What Must I Do?

What do you do when you don’t know what to do? What do you do when a situation around you isn’t right, but it is out of your hands? What do you do when you can’t change the other person or people and you need his, her, or their help?

What do you do when you don’t feel good (physically or emotionally) and you can’t find anything that helps?

Someday, I think I’ll write an article, series, or mini-book about planets in detriment and fall. In Astrology Theory, planets rule a sign or two, and are exalted in another. In the signs opposite those, the planet is said to be detriment or fall. In either case, it suffers.

Let’s consider Mars as an example. Mars rules Aries. In Aries, Mars is a powerful warrior. He is strong. He is ready, willing, and able to act. He is independent. He is rearing to go. He is full of energy. As a warrior, Mars doesn’t need to lead, but if he is not given the order to attack quickly enough, he just might take it upon himself.

Mars is currently in Libra, where he is detriment. Libra is about law, justice, fairness, equality, cooperation, harmony, getting along, and some might even say: compromise. Libra is certainly aligned with peace. Doesn’t that sound detrimental to a warrior?!

What is a warrior to do if everyone is getting along? And if Mars has to play by the rules, it is harder to win!

When you find yourself in a situation where you don’t have control, where you don’t know what to do, or where your actions aren’t what’s needed to solve a situation, you are akin to Mars in Libra. You can’t go it alone. Unlike what Nike says, you can’t just do it. Well, you can do something, but, as you’ve learned in the past, you often just make it worse in cases like this.

Mars is (seemingly) at a disadvantage in Libra because he is not in his element relying on the cooperation of others. He has mastered dexterity, strength, and overcoming fear, which has endowed him with prowess. Making Mars wait his turn and play nice with others? He wants nothing to do with that.

If Mars’ friend was in a burning building, he’d run right in to save him. But if Mars was inside that building, asking him to wait for help just wouldn’t do. He’d tear a wall down to save himself.

Life has evolved to the point where Mars is not the only game in town. We don’t need muscles to get work done…or to be in a position of power. Muscles are still revered, but often they don’t make as much money as other skills. Our technologies are too sophisticated now. Brute force too often just breaks things.

And yet, we are still taught that life is all about doing. One statement I have grown to dislike strongly is this one: If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting.

That is not exactly true. Yes, life seems to prove this, but that is only because we’re not examining the situation closely enough. The truer version of the above is this:

If you keep thinking the way your thinking, you’ll keep experiencing what you’re experiencing.

You can think different thoughts, but if the way you’re thinking (your mindset, your vibration) is the same, then the resulting experience will feel the same. And vastly different outcomes can have a similar feel. The results can change, the environment can change, the players in the game can change, but you might feel defeated again and again.

So it’s not all about the actions.

In a recent reading, the querent kept saying, “I don’t know what to do.” Inside of that statement was the question: “What do I need to I do to feel better?”

Asking spirit: “What must I do?” doesn’t result in good answers simply because one: there never is a must, there never is a requirement, and two: action alone does not solve anything.

Yeah, yeah, none of you truly believe that last part. And I struggle with it too. We all think that doing something (the right thing) will always solve issues. So we strive to find the right thing to do and then do it. And it always seems like problems are only solved through action.

What spirit said rather clearly in that recent reading was this: feeling better will naturally inspire action, but action is not what creates feeling better.

Consider the following thread:

1. You don’t feel good (emotionally) and you want to know what you can do to feel better.

2. Someone tells you to do x, y, or z.

3. You do one of the above, even though you don’t enjoy it.

4. <…>

5. Afterward, you feel better.

In this example, it appears that doing something helped, but was it the doing? No. Notice I intentionally left off step 4. As a result of doing something, you gave yourself kudos, you gave yourself credit. That was step 4!

We are so trained to believe in reward for effort, we reward ourselves for effort pretty much automatically. That is what felt good.

In the above sequence, number 4 is giving yourself kudos, which is what led to number 5. If you just did 4 by itself, without doing number 3, you’d feel better without taking action or expending effort!

The beauty of Libra (and there is a lot of beauty in Libra) is connection, companionship, and co-creation. No one really wants to go it alone. One wants to be free. One wants to be in control of his or her own lot. One wants to choose. When all of those are allowed, that person will still want to have others along just for the fun and the joy of it.

In my mind, Mars needn’t be hurt by the vibration of Libra. He needn’t feel emasculated or inhibited by the ideals of Libra. But he does have to rise above the limitations of his thoughts about those concepts.

Doing what one wants to do is fun. When one has muscle, it feels good to use that muscle. When one has skill, it feels good to create with that skill. It feels good to excel. But the way life is supposed to work is like this: it is supposed to feel good in the doing, not just in the results.

Mars in Aries will tell you that it feels good to act. In that environment, he simply lives the way he knows: doing and enjoying the doing. In Libra, he’ll feel better if he reminds himself that doing is supposed to feel good, which means he can do more of what feels good, and do less of what doesn’t. And if it seems like there are too many things he is supposed to do that don’t feel good, it is time to shift his thoughts and perspective first! [For example, often, a task only feels like a chore because of our attitude about it.]

Stop fighting with what isn’t working. Stop fighting the issues and problems or the people who seem to be creating them (or at least not solving them). Find a bit of peace inside of yourself. Acknowledge that you’re choosing to do things you don’t want to do because you haven’t yet found a better way around it. Reach for inspiration from a calm quiet place and then act from there!