Sunday, September 21, 2008

Conquering Fear - A Story

My mother had a Moon in Aries and she was quite fearless. Her sister, however, was not. Many years ago, a group of mice took up residence in our home before a visit from my aunt was scheduled. My mother did not react, although she was aware that trouble loomed.
My aunt arrived and the two settled down on the warm floor having an animated intimate conversation, chattering away gaily and enjoying themselves. Out darted a mouse. My aunt screamed hysterically and took off like lightning to the far side of the house. My mother in her sibling cruelty peed her pants laughing. Of course, no one but Cancer, Moon-Jupiter me came to the rescue.
I found her in my brother's room huddled against the wall, whimpering and shivering. I gently soothed her, touched her, talked to her, and finally peeled her off the wall. She left without hesitation with her husband for a motel where they stayed for the remainder of the visit.
So where is the source of fear? It's obviously not the mouse, since no one else was afraid of it. I think the source is within each brain and there have been some interesting studies of a part called the amygdala, where two circuits of fear have been discovered. One is primitive and arouses immediate unschooled response. The other is a slower route to reaction which includes thought. Could we be evolving away from panic and violent reaction? I think maybe we're stuck between the worlds now, and the crises of this election and transition are a good place to study the fright response. Some are sensing immediate danger imagining all kinds of horrors and staying in a state of terror. But there is nothing specific to do since the trigger is vague. Others are studying and assessing the situation, hesitating before moving into action. It's interesting to see the blend working together since the group is trying to make a collective decision based on all the evidence. All the while, a chance to work with fear has presented itself.
First of all, there's nothing people can do about the larger events so the primitive fast response probably is useless. That leaves the slower path open as the logical choice, it would seem. Given time the consciousness sees back and looks ahead realizing that circumstances like these have been encountered and mastered many times before. There is no reason to assume that the adjustments won't be made again and survival will continue.
The interesting thing going on celestially is the mutual reception between Uranus in Pisces and Neptune in Aquarius, where the collective mind is being rewired, where irrational and imaginary images as well as real ones are being received, and where messages are being transmitted, as they were the last time Neptune was in Aquarius when the telegraph was invented. It can encourage one to see things from an alternate reality.
The War on Terror always struck me as a literal one, shock and awe, shocking indoctrination, and everything else, accompanied by a fear of running off cliffs that might have ground just one foot down. You never know until you jump. Right now there are so many confused reports about current reality, I can't figure out what to be afraid of. Anyway, a modicum of fear is useful, even stimulating. I wonder about my amygdala and the circuitry going on there. Rational thinking does appeal to me at times, especially when deciphering threat. Maybe it can be consciously developed by slowing down just a tad when I can, perhaps helping evolution just a little bit. It's the least I can do.

16 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

jm, great Obama pic,

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x7134261. Fits right in with your story too.

21/9/08 5:42 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm sorry, I accidentally garbled the link (I'm kinda out of it tomite) here it is again


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x7134261

21/9/08 5:45 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That's a great photo! Glad you shared. :o)

21/9/08 5:56 AM  
Blogger jm said...

Juno!!!!!! OMG! It's you!

What a photo.

Yeah. We need some care.

Come back for tea when you get a mo! I was just thinking about you yesterday, of course.

21/9/08 6:23 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

jm, perfect opening for me. Alice Walker, author of "The Color Purple"
wrote an essay entitled The US Needs a Leader Who Can Love The American People. Here's an excerpt:

When we are offered a John McCain, who is too old for the job (and I cherish old age and old men but not to lead the world when it is ailing), or a George Bush, or a Sarah Palin, how unloved we are as Americans becomes painfully plain. McCain talks of war with the nostalgia and forgetfulness of the very elderly; Palin talks of forcing the young to have offspring they neither want nor can sustain; both of them feel at ease, apparently, with the game in which their candidacy becomes more of a topic of discussion than whether the planet has a future under their leadership.

