“Zeus stretched out on Semele’s bed in the form of a bull with human limbs. Then he was a panther. Then a young man with vine shoots in his curls. Finally he settled into that most perfect of shapes: the serpent. Zeus prolonged their union like some story without end, a rehearsal of the life of the god about to be generated. The snake slithered over Semele’s trembling body and gently licked her neck. Then, gripping her bust in one of his coils, wrapping her breasts in a scaly sash, he sprinkled her not with poison but with liquid honey. The snake was pressing his mouth against Semele’s mouth, a dribble of nectar trickling down onto her lips intoxicated her, and all the while vine leaves were sprouting up on the bed and there was a sound of drums beating in the darkness. The earth laughed. Dionysus was conceived just as Zeus shouted the name with which for centuries he was to be evoked: “Evoe!’”

Roberto Calasso The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony

]]> http://laurenlesko.com/6237/feed 3 http://laurenlesko.com/6119 http://laurenlesko.com/6119#comments Tue, 16 Jun 2009 06:03:34 +0000 Lauren http://laurenlesko.com/?p=6119 click on the image to read about the art

This week we are under the guiding influence of the waning phase of the Gemini lunation cycle gently turning our conscious  awareness toward introspective self-reflection. Each waning phase of every monthly lunation cycle necessitates a time when we integrate the external activities of the preceding three weeks by ingesting the illumination of the Full Moon in anticipation of sharing our acquired insights with others. This waning Moon  is in Pisces square the Sun in Gemini and if we consider the elemental marriage of water and air we quickly realize the inherent conflict reflected in this waning Moon: how to integrate an open, spacious self with the unfathomable depths of our psyche without drowning the one and disconnecting from the other?

Adding a rich complexity to this celestial conundrum are ruler and co-ruler of Pisces, Jupiter and Neptune conjoined and retrograde in the spacious breath of Aquarius, also shifting our conscious awareness toward self-reflection. If we then consider that Mercury the ruler of Gemini recently entered the sign of its ruler ship we begin seeing the unmistakable imprinting of our boundless self elevated high above the Earth, and from this aerial perspective we can easily deduce that the myriad connections our unique individuality has been making under the tutelage of Gemini may be ready for a deeper experiencing of ourself unbound by the burdens of physical limitation.

Pisces is the visionary aspect in each of us dissolving boundaries, obstacles, and structures separating rather than uniting us with the Oneness of life; while Gemini, the madcap adolescent in each of us, refuses to be boxed inside prescriptive expectations of our past and demanding personal freedom to roam unencumbered is ever ready for an extra-ordinary experiencing of life that wisely adds buoyancy to our experience of ourself. Gemini is often called the “butterfly” of the zodiac flitting, flirting, and philandering from flower to flower with an innate awareness of the preciousness of life and the urgency of experiencing every moment with abandoned judgement.  Perhaps the gift of this waning Moon is the reflection of our unbound self shimmering upon the watery surface of our psyche much like looking at a passing cloud reflected on the surface of a lake helping us to see what lives within.

“Almost wholly unappreciated is the magnitude of the force that will be generated by the achievement of unity, an influence “so powerful,” in Bahá’u'lláh’s words, “that it can illuminate the whole Earth.”*

For many of us on Earth last Friday was a bit rough and tumble as those aspects of ourself that we have invested with consolidating our emotional security, Moon in Scorpio, and distributing our wealth of ideas, Mercury in Taurus, opposed one another challenging the fixed signs, Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius, to negotiate a harmonious balance between differences of opinion, which a discerning eye might readily discover as a mere shading of perceptual tone. What complicated matters even more was that the Sun in Gemini and Saturn in Virgo made an exact square in tandem with the Moon and Mercury opposition, challenging the mutable signs, Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces to take notice of crystallized thought patterns and stagnant boundaries of conditioned thinking that are preventing a fresh perspective of our  view of reality. Gathering a fresh perspective seems very much in the mind and heart of the current celestial transits noting that the last aspect the Scorpio Moon made before engendering the lush ripening of the Full Moon was a square to Jupiter in Aquarius amplifying the possibility of a radical shift in our perception requiring objectivity coupled with self-honesty.

