Eclipse that shit: Saying yes to loving the mess
Time to take giant steps towards healing our fractured, lost, disguised selves
Editorial note: I use gendered pronouns to refer to the planets as a way of helping you, dear reader, build relationships with these energies. These relationships are yours and yours alone, so hold these images lightly and trust your own truth above all else.
The whispers I spoke to a couple months ago have been slowly growing into cacophony—Have you been feeling it?
This week’s full moon will take us deeper into eclipse season. It’s a potent time worth sifting through here on this proverbial page.
More and more I see that personal transits (when the moving planets converse with our personal birth/natal chart) are when we feel the timing of the spheres most powerfully, and that the collective transits (when the moving planets converse with one another in real time) that are most worthy of our attention are the eclipses.
So if you’re going to read only one astrological “forecast” over the next several months, this is the one to read (or someone else’s if not mine, because how we vibe with others is personal too).
Personal and collective — this is actually a theme for these particular meetings of the planetary bodyminds. The outermost planet Pluto is still retrograde in Capricorn and still square the Moon’s nodes, and this configuration continues to point us towards Venus (guardian of Libra, the location of the South Node). Big changes are a foot, and likely we’re feeling it in very personal ways.
Before we float too far off into the expanse of spacetime though, let’s ground ourselves here on Earth: The nodes are points in space where the path of the Earth circling the Sun intersects with the path of the Moon circling the Earth. That’s why these are the points for eclipses, events that have always been potent embodied experiences for human beings here. With the Sun and Moon both involved, it’s like double lumination for us Earthly beings.
Each person experiences these events differently, based on our own inner cosmology (which the natal or birth chart is meant to describe). But we also experience them together, for we are connected not only to the stars but of course to one another.
The North Node is kind of like an invisible “North Star” in the metaphorical sense. It points towards where we are collectively being drawn to grow. It’s currently in the realm of sky we call Aries, right where the dwarf planet Eris lies at the outer rim of our system, and nudging closer and closer to the asteroid Chiron.
I believe this speaks to our slow but sure collective movement to disrupt and heal from patriarchial conditions including the social construction of a separate self. As I’ve spoke about in previous articles here, part of this work in my experience includes transforming sacred rage into redemptive love, and surrendering attachment to power over others while drawing closer to the power within each of us.
This is slow and revolutionary work. As you’ll read more about in this article, I believe we are being called to deeply integrate inside, which will facilitate our ability to connect to others from the truth of who we are, both who we are individually and who we are collectively.
The polarity between self and other is what is described by the Aries-Libra axis in the zodiacal wheel. Unfortunately, dominant culture leads us to interpret this polarity as a binary. Alternatively, I think of them as a mobius (inspiration for this actually came from my embodied study of the polarity of the aforementioned Nodes).
A mobius is not simply a spectrum, it’s a continuity. It’s not static place or shape, it’s inherently about movement and flow.
I see the coming lunations as an invitation to explore this flow. The flow within our own internal Yeses and Nos, moment-to-moment. The flow between us and our fellow beings as we express these Yeses and Nos. The flow as we listen to others’ Yeses and Nos. And so the music plays on and on.
And with that, let’s explore the rhythms we’re beginning to feel upon us. I will describe the planets as characters in an unfolding drama, but I invite you to imagine yourself as the stage upon which all this is set. The planetary characters are aspects of ourselves that are expressing and conversing, parts of ourselves we can tap into regardless of whether we’re tracking the living sky.
Kneeling down and taking heart
The full moon on September 29 will arrive at 6 degrees Aries.
Aries means the spotlight is on our hero Mars, a hero that is in an interesting part of his 26-month journey. Mars is in Libra, where he’s considered to be less of his typical contrary self. He is also an evening star descending lower and lower, preparing to meet the Sun in the mysterious underworld of Scorpio. He’s had some victories and is now preparing to humbly face some tribulations.
He’s not only in Venus’ domain (Libra), he’s in an angle with her that I think of as a *kiss* of some kind. But in this case, it’s also like they are tangoing.
This is because Venus has recently begun her 19-month cycle as a morning star, which it just so happens has a Martian quality (folks in ancient times saw her here as a goddess of war). Venus is still in Leo, and square to Uranus who is in her sign of Taurus. She’s working to break free and shine more brilliantly as her unique radiant self.
With the brightness of this lunation and the events to come, this may be a pivotal turn. I’d think of it as akin to a marriage proposal, but one we make to ourselves.
Can the parts of you that are weary from wandering and scraping at last lay down your swords and shields? Can they yield to the parts of you that are emerging, that are fervently believing in your inherent worthiness? Can the part of you that likes to triumph instead kneel down and worship at the feel of that part of you that knows that everything there is to win is already here?
