Libra
September 23 - October 22
“I
have created you to be neither
celestial nor
terrestrial,
Mortal nor immortal,
in order that by yourself, freely,
In the manner
of a great artist or a skilled sculptor,
You may define
and achieve your own form”.
Pic de la Mirandole, 1486
2011 October Dates:
St
Francis, Catholic Saint dedicated to simplicity and respecting animals
Yom
Kippur,
Jewish day of atonement
Kathina,
Buddhist day to clean temple
and new robe offering ceremony
Diwali (Buddhist, Hindu, Jain)
festival of lights symbolizing the victory
of righteousness and the lifting of spiritual darkness. This is one of
the most popular festivals in the Hindu calendar.
Birth
of the Bab, Baha'I
founder celebration
Kartik
Amavasya,
Hindu, Goddess Kali recognition
Halloween, Christian, day after All Saint’s Day, All Hallows Eve
Native
American: Harvest Moon also known as the Hunter’s moon. The gardens
and fields are full with the last bounty of the season under thist Moon.
A special orange glow illuminates this moon just as the trees decorate the
world with this beautiful fall color.
Wiccan: Blood Moon
This moon is also called the Shedding Moon or the Falling Leaf Moon.
Coming right before Samhain, it's a time when the nights are crisp and clear,
and you can sense a change in the energy around you. Let us take our cue from
the trees, as a reminder to take stock of one's winter pantry, shedding perhaps
some of our many layers of personality.
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Attributes:
Element: Air
Position: Cardinal
Symbol : Scales for weighing
Planet: Venus
Flower: Rose, Cosmos,
Hydrangea
Gemstone: Rose quartz
Anatomy: Lower back, buttocks,
women tend to
have graceful
lower spines and curvaceous
buttocks, and Libra men have well-shaped, muscular backs.
Best Food: Sodium phosphate, almonds,
strawberries, Vitamin E.
Avoid: Drama in love.
Colors: Pastel blue, pale green
Action needed: Scheduled moments of quiet
Motto: “I balance”
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Vedic:
Libra is balance, poise, harmony and
equilibrium in nature. Sir Isaac Newton emphasized the simultaneous existence
of centrifugal as well as centripetal forces in the cosmos. As a consequence of
these opposing forces, the cosmos exists. This state of creative equilibrium is
symbolized by Libra.
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Character:
If
Libra exerts a strong influence in your horoscope, then your lesson is to find
the noble middle-path, the balance between opposites -- and to learn to make
clear choices. In order to locate the middle-path you must first learn where
the two opposites are situated. The only teacher from whom you can learn this
is yourself, through your own experiences. It is the task for Libra to
establish balance between polar opposites -- to be kind but still firm, for
example, or brave but not foolhardy.
Any extreme can easily result in personal
tragedy, but it is not until you have tested those boundaries in your daily
life that you know where the polar opposites are situated. Most people
definitely do not travel this middle-path. Since they have never tested their
boundaries, they often walk a road dictated to trends and public opinion.
To travel into the unknown is always
connected with certain risks, and the middle-path is a road lined with hazard.
Buddha called this walk between extremes “the razor’s-edged”. Always try to
follow your intuition and listen to your inner voice. If you allow yourself to
be tempted by any of the many “shortcuts“ that come your way they will only
lead you in the wrong direction. You are training to carefully reconcile
different values with a specific mental capacity that is called “analytical
balancing.”
Your easy-going disposition is charming and
attractive. Your softness and ability to understand others often makes you
popular among your peers, which is very useful in your relations to other
people. Just watch out that this tendency toward easy living doesn’t lead you
to live a life spent in too much comfort, in which the love of amusement and
the desire to “have a nice time“ takes control of you. Glamour can then seduce
you into a world of bewilderment. Such fondness for pleasure has a price.
Libra enjoys the company of others, and
wants to have a partner in life. Thus, close relations are often important, just
do not neglect your own independence in such a way that you risk becoming too
dependent on other people, trying to live through them and thereby annihilating
yourself.
You have a compelling desire to be impartial
and regard life from many different aspects. This means that you are both
equitable and versatile. You understand other people’s manner of thought with
ease, which makes you a good diplomat. However, this compulsion to perceive all
sides of an issue simultaneously can lead you to compromise too much, not
taking a stand when it is really necessary.
