3rd pada, 52nd sutra
The yogi should neither accept nor smile with pride at the admiration of even the celestial beings, as there is the possibility of getting caught again in the undesirable..
4th pada, sutra 29
She who, due to her perfect discrimination, is disinterested even in the highest rewards remains in the constant discriminative discernment, which is called dharmamegha (cloud of dharma) samadhi. [Note: The meaning of dharma includes virtue, justice, law, duty, morality, religion, religious merit, and steadfast decree.]
I copied the above 2 Sutras from The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Tues at lunch and ran off to clean a house. I anticipated writing a post about how we were being set up for success. I could see the Moon three short days from meeting Jupiter, and Mercury ruling the pack of planets hovering above earth in Virgo and Libra.
Remember that Libra is at the top of the ecliptic which stands nearly perpendicular to the plane of the Milky Way. It's actually closer to a 60 degree angle. This is why people fortunate enough to live under dark skies see Cygnus the Swan in a white river of stars stretching east of north to west of south.
When the Sun is in Virgo we earthlings are facing up into the olympian dome of the galaxy during the day. As we turn away from Apollo (aka Sun) toward night, our heavenly gaze crosses from above to below the plane of the galaxy. This is why the ancient poets made stories about a young boy diving into a river day after day until the gods turned him into a swan. When Cygnus is in the middle of the sky, whether visible at night or hidden in Apollo's bright arrows, we are rolling under our big ball suspended just a few light years above the plane of the Milky Way.
But enough of the celestial mechanics of our solar system - that's ancient history. Let's get to the heavenly lesson plan I thought was written on the blackboard for this week.
I saw Venus crossing from celebratory Leo to studious Virgo Tues night. "Mercury in its moral mode will be ruling the whole roost, from near and dear Moon out to adrenaline soaked Mars," I thought with satisfaction. Correct behavior appeared inevitable. Yes Mercury can have a strong social conscience when in Virgo, known far and wide as the sign of the student. The mischief it makes in Gemini is good comedy so it gets more air time, but Mercury can behave well in a number of situations, and beginning Tues night it would be advising all the inner planets passing through Virgo, because Mercury is the planet that rules the sign of apprenticeship.
The above two sutras came to mind as i thought about the prospect of so much politeness followed by the Moon lining up with Jupiter. That's usually a kind of 4 -6 hour thrill ride in the basket under a hot air balloon. The amazing science and technology coupled with the view 'from above' associated with Jupiter, can make even the worst situation inspiring and the best simply out of this world.
"We're gonna be high as kites Thurs night and Fri morn and pleased with our good behavior," is what i thought Tues as I anticipated the planetary motions on the days ahead.
Then Tues night it all seemed like a fading dream like the Roy Orbison song, "In Dreams I Walk with You." The worries piled up so, I lost sight of the opportunities for apprenticeship and only felt the weight of failure. Last night i was exhausted and thought about how Jupiter would be standing behind the Moon this morn. My friends from Mexico, Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador say 'apoyo' to mean support or backing. When someone says 'te apoyo' they are saying 'i've got your back.'
I did not think of that last night. I only thought, "There will have to be a surprise, because right now i see no wizard of Oz balloon or good witch to back us on the horizon. I see only bad luck and the heavy load that comes with it."
Then the call came. There were actually 3 but 2 went to voicemail. My friend wanted to talk about her son's chart. We went through the chart over the phone and I was immediately struck with how fluent she had become with the vocabulary. She was reading off planet positions to me with a timid confidence that made my heart soar.
There was my balloon, my good witch and wizard of Oz. There was the hope that transcends worry. There was the Moon meeting Jupiter.
So this morning I opened the mobile blogger app and looked at the sutras I had copied Tues. Yes, after a little consideration I could see that in spite of the obvious setbacks, we, as students are enjoying success. The worries only help us keep focused on the ultimate prize, rising above our individual self awareness to awareness of how we all are literally one.
I got up late this morn. This is the first chart for the day. You can see Moon less than a degree ahead of Jupiter in Libra. In the chart they are rising toward the left side of the horizontal line. Those symbols represent the reality that the pair were about to appear above Raleigh's eastern horizon.
