So its blue by name and blue by nature although its not just about suffering. There is a growing recognition of the mess we are in and here is powerful opportunity for resolving malaise and toxicity. The Sun in Virgo is a great at sorting out mess and coming up with clear and practical solutions for restoring order. Mars god of war in Scorpio and Pluto lord of the underworld in Capricorn are aspected positively which means if we dare to be honest, authentic and dig deep, let go of our need to control and feel into our sense of compassion and connectedness with all beings then we can let go of our ego and self obsession and allow transformation to flow in. The vision is that by working together we can create the future of our dreams. When the pain is too much to bear we have no option but to do things differently and now is a great moment to embrace that energy of change. The warning is, that if we don’t take these opportunities when they arise it could keep on getting more painful until we can bear no more.

To end on a positive note its a fabulous day for music, creativity, all artistic endeavours and setting your intentions. People and animals may have their intuition heightened at this time.

It makes no difference if I have just meditated before I leave the house. It’s still the same result.  With my Leo ascendant, I can fool myself that I am really chilled and above human emotions when shopping but that checkout gets me every time.

So it was a chastening experience to be shown the way to detached enlightenment by one of the spotty teenage assistants at ASDA.  As I swore and tutted at the voice of the checkout machine and gazed at the heavens with all the theatrical self indulgence of a premiership footballer who has been told that he dived into the penalty box and was not fouled at all, this young guy showed me what a long and pain filled path it is to nirvana.

‘This must drive you crazy as well,’ I said to him.

‘Oh no’, he said.  ‘I just let it do what it wants to do. It always gets there in the end.’

Bristol yoga teacher Chris Gladwell calls these people ‘Street Corner Gurus’: they are embarked on no discernable spiritual path, they do no yoga, or meditation, they do not live in Glastonbury, they do not conduct shamanic rituals in their front rooms.  They just say sensible things, the implications of which are highly spiritual for us seekers after Truth.  They seem to just live.

Did they do something good in their last lifetime to achieve this level of wisdom? Who knows, but we should always listen to them, learn the lessons they teach us. And, of course, they are everywhere and, in this age of epidemics of self appointed and self important ‘gurus’ with dubious hypocracies. this is not to be sniffed at.

Spiritual advice has never been so affordable or accessible!  Just look out for them at your local garage, corner shop or rail station!

Pleasure Cruiser MV ‘Balmoral’ enters Bristol

Yesterday, Jude and I went on the ‘Balmoral’ from Bristol Harbour to Ilfracombe for the day.  Being a Thursday, it was filled with older people, some of whom were clearly regulars. They knew each other and some seemed, from overheard conversations, to do a trip on either this boat or its sister ship the unique Paddle steamer ‘Waverley’ once a week.  They clearly love it.

They are called ‘pleasure cruises’ and Bristolians have been doing them for generations, tootling along the coastal towns of Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, crossing over to Wales to call in at Penarth and other places.  All you do is gaze out to sea in the wind, rain and, if you are lucky (we weren’t!), sun.  You look towards the deserted bays and glowering cliffs of Exmoor, you can see Lundy in the distance and you watch the swell of the deep green and swirling brownness of the Bristol Channel around you as the boat smootly rides the waves.

It is, indeed, pleasure and when it rained later on the return journey, everyone came into the saloons and sat in groups around tables with a glass of wine or beer, or tea and sandwiches and cake.  I noticed the atmosphere of cheerful relaxation, the weather beaten faces, the ease with which life was being experienced and I thought about how this state was brought about by just being in a natural setting, out in the channel, engaging with the elements.  I was probably the only one on board who used some of the time to meditate in time to the throbbing of the engines as the Balmoral made its way across the bay but I have no doubt that everyone on board had, in some way, a ‘spiritual’ experience. They may not have defined it like that but I have no doubt they went home happier, with some burdens lifted and spirits lightened through the experience of cruising with pleasure.

As tantra teaches, enlightenment through the pursuit of one’s real pleasure! It was a lovely day and we must do it again sometime.  The spiritual life is not always about arcane, ritual acts oriented towards attaining bliss. Sometimes it is about being out in the natural world and just being there.

These games that we play around relationships can be bewildering in their complexity and tortuousness both to us and also the person we are involved with. I remember having a short relationship with someone who abruptly finished with me in a huge blast of venom and at no point had she ever said to me what she actually wanted the relationship to be like!

So at this new moon, remember the Spice Girls at the Olympics and take a moment to work out what you really really want. then find a way to ask for it. You may be pleasantly surprised at the repsonse!

Have a great weekend.

Instead its a good time to explore deeper feelings and delve into hidden aspects of life and love. In the UK the moon will remain in Scorpio throughout the Valentines evening so for lovers it can be a romantic and passionate night as long as truth and integrity are honoured. The moon will move into fun loving Sagittarius early on Wednesday morning and thats when the mood will lighten up and parties, learning and travel are favoured.

Year of the Water Dragon 2012

Being a Dragon myself, this can’t come soon enough. And I suspect other dragons (e.g. 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000) feel the same. It is a Water Dragon year so perhaps it is a more sensible dragon than some dragon years and it will be particularly significant for people born in 1952-3 as it marks the beginning of a 12 year Jupiter cycle.  We are just leaving the Year of the Rabbit, which is quietly associated with recuperation and, as it dies, we dragons, perhaps more than other people, start to smoke a bit at the nostrils and pace the ground wanting to get on with something new.

We have learned the hard way that our predeliction for big plans, extravagant and often over ambitious projects do not work when the cosmos is not in the mood.  If the Rabbit Year has been quiet, reflective and slow, the Year of the Dragon makes us all want to get out there and think big again (like we used to do under New Labour!).  We are  sick of penny pinching and are looking forward to money being there again.

In the East, it is an auspicious year for getting married, having children and starting a new business, in fact all new beginnings are favoured as the benevolence of the dragon figure brings a feeling of good fortune and happiness.

Are you waiting for the ‘but’ lurking in this blog? Well, here it is. And it’s a big ‘but’.  Just because its a year of dusting off your bigger dreams, it also makes bad stuff worse. It is Uranian and unpredictable in its character so Aquarian Dragons like me won’t mind the twists and turns so much but other, more earthed, Saturnian folk may find the ride a bit rough.  Tempers (the dragon’s fire breath) may be prone to flaring – making relationships exciting but combustable.

The flames of rebellions and revolutions may be fanned (Che Guevara was a Taurean earth dragon) and the temperature of life itself will rise. There will be a lot of news this year!!

The other ‘but’ is that, despite the above, Pluto ain’t moving out of Capricorn any time soon so if you are going to dream big plans again this year, make sure you ground them and do the dull but necessary work needed to bring them into the real world.  The weakness of the chinese carnival dragon is that, for all its furore and fire, it is actually made of paper and and can catch fire and be burnt up in a flash.  It is energy that turn to fire fast so use it properly and recognise its limitations.  Dragon energy is a sort of Aries energy and Aries is the first sign of the zodiac so, especially for 1952 born dragons, the beginning of a 12 year cycle is very important for the course of your life path so concentrate on your bigger life plans, dont fritter it on energetic triviality.

So the advice this Dragon year is to use its increased energy wisely.  Start to think bigger: dust off those long term passions, take a few, calculated risks again but stay real. Dream dreams that you can achieve.  Get your head down and ‘put in a proper shift’ of hard work. The year that follows is the Snake and that is all about implementation and making things work, so put in the preparation work now.  Otherwise, a year from now, dreams have turned to dust and the burnt remnants of that exciting, brightly coloured, fiery dragon are just so much waste paper littering the street.

Have a good year.

Howard x