VENUS DIRECT SPRING FLING: How to Activate Your Pleasure Body under ALL Conditions
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WORK/PLAY VARIATIONS by Joan Pancoe
“The Whole Universe Is My True Personality.”
Anonymous Zen Master
Dear One,
On April 15, pleasure-loving Venus stationed direct conjunct wounded healer Chiron in sensitive Pisces, helping us heal painful memories in the romantic area. Then, on May 17, Venus will once again be full-steam-ahead as she passes over her direct shadow right smack in the middle of initiating Aries, clearing the way for some enjoyable times ahead.
That’s one reason why we have a perfect opportunity this Spring to choose to move from being centered in our pain bodies as our default emotional identity towards the activation of our pleasure bodies as our new normal tone of Being. The other reasons are that:
1.Transformational Pluto in structure ruling Capricorn stationed retrograde for five months on April 20, encouraging us to go within to heal and grow.
2. Expansive Jupiter in relationship-loving Libra is retrograde until June 9, encouraging us to go within to heal and grow.
3. Karmic Teacher Saturn in philosophical Sagittarius is retrograde until August 25, encouraging us to go within to heal and grow.
If we want to make the most out of this period’s energies to activate our pleasure bodies, we need to begin by releasing any limiting beliefs about the true nature of pleasure.For example, we may believe that sense pleasures require a lot of conditions to maintain, especially when it comes to security. But if we cling to this belief, we’ll tend to sabotage any pleasure that comes our way out of fear of it not lasting. Which, by the way, is an absolutely legitimate fear as, in this ephemeral plane, everything—sooner or later—falls away.
The only way to fully embrace sense pleasures is to practice mindfulness in each moment. For, if we can be entirely present, without any distraction, we are in the Eternal Now. One of my favorite Dzogchen teachers, Ngak’chang Rinpoche, when asked about possessiveness and greed, said: “When you look at a priceless Ming vase at the Met and crave to own it, if you are wholly present in the moment with the object of your desire, then it is yours forever.”
Many of us may believe that it’s not possible to simultaneously experience pleasure on the sense level while experiencing physical or emotional pain. This is also a very limiting belief, as one of the purposes of reincarnation is for our souls to experience, over cycles of lives, the fullest range of the human emotional repertoire, sequentially and then simultaneously, as our hearts expand.
So, it is perfectly natural to feel depressed and happy, sorrowful and joyful, and of course pain and pleasure. And dissolving our attachment for one or the other, as they are a matched set in this plane of duality, is the secret key. A Vedic verse goes:
“Pleasure or pain
Loss or gain
praise or blame
All the same”
You might be surprised to hear that I’ve come across just as many people, if not more, who are addicted to pain, sorrow, loss and depression as to pleasure, joy and bliss as their default karmic identity. For who would they be without these habitual feelings? Perhaps it is the not-always-conscious fear of the inner void, the black hole of “nobody home” that keeps us enmeshed in our emotional karmic ruts, called samskaras.
But these samskaras are not infinite, and we can consciously choose to unwind these habitual mental and emotional grooves in our being, one layer at a time, by witnessing them arise and dissolving them, rather than feeding, indulging in or repressing them. As we get to the bottom of these patterns, there is so much Light at the end of this inner tunnel, not to mention that so much more spontaneous joy in Being arises as our true nature is revealed.
As we consciously awaken and evolve, experiencing pleasure on the sense level—i.e., taste, touch, hearing, seeing, and smell—we naturally expand from the level of the traditionally sensually-oriented 2nd chakra, (i.e., energy center). Pleasure rises in frequency to the heart chakra and joy begins to permeate our Being. Then, if we allow our hearts to fully expand, pleasure and joy rise to the psychic 6th and spiritual 7th chakras as we merge with the Divine or Tao in the Bliss Body. For more on this:
Ultimately, being present and embracing everything without conditions—including pain—becomes one of our most important spiritual lessons as it leads us to the Bliss Body, which does not need any security at all. We become free to enjoy sense pleasures within our conditions. This level of consciousness is connected with enlightenment as we are finally liberated to play with wonder and delight in the Earth game. This is the highest level of the pleasure principle in action.The most ancient spiritual path from India called Tantra (which I practice and teach) utilizes the senses—as well s the emotions, sexual energies and discriminating mind—in a comprehensive structured journey towards liberation. In Tantra, there are 112 different meditations for 112 different personality types.
