Alt-Epistemology: Let us sink below the conceptual scrim of judgments to the energetic realm of feelings . . .

. . . and stay there! And let us notice our feelings, watch them move through and dissolve. Yes! Let us let go of identification, which triggers the mind, which then instantly conjures up ideas, to justify “why” we identify, which then hardens the ideas into judgments, pro and con, good and bad, good and evil. Yuck!

This is the way wars begin. Let us find another way.

More and more, I notice myself withdrawing from the geopolitical world, the lies, agendas obfuscations, complexities, layers, distractions, judgments pro and con — all the mental stuff that we use to cover up  mild or extreme discomfort resulting from triggered emotions of aversion and desire and, especially, that does or, more likely, does not accurately describe, or at least parallel, the actual 3D reality.

Instead, I find myself withdrawing, noticing my inner world, what I bring into being by the quality of my presence. Noticing where I am carrying lies, agendas, obfuscations, complexities, layers, distractions, judgments, pro and con — all the mental stuff in me that is triggered by OLD OLD OLD emotions of aversion and desire, and that I know damn well, does NOT describe or parallel the actual 3D reality.

On the one hand, I’m glad others are still paying attention to the hoopla, and like most of us, I do hope that justice will be served — whatever that means in this high-stakes global game of greed, gotcha, cruelty and corruption.

And on the other hand, I’m glad to have lived long enough to learn how to instantly shift  attention, over and over again, whenever I feel myself being “drawn in” to the maelstrom.

So, here, now. I clean house, do the dishes, walk miles on forest trails with dogs, work with podmates to nurture and evolve this Green Acres Permaculture Village, and above, all, feel very very grateful to be grounded here into this tiny living experiment in transformation of  values that govern life in the suburbs — all as I continue to descend deeper and deeper into the layers of my own life to recover and share the writings (see A.K. Reader, Astrology, and E-Books) that have accompanied my voluminous and varied experiences over seven and a half decades.

Meanwhile, once in a while, I try out a new experiment, and here’s one: an idea that I’ve been dreaming up ever since Donald Trump was elected President, of showing his astrological chart alongside the chart of the U.S., and zeroing in on their energetic connection. In other words, I aim, in these presentations, to go beneath politics, beneath the polarization that defines this (and every?) age, to understand how we are all being “played,” on an unconscious level, by forces that we do not understand but that connect us even so.

I had originally wanted to do this presentation right after the election last year, in the auditorium at the public library, downtown. But was dissuaded by others: too dangerous. Who knows who would show up? Who knows what kinds of extreme positions people would walk in the door with in this Democratic liberal academic town? Could I contain and transform hostility, if necessary? Perhaps not.

For a whole year I stewed in my juices, wondering how to do this presentation. Then, aha! We have recently inaugurated the idea of short “presentations” following some of our Community Dinners. For our first presentation, podmate Alex gave us an hour-long demonstration of Feldenkreis. Afterwards Mariella asked, would I like to go next? Do the Trump/U.S. astrology talk that I’ve been wanting to do? Why yes!

So did I end up doing this presentation for the first time here, in the tiny, and safe, venue of Green Acres Village, as a short, 15-minute talk after one of our Community Dinners. That was over a month ago. Then, two nights ago, I did the presentation again, this time out in Brown County, up a country road to friend Annie’s home on a beautiful ridge overlooking the forest with a lake to the west framed by the setting sun. We sat there, around the fire, grilling hot dogs and sausages, about a dozen of us, all drawn by the promise of looking at the energetic connection of the astrological charts of Donald Trump and the U.S. After dinner, we headed inside, where these beautiful souls, many but not all of whom knew each other — and, Annie told me earlier, most of them were “anti-Trump,” though there was one couple that was “pro-Trump” — and you know what? When it was over, and this presentation lasted a full hour, branching out in several ways, I realized that I had no idea who was pro and who was anti. Why?

Because we succeeded. We descended below the superficial conceptual political linguistic  level that gets triggered by the strong, uncomfortable emotional charge that energizes us all during this time, and stayed there, below our judgments, below the polarization, realizing our connection — and above all, having fun!

To give a short summary for astrologers of the two strongest energetic connections: 1) Trump’s warlike, courageous Mars/Ascendant in Leo (the king, the ruler, the narcissist) exactly opposes the U.S. Aquarian Moon (the populace). 2) Trump’s twittering Gemini Sun conjunct wild-card, unpredictable Uranus opposite Full Moon in wide-ranging Sagittarius conjuncts the U.S. Mars (exact). All these planets are angular in both charts, i.e., bound to express into the world rather than to be held within. As the U.S. populace is uprising, so Trump seems to be the one who incites the uprising, but in fact he simply mirrors and exaggerates it. There was much more, along the way, including the uncanny transits to the U.S. chart on 9/11, the technological prowess and continuous warlike tendencies of the U.S., Trump’s love of family and need for loyalty. On and on. Instead of blaming or heralding, we were, instead, understanding. “Standing under” our judgments, recognizing that and how the original nature of Donald Trump strongly stimulates and echoes the original nature of the United States of America.

At the end — wanting, no doubt, something about their own original natures as shown in their sun signs — they asked me if I would just give a short description of each of the astrological signs in order. At this question, something took me over: I said, “How about I do it in body language?” and proceeded to move in exaggerated ways, demonstrating first, impulsive headstrong Aries, then stubborn head-in-the-sand Taurus, then curious scattered Gemini, clannish protective Cancer, proud self-expressive Leo, critical, discerning Virgo — and so on and on, sign by sign, all the way around the zodiac, until we were all laughing in recognition of how each of us is, in our original natures. Instead of lots of words, the entire demonstration took not even two minutes. I plan to do this body language display of the signs of the zodiac again soon, and videotape it.

Meanwhile, podmate Andreas, who accompanied me on the hour-long journey to Annie’s house, took a few pictures and made an audio, which I link to, here.