Eat less, buy less, love more!

Hello friend!

We need a radical change in lifestyle. We have to become a decent species. This change won't happen without you and me, and it won't happen without them.

Them. The individuals.

Expecting governments to declare climate emergency and take appropriate measures is not enough. There role is crucial, and there is only so much that they can do.

But if people don't change, societies won’t change.

Animal agriculture is an important part of the climate problem. The great power that has been making industrial beef farming grow and grow, deforesting and burping methane, is not sitting among world leaders at the United Nations. This great power is scattered. It belongs to millions of voracious mouths. Would these mouths accept to turn their daily consumption of meat into a weekly or bi weekly treat to save our lives and theirs?


They would do so, I'm sure, if all their neighbours did. All their neighbours would certainly do it as well, provided all they neighbours did. Most of us, members of the human species, conform. It's an instinct. We are only reasonable at the level of the tip of the melting iceberg.

 Below the surface, we are irrational beings. We respond to influences, for the better or for the worst. What we need is an epidemic of lifestyle change.
 

I wish to contribute my spark to a fire in the mind forest.

Of course, our climate problem is not a question of animal farming only. It almost all boils down to the fact that we are burning fossil fuels. We travel by plane, we are buying products made in factories still powered thanks to fossil fuels and shipped all over the world by means of fossil fuels. Renewable energies are on the way, that's great, but we don't have all the time in the world. We need to stop buying oil, and stop buying things that cost oil or gas, or coal...

You're going to tell me: "Wait! That's not possible! ...."

I agree. We can't stop buying. But it is always possible to buy less. Our footprints should be so light that they quickly disappear behind us.

Buying less, eating less goes with loving more. We really don't need that much to find reasons to smile. We only need to grow the right feelings and attitudes. We are gardeners of our minds. We can create happiness without burning oil. We can reduce our consumption of stuff and grow love and happiness in the process.

The greatest power is the psyche. 

Decompression stops (when Saturn is hard on Venus)

When divers go deep, their bodies adapt to a greater pressure. When they come back to the surface, they have to make decompression stops - otherwise they could die...

If a Bedouin finds someone dying from thirst in the desert, they don't gave them a lot to drink. They give only a few sips.

The inhabitant of the desert knows that the thirsty guy would swallow the entire gourd if they let them, and they would die from the shock. So, in spite of their supplications, they let them wait for more...




When it is freezing cold and you spend some time outside without gloves, after a while your hands get used to the temperature. The painful moments happens when you come back inside and warm up your hands...

"That which is below is like that which is above & that which is above is like that which is below to do the miracles of one only thing"... What we experience in the physical world always teaches us some truth about the invisible worlds...
                                                                                                   
I once reassured a friend who had great difficulty in being surrounded by people. She craved company but she couldn't bear it! I had the same problem...

When we catch ourselves not wanting what we believed we wanted, whilst still wanting it when don't have it, we, human beings, have a tendency to judge ourselves. All we understand is that there is something wrong with us. But no, there is nothing wrong...

The big mistake you make only once when coming back inside with cold hands in winter is to turn the hot water tap on... It burns! Even cold water feels warm when our hands are even colder...

It takes time to get used to the warmth again, and able to enjoy it.
Sometimes life is lonely. When we find the way back to human warmth, much to our surprise, we can't stand it. It's normal. There is nothing wrong with us.


If we were suddenly allowed into paradise, it would be a terrible shock...

A good listener is a healer

A good listener is a healer. 

I am a good listener. I don’t mind saying it, I know it’s true. 

I wouldn’t say I am a healer though. It sounds pretentious. It sounds like “I am special. Look at my pretty aura!” 

However, if I wear the label “astrologer” it’s actually because of my interest in the healing process of the soul, or psyche. My life has been a quest for it. I had to because I was in pain. 

I have not become a full time enlightened being! Life offered me some moments of light though. I’ve walked my path the best I could. 

I am good at reading charts, not to predict dates and events but to understand people. I am good at explaining what I understand, and I’m good at holding space. 

When I am a gardener, I don’t pull on the leaves of the plants to make them grow. I don’t use pliers to force rosebuds to open at the right time. I make sure to plant a rose where it will get enough light. I may water it if the weather becomes too dry, but I don’t do the growing and the blooming. I respect nature’s rhythm. That’s what being a good listener is about. It’s simple actually. 

Many people believe that if there is a problem, they must do something about it; they end up talking instead of listening, telling what to do instead of offering an opportunity to breathe at ease, they suggest better ways to fight against oneself instead of suggesting peace. 

My idea of astrology readings is that they are healing moments. 

Jean-Marc

Healing Shame

When we explore dark feelings, we often find out that they are reactions to some underlying pain, which can be another dark feeling. 

Rage and anger are reactions. A moment of anger may be a boost of energy that helps break through an obstacle. If anger settles in the long term, that’s a sign that a feeling of powerlessness has probably grown roots in the psyche. We feel the anger. We don’t have enough energy to confront the problem (which may not even be clearly identified) but keeping the anger alive is not as bad as feeling like a complete loser in despair. Anger may even serve us as an illusion of power. Our deeper feeling of powerlessness can be suppressed. 

