2022–4–10 Radio Show Transcript — Bubbles of Belief and The Gravity Well of Faith
Transcript of Radio Show: Bubbles of Belief and The Gravity Well of Faith (4/10/2022)
(If you wish to listen to the show instead, here is the link on BlogTalk or Apple Podcasts)
I thought that it would help to pull back from any one issue today, as we focused on Ukraine, Zelensky and Putin last time, and zoom out and look at the principal planetary Avatars of meaning again, to look to Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto and reexamine their message(s) for us at this time.
But first, I would also like to remind us, that the planets and stars do not make the content of what happens here on Earth. They do not create Love or Hate, Peace or War. What we have, what we face and what we will make, the very real content of our individual character, the sensibilities and morals of our communities, and the reality of our economic and political orders, all of that is something that we have fashioned since the moment we humans moved into self-aware development many thousands of years ago.
Consciousness, Patterns and Self-Awareness
The moment we began to become aware and see patterns, within ourselves, and between one another, and in the world around us, the moment we began to fashion ways of meeting our needs that we could pass down to those after us, the moment we became co-creators of ourselves and this world, it is then that we became responsible for what we have done well (and not so well) throughout human history. And this understanding, of how much we make and re-make ourselves and our reality, has become increasingly evident over the last 500 years. We find at this moment in our journey of awakening, that we humans have become one of the principal instruments of evolution on this Earth. And, as always, since the moment we woke up the key to our future would forever flow from the great injunction of Spiritual Wisdom and self-mastery, “Know Thyself”.
But how is it that we did or do this? What is this secret of our power to create, and the power to destroy ourselves and our world? What we understand is that this awesome gift, with the power of a being a creator and destroyer, was forged when we became self-aware, and we became capable of holding our experiences in vehicles of preservation and transmission, in symbols and sounds, in Knowledge and Wisdom, and it was then that we became ever more responsible as the shapers and makers of our destiny.
Vehicles of Knowing
These vehicles of preservation take many forms. In earlier ages, but still very much present in our own time, the customs, and lifeways of a group of humans, a family tribe, or a small community or larger community, who having discovered how to secure their needs in their local area, (for water, food, shelter, etc.), we humans would create stories and rituals that held this knowledge of our world for those that followed. Our greatest treasure and gift to those who will follow us is this living Energy-Form of Mind that persists from generation to generation.
But these vehicles of knowing and memory do not just pass on practical or technical knowledge. For we humans are made of much more than naked ideas or thoughts. We also find it necessary, to enfold and encode our knowledge and truth with “Meaningfulness”. We do not merely think, we Think-Feel, or Feel-Think, and our experiences, memories, stories, and wisdom are held together and passed down in ways that hold us together with these energy-forms of Love and Hate, Faith and Fear, Compassion and Selfishness that move us deeply and profoundly and truly form our reality of one another and our world.
Bubbles of Belief
I have called these vehicles of experience, (and this designation becomes increasingly relevant in the more complex human communities of ethnicities, cultures, and modern nation states), I call these holders of meanings our “Bubbles of Belief”. It is Neptune’s role for us, as the Avatar of Understanding and Meaning, by its individual synodic cycles (one circuit around our star to the next), and its intersecting cycles with Uranus and Pluto especially, it is Neptune’s messaging that can be most helpful in helping to explain the waves of meaningfulness that sweep through us and our history.
Again, I want to stress, that it is not Neptune (or any planet for that matter), which forms the specific type of content of meaning that any one group or culture has created and followed. That content and that meaning, is made by us, it has evolved and developed over time, from the very distant past, and that creation and accretion informs our present circumstances, and it can also help us to understand how we might be shaping our future too.
In what we see from our recorded histories, certainly since the times of the ancient or classical worlds, before the current era (BCE), and then increasingly down to our very own time today, we see how the power of beliefs of one group or of one people or one culture can have the most significant effects upon that group internally, and equally upon those with whom they have contact externally. Indeed, what we can see now in the present day is that these Bubbles of Belief influence and shape the entire world in both wonderful and horrific ways.
