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PROGRAMME FOR 2010-11

Begins 27th March 2010

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CHRISTINE TITI

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Scorpio / Samhain Newsletter - Oct / Nov 2008

Welcome to this month's newsletter! We are now in the Scorpio cycle and welcoming in a new turn of the Celtic wheel of the year. Today, as I write, it is Halloween, All Hallows Eve, the festival of Samhain, (meaning summer's end); Celtic New Year. The power of the alchemical journey reveals its true power...

CONTENTS

  1. NEWS: Public Forum & Online Programme - launching in November
  2. NEWS: "Awaken the Alchemist Within" 29th / 30th Nov 08 in Glastonbury
  3. NEWS: Astrodrama in Antalya, Turkey - 7 Day Residential - April 2009
  4. The Scorpion's Medicinal Sting - John's Reflections
  5. Working with the Scorpio Cycle

Alchemy Black SunScorpioScorpio

1. NEWS: Public Forum & Online Programme - Launching in November

The big news this month is the we are about to unveil a new website for The Alchemical Journey, which will include a free public forum for the sharing of ideas and inspirations for how to live a truly alchemical life. I will be moderating the forum. It will be an invitation for us all to reconnect to nature's own rhythms and cycles as we journey around the wheel of the year, following the Sun through the 12 signs of the zodiac.

We will also be launching our online programme on the new website. Over the past couple of years of running The Alchemical Journey, I have built up a huge bank of resources, images, music playlists, specifically focussed alchemical practices, meditations, and structured exercises for each astrological sign / phase of the year. I am now going to make these available as part of an online delivery of the programme, which will include regular teleseminars, email support and the opportunity to be part of our alchemical community. Different membership options will be available and I will be sending out an email with details of this over the next few weeks.

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2. NEWS: "Awaken the Alchemist Within" 29th / 30th Nov 08 in Glastonbury

We still have places available our introductory workshop in Glastonbury on Sat 29th / Sun 30th November. It will be a fantastic introduction to The Alchemical Journey and will include an amazing walk in the Sagittarius figure of the Glastonbury Zodiac. Click on our home page for more details.

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3. NEWS: Astrodrama in Olympos, Turkey - 7 Day Residential - 4th-10th April

"Meeting the Archetypes in the Land of the Gods" with Friedel Roggenbuck

Astrodrama TurkeyAfter the incredible 5-day astrodrama retreat we enjoyed with Friedel in Hay-on-Wye in the summer, we have now lined up a fantastic 7 day experience in one of the most dramatic and mythologically rich landscapes on the planet. This extraordinary astrological adventure takes us beyond a rational, interpretive understanding of astrology into an experiential realm of self-discovery, healing and transformation. Through a combination of myth, music, artistic expression, ritual, and theatrical play, we will be enacting each participant's birth chart, inviting the gods, the archetypes, to speak and act through us; revealing their truth in our lives. And all this in the most dramatic and beautiful of settings - in the shadow of Mount Olympos, fabled home of the Gods, in Southern Turkey. Prepare for astrology to come alive for you like never before! Friedel is without doubt Europe's leading facilitator of astrodrama and astrological theatre and this really experience like no other! See www.astrodrama.co.uk for details.

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4. The Scorpion’s Medicinal Sting - John's Reflections - 22/10/08

I can feel the first stinging bite of winter this morning, the first nip of the Scorpion.  Yet, as I shiver for warmth, a quiver of desire rushes through me.  Suddenly flooded with memories, I am at once powerful, afraid, aroused, aware of my own mortality.  I have an urge to visit my father’s grave, listen to tales of ghosts around a fire, settle an old debt, surrender myself to a passionate encounter.  The Sun wears a dark cloak in its Scorpio phase, Samhain marking summer’s end, reminding us that Mother Nature has exhaled all that she can on this turn of the wheel.  Revealing the thin veil between worlds, she prepares now to breathe in, focussing deep within herself - and so, I sense, must I.

Scorpio HadesWhile the beauty of her turning colours may have distracted our senses during the Libran cycle, so the stark reality of Autumn’s mission now confronts us in Scorpio.  As nature’s once verdant mantle rots down on the damp forest floor, and fungus devours the leaf corpses, I am put in mind of Hades’ abduction of the innocent Persephone into the Underworld and Demeter’s grief laying waste to the once fertile earth.  Over the years I have learned to be grateful for the dark times, almost welcoming them and trusting that their poisonous stings hold within them a powerful tincture of rebirth and renewal.  Jung described this nigredo phase of the alchemical year (whereby the chemical structure of a substance decays to its base components) as the “death of the ego”; an unavoidable initiation on the way to completing the cycle of alchemical union. 

Scorpio is the phase of the zodiacal wheel that we in the west seem to have collectively chosen to ignore, failing to acknowledge our own shadows, or deal with our waste; turning away from decay and death and refusing to see this as essential to the sustainability of life.  We have created unsustainable structures based on perpetual growth and increase, which break the essential life cycle of transformation, and pile up toxic debts for ourselves and the planet.  Our fast-disintegrating monetary systems pervert nature’s gift of abundance with their artificial reliance on debt and scarcity rewarding the few and condemning the majority to poverty.  As Scorpio’s ruling planet Pluto moves now into Capricorn, I believe the self-destructive potential of the corporate structures that prop up these systems will be exposed and, ultimately, transformed.

This phase of the year teaches me the importance of learning to die well, so that I might be able to live more fully, relinquish my dependence upon what I already know and have the courage to face that which I may once have feared.  It confirms something for me about the true nature of alchemy.  Far from attempting to control nature and bend it to his own human will, the alchemist is always seeking to submit himself to nature’s power and mystery.  Through practice, she learns to transform the hard shell of the human ego so that she might enter that liminal realm between worlds and experience the very common ground that we share with plant, animal and rock. 

On The Alchemical Journey programme, we seek to penetrate nature’s deep mystery by cultivating an attitude of ‘wonder’ toward it, exposing our imaginations to a range of initiatory processes, which draw on astrological and seasonal myths and traditions. In this way, we seek to complete the cycle of transformation, and thus learn to live both magically and sustainably in our everyday lives.

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5. Working with The Scorpio Cycle

Scorpio VadarScorpio really confronts us with the true power of life and death - and puts us in touch with the intense desire we all have to transform that part of us that clings on to what is known out of fear of what is not. It confronts us with our shadow nature and reminds us of all those things that we'd rather not look at: our fears, insecurities, jealousies, destructive habits and behaviours and so on. And when we do claim back that part of ourselves, then genuine healing can occur, a transformation of fear into love. When this occurs hidden riches reveal themselves to us, and a wealth of resources become available to us that we were previously unable to access.

Here are some activities you can engage with this month to help you connect to the Scorpio cycle.

1. Go out for a walk in nature – e.g. in a woodland – and really connect to this time of year – notice the leaves beginning to rot down into the ground – look out for the myriad varieties of mushroom / fungus.  Notice the processes that are work in nature.  Allow yourself to identify with a leaf, a tree, a mushroom, and, as best you can, allow yourself to enter that experience of putrefaction and transformation that is occurring.

2. Visit the grave of a deceased loved one – and/or spend time in contemplation with a photo or memento that connects you to them.  If you were able to ask them three questions, what would they be?

3. Consider the following questions nand reflect upon them:

Scorpio Songs & Films - check out these tunes and flicks to get you in the mood.

Songs:

Films / Plays / Books:

Have a great month!

with love & best wishes

John

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