Today is the first birthday of Raging Universe, a glorious moment. It happens to be my birthday as well. As you know, I normally hate birthdays, but Raging U is tougher than I am and can handle this event, I'm sure. Little RU is up and flying, always ready to celebrate.
I want to thank everybody who has participated here for enriching my life, believe it or not, more than words can say. Words have been saying everything else, however, and I am thrilled beyond expectation with this magical confluence of human imaginations. The generosity of it all.
I'm hosting a reception in the garden, nothing fancy, and everyone's invited for some virtual libation and assorted cyberian refreshments. Come just as you are, any time at all.
Ther're apricots in them thar mounds. Help yourself. A guitar, violin, and cello trio will be playing for your pleasure through the sunset and bring your swim suits for immersion in the cool waters. Nude bathing would be allowed if Capricorn weren't so close with Venus on to Virgo temporarily and Saturn up to his neck in Leo.
I'm offering this light to the universe in thanks for sending me this wild, wonderful, motley family ... to dispel fear, and to illuminate the path through the serious hard-working times ahead. May we all achieve everything we want to.
The wineglasses have been whispering and they've revealed a secret. I looked at the astrological chart for Raging Uni for the first time and this entity has Taurus rising and a moon in Taurus, just on my north node. I had no idea. How's that for election?
A toast to pleasure and may the universe rage on!!! Happy Birthday Jm and Raging Universe!!***
And remember, jm. Sip as you go.
Knock Knock Knock Knock
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AV4P4qkQUw
Happy Solar Return, Raging Universe(ity)!
ReplyDeleteHas the singing started yet? @;-) ~~kj
ReplyDeleteTra la la la la la la!
ReplyDeleteAnd keep those pencils sharpened!!!! No eraser smudges i-ther!
ReplyDeleteI mean it!!
Dear JM, the happiest of birthdays to you, and to Raging Universe. Here's to your joy. Which is ours, too.
ReplyDeletePS. Loved the visuals.
May the coming year be filled with much magic and adventure, you stunning individual!
ReplyDeleteWe're the ones getting the presents!
Back later for libations, vittles, intoxicating conversation and SKINNY DIPPING!
Clappa,clappa, (eggplants) oooeeeeeeooooo, (carrots) ba-thumpa (the pumpkin)...the vegetable orchestra in a special salute to JM the magnificent.
ReplyDeleteHej sweetie, may this one be the best one ever.
Blessings from the day old sticky bun.
~~Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday, jm, Happy Birthday to yoooouuu!!!~~
ReplyDeleteMay this be the first day of the best time in your Life! :-D
The connection between your chart & RU's has me laughing . . . that's wonderful. If you look back over RU's first year, you will see many great people have stopped by to visit, share and learn. Great job, jm!!
BTW, in your Solar Return, the Moon is opposite Uranus . . . the theme continues! Astrology is all about patterns and I just LOVE it!! :-D
OMG I am drooling over the treats...sorry, it's the Taurus!...Happy Birthday!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to RU and Happy Birthday to you JM! What a delightful gift you are to the world. You're doing a great work here. Many blessings to you!
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday, JM! Thank you for being here and inviting us all to join you. No more than the sensual power of Venus can bless this day better.
ReplyDeleteHA HA HA!! Off to a good start! Day old sticky bun herself!!
ReplyDeleteNinth, mersistem, it was great doing your charts these last days. I've learned a lot.
Neith! That was lovely. In tune!!
Don't talk with your mouth full, chrispito!
Sandy, it's amazing how full of gifts this word is.
And nathan, the sensual power of Venus is it! Perfect!
I was so stunned and delighted when I discovered the Taurus ASC here. The human is so complex and fascinating. Sometimes I think we need to know nothing and we'd do just as well. Some other consciousness is guiding us, for sure.
The carrots in the vegetable orchestra are particularly tuneful today.:-)
ReplyDeleteHappy double Birthday!
