You have traveled too fast
over false ground;
Now your soul has come
to take you back.
Take refuge in your senses,
Open up to all the small
Miracles you rushed through.
Become inclined
to watch the way of rain
when it falls slow and free.
Imitate the habit of twilight,
Taking time to open
the well of color
that fostered the brightness
of day. Draw alongside
the silence of stone
Until its calmness can claim you.
John O'Donohue
The Lunar Eclipse on September 17, 2024, 10:34 pm EDT at 25 Pisces, amplifies sensitivity and heightens intuition.
This can produce spiritual illumination, an inspired vision or a burst of creative output. It can have us feeling great compassion and connection with everything around us. Just as easily, it can stir deep feeling, overwhelm, and confusion. There is a complexity and emotional intensity to this eclipse that may have some of us shutting down or giving into escapist behavior to numb or reduce sensitivity. We are best served by grounding ourselves with something tangible and right in front of us.
The eclipse nurtures our relationship with the great mystery, the eternal presence that permeates life. We recognize behaviors that keep us overcommitted and overscheduled that disconnect us from a rich internal life. Finding a space to be quiet, to contact the silence within, coming present to the rise and fall of the breath in our belly, we can connect with inspiration, peace and the abiding relationship with other dimensions of existence.
Eclipse Ruler: Neptune conjunct the Moon
A Kite Pattern
Pisces Moon at the Apex
Earth Grand Trine: Sun, Uranus, Pluto
Minor Grand Trine with Pluto and Uranus sextile to Neptune and the Moon
Spine of the Kite: Moon and Neptune oppose the Sun
Cardinal Grand Cross: Mars square the Nodes of Fate and oppose Ceres
Multiple T Square: Jupiter square the Eclipse, Mercury, and Saturn
Venus quincunx the Pisces Moon, oppose Chiron, and trine Jupiter
Lunar Eclipses illuminate what has been hidden in the shadow of our awareness. Feelings are accentuated. Buried emotions and fears may rise to the surface and we become aware of unconscious patterns and old programming that we are ready to release. Lunar eclipses bring something to a head where something can be completed and released. It can mark a pivotal point where there was a permanent shift or change. Something is ending in preparation for a new beginning. The shifts that eclipses catalyze may or may not be sudden and are likely to unfold over a six-month period.
This is a Super Moon. The Moon is as close to the earth as it can get in within its own orbit. This amplifies the Eclipse dynamics and further heightens our sensitivity and emotional nature.
This is a Partial Eclipse visible to people in the Americas, parts of Antarctica, western Indian Ocean, Middle East, Africa, Europe, Atlantic Ocean, and eastern Polynesia. The whole half of the Earth facing the full moon in the nighttime hours are in the path of the partial eclipse.
For those of us who go out to view the eclipse, we will see a dark shading on the moon (Earth’s penumbral shadow), followed by a tiny dark bite (Earth’s dark umbral shadow) taken from one edge of the moon. The steady golden light near the eclipsed moon will be the planet Saturn. Lunar eclipses are safe to view without the use of special glasses.
Locate the house where 25 Pisces is found in our individual natal chart to see where we need to release our need to control and have answers and instead open to an inspired vision beyond what we already know. The nature of the house where 25 Pisces resides will provide a clue as to what is passing away and what is flowing towards us. If we become quiet and attune to what is emerging, we open to inspiration. Those with planets between 23 and 27 degrees of a mutable sign (Gemini, Pisces, Virgo, Sagittarius) may experience this eclipse more intensely.
To allow oneself to be carried away
by a multitude of conflicting concerns,
to surrender to too many demands,
to commit to too many projects,
to want to help everyone in everything
is itself to succumb to the violence of our times.
Frenzy destroys our inner capacity for peace.
It destroys the fruitfulness of our work,
because it kills the root of inner wisdom
which makes work fruitful.
Thomas Merton
Balancing out Order with a Dose of Chaos
Sun in Virgo/ Moon in Pisces
Modern culture nurtures and rewards the Virgo temperament: hardworking, passion for excellence, adhering to a long-range plan. Virgo emphasizes the development of our intellect and capacity to analyze, discern, judge, evaluate and give focus to what is missing. These are valuable traits to cultivate and utilize, but we can so easily become imbalanced when we overemphasize these values at the expense of cultivating the values of its polar opposite: Pisces.
