Archive for News and Articles – Page 9

Astrology News

Information and announcements on all things Shamanic Astrology. It can include special planetary alignments and other events not listed in the other categories below.

School News

This news concerns updated information about what the school is doing, including new events, teleclasses, products and fundraising efforts.

Timeless Articles

These are articles which generally stand the test of time, as we humans know it. Examples include how Shamanic Astrology came to be, what is Shamanic Astrology, how to understand fundamental knowledge on astrology and Earth history looked at from an alternate perspective.

Articles on Venus, Mars and Mercury

As the title suggests, all the articles on Venus, Mars and Mercury can be found here. In addition, some classes and/or teleclasses on these planets can be found here as well.

Articles on Sun and Moon Eclipses

Lunar and Solar Eclipse seasons are times of potent celestial energy and so they evoke creative spirit to witness, take in, write and study the patterns of remarkable events. SAMS covers the eclipse seasons and over the years we have written articles on them, primarily by Daniel Giamario and Cayelin Castell.

Gemini Venus Cycle: Finding Our Wings At the Edge Between Worlds

The Gemini Meta Goddess has been our psychopomp or soul guide for our collective descent and renewal journey through 2020-21. 

She has been guiding us through the most critical years at the heart of the Great Turning where we are called to simultaneously act as death doulas for a dying culture and midwives guiding the birth of a new world.  

Who better to support us in this passage than the great Shapeshifter, Guide of Souls, Rainbow Goddess, Master of Imagination, Miracle Maker, Trickster and New World Storyteller – all manifestations of the Gemini Goddess in all her glory?

Venus rose as Morning Star on June 9 in the heart of the Jupiter Saturn Pluto transits of 2020.  She began her journey months into Covid’s Great Pause and the righteous outrage and soul searching triggered by George Floyd’s murder in the U.S. Her medicine offers a much-needed silver (or rainbow!) lining for the dark storms of our times.

The sign Venus rises in at the beginning of her cycle is the Guiding Goddess on the world stage undergoing a necessary death and rebirth, as described in the Sumerian and Babylonian epic stories of the Goddesses Inanna and Ishtar’s descent to the Underworld – stories describing the full 584 ½ day Venus Synodic Cycle from start to finish. 

This Gemini Venus Cycle is highly significant for several reasons. First, heliacal rise was with Aldebaran, the Eye of the Bull and Royal Star marking the Age of Taurus 5000 years ago before the onset of patriarchy.  Second, this Venus in Gemini Cycle is a bridge, activating the next level of awakening initiated during the critical passage of 2012/13—the last Gemini Venus Cycle. Third, and most importantly, Venus makes a triple activation to the Gemini North Node for the first time in 56 years, an event not occurring again for 243 years. 

For all these reasons we can see that Venus’s Gemini journey offers us the best strategy to move toward our highest collective destiny in 2020-21. From June to early May 2021, we have been experiencing the descent journey, where we must surrender our attachment to anything standing in the way of full access to the gifts of the sign, in this case, Gemini. It is also a time where we may need to let go of the shadow aspects of Gemini to embody more refined and life-giving qualities of the sign.

How Does the Gemini Goddess Descend?
The question in the Venus Cycle is always this – do we descend as the unwilling victim – Persephone? Or as Queen Inanna, who heard the call of soul and willingly relinquished her throne, made the descent, and accomplished the necessary ego death represented by her give-away of all the “me” or adornments of civilization from her crown to her royal robes and finally her precious life?

We might consider the Gemini Goddess, as one accustomed to guiding others to the Underworld and returning to the surface unscathed, might resist such a journey and we would probably be right. In my view, considering Gemini IS the master of polarity and duality along with Both/And, we should consider two possibilities for how She (and we) descend. Listen for which is your way and know one is not better than the other.

Getting Personal: How Have You Navigated So Far?
The first way the Gemini Queen descends is where she makes it a game. She finds the fun in it, she laughs at the seeming contradictions, she uses her magic to weave her own worlds and her own stories into the larger cultural narrative. She does not waste her precious energy and time playing someone else’s game. She is continually creating her own.  

