A Mad Mystic’s Guide to Sanity Amidst this Never-Ending Tsunami of Change, Change, Change

A Mad Mystic’s Guide to Sanity Amidst this Never-Ending Tsunami of Change, Change, Change

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Dear ONE,
From the moment we’re born into this life, it’s as if we’re strapped into a multi-dimensional rollercoaster ride, smacked on the behind and enter screaming. Since then, we’ve experienced highs and lows, gains and losses, pleasure and pain and so it goes in the Divine Play of Leela, also known as the Earth Game.
I’ve found the best way to preserve my sanity is by viewing 3D from the timeless witnessing perspective of the soul and beyond, rather than reacting to all the madness from a primary identity of the ego/personality.
In addition, the Taoist philosophy of going with the Flow, aka Wu Wei, allows me to maintain equanimity and peace of mind while dealing with all the innumerable forms of mental illness presented on a daily basis, as it provides an internally serene view which naturally allows for a very long-range perspective on the whole Earth Game to permeate my relationship with Life as the ultimate guru.
Here's one of my favorite Taoist parables on this theme:
A Chinese farmer gets a horse, which soon runs away. A neighbor says, "That's bad news." The farmer replies, "Good news, bad news, who can say?"
The horse comes back and brings another horse with him. Good news, you might say.
The farmer gives the second horse to his son, who rides it, then is thrown and badly breaks his leg. “So sorry for your bad news," says the concerned neighbor. "Good news, bad news, who can say?" the farmer replies.
In a week or so, the emperor's men come and take every able-bodied young man to fight in a war. The farmer's son is spared.
If you’re ready to adjust your view to this higher perspective, see how you do with the following examples. Firstly, let’s look back to when China invaded Tibet on October 7th, 1950. Was this good news or bad news for Tibetans and the world at large? Well, certainly bad news for Tibetans in the short run but, if we can look at it from a very long-range perspective, perhaps good news for the world in terms of spreading the Light of Consciousness.
Next, what about the Holocaust? (You might say: “Oh no you’re not!” But, yes indeed, I am going to go there and I am Jewish on my parent’s side:)). This was one of the most horrible occurrences in human history–unimaginable before it happened and so obviously and incontrovertibly the baddest news ever. Right?
Well, not so fast! In my last incarnation based on linear time, I remember viscerally being in a concentration camp and dying there. Furthermore, as one of the more than six million who died in the camps, I can assure you that there were incredibly long lines on the other side waiting to incarnate to be part of this mass event knowing fully what the probabilities were.
You may ask why we volunteered to experience these lives of the most immense suffering. Well, as is always the case when our souls choose excruciatingly challenging incarnations, it’s because these types of lives open our hearts like nothing lesser could as well as burning the most karma ever. There are no victims on the soul level.
Out of this worst-ever bad news, the state of Israel was born. In addition, the Holocaust indelibly engraved into our memories to “never forget” what evil humanity is capable of, as Hitler and his minions raised the bar on this like nothing lesser ever could. Which leads us to the present day.
So now, the Universe has sent us the absurd emperor-has-no- clothes/trickster archetype of Trump as an “evil” orange clown. And, because of the Holocaust, we have a relatively recent historical memory of what fascism, autocracy and racism look like and what they can do, which means that more of the mass consciousness is able to be on the alert to recognize the MAGA movement for what it really is.
Is this good news or bad news? Well, from the higher perspective, nothing less than this ongoing dark farce could have awakened enough of the 244 million eligible US voters (especially the 82 million who usually abstain) to take a stand and tip the scales towards the Light as has recently been done in many other countries dealing with similar wannabe dictators.
Because 3D is a plane of duality, we can only experience light, if there is darkness, joy, if there is suffering, and awakening if there is asleepness. This duality allows us to develop the fullest heart/mind range of our humanness–one of the primary purposes of the reincarnational cycles of the Earth Game. That, and learning how to be cocreators with All That Is, with linear space and time as our training wheels.
I’ve studied Trump’s birth chart since the Summer of 2015, when I did a segment on Fox news radio (no less), in which I predicted (with inner glee) that Trump couldn’t possibly win in 2016 with so many secrets that would be coming to light before the election dealing with financial crimes as well as sexual indiscretions. Well, while I was a little off on the timing (my bad) as he paid the women off then and his supporters chose to ignore the fact that he’s a grifter, however now his karmauppance is justly coming to fruition–ripening like a rotten fruit off the tree of Life.
