February always begins with the Sun conjunct the fixed star Armus (12 Aquarius 44) also known as the Heart of the Goat. This is an event that happens every year around February 1 meaning if you have a birthday from about January 25 to February 6 you have the Sun within 6 degrees of this star.
The ancient Greek astronomer Ptolemy felt the star Armus was related to the energies of Venus and Mars. (See Feb 11)
In the book Fixed Stars & Constellations in Astrology Vivian Robson tells us this story of the constellation known as the Seagoat and the star Armus. The story describes how the Gods retreated into Egypt when they were at war with the giants (Titans).
Typhon, the last son of Gaia and the most grotesque and dangerous of the Titans having 100 serpent heads was pursuing the Gods.
To escape Typhon, each God was forced to change shape. The God Pan leaped into the Nile and turned his upper body into a goat and his lower body into a fish.
This shape was considered worthy of commemoration in the heavens by Zues (a.k.a. Jupiter) and is why we have a constellation known as the Seagoat or Goatfish. [Vivian Robson*, p.35.]
The story ends with Zeus eventually defeating Typhon by trapping him underneath Mount Etna.
The heart star of the Goatfish reminds us to follow our heart knowing. Research shows that the intelligence of the heart is far greater than the intelligence of the mind and that the heart is continually sending meaningful messages to the brain – that the brain not only understands – but also responds to instantly.
The study of how the heart and brain communicate with each other via the nervous system is called Neurocardiology. When emotions, or feelings, and thoughts are out-of-phase overall awareness is reduced. This suggests that it is important to take time to connect with our heart-knowing, through whatever means works. Heartmath has some ideas about how to do this.
Since emotional processes can work faster than the mind, it takes a power stronger than the mind to bend perception, override emotional circuitry, and provide us with intuitive feeling instead. It takes the power of the heart. ~Doc Childre, Founder, Institute of HeartMath http://www.heartmath.org/research/science-of-the-heart.html
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To know how to choose a path with heart is to learn how to follow intuitive feeling. Logic can tell you superficially where a path might lead to, but it cannot judge whether your heart will be in it. ~Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D.
“The heart has its own language. The heart knows a hundred thousand ways to speak.” ~ Rumi
Listening to your heart knowing is a practice that can be supported by taking time to allow your attention to BE with your physical heart space. It has been proven through measuring the power of the heart field you can enhance the power of your heart field energy by placing your hands or finger tips in the heart area.
To further increase the power of this activation it helps to intentionally breathe into your physical heart space and feel the feelings, the sensations, and the energy of your heart. Perhaps you feel lightness or tingling (or both) in your heart area?
It helps to practice listening as the heart is a quiet voice within and can be easily overshadowed by the noise of our busy, racing thoughts. Practice listening to the quiet reassuring energy of your heart that is there to let you know you are safe, you are loved and you are love.
The late Jesuit priest and psychotherapist, Anthony de Mello loved to tell the story of a traveler who asked a Guru: “What must I do to attain holiness?” The reply: “Follow your heart, and to follow your heart you are going to need a strong constitution.”
The reason a strong constitution is needed is because the heart’s wisdom can go unheard when the logical mind is in charge. Heart wisdom is subtly experienced as a feeling, a sensation, a quiet knowing that exists beyond the distractions we find in the material world. It is about feeling your heartfelt intentions and listening to your inner knowing, your inner wisdom, the part of you that knows.
It is a felt sense of knowing that goes far beyond the rational mind where magic – we haven’t even imagined – can occur!
(Found the Heart Rock pictured above in 2019 while out walking and listening to the Teachings of Don Juan by Carlos Castenada just as Don Juan was telling Carol to Follow the Path of Heart because all paths lead nowhere so you might as well follow the heart!)