Can you see yourself in the above description of the playful Gemini Fairy Queen? Have you, over the past nine months, experienced moments of complete freedom, healthy detachment from the World Drama, and an ability to shapeshift the reality around you, jump timelines, bring your full imagination and sense of play to your surrounding community?  

If so, magnificent! Keep doing what you are doing and know that as you do, you create a field of possibility around you making it easier for others to follow your lead and join you in re-imagining our world. Simply know that over the coming months it is possible you might hit a rough spot and land in the territory of great sadness, loss, confusion, uncertainty, rage, or any other number of feelings Gemini does not like very much. 

Best Practices to Navigate Venus in Gemini in the Coming Months
When the intensity arises, what works is to bring alive inside of you your loving inner mother and father, creating space for the sensitive and magical child aspect of Gemini to feel and experience her natural grief at being born into a world of such density, heaviness, suffering, inequality, injustice, and far too many people who have forgotten how to believe in magic.   

Know that what follows the healthy natural tears and outflowing of hidden grief and long held pain is the relief and release of an unburdened heart – what we might feel internally as the Rainbow after the Storm, and renewed energy to continue the adventure into uncharted territory, re-imagining our world with a purified heart and mind.

If, on the other hand, you have been feeling very heavy, and you have been locked into struggle, and seriousness and you cannot begin to imagine how it would feel to play, and laugh and feel hopeful about the future, do not despair. You are right on time.  All this means is that you are still in the work of purification, of letting go of the obstacles, habits and accumulated weariness that keep you separate from your true nature as miracle maker, world changer, and shapeshifter of realities.

The advice I gave above, to let yourself feel and let go of the feelings you so fear may apply to you also.  If it does, and when you do, your rainbow is sure to be big, and beautiful, and bright. In either case, if you are wise enough to be the Gemini Goddess’s willing student, you will be required to let go of your over-attachment to what other people think, and to what society expects from you.  You will learn to release attachment to the kind of false security that numbs your soul and stifles your true voice.  In short, all false allegiance to the Muggle World must be surrendered – it is time!   

This means facing and relinquishing any addiction to unnecessary suffering, to taking yourself too seriously, and believing it is for you to shoulder the burdens of the world alone. It also means surrendering the false perspective that you are or have ever been constrained by your history, your genetic makeup, your cultural conditioning, your race, your class or even your identity as “human being.”

For while it remains important to acknowledge those factors in honoring your human nature, it is also time for you to include them with love AND expand beyond them to your greater Self, always and forever in contact with worlds behind this world and drawing from them varied sources of wisdom, strength, embodied knowledge, and great love.

From What Is to What If: Claiming the Magic of the Gemini Journey
For the truth is – now is the time for dreamers and magic makers, and a collective movement from the safety of “What Is” to the Unexplored territory of “What If?” And when we fully activate the Gemini Goddess within, we will find the Creator and Miracle Maker so desperately needed in our world – and just in time.  

Just in time, because in the Evening Star Phase of the Gemini Cycle, through the summer, fall and winter, you will find yourself at a precipice. If you are reading this during the Underworld phase from Valentine’s Day until May 3, 2021, it is time for you to lighten your load and your heart because in the months to come, as Evening Star Gemini emerges, it will be time for you to leap, and you want to be as light as you can be.  

Discover the burdens you have carried that do not belong to you and put them down.  

Claim only what belongs to you. It is not always easy to know what is for you and what is not but often you will know what belongs to you because there is an overall feeling of rightness, even if the carrying is extremely difficult, over time it leaves you feeling stronger and more empowered rather than weak and drained. And within your burden you will find untold gifts to claim in the months and years to come. 

In the months to come you may find yourself at the edge of your old world, looking across the divide to a new world just beginning to come into view. This shows up as the choice points where you feel something from the future, a bold and beautiful, maybe seemingly impossible yet true, calling you forward.  In these moments where the great courage to leap forward seizes you, may you find your wings – and fly!  

the months to come may you find your words of truth and magic, casting a new spell of hope and possibility in your world and may you speak them. And may you find yourself in the company of great kindreds, shapeshifting the world around you into one of beauty, kindness, care and healing for each other and our beautiful planet Earth. And perhaps most important of all – may you claim the path and make the choice all along the way to create play, and joy, and FUN!   

