Life can be hard

My own life wasn’t a picnic until after my Uranus opposition at the age of 42, but every time I talk with a client who has had a challenging period of time or traumatic experiences I am filled with wonder at the ingenious ways in which we manage to keep ourselves alive despite dramatic and sometimes horrific experiences.

I have come to avoid seeing experiences as “good” or “bad.”  When we have a number of loved ones die in a short period of time we are usually under the favor of Pluto who is calling on us to go deeper into the Underworld – to face the jaws of Cerberus at the gates of hell and face the adventure of death and life as purely naked as it is possible to be, free of artifice and casual banter.

When our lives are going well and we blithely zip from here to there without a thought to our inner world or the life of the soul that continues beneath the superficial, some may call this an ideal experience.  I’m sure it’s Saturn who sits always on my Sun, but I am suspicious of that which comes too easily and have come to cherish those life experiences that force me out of my comfort zone, pushing me through spaces that feel much too small into a new and brilliant world.  Birth, anyone?

Don’t get me wrong, I can enjoy getting my bliss on as much as the next person.  Life is given to us so that we can find the joy, despite all of our sad stories and self-destructive tendencies, and then share it with others.  But the way to joy is sometimes through darkness, and when we encounter that darkness the only way is to go through it.  There are no short cuts, not that I can find anyway.

So I honor all of the valiant souls whom I am blessed to consult with – those who continue to seek the magic of self-knowledge and personal transformation and never give in to the darkness. The human journey is truly a remarkable thing.