Hey y’all,
Welcome to Cycles of Time podcast… where the wheel of the year keeps on turning, despite it all.
It's been a week, y’all. I can't believe it's just been 7 days since last Monday- the day before it seems like everything changed. But here we are.
For me, it's been incredibly grounding to have this podcast where I can think about the energies of the week from these different ancient perspectives that are tried and true. Tried and true in the sense that capitalism and patriarchy and nation states have come and gone, but the systems of the Zodiac and the I’Ching and the Medicine Wheel have persisted throughout all of that. So, for me, it's a very grounding force to continue to do this work and this project. Thanks for being here on this exploratory journey with me.
I probably don’t need to tell you this, but (once again) we have a powerful and revolutionary week ahead, which includes a full moon on Friday conjunct Uranus that’s sure to bring out all the rebels, freaks & geniuses … time to tune into your inner light and see what epiphanies come through under the light of the moon.
Let’s start out by getting right into the transits:
This week’s highlights:
Medicine wheel: Moving from the direction West, representing adulthood and emotional sensibility, to the direction North, representing elderhood and spiritual sensibility.
It’s the last full week of Scorpio season
Human Design/I’Ching:
Mon-Fri: Gate 43, the Gate of Insight (aka “The Rebel”)
Sat-Sun: Gate 14, the Gate of Power Skills
Friday, Nov 15 4:28 PM EST : Full Moon in Taurus, conjunct Uranus
In HD Gate 23, the gate of Assimilation- the sun and moon will activate the Genius-to-Freak channel
This week’s themes:
Creative Rebellion
Breakthroughs and Epiphanies are Possible
Let your freak flag fly…!
Our Place in the Wheel of the Year
Medicine Wheel Direction:WEST (Water, Adulthood, Emotionality) > North (Wind, Elderhood, Spirituality)
Wuxing Cycle Element: Metal
Pagan Season: Samhain
Zodiac Season: Scorpio (October 22-November 21)
Moon Phase: Full Moon in Taurus
I Ching Hexagram/Human Design: Gate 43 (Mon-Fri), Gate 14 (Sat-Sun)
43: Lake over Heaven, “Breakthrough/Deciding” or the Gate of INSIGHT
14: Fire over Heaven , “Fire in the Heavens = Sun”, or “Plenty”, aka the Gate of POWER SKILLS
Hello from the other side….
(TW: This first little section is me freeballing on post-election thoughts, which I believe are relevant to the current esoteric energies of the week … but if you’d prefer, skip ahead to the next section for the Astro/HD :)
So here we are… on the other side?
Like I said before, it’s truly hard to believe that less than a week ago I recorded the last episode, with visions of sugarplums and different election results swimming in my head. It isn’t a shocker, this new reality TV show we find ourselves in- I was more than half sure it would go this way. But before it happens, it’s hard to imagine/remember the feeling of the vacuum, the rug pulling out from under you, the free fall, the feeling that, compared to last Monday, everything is different now.
Collective consciousness is a trip. The instant canceling of both” left” by “right” and “right” by “left” folks has been wild to witness. I’ll probably get a few “remove me from your list” replies to this missive, too- I did for my last essay, I’ve talked to a lot of writers and creators who have had the door slammed in their face too, and the general vibe out there is one of vicious team loyalty.
We are a trigger-happy nation, ready to point the finger (and worse) at the bad guy, but having a hard time really grokking how the bad guy is not left or right, but a system based on extraction, slavery, extreme inequality and systemic hierarchy. We’ve all heard of ‘divide and conquer’ as a tactic, but aren’t quite ready to admit that the powers that be are dividing and conquering the very populace that they’re claiming to be standing for. It’s all a joke.
