Written by Jamie Epstein
Be Radical—Be Wise & Hopeful
It’s Thursday, August 29, & Moon is in Gemini, in the starspace or Nakshatra called Punarvasu. Gemini vibrates with the frequency, thanks to ruling-planet mercury, of curiosity & discriminating intelligence, of nuanced thinking, of being able to go beyond black & white & see the black in the white & the white in the black, & see gray, of being able to go beyond “this person good,” “this person bad” & extract what is essential.
“Viveka” is the Sanskrit word for discriminating intelligence. In spiritual practices Viveka helps us differentiate between what’s real & what’s not, what’s eternal & what’s temporal. In everyday life, it helps us to differentiate between, say, facts & spin. Regardless of where we stand politically, regardless of what media we tune in to, it is incumbent upon all of us to use our mercurial powers to extract the facts from the spin, from agendas (try following the money!), to go beyond headlines, unpack rhetoric & memes & talking points, think outside the box, outside party lines to align with our truth. mars in Gemini for the next coupla months can give us the courage to do the deep-thinky dive & own the truth we arrive at (& engage in civil dialogue with those who own a different truth) or he can make us speak before we think thoroughly, wield our words like weapons. What’s it gonna be?
Punarvasu brings a renewal of light, of hope, b/c it is ruled by Brihaspati, the priest (& another name for Jupiter), who nourishes us with wisdom, which is the source of hope.
It’s the eleventh lunar day (tithi), the eleventh phase of the waning Moon, until about 2 p.m. MDT, then the twelfth. the connection between these two tithis is like a rainbow bridging heaven & earth: If we pray hard enough & earnestly enough on the eleventh, the twelfth answers our prayers, supports us in achieving material or spiritual wealth, fame or glory.
Thursday, like Punarvasu, is ruled by Jupiter, planet of hope & wisdom, so it’s always a good day to honor our teachers & what they’ve taught us.
“To be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair convincing.”—Raymond Williams
Go ahead, hope—be radical today!
Bonus track: the combo of Punarvasu & Jupiter’s day creates lots of juiciness in terms of accomplishing what we mean to. How are you going to take advantage of that nectar?!
And that’s your daily bliss! Which is a sort of lunar weather report. May it allow you to align with the day’s cosmic energy so you can find & create a little more bliss.