(Archetypal Signs)
Content Verses Essence
Emulating the Merlin at the Turning of the Ages
New Moon Vlogs October and November 2020
Compiled by Mary Kern from the work of Daniel Giamario with enhancements from Cayelin Castell and *Mary Kern
CAPRICORN ESSENCE: the structure, responsibility, wisdom, right teaching, authority, responsibility
Historically, Capricorn established the traditions and the ways of life that created sustainable and practical foundation for humanity, honoring the past but always with concern with the many generations to follow. For the Capricorn dharma, practical results were more important than ideal. Capricorn’s project is to discover, understand, and then manage the material plane, mastering the operation manual of objective reality. But this is not done as an end in itself, for its own sake, but rather for the benefit and workability of the world.
Psychologically, Capricorn operates in a hierarchical vertical way, and symbolizes the relationships that legitimately work that way: parent and child, teacher and student, therapist and client.
Spiritually, because Capricorn can connect the farthest outward extent of reality to the densest materiality, thus apprehending and sensing the entire creation, it’s imperative that this experience becomes her wisdom that serves humanity from a place of practical wisdom.
CAPRICORN SHADOW:
- Feels they must be in control and often presents her/himself as the knowledgeable expert, often expressing as the “know it all”.
- Feels the need to give advise, welcomed or not, and take care of everyone
- Can be overly controlling, micro-managing, projecting their own standards and taking responsibility for the choices and safety of everyone
- Forgoes a personal life, being an overly serious perfectionist and having difficulty receiving and having fun
- Enmeshed in Patriarchal rules and culturally driven expectations
Antidote: Validated for responsibility and told they did a good job.
NEW CAPRICORN: from patriarch to the Circle of Elders
Objectively discovers what works for the livability and sustainability of the whole planet and all the people. At this turning point, Capricorn must again align with the circle of grandmothers and the Sacred Feminine to leave behind its rather long and disastrous usurpation by the patriarchy.
*Brings a new global focus of structure aligned with love rather than control and profitability.
AQUARIUS ESSENCE: Freedom, Objectivity, Insight, Spaciousness, Uniqueness, Skepticism, Brilliance, Idealism (philosophical)
Historically, Aquarius has generally been associated with the leading edge of things, the avant guard, and the completely unique. Pretty much all ways of thinking that exist outside the box, outside the established, are in the domain of the Aquarian charm. But always, as much as possible, with a connection to the universal values: higher love, higher meaning, higher truth, and above all, objectivity.
Interestingly, the beginnings of the scientific age were routed in the Aquarian dharma, with its strong impulse to objectively perceive reality without emotional, subjective, or superstitious over tones, that required only belief.
Psychologically, Aquarius aspires for objectivity and detachment, cooly surveying the widest possible view.
Spiritually, Aquarius attempts to transcend the rational, evaluative mind, and to reach the ground of pure consciousness itself. This is the “eye” behind the eye, the high witness, the fair witness, that perceives all that is, without judgment, merely noting the rising and falling of all thought, and of all phenomena.
AQUARIUS SHADOW:
- Spiritual bypass and light polarization—denies there is a shadow
- Overactive mind that loves information but may exhibit as aloof and disassociated (Uses information and intellectual pursuit as a survival strategy)
- Has difficulty processing ordinary human emotions and experiences
- Is easily bored
- *Declines to participate in the “color of life” as thinking overrides sensing and feeling
Antidotes: To experiment, No control is a control program. Light polarized like Sagittarius
NEW AQUARIUS: Be the Change
Courageously continues to expand the vision of
possibilities, always with the highest and the most expanded consciousness. It’s the responsibility of Aquarius to come up with the innovations and to see the ways that others do not see. Additionally, the mission of Aquarius is to always stand for uniqueness and individuality, always questioning conformity and the tyranny of consensus reality.
*Brings in new understandings of the comic order of connectivity that has always been there for the benefit of humanity.
