Tuesday, September 28, 2010

SPIRITUAL GUILT

This is what I call that sense of guilt that comes to those of us who strive to be "spiritual" and continue to fall short of our ideals.

Those of us who seek to be more loving, more kind, more selfless, more open, more peaceful, more harmonious-fill in the blank with some of your own ideals-are prime targets for spiritual guilt.  We have a picture in our heads of how "spiritual" should look. 

Does spiritual get angry?

Does spiritual get impatient?

Does spiritual get depressed?

Can spiritual have a bad attitude?

I don't know about you, but I find myself falling short of my spiritual ideals all the time.  Does that mean something is wrong?

Am I destined to fall short of what I SHOULD be?

And who decides what the standard is?  Who gets to say what SHOULD be?

Is there a standard?  Are we being judged?  What is the point in being here, now?

Is the point to reach an end-state of perfection?  Is there only one way that spiritual can show up in life?

It seems to me that the only way to view our predicament is through the eyes of compassion.  There is a part of us that is wise and unconditionally loving.  That means that there is a part of us that holds us to no standard and loves us just as we are, warts and all.  Then, there is a part of us that is critical and judgmental.  This part of us condemns and punishes.  We appear to be split.  What to do?

I say we can do away with the spiritual guilt and give ourselves the room to explore and play in this vast playground of reality.

We are what we are. 

I AM THAT I AM.

What if we were never meant to be perfect?

What if we are perfect as-is?

Let's say we remove spiritual guilt from the equation of living. 

Okay, if we are not striving to be perfect or to meet some self-imposed or other-imposed standard, then what the hell are we doing?

Good question!


 Cosmic Tribe Tarot

We are BEING and BECOMING.

We are THE FOOLS innocently exploring all there is to experience in this miraculous life.

Without the guilt, we come to know and love our wholeness.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

ASTROLOGY & CHOICE
























The Cosmic Tribe Tarot

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This morning a co-worker asked me to tell her about the sign of Sagittarius.  Specifically, she wanted to know if an acquaintance of hers was sincere or not.

I told her that knowing someone's sun sign, moon sign, or other horoscope information cannot tell you whether or not someone is sincere.  Someone is either sincere or not, but it has nothing to do with what sign the sun or moon was in at the time of their birth.

We continued to talk about the symbolism of the zodiac signs, and this same co-worker said, "My husband is an Aries, and he doesn't like to talk...Aries men don't like to talk..."  I told her that her husband may not like to talk, but that has nothing to do with his sun being in the sign of Aries when he was born.

What does it have to do with? 

CHOICE.

Astrology is a great map of the personality's dynamics and the imprinting that we have likely been exposed to in our younger years of development, but it does not tell us how CONSCIOUS we are.  It does not tell us how consciously we are responding to the imprinting and the experiences we have in life.

No matter what type of picture the astrological chart paints, we always have the choice to respond to life however we want.

We are much bigger than our charts.