Article by Tami Brunk past president of SAMS

Consider joining us for the March 2021 Equinox Seminars to learn more

Details and Sign-up for the Gemini Evening Star Ceremony starting May 02, 2021

Ramblings, Reflections and Ruminations – New Moon February 2021

The Three Worlds Approach: The Fifth Crown Jewel by Daniel Giamario, Founder

Over the last few years I have often referenced what I call the Three Worlds Approach.  This has been particularly noticeable if you have been following my FaceBook posts, vlogcasts and seminars. I desire here to explore what this is more deeply in this article.  

Previously in teachings, Cayelin and I have referred to the FOUR crown jewels of the Shamanic Astrology Paradigm™, namely:
1) 144 storylines of lineage and life purpose
2) The Shamanic Timeline of Initiatory processes
3) A unique approach to the synodic cycles of Mercury, Venus and Mars
4) The Inner Sacred Marriage Process

I now think the Three Worlds Approach qualifies as the FIFTH.  

In developing the Shamanic Astrology Paradigm™, I borrowed from “Shamanism 101”, the nearly universal motif found in animistic and shamanically oriented cultures, of three worlds: namely the Upper World (or Celestial World), the Middle World, and the Lower World (or Underworld).

In the initiatory approach used by the Shamanic Astrology approach, I noticed over now 51 years of my practice that outer planet symbolic meanings, and their cycles, correspond with these three worlds:

Uranus and Neptune correspond with the Upper World
Saturn, Jupiter and the Lunar Nodes correspond with the Middle World
Pluto and Chiron (and likely Eris) correspond to the Lower or Underworld.

The deeper understanding of the synodic cycles of Mercury, Venus and Mars reveal that all three worlds can be found when looking at the entire synod of each. Those expressions are not part of this current exploration, but can be found in our Synodic cycle online course. Let’s now look at these three worlds.

Upper World (Celestial) featuring Uranus and Neptune

Originally, in ancient animism and shamanism, this was the sky realm, above and free of the Earth. This would include the starry firmament, including the movements of the Moon and planets.  In more modern times, including archetypal psychology and astrology, a number of different kinds of altered consciousness states, or non-ordinary reality can be seen as part of this celestial realm. In Shamanic Astrology, Uranus and Neptune symbolize two different kinds of upper world access and experience.

Neptune: The Self is empty. The material world has no substantial basis. All is transitory, rising and falling in and out of manifest existence.  Clarity and certainty are impediments. Seemingly infinite lines of probability arise. Narrowing any down and defining becomes impossible. 

The trick is to not mind this and relax around it; confusion and “not knowing” is to be embraced. All possibilities are allowed for, and there is nothing to prove or to accomplish. This is very much an ultimate Buddhist perception. It also corresponds to philosophical “idealism”.  At its best it’s the great truth that “all is well”, and “the universe is unfolding as it should”.  At its worst, it is spiritual bypass and light polarization. Like all expressions of the Upper World, they exist outside our ordinary experiences of linear time.

Uranus: Unpredictable, unknowable and unexpected events happen that we are usually at the effect of.  Generally always these are beyond our control. It’s always freedom from the “known”. The best approach is to roll with the punches, trust that you are going in the direction your soul intended to go, and be not attached. Be at the front of the wave. 

At its best it’s like “being hit by lightning in a good way”.  Change is good, and is not a referendum on some kind of deficiency or failure. Synchronicity abounds and expects that we pay attention. In Shamanism, this indicates an “assemblage point” shift.  The ultimate purpose of Uranian initiations is to propel us to “other worlds” (not the underworld). At its best, it is extreme novelty and high adventure. At its worst it’s a massive unwelcome disrupter of our well-laid plans. Like Neptune, Uranian experience lies outside of ordinary linear time.

Middle World: Jupiter, Saturn and the Lunar Nodes
This realm of experience is our ordinary, material 3D experience, apparently linear, logical, and rational, and generally experienced that way. It is the realm of philosophical “materialism”. It has been variously called the “real world” and objective reality. We develop a functioning personal identity, ego and persona to be able to function here. This is not a shabby achievement! Three planetary processes describe this middle world.

