December's Blue Moon - Image courtesy of Benedict Yeoman

Perhaps you heard, the 2009 New Year’s Eve Full Moon was a blue moon. The rarity of such an event falling on such a symbolic night - New Years Eve - got me thinking. A blue moon comes only once every 2 - 3 years. It occurs because, while there are 12 months in a year, there are 12 lunar cycles plus an extra 11 days. A blue moon then is when there is an extra full moon in any one month. In December the two were on the 2nd and the 31st.

December 2 Full Moon - reflected in Danube

Blue or Betrayer?

Why blue? The theory is that the name was not originally “blue” the colour, but an old English word “belewe” which means “to betray”. This makes sense for example when we consider that in olden days the moon was an important time keeper for farming cycles, each season having three full moons: early, mid and late. An extra full moon in the year will create confusion in the timing. For example: “Three winter full moons already but still too cold to plant our seeds – shouldn’t Spring be here by now?“  It is ironic that this use of blue as a corruption of “belewe” would mean that blue here represents the very opposite of its usual association - “trust.”

Whether this is the real origin of the phrase “blue moon” or not, one thing is sure - a blue moon year carries the energy of 13. And traditionally 13 certainly does coincide with untrustworthiness. 13 is superstitiously unlucky, just as Eve was the temptress, black cats are to be avoided and wise women are witches! Yes 13 is all things feminine and therefore to be put down.

The antidote - a positive wise woman

And so it was wonderfully refreshing that this New Years Eve the BBC aired a radio programme entitled “Blue Moon” which shared one wise woman’s project to honour this special event.

Elspeth Owen is an artist, and although she is 71 years old, she is spending the whole period from the first December full moon (on the 2nd) to the blue moon on the 31st, living entirely outdoors. Her project is to bury 14 white necklaces, one each night, for the 14 nights of the waning moon - the period when the moon shrinks. With the beginning of the New Moon she then retrieves each of the necklaces again, one by one, one per night. Her focus throughout this process will be “taking care” – both of herself and the necklaces.

She was a vibrant woman refreshingly unconcerned by any need to be rational. It was delightful to listen to her with her wonderful laugh which reminded me of Claudia Booth’s. The programme was a great antidote to the traditional negative associations of 13 and the feminine.

Tzaphkiel as Mother

And it seems to me that Elspeth’s story provides an insight into the nature of Tzaphkiel, just as did the film Avatar which I wrote about in the previous post. In the case of Elspeth’s project I believe it is an enactment of the Divine Mother aspect of Binah. Let me explain …

Elspeth began by making the 14 white necklaces – here she is Mother as creator.
She then births her creations into the world. She does this by burying them through the period of the waning moon - now she is Mother as birth giver.
Finally she retrieves and resurrects the necklaces - she completes the process as Mother the nurturer.

This project can be seen as a metaphor for the Creator’s relationship with the created. Souls are created through Binah, the Divine Mother, in order that consciousness may be enter into matter. Souls then travel further from the Divine by entering Matter in our case the human experience. It strikes me that at both the level of soul and the human being our deepest need and desire remains the same. We wish to be loved and remembered. What could be worse than being forgotten by your mother? I have seen film of grown men in orphanage / institutional homes in eastern Europe saying that all they want is to be reunited with their mothers. I have also heard that when soldiers call out with their dying breath it is invariably to their mother. Why would souls be any different in their relationship to the Source? Binah is the sphere of the mother and Tzaphkiel is its presence. It seems to me that Elspeth’s project re-enacts the archetypal mother myth of creation, dispersion and reunion.

The perpective of the Divine

Most satisfying of all, the  aspect of Elspeth’s project that bothered me the most is actually the key. Elspeth started her process on the Full Moon. This is the absolute opposite of my normal way to approach lunar cycles. Usually I associate beginnings with the New Moon, the process reaching a fruition with the Full Moon and then suffering a decline again with the waning moon.

Elpseth began her project in the totally opposite place!  But I see now that by burying the necklaces first and then resurrecting them again she is providing a metaphor for the process of consciousness entering into form, from the Heavenly perspective rather than the earthly. Brilliant. How Tzaphkiel!