21/9/08 7:06 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Maybe it can be consciously developed by slowing down just a tad when I can, perhaps helping evolution just a little bit. It's the least I can do."

I think so. Pluto through my 12th and across my ASC has taught me many things about fear. When I was younger I considered myself fearless (Aries Mars?) and in the last few years I became fearful.
However it was so insidious I wasn't aware of it until I was embedded in it!

My SR in Leo came just in time. I believe that's how I found RU, JM, and the fine folks you engage with. I find your writing stimulating as well as soothing.
I love that.

And...I'm feeling pretty fearless these days. I'm sure it's some from slowing down and listening, really listening.

~chrispito

21/9/08 7:41 AM  
Blogger jm said...

Joe that is so sad and true. I l"love" the way she simplifies it. I'm praying the country gets out of the punishment cycle. I think maybe that's why the extreme differences to choose from this time around. How hard-headed some can be. And hard-hearted.

how unloved we are as Americans becomes painfully plain.

What's wrong with love I always asked? Maybe the close of the season will illuminate. It's a far cry from how it started.

21/9/08 1:56 PM  
Blogger jm said...

And...I'm feeling pretty fearless these days. I'm sure it's some from slowing down and listening, really listening.

I think listening is it. Pluto in the 12th can be really frightening. My guy had it natally and I have many stories to tell. Fear can be like a vaccine I think, to stimulate the growth of courage.

I find you soothing and stimulating too, chris. Taurus is the best thing in the world for me. Our conversation the other night had medicinal effects.

21/9/08 2:03 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks Joe and jm. I was up late last nite after a scary brush with a bad mecication interaction. I'm still a little woozy, but ok now.

I saw that damn picture and after everything I'd been thru I busted out crying for good while.

Children love him and he is the most truly fatherly prescence I have ever seen in politics. His strength in that picture just amazes me.

I have a few things to do around here, but I will happily take tea with you later, there is so much going on. Uranus is such a trickster and a blessing all at once.

After last nite, I so love the crab even more. He is such a rock. Too bad it sometimes takes crazy stuff to happen to appreciate the love around one.

21/9/08 2:07 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Alice Walker is right.

We are unloved by our leaders and have by extention pushed this un-love out into an international stage.

What would we be if we were loved and respected by our leaders instead of trated like co-dependant enabling abused spouses?

I hope we have the chance to find out.

21/9/08 2:32 PM  
Blogger jm said...

Juno how frightening. I freak when things like that happen. Amazing how our emotions get released and one little thing can create an outpouring of feeling. I'm so glad it's over and that you stopped in to report. When you came into my mind I didn't perceive the threat so maybe things are "normal". Events like this can make us appreciate the everyday. Oh how I hate physical scares. I can't put it into words. A big hug and kiss for surviving! Puts things into perspective.

After last nite, I so love the crab even more. He is such a rock. Too bad it sometimes takes crazy stuff to happen to appreciate the love around one.

As long as we get there. Omg. The crab. Cancers can't help themselves. Protective we are. We're so spongy that when it happens to you, it's happening to us. I knew you loved him.

Children love him and he is the most truly fatherly prescence I have ever seen in politics. His strength in that picture just amazes me.

I was drivn to near madness at what horrible things people were saying about this man. I don't blame them for not loving him the way the children and I do, but as you can imagine, the words of hatred seared my soul. He's so special and I don't even think of the possibility of him not being our leader. It's straightened me out on a lot of my own fear. Afraid of love. Well that can be remedied.

We are unloved by our leaders and have by extention pushed this un-love out into an international stage.

And the results are clear. That's why his trip was so amazing. There was real magic in it. The world knows. I've said before that we're being offered such a big chance at redemption and this is our gift to the world as well as ourselves. I would think that the laws of physics and the universe would encourage this balancing. I think most of all we have to keep it in our consciousness and make sure we elect him. That's all it takes. No hesitation and fear. Just do it. A lot of people will probably be speaking up next month like Alice just did. This is in our hearts and souls.

