During your Hermit year, it is extremely important for you to look backward, to reflect and observe where you've been; and equally important for you to look forward to where you are going and how much further you have to go. Acknowledge what you have accomplished in this past cycle and all the goals you have achieved thus far . . . . acknowledge your "magic" and give yourself a pat on the back. While looking forward, it's also an important year to reconnect with your long-term goals and ascertain where you are at in the process of achieving them. From a position of being withdrawn from life, it gives you the unique and broad perspective that can help you to "re-adjust" and move forward in a more focused and grounded manner. 2007 is the perfect year to "tinker" with your plan or perhaps, get back on track. This is a year you won't be able to compromise or live on a fantasy, as you will seek clarity and reality instead.
Another important aspect of the Hermit, is to find or be a mentor to someone. You may be drawn to people you feel are wise and who can add depth, wisdom and perhaps a new perspective to your life. You may also find yourself drawn to "guiding" individuals around you; being an empowering influence. Both are examples of the importance of the compassion and humanitarianism that is imperative during your Hermit year. Give something back!
Lastly, you may find that you are looking back at 2006 as a year where you expended a great deal of energy . . . whether it was mentally, emotionally, physically or spiritually. You may find yourself exhausted from the "strong" events that occured in 2006 and wanting peace, quiet and rest in 2007. With that said, 2007 is an important year to get back in touch with your body and its good health; get connected to your core. You are well-deserved of some good rest and maybe a few vacations this year. It's a year of conservations and watching your money, weight, energy, etc. The Hermit year is also associated with the Zodiac sign of Virgo, so you may find that you have interesting or important interactions with the Virgos in your life. The Hermit/Virgo are also connected to good health, so again, 2007 is a good year to focus on diet, exercise and nutrition.
From a global perspective, we are in desperate need of this "cycle" to come to an end. I think it is no coincidence that during the Hermit year we are watching the current political regime thankfully come to a end. Looking around at the cess-pool we live in, I believe it is imperative that we as a society learn from the global "darkness" of this last cycle and actively move into the light by participating instead of just watching.
The darkness seems to be overshadowing the light at this time in history . . . you only need to turn on your television nightly to see the evidence. Looking back in history, there have been few other times where the darkness has loomed so large, i.e. the Holocast or slavery, and yet, we do very little, or perhaps nothing to change this. I often ponder at how we as a society can let things get so bad and need the power of spirit to come in a deliver a crushing blow of darkness in order for us to notice the scales have become so inbalanced and we have traveled so far off track. I can further ponder at how unfortunate it is that we need this darkness at all, in order to appreciate or even see the light.
It is so easy to project this evil image we have on others, but the truth of the matter is, it exists in each of us or we wouldn't be able to identify it in others. We all have a shadow side and this shadow side is our greatest teacher. By facing, acknowledging and learning from it, we can make this world a much better place. Jung once stated, "Learn to deal with your own shadow and you'll do something real for the world." Evil lives on fear and the fear we use to project the blame on others for the mess we have made only makes them stronger while making us hypocrites. Jung had an interesting philosophy regarding this phenomenon stating we foist off what we don't want to know about ourselves on others. Unfortunatley, this "foisting off" of what we don't want to know or acknowledge about ourselves only makes the darkness stronger and more deadly. It is a direct drain of our own personal life force into a dark abyss that will eventually become our undoing.
How do we change this . . . simply put, let go of the notion that we are "right" or the way we live our life is "right" compared to someone across the globe. William Coffin stated it perfectly, "Self-righteousness blocks our capacity for self-criticsm, destroys humility and undermines the sense of oneness that should bind us all." A perfect example of this in a global way in our society today, is the investment being put into needing to be "right" about the war in Iraq and our presence there by those in power and our unwillingness to do anything about it. When such large global injustices are being done, sometimes it's hard to imagine how we individually can make a difference. I believe that Robert Kennedy had the answer, "Few will have the greatness to bend history; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief of humankind, history is thus shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest".
The arrogance in which we as a society walk through our days is astonishing to me . . . as it breaks my heart. We have put importance on cars, cell phones, clothing, shoes, fame, homes the size of small hotels, money, grossly overpaid athletes, musicians and movie stars, etc. etc. We have lost the humanitarianism we as a society grasped during the minutes and days after the tragedy of 911 . . . we had a moment in time where we could have taken a real turn for the better and healed the world around us and instead we chose an ipod.
As you make your way through 2007 and decide what you would like to see come to an end . . . may it be the darkness we have created through our spirtually, misguided and many wrong-doings and may 2008 be the year we get back on track and truly embrace the light, the love and heal our fellow man and the planet. "Your silence will not protect you." (A quote from Audre Lourde)
With Love & Magick, Blessed Be . . .
Raven Bella Zingaro