Breaking Tradition

I have always been a sucker for a love story.

Even better if there are some historical aspects to it which call to far away places or some tense time during history's dark pages. Recently I embarked on a Turkish series centered in Russia and Turkey at the end of World War I called "Kurt Seyit ve Sura". Perhaps it was my own familial connection to Russia that called me to this tale, my father's people escaping the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution as well. Maybe it was the beautiful landscapes, the turn of the century music or the subtitles, but for whatever reason I as hooked.

The story centers around a couple, Seyit and Sura. He is a high ranking, well born Turkish soldier who was one of the Tsar's top men. She is Russian nobility, daughter of a good family and old money. All of his life, his father had molded him into becoming a man in his image, dedicated to the ways of their family. One of their traditions was to marry a Turkish girl, to which of course Seyit rebels. For awhile, at least. Eventually the familial beliefs his father installed upon him tip the scales, and poor Sura is left in the dust after following him to the depths of hell.

Now, I want a happy ending. I always do. But, as I have come to learn when watching historical shows (especially love stories) this rarely happens. People always end up marrying for what is "right" not what is love. People are kept apart by long held beliefs. Traditions win out and this viewer is left pouting for a day or three wondering why dammit, why?

In our own world, many of these same themes have been awakened.

During the powerful energy that is ongoing with Uranus in Taurus from May 2018 to April 2026 and Saturn in Capricorn from December 2017 to March 2020, we are being asked to look at the traditions in our own lives. The structures on which our foundations are creates are being shaken. Commitments, beliefs, family patterns, job security, living environment are all being exposed and put under the microscope. There will be great shifts in world patterns as the pillars of the Earth quake, especially pertaining to finance, leadership and the connections that have been between countries in the past. This is an era of deep, profounding change. This is a time of questioning the structure of our lives.

We are being asked to look at whether these commitments are in our highest good? Is the future that was decided in the past what we still desire in the future? Where is the divide between what is expected and what is desired? Who makes this choice? Are we honoring our hearts or just going with what is easy or expected?

Tradition can bring a sense of security, but can lead to conformity where there is a lack of connection to feeling or true desire. This can make people do things that really isn't in alignment with the truth of their heart, but they do it anyway to appease whatever beliefs center around them. This can be instilled in childhood, as a result of familial teaching or personal beliefs that dictate this makes them a "good person who is accepted by society."

Traditions can create negative belief patterns in our lives.

Some traditions are just plain wrong, it doesn't matter how long they have been practiced. Look at anything violent, demeaning or centered around the subjugation of women. Beliefs rooted in childhood can echo through our lives, shaping beliefs of worthiness, love, acceptance, or self esteem. They can dictate how scenarios play out, our will stripped from these decisions as we follow along with what has always been done. These beliefs can be hard to shift, but it is possible to do so. Our past is part of us, but it doesn't need to dictate how the rest of our lives unfold.

Freeing ourselves from false traditions and the beliefs that go with them is something that we are going to be faced with over the next few years. In the end, we will be asked what to take with us and what we wish to leave behind that has been dragging us down. We will root ourselves deeper in our actual beliefs, not the ones that we have been taught to believe. Truth will become the foundation on which things are built not the expectations of the past.

As for Seyit and Sura, I won't spoil how their story ends.

I will however say that I have a deeper appreciation for the harm that comes when we blindly accept the past as our roadmap without checking in with how we truly feel about it. Traditions and beliefs need to be evaluated and rescripted with the passing of time. To blindly do things as they have always been done can create discord, disconnection and despair. Nothing is worth that.

We have the power to shift things at any time. We are given free will in this life and it is ours to use, if we choose. Maybe the stories will unfold in a different way when the cast of characters follow in the direction of their hearts a little more often. Then this viewer would be left wondering less often, why dammit, why?

“Just because something is traditional is no reason to do it, of course.” ― Lemony Snicket