PISCES ESSENCE: Compassion, empathy, sacrifice, surrender, sorrow (grief)
Historically, Pisces has been associated with healers, world servers, and saviors. In most cases, the lifestyles were more of the renunciate type, not secular or worldly. Many holy and religious orders embraced the goals of this mystery school. An additional element of Pisces dharma, has been the longing for ecstatic and mystical union, through many varieties of altered states, from music and dance, to sexual healing, to plant medicine. The goal has always been about healing of others and self, through rapturous and compassionate healing medicine.
Psychologically, the Pisces dharma strongly emphasizes merging, and the capacity to experience rapport, to experience directly what another is feeling.
Spiritually, Pisces dharma is about mystical union with the heart of the universe, the unconditional love of great mystery. Pisces as a spiritual path includes the abnegation of the self, and actions performed in the world are the liberalization of the experience that service is its own reward.
PISCES SHADOW:
- Feelings prevail over mental analysis.
- Feels what everyone else is feelings; numbs out and avoids social experiences
- Lacks a sense of self and can be addicted to giving
- Lacks boundaries and merges with others abnegating self to serve others
- When lacking sacred rights or channels for transpersonal connection often falls into addiction
- May be the martyr addicted to suffering
NEW PISCES: Joy and Grief are the same thing
Create ways of helping and healing others without
martyrdom and victimhood. Pisces dharma is also about developing ways of experiencing ecstatic states without addiction or the loss of the capacity to function in the world with a strong, healthy, egoic structure.
*Connects to direct healing energy sources already present to allow others to heal themselved
ARIES ESSENCE: Commitment, one-pointedness, nobility, valor, honor, righteousness, defender, protector, warrior, personal best—a way of engaging the energy— the way to greater freedom is to be “all in” and dedicated.
Aries Male is closest to the noble male—protecting what they love, displaying chivalry
History: those with Aries dharma were the defenders of the ways of life of the culture. They defended the hierarchies, the leaders, and the people. In India, there were the Kshatryia Caste, in Japan, the Samurai, and the knights of Medieval times.
Psychologically, the aim of Aries is the capacity to commit, to be completely focused, with a strong indomitable will, totally all-in, in dedication to a noble cause, mission, for purpose. For Aries, commitment is the foundation for true freedom.
Spiritually, the goal of clear commitment to one’s dharma can only be gained through the surrender of one’s analytical evaluation, and the abandonment of any attachment to duality. Transcending duality, and surrendering any need to figure things out, will lead to the intuitive revelation of one’s true dharma, the genuine mission and purpose.
ARIES SHADOW:
- Is a velocity addict wishing to absorb things quickly may divert the teaching focus with endless questions
- Is a “Black and White” thinker that often expresses as dominating
- May fight for “the sake of fighting” expressing as overly competitive
NEW ARIES: Guardians not Warriors
Defends and upholds the cosmic order.
This includes an evolving recognition that genuine righteousness, true integrity, and goodness is not the same as the older and dogmatic doctrinal views of good and bad or right and wrong, but rather comes from a direct intuitive connection to Great Mystery.
The new Aries dharma is to be a warrior for peace.
*Help to bring in restorative justice to heal both the victim and the offender. Brings understanding, compassion and healing to the wounded and distorted beliefs of the offender and restitution, healing and forgiveness of the victim.
TAURUS ESSENCE: pleasure and comfort, beauty, contentment, stability, patience
History, the Taurus dharma has links to the Epicurean mystery school of Greece. The aim of Epicureanism was to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. The methodologies involved intensity of pleasure duration of pleasure, and moderation, in the cases where any extreme could produce pain.
Psychologically, Taurus culture being rather than doing, with the aim of being in the present moment experienced by the senses, as long as possible
States cultivated by Taurus:
- Intimacy as art, as something worth experiencing for its own sake.
- Beauty and aesthetics, as an experience to savor for one’s self.
- The experience of true receivership, knowing what is pleasurable and good, and valuing the giver.