Astrologically, Trump has always been true to his birth chart’s lowest personality predispositions with a Uranus/Sun/North Node stellium in Gemini in the 10th house of career. This is expressed as a very tricksterish, id-ruling, uncensored and unpredictable energy. Combined with this, his Mars/Leo ascendant makes him revel in always being in the spotlight with his delusional claims of the biggest crowds as symbolic expressions of his virility.
But now, with Uranus and Jupiter transiting over his stellium, the jig is truly up, as he has over-reached way too far from greed, ego and, especially, fear. This Fall, we’ll be able to witness his fall as the final act in his one-note cult game begins to unravel in front of smaller and smaller crowds, leaving only his most rabid robotic followers (of which there are still many millions).
(Please note that the birth chart’s personality potentials can only be interpreted based on the person in question’s level of awakened consciousness, thus the same exact chart could be one of a psychopath or a saint).
Trump’s end will be either through imploding (brain hemorrhage), escaping to some country that he has paid to have him, or living out his days in the orange jumpsuit which I’ve been holding the vision of for years, (but sincerely doubt will actually happen). Although, I’m sure that he has been holding this very same vision, which is actually the hidden motivation behind most of his actions at this point. But however it plays out externally, his inner demise is fast approaching as is the expiration date of his con.
You might ask “What about all the bad karma he has reaped on so many levels?” Well, I can promise you that the Divine laws of cause and effect take care of ALL that, sometimes quickly, but usually the wheels of karma grind exceedingly slow but exceedingly fine. Either way, we really don’t need to waste any mind-space on how or when his karma plays out, all we need to do is hold the vision of the Light prevailing and, of course, at the minimum, to at least vote.
And what about his die-hard fanatical supporters? As he said, “I love the poorly educated,” and they too will get their karmauppance, although not as severely as the orange one, for they are merely ignorant, asleep and quite mentally ill. That is, except for those who chose to support him solely for greed and personal gain, not to mention religious fundamentalism, racism and misogyny. But, have no doubt that they’ll also get the perfect balancing karma in this or future incarnations.
As the Dalai Lama taught: “From the Buddhist point of view, the Chinese officer who is committing the cruel act against the young boy is initiating a new cycle of negative karma. In the case of the child, there is a closure of a particular karma that the child is experiencing. The perpetrator of the crime is in fact an object of more compassion and mercy than the child.”
The final lesson for us now, expressed in the above quote, is to actually feel compassion for little Donny’s downfall, while concurrently doing everything in our power to stop him from doing any more harm. His natal Saturn/Venus conjunction has been expressed through his sociopathic role model of a father who judged him such a loser that it activated his deepest karmic wound of truly believing he is unworthy of any love. All this means that, in his heart of hearts, he knew, without doubt, what was coming all along: Crash and burn, failure and downfall.
More on Trump:
SPRING 2017 SOUL-LEVEL CURRICULUM: The Karmic Consequences of Entitlement (and it might not be what you think)
2017 COMING ATTRACTIONS: “Greatest Hits of the Kali Yuga* (Darkest Age)”
And, finally: In 2016, Dr. Kevin Dutton of Oxford University, on a scale of psychopathology, ranked Trump “Higher than Hitler” based on this checklist: http://www.minddisorders.com/Flu-Inv/Hare-Psychopathy-Checklist.html
(Before reading the above checklist, I diagnosed Trump as a malignant narcissist and not-so-charming sociopath, but now he seems to have graduated to this next level, as power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.)
And what about Kamala Harris’s astrology? Her fortunes are definitely on the rise as she begins a new 12-year cycle of fulfilling her soul assignment with lucky Jupiter crossing her Gemini Ascendant/North Node of Destiny in the first half of 2025.
In addition, with karmic Teacher Saturn in her birth chart sitting on the USA’s Moon in humanitarian Aquarius, indications are that, while there will be a great deal of kicking and screaming by the MAGAt masses in the short run, in the long run, there will be A LOT of healing and growth towards the Light overall, with growing pains, as always, included in the package. (There will be more to come on her chart next time).

