On 13th November Inanna crosses the next gate on her way into the underworld. On the 5th gate she hands over her ring of power and with this everything where her personal power is not in balance and harmony.
The 5th Venus gate represents our 3rd chakra, Manupura. It is the seat of our personality, our strength and abundance. Here we process our drives and wishes, our emotions and experiences. It is the source from which we draw the power to consciously create our life. It is the seat of our power and influence.
We are asked to look at the relationship with have with our power – where we hand our power over to others, where we are afraid to use our power or where we control and manipulate others.
A blocked Manipura chakra manifests in powerlessness or a distorted will to power. Aggression, anger can be cut off and turned inward or projected outward. This often is accompanied by lack of vitality and self-confidence, fear of critic and rejection, insecurity, lack of assertiveness or increased ambition, ruthlessness, obsession with power, tantrums, and also insomnia, eating disorders, disorders of stomach, liver, gallbladder, digestion.
Helpful questions to find out about an imbalanced energy centre:
When do I feel powerless?
In which situations am I angry or have a fit of rage? Even without knowing why.
When do I keep quiet and swallow my anger?
Am I confronted with people who are aggressive or hostile?
Do I feel weak and defenceless? Have I problems to assert myself? / Do I always have to be right?
Am I afraid of criticism and rejection? / Do I criticise others?
What makes me feel insecure?
Am I surrounded by people who are obsessed with power? / Do I have the need to control others?
Do I have a weak stomach, liver problems, too much or too little bile, problems with my digestion?
However our imbalance of power looks like, at this Venus gate we have the opportunity to hand it over and to surrender to the initiation of the underworld and open up.
Helpful in the purification process of this energy centre are also:
* the colour yellow – wearing clothes, working with crystals (e.g. amber, yellow jade, tiger eye, topaz, citrine), decorating the room with yellow flowers or pictures of the sun, eating lemons, grape fruit, curcuma, sunflower seeds
* asanas that activate Manipura (like Trikonasana, Supta Vajarasana, Dandasana, Setu Bandhasana, Uddiyana Bandha and Nauli Kriya)
* meditation with the mantra RAM or the archangel Uriel
* massages between the rips and the navel
* aware breathing into the solar plexus
* image of the ten-petalled lotus flower
* sound MI
* the transformative power of the fire – Manipura is the centre of our fire. Trace your own fire within and, if possible, make a fire outside to connect with it.
When our Solar plexus centre is balanced we have plenty of energy and vitality and the natural aggressiveness to reach our goals. We are centred, have a good self-esteem, and are rooted. We can realise our dreams, can use our power with sensibility and empathy, can make intuitive decisions and accepts and express our feelings.
Solar Plexus Chakra Affirmations:
I love and accept myself.
I stand up for myself.
I am strong and courageous.
I am worthy of love, kindness, and respect.
I choose the best for myself.
I express myself in a powerful way.
I am proud of my achievements.
I honor my self.
I choose healthy relationships.
I am authentic.
I direct my own life.
I appreciate my strengths.
I feel my own power.
I am free to choose in any situation.
I seek opportunities for personal and spiritual growth.
I am at peace with myself.
~ chakra-anatomy.com
The astrological configurations are interesting. Just before the Venus-Moon conjunction (19°25′ Libra) of the 5th Venus gate (12th November, 11.31 pm) the third and last conjunction of Jupiter and Pluto (22°51′ Capricorn) takes place (12th November, 9.39 pm) and shortly after it Mars (15°14′ Aries) goes stationary direct (14th November, 12.36 am).
Jupiter-Pluto is an underwood-initiation for the Earth and all life upon it. Jupiter expands our consciousness, our horizon. It gives us a much bigger imagination of what could be possible. Pluto destroys everything the hinders the realisation of these possibilities. The combination fo Jupiter-Pluto leads either to the enlarged drive to gain more power over others or the enlarged drive for more empowerment by doing more inner transformative shamanic work.
The Venus-Moon conjunction, working with the 5th gate, allows us to get a healthy attitude towards our own power. It is not about getting more power in the external world but to cultivate our inner strength, knowledge and empowerment. We can experience the immense solar power that resides deep within us, which creates and nourishes life.
Jupiter makes a conjunction to Pluto every 12-13 years. Three conjunctions are rare. Last time this happened was 1955/56 in Leo, next time will be 2105/06 in Taurus. The two other conjunctions this year were 5th April (24°53′ Capricorn) and 30th June (24°06′ rx Capricorn). Capricorn is the energy of the wise elders, the grandmothers and grandfathers, the wisdom keepers, the true leaders. It is about brining spirit into matter and to use it responsibly, i.e. in accordance with the universal laws. It is about creating structures for the community, structures that bring sustainable results for many future generations to come.
Are we as humans open for a constructive vision of living on and with the Earth? Are we willing to use our power and act accordingly (Mars direct)? Are we willing to surrender to the alchemical process of transformation that empowers us? Are we willing to engage with our power, we hadn’t know of, and to use it?
When we surrender to the alchemical process we face our fears and limiting beliefs and as a consequence also our anger and grief and old wounds. With other words, we have the chance to do personal and collective deep shadow work. The shadow of our culture is based on the reality of only a few holding all wealth and power. Because we all belief in “not enough” – being not enough oneself and that there are not enough recourse for everyone to thrive, thus justifying the elite, giving them our power and wealth. The collective has forgotten that all is connected (something the elders have never forgotten). Only by separation harm can be done.
We have done a lot of shadow work in the Tele Study Circle since March, dived deeply and explored these things, yet I am sure we haven’t reached bottom yet. May we all have the courage to dig deeper and to transform in the alchemical fire. Jupiter-Pluto offer us the opportunity to purify our thoughts, emotions and bodies in such a way that we change lead into gold. We work with the Prima materia, the first matter in ourselves.
Questions worth pondering:
* Are you willing to face your fears? All that makes you tremble, scars you to show yourself, gives you the feeling of being less important, causes you to feel pain, activates the need for outer confirmation.
* Do you deny what scares you? Do you blame others?
* Do you experience situations that are beyond your control and active fears you didn’t know you had?
* Do you have addictions, expectations limiting beliefs that stop you to experience your true immense Self?
* Do you trust that embracing your shadow will increase your power?
* Are you willing to die? To let you old identifications about yourself die, to become who you really are.
* How do you use your power? To create a better world for yourself, the community and the world. Are you driven by your own needs and concepts or are you open to what the world needs right now?
When we truly own our power, all concepts to have power over something or someone dissolve, and also the concept to hand over our power to someone else to be able to survive. True power comes from inside and celebrates all life. To experience all out power we firstly have to want this, choose it, and then to take full responsibility for it and be willing to surrender to the transformation, no matter how scary, challenging and difficult that is, because it threatens our known reality.
These times offer us to courageously embrace our shadow, that part of us we have denied, because of whatever reasons. And then to turn our wounds, doubts, insecurities into medicine, into power that comes from within and that is independent from external circumstances – because external circumstances are unsustainable as they constantly change and their change lays beyond our control. We can not control a tsunami, an earthquake, the sunrise or how someone treats us. What we can control is how we react and act, how we use our power. The more we surrender to the alchemical process of shadow work, the more we develop strength and power, the more we step into our sovereignty, the more we enjoy life.
image credit: sevenintentions.wordpress.com