Elon Musk’s net worth went up 26 billion in 1 day after the election (after investing a mere 118 million to Drumph’s campaign), and the world’s 10 richest people gained a whopping 64 billion from his reelection. Truth Social owner Trump Media & Technology Group, Trump’s social media company, also cashed in with shares skyrocketing 35% in value after Trump won, where he himself is the majority shareholder. Fuckin a…
In the American dream, everybody just wants to be richer, no matter what it takes to get there. So when the (perceptively) richest man with gold toilets who’s ‘made it’ promises that your groceries are gonna get cheaper and immigrants aren’t gonna take your blue collar job, you’re going to re-elect him. Even if he is a convicted felon, rapist, self-admitted molester, racist, xenophobic man who is deeply indebted to foreign mafiosos and puts us at a huge national security risk.
I’m not entirely convinced that the election wasn’t rigged, with the amount of big-data/big-teach guys on the orange man’s team, and with his continued promise during his campaign that there was no need to vote - ‘I have all the votes I need”. Daniel Pinchbeck wrote a good article about why this might be the case (and why it ultimately doesn’t matter, anyway). The left, the Biden administration, doesn’t want to be a hypocrite, and they wouldn’t use the same rhetoric as the bad guys did in 2020- not after the insurrection and the claims of voter fraud last time around. A peaceful transfer there will be, and there are enough loudly empowered Trumpeters out there to convince anyone that they stand for the vast majority of Americans.
People seem to believe that Trump’s administration will keep us safer, mocking everyone who feels truly unsafe under his promised policies with the notion that he will fight the true enemy- the enemy out there, the immigrants and muslims and sinners- thus, keeping all Americans truly safe. Despite being anti-big-government, his supporters cling to old idea that the nationstate is still here to serve and protect the citizens inside it’s borders, and that there is a limited amount of care to go around.
On the other side of the coin, the deep pockets of AIPAC keep the dems from standing up to an expanding genocide across the Middle East, and the neoliberal entrenchment in big money is not going away. The truth is, the two party system here is so completely bought and sold by the richest people in the world that the nation state hardly matters anymore. What matters most is keeping people afraid and highly distracted with blame and vitriol for each other so the extraction economy can continue its course.
So what can we do… demand a recount? Eat the rich? Wear a blue bracelet to virtue signal to other white women that we’re one of the good guys?
Nah.
I don’t know how to beat a monster of this magnitude- I don’t think many of us do. But, like I said last week, before the proverbial shit hit the fan, I do know that creativity is key.
Last week’s Gate of Self Expression leads to this week’s Gate of the Rebel
Last week’s transit through the Gate of Creativity & Self-Expression, the first gate of the I”Ching and Human Design wheel of the year, helped me get through the longest week in the year with a positive outlook. I took the assignment literally (as I have frequently been doing with these 5 day transits through the gates). I created a dozen stuffed animals out of felt with my kid. I created snowmen and snow angels in the storm of the century here in NM. I created banana bread and soup and chai. I created essays and articles to clarify my perspectives. I called friends and organized in-person meet ups. I took walks, creating footprints on the ground.
The opposite gate from of Gate 1 in the wheel is Gate 2, the Gate of the Receptive. I believe that many of us are feeling so disempowered by the election, that we’re feeling like victims, receivers, passively standing by. We’re in a position to receive a lot of information- “What is Trump going to do his first day in office?” articles abound, and the forums on any social network are popping off. There are so many headlines, so many think pieces, so much, so much. Reading and watching and staying informed is clutch, but if we don’t balance receiving with creating, we will drown.
The sun left Gate 1 yesterday, but this week’s transit continues on this theme with the Gate of Insight (Gate 43), also known as the Gate of the Rebel. This energy is all about listening to our inner voice, our inner truth, our insight, and being highly selective about the influences of others.