Jupiter: Phases of life that provide optimism and enthusiasm towards our life purpose. Experiences that value and validate our genuine gifts, and greatest joys about being alive. Often it’s a time and a means of expanding our lives to a higher octave.  It generally will describe and inspire our connection to our life’s dharma and true genius. At its best it’s a great high point in the story of our lives.  The down side can be too much expansion, and at its worst megalomania and narcissism.

Saturn: This is an organic 3D symbol of how to grow, change and evolve via limitations and boundaries. This need not be thought of as negative or depressing, though it can sometimes feel that way. It’s best to think of it as a process of maturation, or like a snake shedding its skin, a totally natural process.

Often it’s an indicator of stages of life and of time, often quite literal.  It’s really the key to NOT view it as a judge or critic, but as a reality check, saying “get real”. It’s one of our best guides as to how to survive and thrive here in 3D “reality”. From a spiritual perspective, this is our greatest teacher for escaping the wheel of Karma, otherwise known as the “matrix”.  But that will require seeing through the hoax of Saturn, or no longer believing its judgments, and inducing feelings of shame, guilt, the brainwash of “original sin”, and alleged deficiencies. 

This has been the “Saturn” of more recent times, the “superego” of Freud. At its best, Saturn is a great guide for accurate assessment of the reality of our life experience. At its worst it traps us in a mechanistic and deterministic machine-like wheel of Karma, unfortunately, these days having morphed into a Christianized version of karma, based more on guilt and reward and punishment, now far removed from the original views from India.

Lunar Nodes: The meaning of the nodal axis and its cycles is really paramount in one of the other “crown jewels” of the Shamanic Astrology Paradigm™, the 144 storylines of lineage and current life intent. As a symbol and initiatory middle world process, it, like Jupiter and Saturn, indicates time-frames and storylines of current life purpose. 

The Nodal Return has a more Jupiterian flavor of re-aligning with original intent and entering a field of all possibilities. The Nodal Reversal is more Saturnian, with a greater necessity to change course if one discovers that they are no longer aligned with their original intent. Unlike Jupiter and Saturn, these Nodal initiations are more visionary, and often less actional. It’s a time to trust the transmissions, dreams, and intuitions that are coming into awareness. It’s like the “future self” reaching back to get our attention.

Lower World (Underworld) Pluto and Chiron (possibly Eris)
Originally, in animistic and shamanic culture, this was the “underworld”, meaning under the ocean, under the Earth, and especially the caves and the chthonic realms. In more recent times, within archetypal psychology and astrology, this domain of experience includes the deep unconscious, the “shadow” from the Jungian perspective, and the “Id”, from a Freudian perspective. It is the realm where the ego and the normal level of awareness are not in control.

With this feature, it resembles Uranus. Like the Upper world initiatory process, the underworld initiations are outside of linear time and our usual objective reality.  But their intent is quite different, as we shall see.

Pluto:  Although the Underworld process of initiation was well known to the ancients, the discovery of Pluto in 1930 brought a potent astrological symbol of this world to the modern age. Like Uranus, this kind of experience happens beyond our control. It is also typified by irrational and chaotic events, externally or internally. 

The intent is to introduce the conditions for surrender. There is no technique for surrender, otherwise it’s not surrender.  Challenges arise, and the three main ways of handling them are useless. You cannot use strength or will to power through; you cannot use your mind to figure it out and solve the challenge; and you cannot pretend it doesn’t matter. Spiritual bypass or other forms of denial are useless. 

These kinds of initiatory experiences are not logical and are not to be taken personally, though its likely to bring up deep feelings and unknown and uncontrollable emotional experiences. Unlike the Middle World that exists ostensibly in a linear and logical place, the Lower World is off the world stage, and, like the Upper World, outside of time. Although this kind of experience is utterly natural, the current modern age seldom teaches us about it. 

