fear

Fear and constriction are two closely related worlds.  Astrology connects these experiences with the planet Saturn, the guardian of the threshold.  Saturn is considered to be the wise old man, as shown of The Hermit (XI).  But the card associated with The Hermit . . . , The Moon (XVIII), corresponds with the threshold that Saturn guards.  It is the threshold of fear.  It exists everywhere in the outside world where we must do something unfamiliar and enter into a new land.  But we also experience it at least as intensely within as soon as we enter into the world of The Hermit.  Many people become afriaid when they are suddenly toatlly alone in the stillness of a secluded place.  At night, without any recognizable external reason, this fear can even take on panic-like characteristics.  Seen in psychological terms, this is the fear of the unconscious that forces its way through the threshold of consciousness, from which we run away to the extent that we flee from stillness and loneliness [life out of balance!](198-199).

~Tarot and the Journey of the Hero, Hajo Banzhaf (York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, 2000).

-I do want to say a little about the fear that is out there. There is darkness. We are not out of this whale yet. Recall what I said recently in 10:01:

It took me three days to watch I am Legend. I get scared pretty easily, and when I would reach a spot (where the fear of the monsters was too great, not the monsters, just the fear mind you) I would stop for the night. I watched The Happening last night. Boy, what a horrible movie, eh? It was interesting though. Like an anti-zombie movie. All we can do is stand in horror and watch as these unconscious zombies destroy themselves. Kinda the point of the movie though. The zombies usually come for us, but not these. They are us, and we are destroying ourselves.

It is the dark time. This is an expression my daughter would use for night.  Anyway, I've joked a bit before, but wonder now if capitalism isn't really dead. I recently received what amounts to an economic analysis of the end times from my CPA. The view is dark. End of empire. End of dollar. End of hope? End of everything?

I have to say this though, if we are not our bodies, or our thoughts, then we are certainly not our economy!

Here is an image from Art Young in 1907 that sums up the reaction of the U.S. (us) to the economic news:

"The task here is to not lose heart, not to become discouraged by the darkness, but to follow the longing and sincerely take the path of fear with courage and trust in order to reach what is authentic behind it (200)."~Tarot and the Journey of the Hero.

I do want to leave you with something positive. I like the idea of hope instead of focusing on the fear. I don't want to read about "retail in an age of scarcity". I want to write about love in an age of abundance. It isn't even monsters yet. It is the idea of monsters we fear. We are creating a self-sustaining shitstorm.  My worry is that much of this isn't anything but reaction to fear, like I'm going to take my daughter out of dance now because I might not have money for her to take dance in April. (?)  If we run out of money, we can deal with that.  No dance, but do we have to be reactive?

Anyway, I watched as much video of Slavoj Zizek as I could last summer. I tried to read him, but this level of philosophy is above my pay-grade. I should try again.

He is a Marxist and a Communist, and so his investment in our western, capitalistic system is minimal. His side completely lost. They have to play the game on "our" terms now, meaning that the left is in a right world.

Last summer, I was watching him talk about the death of capitalism (I think) and I'm pretty sure he said that we don't have to dream up a solution to the problem. The gist I got was that the new system would rise from the ashes of the old in a utopian fashion. I haven't been able to find this, and I don't remember what context it was in, so I don' even know where to start looking for the quote. This is hope though. Don't worry about tomorrow. Live today.

Don't react to the fear. Act. Be the hope. Be the star. But if we are going over the edge, jump!

If It's time to let go, let go. (Think of a blue fish and take your leap!)