Libra is the sign of give and take. Do you consume more than you create? Or is it about even? In other words, are you finding a way to give back (with talents and insights), in the midst of all the taking in of media?
Input, Output is a chapter in philosopher-teacher Neil Kramer's book The Unfoldment. It's illuminating reading for the Libra New Moon, or anytime, with its subtitle, "The organic path to clarity, power and transformation." Neil Kramer is a teacher who walks his talk, and clearly loves language. I've followed his work for years and the book dropped insights for me that are bringing a crashcade of perception shifts. In this chapter, he gets to the heart of what makes us so sick and off-balance -- too much input, not enough output. He throws out a maxim to go with it: "Consume less; create more."
With the shift of Saturn into Scorpio, the call to be creative comes from the depths of the soul and its desire to share with others. This is a transit for giving expression to what's raw and unprocessed input. On creativity, Neil writes, "At root the creative impulse is a willingness to transmute energy from one form into another."
At the dark of the Moon, there's a space to heal and expand into known as the void. Neil writes of the many ways to run away from it, recalling an experience between flights when he absorbed ten hours (!) of news or as he calls it, doom porn. He writes, "Filling oneself with input temporarily quells the emptiness that arise from a deficit of self-expression -- of output. Whether that input is focused on doom, cooking, sex, soap operas, talent shows, sport or high culture,the desired outcome is the same: tranquilization."
I know I do better with this some days than others. I like how Neil writes about it as a "habit" that loses its magnetic pull the more we experience real creative catharsis.
This is a loaded theme that hits on Scorpio's power to transmute, and the balance of Libra -- both energies are present at this New Moon (October 15th). It's about doing something with all we're absorbing and holding in the psyche. Writes Neil, "Balance is central to the art of living as a naturally ascendant human being. Balancing input and output is the same as with any other play of polarity." Thoughts?
Being a Scorpio myself (with a Libra ascendant) I have been aware of this issue for years. I have used the similar terminology, seeing that people consume incomparably more than they “produce” themselves. Whenever possible, it comes natural to me to create my own “products”, and the ways of doing things, making things, never short of ideas. I don’t follow recipes, I make my own in all walks of life. People are suffocating in excessive quantity of information and guidance, even if they are in their best interests, which causes inertia to settle in, and the lack of one’s own creative drive. This is the input-output imbalance the author talks in his writings. It is so big, so prevalent, so present in everyday life, that it is surprising not to find this topic more often discussed around.
Thanks for sharing your insights Lili. I agree it’s all encompassing – from movies on demand, to 24-7 programming, and you added something I didn’t think about – constant how-tos and guidance.
It’s insidious. An example – my friend and I watched a movie last night. I thought it would be worth the time, a period piece with an actress I like (Rachel Weiscz) and an enchanting name Deep Blue Sea. My friend and I sat there trapped in this slow and flat, but beautifully filmed movie with 50s lingo and one-dimensional characters. Afterwards it felt like a waste of time and brought on a vague despair at having coasted through it (a sense of being trapped). If I had been alone, I would’ve turned it off. How much of the inpur, toot, is from a sense of social obligation – watching things together.
Going into this New Moon, I resolve to make more space, and if something evokes a sense of emptiness, to step out of it. I have thought about this a long time, too – let’s see if others comment, before I say more.
This is a good read, with what we’ve talked about in this post and comments in bold.
From Burning Karma October Cosmic Weather Report from Mark Borax:
“Normalcy has become an addictive trance and must be replaced by a rising force of radiant consciousness that lives within each of us.”
” If you let this karmic barrage of Saturn in Scorpio strip away your own obsolete thought forms and dysfunctional patterns during the next three years you will turn the world around with the power of Scorpio, and a new civilization rises from the ashes of the old.”