Stillness 12-14: The thing about eclipses is that they touch a part of our ancient human DNA that terrifies us. When we were ignorant of science and astronomy, all we experienced was utter mystery. Can you imagine what it must have felt like to see the sun disappear during the middle of the day? To hear the birds suddenly cease to sing and the world grow dark? The fearsomeness of that event established generations of anxiety and awe as an eclipse approached.
Nowadays, no matter how well science explains a phenomenon or how prepared we are as astrologers, somewhere in that unconscious part of our brain fear and awe remain embedded. My feeling is that the only way to move gracefully through the darkening of the light is to flow with it into the underground tunnel of our hidden unconscious. To feel all those old fears. To discover what the useless crud we’re still holding onto, as though we’re clinging to a life-raft, really looks like. To go deep.
Do you have a drawer full of things you’ve kept because one day you might need them? By now you may not even know what you have in there. Empty it. Start fresh. Release the energy. Let in air and light and you might discover a lot of room–not just in your drawer but in your heart.
Or here’s another one: Do you find yourself saying the same thing over and over? Maybe that someone isn’t treating you as well as you wish they would. Or you don’t have enough money. Or you don’t have a lover. The more you repeat it, the more it feels true. You create the reality—it doesn’t create you. You’re actually free to feel that you do have enough money! Seriously. That’s what eclipse energy does for us—it helps us penetrate through sludge of old beliefs, habits, prejudices, and outmoded expressions. Try stopping the conversation that sucks you into despair. Become neutral. And, after a while, try saying something different to yourself—maybe even the opposite of what you’ve been repeating to yourself up till now. Flow into the light as it returns.
They say that tonight’s new moon and total solar eclipse in Sagittarius will close out some of that mired stuckness and usher in fresh feelings of faith and optimism. Sagittarians and Geminis will feel it the most, but we’ll all be affected by it. We’ll all begin to feel that grand outlook of Jupiterian big-picture benevolence. As we release outdated longings and useless habits, and instead aim our arrows on new goals and desires, we’ll feel ourselves shimmering into a wellspring of hope. There is a better, brighter, happier future ahead.