Real health is only found when your inner being is completely at ease with life’s inherent uncertainty.
~Richard Rudd
On Monday, the sun begins its transit through Gate 4, corresponding with I Ching Hexagram 4, its English translation being, Not Knowing. How do you feel about not knowing the answers? This question and its accompanying lesson are precisely what we will dance with as of Monday, the 11th, through Friday, the 15th. There will be rich opportunities to change your relationship with your ignorance or dig in your heels and fight it.
Rather than gifting you with answers, this period will support your ability to release your grip on the need to know how things will turn out. What a treat that can be for our collective nervous systems to release the breath we hold.
As a swimmer, I am acutely aware of my breath and realize that I can only hold it for so long. Finding a smooth rhythm for releasing it and taking in more air is a practice. It becomes an art when the strokes and breathing patterns become one, and it all just flows like the water I cut through. That’s a small example of the lesson this period.
Let me ask my question differently. What if you didn’t need to know all of the answers and how things would turn out, but instead just lived through the many questions that arise? Attempting that makes me think of a lesson Pema Chödrön teaches in her book When Things Fall Apart about becoming the sky and allowing everything else to pass through like the weather.
When I can’t become the sky or find my flow, I easily fall into the trap of observing situations through the lens of needing to know where things will lead. Because it's impossible to know, this causes mental and emotional overwhelm and eventually depletes my energy stores rather than fills me with hope. The only way out is acceptance, the gift available during these five days.
Maybe a good practice this week is to list all the things you don't know and are okay with. For instance, I have no idea where the hundreds of bees who make my garden their home all summer go in the winter. I think about it from time to time, but I trust the bees know way better than I do how to manage their short, busy lives.
But there are many more personal topics I don't know about. For instance, I had no idea how our move 2.5 years ago into this unlikely home would work out. I was sure that only disaster could follow. Have you ever been surprised by situations you feared and, in retrospect, seen just how well things unfolded? I sure have. Back in 2022, this place I now love dearly was far from the idealized home of my dreams. It didn’t tick any of the boxes my mind had created.
In fact, it was so full of unknowns that I wanted to run from it screaming. I planned a few futile attempts to do so, but grace intervened. And that grace allowed me just enough safety to take a leap of faith and trust that I would be ok no matter how this unfolded. On the other hand, Joachim was more certain than I’ve ever seen him. He could see what my fears of what-ifs and childhood baggage prevented me from seeing.
It took the real-life experiences of living with and becoming a part of this land to change my heart. This shift from profound intolerance to understanding what this was all about is also a part of what we will learn during this transit. Only through actual experiences could I have gained the deep love and sense of belonging I now possess. Yet if my fears of not knowing had won out, I would have missed what has become the most rewarding chapter of my life.
We humans don’t know a lot, yet the mind wants to gnaw on to find answers. Rather than answers, we experience perpetual patterns of suffering. The heart, however, wants to be free, to have experiences, to experiment, to be curious, and to accept that we just can’t know the answers to what lies ahead. Richard Rudd so eloquently says, "Happiness never comes from answers. It comes only when we are so tired of answers that we decide to live the questions fully."
How might we hold and examine that statement next week? If you haven’t listened to my last exploration of the Sun Transits recording with Lois and Christine, which includes Gate 8, you can do so here.
Speaking of not knowing and allowing yourself new experiences, might you be ready to explore the potential of Gemmo extracts?
There's a soft opening in the works this week for our all-new The Gemmo School. Take advantage of the special introductory price for early adopters, available only until November. With Mercury stationing on Monday, I hope it will be ready for a sneak peek as early as Tuesday, the 12th.
The official opening, however, is planned for Monday, August 17, at noon ET. I'll be hosting an Open House to show you around, share what's ahead, and answer your questions. Register here if you'd like to attend.
Until next week,
