IN: Tools, Talismans + Instruments for Relocation
Editor's Note 0'0 - being on, in and with time as we move forward with an anchored self.
This is the first set of musings from ‘IN’: Editor’s Note (NEN). These notes are the philosophical underpinnings, personal expression, and observational assessments that come through the various experiments and research published in Mons - NOON’s journal of scientific investigation toward chromatic synthesis.
Focus + Intent: Saturn Conjunct Neptune at 0’0 Aries is a seminal point. It opens the path to my Saturn Return. While I’ve understood many lessons before this point, there is an ongoing sense that I am living out a larger story made up of the last 3 years. Here, I contemplate self-made tools, ancestrally-guided talismans and infused instruments for the next stage.
Right now, I am re-reading Rasheedah Phillips’ Dismantling The Masters Clock: On Race, Space and Time, in which Chapter 3: CPT Symmetry and Violations of Black SpaceTime defines “time-binding” as:
a process of transcending generational divides through the power of symbols allowing us to channel future insights into our present, enhancing the communal fabric of Black temporalities (139).
In the last 3 years, my attitude toward time has reoriented itself as acceptance upon release. What appears in the moment?
Mapping time is a consistent + dedicated practice that requires full awareness of the people, places, conversations, and states that occupy your space, your body. Time is location, encapsulated by real moments: what is in your hand?
When similarities emerge from the past in the present, shaking me to pay attention, be alert, be aware, available to waves rippling in the current, the ghost lingers through crude imitations: didn’t I move past this? leave this behind? let it go?
the ghost lingers, disappearing once you know how to deal with it.
time motions these shadows into the light, in and out your field of vision.
Each encounter a different tool is required to: ignore it, address it, have grace for it, kill it immediately, let it play out.
A hammer, nailing it, burying it off, far underground. A knife, precise, creating severance, two halves.
A friend of mine exiting their Saturn Return imparted a the gift of wisdom on the exact axis of its departure from Pisces [where her Sun is, having moved through this celestial giant] to Aries [where my Sun is, it’s entrance freshly situated].
This threshold’s designated message:
Speaking Truth to Power.
As you cut the head of the ghost, a new one may appear.
Sometimes it is because of the appropriateness of the tool, sometimes it’s timing [too eager, too slow, too unsteady].
Sometimes your tool is not facing the right direction, discovering the opposing force wasn’t outside at all.
Acquiring the necessary tools (which can be used as either instruments, harmonizing and fine tuning or weapons, cutting and bludgeoning. The difference lies in intent and force), as much and frequently as possible, denotes the ability to fluidly assess, adjust and use at will.
This was key in my friends relay, especially as her Saturn Return engaged plenty of confrontations with opposition, the offloading of energy within power dynamics and assertion necessary to develop conflict resolution skills aka ‘dealing with your ghosts’. Especially those that come back, raging and full in their vengeance:
clear synthesis [mere observation before bringing out the “tools”, know whats going on here… sometimes it takes a glance, other times you look again]
call it [trust what you see, declaration after meeting the thing directly or intimately… know the difference between the parts that reside within/where it connects/where it is you v. the parts that reside outside/where it’s different/where it is alien, foreign. Specific. This let’s you know exactly where to cut, and why.
power to wield your tool [confidence and sovereignty move you toward release. large tools are heavy and require real weight. use them wisely. under all of this: remember to breathe, the source of true strength. remember, the ghosts are not of the present. they are relics of the past. mirages and illusions. breathe gives you stability to remember where you are: what is in your hand?]
There is nowhere you need to go, no place, no destination sweeter than what you are available to in this very moment. It’s the new beginning… we become stronger together, or completely dissolve.
I am weary of “idols”. They are projections of our assumptions of perfection.
Last year, in year 3 out of 3, the final points of release meant I had gone through the cycles. That’s when the final ghosts appear.
Mine came with a deeply familiar look and smell. I knew exactly which tool to expel.
The thing is with tools [in this case, a severing weapon, my most frequently used], they have to be refined. Instruments, and the power infused in these tools, are provided to understand the unit of measure. How much - an inch, a mile, a gram? What is most important in this moment and where should I externalize my internal energy to fulfill what is necessary? [more in the future on what parts to pull from self]
Talisman’s are units of measure that align the internal locus with protective, ancestral infusion. It is the touch stone that draws coordinates of attraction, connecting to all of “them” to “us”
In time - present, ebb and flow, going with the flow, synchronicity, alignment,
On time - showing up, engagement, apparent, mindful, in accordance,
With Time - sharp, attuned, distinct, growth, strong feelings we will never get back.
Talismans and amulets were made of moments, tools necessary to intuitively adjust to the present, tuning in with force and intent.
I promise as one of NOON’s foundational principles: instead of looking at clocks to know when it is [what time is it?], we touch our inherited, found and gifted tools, talisman’s, and instruments to orient ourselves to where we are. When you activate touch (what is in your hand?), we are transported to the available moment.
My tools in this moment are the ones that I make, especially for my night rituals that are my most attuned and sacred: dried roses attained from my lover’s alter, crushed into a 1oz jojoba oil roller, aligning nightly on my pores, peppermint and lavender shea butter from a Bangladeshi spiritual store I’ve been going to since I was 16, massaged into shoulders after deep and long showers, roman chamomile and rose water spritz for my lover and I. Each provides me with the stability necessary to tap into the dream realm and retrieve the answers necessary to live each of my days.
I plan on expanding on this further. Give me some time.