B107 Tzaphkiel

Conclusions and a link

Though the film Avatar will probably grab me more – I am sure this radio programme will be the more heart-warming, humbling and enriching.

If you would like to listen to the radio programme - it is 30 minutes long - you can follow this link.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00pdjy1

Don’t delay too long, like a blue moon it may not come around again for a while.

I wish you all a happy, feminine and wise New Year.

The latest Equilibrium bottle - B107

Opalescent Turquoise / Deep Magenta

In my previous post on B107 I wrote about the silence, the mystery and the unfamiliar in Tzaphkiel.

Also on Tzaphkiel’s role as the intelligence in Binah that enables spirit to create and enter matter.

Here are some further ideas on the times in which B107 has been born.

Synchronicities

What is the big world event this week other than birth of B107? Well yes the Copenhagen Climate Conference but, putting that aside for a moment, it is the release of 2009’s most awaited film:

Avatar

The most expensive film of the year - if not the decade, the release of this film has been postponed time and again. It is finally released tonight, the very first Friday following the birth of B107. Its central premise, the reason for the name of the film itself, fits absolutely with the theme of Tzaphkiel: the possibiilty of light / consciousness to enter form. (the word avatar derives from the ancient indian language of sanskrit and signifies the appearance of a god in this world, its deeper root meaning to “descend” or “cross over” ) So tonight the gift of Tzaphkiel will be shown to the world even if those who see it have never heard of Archangels, Kabballah, Aura-Soma or B107.

In case you do not yet know about the film - it is the story of a human being who enters a specially created body, the Avatar. This new body with its sparkling blue skin (the film company’s exact words! ) enables the man to enter and live in another world. From the colour of the Avatar being almost exactly the same as the top fraction of B107, to the strange, other-worldliness of the Avatar’s appearance resonating with the unfamiliar energies behind B107, these are amazing coincidences.

From this basic premise Avatar develops into an action movie, a love story, with themes of finding the courage to do the right thing, choosing harmony with Nature, and fighting the commercial / industrial powers that see the world purely as a commodity without respect for life.

All this of course leads us to …

The Copenhagen Climate Summit

The other big world event this week – and even as I write this world leaders are frantically searching for a wording that all countries can sign to. The possibility of stepping in to our light potential is very acute just now. The Climate Summit is the test of whether we are willing to work towards a better future together. Will there be an agreement to co-operate or not? Is it possible there could be a deal that is fair to both rich and poor, to both industrialised and developing nations?

Gretel and Hansel

Questions like this bring to my mind Gretel and Hansel, B92 and B93. The coral for co-operation between male (turquoise) and female (olive). We have the rich northern hemisphere (male) and the underdeveloped southern (female) hemisphere. The main divide in this Summit has been between rich and poor nations. For once the poor nations operating in a more democratic voting system of one country / one vote have found more voice and power. We have to learn to honour not only the Earth on which we live but also each other. The northern hemisphere has taken the most in the Piscean Age, will it now be able to allow a redress of balance?

What have B92 and B93 to do with B107? Well the fact that B107 contains turquoise creates a significant echo to B92 and B93. Why? Because if we look at the three most recent bottles B105 Coral / Coral, B106 Pale Olive / Pale Violet and now B107 Opalescent Turquoise / Deep Magenta, we find a repeat of the coral - olive - turquoise sequence! These three colours in B92 and B93 opened the door to B94 and the Archangel sequence in Equilibrium. Now we come to, what in theory at least, could be the completion of the Archangel sequence (with Zaphkiel there is finally an Archangel bottle for each sphere of the Tree) and, with this possible completion, we see in Copenhagen a possible turning point for humanity to step up to collective challenge and opportunity.

Planetary Consciousness and the Turquoise Ray

The Aura-Soma New Aeon Tarot image for the Turquoise Master - Maha Chohan - shows a being that is dreaming this world. (I say this because you can see that planet Earth sits in Maha Chohan’s 8th chakra.) As delegates sit in Copenhagen it strikes me that to truly care for the Earth we have to not only respect each other (B92 and B93) but it will also be really helpful to enter into resonance with the planetary consciousness itself. This Tarot image shows that it is the Turquoise Ray which is the key to planetary consciousness and, now with the birth of B107, we have been given the rescue energy for this Turquoise Ray.