ReplyDeleteRU/ JM - that stupendously rare combination of molten creativity , intellect, and wisdom.
tm
Happy birthday, dear jm. Thank you tremendously for sharing your RU with us.
ReplyDelete"I looked at the astrological chart for Raging Uni for the first time and this entity has Taurus rising and a moon in Taurus, just on my north node. I had no idea."
Duh. :-)
Tm! I'm so happy.
ReplyDeletemolten creativity
oooh I like that.
Ha ha ha!! "duh" is right.
"Sometimes I think we need to know nothing and we'd do just as well. Some other consciousness is guiding us, for sure."
ReplyDeleteWell, sometimes thinking is good. It carries one a certain distance. And then, one reaches thought's limit. And then, a bit less thinking is more advanced.
Trust in the overall process, yes. :-)
Thinking does have it's advantages.
ReplyDeleteAnd then, a bit less thinking is more advanced.
This is a great one and the sign of mastery. When to recognize the time to step aside and not obstruct, control, or intrude.
I think we're born trusting the overall process and always do, or we couldn't continue. We forget for reasons of education, I imagine. To learn our own mastery within the overall. The interface is the ongoing study. The constant test of will. The application, sometimes success of it, and the repeal of it when the time suggests.
Let's take this for example.
ReplyDeleteI can safely say that all of us here want a better society in the country. So how do we put this personal will into use with a collective that has so many different desires. Does everyone instinctively want it to improve? How do we let the evolution take it's natural course and still try to influence it's development?
"So how do we put this personal will into use with a collective that has so many different desires."
ReplyDeleteWell, that sounds a much harder thing to accomplish than, "How can I contribute to the shared reality, and make a difference in the world?"
The way to solve a general, oversized problem is to break it down into smaller, manageable pieces. Setting goals that are specific and attainable is essential.
Then, rather reinforcing our sense of stuckness, the powers of visualization begin to work in ways that draw upon the field of possibilities and brimming potentials that always surround us. People can obtain amazing results if they focus and concentrate enough.
Remember the affirmational Dickinson poem that mysteriously arrived, so to speak, on tseka's, your and my mental doorsteps? We had been discussing the power of concentration to break through apparent barriers: the amusing "impossible" exercise that you found, circling hand and foot in opposite directions simultaneously. (Takes most people 30 minutes of training to learn.) You made the wonderful connection to habitual levels of self-actualization, and invited more on it. I agreeably and literally went looking for a message like the poem to happen, because I knew from experience that it could. I found it upon opening a business book.
I dwell in Possibility--
A fairer House than Prose--
More numerous of Windows--
Superior--for Doors--
Of Chambers as the Cedars--
Impregnable of Eye--
And for an Everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky--
Of Visitors--the fairest--
For Occupation--This--
The spreading wide my narrow Hands
To gather Paradise--
It's something that one trains for, but not through ideation or conscious micromanagement. Like learning to serve a tennis ball well, you pay full attention and get your thoughts and emotional habits out of the way of your body's innate ability to learn complex maneuvers. But using this analogy, what's (typically) unconscious to our minds includes not just the body's natural processes but the entire universe. It's like we're each of us having a dialogue, a conversation with the universe. Instead of hassling myself about collective inertia, I'd ask, "What conversation would I like to have with the universe?" And then, try it.
* * *
"Does everyone instinctively want it to improve? How do we let the evolution take its natural course and still try to influence its development?"
Well, we are part of Nature learning about her own remarkable being in remarkable ways. She's processing problems to find optimal solutions; life is the calculus. I think that the natural course happens whether reactionaries or progressives like it or not. Often, it seems that both groups don't. You know, studies show that the same news article can be shown to groups of left and right wing people, and each group will complain that, on balance, the article favors the other group more. They have polarized with respect to each other. And there may well be possibilities in that for everyone.
They both seek "improvement" but disagree on how to go about it. So they learn from encountering opposition, and from experience, and the world learns, too.
