Birthdays
Confession and a disclaimer: today is my birthday. Yes, Tax day in the US. I am taxing I know. I have tons of spelling mistakes and my grammar in all three languages I claim to speak is unacceptable not only to Virgos but even to Pisces. But I wanted to use this opportunity, on a day I receive so many virtual and digital blessings and good wishes to share them with you. You who came to my workshops, webinars, classes, readings. You who ordered my books, or checked out my web site or felt connected through an Instagram post. You who are my friend or family member in this life or past, who sometimes feel obliged to read these words just in case I will ask if you did. I wanted to thank you all. Truly and authentically, on this day that I decided, many springs ago, to land on this spacecraft we call earth and find my way through endless strings of synchronicities into your life. Without your support I would not be able to do what I love. I would not be able to study the things I do, to travel and teach in the places I adore, and have the life I lead.
Birthdays are not an easy day. Your birthday, like many other religious celebrations, is an astrological holiday. It is a good day, a holy day, sacred to you and those who love you. A day you decided to sign your divine contract (your chart) and accept the bindings of space and time. On your day of birth, something happened, it was a point of no return. Well, at least for a while, until you die, and then, yes, you can return. Your birthday is the day were given your story in the shape of your name, and your destiny in the guise of your astrological chart. On your birth-day you were given light (dar luz, in Spanish means both to give light as well as give birth) but also it is the day your ego materialized, the housing and vehicle of your soul was uncovered. Your ego that contains everything that is “I, me, and mine.” was born with your name and your chart. It is a funny notion, we were given something on our birth-day that we have to strive all our lives to give up and let go. Allan Watts, the great philosopher and mystic said this about the ego:
The person, from the Latin “persona,” was originally the megaphone-mouthed mask used by actors in the open-air theaters of ancient Greece and Rome, the mask through (per) which the sound (sonus) came.
He further commented:
Just because it is a hoax from the beginning, the personal ego can make only a phony response to life. For the world is an ever-elusive and ever-disappointing mirage only from the standpoint of someone standing aside from it — as if it were quite other than himself — and then trying to grasp it. Without birth and death, and without the perpetual transmutation of all the forms of life, the world would be static, rhythm-less, undancing, mummified.
It is on our day of birth that we had to part from our true soul-mate, the Beloved, that sense of oneness, unity with all of existence, and assume the role of a human, trapped by an ego that makes us look at the world as if it is outside of us. As if we are separated from everything around us. It is an illusion we then have to spend lifetime after lifetime to break so we can attain enlightenment and become one again…
Our birthdays are an astrological holiday since it is really nothing less and nothing more than a solar return. Some of you are familiar with the dreaded Saturn Return (ages 27-31 and 56-60), but not many realize that every year, on your birthday, the Sun, the disk that gave us life and sustains it, returns to the place it was in your chart when you were born. One sun is hot enough, and on your birthday, you are transported into this strange planet that boasts two solar disks, with two sunsets and two sunrises and two scorching hot afternoons.
Solar return means that a day before your birthday, your actual birthday, and the day after, are super hot, challenging and intense. The sun represents your self-expression, your vitality, identity and sometimes your ego. The sun is also the inner-child and that is why we feel vulnerable and emotional on our birthday. We feel we attention, gifts, appreciation. See me! Hear me! Touch me! But it is also the day we regress to our childhood wounds. That is the reason why our ancestors decided to deal with it by establishing world-wide traditions of celebrating our birthday and making sure we receive gifts and praises.
In Hebrew on your birthday people greet you with the words “Mazal Tov,” which translated to “good constellation,” it is an ancient blessing wishing that a good astrological constellation or sign shine upon you on this day and guide you. Around the world, influenced by Western traditions, we expect a cake and light candles on our birthday. The cake is sweet and represents an upgrade to the regular bread we eat every day. The light of the candle is a symbol to the sun. Blowing it and making a wish is a beautiful symbol of being able to extinguish our “ego,” in the company of our family and loved one and for once, wishing something for ourselves instead of only having to rely on the wishes of others. In Mexico, creative people as always, they create a Piñata, a colorful container made from paper or clay hiding many candy and toys inside. The birthday boy or girl is given a broom (Moses’ rod of many wonders, the wizard’s staff, the witches broom) and blindfolded they must break it to expose the gifts and sweets. Again, the fun innocent game is masking a symbolic mystical initiation: the acolyte is blindfolded (see from within, open the 3rd eye) and asked to destroy the ego (Piñata) to find the gifts of enlightenment. As you can see, each tradition deals with this difficult day in a different creative way.
And so, I have to wrap it up, like a birthday gift ready to be delivered, as in a few minutes I am starting the first Free-Spirit Book Club. It might be too late for you but if you are free join us and hear about Master and Margarita and maybe it will inspire you to read it. In two weeks we will have the next one. You can still join. It is free. If the link does not work, go to my web site for a new link.
https://us04web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZArcOmrqDMpYdfGAynch_TYpPPkhLQfYg
I wish you health, happiness, abundance, creativity and many meaningful magical and enlightening synchronicities.
May we meet in person soon and encouraged to hug…
gahl