial template throughout a lifetime of progressions and transits.

I used to joke, when I taught karmic astrology at NCGR conferences and such, that even if we never had our charts done, we can be sure, most especially before age 30, that where we need to go in this life (i.e., our North Node of Destiny) is exactly where we fear and resist the absolute most because it is the part of us least developed in our karmic repertoire of identity.

The placement of the South Node of our Karmic Past, is what we tend to cling to as a rut of identity, as it is so familiar and safe because we’re already developed and good at what this area represents. It’s natural to enjoy the South Nodal placement for review purposes in the first karmic cycle, but the real growth comes from the journey towards the North Nodal position which, even once we arrive there, has infinite range and depth.

On a personal note, in my birth chart, my North Node of Destiny conjuncts my Ascendant (aka persona) in the final two degrees of Capricorn. So, yes, Pluto is sitting on my Ascendant/North Node right now! Every one of my personal planets is on the opposite interdependent side of the chart, from the 5th house through the 9th, all supporting the South Node of my Karmic Past in Cancer, conjunct my Descendant and Trickster Uranus.
With this birth chart, I vehemently “knew” in my 20s, as my study of astrology deepened, that I would “never” arrive at my North Node/Ascendant, as it would mean putting myself out in the world in a way that was karmically downright terrifying.
Then, in my 30s, as I maintained a hard-earned sobriety after bottoming out at age 27, I developed Psychic Therapy, went into therapy myself to deal with my emotional immaturity, and got seriously into Taoist practices, to help ground and root me to the earth. All this as I simultaneously continued to play out quite destructive romantic choices until I bottomed out on my addiction to sick excitement in this area.

From age 40 on, I had finally matured enough emotionally to let go of the habitual rut of identity of my Cancer South Node conjunct the Descendant of always wanting to take care of “the Other” and Uranus (so easily bored), to choose more soul-based choices of karmic heart bonds rather than karmic bondage. For more, please enjoy my erotic/psychic memoir: Cosmic Sugar

Also, by my 50s, I had written two books, presented dozens of workshops and lectures, created my website and newsletters, and had a documentary filmed for TV about my work. To view: YouTube

So, all the external achievements I completed by my Victory Round were things that I was absolutely terrified of doing in my 20s. haha! For more: How the Universe Pushed me into Confronting My Deepest Karmic Fears by Putting me on Television!

“Going With the Flow”—Joan Pancoe

“What is freedom? It is awareness not trapped in attraction or aversion.”—RAM DASS

In addition to the Saturn-Return cycles, there are also two other major cycles that affect us all at the same age-range: the Uranian-Opposition cycle from age 38-42, and the Chiron-Return at about age 50. More to come on these in future posts.

But there are also many more individualized smaller karmic cycles, expressed by the transits of the outer planets affecting parts of our personality epitomized by the placement of personal planets and the major angles in our birth charts.

So, in terms of transits, most years are a mixed bag of challenges and smooth sailing. Occasionally there is a year that is clearly “full steam ahead” or, conversely, “slow down and gather your forces.” That’s why it’s an extremely helpful tool to get an astrology reading to check one’s transits for optimal timing before making major life decisions.For, while many of us can intuitively sense these planetary flows without a reading, it does provide an objective confirmation of these felt energies, as well as offering more detailed clarity about the options going forward for the next leg of the journey.

In closing, while I’m just wrapping up my first decade of the Victory Round, I find myself identifying more and more with this quote from an Anonymous Zen master:
“The whole Universe is my true personality.”

What this means is that I need to maintain increasingly strong psychic boundaries with all beings in this dimension horizontally, as well as all others vertically, as I feel everything otherwise. I call this visceral experience “Unrelenting Spaciousness.”

I focus on vertical feeding from Source and the Earth, as my primary relationship with all of Life expands vertically and horizontally, with linear space and time dissolving more and more. It’s such a relief to let go of all the old storylines—whether fully requited or not—as the highest expression of transiting Pluto on my Ascendant and North Node exactly now.

It brings such joy in Being—this full let go of attachments to this or that. Most days, I find my monkey mind is completely still for long stretches and truly nobody is home. I feel ancient and timeless and like a new born babe simultaneously. The balance between being and not being is an interesting new place to reside.

And finally, one of the major transits of 2022 is a rare conjunction (not seen since 1856) of spiritual Neptune and abundant Jupiter conjuncting in humanity-loving Pisces on April 12. These energies will support an elevation of our personal belief system and philosophy of life to one that is more heart-centered with the compassionate tone expressed by the Bodhisattva Vow:

“Suffering beings are numberless; I vow to liberate them all. Attachment is inexhaustible, I vow to release it all. The gates to truth are numberless, I vow to master them all. The way of awakening is supreme, I vow to realize it”

This transit of the Great Benefic and the Great Illuminator coming together as One is already showering us with Divine Love as it holds out a beacon of hope to all on planet Earth to inspire us to go for the soul growth and karmic healing within all our earthly endeavors, no matter how challenging.

“We need to remind ourselves of the oneness of all seven billion human beings. Basic human nature is compassionate. If we can cultivate that in an intelligent way, we'll be able to create a happier, more peaceful world.”—Dalai Lama
Or, as I like to say as my perennial philosophy:
“One BEING, billions of faces.”

Wishing us all, going forward, the highest-level storyline with the most depth possible which, until just this moment, was beyond our wildest dreams,

J O A N

“If you don’t try to fly,
and so break yourself apart,
you will be broken open by death,
when it’s too late for all you could become.”—RUMI