SUMMER 2019 ECLIPSE ALERT: Shocks to the System Are Triggering Karmic PTSD in Everybody
By Joan Pancoe
“There is, among Orthodox Jews, a blessing to be said on witnessing the strange: one blesses God for the diversity of his creation, and one gives thanks for the wonder of the strange.” -Oliver Sacks
Dear ONE,
We’re entering into a doozy of an Eclipse Season in July! It kicks off on July 2 with a comparatively benign and upbeat New Moon Eclipse in nurturing Cancer inspiring us to set a fresh tone of heart-centered beginnings with loved ones (including ourselves) over the long holiday weekend and beyond.
However, it’s vital that we don’t get lulled into complacency and assume that we’re getting a season off from our curriculum in Earth School. For, on July 16, we have a FULL MOON ECLIPSE in Capricorn that will blast us into a sideways elevator of consciousness which, while dissolving linear space/time boundaries over the next six months and beyond (Neptune RX helps:)), will bring us more FGOs (fuckin growth opportunities) than we may have experienced in this life to date.
Our biannual Eclipse seasons always ratchet up the intensity exponentially as they set the tone and themes for the next six months and beyond. But the reason this one is such a mother is that it’s conjunct the rare ongoing triple-conjunction in Capricorn of Transformational Pluto, Karmic Teacher Saturn and the Moon’s South Node, also called the Dragon’s Tail, which embodies our karmic past.
I first wrote about this major planetary event a few months ago: You Know Your Karmic Goose Is Cooked When Pluto and Saturn Are Dancing with the Dragon’s Tail
The main reason the impact of this triple-conjunction bears reiterating is that, with the intense culminating nature of this Full Moon Eclipse, all of our karmic PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) will be coming up to be healed on deeper and deeper levels. I’m sure many of us have already been feeling this, especially with the Neptune RX station still in effect since the Solstice on June 21 and for the week or two proceeding it.
This is one of those good news/bad news scenarios. However, if we’re more conscious of how this Full Moon Eclipse activation will be affecting us then, at least, we’ll be more prepared to make the most of this life-changing summer class in Earth School in a positive way. And, with awareness, we can move through what comes up with all the lessons in real-time, and not need to have do-overs again and again and again.
Most of us have heard of PTSD, and many of us who’ve experienced trauma in this life are still uncovering deeper layers of the original traumatic events. PTSD causes us to have seemingly irrational terror, panic, anxiety and/or physical symptoms of fear arise when present-day circumstances trigger our emotional body’s cellular memories in such a way that the initial trauma gets re-activated.
Now, imagine if we open up the playing field, so to speak, and look at all our past lives as previous chapters in the soul’s story. This would mean that any unresolved traumas from past lives, including all the lives in which we didn’t die peaceable in our sleep of a ripe old age, are carried in our psychic body, which is a more subtle energetic body than the etheric, mental or emotional bodies. This creates a huge reservoir of what I call: karmic PTSD. So, obviously, with this definition, all of us have it BIG TIME!
In fact, healing karmic PTSD is one of the major focuses of my work with clients over the last 45+ years. When I channel a Soul Reading, the nature of karmic trauma is clarified through exploring the past lives which caused it. This helps explain the legitimate reasons why we have symptoms that have arisen from the psychic body and been somatized, through the successive layers of the energetic, emotional and mental bodies, until finally we develop idiopathic symptoms in our physical vessel as body karma. These physical symptoms, if painful and debilitating enough, usually get our attention that a course correction is indicated in how we operate, which is their primary purpose after all.
And while we’re certainly not responsible in this life and this body for our karmic PTSD, we are responsible when symptoms arise to do the work to excavate and heal them at their karmic roots.
Please note: Many clients first come to see me for a Soul Reading as “the court of last resort” when doctors have labeled their physical symptoms as “idiopathic” which is defined as “arising and/or from an obscure or unknown cause.” Basically, this means that doctors have no idea what causes these symptoms or how to treat them and thus they’re thrown into the catch-all phrase: idiopathic.
Even if we don’t have specific idiopathic physical conditions, many of us still carry karmic death anxiety from the vast majority of past lives in which we carry trauma from the time at which we dropped our bodies without a Buddha smile:).
Earlier this year I wrote about how many idiopathic dis-eases, such as CFS and autism, are exacerbated by the unending bombardment of high frequency energies into our bodies, which I call the Quickening. Combined with this, we have to deal with the ongoing assault of pollution, radiation, chemicals, etc. in our food, air and water supply, especially if we haven’t yet learned how to regularly ground and cleanse our systems.