(Reconnecting with the dark goo at the bottom of our feeling pit is not an enjoyable experience, but healing is the purpose) 

We may feel powerless for various reasons. One may be that we haven’t been able to overcome some fears. Fear is paralysing. In its grip we are powerless. We may also avoid feeling the fear, because it’s scary, and take refuge in powerlessness instead, and from there, wrap it up in anger. 

Elisabeth Kubler Ross said:

“There are only two emotions: love and fear. All positive emotions come from love, all negative emotions from fear. From love flows happiness, contentment, peace, and joy. From fear comes anger, hate, anxiety and guilt.”

My view - as far as you can see in the dark - is that, at the bottom of the dark feelings pit, mixed with fear but distinct from it, is shame.

Love wants to be there, in the presence of shame, and say, kindly, very kindly: 

“It’s ok. It’s normal. It’s human. It’s part of the difficult challenges we have to deal with. It’s very rare to succeed instantaneously when confronted with very difficult challenges. It’s normal to fail many times. It’s normal to need proper training. It’s normal to struggle when there is so much to cope with...” 

And also: “You know, at the core of every personality, there is consciousness. Consciousness is universal. Nobody is better than anybody else, because there is only one consciousness. Who could be better than whom? 

Consciousness is living many stories. The conditions are different in every case. At surface level, one may appear more courageous, another more talented or whatever, but only temporary conditions make a difference. They will pass. At the core is the same consciousness, equally worthy throughout life. Judgements are not valid.” 

Love talks to fear and shame in solitude. Shame can only accept to meet consciousness in the most private setting. Sometimes people are humiliated in public and if they are lucky in the middle of this trial, another person may bring them words of comfort. But most of the time shame knows how to hide; nobody other than the thread of consciousness that inhabits the same body can meet it.

And then, coming back to ordinary life, where there are plenty of unhealed egos shouting, whispering or suggesting: “Shame on you”

Shame for being a coward. Shame for being lazy. Shame for the clothes you’re wearing. Shame for being a loser. Shame for being bad. Shame for your desires. Shame for being wrong. Shame for what you like. Shame for what you look like. Shame for not knowing. Shame for your body. Shame for being so sensitive. Shame for your weaknesses, whatever they are. Shame for whatever makes you different… 

Don’t believe them. They know nothing, and they don’t even know they don’t. That’s just their coping mechanisms. It is a huge illusion. It’s a disease. Life is not like that. With so much shame diffused in the collective psyche, we can’t be together. That’s what being kicked out of paradise means. 

Let’s heal! 

Jean-Marc

Antivenom for the Soul

Dear  friend,



Do you how antivenom is made? Venom is collected from snakes; horses are injected with it. The horses fight the venom. Then the human draw blood from the horses, the antivenom is in it.

This is literally true, and this is also a metaphor. Maybe you are a "horse"? I think I’m one! It's our job to be poisoned and fight within our own souls. Whether we know it or not, we are useful. The suffering is more bearable when it makes sense though. We are making antivenom for ourselves and others...


A famous verse of the Emerald Table goes like this:

"That which is below is like that which is above & that which is above is like that which is below to do the miracles of one only thing"

A way to understand what it means is to see anything that exists in the material world as a reflection of something that exists in the invisible planes, that is the psychological and spiritual planes...

If some beings, for instance horses, do make antivenom in their bodies for the benefit of weaker beings, then the same process must exist "above", in the psychic and spiritual dimensions.

Another way to look at it is to compare humanity as a whole to a body. Some individuals belong to the immune system. We are "white cells". Our job is the meet the poisons, absorb them so that they do not spread, and recycle them. We become the antidote. We are filters in the psychic world...

Our whole humanity is poisoned. Guilt, shame, fears, excessive pride, illusions.....as a species we are really mad. We have fever! We do terrible things. We are putting our own life and the life of other species at risk. We spread suffering. This is very strange. How could we have expected Mother Nature to give rise to such a mad species as ourselves?
But, as Buddha mentioned, what is important for now is not to find out about the causes, but to heal! We will wonder how it all happened later.

Many people seem to cope with the poison well and live "normal" lives. They work, they have families, they pay their bills... we, the black sheep, could feel very bad about ourselves by comparison. I don't know what color we are when we are horses, but when we are sheep, we are black.

On the physical plane, there is no confusion: my arms are mine, my neighbor's legs are his, he can't go about walking with my legs without asking for permission...

However, at the level of psychic energies, we are not as separated. It is possible to be a sponge and absorb emotions that we have not created. It is also possible to squeeze some of our own feelings out of ourselves... for any passing sponge to absorb!
We are all doing it all the time...


At this level of reality, we, the white cells looking like black sheep, keep absorbing the poisons others squeeze out.
Jumping form one metaphor to another, we are the ones who have to walk with the bad legs, and be blamed.
Blaming is one among many ways to squeeze feelings of guilt, shame or other poisons out of oneself and project them onto others..

Sometimes we absorb the poisons simply by being sensitive, and too open. Sometimes, the poisons are violently forced upon us, like when we are blamed or have to endure all kind of violence. The process is called "scapegoating". In some ancient civilizations, animal or even human sacrifices were practiced.

