The first Spring Full Moon comes Sunday, March 28th , in the romantic sign of Libra. Opposed by the Sun with lady Venus, both in the seasonal sign of lively Aries, let’s wake up our senses and engage in a romantic pondering!
When Libra illuminates the night there is a growing awareness of the reality of relations. As it turns out, the reality of relations is the reality of ourselves. This is the interesting viewpoint of neuroscientist, Antonio Damasio.
In his book The Feeling of What Happens, he talks about the relational nature of consciousness itself. The two players of consciousness are the organism and the object. The organism relates to an object and the object changes the organism.
The organism is our body, our brain. The objects are sensory (out there in the world) or mental (thoughts, memories). What emerges from this relationship, is what he calls core-consciousness, and from that, the core-self.
“Because of the permanent availability of provoking objects, it is continuously generated, and thus appears continuous in time.”
He also speaks of two other forms of self: the proto self, which we are unconscious of, and the autobiographical self, which is constructed from memories and future anticipations. But the core self emerges as a “transient entity, ceaselessly re-created for each and every object with which the brain interacts.”
When the object changes the organism, the organism then brings the object into better focus. It is “set out” from other, less important objects.
“Attention is driven to focus an object and the result is saliency of the images of that object in mind.”
The objects hold half of the deck. Who knew! When it comes to a sense of self, we are as much other as we are not other. Things, people, scenery, thoughts, smells, memories all cause changes in us. And these changes are what construct our senses of self!
Watch a child delight at what he/she sees. It becomes obvious that there is no end to stimulus. As we get older, a lot of the stimulus is more under wraps, in streams of thought, and private feelings. But it is amazing to think that any object causes a change. Opening a window, tilting your head to see the blue sky for a moment, indulging in a nice memory or a plan for the future. Changes. Re-creation of self!
Though this is a Full Worm Moon, it speaks to the most human part of us. If we can know that objects change us, and that we constantly re-create ourselves from these changes, we can attempt to navigate a bit, and make the most out of this relationship. We can learn to listen to our changes and respect that they are trying to keep us on track, and towards a place of balance. We can seek out stimuli that treat us well, like a glorious Full Moon in Spring.
It’s the romantic story of the organism and the object. Aren’t they cute!
Happy changes and as always, Happy Astro Pondering!
Astro Art by Johnnie Day Durand
Toroidal Zodiac 
Love that we are in constant flow!!!
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Constant flow yo! ❤️
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