We humans are so very protean in our nature, capable of creating or making the value of ourselves and of the material world we live in, bending and transforming in a multitude of ways, so that the range of cultures, beliefs, lifeways, and hierarchies of values experienced over the course of our history is quite astounding, rich, and varied. These Bubbles of Belief form and shape our very notions of who we are, what it means to be human, what we aspire to be, including the notion of what is the meaning or purpose of our lives.
But because how very deeply we humans are made from and held by these Thought-Feeling Forms, their influence over any individual, or group, or culture or nation is very profound. It is one thing when we consider the more minor vehicles of technique and meaning, the accumulated knowledge that enables each generation to literally not have to re-invent the wheel! But it is entirely a different order of meaning when we consider these larger Bubbles of Belief and Meaning that shape a group or culture or nation, molding and holding their spiritual and cultural ideals, their categories of right and wrong, of good and evil, of truth and falsehood.
Gravity Well of Faith
This is what I meant by including in the title for this show what I call the phenomenon of “The Gravity Well of Faith”. What do I mean by this? It is the concept that as groups of peoples, and even more as a set of sub-cultures are formed, and finally as a larger over-arching culture of a people or nation is established, their core beliefs become somewhat like the observations of the influence of gravity, which is itself most powerfully observed when we see how the passage of light from a particular star is literally “bent” by the gravity of another star or even more by a black hole. I would argue that in a Mental-Emotional way, the attachment and weight of belief and faith has a similar effect of pulling those members into a deeply binding system of reality, which creates an all-powerful Idea-Feeling form that holds that group together as one. It is the way of that people, the “Spiritus Mundi”, the Spirit of a Time, or the “Zeitgeist”, the defining Character of the people in a period of history.
Throughout human history, we have witnessed the awesome power of what we might consider constructive and destructive Bubbles of Belief, as in the Ideas and Passions forged by religious beliefs, or the drama of social movements striving to advance social justice. But we have equally witnessed the horrors committed in the name of faith, or the so-called advancement or triumph of one people by the destruction of another. Truly these more encompassing and compelling Belief Bubbles hold and bind their believers in a deep Well of fervor which can lead to the most disparate of outcomes.
Throughout history, and certainly in what we call the “modern era”, the Gravity Well of Faith that holds all a people as one, the idea of a people defined by a geographic area, a common history, a certain set of cultural attributes, etcetera, has been a principal driver of human integration within that group and defined and shaped its relationship with other peoples or groups. Yet, beyond these natural foundations for the defining of a people, beyond what some have held as the true rootedness found in “blood and soil”, we also have seen the very power of an idea itself, such as “all humans are created equal” permeate, challenge and overthrow these more so-called natural determinations of what forms the Gravity Well of Faith.
The shift from prevailing Bubbles of Belief, and even from one Gravity Well to another, has both been a product of our human protean capacity and equally the driver of that transformative evolution. Truly, we are and make what we are by how we Think and Feel about who we are, where we come from, what matters to us, and, and how that fits with the larger world around us and other groups with other Beliefs and Gravity Wells of Faith.
Astrologically, what we can observe over time with regards to the cycle of Neptune through the Zodiac, is that there are similar influences created when it is moving the Zodiacal Signs, and especially when passing through Pisces (as it is now), along with significant indications revealed by its orbital relationship with Uranus (as well as its orbital pattern with Pluto too).
Neptune, The Universal Solvent
For our purpose today, whenever Neptune, known as the Universal Solvent, is moving through its own sign of Pisces, we have seen a greater propensity towards the dissolving and warping of the Bubbles of Belief and Meaning for that period. Our period from 2011 to 2026 is like that of 1848–1862, or 1685–1698, and 1520–1535. In our time, as in those periods, there was a surge of mysticism and creativity, of religious and ideological ferment, and the breaking down of the old certainties as borders between the orders and realms of society became more permeable.
What happens in such periods is that the former certainties of a reigning order of meaning begin to dissolve, and individuals and groups become untethered to a commonly held reality formation. This movement beyond the limits or confines of previous held truths and beliefs can be liberating, and indeed this “letting go in order to grow” has been a necessary and significant instrument of progress. But it is also probable, and many times we have seen this as well, that the breaking of those Bubbles of Beliefs which been held together the many as one in a shared Gravity Well of Faith will lead those untethered souls into wider and sometimes weirder permutations of meanings and faith.