The people believed they were offering lives to please God or the gods, when they were actually offering the blood of the victims to themselves, as a way to be relieved from their own violence.

A scapegoat can be tempted to become a bully at the first opportunity. Many people switch from one role to the other, submissive at work, obnoxious in private...

And there are the ultimate scapegoats. The weakest one who can't pass the rubbish onto others, and the strongest, who do not want to inflict onto others what was inflicted onto them.

I have learned a lot about the poison and how to fight it within…

Jean-Marc

The sacrifice. Isaac's point of view.

Until the last day of his life there were nights when he would wake up, sweating and trembling,as if he was still about to be killed by his father - lying on his back, staring at the older man waving a knife.

He saw clearly. There was no shadow of a doubt. His father would have killed him without hesitation. His own father, whom he trusted with all his young boyish soul, would have cut his throat.

It was not the first time Isaac had accompanied his father on top of a hill for a burnt offering. It all seemed quite normal. Rituals are routine.

He believed he was the cherished son. He would never believe it again.

At the last moment, God stopped Abraham. However, God did not stop him before Isaac felt stabbed in the back and in the heart. He would have done it.

God wanted to test Abraham. Faith was what mattered. Isaac, son of Abraham, would have descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.

Isaac didn't want descendants. He wanted to have a father who would do anything to save him.

He knew there was no way to thwart the Almighty, but couldn't his father have fallen on his knees and begged? Couldn't he have offered his own life to save his son's?

When God planned to destroy Sodom, Abraham did argue with the Lord, wondering whether the Almighty would destroy the righteous along with the wicked... At that time, God listened to Abraham and acknowledged the validity of his plea. Isaac had heard the story but on that day, on the mountain, there had been no attempt to bend the Lord's will.

Isaac was extremely relieved when God stopped his father just a split second before he plunged the knife in his throat. However, something within him had died.

What kind of man was Abraham? Was he jealous of his son to comply so willingly? Was he envious of his youth?

In Isaac's view, and maybe in God's, Abraham did fail the test. He wouldn't be told.

In the end, there was a miraculous apparition: a scapegoat…

Jean-Marc

Astro Stories

The story of a crocodile who hated being a crocodile.

This is the story of a crocodile who hated being a crocodile.

It was so unbearable to be a crocodile that he used to hide under the surface of a lake day and night. Only his eyes popped above the surface.

He used to watch with immense envy a group of gracious dancers above the water, lovely women in amazing tutu dresses. They danced on the lake, turned into swans, then became dancers again, at will. The crocodile was filled with wonder. He absolutely loved the show. He too wanted to be a swan and be able to turn into a dancer, and then become a swan again.

The crocodile once overheard a conversation between two swan-dancers. One statement in particular struck him: “You are what you eat"

There are many problems in the world, one of them is to take statements too literally.

In the beginning, the swan-dancers didn’t notice. There were so many of them that a few disappearances went unnoticed. The crocodile would catch his prey and devour it undisturbed but he kept being a crocodile, the poor thing.

What the crocodile did not know was that he was not truly a crocodile. He was actually a dreamer dreaming he was a crocodile.

The dreamer could become anything he liked. Once a dancer, once a swan, once a tree, once a fly... But when the dreamer found himself dreaming that he was a crocodile, he was suddenly seized with horror. Being a crocodile was so awful! In his state of shock, he lost the ability to change.

When the swan-dancers discovered that the lake was haunted by a greedy crocodile, they flew away.

The crocodile is still all alone in the middle of the lake, and he will stay there until he dares to count its teeth to the exact number.

Only then will he be able to remember it is a dreamer who can change its dream at will.

Jean-Marc

The right to breathe

When deep divers come back to the surface they have to make decompression stops. 

We are deep divers. We have been living under pressure. 

We want to breathe some fresh air. We want to recall our essential nature. 

Our consciousness is so crushed that it can’t empty itself from pressured stuff. Agitation, worries, things that still hurt, compensation, agitation… 

Meditation. Is it still doing something? Or the exact opposite of doing? Should meditation “work”? What if it’s just a series of decompression stops? It may work but we may not notice anything. 

If we’re just a little bit calmer, it’s doesn’t feel like anything extraordinary. We may think:

“Where is my bliss? Why don’t I have a mystical experience? Will God say something for heaven’s sake! What am I doing wrong? “

Patience. There is no need to recreate agitation. Agitation will keep coming and going, for a while. We should just remember. Agitation is not what we need. We may feel guilty not to keep under pressure. We are used to believing there is so much to do. 

Don’t we have the right to breathe?

NB: after posting this on social media, a few people thought I was going through difficult times. I slightly edited the text since. It’s not supposed to sound desperate!

I am fine, I feel good, I'am not fully enlightened, not swimming 24 hours a day in divine bliss…, but I feel really good. When I think of how I felt when I was younger, I am grateful for Now.

My intention was to conjure up the image of the decompression stops because it’s a powerful metaphor that helps practicing meditation. It helps because we need to understand that there is nothing to do.