There are time periods when composting is necessary, and surrender can be near the final stage just before freedom and self-realization. At its most intense, this Pluto can symbolize a “dark night of the Soul”, an utter annihilation of self and any material ground. However the goal is transformation. Out of composting comes new life. A phoenix rises from the ashes. 

Also what arises is an organic connection to life force rising from the underworld and the revitalization of our energies and passion rising from the core and from the contents of our unconscious that had not been brought to light. Pluto also has an etymological connection to “wealth”. This does not mean money per se, but strength and aliveness.

Chiron: Also well known to the ancients through the constellation Centaurus, knowledge of this initiatory process only came back into modern astrology with the discovery of Chiron in 1977, the first of a new category of planetary bodies, called Centaurs. 

Within this paradigm, Chiron is a teacher who assists in the digestion of our “wounding”, mostly the usual human issues that we all have one or more of, such as: Separation from unity, violation, betrayal, abandonment, lack of self love and others. In some cases he is especially helpful should you have a unique and very specific wounding. 

Importantly, it’s not allopathic healing, but rather a compassionate integration of these “sacred fractures” into our wholeness.  This digestion of our experiences then can easily be part of our medicine for helping and healing others, but first with our-selves.

Chiron is an in-between symbol: in-between Saturn and Uranus, part immortal and part human, and part human and part animal. The mysteries of life and death are part of this medicine, both completely honoring our humanness and vulnerability, as well as our eternal divinity. Chiron is allocated to the Lower World of initiation and experience also due to the irrationality of his actions, and the inducement to surrender, without taking it personally. Like Pluto, there is great emphasis on the feeling function, with a requirement to feel everything that you feel without judgment or bypass.

The Three Worlds Approach

With this understanding of the three worlds, what then is the approach? It is nothing less than to somehow hold all three worlds in awareness at the same time. This can be such a powerful way to make sense of the current times; without which the historical and astrological events now happening, circa 2020-2021, that have not been seen for 12,900 years at least, are understandingly overwhelming. 

This is no easy task, as few persons are balanced in all three, or even aware of these three worlds, that were intimately known to the ancients. And even if known, human beings tend to have their preferences, either from their culture or from the archetypal uniqueness in their own charts.

All three worlds are real and true, within their world. But only there is it completely true.  For example: In the Upper World, the “all is well and the Universe is unfolding as it should” view is a reality. The Buddhist “self is empty” view is accurate, relative to the celestial. But not at all helpful if this results in fear or failure to look at the Middle World or Underworld.  This is how spiritual bypass happens with an aversion to anything less than idealistic, hopeful or love and light. Too much of this actually causes an increase in the underworld’s energy, as well as rendering that individual incapable of facing Middle World realities.

Only emphasizing the Middle World consigns a person to the presumed reality of linear logic, rationality, materialism, and often the “myth of progress”. Or the opposite: the End Times, the end of Kali Yuga, the end of the 26,000 year cycle etc. This ignores the miracles and the novel events outside of time from the Upper World. 

It also can ignore the irrational presence of Chaos, the need for surrender, and the inevitability of annihilation and death. But then it’s within this world that our 3D life unfolds within structures and laws, none that are eternal, without change. With a lot of Saturn, we can perceive the innumerable examples of end game scenarios. All have a measure of objective truth. A great amount of Jupiter provides an extremely optimistic view of all the practical ways to save the planet. All of these have a measure of objective reality also. The objective reality of global humanity in 3D is as important as the Celestial, as this is, after all, our school…otherwise we would have remained angels.

It is less common to overemphasize the Underworld. But as global humanity itself is undergoing its own “Dark Night” it is extremely important to give this equal standing to the other two. The sudden ending of ourselves, and in fact, the entire galaxy could wink out at any instant. And few can argue that so much about the current world does indeed deserve composting (and renewal). 

The Underworld dimension has very little to do with what humans are or do. It’s all natural forces way beyond our power to control or have dominion over. The underworld is an ultimate antidote to hubris, that is, the over-weaning pride of humans believing they are god. 

