JULY 2022 Collective Anchoring

4 of Disks//Pathway 41 Al-Jalil, Pooling Strength

Important Dates/Transits:

Sun in Capricorn

Key Takeaways:

Recalibrating your foundation for greater security

Set yourself up for success, whatever that looks like to you

4 of Disks, Lord of Earthly Powers

This month’s message is about cultivating greater, more enduring stability. As we head into yet another recession with quite a few things feeling shaky and uncertain, it is necessary for us to take new stock of our lives. Where can we trim some fat? What could use some additional cushioning? How can we stretch our resources a bit further? If we had to completely shift how our needs are met, how could we do so starting today?

The plans we had in place may need to be tweaked, rewritten, or put on hold altogether while we rework our sense of balance and security. This is particularly true when it comes to finances.

Since the beginning of the year, experts have been predicting the drastic rise in fuel costs and “winter is coming”. Many of us know what it's like to ration furnace oil or to endure the cold because our heating is electric and companies like to hike rates in the cold season. As we continue in times of collective economic strain, we can enter the winter season with greater security by investing in better blankets, socks, and practicing creative insulation measures. However, before we go out and buy things we must look to see what we already have on hand.

One thing my mother always taught me and exemplified was to always release at the start of recalibration and renewal. I know many people of color have trouble getting rid of old things. You may not know when they could come in handy again. Even if not for us, things may be useful should someone come looking we’d be glad we held onto them. If this is you, why wait to bless someone with what has served its purpose in your life already? Someone could use those things today!

Sometimes we’ve held on because we remember times when we or loved ones had no choice but to make do with what was already on hand and we want to be sure we don’t get caught lacking. Other times we hold on for fear that we are unable to or foolish/selfish/wasteful for replacing the old with the new. We all deserve to upgrade when due and able.

* Go through your closets and those big-ass storage bins and bags we all got and make room for things you truly need. Donate what you can directly to someone in need or to an organization that gives things away for free or at minimal pricing. This allows you and the item to be of use while you go for your upgrade. That comforter that has started to get lumpy but has no stains or holes, old to you but a blessing to someone else.

* Go through all your subscriptions and only keep the ones improving your life in UNIQUE ways, you can always loop back around to superfluous engagements once your stability allows. This is not a call for you to delete the streaming services that help you unwind at the end of a long day. Instead, consider deleting apps with capabilities found elsewhere. Do you pay for apps with overlapping functions? Is it absolutely necessary that you have both? Are there subscriptions you have that you no longer use but are still paying? Have a gym membership that you never use???? Trim the fat of all these smaller charges that add up.

* Review your spending habits and see how IF or how things could be better balanced more effectively. Do you need to negotiate a change of due date of some of your accounts to reduce stress? Do you need to make smaller payments as the month goes on instead of paying certain bills at once?

* Take this same approach with how you spend your time and energy.

* Reflect on your “ must-do” procedures – things like cleaning around your home, cooking, laundry, washing your hair, etc. How can these things become more routine and less chore?

Make sure you are working smarter not harder, it’s easier to feel secure that way as it won’t take as much energy or resources to sustain. Find ways to manufacture your success with your everyday decisions and behaviors.

PERSONALLY, success means not doing anything I don’t want to do. I genuinely do not care what it is; I promised myself and my ancestors I would never be forced or coerced into doing things I don’t want to. I promised I would recover and protect my autonomy and exemplify that for the next generations. Crafting routines that fuel or support me out of household chores is often the only way the bathroom gets cleaned, the only reason I cook. It takes a while to get your rituals right but if you’re someone who needs an expansive why beyond “because you have to”, try it out.

Ex: I will clean the bathroom once a week because if I let it messier than it does in a week it’s going to be hard to be motivated to do, take longer to clean, and I’m going to be upset. I will be doing something I don’t want to do.

Astrological Aspect: Sun in Capricorn

Capricorn, “the GOAT” (literally and in many ways, figuratively) is a Saturn-ruled sign. If ya’ll know me you KNOW I love Mama Saturn and I have a Capricorn stellium., it doesn’t include my Sun sign, but the placements are PROMINENT af.

Conventional wisdom states that one’s Sun sign speaks of one’s true Self, the Self those closest get to experience. The energy of this month’s focus leads me to believe we should all take the following insight into account as we both refine our criteria for who gets to see us 100% in our glory, and how we can still be our authentic selves around those undeserving the privilege of our full brilliance. Who gets our “golden hour” Self vs the peek of dawn or waning light of the afternoon. WE GON BE OUR AUTHENTIC SELVES REGARDLESS, but its levels.

