July 6, 2009

• Taking More Control of My Mind

  After a somewhat brief and very limited immersion in consensus reality, I have decided to get back to subverting the dominant paradigm.  By, “limited,” I mean that I got a toe wet, didn’t even go knee-deep in pop culture.  I didn’t start watching TV, going to first-run movies, or renting videos, for example.  My only two magazine subscriptions are still Archaeology and Smithsonian.  I don’t tweet — don’t even own a wireless device. 

  My radio stays tuned to NPR, so I get exposed to a bit of pop culture that way.  Facebook, when I signed on a few months ago, brought me closer to the mainstream.  My first FB friends were old friends from Xanga.  Some of their FB friends became my friends.  One indication of how far I’ve moved into that sidechannel of the mainstream is that I no longer put quotes around, “friends,” in that context.

  I got swept along with these people into the culture of Facebook.  It’s similar in a way to my initial enculturation as a child:  I accepted and absorbed what came at me from my environment.  Even so, I maintained some discrimination.  I learned how to hide some people’s posts from my newsfeed, and how to hide or block apps.  But all that was reactive, and I didn’t really start to take back control of my mind until I got proactive in seeking out new facebook friends.

  I can’t claim much personal credit for having initiated this.  To start with, I was guided by Spirit.  That unmistakable Voice in my head suggested that I reach out for a different kind of input.  I started searching for names of people with whom I have had enlightening or uplifting contact in the past:  people like Dick Sutphen, Antero Alli, EJ Gold, Claude Needham, and some New Age authors and practitioners that I respect.

  I told Greyfox about my encouraging early results and with his concurrence I searched out for him some of the people from the Pagan community with whom he had been associated while he published The Shaman Papers and lived close enough to attend Pagan gatherings.  In this way, each of us acquired a set of Facebook friends more in keeping with our ideas and our intentions for ourselves.  There has been crossover and overlap between our circles of friends.  I spend probably more time with his friends than he does, since he’s still only getting an hour or two on library computers a few times a week, but the change has affected us both.

  Every day since I made that move, my Facebook newsfeed has brought me more and more enlightening and uplifting contact with like minds.  I did not drop any of the other friends.  I think it is healthy to be exposed to a variety of views, to get some reality testing from comparing and contrasting them.  There is also the chance that I can serve to do some cross-pollenation of ideas among friends and friends of friends.

  Fittingly, this change in my mind and life coincides with a retrograde station of Uranus, which is stationary retrograde in my birth chart.  The station of Uranus at the beginning of this month occurred opposite my natal conjunction of Sun and Chiron, so some spiritual healing and radical change is in order for me.  The current astrological intensity, with Jupiter, Neptune, Uranus and Pluto all retrograde now, and a Full Moon/Lunar Eclipse coming up tomorrow, has me on an incredible high of connecting with other minds, working together in alternate realities, and pulling energy into the mundane world.

  Can you tell I’m digging it?  Yes, I am.  I’m also looking forward to spending time with my beloved soulmate, lawful spouse, and partner in crime, the Old Fart (AKA “Greyfox”) in Wasilla tomorrow.  It’s time for the trip:  our fridge is empty and his space is filling up with things he has been picking up for us.  I didn’t plan for the trip to coincide with one of the biggest astrological events of recent days.  It just happened that way, the way so many of the most interesting parts of my life do happen.
  

  • 6:16 pm
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