I believe that many of these idiopathic conditions can take hold because of karmic PTSD. Any unconscious limiting beliefs of powerlessness about our ability to handle these assaults are not irrational, but rather based on legitimate past-life experiences of unresolved trauma. Many of us have (I know I do) a karmic predisposition for “special effects” and other “idiopathic” symptoms from the Quickening.
Picture a spiraling energy body with many layers like a Russian doll and many levels vibrating at higher and higher frequencies. All the levels are interconnected, semi-permeable and all need attention to be paid so that the clearing and dissolving of quite justifiable karmic limiting beliefs, fears and trauma can lead to an ongoing refining and replenishing of our life-force energies.
In the Taoist tradition, which I practice and teach, the good news is that we view trauma, crises and emergen-sees as opportunities to allow deeper levels of trauma to arise to be healed and dissolved from all levels of our bodies.
For example, if we’re in the midst of a major traumatic event, whether it be an earthquake or other natural disaster causing us to vacate our home for safety, or an accident or illness causing us to be in hospital, the nature of the shock vibrating in our bodies stirs up and activates deeper and deeper levels of trauma—from this life AND past lives—so we can release and dissolve it a layer at a time.
One of the best ways to create a daily structure for this inner work is with Taoist dissolving practices: Standing Chi Gung and Sitting Meditation in the water-method lineage. For more:
So, here’s the good news/bad news part: This Eclipse season will feel viscerally shocking, just like a major traumatic event would, in that it will stir up all of our Karmic PTSD—or at least from those lives in which the karma has ripened enough through the evolution of our consciousness to be owned and released.
If we’re consciously aware enough to work with these relentless shocks to our system as a catalyst to dissolve our karmic PTSD, we’ll find that we won’t feel as much like Chicken Little running around crying out that “the sky is falling” or with a primary emotional tone of free-floating anxiety or metaphysical angst about the ephemeral nature of the earth plane with no illusion of control, safety or security. Like I said what an FGO!
At this point, it couldn’t hurt to share with you my favorite Taoist quote on Wu Wei from Alan Watts:
“When a cat falls out of a tree, it lets go of itself, becomes completely relaxed, and lands lightly on the ground. If the cat made up its mind that it didn’t want to fall, it would become tense and rigid and would just be a bag of broken bones upon landing. In the same way, it is the philosophy of the Tao that we are all falling out of a tree, at every moment of our lives. As a matter of fact, the moment we were born we were kicked off a precipice and we are falling—and there is nothing we can do to stop it. So, instead of living in a state of constant tension and clinging to all sorts of things that are actually falling with us because the whole world is impermanent, be like a cat. Don’t resist it.”
So yes, we’ve lived and died dozens, if not hundreds, if not thousands of times, and we’re still here. Our consciousness, soul qualities and lessons are carried in our psychic cellular memory from incarnation to incarnation on an infinite karmic wheel of rebirth in the Eternal Now, even if we don’t always remember it all. And the whole Earth Game, called Leela (cosmic play) in the Vedic tradition is—in the bigger picture—always absolutely safe! For more: LEELA
All of our neuroses, idiosyncrasies and various forms of mental illness, like OCD (past lives dying of plague, anyone?), originate from unhealed karmic PTSD, and thus are truly not so idiopathic after all.
I always say that genetics, as well as childhood traumas, are just the tip of the karmic iceberg. This includes varieties of karma beyond the personal, such as family and racial karma, which are also carried from lifetime to lifetime until healed. Knowing all this helps us embrace and accept our dysfunctional natures and everyone else’s and maybe even enjoy what makes us all so uniquely ourselves, if a little strange:)).
“In the Tantric view, it is imperative that we respect what we are as the basis of realization. The fabric of our personality is, in itself, the key to our liberation.” Ngak'chang Rinpoche
In other words, when we observe any person’s dysfunction, defects of character, mental, emotional and physical illnesses, perhaps it’s time we start seeing them as coming into this life with an absolute wealth of FGOs to work with, rather than that they are substandard or in some way to be pitied. Compassion, yes, but also respect, for they are certainly not taking this life off or easy, as you are, if you’re reading this:).
In the Japanese art form of Kintsukuroi, the philosophy is to mend the cracks in broken things with gold, thus making what has been broken even more valuable than before. So too will the buried cracks in us, healed by excavating and embracing our woundedness, be the alchemical gold that transforms our heart/minds (Taoists don’t differentiate) and makes us that much stronger.
