A so well described path to peace in our inner and outer. Thank you.
11th September 2013: Venus in Scorpio
Storm in a Rose Garden
Today Venus enters Scorpio where she remains until 7th October (GMT). As she does so the heavens present two possibilities and it is up to us to choose where we plant our flag. Venus together with the Moon, Neptune and Mercury invite us to consider the true nature of peace and what this really means in a world of seven billion people. And the rest of their cosmic colleagues invite us deeper into the experience of conflict and discord, revealing ever deeper levels of its make-up. It sounds like a no-brainer I know: we choose peace, right? Well… not necessarily..
When the heavens are split in this way there is wisdom available which can be hard to grasp unless we’re prepared to let go our every day mind set and view things from a fresh angle. Certainly peace – both inner and outer – is the ultimate goal, but the path to it may entail some very unpeaceful moments and deep discord. If we turn away from these, unwilling to look them in the face and take responsibility for the part we play in their perpetuation, we will never experience the true peace which is a place of rest containing everything, whilst still remaining whole and complete.
Peace, the heavens tell us today, is not the absence of conflict but the ability to embrace conflict and still know the truth. It is a state of being in which we can act when necessary, proclaim what we know to be true and still maintain a clear mind and open heart. Peace is not dependent upon other people changing their behaviour but on ourselves finding that place within which is fed directly by the Divine and exists in a state of deep knowing and clear awareness no matter what is going on around us. And on the path to abiding in this place our peace will be tested over and over by conflict, discord, challenge and strife. This is how peace becomes established in the human heart: by encountering those very things which threaten to destroy it and yet continuing to exist despite them all.
We now find ourselves at a time when discord is rife, both within and without, on a personal and global scale. But this isn’t a sign that something has gone horribly wrong. Rather it is an opportunity to look conflict in the face and get to know it at its heart, for in doing so wisdom and insight can arise, both of which serve to nourish inner and outer peace. We have reached a time of reckoning on this planet. We are being challenged to stand our ground and state our case for, and commitment to, a new world in a new age, not a perpetuation of the old, tired out and ego driven one. But in order for that commitment to be followed through we will be tested and obstacles must be overcome, because without these things to strengthen us our inner peace will be nothing but pleasure in the face of ease. And who doesn’t feel happy in a rose garden?! What we need to be is happy in a patch of thorns, peaceful in a hurricane and focused in the face of a storm.
Which is where the heavens point today – at a storm brewing, a dark cloud on the horizon. But it isn’t one to run from, it’s one to step towards with an open heart and a willingness to recognise that it is our storm as much as anyone else’s, and we each have a role to play in calming it. We will discover that role as we step into it, allowing it to strengthen us, placing iron in our soul and deepening the roots of inner and outer calm. No challenge is without meaning on the path of the soul, for each one fertilises the potential for enduring peace in the face of all that threatens to destroy it. And enduring peace is the only kind worth having in the long run.
Here’s to the growth of peace within and without, for all of us everywhere.
~ Sarah Varcas
www.astro-awakenings.co.uk