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“What has changed is that before, my neuroses were these huge, big things that were very frightening, and they took me over… And now they’re sort of like little Shmoos. They’re little, friendly beings, and I invite them in for tea.”–Ram Dass
Dear ONE,
Happy Fall! Right now, Karmic Teacher Saturn RX is almost stationary in the sky as he prepares to go direct on October 23, at which point he will literally zoom through the final 12 degrees of innovative Aquarius before entering spiritual Pisces on March 8, 2023.
In times like these, when structure-ruling Saturn is moving through the last degrees of a sign, there’s always a sense of urgency to get on with our karmic lessons. Amping up the pressure throughout this same exact period, action-oriented Mars is retrograde in mental Gemini inspiring us to focus on the “who, what, why and where” as more of an inside job.
In addition, transformational Pluto is stationing direct on October 8 in the final degrees of structure-ruling Capricorn. And, while he will not move fully into Aquarius until 2025 (with a 3-month preview in 2024 starting in March), over the next two years these last few crucial degrees of Capricorn also mark the passage back and forth in his continuing transit of the USA Pluto Return.
This means that more and more decrepit external structures that we rely on may start disintegrating (hopefully not totally) at an alarmingly accelerated rate. Think: bridges, tunnels, power plants, water mains, etc. All this to get our attention and to “inspire” governments and the powers that be to rebuild crumbling infrastructure more proactively.
Also, outmoded and unsafe societal structures that have long outlived their time—like the medical/health insurance/pharma industrial complex—will be seen by the masses more and more negatively, which will speed momentum to create new structures that serve humanity’s needs better, looking towards the future in this new Aquarian Age of interconnectedness. And, most importantly, both types of innovation need to be much more sustainable models for growth that support and sustain Mother Earth, rather than harming her.
The chances for replacing a humongous amount of dilapidated infrastructure or other integral parts of society before some of them at least partially collapse is highly unlikely without some disasters waking us up more during the time frame allotted. This is because it’s human nature to always choose the lesser pain in most cases—and this certainly includes profit/loss considerations.
Because of the probabilities baked in astrologically to our coming attractions globally, it helps to maintain a higher truth perspective that:
“Everything is always happening perfectly in the Divine plan including chaos. All structures—internal and external—need to cyclically break down and fall apart before there can be a transformational rebirth from the ashes.”
As we cannot help but observe, Gaia is now reacting to the abuse and mistreatment heaped upon her by seven billion humans in a mass karmic event by taking the form of Kali, the devouring Hindu Goddess of destruction. (Synonyms: obliteration, annihilation, devastation, demolition.)
While the Earth Goddess continues to play out this Plutonian role for the foreseeable future, we are the witnesses and victims (aka volunteers on the soul level) as ongoing pollution, global warming and climate change wreak havoc and suffering all over the planet. And this is just the beginning.
For when Kali gets pissed off, the only way to right the balance is through cycles of death and ultimately rebirth. But in the Kali Yuga, (a highly fitting name for the dark age we’re in), we’ll most probably find ourselves sitting amidst the ashes at some point—whether in our own backyards or empathetically via CNN.
So, we might as well get used to contemplating the primordial realm of the Void and derive what solace we can with the knowledge that it is out of this ultimate emptiness that all forms continuously arise and fall away in an infinite loop.
As our souls all volunteered to be born at this time in history, it behooves us to deepen our appreciation and gratitude for the poignant and precious moments of simple daily grace and open-hearted joy in being alive in this ever-more increasingly ephemeral plane.
Similarly, perhaps the most pertinent and impactful (but not for the faint of heart) ancient Buddhist practice for these times is: Charnel Ground Meditation.
For more:
Owning Our Inner Pluto Before . . . It Eats Us for Lunch
GUARDIAN of the VOID—Joan Pancoe
On a personal level, these planetary forces are “encouraging” us to clean out our psychological closets of all the antiquated baggage of personality traits that have become dead weight, but which we keep lugging around out of neuroses and habit.
It is these (not always fully conscious) aspects of the little self/ego fueled by our karmic rut of identity that need to be reexamined so we can jettison those parts of our infrastructure which no longer serve our awakening at a higher frequency of operations going forward. If we truly aspire to align more with our souls and Source, there’s no better time to start mindfully unwinding these habitual karmic grooves (aka samskaras) which are clogging up our vertical channels.
