buddhism – Fiesta Estrellas

Venus and Saturn have been side-by-side creating a number of nuanced (Pisces) experiences around our values and commitments. Some relationships might feel strained–other’s might benefit from renewing commitments and looking at the structures around give and take/exchange. The bouncing back and forth over the tariffs implementation and pausing is completely evident in the stars. The strong Pisces energy highlights the unknowns–the awareness that there’s a veneer around what is actually happening in the communication via media (Mercury is also in Pisces) and the Venus/Saturn conjunction is bringing the sense of strain, austerity, scaling back, unfairness, and bringing in a tightness and fear or even a focus about consolidation around resources. We are all “soul-searching” over what is durable, what remains steadfast. We are looking for principles to live by that remain firm regardless of whatever. There might also be a lot of comparison’s to the past, with Mars transiting in trine from the Venus/Saturn conjunction to the sign of Cancer (which rules memories). Idealism is acting wobbly and wonky right now.

With Chiron conjoining Sun in Aries, some primordial wounds that have never healed get highlighted. Chiron was himself a great healer, but he was unable to heal from his wound. Chiron went into the healing arts as also a way to heal himself. A Rumi poem as quoted in link above demonstrates the way the healing path works for the healer for self and others (for more information on the details of Chiron’s story).

Your doctor must have a broken leg to doctor.

Your defects are the ways that glory gets manifested.

Whoever sees clearly what’s diseased in himself

Begins to gallop on the Way

…

Don’t turn your head. Keep looking at the bandaged place.

That’s where the light enters you.

“Shakyamuni Buddha’s Birthday April 15th marks the anniversary of Buddha Shakyamuni demonstrating the attainment of enlightenmentin 589 B.C.E.

This is an extremely important day in the Buddhist calendar because our actions are 100,000 times more powerful than on other days.

This event is marked by special purification and fasting retreats in Kadampa Buddhist Centers worldwide based on the practice Drop of Essential Nectar.

This practice, which is done in conjunction with Eleven-faced Avalokiteshvara. It is very powerful for purifying negative karma of body, speech, and mind, and for pacifying strong delusions such as desirous attachment and hatred.

It is also a special method for receiving blessings and improving our experience of love, compassion, and bodhichitta.

Source: https://kadampa.org/buddhism/buddhas-enlightenment-day

When we talk about Buddha and Buddhism the supreme ultimate goal of enlightment is for the purpose of ALL BEINGS.

I’ve been celebrating Vesak for years, maybe moreso informally. I originated for me years ago when I aligned powerfully with the love and investment in the process of becoming a clear mirror. This continues to be my goal and deepest devotion. For me, this goal was never formally religious but I am learning to move more deeply into my chosen path. For that reason, it is taking on an interesting form.

Libra represents the scales and the balance point. The Aries/Libra spectrum is both an opposition and a connection for common ground. There is awareness of Self in order for the Awareness of Others. If one cannot truly comprehend the value of one’s own precious human life, they cannot fully confirm and practice the preciousness of others’ lives, and other living beings (non-human). I’ve enjoyed astrology and various mystic devotions because they tend to overcome the dogma that is often present with religion. There’s a relationship with the land and the cosmos that speaks so strongly to me of the Earth and our relating within it. The Earth is “our perceived center.” It is a temple in and of itself and the best way for me to express that devotion.

I will be practicing purification for this upcoming Buddha’s birthday, and enjoying my continued spiritual journey in all its forms. I feel the rich tapestry of all the traditions I have been a part of all my life, and my connection and linkage within many lineages as a completion and continuation of my past lives, with the reverence and respect I have carried forward.

Whatever you celebrate, and wherever you are, I hope you are enjoying your precious human life in a way that makes sense to you, and fulfills you!

Happy Full Moon In libra! May we deepen and connect with what is most true for us. Love to all!

Hello lovely friends and visitors,

Whether I’ve known you for a while and we are constantly exchanging endearments (thank you!I can’t enjoy that enough!), or you are new to my world here at Fiestaestrellas.com, you are equally welcome 🙂 Come, and warm yourself by the virtual fire. You are welcomed into this space of our remembering unity.

I’m sitting here in the firelight with the chart for the full moon in Leo. See above, above. As a “Leo Sun,” myself, it gives me something to draw from: my own limited (yet nevertheless valuable) experience. Ironically, my own experience is deepening and expanding so much so that I am not identifying with the same “I” as I used to. Take a pause here with me.

Does the “I” have context and contents that are really real?

