It’s a Two-fer Tuesday from Free Will Astrology this week: auguries and a forecast!
In a special segment, Rob Brezsny offers general advice for his followers for the coming months. For Aquarians, he recommends thinking outside the box, using the example of Spencer Silver, a co-inventor of Post-it notes. When Silver describes the experiments used to develop the product, he notes that the conventional wisdom of the time said it couldn’t be done. If he’d listened, he never would have tried and the world would have had to wait for sticky notes. Brezsny recommends that we occasionally ignore the conventional wisdom in our path, even if it’s wisdom we have arrived at on our own. Instead, we should respect our intuition when it tells us we can accomplish something others say can’t be done.
In the weekly forecast for Aquarians, Brezsny offers similar advice for solving a riddle being contemplated by our higher minds. He suggests there are multiple solutions, but not all are optimal. Some might be intellectually smart but emotionally stupid. Some might sound good to our selfish lizard brains but might be hurtful to other people. Some solutions might be technically brilliant, but not much fun.
Brezsny urges Aquarians to circle the ideas – and there might be more than one – that are intellectually and emotionally intelligent, would help ourselves while also helping – or at least not hurting – others, and would be fun to accomplish.
This advice veers close to the Japanese concept of Ikigai, which I have long found fascinating. Ikigai is a way of viewing your interests and skills in a way that helps you find your life’s purpose and allows you to earn a living.
Your ikigai (iki = “life” and gai = “worth”) differs from other concepts, such as mission, passion, profession, or vocation.
When society has a need that it will pay you to fulfill, you have a vocation. When you are paid to do what you are good at, you may have found your profession. If you are good at something and love to do it, you have found your passion. If the world needs what you love, you may have found your mission.
But individually, these elements may not add up to a complete life. Your vocation may pay the bills, but might leave you feeling unfulfilled. If you love what you do, you may feel satisfied, but feel you are making no special contribution. If you do what you love or are helping fill a need in the world, you may feel satisfied, but your bank account may be empty.
When you are able to engage in work that you love using skills you have acquired and the world needs your contribution and is willing to pay for it, you have reached Ikigai.
I seek Ikigai in my creative work, but I have not reached it. I have a profession that allows me to use my skills, but I don’t feel like I’m filling any special need in the world. The world would get along quite fine without my company (don’t tell my boss). Writing is definitely my passion. I love it and I’m good at it (if I may say so).
But does the world need what I love? Not yet. As much as I’d like to believe that my writing is going to turn some heads, my ego knows better. It’s a rare novel that shifts a paradigm or comforts the afflicted. I have some idea of how I’d like to use my knowledge of creative writing to fill a need, but adding the element of vocation – getting paid to fulfill my sense of mission – remains elusive. Grand plans are grand, but coming up with the seed money ain’t easy.
But I’m close, and I have more blessings than many, and for that I’m grateful. I like my job and am very good it and it pays well. Most people I know can’t say two of those things, much less all three. And I fucking love writing and I can spend my free time indulging it, whenever I want. Being single sucks sometimes, but on the other hand, I can spend an entire Sunday at my writing desk and no one else gets a say in the matter. There have been years I didn’t have peace in my home and I appreciate it now.
Going back to my Aquarian forecast:
I’m not sure what big problem is bouncing around my higher mind. I’m always fretting about something. Before I find the smart, compassionate, fun solution, I need to decide what conundrum I’m trying to solve.