My view is that Great Mystery, through the agency of our Primal Earth Mother, is ultimately the force and intelligence that is directing the show. There are many who have become victims of what has been called the “new age highjack”, who believe that this approach is just too negative and just instills fear. To be conscious and aware of “worst case scenarios” does not cause them, or magnetize them. In fact it’s a courageous test of awareness. And can eliminate the scourge of denial. It is reminiscent of the Buddhist view that any day that goes by without you contemplating your own death is a wasted life.

So our goal is to hold all three at once. There is one additional complication that may arise. Seldom is any individual in all three kinds of cycles at the same time. And as I mentioned, you can have your personal preferences. These can be exacerbated if your personal cycles are dominant in one or two of these three worlds, but not all three. Great awareness, courage and focus, is required. The greatest gift of all from working with this approach is developing a neutral center point, a place of peace and equanimity, without judgment that can begin to see all of these worlds together. This is a great use of Aquarius!

I hope this has been of assistance in the challenges of navigating these times. Now you can understand why I am considering this teaching as the FIFTH Crown Jewel of the Shamanic Astrology Paradigm ™.  You shall certainly hear more of this in the coming years, with the bottoming out of the Kali Yuga being eminent, and the Pluto Return and the Fourth Turning of the United States, just in front of us. Find your purpose and be grateful to be alive at such a momentous and extra-ordinary time.

Note: These three words are what are experienced, within the context of a human lifetime with a physical body. All are experienced within the stages and seasons of the Shamanic Timeline, and with planetary transits. All are natural and will be experienced on multiple occasions. Thus, these are not to be confused with the Netherworld (land of the dead), the Bardo Planes between lives, or the “Otherworld” of Celtic mythology. These are also not heaven or hell realms that may be encountered when we have no body.

Daniel’s Youtube Vlogcast Transcripts

Youtube Vlogcast #5 – Jan 28, 2021 – Transcript
Deciphering the Jupiter – Saturn Great Mutation: Is this the “Divine Conjunction?”

Youtube Vlogcast #4 – Dec 29, 2020 – Transcript
Aquarius and Taurus

 

Youtube Vlogcast #3 – Dec 10, 2020 – Transcript
The Dawning of the Age of Aquarius, What?…Again?

Read More

Capricorn New Moon – January 2020

By Levi Banner

The new moon on January 13 is in the sign of Capricorn. The moon always meets the sun at a new moon and this time it’s very close to the very place in the sky that the major conjunctions of 2020 happened with Pluto, Saturn and Jupiter.

Yikes! Perhaps this could mean we are examining what we’ve learned from all of that madness and meltdown of structure, so that we can move on. Read More

2021 Schedule of Events

REGULAR EVENTS

  1. Monthly Vlogcasts with Daniel Giamario at the Full Moon…with various guests from SAMS
  2. Monthly calls at the New Moon for SAMS members, usually with Daniel, Mary Kern, and Erik Roth.
  3. Quadrant Zoom calls for members at the Cross Quarters, with the Founders.  Next call is the Air Quadrant on January 31, 2021 at 5:00pm PST.
  4. Special presentations for everyone at the times of the Equinoxes and Solstices.  There will be one at this coming March Equinox with Daniel and Cayelin with a deeper dive into the Jupiter/Saturn in Aquarius “Great Mutation”; as well as the Age of Aquarius deception.

Traditionally, SAMS does a free presentation at the June Solstice, and a fundraiser at the December Solstice.

  1. Regular Mentoring Zoom classes with Daniel Giamario, for everyone, at the First Quarter Moon times, each month, starting in February, at first quarter Moon.  This first one will likely happen February 18th.  Stay tuned for details.  These zoom classes will alternate between chart analysis mentoring and specific topics for inquiry.  The February class will be on the challenges presented by Saturn and/or Pluto to a man’s Venus or a woman’s Mars, either nataly or by transit.

SPECIAL EVENTS

Over the course of the year, SAMS will present special events, special zoom classes and teleclasses.

So far, one is scheduled: A Mars Synodic Cycle seminar with Daniel Giamario and Erik Roth coming up on January 19th at 5:00pm PST.  Information on this is in the current newsletter.  

Others coming up will include classes on the Mars/Venus Sagas.  Also more on the Nodal Cycles and Eclipse Cycles of 2021.