Unusually, this weekend sees a second Capricorn Full Moon in succession. The lunar month between these repeating moons has felt intense and hectic, signalled in this part of northern Europe by a couple of emotionally fraught national elections between similar polarised political ideologies and a highly competitive football tournament.

International neighbours France and the United Kingdom were both plunged into election fever as snap decisions by the president and prime minister respectively sought a national vote before the end of their official periods in office. Both votes were touted as a democratic verdict on recent domestic political performance within the wider context of national lurches towards right wing populism supported by the vested interests of right leaning, billionaire backed media corporations.

In the UK, 14 years of Conservative Party rule was comprehensively rejected at the ballot box by the British public. The Tory parliamentary majority was decimated overnight as the centre left Labour Party gained a clear mandate to govern for the next five years with Sir Keir Starmer, previously an international human rights lawyer, as prime minister. The Tory term in office had overseen a plethora of policy and incompetence (austerity, Brexit, economic meltdown, internal scandal, nepotism and corruption to name but a few) that, in very concrete terms, have seen UK standards of living fall drastically for all but the very richest in society. The comparative rise in levels of poverty in the same period is historically damning. In delivering their recent democratic assessment, the UK electorate invokes a new cycle of government which significantly swings away from the invidious encroachment of right-wing populist nationalism trending its destabilising divisive influence not just in Britain but around the globe.

And so to the French election during the same week. Billed as an opportunity for the far right to gain a foothold in parliamentary power, the anti-right-wing lobby convinced the other political parties to unify in a concerted effort to defy the nationalist agenda. Thankfully, the National Front vote, largely drawn from the extensive rural regions, was kept at bay, defeated into third place but nonetheless doubling its previous total of parliamentary representatives. The outcome is a hung parliament fraught with discord as the various voting blocks now negotiate towards a working coalition that minimises far-right influence. The thwarting of the far right could be seen as positive but the payoff could be a period of national instability and political infighting that may well benefit the populists further down the line.

The thing is, it's much easier to be a rightwing populist than a leftwing one, because the left always have to explain why things are the way they are. The right can just blame the foreigners.

(Ken Loach)

Democracy is precariously balanced globally. As the climate crisis and the atrocities of war displace millions from otherwise peaceful self-sustaining lives, so strains on national borders increase. The hysterical fear mongering of immigrant hating, racist populists the world over elicits a knee jerk reaction to the right of simplistic political thinking, obfuscated by liberal terminology and ‘renamed’ openly fascist organisations but barely concealing an agenda for centralised, totalitarian power and a police state.

Snake-oil populism is seductive – it preys on people’s hopes before it betrays them.

(Keir Starmer)

Perhaps the UK has been successful in halting the rise of the right for now—five years respite before the same old hateful arguments raise their ugly heads in the next general election—while France has thrown parliament into limbo, attempting to arrest what seems to be an inexorable march of its national politics to the right.

While democracy must have its organisation and controls, its vital breath is individual liberty.

(Charles Evans Hughes)

Similar choices face the electorate in more than 50 democratic national elections during 2024. Approximately 1.5 billion people will be going to the polls in those countries, which between them hold almost half of the world’s population. Now, more than ever, the right to vote in democratic elections is a tangible way to express what kind of society we want to live in. What are our expectations of elected governments in addressing urgent global ethical issues? Do we choose representatives that operate out of hateful short-term self-interest or those that act with compassion and respect for the good of all?

Human rights only have meaning if they are universal.

(Keir Starmer)

There’s never a bad time to observe how our expectations of others affect our life experiences. If our expectations aren’t met, we invariably judge individuals and circumstances negatively. It’s a lose-lose outcome. We feel let down, but worse, we usually end up making others suffer for their perceived shortcomings.

Emotions in Europe have also been running high during the European Football Championships. 24 national squads convened for the month-long tournament in Germany, which culminated in the England football team being beaten by Spain in the final. The match held the possibility of joy or pain dependent on the outcome for those to whom it mattered. Tens of thousands of football fans descended on Berlin, whether they had tickets to enter the stadium or not. Two nations held their breath as the ‘game’ played out on live TV. Twists and turns, rollercoasting emotions, agony, and ecstasy in equal measure before Spain eventually prevailed as deserved champions.

We always have to believe in what is possible in life and not be hindered by history or expectations.

(Gareth Southgate)

When England last played a Euro final three years ago against Italy, they lost on penalties after deadlock could not be broken in extra time. The three very young black Englishmen who failed to score their penalty kicks that night were immediately vilified by social and mainstream media, much of the abusive bile directed at them overtly racist in nature. Heightened expectations amongst England supporters contributed to the great pain of defeat. That pain in a significant number of bigots translated into very real suffering in the lives of those young men who had done nothing more than try their best for the national football team. Heroes, until the failure to meet national expectations cast them as a race discriminated disgrace. It was another sorry indictment of England’s long standing relationship with institutionalised racism. In the aftermath of the 2024 final let’s hope things have changed and the stories this week remain entirely supportive of the team’s undoubted achievement in reaching the final of two consecutive championships.

Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that. My family has suffered. They’ve been neglected.

(Bill Shankly)

Expectations equate squarely with human suffering. In setting expectations of ourselves or others, we merely set the parameters for failure and disappointment, limiting the potential for positive outcomes rather than opening possibilities for boundless attainment, often beyond our own imaginings. An expectation is a restrictive thought pattern that only allows certain acceptable outcomes to our goals. It is often an attachment to an idea/form that becomes so dominant it's difficult to see validity in any other possibility. Our intransigent beliefs become the most significant impediment to progress.

The universe, whose grand purpose it is to provide opportunities for our greater learning and evolution (the evolution of self and universe are inseparable; one informs the other) unerringly works on our behalf to present those experiences. If we can't recognise the perfectly decent opportunities offered because they’re packaged in a way that doesn't meet our uniquely human expectations, those opportunities are lost. The universe continues to expend energy presenting opportunities for growth but our restrictive mental pictures and associated behaviour create delays in getting what we, and by logical extension the evolving universe, actually want. (Peace, happiness and sustainable prosperity, anyone?) Sometimes our expectations are so exclusively specific they prevent us from ever manifesting our true desires, which is tragic.

Our own inability to accept what life offers because we're expecting something different, keeps us from our most immediate, effective and pleasurable learning experiences. Our attachment to the form we think an opportunity has to take, be that job, partner, abundance or happiness, diverts our attention from what is actually being offered in the moment and we miss out. Such peculiarly human ingratitude might be considered rude if the universe wasn't beyond such small minded judgments itself.

There can be no failure in life other than that of our own making. Failure could be simply defined as an inability to match experience to expectation. Essentially, expectation is a human projection into the future, and when thoughts turn to the future it is normally out of a desire to control. Under this second successive Capricorn Full Moon, the discordant rhythms of control freakishness are likely to be playing on repeat.

By the same token, success might be where we bring our experience closer to expectations. However, meeting expectations is rare, often requires huge amounts of effort, and is usually short-lived. Without wishing to sound uniformly negative, the labels of failure and success are merely two sides of the same restrictive coin in terms of creative manifestation. In order to harness our true creative potential we would be well advised to let go of the forms that drive expectation. Better still, allow the mutual interests of the universe to encourage new heights of growth and joy in the moment that they crop up.

That's not to say we can't express a discerning preference about how we want our lives to unfold, but once a clear intention is broadcast into the universe, we shouldn't then apply restrictions to how outcomes may arise. A good intention, like a good enquiring question, will have an unlimited set of possible answers. We need to develop attentive listening to gain full understanding of the responses offered. With a receptive mind, open to the unlimited forms that responses to intentions may take, we can apply informed discernment about the experiences we wish to explore further.

In asking curious questions for self-knowledge, we align with the process mirrored in the exploratory, expanding universe at large. What would it feel like if...? What does that experience feel like...? By checking intuitively for answers on a regular basis we remain properly informed of progress, allowing even greater discernment and exploration. The trick to manifestation lies in awareness of those feelings. If one can imagine how an attained desire might feel in the body without directing unnecessary energy into how that might come about, one allows the broadest spectrum of possibility to manifest. Our sole responsibility is then to gratefully engage with the opportunities that emerge.

What we experience as feelings in the body is not an expectant projection. Once felt in the present moment, the physical and emotional reality exist. It always sounds trite, but if you want to be happy, feel happiness. One obviously has to find a route there—think of a puppy, laughter, a remote tropical beach sunset or a well behaved partner, but once located, those happy feelings can be enjoyed at leisure. If you want abundance, feel abundant. If you want to be loved, feel loved. If you want power, feel powerful. If you want to be hateful, feel hate. If you want peace, feel peaceful. If you want to feel warm, put more clothes on.

Very loosely, this has been the basis of several 'Be Here Now' existential meditation schools which caution that as thoughts return to the future (desire for control) or the past (usually regret, shame, blame, guilt) we distance ourselves from the energised, ever curious present and our potential as conscious creators of our own reality, moment by moment. In that present moment, defeating the desire to judge another and its affiliated levels of expectation creates the ultimate win-win—a victory felt by All.

Our subconscious minds have no sense of humour, play no jokes and cannot tell the difference between reality and an imagined thought or image. What we continually think about eventually will manifest in our lives.

(Robert Collier)