The six-pointed star I photographed coming through the blinds on the anniversary of my father's death has stayed with me. For some reason, maybe because the moment was so beautiful, I associated the star with Venus, the planet of beauty and love.
I had just read in the "Farmer's Almanac" (which is not just for farmers) that 2012 is Venus best year in our lifetime. Venus now high and bright in the evening sky will be so through early May then reappear as the bright morning star July through October. In addition, Venus transits the sun in early June and won't do so again until 2117 (105 years from now). It’s exquisitely perfect the planet associated with love and the feminine would be having such a grand year here in 2012 as we experience the possibility of moving to a paradigm that's balanced in relation to the masculine and feminine rather than suppressing the feminine in both sexes as has happened for centuries.
I excitedly did a quick on-line search regarding the six-pointed star and found two million references. I learned Venus is actually associated with eight points but more disturbing and sadly on the first search page alone multiple links demonized the six-pointed star and referenced Venus as connected to Satan.
I began to wonder how it was that the church fathers centuries ago denounced as evil and bad the planets, astrology and so many things related to nature and mystery, things more associated with the feminine than masculine? How is it those long ago seeing the divine in nature allowed for this co-opting of beauty? And why do so many even today live in fear and attempt to stir fear as evidenced by what I found on-line?
What was and is so threatening about mystery, the stars and the feminine?
Days after seeing the six-pointed star, I noticed a billboard for Walmart. At first I was taken (and not positively so) by the advertisement proclaiming the juicy roast chicken for only $4.99 coming soon to a store opening nearby. It occurred to me that inexpensive food is better than no food (I think). Still I wondered how many customers would buy the roast chicken if they saw how the chicken had been hormonally fattened without seeing the light of day and kept in a cage with floor space hardly the size of a piece of note book paper.
Then I saw the symbol. There on the billboard was the six pointed star now associated with Walmart. When did this happen? None of the on-line search sites I glanced at referred to Walmart as Satanic. Once home I read on-line of the new symbol (which is 3-4 years old now). It’s referred to as a flower or sun and is Walmart’s attempt to be perceived as more environmentally conscious.
Whereas many of our European ancestors were lured (my unconfirmed hunch) or moved from experiencing the Divine in Nature to seeking the Divine in cathedrals, today corporations use symbols whether conscious of it or not to lure the public into stores where the material is worshiped. Shoppers offer up their money (and potentially sell their souls) in exchange for material goods.
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| By Dixie Rose, White County |
My ‘sweet buys’ are often art-related. Over the last few months, I’ve begun to notice owls in art. Loving owls and artists, I've purchased a couple of owl pieces by area artists.
Yet not long ago, I found myself personally lured by a marketing brochure to a chain store, a store whose doors I had not entered in over a year. I walked into that store and found decorative paintings and kitchen wares with geometric designs I’ve seen in visions as well as owls everywhere. There were owl paintings and pillows, salt and pepper shakers, lotion and lip gloss dispensers.
I walked around the store holding an unusual feeling combo. Through time owls have been feared and revered depending on the culture. To some, they’re associated with wisdom and to others they foreshadow imminent death. One part of me wanted to excitedly proclaim "America is discovering the beauty and mystery of owls." While another part of me wondered if owls were being used as part of the ever-cycling seasonal marketing that sells to us for its survival not ours. Are owls just replacing last year’s peace and love symbols before next season’s bunnies and flowers? Will owls eventually show up in Goodwill and the trash heap?
My hope was replaced with outrage as I went on an internal tirade. How dare the corporate world encourage the public to fill their homes with nature-related prints and trinkets and fill their bodies with sixteen ounce steaks and hormonally fattened chickens when that same corporate world complains about the EPA and how taking care of the environment costs jobs. I was further inflamed by a newspaper story encouraging readers to give their living space a ‘punch’ by decorating with animal skins this coming year. I’m not a violent person, yet I wanted to give someone a punch.
Fortunately my tirade brought me to a new place. I remembered the Farmer's Almanac and Venus in 2012. I found myself wondering if the energies of Venus, the planet of beauty and love, are here to assist us as to what's unfolding in our lives.
I easily label corporate America the bad guy co-opting nature, beauty and humankind. Yet imagine the beauty if we, the masses of common folk, co-opted corporate America's symbols as well as material goods to awaken us to the beauty of this time and to the disconnects in society and our personal lives.
I imagine Venus helping us make the shift so products in stores wake us up to what’s in store in 2012 and beyond. How might the owls I’ve purchased help me listen deeply to mystery’s presence in my life? How might we profit if the bird images on furnishings prompted us to actually see and hear birds? How might we benefit if flowers and leaves decoratively on the inside prompted us to explore the dirt, seeds and trees of our earthly home? How beautiful if the nature-related pieces, whether made on assembly lines or by local artisan’s hands, awakened in us the memory of a time in which nature and animals were honored and revered as divine.
With Venus help, I imagine the images used in interior design waking us to our interior’s design, a design built for embracing Mystery, and a brave, powerful loving awareness that realizes more fully our relationship with Earth, the Heavens and with one another.
This is the Shift I embrace.
-Dawn, The Good News Muse, 1 March 2012
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