I'm recovering with you! So relieved you're here juno.

21/9/08 3:01 PM  
Blogger jm said...

When I saw who he is that night in South Carolina I decided, not even consciously, to devote my blog to his election. If we all get together on it we'll make it happen.

We are so used to being oppressed as Alice says and it's taking a minute to recognize what's being offered, but we'll get there.

I think it's wise to turn away from revenge and hatred and too much focus on the bad guys as well as the part of the electorate that doesn't get it, and focus on the good. On the opportunity. All great opportunities come with a good chance of being seized. I think this one really wants to be. The more people unite for this brief moment, the better it will be. And the step forward in evolution will be ours to keep.

21/9/08 3:30 PM  
Blogger jm said...

30,000 in Charlotte today. The uprising is re-igniting.

Here's a prediction from sciencemom:

That photo just might become treasured by the nation.

21/9/08 3:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

JM, I think this post is very important and timely. I'm reminded of something my teacher talked about along these lines. Please edit if you feel it's needed.

A student has just asked him what his responsibility is for the state of the world.

"It's huge. The balance of the experiment that we're a part of, the balance of this human life that we're a part of, the balance is very delicate. It's hard to picture that this whole experiment could be so subtlely balanced but it is. And we can affect that balance. Now if you put your concentration on the finest point of balance like a measuring tool that has a very fine point and something going like this on it, a feather would bring it down. A feather could bring that down, that whole balance if it were that subtle, that's the physical level. Well it happens to be that the balance of this experiment is very subtle, very very subtle. And believe it or not, 50 people can affect the nature of the experiment. I know that you don't really want to hear that because that might mean that the next time you were meditating and talking to yourself, you were fucking over 50 million people in some other part of the world, it wouldn't be such a beautiful experience to talk to yourself while you're meditating. So you don't want to hear this really. And also it seems phantasmagorical that that would be possible, but I'm telling you that's a fact that I know from my personal experience absolutely without a shadow of a doubt. There is nothing that could tell me it isn't so. I've seen it so undeniably manifest. That we in our dealing with each other, in our dealings with people that we come into contact with, dealings with the nature around us, in our dealings with the living things around us, in our dealings with ourselves, we become finer, the motion of particles on different levels change around us and they're not so limited as that they can't disseminate into wherever the depressions are. So all your good vibes go around, they travel around the earth looking to even things out wherever there's depression, they fill it in. Like water running across, they fill it in. Phantasmagorical, but it happens to be so.

We have two possibilities here, we can become aware of what's happening around us, we can be aware of what's happening in other countries, in other places, in other cultures. We can pay attention and wonder is there any need for me to respond to this situation? Am I called upon to respond in this situation? Does this have something to do with me in terms of the situation. We can do that. And the other thing we can do is to do whatever it takes to leave the weights of our consciousness behind and elevate, leave the lies and leave the fear, leave the future thinking, the past thinking, and the worrying and the considering of every possible detail, to be safe and careful and we can leave those things behind. Elevate in consciousness, rarefy the vibration so that some of those low points can be filled. What a great job! You've got two possibilities all the time to enrich the game of the experiment that we're in." JG

21/9/08 5:23 PM  
Blogger jm said...

Helena I'm so glad you came here. There's a spiritual element to every post of yours, probably a lot to do with your 12th house moon.

I totally beyond that shadow of doubt believe in this delicate balance your teacher knows and the equality of the choices. I think especially now in the depths of Sagittarius many of us are finding our way and understanding the power of the feather.

Your spiritual input is a big part of the balance. Thank you so much. Feel free to disseminate everything.

the motion of particles

Yes.

21/9/08 7:50 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

((Jm)) Me too! Thanks all of you, for the good reading/listening opportunities!

Juno I hope you feel better lickity split. Bad medication interactions are very scary, and I'm glad you are recovering!

22/9/08 6:36 PM  

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