Fight, Flight or Freeze (or Managing Change)

I've been spending a lot of time with Robert Scaer & Philip Levine's work on trauma - The Body Bears the Burden and Healing Trauma, respectively. Both authors add the "freeze response" to the Fight or Flight stress response concept - the idea that we react to trauma with fight, flight or a freeze/shock response. You can still act, but there is confusion and a need to recover. This process sets up a repeated response to trauma, and because there is no trigger to "unfreeze" after a traumatic event, can result in increased vulnerability to lesser and lesser traumas over time. I bring it up because freezing is more common in groups of people living in crowded cities, like most of the folks reading this blog, so "unfreezing" ourselves may be a profitable venture overall. Also, and more relevant to this update, upcoming transits may tax our fluidity and the above serves as a reminder to look for flexible responses in the coming month.

Unfreeze

Later this month, when Mercury goes retrograde (see the entry below for a description of what this implies) and a little later, when Saturn concludes its fourth opposition to Uranus, there will be an increased potential for discomfort as we all experience the rules and structures of life conflicting with concepts of freedom and new-ness.

The characteristics of an opposition are - stalemate, polarization. Our individual charts provide more detail about where and how these transits will affect us personally - whether we will pick a side or watch others engage in debate or conflict, for example.

Oppositions are transits that generate awareness, but it feels like action is the right response. It's like a storm building but not really moving anywhere, raining instead on one little plot of land. The difficulties arise when you engage the energy, instead of passing a storm, you drive right into it.

During opposition transits, it's easy to resort to whatever crutches we use as situations in our lives become difficult, with building tensions that we cannot resolve. A more useful approach could be to allow the tension of the stalemate to exist, without resorting to habitual behavior, until there is an aha moment - until truly new information comes to light*.

Stalemate

It's not difficult to see an example of a kind of stalemate in the U.S. - coincidentally, the first of the five Saturn/Uranus oppositions occurred on November 4, 2008 - a time of shifting power in the United States. I see it in the adamant opposition from each side of the political parties in the U.S. - sort of a fervor that prevents actual discussion.

A Change in US Politics

One approach that can be beneficial this month is to count to 5 when faced with difficulty. Sort of simplistic, I know, but with the amount of change that is going on globally, it's worth giving yourself extra seconds to allow yourself to consider options thoughtfully, especially when the blood pressure rises and it becomes more difficult to employ logic.

First, Count to Five

This transit will conclude in late July. As we get through April and into the aspects of the summer, I'll post more about them. For now, it's useful to know we're moving into a time where opportunities are coming in but not yet blooming and, toward the mid-month, shift from easy communication to somewhat confusing communication that accompanies a Mercury Retrograde. An image that comes to mind is crossing over a creek using stones dotted across the water. That's a good path, fun even, if you are balanced.

Making Our Way With Balance

*Thanks to Melanie Reinhart for describing this approach to 0ppositions