Perhaps a part of the problem is that people set themselves up to be in opposition to something much more than they set themselves up to act constructively, concretely, for something. The man who only knows what he's against, much more than what he's for, will live more in a world of punishing frustration than in a world of rewarding effectiveness.
"I think we're born trusting the overall process and always do, or we couldn't continue. We forget for reasons of education, I imagine. To learn our own mastery within the overall."
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting area. Many people stop short when they feel that it's all just too hard. Most of us have done it to some degree. It's made worse if we reinforce our stuckness by complaining in a way that seeks only confirmation of our mindset and disinvites possibility. You've found some blogs to be like that.
People who are lucky, fortunate, successful are different in that they persist even when the chances of success seem slim. They even see the positive side of bad fortune. They don't dwell on negative events. Terrible events may have befallen them, but they know the "phoenix from ashes" effect.
I look at challenges as holding learning experiences, or gifts. They are key to advancing.
So, maybe I can say more often, "What is the creative approach in this specific situation that's presenting in my life? Here it is, the artist's raw, earthy material from which to give form to dreams and visions. There's a hidden rhyme and reason to it. Now what? How do I bring that out?" Things that seem mundane have other aspects when we start to look at them with different eyes.
If my question is first "how do I live noncoercively", then I just do it. If the question is additionally, "how can I affect others positively", I likely already have a good start by reducing -- however gradually -- the counterproductive stuff in my own behavioral patterns. Just that alone opens doors.
Then, if I'm ambitious enough to say, "how can I affect others powerfully", that can become "when am I most personally vital and effective". Maybe partly answered by feeling the natural inner vitality that surges through each of us, in our subtle bodies, physical sensations, and consciousness. And then trusting ourselves to find a way through what we're doing.
* * *
What's real shifts depending on how one looks at it, on one's relationship to it. Apparent obstacles are hidden opportunities.
In a psychological experiment, people were asked to meet the experimenters at a coffee shop. One man with a consistently positive, open attitude bounced along cheerfully, and quickly found a 5 pound note on the ground (deliberately placed by the experimenters). He sat down at the lunch counter and immediately struck up an animated conversation with the person next to him.
In contrast, something immediately went wrong for a woman who complained of consistent "bad luck" in her life. Another woman pushing a stroller found the money first. The experimenters had to dash out of hiding to place another note. But the unlucky woman, wrapped in her personal mental haze, walked straight over the note and into the shop.
When asked if anything special had happened to him lately, the man talked with liveliness about his scenic walk, and about finding the five pound note, and how he had a great conversation in the coffee shop. The woman, asked the same question, simply looked blank and said that nothing had happened to her.
Research shows that people who seem to have good fortune see more possibilities in the same conditions, and are far more persistent when given challenging puzzles to solve than other people. They frequently succeed where others fail because they expect, they attend, and they persist.
In another area of research, comparable businesses making use of the same resources and methods obtain different results because their higher level executives value them differently. The crucial difference is between those who think that something is "important" to the success of their organization, and those who think that it is "crucial" to the success of their organization. Those who perceive a resource as crucial use it successfully, whereas those who merely consider it important (but less than crucial) may obtain but indifferent results.
We, individually and collectively, shape our world and our experience according to our expectations. Our effects may be unobvious to us until pointed out, but we are intimately connected to everything. We can't help but affect the world.
And this ties into your interest in leadership qualities. For example, the psychological research shows that people who feel "lucky" expect themselves and others in their workplace to be productive and competent, and their meetings to be gainful and successful. "Unlucky" people don't expect competence, and they expect unfortunate interactions. The people who expect positive interactions raise the bar for everyone automatically, implicitly in a way that makes everyone feel optimistic and energized.
They smile twice as much as unlucky folks, engage in more eye contact, and their body language tends to open postures, eliciting beneficial interactions. They act attractive and inviting. They find ways to use their intuition consciously, however they may think of it, and they follow their hunches. They automatically build "networks of luck" for themselves and others throughout their lives.
People can obtain amazing results if they focus and concentrate enough.
