New Moon
February 13, 2010
25 Aquarius 18’
In her bestseller, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, author Anne Lamott recalls a Mel Brooks routine where a psychiatrist tells a patient to “Listen to your broccoli and your broccoli will tell you how to eat it.” She uses this introduction in a lesson on writing that teaches her students to get still and quiet when they want to know the direction a story will take or whether their character will do this or that.
She says that we lost touch with our “broccoli” as children when the grownups might correct, ridicule or punish us for our opinions. She also says that if you said, “Why didn’t Dad come home last night?” you might have been told brightly, “Dad did come home last night, but then he left again very early.” And so begins the disconnection between ourselves and our intuition, the still small voice of instruction that will tell us what to write, paint or construct, not only in our art or craft, but in our life. Not only is the leading away from the truth practiced upon us, we practice it upon ourselves until we are confused and weak when could be wise and strong.
Peace on Earth
Let there be peace on earth that begins with me. If the whole earth is at peace while a war is raging in my soul, I will not be at peace. So peace on earth is not the responsibility of others, but mine. Why peaceful? Peace connotes faith. You don’t have to push, shove or force when you have faith. With faith you understand that the enemy is not the enemy. With faith you understand that you are not a victim and cannot be victimized. With faith you know yourself to be aligned with the power that is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. You cannot ultimately fail or be failed.
Be Different
Aquarius is an air sign, though its glyph of parallel waves and representation as a water bearer makes many think it is a water sign. It is a fixed air sign. It represents truth, that which is true yesterday, today and tomorrow. It gives us hope that there is a way out of chaos and a solution to our problems. In order to think what is true, one must be an individual and be able to stand on one’s own despite what one is being told or despite the look of things. Hence, individuality, uniqueness, and distinctiveness are attributed to Aquarius. Aquarius at its best isn’t different just to be different. It looks different if all others are buying into a lie.
The slaves who refused to be slaves were different. Those who chose to risk their lives by running were different, and if they had children, those children were part of different circumstances. They were truly free. That was not a truth to be created. It was a truth to be demonstrated.
It is sometimes necessary to be the solitary keeper of the way, the truth and the life. The weak individual goes with the crowd, even if it means living in falseness and error. The strong individual is able to think truth when all about her are believing lies and even when her own eyes behold the appearance of the negative. These are our times. This is our challenge.
To look upon the appearances of poverty will produce corresponding forms in your own mind, unless you hold to the truth that there is no poverty; there is only abundance.
To think health when surrounded by the appearances of disease or to think riches when in the midst of the appearances of poverty requires power, but whoever acquires this power becomes a master mind. That person can conquer fate and can have what s/he wants.— Wallace Wattles
Choose What You Think On
Wally Wattles, author of The Science of Getting Rich (click here for your free copy) also teaches that to think what you want to think is a power that we all have, but, “To think according to appearances is easy; to think truth regardless of appearances is laborious and requires the expenditure of more power than any other work we are called upon to perform.”
When I recently told a friend to be positive about an outcome, she told me it was hard. It seems to be hard because negative thinking is easier. I call it default thinking. No effort required. She needed to file some legal papers and did not have the fee she was quoted to have someone else draw them up. The reality of not having the money was the in-her-face obstacle. No money, no possibility. I told her that though it was more difficult to think positive, the alternative was to give in to the impossibility of her situation and suffer the outcome she did not want. Thought is hard. But it is also easy. You can do it without money. If you can’t do anything else about your circumstances, if you are fresh out of ideas and have not a clue of what to do, you can, if you will, think. on what you want instead of what you don’t want.
When my friend went back to the people who wanted to charge her the $900, she was told that she could go to the court and file the papers herself! This is what she did. If it cost her anything to do this, it must have been nominal because she didn’t even mention it.
Choose this day what you will think. It will determine what you see tomorrow.
Thank you for this brilliant treatment.
Even though I have believed in this counsel when I’ve read it in other places, I still thought it was impossible not to think negatively when “something bad” happened. Over time I could see that although it seemed near impossible not to “go neg” in my head, going there did not make things better. The only consolation in going neg was that it let meoff the hook from finding creative solutions to whatever problem settled upon me.
Now when “bad things” happen, I tell myself that I have an opportunity to practice thinking only on the excellent outcome I desire.
Over time, it’s easier and easier to not go neg and to venture into the area of creative thinking and then creative action.
My practice isn’t perfect, but my practice certainly is healthier.
How affirming!!!! Everything I have read in the past month speaks of stillness as the gateway to finding solutions. So often I spin myself into a tizzy by ‘thinking’ and searching for a solution. The real lesson is that the Universe will provide.
I agree that going negative does not help anything and often blocks really seeing the solution.
Thank you so much and continued success…
Yes. Yes. Yes! It does get easier with practice. With practice you understand that seeing beyond the appearance is possible and that it actually changes things for the better. Thank you for this testimony.
Thank you for your comments, Henrietta. It helps me to know I’m helping!
Once again I feel as if you are speaking to me. This day, month,year I have been trying to stay focussed on the positive. It has not been easy but I will keep my faith that things will get better no matter how bad it looks now. Thank you for the reminder.
Thank you once again Inez for illuminating our fallible tendencies. Your blueprint for conscious empowerment in stillness and affirmation is a timeless foundation. Your words help me to re-connect to what was becoming a lagging sense of self determination. Your words are the mirror we keep passing by…you urge us to stop and contemplate the best of us; the power of us. To have your writings made available to us to return to again and again, is priceless. Your work is a healing balm.