Post by Joyce Hopewell
There’s an insidious creeping nastiness in the air following the result of the US election. You could argue that it was there before, as a dominant feature throughout the presidential campaign. Now we know the result we (i.e. the world) have to get on with it, protests or not, intentions to leave the country or not. Many people who didn’t vote for Trump (or DT as I’m starting to think of him – a play on the condition delirium tremens – the dt’s) will stay in the USA, refusing the be drawn into the normalisation of the whole situation which is now taking place, refusing the division and the hate that’s in its wake. Like Brexit all over again for us here in the UK.
Watch out for the normalising hooks. The more often his name is mentioned, the more often his face appears, the more often news bulletins feature another emerging snippet of news about his plans, his team, his intentions, the more “normal” and a part of everyday life it all becomes.
If you’re happy with this, now is the time to leave the room; if you’re not comfortable with the outcome of the election, maybe applying some astrological psychology along with some psychosynthesis will help. Both systems are directed towards healing, wholeness, and inclusiveness rather than division. We all – whatever we voted – have one very significant thing in common, and that is symbolised by the empty space in the centre of a chart drawn up using the Huber Method.
The centre of the chart is deliberately left clear. No aspects are drawn though it. It symbolises soul, spirit and the doorway to universal energy. Some experience it as a place to connect with our higher self, or God, or the source of transpersonal energies. It’s where our personal self and the transpersonal Self meet. It’s a place we can move into when we want to feel whole; it’s our own centre where we can connect with something beyond ourselves and get the petty distractions of everyday life into perspective. It represents the spark of divinity within each of us.
How could we forget we have such an amazing gift and not use it? But we do and we all need to be reminded it’s there. That’s why I’m writing this.
In the face of feeling depressed, angry and appalled at the current state of affairs (Brexit in the UK, dt in the US, French elections looming and fascist leanings afoot), I suddenly remembered that empty space in the centre of my chart. It offers me a way to overcome the discomfort and distaste I felt last week when a friend told me they were happy about the result of the USA election. I don’t have to be hooked into this and I’m not convinced this person was coming from their centre when they said it.
If we come from the centre of the chart, or our own centre, we are authentic. Around the centre, the aspect patterns are a-buzz, distracting us and luring us into thinking “this is me” when responding to different situations. We can identify with them, much as we do with the multitude of sub-personalities we all have, and believe that yes “this really is me”, but it’s not. Psychosynthesis teaches disidentification – we have a body, feelings, a mind, but we are greater than all of these – a centre of pure self-consciousness and will. Likewise, we can step out of the mindset and reactions of our aspect patterns and their pinning planets, through which we act and react, and be true to ourselves from the centre.
So I shall be speaking my truth, rejecting the normalising, staying vigilant, ducking the hooks and reminding myself to dig into my centre and do my best to embody some of the transpersonal qualities that are there for us all. Tolerance, Goodness, Understanding, Courage, Inclusiveness, Love…. just to mention a few. There are plenty more.
*Title – from Ashleigh Brilliant’s “Pot Shots” – popular in the 70s and 80s
Suggested reading – Psychosynthesis—The Elements and Beyond by Will Parfitt
Even the media obliquely acknowledged that astrologers calculated the outcome of the US election better than pollsters, though I could not bring myself to say that at the AA Conference in September a Trump victory was being widely predicted. A lot of the values many of us have cherished have been toppled by anti-establishment voting in 2016 and what this will lead to is far from clear. So, yes, it is a time for disidentifying, disengaging with the waves of unrest around us to centre on soul consciousness and generate goodwill from within.
Seminar I’ve just attended endorses your position not to accept the Trump victory as normal. Focus is on one inflated individual who needs constant adulation differentiates it from other expressions of authoritarian populism.