- Spiritually, Taurus celebrates the fullness and the pleasure of spirit in the senses, with the capacity to fully and completely savor the present moment
TAURUS SHADOW:
- Conservative and slow to change their view even when change is inevitable
- Lazy or has problems moving forward, lacking inertia; often stubborn
- Narcissistic and stuck in a culturally defined idea of beauty
- Takes without giving; Is overly attached to material acquisition
- Has difficulty taking risks, favoring what feels secure
Antidote: Offer good pleasure and comfort, intimacy, moderation—
NEW TAURUS: Reclaim sensual self and 2nd chakra
Reclaims one’s sensual self, clearing the 2nd chakra distortions
Assists in creating Heaven on Earth—a new Garden of Eden without the “fall.”
*Can fully “Be,” living in the moment and appreciating without fear of change, the ever-changing dynamics of nature. Finds the beauty in all stages of life—not just the innocence and blossoming of spring.
Can enjoy releasing and letting go knowing Taurus energy reoccurs as an evolving part of a divine evolution. Is open to receive the endless abundance that is one’s birthright.
GEMINI ESSENCE: Curiosity, Humor, Play, Irreverence
Evolution pathway by way of air (thinking function) with consciousness and mind precedence embracing maximum diversity of mental pathways, with a never-ending curiosity about as many as possible who enjoys and take delight in the dance of consciousness and is a path toward realization using the mind to go beyond the limits of the mind beyond duality and polarity directed by spirit.
The fool can tell the truth and not get killed
In a danger scenario, is the matador who steps out of the way, shape shifts and gets away.
GEMINI SHADOW:
Constantly seeks fun and avoids the serious
Shape-shifts him/herself and the energy; disrupting and interrupting with inappropriate behavior, distracting to void the discomfort of intense emotion
Their fear of emotions can block their expression and connection with others
Ruminates, get caught up in the mind, too much detail and circular thinking
NEW GEMINI: Go beyond the trap of the mind and explore unlimited pleasure.
Finds and then designs the best ways to bypass the gates of duality. Having accomplished that, Gemini can then explore the unlimited pleasures and entertainments available from the mind without being trapped by the duality of the mind.
CANCER ESSENCE: Nurturing, mother, empathy
Historically, Cancer’s water element dharma has been to investigate and then uphold the traditions and institutions that provide security and long-lasting stability and nourishment to the children, family and community, with a commitment to the well-being of the future generations. All avenues of providing personal and responsible nourishment, in a vertical direction, are in its prevue the relationships of parent to child, teacher to student, therapist to client.
CANCER SHADOW:
- Gives unwanted advise and tries to take care of everyone
- Their family relationships often determines their self-identity
- Insular, limited by cultural identity
- “Smoother Mothers” that control their children and others
- Lacks Self-care
- “Gives to Get”, seeking love and recognition instead of feeling the immense pleasure of giving nourishment to others
NEW CANCER: Mother and nurturer for all humanity
Redesign the society in such a way that nourishment is available to all of Earth’s peoples. This revisioning and redesign of family and community structure will make it truly safe for the children and the children within us all. This is done in service and with reference to future generations.
LEO ESSENCE: Brings the Light of self-love, courage, strength, inspiration, charisma, generosity and creatorship
Historically, Leo has been linked to ancient understanding of royalty and in the priesthood (Brahman Caste of India) those with a different bloodline , who modeled for humanity the best qualities of what an authentic and enlightened human being could be. Those with Leo dharma were also committed to serving the people, always inspiring them to be all that they could be.
LEO SHADOW:
- Arrogant, entitled, egoistical; wants the world to revolve around them
- Fearful, narcissistic, self-hating, insecure; may exhibit with a superiority complex constantly seeking fame
- Looks for love and validation outside of her/himself which s/he sees as deficient
- Proclaims divinity for self, failing to recognize it in others; “I’m god and you aren’t”
Strategy: Validate Leo’s specialness.