I just found this quote on the internet from Pablo Solon, the Bolivian ambassador at the United Nations in New York. He said “…we must begin to change our relationship to nature in this new century. The main way to do that is to recognize that not only we humans have rights, but also that our Mother Earth, our nature has rights, rights that we must respect.” He went on to say, though not in these words, … it is not a question of trading numbers such as carbon credits between rich and poor, but a change in our hearts about our relationship to the earth itself.
This is the best of planetary consciousness in a turquoise week!

This leads us back to Avatar! A man entered another body and consequently changed his consciousness, his priorities and, ultimately, his choice of actions.

Finally

So it is beautiful that this turquoise rescue appears as a support for the light within us
The part that can say “Yes we can.” Of course we don’t know what is really important here, a “Yes” or a “No”. Perhaps a disappointing “No” from Copenhagen will fuel the pressure for a stronger “Yes” at the end of B107’s time.

So we come to more of Mike’s words on the themes of B107: “Where we have become over-identified and fatigued by circumstance — losing sight of our bigger purpose — the rescue aspect of the Turquoise of B107 invites us into the grace of unfoldment and the wonder of allowing ourselves to simply step into the flow of our fulfilment..”

This is the key.

(more…)

A new Equilibrium bottle was born 14th December 2009

It is a new and mysterious colour – this opalescent turquoise. Like sunlight shining through the sea … like foam … like bubbles in the frothing wave. Yet when the bottle is turned on its side and viewed from above then this opalescence becomes like a field of stars strewn across the universe.

Something unfamiliar

I was lucky to be shown the bottle by Mike even before it was released. He told me then this long birthing period from 19 November to 14 December had been helpful because the energy behind this bottle is very unfamiliar for us on Earth. And now this bottle is born I still find this so. Mostly I find myself silent in the face of it. Ideas and thoughts seem irrelevant with this combination. Silence is more powerful. Silence, it seems, speaks volumes.

Silence in the face of wonder

Speaking of which … on the night of the bottles birth, by chance I saw an episode of a TV series called Defying Gravity. I had not seen the previous episodes, but the one i saw Episode 9 (titled Eve ate the Apple) is the point in the story when the main characters - the astronauts on a space mission to travel the solar system - discover they are carrying a mysterious life form in their ship. It is connected to life forms on other planets and communicates through an ethereal kind of singing. As this lifeform is revealed to the astronauts, all they can do is stare upon it in silence and wonder. It has a form, yet its form is always changing, like water flowing, always turning in on itself. It is something, mysterious, enchanting and incomprehensible. This image brought back to mind Mike’s words to me about the unfamiliarity behind this latest bottle.

Energy becomes Form

This may seem a random association to the new bottle but there is further connection. Mike made several mentions in the oficial announcement of the new bottle that the Tzaphkiel energy is supporting the light-being dimension of ourselves. For example he said “Each of us is a gossamer light-being, fragile within the density of our physicality.” In some way this lifeform in the space ship brought together energy and form into one image – it made more explicit the meeting between these two worlds.

Tzaphkiel, Binah and the Mother

What is really interesting is that Tzaphkiel is the Archangel associated with the sphere of Binah in the Tree of Life. And it is Binah that provides the bridge between spirit and matter, energy and form. Binah is part of the top triangle of the Tree of Life. This triangle is one of pure spirit, and yet within this triangle Binah is also home to the principle of Universal Mother. It is this principle of Mother in spirit which makes it possible for energy to take on form. Just as a human mother provides the growing space in her womb for new life to take form, so Binah provides the energetic field for matter to be created. This is the Mother behind all mothers.

Tzaphkiel is the intelligence or being within this sphere and the one that holds this possibility. Tzaphkiel and Binah provide the field which allows the light to create and enter into the material world. In Mike’s words, “Tzaphkiel as the Divine Mother comes in compassion to help us birth the light body from within the chemistry of our physical bodies.”

In the next post connections between B107 and world events this week …