Danger of Disillusionment
Indeed, these newly “freed” individuals and groups of individuals, may become entangled and enchanted by a new-found faith or truth, which may or may not be true at all. Or they may look back, returning to a way of feeling and thinking, to a way of being that was lost and wish to reclaim it. The problem is that now being no longer circumscribed and held to some sense of a centered self by a fundamental Well of Meaning, their very longing for a center of meaning by which to hold themselves together can be the very instrument by which they become pulled into and held by a new-found or rediscovered belief. They forge an alternate Well of Meaning that is not based in a widely shared reality that has prevailed over time, and which has been tested and affirmed by its functioning within the larger world.
Indeed, they often take comfort and pride in standing apart, holding themselves with a high regard for their role as restorers, or avengers, or redeemers, and by that very Well of Gravity they have forged, they may lead themselves into a way of being that can cause great harm to themselves and to others, as we have certainly seen here and around the world long ago and in our present day too.
Now, given we are in such a moment now, where the old certainties, which were not without illusions to be sure, but they held us in a belief that we had moved more closely into a world where consensus and agreement would create some kind of “Golden Age”, but instead we find ourselves, as individuals, and in groups, and even as nations confused and uncertain as to our future, so that we find ourselves desperately holding on to whatever provides some comfort amidst the tumult of rumors, half-truths, propaganda, conspiracies, and the havoc fomented by weak souls wielding deadly powers, well, what do any of us do to find our way in such a world?
The Truth
I am sure you know what I am about to say to that. For the truth is this, the Truth never changes. It is what makes the Universe and you and I, and it is encoded in the patterns that make the building blocks of the physical world, from atoms, to molecules, to organisms (like you and me), and the stars. The truth is out there, and in us too. We have seen these patterns of meaning with both our intuitive gifts and our scientific instruments. Yes, we feel and think about these wheels within wheels, patterns within patterns that form the web, the warp and weft of the entire universe, from the infinitesimal to the infinite.
The First Gravity Well of Faith, The One
You, me, and the whole universe are made from, shaped by and are here because of the first Gravity Well of Faith, the One. And long, long ago and throughout the ages, various Wise Ones and Prophets, Scientists and Seers, and many who remain unknown have found their way to this singular truth. That we are all, no matter where we think we came from, and no matter what we may feel about one another, we are all here to come back to the source of all to remember and understand that we are made as one by the One, forged by love and we are here to love one another.
What is the way forward, what is the path we must follow? It is quite simple really, which is why it is truly true. I wrote this earlier, and it bears repeating now. The only way forward is to follow the path of Everlasting Truth, which is:
That this Universe is formed by one primary Energy-Form, The Unconditional Love of the One for all the ones; That made by Unconditional Love, we are here to Love and be Loved Unconditionally too; and given the Energy-Form that holds all of Creation as One is our Root Energy-Form as well, then we are here quite simply to Love One Another, and it follows that we should Love the other as we Love Our own true Self for there really is no difference. Each one of us, all of us are in Truth sparks of the One and so we are here to live by the light of the divine within each of us, indeed in all that we do, and it is by this Love that we bow to the Divine that is the entirety of this wondrous Creation too.
The Way Forward
The Ancient Wisdom holds that the Love of the One is Unconditional and All-Encompassing. And we, who are sparks of this One Divine Light, we are equally called upon to strive to treat one another, and indeed all of life, as our brothers and sisters, as our mothers and fathers, as dear to us as we are to ourselves; that we are here quite simply to learn and so become that Light which is Love; and that our entire Journey in Spirit is for us to awaken to our true nature which is to love and be loved in this Creation, a Creation in which we and countless sparks of the Divine actually form that living embodiment of Love.
So, I would say the way forward is clear, as it has always been clear to those who follow the path of Light and Love. When you see someone in trouble, there you are. When you see the evil that is ignorance, there you should be light of understanding and healing. When you wish to do what is right, there is but one thing you must do.
Love one another.
Originally published at https://astrologerbillattride.typepad.com.