ReplyDeleteThey most assuredly can. The lessons of Pluto in Capricorn. I have a Saturn-Pluto conjunction so I am schooled in this.
I think that the natural course happens whether reactionaries or progressives like it or not. Often, it seems that both groups don't.
As it should be. The key is how to perceive it from the universal angle you suggest and incorporate the dissatisfaction as part of the process, remembering that personal satisfaction would actually help the cause.
Perhaps a part of the problem is that people set themselves up to be in opposition to something much more than they set themselves up to act constructively, concretely, for something.
You are 100% correct. I think we are learning here how to reinforce our positive attributes to influence the society and collective development. We're "for" one another. Want the best. If we weren't actively concerned about the collective improvement I don't think we'd be here. Very very good.
The opposition comes out in excessive competition, and I've been thinking. Competetiveness is natural, ideally using it to improve one's self. But still people battle one another and maybe the best way is to bypass some of them and concentrate on those who we truly want the best for. Not that hard, I don't think. Back to focus.
People imagine that limits and creativity oppose each other. But I read an article wherein the writer observed that human creativity is stimulated by contraints.
ReplyDeleteThe examples given: People asked to make up a story on the spot generally find it harder to get started than if they were given initial parameters. For example, if they were asked to tell a story about a dog in a room with an object on a table. Or, which is more compelling and inspiring, the CEO who tells his engineering staff that our mission is to "build the best passenger plane in the world" or who says, "The 727 must seat 131 passengers, fly nonstop from Miami to New York City, and land on runway 4-22 at La Guardia"? The same engineers that fall asleep to lofty language will, upon hearing concrete terms, immediately start scratching figures and diagrams on napkins, visualizing details, engaging in the process of manifesting a new reality.
The article writer referred to a new book about popularizing and promoting ideas, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die.
It's a book about nurturing ideas so that they succeed in the world. People who aim to make their ideas and endeavors impactful will want to read it. Could be anyone, artists, teachers, businesspersons, activists, scientists. Scientists and engineers may have ideas that would greatly benefit the world, for example, but as a group they are terrible at public relations, communications, and promotion.
The book's authors cite JFK's communication skills, demonstrating the principles of "S.U.C.C.E.S." -- Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotion, and Stories.
"...Contrast the 'maximize shareholder value' idea with John F. Kennedy's famous 1961 call to 'put a man on the moon and return him safely by the end of the decade.' Simple? Yes. Unexpected? Yes. Concrete? Amazingly so. Credible? The goal seemed like science fiction, but the source was credible. Emotional? Yes. Story? In miniature.
"Had John F. Kennedy been a CEO, he would have said, 'Our mission is to become the international leader in the space industry through maximum team-centered innovation and strategically targeted aerospace initiatives.' Fortunately, JFK was more intuitive than a modern-day CEO; he knew that opaque, abstract missions don't captivate and inspire people. The moon mission was a classic case of a communicator's dodging the Curse of Knowledge. It was a brilliant and beautiful idea — a single idea that motivated the actions of millions of people for a decade."
Nobody, they point out, can mistake the meaning and import of "man", "moon", and "decade".
* * *
Let's say that our daily lives and experiences are like Tarot cards. We're drawing from the deck, (apparently) at random. Or say that it's planetary patterns. Using the cards we draw, we tell ourselves a story about ourselves. But what story do we choose to tell? Two people who happen to get the same cards could tell different stories, although they could well touch on universal themes and motifs. So, one person could see multiple possibilities fanning out from the same hand of cards he or she's been dealt. We still decide how to play it.
If the aim is participate in crafting the narratives of our lives, and our society, then it helps to become aware of the stories we've been telling ourselves, and that we've been living. Picture the new reality, then consciously act in alignment with the new reality. Action is creation, and the most powerful trump card to dissolve an old, illusory laden state of consensus "reality".