There is more awareness around myself AS others. You and me, we are one. Sometimes I can see myself sitting at my desk, writing. Doing the things I do with awareness of both being in the body, and not of the body.

We are.

It’s odd how the mind just needs to be trained to see things as they really are.

The Course In Miracles and many other tools exist to try to train/untrain the mind into clarity. You may ask, why isn’t clarity just inherent? It’s a great question.

I think the answer is that the mind is malleable, flexible, and at best: ‘neutral’ as its own inherent quality. But this also makes the mind impressionable. We are formed and forged by our backgrounds, environments, ancestors, connections, and familiarity. Eventually these impressions harden like any good molding material that you want to use for later (memory!).

What I learn from my deepening with Buddhism through the lens of my current teacher Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, or “Geshla,” is that the nature of reality really is emptiness. Nothing exists on the other side of the mind. The mind is the generator of all phenomena on the mind’s side of things. So if we identify this mind with the “I” we are lost in the woods, so to speak. But, if we never form memories or impressions, we are also lost in the woods, so to speak. chuckle.

What the meaning is of life therefore is the meaning you give it. Who is “you?” Where are its boundaries?

A fun experiment to meditate with is to feel the edges of your awareness, and practice softening to it.

For this Full Moon in Leo, we have Uranus in a nearly perfect square (90 degree) aspect to both the Sun and Mercury (in Aquarius) as one point of focus and the moon in Leo on the opposite point of focus. Dividing that opposition (180 degrees) or line, is Uranus: the Great Awakener. The planet does have this reputation for a reason. In 1781, the astronomer William Herschel looked up into the constellation of Gemini and thought he found a comet but it turned out to be the 7th planet in our solar system. In fact, Herschel wanted to name Uranus after a British monarch but many others in the world disagreed so they stuck to the convention of naming the planet after a figure in mythology; however, Uranus is Greek, and not Roman like the other planet names, which makes Uranus “unique.” This is a “break” from convention. If that’s not weird enough, Uranus’s orbit is virtually perpendicular to its orbital pathway; Uranus is laying down and spinning. Since Uranus was a later discovery from Saturn (the rule-maker), Uranus gets the reputation of reality construct breaker. Uranus is also “in charge” of what we consider the collective for humanity. Well, as if we aren’t completely thrown into a new world, already this year in 2025 with great billionaire bulls in the China shops of politics, government, and businesses, slashing and burning our structures and institutions one by one. Institutions (like Rome) that weren’t built in a day. The majority of us would probably agree the slash and burn is happening without any ideas of reasonable replacement. It FEELS careless, at best.

So, where does all this put a Leo full moon? Well, you can run around talking about how Leo is so self-important and aiming to just “show off” or you could see how the “individual,” “me” and “I,” is really a veneer or avatar FOR the collective. No one gets anywhere without their ego to help them stay alive. If you are dead, then, well, you aren’t doing anything–at all. Unless you are a strong ghost (but even then, you probably needed to have a strong ego in life before you died). Ego is almost synonymous with the mind in the way I am defining here. It’s inherently neutral and merely a creator. It’s a little creator, though. It doesn’t make anything real. The false Ego is the one that generates the delusions. The healthy ego is the one that is in balance with the whole, as part of it, as a collaborator with the collective.

Imagine if we didn’t have names. It would be very confusing in the early days of telephones when they used to be SHARED by households. Who are you calling for? What if you wanted to get someone’s attention in a crowd? What if you are the one holding the “hot potato” in the “hot potato” game. WE can’t call you. Having a name is like having an existence. Having an existence allows you to be considered, heard, referred to, etc etc. So the mind is so important for sorting things out and helping all of us be US– getting through our days with some healthy little bit of order.

This is where Leo comes in. What stands out to me with Leo, as a sign, is COURAGE. Leo exists. There’s an organizing principle not because anyone is special and deserves it. But, nature and energy, is organized. When we watch and marvel at life being formed, we look at how the cells collect and specialize. That’s a lot like us. We are nature. We are not separate from it. We are not merely destroying nature separate from ourselves. We are organization. We are an organizing force, and this is where, to me, the APPEARANCE of Leo shows up. The energy to BE. The energy to exist. It requires collaboration. It requires creation even in the form of little “i.” That “i” cannot be negated, nor should you really want it to be. It need be integrated, but not to fully dissolve. It can gain momentum and organizing power, momentum. Courage is not just a quality of character, its a quality of energy. It requires health to be courageous. It requires strength. This is what we want to cultivate during our Leo times.