This attitude leads others to perceive you
as irresolute, unsettled and undecided, a result of your overly cautious
posture. Your perspective often induces you to agree with everyone -- running
with the hare while hunting with the dogs. In your desire to please all, you
discover to your great astonishment that nobody wants to be with you. If you
lack firmness and distinct borders people will not respect you. So, when
confronting a difficult decision, be still and listen to what your inner voice
has to tell you.
This takes us to the second great lesson for
the Libra person - learning to make choices. You can see issues from different
angles, and you know that everything has its advantages and its disadvantages.
You must not allow yourself to get stuck in this confusion, and having
seriously considered a matter you must eventually make your decision.
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Myths and
Legends:
¨Libra - Guards the secret of balance, of equilibrium, and
finally speaks the word which releases the initiate from the power of the Lords
of Karma¨.
Esoteric Astrology, Alice Bailey
This month we celebrate the glorious
festival of the Fall Equinox, which honors our Lord Christos, the Cental
Spiritual Sun in its three aspects of Savitur (the physical Sun), Savitri (the
soul-shakti of the Sun), and Sirius (the spiritual sun).
In this month we focus on
balance and harmony in all aspects of our lives and environment. If we follow
the hidden symbolism of this season we will enter fully prepared at the equnoxal
“judgment day” and stand in the balance where our souls will be light as a feather (Maat), ready
to lift off to higher realizations, instead of being held back by our imperfections.
This is the beginning of the dark
months: October, November and December – our meditations now turn to balancing
and adjusting and finishing the tasks that were given to us at the beginning of
the year. This is a time of redress of situations which have not been
resolved.
In The New Era Community, El Morya said
through Roerich, "The Great Helpers of humanity do not abandon the Earth
so long as sufferings go unhealed. Wholehearted fellowship can easily heal the
wounds of a friend — but it is necessary to develop the art of thinking in the
name of Good. And this is not easy amid the day's hustle and bustle. But the
examples of the Great Helpers of humanity can encourage and infuse new
forces."
In this period, we are told the four great protectors, from the highest
level of the Silent Watchers to the lowest of the Kings of the elements and
elementals, can be invoked to help us and the world. The four archangels
Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel. These four guardians come forth from the
four Pillars of the Universe, and we can invoke them as the four Great Priestesses.
Still, the Great Ones never leave us without protection. The influence of
the south, the Queen and Initiatress of the Mysteries of the Deep is strong
this month. She will guide us as we go into the Depth of our Being. We hope to
find there the living source of love and forgiveness which will dissolve all
pains, all evil done to us, and wrongs we may have caused consciously or
unconsciously to others.
As an old medieval legend says, this happens beneath the Mother’s Mantle, as once a year
she opens her arms wide to take into herself all our tears, fears,
mistakes and frustrations to transform
them into pearls, gems and jewels which She then graciously rains down upon Her
children, filling their hearts and lives with beauty and harmony,
In the acceptance of this transformation we are given a new beginning to
correct all mistakes, to right every wrong, to soothe all pains around them and
within them in Rectitude… It is
our duty to work thoughtfully with these energies and use them for protection,
peace and harmony along with the servants of the light and the Mother for the benefit our world and our planet.
We understand that by working on ourselves, by making peace between the
contradicting parts of ourselves, with the peoples around us, and even the
people who hurt us, we contribute to the great current of Forgiveness and
Pardon that is activated at this time, and is pervading our planet as well as
the whole solar system.
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Saint Francis of Assisi
The Feast of St Francis of Assisi is celebrated on October 4. It commemorates
the life of St Francis, who was born in the 12th century and is the Catholic
Church’s patron saint of animals and the environment. It is a popular day for
pets to be “blessed”.
Born: Giovanni Francesco di
Bernardone 1181/82 - 1226; a Catholic friar and preacher. He founded the Franciscan
Order, and assisted in founding the woman’s Order of St. Clare. St. Francis
established his order around 1211 when he aquired a little chapel called St.
Mary of the Angels in Assisi. He lived in simplicity and poverty and traveled
all around the Mediterranean.
