Last week we reflected on how each story and perspective is a filter over perception, and like a colored filter on a lens, each filter reveals certain things and obscures certain things about what is. So to gain more depth of perspective, one needs to hold and perceive through multiple filters.

This evokes the classic 3-D glasses with a red lens and a blue lens. When you watched an older 3-D movie without the screen, it looked a little blurred and you could see the different layers of color over each other in a flat, distracting way. With the glasses on, with one eye seeing more blue and the other more red, the perception of depth and three-dimensionality emerged. That is the benefit of having two eyes that face forward, to have depth perception.

Every source of news, every call to action, every opinion editorial is a particular filter with its own agenda and position in the world. We might look at certain sources of news as propaganda for a particular state and be interested in foreign news sources, but they too may well be propaganda for their own states. That does not make any of these sources useless; it just requires a remembering that these are filters. A news source with allegiance to one state is going to soften the actions of its own state and highlight the failings and atrocities of adversarial states. Proceed with understanding.

It feels important to take in at least a few different sources of information with different perspectives, to orient yourself in these times.

Today and tomorrow, Venus and Saturn dissolve into each other in the abundant dreamworld of Pisces. Saturn in Pisces evokes the Mother of Sorrows, one who brings forth life into this earth knowing that it will experience death and suffering, whose heart overflows with both fierce love and joy for her children and also the immense grief for their pain. Venus in Pisces evokes the Great Lover, one who offers her love and pleasure freely to all, without attachment or condition, who receives all into her embrace.

Venus is considered exalted in Pisces, which allows her love to expand unfettered and invite everyone it touches to see the best within themselves, that they may heal and become who they are. And she can be so intoxicated by what she sees within others—which is their greatest good—that she is unable to see the great distance between reality and potential. Here Saturn offers a sobering dose of reality, but together they feel beautiful. They can see and accept both the frailties and the potentials and love a real person for who they really are. They can bear witness to sorrow, anger, and suffering without rushing to rescue you from it.

So often we feel we must save others from their pain, as though that were truly possible, and then feel thwarted and resentful when their pain remains regardless of our actions. We take it personally. We feel unable to put down the responsibility. But there is nothing to save. Each of us is here to bear our measure of pain and love, and learning to bear and care for those feelings is what frees us. If others take away our pain, then we don’t get to learn and become free, instead we become dependent upon them and their skill. Truly loving a person brings witness to their powers and their sufferings and asking, with care, “What do you need that will help?”

It’s scary to be skeptical of our own thoughts, because they’re what we use to deal with life. It’s hard to imagine acting confidently amidst doubt and uncertainty. But so often our certainties are a problem, arrived at with minimal reflection and insufficient information. We may agonize because we imagine some person hates us or another does not want us to succeed, all kinds of stories that we never surface to be questioned. Or we ruminate over and over about an issue without doing anything to learn more about what we need to know.

The knowings of the mind aren’t factual, they’re assumptions drawn from what we’ve experienced and what we already know. We need to keep getting fresh data. To ask questions that check out our assumptions and be willing to chew on the answers.

Today it feels like our inner systems are under duress. Energy we’d normally propel outward to enjoy life instead has to focus on inner maintenance. It’s frustrating, but it’s best to take the time to be thorough about it. When there’s a leak in the house, you need to be a detective to find its source. Water dripping from the ceiling is a problem and it’s a symptom of a different problem–if you only tend to the symptom, the problem keeps getting worse.

So it is that we want to get a sense of the system when it’s having problems. The drip in the ceiling might be from a leaky pipe. The leaky pipe might be from some other issue. All of these things need attention, there is not one piece that is insignificant. If we can’t get to the deepest issue—if it’s too hidden, too ingrained, or coming from something that we can’t control—then it makes sense to just fix the piping and reinforce the ceiling. But if we can tend to the source and choose not to, we’re setting ourselves up for a period of maintenance that might be avoidable.

If you find yourself having reactions bigger than expected—if emotions are “leaky” and coming out on people who don’t deserve it—then this same detective work is worthwhile. Before trying to solve anything, first stop the crisis, then explore the problem. Draw a map. See if you can see how things are informing each other. Then see what’s within your power to fix, and what needs more support.

Strength does not always look like a strong unyielding stance, or constantly opposing everything that comes at you. Power may look feline: graceful and light, adapting to the moment, moving from height to height to get a better perspective. There is still strength here, pressing deep into the earth to launch one’s self higher.

Do not let yourself become so enamored by the appearance of power that you give up your position. Let yourself stay light and adaptive.

This week, the moon is helping us to discern what there is to do with what is happening for us so that we are ready to seed the next cycle of movement. Today the energy of Libra moves through our bodies and hearts in a deep, instinctive way. We might want to get into our heads about what needs to stay and what needs to go, but let your awareness drop deeper into your energy. Open your heart to what is in your life today and let your body tell you what needs to be rebalanced. You may need more rest, or you may need more activity. You may need both. You may need to maintain and polish, or you may need to put it all into the recycling bin so you have a clear space for something new.

For the next several months, the current of will runs backward. The polarities are reversed. If you’re used to barreling through life and getting what you want, you might feel stymied. If you’re used to controlling yourself to manage others, you may find new options available.

Mars likes for us to make our mark out there, to be a channel through which life force moves outward. But in its ostensible retrograde motion, it wants to move inward. It wants to take in, to direct aggression inward. It’s like there’s a dark veil covering that channel of life force and we’re trying to reopen the current. It’s quite frustrating.

Following the flow of energy tends to work well, so if you can’t get traction out there, you can seek to bring light and vitality to the inner world. You might find what you sought dwelled in the dark places inside all along.

This week I am again confronted with my impatience, my tendency to take on too much, and my difficulty slowing down to talk about what’s going on so that others both know and have the chance to support me. Something in me feels it’s easier if I do it myself, and yet doing it myself brings great tension, and these days the responsibilities I hold are becoming too complex and varied.

A burden carried alone is far heavier than one shared, but to share a burden we must:

1. Acknowledge it is a burden.

2. Decide if it’s worth carrying or letting go.

3. If we choose to carry it, tell others how they can help us in doing so.

Each step may be excruciating in its own ways. There is a terror in disappointing or being disappointed, harming or being harmed, and yet so much freedom when we can honestly acknowledge how we feel. “I hate doing this, and I don’t want to do it anymore.” Or “I hate doing this, but not doing it would be worse.” Or “I love doing this, but it’s still feeling like too much.”

Then we can have an honest conversation with those involved in our burdens. We can put on the table our gifts and limits, our desires and frustrations, and look at them together like a puzzle we need to solve—rather than a series of personal attacks on each other.