Perception is everything
and it’s always personal.
My good friend was sharing how much she disliked a store near her house. She had recently been hassled in the parking lot, and besides that, she felt like people working there are rude; the store is crowded, and they never have the things she needs. She warned me not to shop there. This came up in a deeper conversation about noticing when things feel disempowering.
Well, guess what? I go to the exact same store, and my experience is completely different. I’ve always found it easy to park, filled with things I use every day, and it’s even relaxing to shop there. I love that store!
Perception is everything, and it’s always personal.
In all this Aries energy, the “question your conclusions” theme is loud. How could our interpretations of people, places, and situations be the objective truth when they’re filtered through our own minds, shaped by our own experiences, expectations, and projections? They can’t really. But there’s so much “if this, then that” energy in the field right now. Everyone thinks they’re right.
Personal power and perspective are going to come up for you as we ride this Saturn/ Neptune/Chiron in Aries astrology, and you will notice new spaces where you feel frustrated or helpless, or situations that challenge what you think you see. I worked myself into a whole fake storyline last week because someone hadn’t called me back. “Did I do something wrong? Are they ignoring me? They suck! Who does that?” etc. Turns out they were having a busy week- imagine that.
Instead of just reacting or taking whatever is happening at face value, go further and ask yourself how the story you’re running feels familiar… you’ve probably had similar themes come up for your whole life. I have- I’ve had to really learn to be mindful of my sometimes elaborate projections about why people do what they do.
At the same time, it’s good to remember: no two people perceive the same thing in exactly the same way. If you’re saying to yourself, “Well, when I do this, it means this, and therefore when they do it, it must mean the same thing,” well, you might be off base.
With Pluto moving through Aquarius over the next couple of decades, we’re being asked to look more closely at how we judge others, what we project onto them, and how those assumptions totally distort reality. Add to that the strong focus on identity, and we begin to see how our sense of self is deeply tied to our sense of the world around us.
Aries is fire. It’s fast, instinctual, and immediate. But fire also burns out quickly. So locking our perceptions in and hanging on for dear life goes against this fire energy that wants to burn fast and move on. We’re in a period of reorientation and of redefining who we are and how we relate to the world.
For right now, anyway, the work is yours alone: your identity, your personal power, your boundaries, your judgments, your independence. Focusing on other people (pleasing them, sparring with them, controlling them, impressing them, questioning them, even tending to them) is not the assignment.
Explore your inner world and become familiar with the unique gifts you bring to this collective consciousness. This work requires you to look deeply at your own self-perceptions and the verdicts you deliver about others, which is hard, but questioning these is how you help support the greater whole.
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