The Many Aspects of Love

This brief "time-out" post has come about in response to the tide of mail flooding in from my readers all sharing a common thread. The Mickie Kent readership is asking, "Why is there all this chaos in our relationships, life and the world?" People are worried; their anxiety is palpable and it's escalating. Without peace at home, we can't expect peace in the world. Many even believe that war is just around the corner. Tensions are high. Morale is low. But with more of us than ever seeking peace, balance, fairness, pleasure and beauty, why is this happening?

Conceivably fitting then, that astrologers are saying there is a conflict between Venus and Mars as we enter October; and this has us working extra hard right now, perhaps putting in long hours, or doing new things outside our comfort zone. Some of us may find it quite disheartening to be so challenged early this month to make changes, face and resolve issues, and get things done at an abnormally fast pace.

I know many of my readers are writing in to tell me they have felt that way, and for many of us the month of October began with some remarkable planetary energy that called for change at a deep level. Astrologers explain that the September 29 full moon in Aries joined revolutionary Uranus in a tight opposition to the sun in Libra, where they formed a highly challenging aspect with the planet of transformation, Pluto.

Early this month, we became aware of the urgent need to transform certain structures in our world societies, especially the political, financial, medical and educational systems that no longer serve the needs of our times. We also became aware of our personal need to transform aspects of our own lives that did not fully reflect the truth of who we are, nor served our evolutionary purpose.

Do you ever wonder why the person you're attracted to isn't reciprocating your feelings? Or why the person who you couldn't care less about keeps following you around like a lost puppy? The experts say we can look to the placements of Venus and Mars for answers to these (and other) questions. The planets Venus and Mars are believed to represent the principles of love and sexual attraction, and many use them to describe what we look for and need in our relationships.

Thus we can use this energy positively to forge new love relationships, or begin work partnerships that are inspired and imbued with the seeds of success. Creative ideas are plentiful, and new associations, if properly nurtured, can bring much future benefit for all concerned the astrologers say. And possibly that's the point to be made here - that although there will be upheaval, we MUST remain positive.

And as we watch Venus and Mars face-off to each other - globally and in our own lives, as well as the heavens - many of us are drawn to what some term as the "feminine aspects" of our societies. "When is this patriarchal domination going to end?" some readers have asked me. According to Hannah Rosin, in her latest book The End Of Men, it's already over. Women now have it better than men, with statistical trends indicating they "will come to dominate the home and workplace in coming decades," - so says the Huffington Post.

I disagree, but not because I think the future is bleak, or because it's dangerous to suggest that women have it better than men - when in many areas it's much, much worse - but because I have problems with the word "dominate".

The idea that further female advancement will equal male downfall is not what it's all about; if better rights for women mean less rights for men, then the whole exercise is pointless. The basic aim should be that everyone enjoy equal treatment and opportunities. It's about ending "power-plays" and rescuing ourselves from the psychology of the powerful, and choosing love. Domination is one of the major reasons we are here in the first place. Politics can become dangerous. Leaders have the power to create wars.

And in one sense it has served its purpose, to bring us to this crossroads and show us that we need a new way forward in the world. When astrological transits cause chaos it's a push for us to move. Everything that happens, happens to move us on - and this month's highly charged planetary aspects call for major transformation.

Depending on our perspectives, we can see the crises we each face as the birth of something new. If a relationship has ended, see it as a time for you to focus on improving yourself. We will have a greater potential to remain positive if we realise that it is in our hands to make that something "new" better than what went before. We have to see the world with new, "myth-busting" glasses.

Love is no Venus

For example, the 20th Century adage that "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" is a myth, according to scientific research suggesting that our brains are hooked up exactly the same way when it comes to love. The research shows we actually act very similarly when we are in love - whether we are male, female, heterosexual or homosexual. This is naturally different than what we've been programmed to believe is true, thanks in part to "some of the sloppiest, shoddiest, most biased, least reproducible, worst designed and most over-interpreted research in the history of science" - the Smithsonian's words not mine - which purported to provide biological explanations for differences between men and women.