This was a time in Europe when many men and women sought solace in
isolating themselves in nature as anchorites. Many began religious communities
for safety and solace. It was the dark ages and a life in the city
was not only bad for your health but it could be dangerous too.
For women, becoming an anchorite was not a simple decision, often they
looked for independence and they found protection under their local bishop
establishing themselves as servants of their local church. They would ask to be
walled into apartments next to the church, where they would dispense wisdom and
adjudicate small claims. Besides allowing for a life of spiritual reflection
this would sometimes permit them to keep their family fortunes and dedicate
these funds to the church instead of lose them to other family members.
These dedicated
women, were thought of as reliable witnesses similar to probate court today. They
were also guardians of the faith. Julian of Norwich, born in 1342, was such a person. In the following decades the
church began to formalize these agreements and established orders of nuns and
monks to organize and maintain these devotees. 
Almost
nothing is known of Julian’s early life; we don't even know if she was from
Norwich or chose to move there. Recluse under the direction of Benedictines
in Norwich, England, she was a mystic, visionary, and writer. Her book, Revelations
of Divine Love, contains sixteen revelations she received while in an ecstatic
trance, and is still in print. She meditated on, spoke on, and wrote on the
power of love of evil, Christ's Passion, and the nature of the Trinity. In her
early 60s she shut herself in complete seclusion at Conisford, Norwich, and
never left again.
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Yom
Kippur
Yom Kippur, is a celebration known as the Day of Atonement, is one of the holiest
days of the year in the Jewish tradition. This ritual is in keeping with the
energies of the season. In Judaism this day is tradionally observed by fasting
and intensive prayer. Yom Kippur completes the annual period known as the High
Holy Days. This is a time to reflect on the past year, to see if you have
stayed on the spiritual path you have set yourself. It is a ime to assess your
goals, to forgive others as you forgive yourself and to look deep into your
heart for compassion.
Yom Kippur is the tenth day of the month of Tishrei. According to Jewish
tradition, God inscribes each person's fate for the coming year into a book,
the Book of Life, on Rosh Hashanah, and waits until Yom Kippur to
"seal" the verdict. The evening and day of Yom Kippur are set aside
for public and private petitions and confessions of guilt (Vidui). At the end
of Yom Kippur, one considers oneself absolved by God.
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Diwali
The name "Diwali" is a contraction of "Deepavali", Sanskrit
for "row of lamps". Diwali involves the lighting of small clay lamps, diyas
or dīpas, filled with oil to signify the triumph of light over darkness,
good over evil. During the five days of Diwali, all celebrants wear new
clothes and share sweets with family members and friends. Most Indian business
communities begin the financial year on the first day of Diwali.
While Deepavali is popularly known as the "festival of lights",
the most significant spiritual meaning is "the awareness of the inner
light". Hindu philosophy teaches that
there is something beyond the physical body and mind which is pure, infinite,
and eternal, called the Atman, it is unchanging, infinite, immanent and transcendent.
Namaste means My light salutes this eternal light in you. With this awareness comes compassion and the understanding of the oneness of
all things. Everything is connected. This brings ananda (joy or peace).
Just as we celebrate the birth of our physical being, Diwali is the celebration
of this Inner Light.
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Lakshimi
One the eve of the new moon Lakshmi comes alive during the Hindu holiday of Diwali. Each year,
around the new moon in October or November, Hindu people celebrate this
Goddess of Fortune and invite Her into their homes, attempting to secure Her
favors for the year to come. 'Lakshmi'
is derived from the Sanskrit word Laksya, meaning "aim" or
"goal". She is the Hindu goddess of wealth, love and prosperity, both
material and spiritual.
Goddess Lakshmi, also known as Shri, is represented as the embodiment of
loveliness, grace and charm. She grants both worldly prosperity as well as
liberation from the cycle of life and death.
The myth of Lakshmi’s birth says she arose out of the sea of milk, the
primordial cosmic ocean, bearing a red lotus in her hand, and she is often
depicted sitting on a lotus flower. Lakshmi is a household goddess, and a
favorite of women.