To read more:
Spiritual Practices Reading List
(Please scroll down to the appendix for the 112 meditations.)
And if you’d like a private in-person or phone session to explore your pleasure potentials, please feel free to contact me.
For more info:
Taoist and Tantric Energy Arts
One of my favorite movie quotes is from Shadowlands, about the love story of C.S. Lewis and his wife, Joy Gresham, who is in remission from cancer. On their honeymoon, C.S. declares, “I’ve never been happier.” In response, Joy discloses, “My cancer has come back and there is nothing more the doctors can do.” When C.S. starts weeping, Joy says, “Remember this moment. The pain later is part of the happiness now.”
In closing, here are three of my personal reminders which help me stay in pleasure, joy and bliss as an offering to the Divine, for it is only through us as the vehicle that the Goddess can partake in the physical senses:
1. The physical plane is the only plane of consciousness in which we get to enjoy having physical senses, and neglecting this great gift creates regret once we drop our bodies and thus keeps us on the karmic wheel.
2. In the midst of great pain, I can still experience the pleasure of feeling more completely alive through my senses.
3. Even though one or more of my senses are not, in any given moment, fully operational, this only enhances the potentials of pleasure through my remaining senses.
Wishing us all full activation of our pleasure bodies this Spring, regardless of our external conditions.
J O A N
TARA
“Sometimes I do well with it, sometimes not. Much of the time I am fortunate, and there is radiant sahaja,* with a painful body spontaneously arising in an ocean of blissful emptiness. At other times, there is just the painful body. In all cases, my I is free and radiant, but my me is fucked, and it’s just a matter of which side of the identity street you want to play on.” Ken Wilber (speaking about his chronic auto-immune illness)
*Sahaja, from the Sanskrit, meaning: “coemergent; spontaneously or naturally born together” is a term of some importance in Indian and Tibetan Buddhist spirituality.
If you’ve been waiting to treat yourself or loved ones with a psychic and/or astrological reading, there couldn’t be a better time to get your Personal Coming Attractions for SPRING and SUMMER 2017 and beyond.
These days, my most popular offering is a one-hour mini-soul reading combined with karmic astrology for the coming year. This combo session is available at my office in NYC or by phone. MP3 included.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me, once you’ve checked out the services menu, to discuss how we can best customize a session for your specific needs at this time:
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VERY SPECIAL OFFERING FOR COUPLES:
If you’re ready to rekindle your passion and move to the next level of intimacy through dual cultivation, then learning TAOIST and TANTRIC Practices will transform your relationship. This is my absolutely favorite type of session to do these days as its effects are instantaneously sooo life-force enhancing.
For full details:
Taoist and Tantric Energy Arts
(please scroll down on this page)
And read:
to prepare your mind:)
***SPECIAL NEWSFLASH***
The ever-savvy Jesse Kornbluth, of Vanity Fair and New York Magazine fame, just posted about his personal experience with my work:
“I’m no seer. But Joan Pancoe just might be.”
For more, click here:
If you’re in the mood for some seriously delectable entertainment that will blow your mind wide open, please enjoy my erotic/psychic memoir:
The Amorous Adventures of a Modern Mystic
“A Sweet and Tasty Cosmic Feast for the Body, Mind & Spirit!” Ruben Gabriel
“Cosmic Sugar is a sumptuous book, like a meal you won’t forget. I haven’t read a better memoir—beautifully compassionate, utterly honest and seriously profound.” Matthew Newnham
To check out more great reviews:
To help catalyze an opening to a higher perspective, I’ve written a number of articles on meditation, spiritual teachers, aliens, astrological themes and much more: WRITINGS
Most pertinent to read now:
“Why is This Happening to Me? Body Karma Explained”
If This Were Your Last Incarnation, What Would You Do?
If you enjoy receiving these newsletters, I’m now posting more frequent planetary updates on my Facebook page:
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And on my website:
***NEWSFLASH***
ACCELERATING QUICKENING BRINGING ON MORE CASES of the PSYCHIC FLU
Do you feel the need for some help in dealing with “the Quickening” of energies now? Then it’s time for a daily mind/body/spirit practice that feeds your Soul! If you’d like to learn what keeps me sane, serene, internally stable and grounded, please check out:
Taoist Practices MP3s for $20.12
If you want to watch me performing past-life regression therapy, here’s a YOUTUBE Video of my A&E Channel TV Episode. It’s only 22 minutes:
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