We also have a full moon this week, happening in the gate across the sky from the Gate of Insight, the Gate of Assimilation (Gate 23). Together, in the Human Design bodygraph, these two Gates (43 and 23) connect the ajna center to the throat center to form the Channel of Structuring, which is commonly known as the “Genius to Freak” channel. It’s about bringing insights from your ajna, or 3rd eye, to your throat chakra… and speaking them out to the world, whether you’re going to be understood or not. This full moon is also conjunct Uranus
Last week was about coming out of the shadows and embracing our own creative self-expression. This week is about taking it a step further and owning your inner rebel, your inner freak. You might be misunderstood by some people- in fact, you’re guaranteed to be called an outcast, a weirdo, a monster by some folks in these polarizing times. But when you own your freak, the ones who see you will really see you for your individuality, your unique spark, your true genius.
It’s quite the assignment. Hope you join me.
Fixed Water, the Frozen, Metallic Underworld and the Path Forward
In the midst of this post-election snowstorm, I find myself thinking about the fixed water sign Scorpio, with “fixed water” if we’re being literal, meaning ice. Frost. Hardening of the flow. The full moon this week is commonly known as the Beaver moon, but another popular name is the Frost Moon.
Here in Santa Fe, we got our first snow on November 3, and it has been frosty ever since- the mud puddles on the road form beautiful crystalline ice sheets that we crunch through as we walk the dogs, bracing ourselves from the icy wind.
In the Indigenous Medicine Wheel, as we approach winter, we are now moving from the season of water, the direction West, symbolizing adulthood and emotionality, to the direction North, the element Wind, the life stage of elder hood, and the realm of spirituality.
In the Daoist 5-element Wuxing Cycle, we are in the season of Metal, and I’m struck that Metal, compared with all of the other elements or phases, feels the most like ice. It is unweilding, strong, certain of itself. Fixed. Immutable. Cutting like a sword.
Listening to what these inner wheels of the Cycles of Time are telling us, is time for us to have spiritual clarity, precision, certainty. We have met the challenge of processing the deep feelings of the adult stage of the year, and approach the elder part of the year with spiritual discipline, needed to get us through the long winter ahead.
It is spiritual discipline that quells the noise around us and allows us great insight.
The Rebel’s Epiphany: The Gate of Insight (43)
Akin to 3 totems of Scorpio Season, Gene Keys creator Richard Rudd says that all qualities of humanity have 3 stages of evolution. The first, the “shadow”, is focused on survival. The second, the “gift” is focused on service, and the third, the “siddhi”, is all about surrender. This reminds me of the scorpion’s survival skills, the eagle as a symbol of service and hope, and the phoenix as an effigy of surrendering to the fire so we can be reborn out of the ashes.
Gate 43’s three stages of evolution are quite lined up with this story of transmutation, interesting as we are traveling deep within the second half of Scorpio season.
The Shadow of Gate 43 is Deafness, the Gift is Insight, and the Siddhi is Epiphany. Known in Human Design as the Gate of Insight, I have also seen it called “The Rebel” (64 doors) and “The Listener Within” (Christy Inge). In the I’Ching, 43 is known as “Breakthrough” or “Determination”, symbolized by the trigrams Lake over Heaven, which evokesthe water of a lake rising up above the heavens, making a cloudburst- a breakthrough of sun or rain- very likely.
At the shadow, survival-based frequency, those with 43 active in their chart are often afraid of being outsiders, outcasts and of not being accepted. When in this frequency of fear, a certain deafness to the world around them manifests within them as a defense mechanism, as they fill their minds with lots of internal noise. This noise can take the form of worry- constant worries that they’re not enough, and will never be accepted- or in the form of noisiness, an inner cacophony that blames others and insists that “they already know everything”, and don’t need any advice or information from the outside.
Interestingly enough, at the Gift frequency, which is focused on service to the whole, Gate 43 utilizes this quality of deafness to their advantage, simply by flipping the script and realizing that their inner landscape is filled with wisdom. They stop blaming others or worrying that they won’t fit in, and start to own their unique creativity and voice. This is where the archetype of the Rebel shows her face as a strong and powerful individual creator, one who doesn’t need permission from the outside world to be her true self. The insights that come from owning her power and quieting the noise are profound, capable of inspiring others in a huge way through their authenticity.