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The
Kathina festival
(Robe offering ceremony)
The Buddhist Kathina
festival is most celebrated by the Burmese, Sri Lankans and the Thai Theravada
Buddhists. It takes place during the months of October and November. The date of
the festival varies from one country to another depending upon the rainy season
(Vassa).
The word 'Kathina' is Pali in origin. It
means a frame used for sewing robes in India. It is the time of the year when
new robes and other necessities may be offered by the laity to the monks.
The Buddha established a rule that Buddhist
monks should observe a retreat and stay in one place for the three months of
the rainy season and it became known as Rainy Retreat (Vassana). Today the
three months retreat can now take place at any season
The festival dates back to the time of the
Buddha. It once happened that groups of thirty bhikkus, or monks, were on their
way to the place where the Buddha was staying, so they could spend their retreat
season with their great master. However, as luck would have it, the vassa or
Rains began before they could reach their destination.
As
per the rules, during the three month period of vassa, the monks had to cease
all their travel and live peacefully together. The monks followed all the rules
but were, quiet obviously, unhappy at not being able to stay with their master.
When the period of vassa was over, the monks continued with their journey. The
Buddha, on hearing of their sad state, knew that something needed to be done to
cheer them up. He also knew that nothing in this world could be as uplifting
and joyful as sharing and showing generosity. With this in mind, he allowed the
monks to wander completely freely and collect cloth for robes. When they had
enough cloth, the monks were to sew a robe using a method which entailed
spreading out the pieces of cloth on a frame and stitching them together. This
frame was known as a Kathina. It is from here that the festival draws its name.
At the end of the retreat, the monks were to
make their own robe. This became a practice to trained monks to depend on
themselves, to live in a simple way, creating no burden to the lay community
and to be content with basic needs. The Buddha recommended this practice to be
observed at the end of the Retreat, because monks can still be found in a large
numbers in one place at this time and they could help one another.
After this, the bhikkus get together to make
up the robe. The entire cutting and sewing has to be completed before the dawn
of the next day. When the robe is completed, the formal Kathina offering
ceremony takes place.
This is a wonderful time to clean our physical temples, polish the brass, empty the incense burners of ash and wash the linens. It is a time to winterize and prepare to the Christmas season.
This is a wonderful time to clean our physical temples, polish the brass, empty the incense burners of ash and wash the linens. It is a time to winterize and prepare to the Christmas season.
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Birth of Bab
The Baha’i Faith is the youngest of the
world's religions. Its founder, Bahá'u'lláh (1817-1892), is regarded as the
most recent in the line of Messengers of God that stretches back beyond
recorded time and that includes Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Krishna, Zoroaster, Christ
and Muhammad.
The central theme of Bahá'u'lláh's message
is to humanity is that we are one single race and the day has come for our
unification into one global society. God, Bahá'u'lláh said, has set in motion
historical forces that are breaking down traditional barriers of race, class,
creed, and nation. This will, in time, give birth to a universal civilization.
The principal challenge facing the peoples of the earth is: to accept their oneness and to assist the processes of
unification.
On
Oct. 20, the Baha'i observe this Holy Day by abstaining from work. There are no
prescribed ceremonies, but gatherings usually involve prayers, devotional readings,
music and fellowship. Baha'i days begin at sunset so celebrations may
begin the evening of Oct 19.
Today, visitors at the Baha'i World Center
in Haifa, Israel, can visit the Shrine of the Bab, a majestic, gold-domed
building where His earthly remains are entombed.
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The Goddess Kali
Kali means black or beyond time, like the
female aspect of Cronos, the Greek titan representing time, who ate all his
children.
The Black
Madonna may have much in common with this goddess, her Indian counterpart. Perhaps
it is the Rom, the Gypsies that helped Kali migrate from India to Europe. She
is the most terrifying of Indian Goddesses with four arms, a sword in one hand
and the head of a demon in another. With the other two hands, she blesses her
worshippers, and says, "fear not”. She has two dead heads for her
earrings, a string of skulls as necklace, and a girdle made of human hands as
her clothing. Her tongue protrudes from her mouth, her eyes are red, and her
face and breasts are dripping with blood. She stands with one foot on the
thigh, and another on the chest of her husband, Shiva. She is the purifying
aspect of the Mother, the redeemer, the one who destroys all our mistakes.