With a trio of planets forming a supportive triangle in Earth signs (Uranus in Taurus, Mercury in Virgo, and retrograde Pluto in Capricorn), take heart that so long as you’re willing to keep tending the proverbial soil, you are supported to receive all that you need.
So embrace your lovely self, and know that the darkness of the approaching underworld is not punishment. It could actually be a gentle repose, more of a reward.
Getting real and gathering strength
The new Moon solar eclipse on October 14 will arrive at 21 degrees Libra.
By this time, Mars will have moved into Scorpio, where he’s nestled up with the dark moon in Libra.
That means the baton has officially been passed and this lunation is all about that goddess that was bowed to: Venus. She’ll be in Mercury’s sign of Virgo, while Mercury is in her sign of Libra—another ballroom dance, maybe a waltz this time.
She’ll form a lovely angle to Jupiter in her sign of Taurus. So in this dark night, she’s gathering messages, downloading wisdom, and tapping into her intuition.
She’s going to need all that because she’s also opposite retrograde Saturn at 0 Pisces. She might be having fun but perhaps is not able to be as carefree as she likes to be, she’s gonna need to work for her jewels.
It can get tough down in the dark waters. Saturn and Mars are in a game of who can dive the deepest to find the hard-won treasures needed to support what’s being seeded. Mars is working overtime in a battle of wits with Pluto, who’s just stationed direct and is chomping at the bit.
With the Sun in Libra, these exchanges are pointing to all the interdependencies, to all the subtleties that can make or break alliances, be they with others or within ourselves.
While we might be tempted to try to please all parties, what’s really needed from within that velvet glove is the firm iron hand. Sometimes the most loving thing to do is to speak our truth, with sincere kindness, and let the cards fall where they may.
The darkness of this eclipse can be massively fertile, and it calls for some work. We’re being asked to accept responsibility (only) for what is truly ours to handle, to refrain from indulging in the perils of indecision and perfectionism. The task is to get quiet and dig deep, but to not completely lose ourselves, to focus on the little inner light that never dims.
Dreaming wide and dressing drag
The full Moon lunar eclipse on October 28 will arrive at 5 degrees Taurus.
Venus is at center stage, hopefully having matured a bit into a more fully self-supporting queen. She is opposite retrograde Neptune and feeling flow with Uranus in her sign of Taurus. She could get lost here in a kind of technicolor dream, or she could get found.
The Sun and Mercury are combust in Scorpio, and have been pulled into her tango with Mars. They may be blindfolded, but their ears have never been more open to the enchanting music.
Meanwhile, the gleaming Moon is in rapture, cozy-ed up with retrograde Jupiter in Venus’ splendid garden of Taurus. Even grandmother Saturn has taken her shoes off and is enjoying a delightful spin before she prepares to move direct and get busy again.
But don’t get too comfortable, because it’s not an occasion for sleeping. While Pluto is keeping Venus in the spotlight right now, don’t forget they’re always all about that curtain call. However things come to light, once they do things will never be the same.
Before those lights go down, listen for the asteroid goddess Pallas Athene beckoning at the North Node, reminding us that costumes are up for grabs—after all, as Rupaul reminds us, we’re all always in drag.
If there’s something worth looking at under these bright beams it’s whether the masks, the identities, we’re wearing are helping us fit in or get free. Have we been pretending to be a sweet lamb when in fact we’re a badass lion? Or, have we been hiding inside a suit of armor, aching to gleefully glitter?
Hopefully by this point we’ve put down our arms, and taken up our task to stay true, so we are in a great place to celebrate but also to release whatever may still be holding us in the lie of scarcity. Let’s clean our closets of all those robes that no longer belong to us, that perhaps never did.
Let’s use this fantastical moment to also say yes to whatever is blossoming within us. Maybe we can’t see when it’s dark, but we can always feel the Earth beneath us. We can learn to love whatever the mess is now, because we trust we’re forever worthy.
“When you become the image of your own imagination, it’s the most powerful thing you could ever do.” - Rupaul
The journey of integration is a long one, and the next several weeks could be one giant step along that journey. I’d love to support you, so leave me a comment and let me know what’s true for you.
This is great! So fulsome of a forecast, I’ll likely go back to this as the days progress.
What’s true abs resonant fit me is the personal and collective. Suddenly I want a north node necklace. And to imagine the libra aries connection as a mobius symbol is just so beautiful. Going to be dining in those concepts for a while. Anything you’d add to what I’ve picked up there?