Gate 43 comes right after Gate 1, the Gate of Self-Expression, in the Human Design/I’Ching wheel of the year, and so it is about the transformation of our creativity and the self-awareness of what it means to be an individual, unique, creative person. Creative self expression is a beautiful thing, but a truly vulnerable thing too, and so Gate 43 reflects the fear of rejection that often comes right after we put ourselves out there into the world. There is a deeply self-reflective quality to this gate, and this week’s energy could either show up as feelings of embarassment/shame/a deep desire to be accepted OR bring profound insights into the beauty and genius of your unique individuality.
At the siddhi frequency, those with gate 43 active in their charts who surrender to it’s wisdom can become transmitters for grand epiphanies. The name Epiphany comes from the Greek epiphaneia, meaning “appearance” or “manifestation”- the quality of profound insights and intuitive knowings coming from out of the blue.
Epiphany most commonly refers to the manifestation of Jesus Christ as the son of God, and is a feast that celebrates the day when the 3 Magi, or Wise Men, visited baby Jesus in the Manger. The Magi's identity is somewhat mysterious, but the etymology suggests they were Persian priest-astrologers who followed a star to find the son of god.
Here we find the number 3 again: 3 stages of transformation that symbolize Scorpio, 3 frequencies of evolution in the Gene Keys, 3 Wise Astrologers. The Magi brought 3 gifts along with them as well- Frankincense, Gold, and Myrrh. As I think about the 3 stages of human evolution- survival, service, and surrender, these 3 gifts fit the narrative as well! Frankencense was used for worship; it is symbolic of a religious fear of god, or of turning to god for survival. Gold is symbolic of the King, one who is in service to the community. Myrrh is a perfume that was used to anoint dead bodies, it is symbolic of surrendering to death.
I definitely didn’t think that in researching this that the 3 stages of Scorpio’s evolution would pair so nicely with the 3 wise men and their gifts… but I love surprises. What do you think?
Gate 43 in the Real World: My rebel-genius-6 year old :)
My daughter’s birthday is this week, so 43 is her sun gate. It’s fascinating to look at her with insights from Gate 43, my natural-born rebel. She definitely has the qualities of deafness- of hearing only what she wants to hear and knowing that she’s right without listening to other perspectives. And although this is insanely frustrating as a parent who wants to guide and teach my child, I am grateful that she knows how to stand up for her ideas and insights.
Coincidentally, my daughters’s name means “Bright Star” in Tagalog, referring back to the goddess of the morning and the evening star (Venus) in ancient Phillipines. Since she was little, she often has talked to me about remembering when she was a star, and this has now become our shared story. Before she was in my belly, she was a star, and most of what she ‘knows” intuitively can be explained by the fact that she experienced it when she was a star.
Scientifically, the Star of Bethlehem that led the 3 Magi to Jesus in the Manger, and is the origin of “epiphany” is thought by some to have been a rare conjunction between Venus, Jupiter, and the bright star Regulus.
Fascinating stuff! Although I have prominent the gates of Confusion and Doubt in my chart, all I know is that I’ve stopped doubting her when she tells me that she remembers being a star, or that she already knows things. I will keep working with her on listening, and on worrying less, but I will never try to undermine her insight and intuitive knowing.
Across the Sky is The Full Moon In Taurus, in the Gate of Assimilation (23)
The Frost Moon. The Beaver Moon. This is an electric full Moon, as it forms in tight conjunction to Uranus on November 15, 2024. The Beaver Moon will reach peak illumination at 4:28 p.m. Friday, Nov. 15, crossing the sky beside the Pleiades star cluster or the "Seven Sisters" in the Taurus constellation. Being conjunct with Uranus, indicates surprises, sudden insights, and eccentric changes.