For most of us, taking the low, but most traveled, road means that we continue to allow our samskaras to wind deeper into our mental, emotional and psychic bodies through ignorance, sleep-walking, inertia and greed. Then the allotted karma which we carried into this incarnation to be unwound just keeps winding deeper and deeper into our beings and continues to be schlepped around from lifetime to lifetime growing ever heavier.
When instead, we could choose to take the high road and allow our innate desire for spiritual evolution to become our north star. As we make soul growth our priority, it’s time to step into the power of accepting that we’re our own karmic judge, jury and parole board (and who else could they be? :))
Once we stop deluding ourselves by hanging curtains in our windowless cells of ego-armored identity and trying to convince ourselves that “It’s not so bad,” then we can get on with the work to release and dissolve that which has kept us in bondage.
So, how do we perform this feat of liberation while we have this window of opportunity? Here are some questions to consider:
1. Are we doing the best we can and being impeccable with our word?
2. Can we forgive ourselves for being wounded and imperfect as we hold the vision of moving towards healing and wholeness?
3. Do we believe we’re worthy of receiving our birthright of infinite abundance on all levels—health, love, resources—and know there’s enough to go around?
4. Can we extend this view to all beings?
When we can answer these questions in the affirmative, then we’re ready to stamp our records: “TIME SERVED!” But, if we still resist being fully open to the deepest levels of self-love and self-forgiveness, then to this degree are we keeping ourselves in karmic lockdown with no set date for parole.
From the perspective of Saturn, Lord of Karma, the vast majority of souls in human incarnations are trapped within a karmic prison of their own making. Whether we’re consciously aware of it or not, our limiting karmic belief structure about what we think we deserve and is possible for us creates the personal reality we allow ourselves to dwell in. Some of our prisons are tiny mucky solitary cells and others are the size of giant sports arenas—but, either way, there’s always room for expansion.
Some of the worst cases of karmic lockdown I’ve dealt with are with clients who harbor beliefs about what spiritually evolved “old souls” they are. This allows them to judge others as “less than” and keeps them painfully separate and isolated within their delusional self-image cells. And while they may believe they’re more enlightened than most . . . nobody wants to play with them. In many cases, even their grown children won’t speak to them.
Conversely, cases of false humility, with feelings and beliefs of unworthiness are another extreme but very common form of solitary confinement.
Other classic karmic ruts of identity revolve around beliefs of powerlessness. Such as:
- Having no power is safer as one can be invisible and then there is less chance of being in the target area of getting whacked. (“How the mighty have fallen” is a common theme here).
- It’s lonely at the top. (True, but since one’s spiritual journey is always traveled alone, we might as well get where we’re going:)).
- Fear of failure and/or success. (This double-edge sword creates immobility, sloth and inertia).
- Personal power and/or money are spiritually “bad.” (Rather than just various 3D forms taken by Source energy and Divine abundance as part of the learning curve in our curriculum as cocreators).
Then there are those souls who—believe it or not—wouldn’t know who they were without continuous pain and suffering in their lives. This is especially true in the romantic arena where “If it doesn’t hurt than it’s not true love” is played over and over again as it winds deeper into our samskaras.
Sometimes this suffering is at the physical level of creating life-threatening diseases, loss of different organs every few years or chronic illnesses with no “cure.” For those who have a pattern of health crises, this rut of identity will just keep rotating to new symptoms or body parts until the root causes (aka limiting karmic beliefs) are unhooked and dissolved.
Many times, when I do health readings, the core issue is a deep ambivalence to being fully embodied as a human being in the earth plane. This usually comes from beliefs that it is not safe here or that the earth plane is not their true home. And it is this ambivalence that the body is responding to by creating symptoms and dis-ease to help reinforce our fluctuating secret desire to check out.
So, unless we make a daily conscious recommitment to the life force—and stop feeding our death urge through ambivalence— especially in the third Saturn cycle, which I call “the victory round” from age 60-90, when ambivalence and ingratitude about being in this precious incarnation literally become killers.
My channeled readings on the utility of pain state that: “Pain is a signal tone from the higher self that a course correction is indicated.” It begins on the spiritual and psychic levels and, when this is too subtle to get our attention (as it usually is), then the pain moves down through the mental, emotional and energy bodies, until finally it most assuredly gets our attention at the physical levels of dis-ease.
If we continuously defend against having to go through the clean sharp growing pains that life presents and avoid changing ourselves and our path through course corrections, then suffering ensues from our resistance to what is.
That is, until we finally surrender, which may happen before our body karma takes us fully out. Although, in many cases, going through to the other side through the vehicle of our body—if played out consciously and with full surrender (at least by our last breath)—completely heals that which we took incarnation for in the first place. Now there’s a refreshing perspective on dropping the body—not only is it absolutely safe, but we win the prize of being released from our allotted karma at the same time—YAY!