NEW LEO: Self-Love and Creator-ship through sacred ceremony and presence awareness
Re-establishes our link with our divinity and evolves to the point where we can co-create with the Great Mystery. From a place of sovereignty and autonomy, Leo will create and then demonstrate the best qualities possible of an authentic, fully developed human being.
*Truly understands their own sacred connection to the “One,” what Christian terms the “father and the son” where the ‘holy ghost’ is simply the unifying universal love energy, also called the connective matrix, endless energy source, scalar energy or “flowing grace” available to all.
VIRGO ESSENCE: Pattern of life, discrimination, pattern recognition, service, integrity (not selling out) impeccability
Emerald Tablets in considering the one thing: the pattern.
VIRGO SHADOW:
- Over doing as a workaholic and lacking a self
- Overly focused on details; can’t see “the forest for the trees”
- Or is scattered, confused and unfocused
- Cold, unfeeling, critical, clinical, judgmental and often controlling
- Impersonal, disconnected from their own emotions and relationships,
- Demands perfection from self and others—contracted and operating alone not realizing others are there to help
Historically, Virgo represented Gaia, or Earth Mother. Virgo dedication and commitment to HER was through what can be termed “women’s Mysteries,” including things like agriculture, knowing what plants and herbs to gather, understanding and honoring a woman’s menstrual cycle, knowing the ceremonies and all that a priestess was involved with. This knowledge, or course, was not only reserved for women.
In addition, Virgo was non secular, and committed to a “sacred work” or calling that was in service to spirit. The calling far outweighed worldly success or reputation and was often evidenced by a renunciate lifestyle. Being an earth dharma, what could be directly experienced with the senses was most important.
Spiritually, the most profound connection to wholeness and the path towards liberation is through directly cognizing and comprehending the sacred pattern or web or life, and then being in alignment with it.
NEW VIRGO: Make sacred our cycle
Re-establishes honor and respect for our Earth Mother, Gaia. Accomplishes this by creating sacred ceremony that supports Her. Restores woman’s mysteries and rites of passages. Reconnects with the Pattern, and reweaves the web of life that has been broken.
*Knows the original template for the perfect web of life already exists and just needs to be brought forth through the use of sacred intention and be maintained with compassion and love for all of Nature.
LIBRA ESSENCE: knowing self through Another, personalness, harmony
They desire is to be loved for who they are, their personal essence. “The greatest thing you will ever know is to love and be loved in return.”
Historically: design the traditions and the institutions of sustainable long term relationship through agreement and commitment. The varieties of marriage, including what has been termed “pair bonding”, as well as the idealized desires for relationship being a path to god. Libra’s domain of responsibility also included social mores, and diplomacy ideas. The Libran Dharma’s major focus is on personal relationships with other human beings.
Psychologically, the goal of the Libran Mystery School was to be mirrored accurately through our personal relationships.
Spiritually, the goal of the Libran Mystery School is to discover and then highly value personableness,” referred to as the “Pearl Beyond Price” in Sufism and the Ridwan School. This is then experiences as our true essence, after stripping away the accomplishments on our resume and our ordinary ego identity. It’s the experience of being loved just for “you”.
LIBRA SHADOW:
- Needs mirroring from others for a sense of self
- Insecure, want everyone to like them so doesn’t contribute their valuable opinions to keep the peace; withholding their gifts out of fear of displeasing others
- Idealizes relationships
- Co-dependent and superficial in relationships
- When not engaged in a relationship lacks a sense of self
- Indecisive and confused when navigating solo
- Seeks the perfect soul mate to provide wholeness rather than focusing on their relationship with self and creating the self-love that they lack.
- Marriages arranged for the honor of the family not for the choice and happiness of an individual
NEW LIBRA: Conscious Equal Partnership
Create new ways of developing non-hierarchical (horizontal), conscious equal relationships and partnerships, celebrating the ideal of collaboration. Libra’s contribution includes equally valuing all the possible places on the wheel of life.
*Agreement-oriented relationship.
