We are deep into our fall season of harvest. Everyone is busy-busy with projects, planning and preparing. We know the holiday season and winter months are fast approaching.
For our November newsletter, I consulted one of my favorite oracles, the Tao Oracle, by Ma Deva Padma. Tao Oracle is a deck of cards similar to Tarot with beautiful illustration and interpretation of the 64 Hexagrams of the I Ching and The Book of Changes. The question I posed to the cards: What is the common theme in the lives of my community? The card which jumped out was Hexagram #41, Decrease.
Most people consider decrease as a negative message and or experience. Since September 2008 when our financial system began to wobble almost everyone has had to cut back on something. Many lost jobs, homes and closed businesses. Cutting back and making adjustments, yes.
What about consciously choosing to let go, contracting or decreasing? Where’s there excess in your environment? What can you ‘get rid of’ in your living and working spaces? Early this October I got a bug. No, not a flue bug but a cleaning bug. I went through my closets, cupboards and storage spaces to lighten my load. I was surprised how much unused old linens, clothes and miscellaneous household items I found, as I’m compulsive about clutter and having ‘stuff’ I don’t use. I actually found enough ‘stuff’ to fill my trunk and back seat of my car which I happily drove to two charity thrift stores in my neighborhood.
Another area worth examining is our thinking. What outdated recordings are you playing in your head? Are you still listening to the oldies but goodies on your mental radio? We’ve all been bombarded with the new age theory “you can achieve anything with positive thinking.” Yes…And there is much more. One aspect of creating and manifesting in our lives is purging our negative outdated thinking. First, you have to identify the old program or pattern.
Have you noticed there are layers in your thinking programs? Recently I discovered a layer of very soft spoken voices woven around other random thoughts. The recordings were barely audible. Somewhat like an old friend who I’d come accustomed to and had taken for granted. This old friend began playing an old song as I was embarking new changes in my business. Faint self-defeating voices laced themselves in my thinking. As I listened more closely, I realized this friend had over stayed their purpose. I felt an energetic shift of ah-ha! Ah-ha, it is you who has stopped me in the past. Just like the old sets of sheets I’d stored, these too had to go, NOW.
Nature shows us letting go and cutting back is natural and healthy. I grew up in a small town in the Midwest. There wasn’t much in the way of entertainment. However, I was keenly in tune with the change of seasons. The corn fields were very green and tall in July/August. Come this time of year, all I could see was stubby brown stalks. Each April/May, the fields were vibrant again with green babies sprouting.
The wisdom from Tao Oracle tells us Hexagram #41, Decrease, facilitates restoring balance in our lives. It marks a time for simplifying our lives to help us recognize adequacy of the bare essentials. It is in our periods of decrease we clear away the non-essentials and awaken our resourcefulness.
In Human Design, the 41st Hexagram or “Gate” of Decrease explains it is a fuel or pressure located in the Root Center. The Root Center is a one of the pressure centers in our body and it houses our Adrenal Glands. Each Gate which comes from this center represents a different type of pressure. Gate 41, Decrease, carries the genetic Codon as a pressure of contraction. It’s also the fuel in which there is energy to feel. The pressure to feel, from the decrease or contraction in our lives is what moves us to our next evolutionary process.
We are creatures of comfort on many levels. It is usually very uncomfortable for us to let go and cut back. When the comforts are gone, the excess is gone and distraction removed we react in many different ways. It is our reactions that can make the loss negative not the loss itself. What is being called of us is to feel discomfort. It is when we are still and feel the feelings of decrease there is opportunity for progress. Following the stillness, there is pressure to bring in newness hence we have an opportunity to experience a freshen outlook on our lives.
What kind of cut backs have you made or need to make on an emotional, physical, mental level? Have taken time to be still and feel your recent losses? Have you experienced how resourceful you really are? Do you feel the drive to explore new territories? What are your bare essentials? Have you come to appreciate less is more?
Underneath the energy of the 41st Hexagram Decrease, is a hunger and desire to create newness, new ideas, new experiences. Decrease is a part of our growth just like the cornfields. Hexagram 41, invites you to lighten your load and your heart. Bring the new you to yourself and your loved ones during this season of appreciation.
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Not bad article, but I really miss that you didn’t express your opinion, but ok you just have different approach