With Sun in Capricorn things are best addressed from the inside out. As within, so without vibes. If you’d like surface level, observable things to shift, make sure you’re shifting your perspective, behavior, expectations, boundaries, etc. in accordance. Saturn-inspired discipline is successful because it's a master example of alignment. Saturn-inspired/aligned discipline requires balance. Be willing to approach things from multiple angles to achieve your desired outcome. This is especially important when improvement is on your mind and heart. Don’t get so caught up in what could be different/better that you miss what is already great. Don’t lose sight of the small victories along the way.

Stability, like all manner of growth and development, is a journey. Experience each leg of it with as much grace and compassion as you can muster.

REFLECT:

• What are my short-term growth and development goals (especially regarding stability)?

• What am I already doing to get there?

• What may be a hindrance?

• What new practices/perspectives would support my endeavors?

Conduct these same reflections regarding your LONG TERM growth and development goals

And last and quite possibly most importantly:

• How am I securing my roots so I can bloom right where I’m planted?

As a gardening ass bitch, I want you to know the successful cultivation of some plants requires 4-5 different pots and locations before they reach maturity; particularly if the plant bears fruit, springs back each year, or yields heavily. Some of my best-growing plant partners have to be brought inside each Autumn and only return at the height of Spring. So when you consider securing your root system, remind yourself that one major gift of strong roots is flexibility and adaptation. Have faith as you settle into this present moment. Bloom where you are planted.

Kabbalist Aspect: Chesed in Assiah

faith + works

“Loving kindness”, compassion, Kanyini (more on the ancient concept of Kanyini here, here, and here); a level of genuine love and regard for and between things,

[From the last of the Kanyini builds out I’d like to include this defining of SAFETY, which is an effective synonym of SECURITY:

1. The condition of being protected from and unlikely to cause danger, risk, or injury. In this case, from yourself especially.

2. Something designed to prevent injury or a damage

3. The control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. So you're not just out here doing stuff, willy nilly, but you're taking stock of your surroundings, you're assessing the level of risk, and then you're deciding to only engage in those things, that put you at a reasonable risk.

Chesed also communicated the opposite of these things. In essence, it is ideal virtue in action and all it brings as well as an understanding of what life is like in absence of virtue. Black folk know and experience this as “living right”. Life is difficult for most people, even more so when yeen living right. Emphasis on IN ACTION. Virtues embodied > theoretical morality.

Assiah is the realm of action. It is where things are made manifest through that which we do. Where what is abstract or theory is proven through our worlds. When it comes to manifesting anything Chesed in Assiah is faith + works

Pathway 41 | Al Jalil, Pooling Strength

*some of this part is word for word from the text because IT SAYS WHAT IT SAYS *

“Affirm the deep ocean of resources in you that build up internal power”

If the descending path is Spirit down, the ascending path, beautifully exemplified by Al-Jalil, is recognizing that at and from your very present, core Self, you contain valuable wisdom and energy to release unto Spirit through those in your midst. On the descending path you become, here on the ascending path, you are.

Al-Jalil is about staying ready so you don’t gotta get ready when it's time to act. The Sufi Book of Life refers uses the example of “building up a reservoir of water in times of rain to prepare for seasons of drought.” It is pointed out that sometimes the best thing you can do is CONSERVE YOUR ENERGY. Like I mentioned above, working smarter not harder. Rest can be just as productive as action. When this message comes, it could be because you need to refill your inner wellsprings. It could be because you’ve done all there is to do and now is a time to ALLOW, to flow (if you need to reconnect to the energy of flow revisit May’s anchoring). Al-Jalil reminds us that when there is nothing to do outwardly you can still develop inner qualities such as certainty, confidence, strength, or devotion. This pathway teaches you to allow these qualities to build within, like a wave swelling into fullness.

ROOTS AND BRANCHES (verbatim from the Sufi Book of Life)

Traditional translations of this quality include “glorious and sublime.” The roots of Jalil show the divine manifested power welling up and beginning to spread (JaL), then piling up, internalizing, and doubling back on itself (IL). This is like a deep ocean, far from shore. When this power comes out, it is expressed as Jalal (85). Here this power is sublimated in the original sense of the word sublime. It need not act outwardly because it radiates without speaking or acting. In contrast to Kabir (37), outward creative power in action, Jalil expresses the contents of a reservoir of power in repose. Azim (33), flexible strength, expresses a power that can act either outwardly or inwardly, as the needs of the moment dictate.

*MEDITATION*

Center again in the heart. Call a circle of your inner self and invite all the feelings, sensations, and voices within you to Wisdom’s table Breathe in the sound Ya Ja- and breathe out the sound -LeeL. Invite whoever shows up to allow themselves to feel a wave of divine resources slowly building within. You can be borne upward by this ocean, without having to do anything but surrender.