CHINESE YEAR OF THE EARTH DOG
FEBRUARY
The Chinese New Year of the Dog begins on February 16th. An Earth Dog only comes round once in every 60 years, and according to an on-line article by Mike Clark ‘new industrial projects and developments in energy are predicted to be successful in 2018, while endeavours based on greed and individual drive are likely to be rejected. It’s a good time to make life-style changes, and this could be a year of hope, filled with dialogue that helps cultures achieve solidarity and reject indifference’.
Guidelines
“The most important thing right now is to stop worrying about anything and everything, because… all manner of things shall be well. As Dame Julian of Norwich said in the 14th century, ‘All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well’. The world will be well.
In our view the world is beginning to open up to its humanity; its merciful understanding that everyone needs to be treated with respect. The recent climate of exposure; the uncovering of malpractice against those who are considered inferior – whether through race or gender – will begin to open up the world’s merciful eye, despite those who choose to tweet unkind and dissonant messages on a whim.
Because beneath those dissolute armies of aggressive responders are an emerging cohort of men and women with deep connectedness to earth’s wonders and heaven’s wisdom. It is as though the moment is arriving when the rich and powerful have a lessening influence on the way men and women perceive their own lives and how they wish to continue. They are choosing life at the edge of this wave of recognising themselves to be human at the deepest remarkable level. They have the merciful understanding that they are significant but not omnipotent in the world of men and women.
May we suggest that the days of omnipotence assumed by powerful people are numbered, not least through the example of those powerful leaders who are doing so much to ridicule omnipotence. We suggest to our friends in incarnation that they leave that world alone as much as they can. Withdraw from the world of greed and omnipotence and feel your own hearts beating to a different rhythm now.
Rhythm is significant here because the rhythm of greed and omnipotence is so fast that it is spiralling out of control, into pathology. But if you withdraw and feel the calm beat of your own heart resonating to a different rhythm, to the rhythm that the earth itself is now emitting. And we suggest that the earth will feel these withdrawals, away from omnipotence and greed, and embrace those people who are beginning to know that they wish their hearts to answer a different call.
Pull away and close your heart to the hysteria of omnipotence and greed. Feel a new rhythm that the earth is now resounding to. Experience the earth as your friend and comforter when you are not yearning for omnipotence, which sends people crazy. It is a peaceful, gentle feeling; very safe, very quiet.
The earth is now open to spirit. You can trust the earth to hold who you are and where you are, in the safety and comfort of its environment. The reaching out for the speed of greed and omnipotence, we suggest, is another level of the male aspect of the search for a distant spirituality, gone mad. So you can close down now. Allow yourself to risk that you are a spiritual being, here on earth, without losing your way in cosmic omnipotence and greed.
Allow February and March – up until Easter – to really pull back into your own beating heart; in line with the earth’s rhythm and environment. There’s a real understanding that the earth itself holds all you need to encompass spirit and matter within your being. The earth has arrived and human beings are able to trust that all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.”
Give yourself a moment to sit quietly for this audio meditation.