We are finding it more difficult to maintain control of our lives and our future. Our conditioning tells us we should have the answers, that our rational mind can figure it all out, and that we just need to work at little harder and a little longer. (The Sun in Virgo conjunct the South Node). Patterns of overthinking things, overscheduling ourselves, and trying to be perfect have taken their toll. Pisces reminds us we have much less control than we imagine. All it takes is a hurricane or a medical diagnosis to shake us out of an illusion that we are in control. It is in these moments that we open to another way of operating.
If Virgo is Order, it seems to logically follow that Pisces is Chaos. In the modern age of Rationalism and Virgoan Values, Chaos has been demonized and seen as something to avoid. Synonyms the Thesaurus offers us for Chaos: anarchy, disarray, discord, disorder, pandemonium, confusion and messiness – all traits the Virgo temperament seeks to minimize or avoid. Yet, to experience the positive benefits of the eclipse, we are to open to a deeper, older meaning of Chaos.
The eclipse invites us to relate to a different understanding Chaos akin to how our distant ancestors would have experienced it. Early peoples recognized Chaos as the formless void that exists before creation. It is potentiality. It has no definition. It is the primordial sea from which everything emerges and to which everything returns. It is the realm of the mystic and the poet, the artist and the dreamer. It is the realm of Pisces. An immersion in its formless waters can carry us to a place beyond time and space, a place of unity, of inspiration and of boundless states of consciousness.
Unconditional Love and Acceptance
Seven Eclipses in Virgo and Pisces, now until February 2027
This eclipse is the first of seven on the Virgo/Pisces axis. It foreshadows the movement of the Nodes of Fate shifting from Aries/Libra to Pisces/Virgo on January 12, 2025, where they will reside for 18 months. The South Node in Virgo shows us our past and what we have outgrown. The North Node Pisces points the future and our potential for growth.
We are at the beginning of a 2 ½ year collective journey to grow Piscean values and sensitivities. The North Node coming into Pisces declares that our North Star the next years is our spiritual development. Other planetary alignments promise radical changes in the collective during this time period. To orient to and successfully navigate these changes, we are to see everything happening as context for our spiritual growth and evolution. During this period, we are to soften the grip of our analytical mind and open to the great mystery of life. We are to deepen our trust in something larger than ourselves with a great intention to move through life with a compassionate heart.
We will come to recognize that no amount of planning, analysis or hard work is going to get us where we want to go in and of itself. We arrive at place where we admit that we cannot accomplish what we want on our own. We have exhausted our mind’s abilities and our talents and so we come to our knees and prayer to some unseen force to help us. We surrender. We become vulnerable. Feelings well up inside us. We open to the mystery, the great unknown. We listen and we open to grace, to miracles, to a divine hand that might bless us in some way. This is how we open to the power and beauty of what Pisces offers.
We can leverage the Piscean eclipses to fuel our soul’s evolution, or we can use it to shut down. It is our choice: to check in or check out. Piscean rules escapist behaviors, addictions and insanity. If we ignore the deep calling coming from our soul, we can experience profound confusion, disillusionment and disappointment.
We are to welcome a heightened sensitivity and use this to guide us towards deep states of relaxed awareness. We are to identify what can assist the development of this: walks in nature, instrumental music, lighting a fire or candle, meditation.
Pisces is the ecstatic immersion in the moment, where time and space fall away. It can happen while creating art or in meditation, in observing a flower or tree. There is a heightened state of awareness, an experience of surrender that allows inspiration to flow through. We stop wishing things were different and come into a radical acceptance of the circumstances in which we find ourselves. We stop fighting them. Instead, we look for the gift within them. We recognize that our life has brought us to this moment. Rather than thinking something is wrong or that it is a mistake, we can wonder at the possibilities that arise from this place we find ourselves. Here, we feel compassion for ourselves and we extend that compassion to humanity.
It becomes less about fixing something, and more about loving it.
Life is a spiritual dance
and our unseen partner
has steps to teach us
if we will allow ourselves
to be led. The next time
you are restless, remind
yourself that it is
the universe asking
"Shall we dance?"