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Halloween
The
word Halloween is a Scottish variant of the phrase: All-Hallows-Eve
("evening") the night before All Hallows Day or, as we call it,
all Saints Day. Catholics celebrate All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day in the
belief that there is, at this time of year, a prayerful and spiritual communion
between the living and those who have died. This is also a holiday closely
linked to the Celtic Samhain.
The carving of jack-o'-lanterns springs from
the custom of carving turnips into lanterns as a way of remembering the souls
held in purgatory. The turnip has traditionally been used in Ireland and
Scotland at Halloween, but immigrants to North America used the native pumpkins,
which are both readily available and much larger – making them easier to
carve.
The
American tradition of carving pumpkins is first recorded in 1837 and was
originally associated with harvest time in general, not becoming specifically
associated with Halloween until the mid-to-late 19th century.
Trick-or-treating
resembles the late medieval practice of souling, when people would go door to
door on Hallowmas (November 1), receiving food in return for prayers for the
dead on All Souls' Day (November 2).
In
Mexico, All Saints Day coincides with the celebration of "DÃa de los
Inocentes" (Day of the Innocents), the first day of the Day of the Dead
(Dia de los Muertos) celebration, honoring deceased children and infants. Scholars
trace the origins of this modern holiday to indigenous observances dating back
thousands of years and to an Aztec festival dedicated to a goddess called Mictecacihuatl.
In
Aztec mythology, Mictecacihuatl was Queen of Mictlan, the underworld,
ruling over the afterlife with Mictlantecuhtli,her husband. Her
role was to keep watch over the bones of the dead. She presided over the
ancient festivals of the dead. She is said now to preside over the contemporary
festival as well. Mictecacihuatl is known as the Lady of the Dead, since
it is believed that she was born, then sacrificed as an infant. She is
represented with a defleshed body and with jaw agape to swallow the stars
during the day.
In Brazil,
Dia de Finados is a public holiday that many Brazilians celebrate by
visiting cemeteries and churches. In Spain, there are festivals and parades,
and, at the end of the day, people gather at cemeteries and pray for their dead
loved ones. Similar observances occur elsewhere in Europe, and similarly themed
celebrations appear in many Asian and African cultures.
This focus on death follows us into the next
sign, Scorpio and prepares our being for the festival of Christmas, or the
birth of light soon to come.
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Conclusion
This is a time of giving thanks for
the things we have, whether it is abundant crops, a healthy family or other
blessings. It is a time of atonement, to look into our hearts and see what we
have accomplished and what we have left undone. It is a time to prepare
ourselves to welcome the little child, the babe that will soon be born again in
us at Christmas. The path of Bakti yoga is at work in our hearts.
This month is dedicated the Mother’s power of Love and the power of
the South, the Queen and Initiatress of the Mysteries of the Deep. Her
influence will guide us on our journey into the Depth of our being, where we
will find there the living source of love and forgiveness, which will dissolve
all pains, and all evil done to us and by us. All sorrows we have caused
consciously or unconsciously, and all the hurt done to us by others is dissolved.
Libra (the Balances), tip the scales this
month and the solar globe begins its pilgrimage toward the house of winter. The
constellation of the Scales is placed
in the zodiac to symbolize the power of choice, by means of which man may weigh
one problem against another.
The image of the Mother during this time is of the pregnant Mother
keeping and nurturing the seed for the New Year. It is only at Christmas that
the young Mother carrying her divine child comes into the foreground to bring
us the marvel of the Innocent Babe and the Young Mother radiant with love and
joy. During the three months before Christmas, the normal protective layers of
the astral world are very thin and this gives the imbalance created by man a
chance to push forward and produce havoc.
The Regent of our Solar system, the Lord of
the SUN, is taking inventory of all the planets this month, and measures their
advancement in the keeping of the Plan that has been set out for all and
everything during this year. We know that it is on the 29th, called in our
western Christian tradition Michaelmas, that the final assessment is done and
for the last few months a great work of balancing and re-adjusting goes on to
achieve the goals set for the year. This is a time of redress of situations
that have not been resolved.
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