From Fragmented to Whole
As the point of opportunity at which we can experience all that we are in our authentic entirety, the Black Sun demands that we embrace both that with which we choose to identify and that which we would prefer to ignore! There are varying degrees of this process, and the exploration of the recesses and outskirts of our consciousness requires that no stone be left unturned. We may meet inner resistance at the prospect of doing so, preferring to focus upon self-love in a world which frequently tells us we are not good enough, effective enough, attractive enough etc. and perceiving the exploration of our shadow as somehow punitive or unnecessarily negative. But self-love without self-examination can easily slip into narcissism, just as self-examination without self love can become self-hatred. The path through the Black Sun requires rigorous honesty, not blame, recrimination or punishment, just honesty, which enables us to embrace all that we are in the greatest act of love a human can ever know: one which carries us from fragmented to whole and brings everything into the light of consciousness once and for all time.
It is a humbling process which requires a willingness to see in ourselves what we may only heretofore have seen in others. For what we perceive as outside of us is often a reflection of that which lies in the deepest, darkest places of our own psyche. It is a path not for the faint-hearted, although all hearts are welcomed and even the shyest peek into the darkness of the Black Sun can trigger a process of change the likes of which we have rarely, if ever, encountered. As Pluto first forms its opposition in February 2014, Jupiter conjuncts the Black Sun and Venus conjuncts Pluto. Here we have a cosmic blessing, supporting each and every person who dares to look inside and see who and what lives within. The degree in which the Black Sun resides, the 13th degree of Cancer, is identified by Dane Rhudyar, the astrologer and commentator on the Sabian Symbols, as one requiring ‘great will’. It is no surprise, then, that at this time of enormous change we encounter the Black Sun here, where it remains until the middle of the 21st Century. This ‘great will’ must be applied to enable us to pass through this process of transformation without guile or the usual self-deceptions that otherwise keep us safe and warm in our complacency.
This will is not that of ego which says ‘I will outshine the Black Sun to render it inert, inflating those aspects of myself which I am happy to own in the face of its invitation to look deeper’. No, this is the will of the Divine within which forever calls us into wholeness no matter what it takes. The will of the Divine is there for us to make our very own as we walk into the liberating darkness. Once we are fuelled by this will, there will be no more need to hide, for we will recognise that in our completeness we are fully present and unassailably whole no matter what.
This year, those who choose a path through the Black Sun in order for deep, rich, integrated wholeness to be born, must be prepared to ask some searching questions: To what extent do we define love according only to what feels right? To what extent do we embrace a spiritual path to pursue an outcome other than to know our very essence? To what extent do we equate ‘spiritual’ with ‘special’ and thus view our own life as somehow superior to those we perceive to lack such an orientation? In a nutshell: to what extent do we allow ego to shape our path even as we perceive it to be shaped by something altogether different? How and where have we mistaken Ego for Essence and built a spiritual life on foundations not of unconditioned truth but conditioned and formulaic belief, no matter how ‘alternative’ those beliefs may be?
As we stand on the cusp of the Aquarian Age, contemplation of these questions can orient us away from the Piscean Age shadow of Victim and Saviour, Special versus Mundane, towards the Aquarian message of inner and outer unity, equality and acceptance. The better able we are to anchor those qualities into the collective consciousness at this point in time, the better able we will be to avoid the Aquarian shadow of inverse snobbery in due course!
