I Love Springtime in a Paradigm Shift

Though every moment in time is new, and every breaking day is as well, there are some times when new is even newer. Springtime is an example of extra newness. So is the beginning of a new age.

On March 23, 2023, just days past the spring equinox, powerful Pluto moves into Aquarius where it will stay until it retrogrades back into Capricorn for the summer, and then back for good by the fall.  Pluto will continue traveling in Aquarius until the year 2043!

History itself can become new through the eyes of foresight. The last time Pluto traveled through Aquarius was at the end of the ‘long 18th century’ better known as the Enlightenment. Scientific discovery was yielding so much exciting truth, it filled the atmosphere with questions. Both the French and American Revolutions occurred at this time. There was an unprecedented atmosphere of ‘thinking for oneself’. For their salvation no longer was in the church, but somewhere else.

This period gave way to the Romantic era of the 19th century, which pushed back against the Scientific reductionist view. Poets such as Wordsworth and Blake insisted on the ‘aliveness’ of nature; a potency beyond the measurable world. The only way of knowing this potency was through one’s private viewpoint; thus the spirit of individualism carried its way deep into the heart of the artist, which is everyone’s birthright.

Over 200 years later, we find ourselves in a new atmosphere that demands a new kind of “thinking for ourselves”. It used to be that physical space and imaginal dream space were the only spaces in which we could move about. Now, digital space is such a part of life that it has one questioning the nature of reality in a new way. We know we want connection, but we also know that connection is not a game of numbers. What is it that we seek? New ideas and old ideas are more accessible than ever. Less accessible are the instincts of nature that we are not only born with but born for. We were meant to perfect these natural powers of creativity and productivity and carry them to new heights and depths.

We navigate the digital space everyday amidst a sea of screaming salesmen wielding a thumbs up. The paradoxical freedom and alienation of a digital age is similar to the freedom and alienation of the Enlightenment. People were free of the church’s authority, yet alienated from a familiar and secure worldview. 

But the alienation is productive. It drives one towards a stricter grasp of what is meaningful and towards what is real. Some very interesting modern physicists argue that time is the realist thing in the universe.

Time’s arrow moves forward. Within every emerging moment is the spirited reality of newness. 

The question becomes not ‘what is life’ but rather: how do you want to live in a world that is, in essence, a continual Springtime?

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First Week of February Metaphorcast, 2023

Groundhog’s day is on its way this week, featuring the appearance of Punxsutawney Phil, one of the most unusual celebrities. Aside from being a groundhog, his fame rests upon a one simple yearly question: will he see his shadow or not? To this answer is ascribed an outlook for the rest of us as to whether or not we can soon ditch our coats and open some windows. Although Phil receives much publicity on his special day, his fame is centered on a most private thing: what he sees in a moment.

Time is ultimately a flow of moments. Continuous and forward reaching. In each moment there are things to be seen, thought about, anticipated and reflected upon.

A couple years back I was in love with the show, This Is Us. The plot was driven by one dramatic theme, a father’s love. The show was made powerful by dramatizing the flow of time, in other words, rendering the flow of time more real. Continuous flashbacks support the character’s present moment sense of direction. The drive they find inside is born of something real and authentic. The audience has special seats into their lifetimes of subjective responses slowly magnetizing them towards a sense of destiny.

I say it rendered the flow of time more real because in reality, the flow of time is dramatic. The past is charged, the future is free! And the only thing that is real is now. (What!?)

Time is more bizarre than anything, even famous groundhogs. Yet it is also fundamental. You are never not in a moment in time. The moment and you are perpetually flowing, like the wavy lines of Aquarius’ glyph. I see time’s drama to be a hint that time is rooted in something immeasurable. No one can quantify the dramatic performance of Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire. Because drama is not a measured thing. Although it is measured in many ways, time is ultimately something dramatic and immeasurable. Its essence must be in spiritedness and creativity.

A full Moon in dramatic Leo lights our stage on Sunday, providing a glowing limelight for anyone who sees it.

Will you see it?

Will Winter be gone soon?

Do you remember what you did last groundhog’s day?

Where are you heading now?

The Pages Turn, The Fire Burns

“My World” is a children’s book by Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd. My son and I read this at night under a cactus light with a symphony of crickets out our window. The opening page shows a mother reading to her child by a fire. The words are “The pages turn, the fire burns.”

Maybe this is what got me thinking about the nature of time. Some time seems to turn, but some time seems to burn. Some time comes back around and some time trailblazes the future and celebrates the spirit. These two kinds of times blend together yet they are inherently different. One is bound to law and one is free. One is used to gain more control and one is lived to live as lively as possible. One is a clock and one is a flower. One is a wheel. What is the shape of the other? What is the shape of the spirited time that burns meaning deep into one’s soul? What is the shape of living?

The wheel of the zodiac turns. Its twelve archetypes carry the meaning of the seasons that turn. The meaning of the seasons is so charged that it goes beyond the snow and heat. It extends into the mystery of the seasons of life, and all the relations of living. The wheel turns and time folds in on itself. What emerges from this motion is the potential for more and more meaning. New meaning. Fresh meaning. Fresh light.

The wheel is really a generator. A maker of more light. The pages turn but the fire burns.

I began to think about the existential side of time. Some time is “heights” and some time is “depths”. Some time is more middle ground. The heights of time are the joys, the unbridled laughter, the perfection of a day. This time rushes over the body like a shower of effervescence. There is no possible way to deny the body’s ownership of such time. It is embedded. It isn’t turning on an abstract clock. It is burning in the heights of one’s heart.

“Depth” time carries a force of memory and a sense of belonging. Depth time can anchor you “home” or polarize you to “true north”. It can also sink you with despair. Depth time carries the echoes of your ancestors, and the echoes of your most desired dreams. Its gravity is also undeniably in the body. It can easily smolder with the blend of heights. It can threaten to dampen the fires of joy. It does best when feelings are interpreted truthfully, and handed off to the logic of the middle ground.

“Middle ground” time is for managing the business of living. Our bodies are blessed with the genius of nervous systems. All of the information and interaction that we encounter gets integrated into the “system” of the body. The world is wide and full of information. The body is deep and full of mystery. The middle ground is where these places meet. Biofeedback has evolved for centuries. Our systems are cutting edge. The middle ground time is the coolness of logic, the sureness of morality, the sensations of physicality.

My new question was: if time is a wheel that turns, how does this other “time” move? Is there any order to it? My instinct said yes.