For awhile now, I've felt the urge to speak up more about my values and preferences regarding some of the things I see happening in our country. Now, previously I had worked diligently - or so I thought - to maintain a kind of neutrality. (Probably that was an illusion, because I'm sure my preferences leaked out.) However, what's driving me now is a desire to stand for something as the teacher, or as a guide for those who follow my counsel.

 

Chaqun à sont goût is the French way of saying, "To each his own". And there's no arguing with that, for we come to our values, our decisions, our sense of right and wrong by the very experiences of our journey. In my case, my horoscope comes into play because I have Jupiter/Saturn conjunct in an earth sign trine my Sun, which is a textbook pattern for a strong sense of conscience.

 

What's bothering me lately is corruption more than braggadocio, sleaze more than ego, low consciousness soul goals more than perhaps a perverted sense of idealism. It's hard - very hard - to sort this out without close knowledge of the individuals who are portraying themselves as this or that. I am tending to see the lower values as much in Hollywood as in the political arena, and I'm certainly not telling you what conclusion you should come to insofar as whom you wish to champion or admire. But for me, part of my mission right now in the sense of teaching whatever it is I feel I've come to realize in the hard-won drama of life, is to say "wake up". Wake up and evaluate. Evaluate against a higher good.

 

This highest good is always compassion, and along with that is service to others. Egoless service. Some of us actually make our living doing a job that is service, getting paid for it, but not necessarily taking glory or identity from it. In Buddhism, this is called right livelihood. There are many people out there, especially in a young-soul country such as America in our era, who are shooting for fame, power, wealth, and lust. That's the panoply of young soul values. If you feel your "hero" or "heroine" is displaying an inordinate desire to reach one of these lower goals, take stock.

 

Meantime, I'm just in a new mood, and I'm going to speak up for whatever I feel I see as displaying the negative characteristics (or not). Until our country reaches an overall level of old-soul wisdom (which it certainly won't in our lifetimes), we will bear witness to the strange dramas now in play of famous, powerful, wealthy but low consciousness young souls in positions of strength or power, and the wreckage they can leave in their wake.

 

It doesn't have to be so, but that's what it is for now.