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Root Medicine of the Stars

Message from the Dark River

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Fire-root, the one legged protector of shamans, holds the Moon in his hand and sings, his voice, the sound of the bullroarer, spinning stars from the dark belly of his wife, Star-Womb, into the burls and spinning knots of his body and powerful leg. He stands as the great tree around which the Sun swings at solstice, the time when the friction of his root in the firmament creates the sparks of the First Fire, spiralling in a double helix through the plenum as He rekindles its flame.

He is the father of the sun-spirit, the one who makes weather and whose reach extends from pole to pole.

His name is heard from pole to pole, in a thousand forms, each a link word in an eternal chant that echoes across the starry field of the star mother’s belly, reverberating in waves that push and pull, creating time in the mind of her star seeds, opening and closing as ages pulse through eons, cyclic songs given to the medicine women and taught through Luna.

Luna, in his hand but a grandchild, herself an ancient grandmother, turns and rests her head against Mula, the ‘root’ star, and herself swings around the shoulder of Fire-root, reborn. Mula carries the memory of memory, the serpent fire of the mind held deep in matter, connecting with the base chakra, and holds its powerful medicines, protected, in the sting of the Scorpion. Below the serpents coils She dwells and augers the solar seed.

The augeries are told, this will be the time in which ‘renewal itself is renewed’, the tree of stars, the shaman’s thunderbolt, the fire drill of creation, will turn together and stir within the deepest places, within the Dreaming Star Womb;  She says…….’Awaken your dream body, look to your dreams’, for Her star-seeds are the stuff we, and they, are made of……

In the traditions of indigenous peoples world-wide this figure is recognised, the pivotal being around whose axis time spirals, who dwells in the Dark River, the heart of our Milky Way galaxy, and who oversees the birth of the solar year, as our own Sun is reborn crossing this place in the celestial realms. This river is the womb from which stars are birthed, known as ‘Emu Woman’ amongst original peoples of the Australasian continent – She has been carved into the stone, just as She appears in the height of summer in those lands, at the Emu’s egg laying time.

Amongst the same people, He is known as Daramulum. He consorts with Her, as our Sun crosses Her belly above the stars in the sting of the constellation Scorpius, amidst the cloud of stellar dust that forms the Dark River. We are born from, made from, the dust of stars – and, the Waters are born there, just as, at the heart of our Earth, the star fire core creates the indigenous terrestrail waters of the deep aquifers.

The star Mula, known amongst the north African star seers as Shaula, whose name carries the same root meaning of ‘root’ itself, augers the power of the Seer, the one who sees with other eyes. This is the same mula we find in the Muladhara chakra, ‘root-support’ and echoes the pivotal role of the pillar of sacred fire within the human subtle energy body, the Sushumna, spiralled around by the Ida and Pingala.

In the northern traditions he comes down to us via Heimdallr, He who keeps watch for Ragnarök and is known for seeding the divine within the consciousness of humanity – He is also known as Rig, and Vindlér amongst the northern peoples, the praiser and singer, the wind bringer, who is blessed with great foresight and whose breath carries divine knowledge when given form in song and verse.

shamans-staff (2)The Rigveda, whose first verse sings praises of Agni, the fire bringer and solar deity, carries the same etymological root, ‘praise-knowledge’. And, amongst Indian mythologies the ‘one legged’ is known as Ekapada, the one legged goat, the correlation of Capricorn, the bringer of primordial matter, fire, soul and power of the Cosmos, the serpent fire. 

He carries the thunderbolt, the Vajra, the electric root of manifestation and change. He reaches back through time and is echoed in the shaman’s staff, the one legged wand of power, topped with the animal form of the spirit who is the ally of the shaman, known to us from Palaeolithic times.

The augeries of this time call the seers and healers to summon their gift, to journey in spirit to the ninth realm, the highest point upon the world tree, mirrored in its roots through the spinning of fate and destiny, to connect with the powers that bring the highest wisdom to their practice and call up the root power of their own path, to seek wisdom from the source for a new time ahead. Such is the symbolism carried into the iconography of the undying tree crowned with the star, which is also known in the west through the ‘christmas tree’.

The new lunation is begun in harmony with the new solar cycle. Fertile darkness within fertile darkness, this is a time of birthing mystery from within mystery, and seeding the earth plane, the middle world, with a renewed vigour. It requires great discipline and clarity of mind for this undertaking to bear fruit……garner this power now, shed all that does not serve this greater purpose, for, upon the return of the Sun, its power will begin to work in the world. Great things can be accomplished with such guidance…..

It is exemplified in the words of the shamans of the Sierra Nevada who, as the solar cycle neared its turning point, sent this message to the world :

1970586_10152257702507419_1179323869_n“Blessings all, a powerful message has been delivered in Australia during the past 72 hours from the People of the Earth, The Sierra Nevada. (Shamans of Columbia who have never lost their ancient connection to the Earth, and still live in complete harmony with nature and each other.)
Their message in essence is that “now is the time to fully commit to the restoration of our Earth.”

