The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.
Carl Rogers, born 8 January 1902, Sun and Moon in Capricorn, American psychologist
Our first reaction to most of the statements which we hear from other people is an immediate evaluation, or judgment, rather than an understanding of it. … Very rarely do we permit ourselves to understand precisely what the meaning of the statement is to him. I believe this is because understanding is risky.
If I let myself really understand another person, I might be changed by that understanding. And we all fear change. So as I say, it is not an easy thing to permit oneself to understand an individual, to enter thoroughly and completely and empathically into his frame of reference. It is also a rare thing.
Experience is, for me, the highest authority. The touchstone of validity is my own experience. No other person’s ideas, and none of my own ideas, are as authoritative as my experience. It is to experience that I must return again and again, to discover a closer approximation to truth as it is in the process of becoming in me. Neither the Bible nor the prophets — neither Freud nor research — neither the revelations of God nor man — can take precedence over my own direct experience. My experience is not authoritative because it is infallible. It is the basis of authority because it can always be checked in new primary ways. In this way its frequent error or fallibility is always open to correction.
People are just as wonderful as sunsets if you let them be. When I look at a sunset, I don’t find myself saying, “Soften the orange a bit on the right hand corner.” I don’t try to control a sunset. I watch with awe as it unfolds.
I’m not perfect… But I’m enough.
When a person realizes he has been deeply heard, his eyes moisten. I think in some real sense he is weeping for joy. It is as though he were saying, “Thank God, somebody heard me. Someone knows what it’s like to be me”.
Being empathic means: “To be with another in this way means that for the time being you lay aside the views and values you hold for yourself in order to enter another’s world without prejudice. In some sense it means that you lay aside your self and this can only be done by a person who is secure enough in himself that he knows he will not get lost in what may turn out to be the strange or bizarre world of the other, and can comfortably return to his own world when he wishes. Perhaps this description makes clear that being empathic is a complex, demanding, strong yet subtle and gentle way of being.
David Bowie, (10.5.11) with Sun in Capricorn, Moon in Leo and Ascendant in Aquarius, Pluto and Saturn conjuct the Moon (Saturn and Pluto Alien Vessel). English musician, actor and record producer, born on 8 January 1947 in London. A music pioneer and innovator especially in his early work in the 1970s, known for his eclecticism and multidimensional awareness. Relevant at the start of his career were his alien costumes and constant references, with songs such as “Ziggy Stardust”, “Loving the Alien”, “Starman”. Bowie is the protagonist of the movie The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976). an exemplification of the Epic of the Sacred Cone, about an extraterrestrial wearing a “human suit” and landing on Earth in order to seek water for his planet suffering from a severe drought. Water here stands for emotions, or Graha, which is precisely what our planet regularly produces. In his venture the alien becomes addicted to vodka (water and spirit) and is kept in captivity by the military forces. Then in the end he realises that his prison is unlocked and he escapes.
“There’s a starman waiting in the sky
He’d like to come and meet us
But he thinks he’d blow our minds
There’s a starman waiting in the sky
He’s told us not to blow it.
Cause he knows it’s all worthwhile”
Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (10.6) 8 January 1836 – 25 June 1912, was a Dutch painter, born in Dronrijp. He settled in England in 1870 and spent the rest of his life there. A classical-subject painter, he became famous for his depictions of the luxury and decadence of the Roman Empire, with languorous figures set in fabulous marbled interiors or against a backdrop of dazzling blue Mediterranean Sea and sky.
Arthur Ford, (10.8.1) American medium (8 January 1896-d. 1971)
Albert Bierstadt, (10.3) German/American painter (8 January 1830- d. 1902)
Elvis Presley, (10.12.9) American singer (8 January 1935-d. 1977)
Peter James Carroll (born 8 January 1953, in Patching, England) modern occultist, author, cofounder of the Illuminates of Thanateros, and practitioner of chaos magic theory.
Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers (8 January 1854 – 5 or 20 November 1918) British occultist. He is primarily known as one of the founders of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a ceremonial magic order of which offshoots still exist today.
Handorian Hero: Ke Weed
Optional Memorial: Lawrence Alma-Tadema, (10.6); David Bowie, (10.5.11)
ACIM: My mind is preoccupied with past thoughts.