SCORPIO ESSENCE: strongest will, universal will, intensity, passion, depth, aliveness, desire, and surrender. The Ananda of the One Reality
They need permission to feel what they feel and assist with the birth- death cycle.
They possess Infinite amount of life-force energy with the courage to go to the edge of aliveness.
Strategy: If they feel threatened become personal with them
Historically, Scorpio has been associated with a variety of non-mainstream and heterodox ways of life. This has included Shamanism and sorcery, various tantric yoga approaches, and other ways of maximizing our greatest possible allotment of life force (energy). It has been the responsibility of the Scorpio Mystery school to maximize its allotment, without the mediation, censoring or judgment of the mind. Scorpio dharma celebrates desire, recognizing it as the engine of creation. This is not to be confused with attachment to desire.
Psychologically, Scorpio dharma is entirely about energy and the capacity to feel it. This is rather like a non-pejorative view if the Freudian “id”. Scorpio responds with immediacy and without restriction. Either you feel it or your don’t!
Spiritually, Scorpio dharma explores right use of will, and right engagement with power. A goal is to experience maximum Ananda, to plug directly into the infinite Energy of great mystery.
SCORPIO SHADOW:
- Has learned to be secretive as a survival strategy but can present passive-aggressive due to their repressed feelings of anger and fear
- May intentionally trigger others to provoke their reaction misusing their abilities to draw the shadows of others to the surface
- Or may be an unconscious shadow magnet not noticing their unintended affect or using it wisely to assist another to release and heal safely
- Greatly fears their own power due to past extermination of those who knew how to use the energy
- Prone to addiction especially addiction to drama
- Could subscribe to perversion, revenge, possessiveness, manipulation and unforgiving behaviors
- Scorpio Moon Is either extremely repressed or over indulged.
NEW SCORPIO: Reclaim Life Force and reclaim the 2nd chakra which holds the desire and passion for dynamic creation
Reframe shamanism and many varieties of Tantra, with the recognition that there is no scarcity of life force in the universe. Explore new trainings and knowledge that allow human beings to access their maximum capacity for experiencing passion and aliveness.
*Utilize infinite scalar energy for life-force, healing and releasing soul wounding so one come into a state of grace, harmony and union.
SAGITTARIUS ESSENCE: truth, enthusiasm, optimism, ideals, openness
Truth is not static. Sagittarius explores, discovers and reveals an expanded new view of what truth is.
They hunger to go to a place where they have never been before.
Strategy: Confronted by danger: if one is in the dessert camping and a ship lands with men coming for you one may exclaim, “I invoke the universal law of non-interference with sentient beings!”
Historically, Sagittarius dharma aligns with Jungian thought, where meaning and purpose outweighs all other life priorities, such as sex, will power, or even survival.
Spiritually, their call to explore and adventure towards finding the truth for themselves, this is not an act for self-interest—it is performed in service to spirit, thus opening up pathways for all of humanity.
SAGITTARIUS SHADOW:
- Light polarized avoids the negative, denies the shadow
- Fundamentalist—cannot handle doubt, the pathway to growth
- Is stuck between desire for acceptance and fear of abuse that expresses as lacking the ability to allow the healthy doubt necessary for change and growth.
- Gives their power away to others’ truth rather than claiming their truth
- May be the perpetual student who doesn’t ground their experience in practice but moves on seeking another truth
NEW SAGITTARIUS: Drop all Dogma and see ever-changing truth.
Questions all dogma and the crystallizations of “truth.” Goes boldly into new territory, seeking truth, seeing truth as ever-changing, ever-widening. The quest for meaning and purpose is a process, not a destination.
*Doubt is good and necessary for change and growth.
Dialogue with the split-off energies or complexes of a polytheistic psyche is required in order to obtain an enlarged sense of self.
James Hollis: “The only way we can remain faithful to the mystery of mystery is to preserve ambiguity. Certainty is the enemy of truth.” (Swamplands of the Soul)
Marcel Prost: “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscape but in having new eyes.”
Copyright 2020 Shamanic Astrology Mystery School