We humans find it difficult to accept that most of the pain and problems we experience, we create for ourselves. We have a strong desire to apportion blame elsewhere, to find fault and dread in the actions of others and external circumstance rather than explore the possibility that we may be regularly pooping on our own doorstep with our thoughts, words and deeds.

As a species we have not been best served by the economic and political systems that have brought a privileged small proportion of the world population hitherto unknown material wealth. The costs of those concocted belief systems are now in plain sight, threatening not only our existence but the invaluable biodiversity on which we depend.

In astrological circles, this week's Scorpio Full Moon is said to complete a cycle of inner expansion that highlights issues of trust, control, and power. Scorpio and its ruling planet Pluto preside over the process of evolution and metamorphosis: archetypes linked to psychological death, rebirth, and regeneration. Sounds a tad heavy but personal responsibility for embracing change in an ever changing world is therefore likely to be a theme in the coming days and weeks.

The geopolitical uncertainty currently displayed on the world stage could be viewed as the death throes of an old order fiercely resistant to change. Will the archaic patriarchal political and economic structures transform or will the impasse between belief systems simply lead to more destruction? The small enclave of Gaza lies in ruins. Around 2 million people displaced with famine imminent. Over 35,000 dead in six months, of whom, according to Gaza Health Authority data, more than 12,300 were children. There is a sombre comparison to be made with the 12,193 youngsters lost to global conflict in total between 2019 and 2022. The death toll increases daily as food and medicine is prevented from reaching those in need.

This war is a war on children. It is a war on their childhood and their future.

(Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General)

What will rise, if anything, from these tragic ashes or have we created yet another open wound of suffering that will never heal? The old order has a vested interest in borders and beliefs: the imaginary made real. In the marketplace of division, metered by the yardstick of lack, one entity’s gain can only be another’s loss. The win-win paradigms of stewardship not ownership, of caring and sharing, have become a lost cause, discredited by those determined to hang onto the riches, power and privilege that market economics have historically bestowed.

The need for change in human behaviour is obvious and yet accepting change in our lives remains one of the hardest things to do. But why should that be? The overarching intelligence of all existence is a never ending cycle of change, of birth and rebirth, within which humanity is irrevocably entwined. Mentally, we have become divorced from this reality by cloaking ourselves for 'protection' with any number of beliefs and comforts that distract us temporarily from the proven scientific understanding that we are all connected to everything else.

As a species, and as individuals, we have devised a philosophy of denial that has not served the whole. In focusing exclusively on individual gains in a world personified by a perceived sense of lack, we create division - a man-made notion at odds with the self sustaining, symbiotic, interconnected reality of intelligent evolution and existence.

Like any web of deceit, as our philosophy of denial has grown in complexity the lies have become increasingly impenetrable and indistinguishable from the truth. We live in an epoch where whoever shouts loudest, or most frequently, dominates the narrative of people and planet regardless of the merit in their message. Sadly, we have come to unconsciously adopt ideas, often through a dearth of alternatives, that perpetuate misery and destruction rather than liberty and creativity. In effect we buy into, and vote for, a hell of our own making... and here we sit, often suffering in some perplexed state of inertia, hoping everything is going to be better for everyone at some point in the future.

But instigating change needn't be an arduous task even if it represents a challenge. It arises spontaneously from an acceptance that change is the natural order of things. It involves a willingness to give up certain ideas we have about ourselves and others so that our lives are no longer dominated by the longlist of fear - the fear of loss, loneliness, and pain; of worthlessness, powerlessness, humiliation, betrayal and ultimately of death.

We are conditioned into a fear fed, blame culture from the moment most of us are born. That culture has given rise to competitive, individualised notions that only the strongest will survive, i.e., that in order for our dreams to be realised, those of another must be forfeited. Dog eat dog; winners and losers; economic opportunity costs. This contracted, combative misconception of life has blinkered us with its simplistic, brutal ignorance, culminating in a global society that struggles even to care about the devastation in Gaza. Providing our garbage is regularly picked up (both literally and metaphorically) to be dumped on someone else's doorstep, we can sleep easy at night. Questions about our cultural acceptance of waste simply do not arise.

However, under this Scorpio Full Moon, if we choose to look again, to refresh our inherent capacities to observe, we can witness, appreciate and then cherish the sustaining natural life process that has generously allowed us to come up with all the distracting, useless crap we employ to avoid confronting our fears. Everywhere we find ourselves, the opportunity exists to look at our circumstances through a different lens of perception and see anew. Where there is conflict we can resolve to encourage peaceful resolution. Where there is hopelessness we can help engender optimistic purpose. Where there is fear we can opt to see and feel Love.

This aspiration may appear to some to be as willfully deluded as allowing economic markets to define the well being of our planet, but in the first instance it does at least provide an alternative to our mass media led conditioning, however delusional.

Would you believe in what you believe in if you were the only one who believed it?

(Kanye West)

Beliefs are simple constructs. If we repeat something enough we eventually believe it.

That’s wrong. They were wrong. It’s The New York Times, they’re always wrong. They were wrong.

(Donald Trump)

If we are to believe stuff, and it seems to be an unavoidable human trait, we might as well believe stuff that makes us feel better about the world and ourselves. This need not be a Kanye/Trumpian exercise in self aggrandisement however. In careful observation of the interdependence exhibited in the natural world we have an enduring model (13.7 billion years at the last count) for potential renewal and rebirth. Populist Darwinian thought has crudely attributed evolution to ‘survival of the fittest’ but Darwin’s written work spoke more sensitively of his scientific observations.

It is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself.

(Charles Darwin)

The future of our species and its immediate effect on Earth’s biosphere are dependent on our flexibility - our ability to change with a changing environment. Intransigent thinking and behaviour regularly lead to conflict, with each other or the natural world itself and is ultimately hastening humanity’s inevitable cosmological departure from this particular corner of a tiny, remote galaxy among the billions that exist.

Astronomers estimate there exist roughly 10,000 stars for each grain of sand on Earth. That’s a lot of stars.

(Wayne Harris-Wyrick)

The suggestion under this Scorpio Full Moon is therefore to cleanse the lens of our own perceptions: to examine our own peculiar reactions, habituated behaviours and beliefs as potential impediments to our enjoyment of life. One helpful practice is to observe the world around us with greater attention and awareness. Or, put another way, the coming week is a very constructive time in which to simply sit and watch the grass grow. We can be witness to a myriad of audaciously vibrant, life affirming miracles in every waking moment should we tune in to them rather than passively absorbing the uniformly drab mono-culture available on screen. Instead of closing down our perceptions to protect what is or isn't 'right' for us, then worse, defend that need to be right through anger, conflict or revenge, we can open our world to acceptance and allowance of what is. What's actually happening around and within us is a revelation but most of us, too busy fighting on our mental battlefields, don't give it a second’s consideration.

In aligning our thoughts, words and actions with the flexible patterns in nature we can exercise our ability to change: to turn back from repeated destructive brinks and instead, create individual and collective pathways and conversations for the benefit of All.

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.

(Lao Tzu)