Source : ‘10,000 Amend’, 2014-12-19

Images :

(1) Emu Woman rock engraving, Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, NSW. Image, Barnaby Norris

(2) Shaman’s Staff, Rob Purday

(3) Kogi Mamas, Sierra Nevada

 

Root Medicine of the Stars

The Shaman and the Moon

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Hunter and the Skeleton Woman

The Moon reaches fullness at 16°19′ tropical Pisces, 2:40am UTC on September 9th, and brings the key wound of this Age, the subjugation of the Feminine, into full view. The planetary matrix is showing us the need to embody the role of healer and redeemer towards that wound.

Chiron is within one degree of this full Moon and emphasises the significance and nature of the wound itself. In accordance with the myth, which speaks of the need to accept that only by entering fully into life can we redeem our own suffering, we have entered the realm of the wounded healer. The wise centaur points directly towards our global wounds, the gashes in the fabric of Life that need us to bring this awareness to bear. The onus is on us all to own the wound, to see it in our selves, and to let its wisdom speak through us, transform us. To do so is to engender the energy necessary to achieve Critical Mass. Only then can we transfigure our species and heal the wound.

Chiron’s animal nature is key. The energy of this full Moon must be a gateway for our instinctive drive-to-survive. If this lunation be about bringing passion to our allegiances then this full Moon shows us what happens when we do. It is time for the strongest forces within us to have their say, the will to protect Life and to be willing to put everything we have into the fight.

Venus opposes Neptune from Virgo at this full Moon. So far, the critical mass has only been demonstrably seen in disconnected outbreaks, achieved in global pockets and lacks the vital impetus that embodies that drive collectively. This disconnection is something of a mirage and is largely down to the fact that the media’s mainstream coverage of these demonstrations of ‘solidarity’ is deeply biased in favour of the ‘status quo’. Neptunian deception is all pervasive, the orthodoxy mispresents facts, its representations designed to engineer a prescribed response in the populace and, by and large, the truth is completely clouded out of the picture. But, if you follow alternative media sources and, as Venus now indicates, you keep an ear to the ground, you will know that there is a critical mass emerging, that there is much underway in the world that is in fact ‘healing’, and that this is rising and expanding. Realism and feet on the ground discernment, this opposition tells us is, however, essential.

In traditional Chaldean rulerships the second decan of Pisces is ruled by Jupiter, the planet of expansive energy and philosophical largess. The traditions surrounding the middle degrees of Pisces speak of great matters involved in making choices, the kind that really matter. Are we to remain victims or can we champion the greater cause. Mars, preparing to fly through Jupiter’s sign over the coming weeks, is in late Scorpio, out of aspect, and stands to infuse any action undertaken over the coming days with additional depth, passion and meaning. It is also likely that the whole idea of war-making will be questioned with increasing effect through the coming weeks. However you view it, this is not a time to stand on the sidelines.

As if to hammer the point home Saturn at 18° Scorpio, trines the Moon and sextiles the Sun. Saturn also reminds us of the rigidity that can kill off the life-force, the unbending adherence to structural regimens that ultimately evolves stasis. Scorpionic incalcitrance at the lowest vibration teaches us the harsh truth ~ Stasis = Death. It is the ‘status quo’ that must be sacrificed. However, as temporal gatekeeper Saturn does not necessarily want us to remain locked within stasis, but, rather learn the lesson of the moment ~ ‘how to go forward’. We stand on that threshold. The ancient symbol of transfiguration associated with Scorpio is the Phoenix.

The lunar disc finds the fixed star Homam marking the azimuth of its maximum luminosity in the 17th degree of Pisces. In the neck of Pegasus, a constellation itself associated with rising above difficulties, Homam lends the full Moon the need to strive upwards, to pull oneself out of victim states and to claim the power of redemption. This is not all it seems ~ luck may have its role to play. As if fate were lending her ear to the moment, Homam, ‘the whisperer’, is also the bearer of the gift of ‘chance’…..

But, let us not forget, it is the solar disc of conscious volition that lends its light to this Moon. The powers of healing and redemption are reflected back to us on Earth through the Sun’s light, carrying the inner vibration of Virgo, the image of the Maiden and Virgin, through the lunar disc. This is the Menarch moment, where the wound signifies the evolution of the feminine principle to the potent state of Life-bearer, Motherhood, and, in so doing embodies the lunar rhythm and the tidal forces of Time that work through Creation. The feminine measure of ‘time’. And, in many ways, it is the fierce instinct of protection that the mother shows around her off-spring that we are looking to embody. Our role as caretakers of this magical blue orb rests upon our realising it……

This Moon tells us it is time to acknowledge the wound, and, being in the midst of the last sign in the zodiac, emphasises the fact that we must also look around with clear and level gaze, that if this lifetime is our last opportunity to do so here on Earth, that we are in the transition zone already ~ in some sense this is a timeless moment, one we have visited before, that is burned deep into our core memories. If we are prepared to put our own lives on the line, draw on our deepest resources and go forward fearlessly, in protection of this, our home planet, we must also acknowledge that, after this moment, the greater forces at large in the cosmos take over, the forces of Life and Death. The shaman’s wisdom, which is our prerogative, knows that death furnishes all life with life.