Is even talking about fear helpful or is it like saying “Voldemort” and inviting the very demon we’re trying to escape into our hearts and minds? Surely, it’s not helpful or healthy to keep reciting lists of the world’s woes, but does it help to deny danger and ignore suffering from the comfort of a glass of fine wine or a mediation pillow?
One answer is that relating to fear is like all relationships as neither fixation or flight is useful. We can learn to dance with ideas, even frightening ones, like we breathe in an ever-shifting pattern of taking in and letting go. We can even move beyond this bi-polar two-step to a multifaceted approach by examining the question from a variety of angles. Is this a fear that I can do something about? If so, what? Is it a concern that requires immediate attention or can it wait? Is this just a new version of an old story and, if so, what have I learned from the past? Does this fear belong to me or am I being taken by a collective issue or someone else’s problem?
These questions don’t necessarily provide concrete answers but they encourage movement and adaptability to overcome the viselike grip of our most compelling concerns. It is the trap of fear about love, money, health, the environment, physical danger or any other subject that paralyzes minds and freezes hearts. This immobility leaves us powerless, victims of circumstances and ideas over which we have no control. Certainty is the enemy of change. While uncertainty, too, can be stressful, its very lack of foundation leaves room for surprises and possible relief.
Some fear is rooted in the belief that things won’t change and some is born of the fear that they will. Staying stuck in a soul sapping job and losing one that pays the bills cover both ends of this spectrum. Either way, however, it can be helpful to recognize the role that certain fears play. Lack of money, for example, is my go to place for fear. I’ve carried it with me for so long that it’s become familiar and strangely comforting. For one, I’ve made it this far in spite of irregular cash flow over the years and, second, it’s not about my health, my marriage or my kids. This is my placeholder fear, the old unfriendly friend that takes priority and keeps Ebola and the environment from wrapping me up in their particular tentacles of terror.
Fear is about contraction, which is why it’s associated with limiting Saturn. Astrology, though, offers several antidotes as Saturn isn’t the only planetary color in the cosmic crayon box. The energetic Sun and Mars put us into motion with activity as their cure for the blues. The Moon offers healing memories, calming habits and comfort foods to buffer ourselves from demons at the gates. Mental Mercury provides distractions that turn minds away from the abyss. Venus’ medicines are pleasure and partnership, while Jupiters' fly us to faraway clouds of hope and philosophizing.
Uranus springs surprises that shock us out of our patterns and Pluto perversely plunges us deeper into fear to bring us out on the other side. But the most effective planet may be Neptune, dear, sweet, forgiving, compassionate and spiritual Neptune, the universal solvent that dissolves the limits of present reality. It expands consciousness beyond the structure of any thought, belief and circumstance to reconnect us with a finer awareness of existence. It is the planet of being everywhere and nowhere, placing us outside pain and freeing us from the illusion that this reality is the only one that exists, returning us to a divine place where all things are possible.
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