Another very common rut is when one is invested in a self-pity trap in which their identity is wrapped around being unlucky in love, or with money, or any other external fixation that they believe “if only” their desires were fulfilled in his area, then they’d be happy.
Then there are those who have such fear and aversion to being alone (i.e., without a significant other in a romantic relationship) that they make themselves miserably unhappy in a loneliness lockdown, rather than choosing to joyously commune with all of Life as their primary relationship.
All the above listed karmic ruts are clogging up our inner spaciousness and making it feel like a prison. So, whether you recognize yours as a belief of being powerless, unworthy, unlucky, having an attachment to pain, or some other variation, the question we need to ask ourselves if we want our “get out of karmic jail free pass” is: “Who would we be without this default identity?”
These are just a few examples but, whatever type of karmic rut we’re stuck in—whether high and mighty or weak and low— there’s no possibility of parole until we reexamine our limiting beliefs and fears and become willing to accept that no matter how “legitimate” they might feel from past life experiences, they are unequivocally NOT TRUE in the here and now.
The mantra I share with my psychic therapy clients when we’re doing past-life or childhood regression, so they can consciously integrate the soul lessons of traumatic experience and leave behind any reactionary beliefs, is: “That was then and this is now.” For, when we carry these as if they’re personal truths, they become the main impediment keeping us from flying free.
If you’d like more clarity and guidance on your present karmic challenges, please consider a: KARMIC CONSULTATION
After these next four months, Saturn will not be transiting through the final degrees of Aquarius for another 28-30 years. Every incarnation is a precious opportunity for awakening, and every moment in every relationship—especially with our selves—is a priceless opportunity to catalyze an opening to our True Nature.
So, it is our choice to make the most of this time to review, recalibrate, refine, and reboot our vision of who we really are and why we’re here to free ourselves from belief-based karmic bondage. For if nothing changes (i.e., our beliefs)–then nothing changes. And this is the exact exquisite equation for our liberation. Once we let go of old attachments that truly no longer define who we’re becoming, we get to experience a new sense of inner spaciousness in a more timeless, soul-centered way.
Since this is Pluto’s last full year in Capricorn in our lifetimes, it is packing quite the wallop for most of us. This is especially exacerbated with the transiting South Node of our karmic pasts in Plutonian Scorpio, stirring up deep-rooted past-life memories of old ways of being that we may still be holding on to as a defense of the “little self” against the Void.
The final degrees of a Pluto transit in any sign are about as intense as it gets. So, before the first preview transit into Aquarius in March 2023, Pluto will be urging us to dig deeper into our psyches to root out those parts of our personality that still arise as outgrown obsessive desires.During this inner excavation process, we may well experience a letting go (or ripping away) and falling away (aka complete dissolution) of karmically-regressive parts of ourselves to a greater extent than ever before.
The eclipse cycle this Fall begins on October 25 with a New Moon Eclipse in Scorpio. And then, on November 8, we have a real wildcard Full Moon Eclipse in Taurus exactly conjunct Trickster of Awakening Uranus.All this will also be pumping up these Plutonian energies to the max as it’s setting the tone for the next six months and beyond with a decisive theme of culminating endings, at times sudden and shocking, of people, places, things, circumstances as well as parts of our ego-identity.
Rest assured that this final year of Pluto in Capricorn (which commenced in December, 2008) will clear the path forward—one way or another. Since Pluto operates through cycles of death and rebirth, wherever we have transiting Pluto now (especially if it is sitting on an angle or personal planet or in hard aspect to it), we may feel as if the power of this Plutonian metamorphosis has actually been taken out of our hands and conscious volition. Therefore, this transit can be quite the FGO (f**kin growth opportunity).
I call this transit the “Master Cleanse”—as it wipes away all that is keeping us struck in our samskaras. For many of the clients I have been reading for who are having one of these Master Cleanse Plutonian experiences it can feel like a steam roller effect that flattens us out—back and forth, back and forth—until there is truly nobody home and we are literally sitting in the Void while simultaneously watching and, when called upon to act in the Flow, playing out our roles in the best show in the Universe.
(The nature of my Plutonian Master Cleanse: I am in the midst of five passes over my ascendant/north node of destiny which are exactly conjunct the USA’s Pluto.)
