Spirituality – Page 2 – Anthony Rella, MA, LMHC

Astrological Aphorisms

March 23, 2023 by Anthony Rella

Three battles that cannot be won: forcing a Gemini to commit; compelling an Aquarius to change their mind; demanding a Libra pick a side.

Three unpardonable offenses: failing to remember an Aries; offering mild praise to a Leo; boring a Sagittarius.

Three utterances never heard: a Capricorn admitting defeat; a Taurus conceding your point; a Virgo saying, “Yeah, that’s good enough.”

Three great mysteries: the true opinion of a Pisces; the reason that a Cancer is mad at you; a Scorpio’s entire personality.

Spirituality

The Three Centers: The Belly Center

March 16, 2023 by Anthony Rella

Spirituality

“When you’re being the Magician, it’s easy to see everyone around you as a dupe you need to keep entertained. But in this gesture, there is a way out: to show those who admire you their own power. To renounce the need to be special and indestructible and instead take your place in the community of animals. To share all the burdens and responsibilities you are carrying, and to lay some down if you cannot tend them all.”

Spirituality

You Don’t Have to Work So Hard

February 9, 2023 by Anthony Rella

“A part of me still has internalized the Catholic injunction to become a saint, an exemplar of virtue who shows humanity what it is capable of. When I was younger, I felt my failure to become a saint was a sign of my intrinsic awfulness. At this stage in my life, I now appreciate that saints are rare because that life is incredibly taxing. I further appreciate how many saints could only accrue the spiritual and internal force necessary to hold that virtue by renouncing other paths such as marriage, family, career, or living in the society of their time.

There is a spiritual path of living in the world and cultivating one’s soul and being, and it’s been known in many religions and cultures. Gurdjieff called it the Fourth Way, but I think of it as the path of the Red Mage—in the original Final Fantasy video game series, the Red Mage had some skill in fighting and some skill in general magic but mastery of neither.

That is the path I walk, and in walking the path I find these moments of feeling the costs of not committing to one or the other. A part of me dreams of the monastic life of solitude and devotion to spirit and my awakening, while another part of me wonders what would have been possible if I’d dedicated my considerable discipline and willfulness toward accruing money and power in this world.”

Spirituality

Poem: A God Offers the Choice of Three Paths

November 23, 2022November 14, 2022 by Anthony Rella

A poem about the paths of will, desire, and longing.

Spirituality

Crab Season

July 14, 2022 by Anthony Rella

Astrology is one of my hobbies of study, something I find fascinating and rich but not enough to make my profession. From an archetypal, depth perspective, the wheel of astrology offers a clock of the movement of energy and themes that rise up in our personal and collective experiences. Currently, the sun is moving through the sign of Cancer. Each of us has every sign in our natal charts, so Cancer is within some domain of life, and the sun invites us to look at how these themes play out and could transform within the house that Cancer rules for you.

Spirituality

We Must Remember to Advance

May 17, 2022May 16, 2022 by Anthony Rella

“Every time we felt alone in suffering, or learned to survive hardship, waits for us to be capable of returning to witness that pain. Our suffering deeply longs to be felt and understood fully; that’s why it seizes upon us in our weak moments when we don’t have the strength to push it away. Or it lashes out at loved ones, hoping they have the strength and capacity to hold it for us. But when we are too vulnerable to give it the caring attention it seeks, we only feel mired more deeply in it, and caught in the battle of those parts of us desperately trying to keep it hidden.”

Spirituality

For Love’s Sake

March 24, 2022 by Anthony Rella

A Victorian-style poem about embracing the totality of light and dark.

Spirituality

A Ritual for Times of Crisis

January 11, 2022January 11, 2022 by Anthony Rella

“The thing about that is, most of those expectations come from a world we no longer inhabit. So we are in a time of thick fog, trying to follow a path once suggested to us that we can no longer see. We can hardly feel confident about what we think is coming down the path.

…

We need to get lower to the ground, to feel and sense our way through, until the fog clears and we can see again.”

Spirituality

Firecraft and Will

November 16, 2021November 16, 2021 by Anthony Rella

Too many of us, when we’re feeling low energy or stuck in life, expect ourselves to be able to fire up some heavy fuel. Then, when we fail, we think it confirms our fate as incompetent failures. But all it means is that we’ve added too heavy of fuel, too quickly, without awareness of these principles.

So if you’re starting cold and want more energy in your life, instead of making a huge commitment to a task like starting graduate school, try finding some tinder and kindling tasks that you can get started to build your enthusiasm and energy. Start with one new habit, like washing your dishes more often, and do that for a couple weeks until you add the second.”

Category: Spirituality

Astrological Aphorisms

The Three Centers: The Belly Center

The Trials of the Magician

You Don’t Have to Work So Hard

Poem: A God Offers the Choice of Three Paths

Crab Season

We Must Remember to Advance

For Love’s Sake

A Ritual for Times of Crisis

Firecraft and Will