“From the Buddhist point of view, the Chinese officer who is committing the cruel act against the young boy is initiating a new cycle of negative karma. In the case of the child, there is a closure of a particular karma that the child is experiencing. The perpetrator of the crime is in fact an object of more compassion and mercy than the child. “
THE DALAI LAMA
For more: Teachings to Surprise and Inspire
Dear One,
Our biannual eclipse season is almost upon us. Eclipses always ratchet up the intensity, sometimes uncomfortably, as they set up endings, beginnings and the themes that will play out over the next six months and beyond.
Now more than ever, it’s important to remember that we always have free will in how we choose to deal with our karma as it arises, and this choice determines our personal destiny as well as affects future probabilities en masse.
This Summer we’re in for an exceptionally powerful and rare triple Eclipse Season, starting with the Full Moon Lunar Eclipse on August 18, followed by the New Moon Solar Eclipse on September 1 and the Full Moon Lunar Eclipse on September 16.
These eclipses, combined with other astrological transits, especially the ongoing square from 2015 through 2019 of unpredictable Uranus in rebellious Aries challenging transformational Pluto in structure-ruling Capricorn, signify a time of upheaval, chaos and revolution as outmoded repressive structures threatening individual liberty disintegrate all over the planet.
In the Vedic system, we’re in the midst of the darkest of spiritual ages, the Kali Yuga which, while continuing for hundreds of years, transitions in 2025 to a time with a glimmer of Light, according to some scholars. Synchronistically, 2025 is also the year that Pluto moves into Aquarius, shifting the energy toward a cycle of beginning to rebuild on the ashes of what needed to be destroyed so that new seeds of growth in the mass consciousness will be firmly planted.
My psychic read on how best to, not just survive, but thrive during these times of increasing chaos in the Earth Game is to cultivate being in what I call: “the witnessing protection program.”
The foundation-level attitude adjustment that is needed to move into this witnessing mode is to accept the reality that everyone on the planet is mentally ill; it’s just a question of degree.
Or as Mark Twain said: “When we remember that we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.”
My definition of sanity is based on one’s ability to hold the witnessing perspective of the higher self or soul. This means being able to see objectively beyond duality and judgment to the bigger picture of unity consciousness in which we’re all one Being with billions of faces, each playing out our karma through cycles of incarnations in the earth plane. This infinite process of soul evolution in the Vedic tradition is called Leela, Divine Play, or what I like to call: Cosmic Hide and Seek.
For more on this, please read: LEELA
Based on this definition, all forms of religious fundamentalism, racism, misogyny and bigotry that pit us against each other are quite high up on the spectrum of mental illness as they are fear-based, reactionary survival mechanisms arising from frantic egoism and ignorance of our true nature. This means that the mass consciousness has “a l-o-o-ng way to go, baby” in the getting sane or mentally healthy department.
How do we deal with a world in which we find ourselves surrounded by various forms of madness? I’ve found that the Taoist philosophy of going with the Flow, or Wu Wei, is the most helpful, as it provides an internally peaceful view which naturally allows for a very long-range perspective on the whole Earth Game to permeate our relationship with Life as the ultimate guru.
Here’s one of my all-time favorite quotes on Wu Wei by Alan Watts:
"When a cat falls out of a tree, it lets go of itself, becomes completely relaxed, and lands lightly on the ground. If the cat made up its mind that it didn't want to fall, it would become tense and rigid and would just be a bag of broken bones upon landing.
“In the same way, it is the philosophy of the Tao that we are all falling out of a tree, at every moment of our lives. As a matter of fact, the moment we were born we were kicked off a precipice and we are falling and there is nothing we can do to stop it.
“So, instead of living in a state of constant tension and clinging to all sorts of things that are actually falling with us because the whole world is impermanent, be like a cat. Don't resist it."