My definition of sanity is based on one’s ability to maintain one’s primary identity from the witnessing perspective of the higher self or soul. This means being able to see objectively beyond duality and judgment to the bigger picture of unity consciousness in which we’re all one Being with billions of faces, each playing out our karma through cycles of incarnations in the earth plane. This infinite process of soul evolution in the Vedic tradition is called Leela, Divine Play, or what I like to call: Cosmic Hide and Seek. For more on this, please read:
LEELA
And
If This Were Your Last Incarnation, What Would You Do?
Based on this definition, all forms of religious fundamentalism, racism and misogyny that pit us against each other are quite high up on the scale of mental illness as they are fear-based, reactionary survival mechanisms arising from frantic egoism and ignorance of our true nature. Consequently, the mass consciousness has “a long way to go, baby” in the getting sane or mentally healthy department.
When I meditated on how ALL the in-coming energies— cosmic, galactic and planetary—will be affecting us, the message I received of what is being co-created through us and for us is: Divine Order-ly Chaos. This means that internal and external structures which no longer serve our growth—personal and en masse, man-made and from nature—will continue to rapidly disintegrate unpredictably to allow more Light in.
In 2025 and beyond, we’re being given an opportunity to step up the level of our game with the cosmic assistance of accelerated high-frequency energies moving us to the next stage in the evolution of consciousness. I’ve been calling these galactic booster shots “The Quickening” since I first became aware of them in the eighties.
To more fully understand what the future holds for us, as we each individually signed up for our present incarnations specifically to be a part of this next level of conscious awakening, here’s some of the major planetary events coming our way:
Most importantly, Transformer Pluto begins his uninterrupted twenty-year sojourn through Aquarius on November 19, 2024. This means that the period of time between now and at least the first half of 2025 will be an especially wild ride as obsolete paradigms, beliefs and structures–and those attached and identified with them–will not fall away without a fight for their continued existence.
This turbulence is exacerbated exponentially as Revolution-ruling Uranus just stationed RX on September 1 squaring the very last pass of the USA Pluto return at 29° Capricorn, which means that we’ll be commencing the next 248-year Plutonian cycle with a theme of insurrection and rebellion, just as it was at this country’s founding.
For the next twenty years, Pluto in Aquarius will be setting a new high-frequency tone of humanitarianism, unity consciousness, and the dissolving of all the old illusionary boundaries of race, class and nations.
The first years of this particular Plutonian cycle of death and rebirth will be a time of escalating upheaval, chaos and a churning, tumultuous level of change as outmoded repressive structures threatening individual liberty disintegrate all over the planet. This has already begun.
At the same time that the old societal belief structures are falling away, there will arise a fear-based resistance coming from pockets of the asleep masses expressed through ideologies such as an over-zealous nationalism and a fascism-disguised populism. This has also already begun.
Here’s one of my all-time favorite quotes on Wu Wei by Alan Watts to guide us through what is coming up:
“When a cat falls out of a tree, it lets go of itself, becomes completely relaxed, and lands lightly on the ground. If the cat made up its mind that it didn’t want to fall, it would become tense and rigid and would just be a bag of broken bones upon landing.
“In the same way, it is the philosophy of the Tao that we are all falling out of a tree, at every moment of our lives. As a matter of fact, the moment we were born we were kicked off a precipice and we are falling and there is nothing we can do to stop it.
“So, instead of living in a state of constant tension and clinging to all sorts of things that are actually falling with us because the whole world is impermanent, be like a cat. Don’t resist it.”
Adding to this theme of immense change:
Karmic Teacher Saturn moves into unrelenting Aries on May 24, 2025-2028.
Then Spiritualizing Neptune begins its uninterrupted twelve-year sojourn through warrior Aries on January 26, 2026.
These two major ingresses culminate on February 21, 2026, when Saturn and Neptune will meet at 0 degrees of Aries indicating a time of the most major new beginnings.
Trickster of Awakening Uranus will dip its toe in Gemini from July 7, 2025 until November 8, 2025. Then, its uninterrupted six-and-a-half-year sojourn through Gemini kicks off on April 26, 2026 bringing forth a period of immense technological advances that just might change everything over the long term in an unprecedented acceleration buoyed by the Quickening.
My read on this comes from the fact that Uranus rules the higher mind/intuition, so some gifted souls who will be receiving psychic downloads from the Universe at the same genius level of an Einstein, and the implementation of these Uranian insights will come through the vehicle of Gemini ruling the mass consciousness.
North node Pisces/ south node Virgo: January, 2025–July, 2026.
All of these major transits will be covered in more detail as events unfold over the next few years. But what I will say, based on the above overview, is that if we think that climate change is the worst ever bad news of this age, perhaps the good news down the road is that it forces us to find innovative solutions to save the earth’s habitability for humans like nothing lesser ever could. This one, of course, requires a very long-range perspective.
And, of course, as MARIO ANDRETTI certainly can attest to: “If everything seems under control, you’re probably not moving fast enough.”
My psychic read on how best to, not just survive, but thrive during these times of increasing chaos in the Earth Game is to cultivate being in what I call: “The Witnessing Protection Program.” The foundation-level attitude adjustment that is required to move into this witnessing mode is to accept the reality that everyone on the planet is mentally ill; it’s just a question of degree.
In other words, as Mark Twain said: “When we remember that we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.”
Would you like to know where you stand on a spiritually-based mental health continuum? For a baseline read, check out these spiritual truths and contemplate how self-evident they are to you:
1. All beings are part of one greater divine Being.
2. The Universe is made up of energy and ALL energy is conscious.
3. The gold standard of energy is love in all its forms.
4. Everyone is doing the best they’re capable of, and no one on the personality level chooses to be mentally ill.
5. We’re powerless over other people’s karma playing out; therefore, all we can do is take care of our side of the karmic street and set a tone of equanimity in the Flow.
6. Cultivating bodhicitta—i.e., compassion and loving kindness, without judgment for those who are suffering due to illness in body, mind or spirit—is taking the highest road spiritually.
In closing, the more deeply we reside in the witnessing protection program, the more we’ll experience our consciousness expand exponentially as we continuously evolve and move higher on the spiritual mental health continuum. From living from our souls in 5D and higher, while simultaneously being fully embodied in 3D, we’ll come to know unequivocally with our full heart/mind these Divine laws:
1. Everything is always happening perfectly in the Flow of Life.
2. All structures in 3D—internal and external—need to cyclically break down and fall apart before there can be a transformational rebirth from the ashes.
3. Inner stability can only be cultivated and maintained through some form of daily spiritual practices.
4. Setting an inner tone of equanimity in the Flow affects our personal reality and beyond with the ripple effect.
On a personal note, for my inner stability and sanity, I do daily sitting, standing and moving Taoist practices, as well as working with a revolving list of Tantric teachings which come from the 5000-year-old Vigyana Bhairava Tantra, composed of 112 sutras that are listed here:
Spiritual Practices Reading List
My current favorites to contemplate:
67. Here is the sphere of change, change, change. Through change consume change.

