Nox Amicus

The moon was New at 1:33pm this afternoon, and while thinking about this coming cycle, I realized that I had no idea how to follow up last month. The last focus was on Light – which brought thoughts on the power of illumination and the contrast offered by shadow and relief. It also enforced the realization that our perception of a thing is governed at least in part by the Light with which it is viewed.

I feel like a lot of things have been exposed to Light for all of us in the last month, and for the months before that. I’ve always believed that bringing something to light was the first step in healing. So I had held a silent intention last month that by focusing on light, on discovery, and on revelation that we would all start to collectively rise out of the malaise and make positive changes in our local and global realities.

That didn’t quite work. Entropy has a lot of influence this year – and while we try to excise some of it, it counters and tries to grow back like weeds invading a garden. Weeds make use of the light so that they can grow too. Welcome to the paradox.

Even though I don’t follow an Abrahamic tradition, I still believe the bible is a fine ‘book of ancient wisdom’ – so in that spirit, I found myself quoting Hebrews 11:1 to a friend last week, which reads: “Now Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” As I was relating this conversation to Laura during a phone call on Sunday, it occurred to me that this might be a solution to the paradox, and the focus for this lunar cycle.

Sometimes when reality doesn’t work, we need to transcend truth. To me, Faith is an active word – having Faith in an outcome is not “letting go and letting god”; it involves effort, attention, and intention. We can’t just say “I have faith that everything will be okay” and then go make a sandwich. If you put more effort into the sandwich, that’s what the gods will focus on too.

To me, any reward from Faith is based on our treating Faith as a roadmap and then building the necessary infrastructure around it. As Sophocles is purported to have written in Philoctetes: ‘And heaven ne’er helps the men who will not act’ – or more colloquially ‘God helps those who help themselves’.

To look beyond the obstacles that confront us, and see the paths to transform our realities, I believe we have to start with a Faith that our destination waits for us. Whether that destination embodies good health and peace of mind, freedom to be accepted as ourselves without prejudice, or simply the enjoyment of the benign influence of good laws under a free government – Faith can be our walking stick. We still need to take the steps and do the work, but maybe the Faith that there is ‘better’ can offer a bit of support along the way.