The witnessing perspective is the optimal protection from being infected by the tone of the mass consciousness, which is always the lowest common denominator—particularly so now in the Kali Yuga, with the ongoing Plutonian/Uranian forces at play and, if we’re following the news, with chaos, as some who are mentally ill act out life-and-death dramas that trigger pockets of mass hysteria to arise.
For more on this:
Owning Our Inner Pluto before . . . It Eats Us for Lunch
Embracing the Unexpected: Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Uranus (but were afraid to ask)
Would you like to know where you stand on a spiritually based mental health spectrum? Check out these spiritual truths and contemplate how self-evident they are to you:
All beings are part of one greater divine Being.
The Universe is made up of energy and ALL energy is conscious.
The gold standard of energy is love in all its forms.
Everyone is doing the best they’re capable of, and no one on the personality level chooses to be mentally ill.
We’re powerless over other people’s karma playing out; therefore all we can do is take care of our side of the karmic street and set a tone of equanimity in the Flow.
Cultivating bodhichitta—i.e., compassion and loving kindness, without judgment for those who are suffering due to illness in body, mind or spirit—is taking the highest road spiritually.
On the above theme, here’s a poem from the witnessing perspective of the Soul:
Sickness
Seeing the sicknesses as the teachers, pray to them.
Sicknesses are coming to you by the kindness of the masters and the Three Jewels.
Sicknesses are your accomplishments, so worship them as the deities.
Sicknesses are the signs that your bad karmas are being exhausted.
Do not look at the face of your sickness, but at the one (the mind) who is sick.
Do not place the sicknesses on your mind, but place your naked, intrinsic awareness upon your sickness.
This is the instruction on sickness arising as the Dharmakaya.
The body is inanimate and mind is emptiness.
What can cause pain to an inanimate thing or harm to the emptiness?
Search for where the sicknesses are coming from, where they go, and where they dwell.
Sicknesses are mere sudden projections of your thoughts.
When those thoughts disappear, the sicknesses dissolve too….
There is no better fuel (than sicknesses) to burn off the bad karmas.
Don’t get into entertaining a sad mind or negative views (over the sicknesses).
But see them as signs of the waning of your bad karmas and rejoice over them.
By Rigdzin Jigme Lingpa (1729–1798)
From Apparitions of the Self: The Secret Autobiographies of a Tibetan Visionary by Janet Gyatso (author)
In closing, by maintaining the witnessing perspective, we will continuously evolve and move higher on the spiritual mental health continuum. From living from our souls we will come to know unequivocally with our full heart/mind these key concepts:
Everything is always happening perfectly in the Divine plan.
All structures—internal and external—need to cyclically break down and fall apart before there can be a transformational rebirth from the ashes.
Inner stability can only be cultivated and maintained through some form of daily spiritual practices.
Setting an inner tone of equanimity in the Flow affects our personal reality and beyond with the ripple effect.
For more, please see website for:
Taoist Practices and Spiritual Practices Reading List
With divine orderly chaos running rampant as the new normal, I’m reminded of a quote by Ram Dass: “Wise beings can be peaceful in the midst of chaos, experiencing delight in the changing play of forms.”
Wishing us all some of that!
J o a n
“We can change the world, definitely. The problem is that we don’t smile when chaos occurs to us. When chaos occurs, even within that chaos, we can smile which cures confusion and resentment. Do you understand?”
CHOGYAM TRUNGPA
For more: 50 Best Quotes
JOAN PANCOE is a gifted trance channel, karmic astrologer and spiritual teacher in private practice in New York City since 1976.
She is the creator of psychic therapy, ™ a ten-session intensive that utilizes altered states to help release karmic blocks and experience and integrate the soul level of consciousness.
Joan is the author of Openings: A Guide to Psychic Living in the Real World and Cosmic Sugar: The Amorous Adventures of a Modern Mystic, under the pen name, Leela Jones.
In addition, she is a teacher of Tantric and Taoist energy arts and has had three solo shows of her art in New York City.