In the ancient Tantric stories of India, the eighty-four Mahasiddhas (enlightened Ones) include beggars and thieves, prostitutes and hunters, madmen and morons, who all achieved realization by utilizing their everyday occupations as their method of practice. There are fearful ones who became enlightened when they cracked open by moving through their fear into courage, and talkative ones who became enlightened when they cracked opened by moving though their talking into silence.
In fact, on the Tantric and Dzogchen paths of Buddhism, our neuroses and personalities are considered, not just ornamental display but, in reality, our vehicles for awakening. Utilizing these spiritual practices means that, not only do we not repress, judge or distract ourselves from all parts of our being, but rather fully dive into our full range—wounds and warts and all—as the perfect unenlightened mirroring of our innate, realized state of Being.
The only way out is through, whether it be our body karma, neuroses, emotional wounds or mental afflictions. Loving ourselves and all others is not really possible without this unconditional acceptance without judgment of all our broken bits as the missing piece needed to experiencing unity consciousness.
Think about this:
We’re all wounded, or we wouldn’t need to incarnate to heal our karma. (Except those few rare souls who are incarnate Enlightened Beings, who are already broken completely open.)
We’re all mentally ill. (That is, unless we’re experiencing Unity Consciousness without relapsing into duality at any time.)
Since we’re all pure Consciousness in disguise as imperfect human beings, doesn’t it make sense that our imperfections are the perfect vehicle for realizing our innate enlightened state? Cosmic humor indeed!
Once we’ve experienced the truth that samsara (relative truth) and nirvana (absolute truth) are inseparable, which comes from our realization of the inseparability of our neuroses from our innate enlightened state, there is really nothing left to do but commit to the path of the bodhisattva.
The Bodhisattva Vow:
“Beings are numberless, I vow to awaken with them. Delusions are inexhaustible, I vow to end them. Dharma gates are endless, I vow to enter them. Buddha's Way is unsurpassable, I vow to become it.”
“With a wish to free all beings
I shall always go for refuge
To the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha,
Until I reach full enlightenment.
Enthused by wisdom and compassion,
today in the Buddha’s presence I generate
the Mind for Full Awakening
For the benefit of all sentient beings.
As long as space remains,
As long as sentient beings remain,
Until then, may I too remain
And dispel the miseries of the world.”
Or, in other words: “ONE BEING, billions of faces.” Everything I do for you, is always done for myself too. How could it not be so?”
In closing, if all of the above leaves you feeling uneasy or queasy, I hope it also allows a little excitement into the mix. For, whatever arises this eclipse season is always the perfect crisis/opportunity to dissolve deeper and deeper levels of our karmic PTSD in real time.
It may help to remember that, since everyone is wounded, mentally ill (it’s just a question of degree) and has karmic PTSD, the whole world will be vibrating with this mass consciousness activation and will be rocking and rolling this summer and for the foreseeable future.
That means, now more than ever, we need to be vigilant in maintaining inner stability and peace of Mind at our core of Being, thus affecting the mass tone in the ripple effect. Every one’s calming contribution helps! This can be done through daily mind/body and spiritual practices, communing with nature and loved ones and, of course, by a continuous conscious dissolving of all the levels of idiopathic anxiety or metaphysical angst as they arise.
If you want/need some clarity on any particular karmic PTSD symptoms that are arising, please know that I am here for you (when I’m not meditating in my garden) for a Soul Reading—on the phone or in-person in NYC. And if you’re really ready to dive deeply into the cosmic ocean of consciousness for a visceral experience of karmic healing to move you to the next level of your evolution, past-life regression therapy is also available (in-person only).
Ultimately, whatever arises that blocks the Flow in us—whether from this life or past ones—needs to be dissolved and no analyzing, judging or labeling is actually necessary. But rather, even if we don’t know or understand why the block or trauma is in our subtle bodies or where it came—we just need to dissolve it a layer at a time and, with this Eclipse season, this is especially so.
And, finally, here are my soul-level resolutions for 2019 and beyond:
I. Enjoy the ride today—even more—by acting as if each day is our last . . . and smile.
II. Hold the faith that: Life goes on, our Souls live on and that which we have always been seeking—Source—has been inside us all along . . . and smile.
III. Be grateful that Life is doing its damnedest to help us remember why we are truly here . . . and just keep on smiling.
Sending out ongoing transmissions of visceral pleasure, joy in Being and bliss body shenanigans,
Joan
Visit: http://joanpancoe.com/page-newsletter-details.php?nl=136
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