There's an exercise in which one jots down a numbered list of half a dozen interesting experiences that we'd like to have, but haven't ever got round to. Can be simple, easy things, or can be more effortful projects such as signing up for a movement arts class. Next, one finds a die. Then, come the crucial part. One makes the real promise to oneself. A moment of being real, of being true to oneself. No backing out or substituting another item afterwards. And rolls the die. The number that comes up is the item to pursue today. If more people were willing to do that sort of thing, how would it change things for them and for people around them? Because the research shows that adopting optimistic mental traits do so, powerfully, ultimately.
Examples of the persusive vs. unpersuasive forms in several fields of human endeavor: What Sticks...and What Doesn't
ReplyDeleteA blog: How To Change the World: A practical blog for impractical people
Edutainment: The Stickiness Aptitude Test (SAT)
People who are lucky, fortunate, successful are different in that they persist even when the chances of success seem slim.
ReplyDeleteThis is me. I usually see the possibility of success and will continue until I'm sure it can go no further. A chance is a chance. I don't look at odds for this reason.
how can I affect others positively", I likely already have a good start by reducing -- however gradually -- the counterproductive stuff in my own behavioral patterns.
I'd certainly like to disseminate this ability.
But the unlucky woman, wrapped in her personal mental haze, walked straight over the note and into the shop.
Yes. I was accused of contemplating my navel too much years ago by someone and it stuck!
All back to behavior mod which is the one approach I've always favored.
Those who perceive a resource as crucial use it successfully, whereas those who merely consider it important (but less than crucial) may obtain but indifferent results.
Interesting.
They automatically build "networks of luck" for themselves and others throughout their lives.
It seems hard to change this in the pessimists, but then maybe that's not "crucial" to progress.
The biggest problem I find in this political change attempt is the excessive attention paid to the miscreants and not enough paid to the possibilities, the self, and gathering together to reinforce these possibilities. but some are doing it and that's probably enough.
oooh, more! Must get some refreshments, then dig in.
ReplyDelete"It seems hard to change this [obstructed perceptions] in the pessimists, but then maybe that's not "crucial" to progress."
ReplyDeleteYes, naysayers will fall by the wayside, gradually. If we believe in our own power of action -- power of speech, of vision, of creativity -- then we don't need to have power over people, or feel unduely obstructed by people in "power" or by circumstances.
:-)
As the quip goes, in response to people who say "That's not how the real world works", "Well, we're making a new world, and you had better get used to it!"
"The biggest problem I find in this political change attempt is the excessive attention paid to the miscreants and not enough paid to the possibilities, the self, and gathering together to reinforce these possibilities. but some are doing it and that's probably enough."
Yes. Keep the golden, nutritious wheat, let the chaff blow away. Life is more enjoyable that way, things are more likely to work out well, and that's what my godkids will learn from their father and I.
Very very very good point about the parameters. It's the matrix, the Saturnian structure required for concrete accomplishment.
ReplyDeleteAll of this and the emotional power of words. JFK was a Gemini with a Cancer MC. The Cancer especially attuned him to the people's emotional body. Tseka often quotes him, his words are so memorable.
Picture the new reality, then consciously act in alignment with the new reality. Action is creation, and the most powerful trump card to dissolve an old, illusory laden state of consensus "reality".
Enlightened behavior mod..:-)
If more people were willing to do that sort of thing, how would it change things for them and for people around them? Because the research shows that adopting optimistic mental traits do so, powerfully, ultimately.
Would be nice, would it not? Probably setting the example is the way.
Yes. Keep the golden, nutritious wheat, let the chaff blow away.
ReplyDeleteA little shake here and there helps, especially as Saturn transits Virgo.
Life is more enjoyable that way, things are more likely to work out well, and that's what my godkids will learn from their father and I.
Love your confidence.
ooohhh, just stopped working for a bit of rehydration and what do i find? A treasure trove. I'll be back this evening to open these boxes...thanks.