Today, the Gemini Full Moon illuminates our potential awakening in a new self-awareness which reflecting in the sign of Sagittarius suggests to me an enthusiastic embracing of a broader perspective of our world. When we are under the influence of Sagittarius we are seeking to know the significance of our life and the deeper meaning of the kaleidoscopic patterns of perception which we continually project onto the world. That aspect in each of us expressed through Sagittarius is intuitively integrating our body with our mind through our spiritual journey in unity with something greater than our conscious self. We are certain to experience the best that Sagittarius has to offer when we allow ourself the freedom to travel unencumbered by fear or apprehension into the future unknown.

This Full Moon delivers a powerful punch as the Moon in Sagittarius translates a square to Saturn to an opposition with the Sun culminating with a grand finale square to Uranus. It is worth noting that both the Moon and Uranus are under the beneficent tutelage of Jupiter in Aquarius hinting at the humanitarian scope of potentialities awaiting our conscious awakening if we are willing to revolutionize our perception of the institutions that structured our social traditions and contoured many of the beliefs we hold near and dear to our heart. We have the week ahead of us to pay closer attention to our beliefs and a precious opportunity of airing out the staleness of our thinking by allowing the sweet freshness of our enthusiasm for venturing into the unknown to perfume our perception of the world.

* “The Prosperity of Humankind”, Bahá’í International Community United Nations Office

]]> http://laurenlesko.com/5930/feed 2 http://laurenlesko.com/5387 http://laurenlesko.com/5387#comments Mon, 25 May 2009 02:39:39 +0000 Lauren http://laurenlesko.com/?p=5387 click on the image to read about the art

From the perspective of Earth the Sun is in Gemini joined today by the dark face of  the Moon and embracing as one, the Sun and Moon initiate a new lunation cycle enthusiastically declaring, it is in the voice of Gemini after all, the potential birth of a new aspect of ourself. At each New Moon the radiant light of the Sun sleeps swaddled in the cool darkness of the Moon  while our evolving self-awareness illuminating a new birth in our consciousness lies momentarily challenged by the inertia of the past mired in our habitual reacting in the present.  The monthly cycle of the Sun and Moon reminds me of the wisdom learned from Jiddu Krishnamurti teaching that knowledge is born of the past and that what we think we know aborts the  creative birth of both the present and the future. If we truly want to experience life without bias or preconceived ideas we need to open our mind and heart with a fresh perspective by dying to the known.

If this is sounding dark and ominous it need not be  if we consider the celestial gift given each month to consciously resist the pulling of our past by creatively birthing something new and unknown within ourself. Every New Moon impregnates the collective unconscious seeding the potential evolution of individual and collective consciousness. When we are under the influence of Gemini our inquisitive nature perks up and we want to experience more than we experienced before. Gemini, ruled by Mercury, is that aspect in each of us enthralled in the activity of learning and flitting from one subject of inquiry to another leaves little time to consider either the past or the future. When we are dancing in the cosmic arms of Gemini we are inhaling the life breath of the present, and for those of us feeling shackled to our past this is a wonderful week to set a personal intention to die to the inhibiting influences  that we inherited from our early learning environment, remembering that Gemini abhors inhibited  communication of any kind.

This month is guaranteed to bring new insight to our conscious experiencing of our immediate environment and with the invent of the Internet that which was once our local neighborhood has miraculously expanded into el mundi. For those of us wanting to be heard and understood this is a great month for launching our thoughts and feelings out into the universe, and whether we receive comments back from others or not, we are assured a fresh experiencing of  our perception of life. On the other hand, and with Gemini there is always the left handed approach to experiencing life, many of us may learn more about who we are by asking questions rather than seeking answers and listening to the thoughts and feelings of others rather than speaking of our own. This coming week as the dark face of the Moon brightens with a delicate crescent smile we are reminded of the slow arising of our self-awareness demanding a more inclusive quality of communicating.