69. Since, in truth, bondage and freedom are relative, these words are only for those terrified with the universe. This universe is a reflection of minds. As you see many suns in water from one sun, so see bondage and liberation.

58. This so-called universe appears as a juggling, a picture show. To be happy, look upon it so.

And finally, if one is able to watch the Earth Game with at least some small measure of cosmic humor in the mix, it can only help make one’s life that much more alive, juicy and entertaining. For my daily doses of laughter, (especially in this election season) I like to read or listen to: the Borowitz Report, John Stewart on the Daily Show and Steven Colbert’s monologues–all reliable for some belly laughs, which are very good for the immune system and sanity.
With divine orderly chaos running rampant as the new normal, I’m reminded of a quote by Ram Dass: “Wise beings can be peaceful in the midst of chaos, experiencing delight in the changing play of forms.”
Wishing us all some peace and delight as part of this new normal. Then we can more easily dissolve any illusionary boundaries between madness and sanity and appreciate wherever we are on the continuum of Being,
J o a n

“All madmen may not be mystics, but all mystics are mad. By mad, I mean they have gone beyond the mind. The madman may have fallen below the mind, and the mystic may have gone beyond the mind, but one thing is similar. Both are not in their minds.”–OSHO

Here’s some of the lyrics from Dylan’s Things Have Changed (2000), still one of my favorites to get me laughing and dancing along:
“Only a fool in here would think he's got anything to prove
Lotta water under the bridge, lotta other stuff too
Don't get up gentlemen, I'm only passing through
People are crazy and times are strange
I'm locked in tight, I'm out of range
I used to care, but things have changed
I've been walking forty miles of bad road
If the bible is right, the world will explode
I've been trying to get as far away from myself as I can
Some things are too hot to touch
The human mind can only stand so much
You can't win with a losing hand”
To listen along:
Things Have Changed
ENJOY!
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