Julia Cameron
Emotional Sensitivity, Boundless States of Consciousness
Eclipse Ruler: Neptune conjunct the Pisces Moon
A Lunar Eclipse signifies emotional intensity as does a Full Moon in a water sign, especially in Pisces. This is also a Super Moon which further emphasizes the emotional nature. And as if this were not enough, the ruler of the Eclipse, Neptune, is conjunct the Pisces Moon and in its own sign of Pisces. This makes for an overabundance of the water element which can have us feeling flooded with sensitivity and feeling. It can literally indicate issues with water and flooding.
Our relationship with our sensitivity and with the divine will indicate how we may experience this transit. Neptune is the Dream and the Dreamer. It is Illusion and the Story we weave. It recognizes the world as a collective dream and is the sign of the Creative and Mystic. If we welcome our sensitive nature, trust our intuitive channel and surrender ourselves to the eternal presence within all creation, then we may feel profoundly gifted by insight, vision, a flood of unconditional love or experience a spiritual breakthrough. If we experience deep grief, let it wash through us and cleanse us as a way of releasing something that has now passed.
The Shadow of Neptune conjunct the Pisces Moon: It may be difficult to manage the increased Neptunian energies. Addictive and escapist behaviors can escalate. We may feel compelled to engage in acts of deception or dishonesty or be on the receiving end of one. Neptune rules media, so we can anticipate an escalation of fake news, deep fakes and a masking of truth.
Detoxification. Neptune rules the immune and lymph systems. This may be a time where we purge toxicity from our bodies.
Endings. Neptune in Pisces (2011 - 2026) is dissolving definitions and forms, showing us the illusory nature of terrestrial life, and calling us to deepen our relationship with the spiritual. The final degrees of Pisces mark the end of a cycle, an era, where we come to see that certain dreams have run their course. The effort it takes to keep some dream alive may not be the best course of action. Energy is being freed up to embrace a new beginning, a new vision. Understanding the specifics of what is transpiring (Sun and Mercury Virgo) may escape us, but we are to trust our intuition about what it is ending. It can be a time of healing as we release old wounds and behavioral patterns that are too cumbersome to carry forward with us.
The goal of life
is to make your heartbeat
match the beat
of the universe,
to match your nature
with Nature.
Joseph Campbell
Trust in God but Tie up Your Camel
Kite Pattern with:
Moon at the Apex, An Earth Grand Trine, Minor Grand Trine and the Virgo Sun as the tail
A Kite pattern is made up of several trines, sextiles and an opposition and forms a pattern that looks like a kite. This pattern confers a great sense of freedom and opportunity. Those with this configuration in their chart often achieve their goals and fulfill their potential.
In the Eclipse chart, the Kite Pattern indicates that we are ready to take flight, to bring something new into reality. By honoring our sensitivities and our intuition, we can find clear vision (Neptune and the Moon at the top of the kite). We are prevented from soaring too high by the pull of the Virgo Sun, which forms the kite string, keeping us grounded in aware of practical considerations. Still, we are less caught in the analytical and more open to a deep trust in what we are intuiting.
Moon at the Apex. The Moon is personal. There is great potential for spiritual growth and soul development for us individually (Moon conjunct Neptune, sextile Uranus and Pluto in a minor grand trine). Look to the house in our natal charts where 25 Pisces resides for insight on what is being released and where there is readiness for growth and increased awareness.
A Minor Grand Trine. With the outer planets connected with our emotional body (The Moon), there can be a cathartic release as we release some karmic baggage we have been working on healing. We may be at the receiving end of a sudden development that propel change in our life (Uranus in Taurus). The notable harmonic connections the Moon is making with the outer planets have us attuned to the changes the collective is poised to make. We are being emotionally prepared to move through this time of transition in the best way possible.
The Earth Grand Trine supports us in stabilizing an emerging view of ourself that is stronger and truer. We are getting clear on the nature and source of our strength (Sun trine Pluto). Our confidence to stand for what we value and not just go along with the crowd is increasing (Sun trine Uranus). The Grand Trine helps us focus on daily activities that ground us as we move through this time of endings, where our identity and dreams are in flux.
