A Vedic Astrological Interpretation.

Thursday’s Full Moon reminds me of how I imagine the second coming—with an Anthony Robbins-esque figure as the second-comer.

In my envisioning, I picture all of humanity in single-file before a path of burning charcoal. The temperature is 1,292 degrees Fahrenheit. A behemoth standing 7 feet above your head is close at your side—so close you can smell his $1000 cologne co-mingled with his primal and determined musk that incites your desire to act. He screams in your ear with a bellow so deep it shakes the center of the earth, “Yes! Yes! Yes!”

He tells you to look up. You look up. You fasten your chest to the hooks of the stars and you step forward. As your feet touch the fire, your instincts spark your limbs to dance.

Next thing your feet rest on a bed of cool green grass. You made it across.

As a united human race, we’re now at a crossroads. We’re all like President Obama, the Arjuna of the modern-day Mahabharata, standing in the center of a battlefield. Do we go to war with Iran or not?

One side is urging immediate action. Strike! The other side is urging immediate action. Evolve! To take either step requires we cross over fire.

This kind of dynamic is playing out on multiple levels. It’s happening in the sky with Mars (turned retrograde and poised to attack) and the Sun (flaring—even as I write—his weapons toward us) in a celestial standoff.

The same confrontation of opposing forces is also happening among nations on our earth. It’s happening in our communities. It’s happening in our families. It’s happening in our mind. It’s happening in our emotions. We’re all being called to cross over the line.

But how do you walk on fire without getting burned?

Arjuna poised the same question to Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita: How do I engage in this battle in a way that’s dharmic, that upholds the greater good?

Krishna’s advice holds true to our current astrological forecast with a sky full of opposing forces, but also a sky full of merit.

You embody a precious human birth, which according to Vedic philosophy is the result of some past merit you earned to be here. Your precious human birth has a destiny to fulfill. That’s your dharma.

Now more than ever, we need to be aware of our dharma as individuals and as a collective human race. Regarding the latter, I can tell you which side I’m on. The dharma of humanity is to evolve.

So Krishna tells Arjuna to first embody his dharma, which was to serve as a warrior in a righteous war.

Then he tells him to not be the doer of that dharma.

Non-doership is something I discovered when I first learned how to jump rope. Within the field of action—the rhythmic rope—there’s a moment to jump in. And it doesn’t actually require that you do anything at all. Simply pay attention and surrender completely to the present moment. You then find it’s completely effortless to jump into the rhythm. Otherwise if you think you’re “doing” it, you’ll miss.

Finally, Krishna reveals the third secret of crossing over fire without getting burned: Surrender the fruits.

The reason for every conflict is possession. We declare ownership over our thoughts, emotions, identity, family, religion, politics, and nation. The problem is everyone else does also. And we make no progress toward fulfilling the dharma of the human race. We don’t evolve.

Since Saturn entered his position of exaltation in Libra on November 15, 2011, we’re learning as a human race to surrender the fruits. Saturn, the planet of democracy and justice, is on a house-cleaning mission. As he now occupies the Chitra constellation, the abode of the universal architect, Vishvakarma, he’s changing the blueprint.

As a result, the entire structure of our capitalist economy is on the chopping block. A new economy, a new system of commerce, and a new source of energy are emerging that isn’t based on greed.

That’s why our Anthony Robbins messiah tells you to look up before you walk  across fire. When you look up it shifts your center of balance. You sense that gravity doesn’t only pull you down. It raises you up as well through the gravitational attraction of the planets and stars.

It lifts you out of your primitive self-concern toward a universal identity. You are part of something bigger.

So as the planets occupy some very precarious and fiery positions in the sky, the Full Moon causes a meritorious moment of enlightened respite—and a chance to see clearly your own purpose in all of this. Now is the moment to jump in and let go of everything that’s holding you back. And a chance to feel an upward tug that will carry you across the fire.

As for the other side, we’ll have to wait until October before we really see what the “promised land” looks like!

~

Editor: Kate Bartolotta.