The sun in Gate 43 is big rebel energy, and when it’s faced by the moon in it’s polar opposite gate, 23, it will bring energy to realize what our internal epiphanies are and how they can be assimilated into the greater whole. Without the full moon’s assimilating qualities in the earthy sign of Taurus, the sun’s transit through gate 43 might leave us with a whole bunch of misunderstood rebels and freaks. But this full moon comes in at an opportune time, bringing the ability for individuals to communicate their insights, bringing awareness and understanding which leads to the acceptance of diversity.
Gosh, I hope this is rue!
This full moon is time for a release of your brilliant ideas to the larger world. This full moon is screaming “trust your inner voice!” and “let your freak flag fly!” It is time to express what is inside you, if only just for today. It doesn’t have to be a huge launch or a manifesto- any small act of expression will do. You’ll know when the time is right to share your unique, innovative insights and perspectives. Seize this lunation by the (bull’s) horns.
The sun-moon opposition this full moon creates the “Genius to Freak” channel
From Humandesign.tools:
“Here we see the channel of the expression of individual mind. Concepts are grasped as insights that have broken through in gate 43 and re-structured, then expressed in the 23rd gate.
Called the channel of structuring, or ‘genius to freak’, their unusual perspective reflects an ability to hold to their own point of view, at times to the exclusion of hearing or being affected by what others have to say about their ideas. That doesn't mean that they actually know anything; it just means that is what they say. Sometimes they know, other times they don't.
The channel is subtitled "Genius to Freak" implying a great range of possible insights and expressions. Just because a person expresses something is no guarantee that they have expressed it intelligibly. Often the freak appellation is the result of poor communication rather than faulty insight. When the expression of those with this channel is grasped by others successfully they are considered geniuses, and if not understood, they seem like freaks.
Anyone who has this channel must learn two very important things: Speech skills and patience. Speech skills to reach the audience and, because this is a projector channel, patience to wait for recognition so they have an audience that is ready to hear what they have to say.
The ability of the "knower" is to empower others structurally. This channel is always structuring, and its ultimate gift is to make things more efficient. What you have to realize about these people is that if they can explain to you how to be more efficient, they have been able to mutate you. The contribution those with this channel bring to us is to enhance our acceptance of those who are different and the role they play in the transformation of our old order into new forms and values.”
This weekend: The Gate of Power Skills (14) takes us into the final week of Scorpio season
The Gate of Power Skills is pretty much what it sounds like- we'll get into it more next week. Ultimately, it’s about taking the creative insights that sprung out of the deep facing-our-fear energies that we were going through during spooky season and Samhain and Dia de Los Muertos, and getting to the depths of where our selfhood comes from, which is our ancestry, which is our combined experience with others in this world.
It’s taking all of that information from the past couple of months and saying, okay, now what do I want to create out of that? And then now what do I want to own about that creativity? What do I want to own about my own unique self expression, my own uniqueness as a human? And then, then the next gate after that is Power Skills. It's like: okay, you know, you know who you are, you know what you want to create, you know what you have the ability to create. So feel empowered by that and by your skills that have been cultivated in this process as we make our way toward Sagittarius season, which begins next week.
For this week, I invite you to tune out the noise for a little bit. Tune out the worry if you can, Tune out the blame if you can, for just a little bit. Maybe make a single space in your house that doesn't have phones, that doesn't have screens, that doesn't have distractions. Take a single time of the day where an alarm goes off and you’re like, ‘okay, for the next half hour, I'm going to be in my own insights, looking inward into myself, processing, integrating all of the information that I’ve been receiving’. Take a little time every day to look inward, and let your freak flag fly, let the biggest epiphanies that want to come through you come through. And then, if you feel like it, share those epiphanies with those who are close to you, those who you trust, so that you can continue to fan your own flame and fan other people's flames. That’s my plan for the week, anyway.
Whatever you do to tap into your insight, have a beautiful week, y'all, basking in that internal, eternal light of yours.
xo
Alison
