Bracing for an Impact

You know that moment when you see it coming – like in the movies when the rural doctor puts a rag in the injured hero’s mouth and says, “This is gonna hurt”? Before the advent of painkillers and anesthetics, a number of ultimately helpful actions started off as sharp pain: pulling a tooth, fixing a dislocated arm, extracting poison after a snake bite. Luckily for most of us, we’ve only seen these sorts of things on TV, but we all know that, though the worst of the pain will be short lived, it’ll be sharp and intense at the onset.

The philosophy of medicines like chiropractic is to remove the source of imbalance so that healing can occur. Others induce healing by firmly promoting the movement of energy through the blocked area. In either case, there is a moment of forced action, which precedes a more natural flow toward well-being.

Today’s planetary configuration has me thinking about all of this primarily centered on the square between Mars in Sagittarius and Chiron in Pisces. Hours after the exact square, Mars moves into an exact trine with Uranus in Aries. And earlier this morning, the Moon in Libra exactly opposed Uranus.

Interestingly, all of this happens at 5 degrees Sagittarius, Pisces, Aries, and Libra respectively. Remember, my interpretation of 5 is a shift or change brought on from the outside and is often felt as a blow outta no where. So a 5 is similar to those things I described above, except without the warning.

And today 10-14-2012 can be written numerologically as 1-5-5/11 – an 11 that is made up to two 5s and a 1.

Before moving on, consider some of the glyphs involved in the above chart. Mars and Sagittarius both feature arrows pointing up and to the right; Uranus and Aries both have horns; and the moon and Libra are both comprised of crescents. Looking at it one way, all of these are weapons that pierce: the arrow, horns, and a sickle.

Even the glyph for Pisces is a pair of crescents. So it is only the symbol for Chiron that doesn’t impale, but that’s a clue. Chiron looks like a key, don’t you think? So all of the stimulation coming from the others is meant to open the door for healing. Now hold on to that thought…

So, looking at the title I decided on for this post (out of many choices), it is clear to see impact. Mars in Sagittarius aligned with Uranus in Aries is nothing if not impactful. It is piercing. It does prod us out of stasis. It is virtually impossible to remain the same under this configuration.

However, there is that square. Squares are not fluid. They are not flowing. If anything, a square is like a hard stop. It is the block we’re trying to get rid of. And since it is between Mars and Chiron, is it a block that is holding us back and preventing our wounds from healing.

But it is an energetic block. Have you ever been in pain for long periods of time? Have you ever noticed how tiring pain can be? That is because there is a lot of energy being spent. Pain is conveyed as electric impulses. When you are in constant pain, your nerves are constantly firing. You can say that they are stuck on. Mars square Chiron is pain that is stuck on.

So one more piece to the puzzle before we move on – and that’s the brace part. When we brace for impact, we pre-act. “Ouch” is the reaction; brace is the pre-action. But any doctor will tell you that bracing for an impact is bad. In fact, people get hurt in accidents far worse when they brace for it. In a car crash, a person sleeping or intoxicated is far less likely to break bones than the one who saw it coming. Why? Physics. When a body is at rest, the waves of forces are dissipated evenly. The shock is spread out and thus creates a minimum of damage. When we’re tense, the forces travel over the taught lines of muscle, which snaps our bones and pulls things out of place.

People who have been abused or traumatized in some way get stuck in a pattern of bracing. Anything that resembles imminent pain results in pre-active protection. It is the white knuckling effect. It is tense. It is tiring. And it prevents us from allowing a flow of experience. In effect, the anticipation of pain is the pain. As survivors, we made it through the rough experience(s) of our past, yet because we continue to anticipate more, and brace and protect against it, we are still imbalanced. We are imprisoned by our own fear. We are stuck.

For some of us, it’s time to pull off the band-aid. It’s time to remove the protective covering of our wounds so that oxygen can flow in and promote further healing.

In some forms of medicine, areas of excess heat are actively cooled through some means. Mars in Sagittarius stuck in a square is an area of excess heat. Chiron in Pisces can be cooling, but only if the waters are allowed to flow.

Today ought not to feel that bad to anyone. The trine and sextile that Mars has from Uranus and the Moon promote a flow of energy despite the square. But the square is there and for those of us who have a visceral memory of pain connected to it, we are aware. We know where we’re stuck. We know where we have open wounds. We know that we’re covering them with band-aids. We know our knuckles are white. But if we breathe through it, we can progress.

In this third from last month of 2012, we are surrounded by hype. Everyone is spewing fear these days. Some are afraid of December 21^st. Some are afraid of one candidate over the other. Some are afraid of a financial crash. We have reached a critical point in our global communication – namely instant access to everyone else’s fear. These connections are like taught muscles bracing for an impact. Fear rings through them like plucked strings on a harp. And resistance to this is futile.

What’s needed most is deep healing breaths and a flow of energy.