The call to mystical openness
is echoed across millennia
of humanity's wisdom;
it is the call to discover
the unitary point of view
that holds the promise
of a more just
and peaceful planet.
Beverly Lanzetta
Mind/Body Connection and Fostering Faith in Life
Mutable T Square: Jupiter square the Eclipse, Mercury, and Saturn
Jupiter at the Apex. We are searching for the truth, for what has meaning, and what we have to contribute to the community.
Mercury oppose Saturn. There is mental stress as our mind is working overtime to have the answers, to get it right, to have everything defined
Mercury oppose the Moon. The more we pursue mental clarity, the more it may escape us. We may be inundated with feelings of confusion or disappointment.
Mercury square Jupiter. We may be prone to exaggerate, boast or bite off more than we can chew. We may be on the receiving end of those who oversell themselves and speak with bravado.
Sagittarius, the ‘release point’ of the T Square shows that the way through is not found in having the answers, but in welcoming the unknown and in fostering a deep faith that we can intuitively navigate choices and options moment by moment. To counteract the mental stress, it is beneficial to move our bodies, to reconnect the mind with the body, by walking, doing yoga, dancing, gardening…Bringing the mind’s awareness into the body and what is right in front of us will diffuse the overactive scientific mind. This will then open us to receiving insight or inspiration from another source.
Self Protection
Cardinal Grand Square between Ceres, Mars and the Nodal Axis
The Grand Square brings tension and with this, motivation to take action. Mars, the key planet in the Grand Square, is in Cancer. Our emotional needs for safety and security are amplified. Feelings and issues related to our childhood, our families, and to feeling nurtured seek resolution.
Mars is typically in a sign for 6-8 weeks, but because of its upcoming Retrograde cycle, it will be in Cancer for 8 months sparking insecurity, defensiveness and anger around issues that point to a lack of nurturance. We want to take action to protect what we love and to ensure our security.
Ceres is the asteroid of Nurturance. Ceres is the Earth Mother and rules agriculture and food production. In the Grand Cross she points to food insecurity. Whether it is the rising prices at the local supermarket, or failing crops, the rise of GMO foods, or a breakdown of global food distribution, the shifts taking place are affecting our budgets, eating habits, and rising concerns about nutrition.
Tied to the Nodal Axis, the Grand Square indicates that the way through is not to go back to something that once worked. What once worked is no longer viable. We must look to employ a pioneering spirit that will forge new ways of being nurtured. There can be a tendency to protect our own interests with indifference to the needs of others being met. Yet, the strong Piscean themes of this Eclipse would have us remember that we are all connected. A deep trust in our access to some unseen presence larger than ourselves can open us to solutions and feelings of safety that transcend our perception of lack.
To be a soulful person
means to go against
all the pervasive, prove-yourself
values of our culture and instead
treasure what is unique and internal
and valuable in yourself
and your own personal evolution.
Jean Shinoda Bolen
Let Ourselves to Be Seen and Heard
Venus quincunx the Pisces Moon, oppose Chiron, trine Jupiter
Venus in Libra seeks harmony within relationships. We desire solutions that create a win-win for all involved. Yet, insecurities in relationship may emerge. Rather than hide or protect ourselves, our self-worth can be healed and strengthened through open and honest dialogue. There can be good news or rewards in relationships if we do not hide from ourself or others. Rather than yield to someone else's need or expectation that runs counter to our own wishes, we feel emboldened to engage conflict to express our wishes. Rather than experiencing rejection or compromise, we find that the relationship is deepened as both strive to find a workable solution.
More and more, we understand that it is not about being perfect, or even healed, but accepting and loving who we are right now. In this, we honor our humanity and make room for our feeling nature. This then creates the fertile ground for listening deeply, nourishing our soul's longing and intuitively knowing how to move within these times of change.
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Sundays: 5:30 pm - 7:00 PM EST
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(except no class on October 27)
The language of astrology is a powerful tool for exploring your nature and potential as a human being. Become familiar with the building blocks for how to read your chart and the charts of others. Registration is limited to allow for everyone to participate in discussion.
Registration is limited to allow for everyone to participate in discussion.
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