]]> http://laurenlesko.com/5387/feed 2 http://laurenlesko.com/5280 http://laurenlesko.com/5280#comments Tue, 19 May 2009 07:30:27 +0000 Lauren http://laurenlesko.com/?p=5280 click on the image to read about the art

On May 20, displaying the capricious mischief of an adolescent, the Sun somersaults into Gemini gleaming four weeks of inquisitive play encouraging our non-sense enjoying of life.  The Sun is robust this time each year, day is overwhelming night, and the Sun rising higher in the sky each day confidently marches toward a culmination at the Summer Solstice; and we embrace this time of season when the acceleration of life insures the fullness of  our growth promised with every harvesting.

Acceleration is the modus operandi of Mercury, ruler of Gemini and mythological enfant terrible, posed to charm with unabashed guile the most sophisticated of intellects by turning human perception inside out and upside down. When we are under the influence of Gemini our curiosity to connect with everything and everyone in life can propel us into a whirlwind of activities our life breath either intoxicated with the wonderment of life or soured with a heavy cynicism. That aspect in each of us expressed through Gemini has a natural knack for disposing the “either- or” factor in life, and when we are under the influence of Gemini we neither ponder the significance nor weigh the meaning of our experiencing that comes six months later when the Sun in Sagittarius opposes Gemini. This month it is enough that we have a ferocious appetite for experiencing our immediate environment with reading, writing, and arithmetic occupying our attention.

Mercury stationed retrograde in Gemini forcing us to stop and pay attention to our participation in our immediate environment by adding an introverted spin to what we are experiencing. During every Mercury Rx our conscious awareness of our environment shifts from experiencing the object outside our self to experiencing the subject within our self; which is another way of saying that the observer is observed observing. When Mercury stations Rx in Gemini it may suddenly feel as if our well tended realities turn topsy-turvy, an apple falls shaken from our tree of knowledge, or our duplicitous double sticks-out a crescent red tongue alerting us that our perception of reality is somehow skewed. As the Sun glides into Gemini Mercury Rx in Taurus squares Jupiter, Chiron, and Neptune in Aquarius and further tilting our perception of reality we are doubly encouraged to realign our relationship to perception perhaps by transcending the limitations of what we think we know. *

The Sun cruising Gemini reminds us that everything we experience in life has an opposite reality and that the experiencing of the one infers the existence of the other. Of the many gifts offered Gemini, our understanding of our duplicity, in the archaic sense of doubleness, is perhaps the most valuable lesson learned. Gemini is after all the stellar constellation for the twins, androgyny was born of Mercury’s passionate embracing of Venus, and the striving of human consciousness toward wholeness seems to confer the organizing principle of the cosmos as union. This season of acceleration the Sun in Gemini delivers a double dosing of duality that challenges our complicity with the events enfolding our perception of reality. This is a wonderful month for witnessing our personal  dual headed Janus standing guard at the portal of our awakening, and speaking the voice of our past in caricature of our future we are reminded to attend to the wonderment of our present.

* In consideration of the insightful comments by astrologer Leah Whitehorse on my post What We Value.

I am writing this a day late, after a silly lapse in my remembered time, hoping something I have to say about the Pisces waning Moon will have meaning; is this sounding a trifle like the disruptive influences of a Mercurial moment? I will continue writing as if I didn’t miss the day that I have and think of it as Tuesday which it is not, and not the Wednesday that it is. The movement of the Moon after a zany day of atmospheric flurries on Monday has hit a mild patch of turbulence and the waning Pisces Moon finds us swimming in the watery realms of our unconscious knowing.

The first aspect the waning Moon makes is a sextile to Pluto in Capricorn followed by an opposition to Saturn in Virgo suggesting a creative solution is coming our way that can help us solve the emotional confusion we are feeling with some solid, practical grounding in earthly experiencing. The square to Venus in Gemini is challenging us to make a deeper connection with the feelings of others without loosing the separateness of our own which is difficult at the moment because we are sensitive to an either / or way of relating with others. The last aspect the Moon makes for the day is a square to the Sun in Gemini which may bring confusion, disruption, even a lapse in memory amidst our whirlwind of social activities. What is important to keep in mind is that we need to remain connected with our bodies and honor our sovereignty and separateness. Whatever the Earthly manifestation, the waning Moon points us in the direction of self reflection aware that something is changing within, in Pisces we are always made aware of our boundaries.