For more: Astrology Readings
In closing, as we unwind our samskaras, one layer at a time, the goal is not to unwind these tens of thousands of karmic grooves all the way to the bottom—although it is possible, as they’re not infinite.
But rather than feel the need to eradicate them all, if we can just create enough inner space to view all of our “shmoos”” without judgment, attachment or aversion, and certainly not with indifference, but with a heart-centered, playful acceptance of all of ourselves—and thus all of life—in a space of non-reactivity and joy in Being.
Embracing what we have the most fear, clinging, dislike or judgement of in ourselves—and in life—is our ticket to ride free fully embodied and in all dimensions—enjoying the game of Leela,(aka cosmic play)—with everything arising in us—and in others and in life—as perfect vehicles for our highest teaching and the key to our liberation while fully present in the here and now.
Here are some of the challenging questions I’ve been playing/working with lately:
I. Do we know that anyone we’ve ever loved is always with us in our hearts—whether we see them again in this life or not . . . and smile?
II. Can we be without attachment or aversion to people coming into and out of our lives . . . and smile?
III. Can we accept that those whom fate (or their own free will) has taken from us are always sparing us from some greater pain . . . and smile? (BIG smile here!)
IV. Do we know in our hearts that it’s much better to play alone with ALL of Life then to be imprisoned in karmic bondage with others (or parts of ourselves) that are negative, draining or toxic . . . and smile?
V. When we choose to part from someone or they from us, can we wish them all good things on their journeys forward with heart-felt gratitude for lessons learned and karmic gains made (regardless of the price paid) . . . and smile?
When I first read this quote ages ago it made me smile in a way that has kept my spirits up ever since:
“In all that time I have not gotten rid of one neurosis. Not one! The only thing that’s changed is: where previously they were these huge monsters of “No! Don’t take me over again! Aaagh!” That kind of stuff, sitting in the bathtub, cowering. Now they’re like these little shmoos, you know? “Oh, sexual perversity! There you are! I haven’t seen you in days! C’mon in and have some tea!” And to me that is the product of the spiritual path. From a locked prison cell to an expansive football field where we play.” –RAM DASS
My vision: Imagine your former prison cell becoming a playpen that is continuously expanding until it encompasses the whole Earth plane and beyond—ultimately becoming One with the cosmic playing fields of Source. YAY!
In love with Leela,
J O A N
“A guru is a cooked goose. A guru is done. The difference between a cave and a city makes no difference to a guru. To a teacher it makes a hell of a lot of difference. Because a teacher is pointing the way, while a guru is the way. It’s a very different quality. What a guru does is mirror for you where you aren’t. That’s all they do.”—Ram Dass
“A lesser sage lives in a cave in the mountains. A greater sage lives in the heart of the city.”—Taoist axiom
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If you haven’t already gifted yourself with an astrology reading for 2022-2023 and beyond, now is the perfect time! One of my most popular offerings is a one-hour mini-soul reading combined with karmic astrology for the coming year. This combo session, which my clients like to call the happy meal, is available at my office in NYC or by phone. MP3 included. COMBO READING
I’d love to speak with you to discuss your specific needs at this time so we can customize the perfect reading. Please review the SERVICES MENU and then contact me for your FREE consult:
SERVICES
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In addition, for those of you who are especially budget-conscious these days, I’m now offering 30-minute psychic phone consultations. So, if you desire some clarity and guidance to make more informed choices for the next leg of your journey, or wish to gift this session to a loved one, a psychic counseling session may be just what you’re seeking.
***SPECIAL GIFT PACKAGES for Established Clients***
If you’re going through a particularly turbulent time and have found your past readings with me to be a useful tool in helping you navigate your karmic challenges, then please consider gifting yourself with a four-session package of one-hour psychic/astrological phone counseling. This is fast becoming one of my most popular new offerings. Save $200 with no expiration date. For details, please give me a call or email me. I’d love to hear from you.
JoanPancoe@aol.com
212-982-6820
To get your chart for free: ASTRO.COM
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To help catalyze an opening to a higher perspective, I’ve written a number of articles on spiritual teachers, body karma, aliens, addiction and much more: WRITINGS
Most pertinent to read now:
If This Were Your Last Incarnation, What Would You Do?
INFINITE ABUNDANCE: Owning Our Inner Jupiter
Becoming ONE with the Inner Guru… Or How to Make Saturn Your BFF
Embracing the Unexpected: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Uranus (but were afraid to ask)
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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
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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:
CLICK HERE
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For more of Joan’s art:
GALLERY OF MULTIDIMENSIONAL DELIGHTS
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