Eminent neuroscientists once claimed that head size, spinal ganglia or brain stem structures were responsible for women's inability to think creatively, vote logically or practice medicine. Today the theories are a bit more sophisticated: men supposedly have more specialised brain hemispheres, women more elaborate emotion circuits. Though there are some differences (minor and uncorrelated with any particular ability) between male and female brains, the main problem with looking for correlations with behaviour experts say is that sex differences in cognition are massively exaggerated.

Women are thought to outperform men on tests of empathy. They do - unless test subjects are told that men are particularly good at the test, in which case men perform as well as or better than women. The same pattern holds in reverse for tests of spatial reasoning. Whenever stereotypes are brought to mind, even by something as simple as asking test subjects to check a box next to their gender, sex differences are exaggerated.

Women college students told that a test is something women usually do poorly on, do poorly. Women college students told that a test is something college students usually do well on, do well. Across countries - and across time - the more prevalent the belief is that men are better than women in maths, the greater the difference in girls' and boys' maths scores. And that's not because girls in Iceland have more specialised brain hemispheres than girls in Italy.

Certain sex differences are enormously important to us when we're looking for a mate, but when it comes to most of what we understand our brains do most of the time - perceive the world, direct attention, learn new skills, encode memories, communicate (no, women don't speak more than men do), judge other people's emotions (no, men aren't inept at this) - men and women have almost entirely overlapping and fully Earth-bound abilities. Forget Mars and Venus: men and woman are on the same planet.

It matters not who caused the current global problems, the truth is they have all converged at this time for a reason - to move us on. And we can only move on together, but for that we must remain positive. And adherents to the advice of astrologers say that the mid-month new moon will bring peaceful solutions, bringing hope to relationship issues.

Will Mars war?

Communication will improve and healing will take place in our most intimate relationships and with partners. And after a long, two and one-half year journey through Libra, with Saturn entering Pluto's domain with its trek into Scorpio, there it will assist us to structure the transformation that has made itself so obviously necessary - supplying the vision to make substantial and positive changes for the future of humanity in accordance with the other planets.

If you are suitably challenged to release old patterns and heal old wounds, see this month as an opportunity to plunge into the deep waters of personal healing and transformation. Circumstances will provide powerful and substantial impetuous to do the necessary work to clarify our motives, take responsibility for our choices, and transform the intention that drives our actions.

Is our destiny in our stars or in ourselves? Or a mixture of both?

If the astrologers are right when they say personal healing and responsibility is a necessary prelude to planetary transformation, then before our season of change gathers momentum and we can move on, we must get ready.

For our frequency to rise to a higher vibration of happiness, old patterns much be released; bad habits die hard, but we need to see things in a new light. The chaos we are going through can be visionary, allowing us a glimpse of what is possible when we let go of old patterns, release old fears, and begin trusting and following the movement of our soul's intentions.

In a combined effort to stimulate the most healing and transformation possible, we need to focus on creating more conscious relationships and mutually beneficial interactions, as well as how to conscious channel this new, higher frequency energy successfully into all that we do.

Be your own guide

Whether you believe it's the planets that influence us, or our minds believing in the influence of the planets, I always suggest my readers develop and use their own higher guidance. Your own intuition, rather than planetary energies, are a quicker and more reliable guide to how your energy flows on any given day. To have more consistent ease and work harmoniously with natural energy flow, you can read my articles on how to live a synergistic life by linking up your body to the spirit with the mind.

I hope this interlude serves useful to you, and this article goes some way to alleviate the worries my readers have been emailing me with. Stay positive, change is coming; so let's be proponents for positive change. I cherish this Earth we inhabit - the life it gives is a bitter-sweet donation, sometimes as soft as the summer sun and as sharp as the winter wind.

But winter will give way to spring; loving hearts will blossom just as trees and flowers bud and burst forth in bloom. The green spring will erase any white blasts of winter in a renewal of gentleness and affection. There will come a time of lambs, chicks and rebirth again.

If we doubt this, we only have to look to nature to stay young in hope, in spirit and mind, because it is itself in constant regeneration. With each new sunrise, fresh flower, or season there is a connectedness between the ebb and flow of life and us. Call it the flow of a river or call it serendipity; whatever the outcome allow the result only to be joy in itself.

Say to yourself you have two options, to say "All is well" or "All will be well". Turn every problem into a chance for good; use problems as guidance to help move you onwards. Feel every emotion as love, and use every opportunity to that end.

Yours in love,