ReplyDelete"Enlightened behavior mod... :-)"
ReplyDeleteOne day, powered flight was impossible for humans. It was unnatural, it was commonly said, and would never happen. Then, someone demonstrated it, and consensus reality gave way to a new one. It had to. One day, "man on the moon" was a far-fetched fanciful sci-fi fantasy. Then, a great communicator said, let's do it, and backed up his intent with commitment and a timeline. Again, consensus shifted. Waiting for the consensus to change, or to engage in endless debate with it, takes energy away from the creative.
"Would be nice, would it not? Probably setting the example is the way."
And I do think that's pretty much how the world remakes itself. tseka very wisely did this in her own life, with the examples she gave in an earlier thread.
"Love your confidence."
Thank you. And thanks for the opportunity to express it here with you. I like to see for myself how things really are. And that very naturally leads to a reduction of fear and hesitation, and an increased interest in exploring paths less traveled. This reminds me of Scott M. Peck's book, The Road Less Traveled, which we were assigned to read in our senior level graphic design (commercial art) class. He talks about spiritual evolution in terms of discipline, love, and grace -- but defining love in particular rather differently to what many people might think. While his formal religious foundation may be different from ours, he has useful insights based on his practice and experience.
He has some very interesting and relevant observations about community building (see same link) as it develops through the stages of pseudo-community, chaos, emptiness and true community. Apropos to your interest and questions, the true community is "a group of all leaders: Members harness the 'flow of leadership' to make decisions and set a course of action. It is the spirit of community itself that leads and not any single individual."
tseka very wisely did this in her own life, with the examples she gave in an earlier thread.
ReplyDeleteI was enthralled with those.
And that very naturally leads to a reduction of fear and hesitation, and an increased interest in exploring paths less traveled.
Those are the ones that lead to our future. The ones ahead get on them first. The others will follow. Then new roads will have to be discovered again and onward we go.
the true community is "a group of all leaders:
Absolutely delicious.
It is the spirit of community itself that leads and not any single individual.
I believe I feel that somewhere in the vicinity.
And now my new local nursing friend has joined and she's active in the community. What a blend. The spirit of it all.
ReplyDeleteYes. Keep the golden, nutritious wheat, let the chaff blow away. Life is more enjoyable that way, things are more likely to work out well, and that's what my godkids will learn from their father and I.
ReplyDeleteThe best gift imaginable. A life worth living.
S.U.C.C.E.S
ReplyDeletevery good, i tend to get too wordy.
There is a lot here...
It astounds me how life is underestimated. Such a force, Such magnificent machines, the human bodies. I can't help bit feel the impulse to make the most of it.
ReplyDeletevery good, i tend to get too wordy.
ReplyDeleteNo you don't!
LOL! tseka, wordy? Can't have too many haikus. :-)
ReplyDeleteHa ha!!
ReplyDeleteHow many haikus does it take to make a paragraph that loses the reader?
What's with this S.U.C.C.E.S. thing? Did I mis something from the links I haven't had a chance to go through yet?
ReplyDeleteLooks good.
It's right up there above the JFK mention. It means "Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotion, and Story" -- the key principles behind persuasive, influential ideas, powerful ideas that take root in the imagination and are therefore likelier to grow into new substantive life. They don't fight people's wills, they recruit them.
ReplyDeleteAaaah hah!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you my dear friend. You are a genteman and a scholar.
They don't fight people's wills, they recruit them.
What a great one.
I read that the "hai" in haiku means "joke, or fun, or unusual".
ReplyDeleteCould be double-entendre, pun, metaphor, etc. The spiritual riddle, perhaps one of the oldest poetic techniques.
"What a great one."
ReplyDeleteCan't beat 'em? Recruit 'em. :-)
It could be related to the whim.
ReplyDeleteI think it's basically something to break unthinking thinking in a line. Creative thought. If we have to stop to try to make sense of something we're probably on the right track.
Can't beat 'em? Recruit 'em.
ReplyDelete'nother good one. The more the merrier.
Thanks for all you do and best wishes, jm.
ReplyDeleteMy own birthday week was just too full, though very good, for me to stop by. But I was thinkin' of you and y'all.
Thank you pd. Another one down for the summer babies.
ReplyDelete