Wheel of Fortunes…Solar Eclipse
Sandra Oventon
I was inspired to create Red Moon Revival, because I am passionate about helping to reorient our relationship to shadow as a necessary function of evolution. Night gives us a different kind of vision, it allows us to literally see the stars. For night to enter into day represents what is teaming within us that is just waiting to burst into our consciousness. Eclipses represent, among other things, breakthroughs in awareness, and are known to bring otherworldly messages that precipitate events. Night is fundamental to the creative process, to conceive something from nothing, to birth form from the formless. Red Moons give us a sense of the fertile void where the emptiness underlying everything is found. When we invest equally in the shadow and the light, we can rest assured that we are NOT spiritually bypassing, but rather are living a fully dynamic life doing our inner work.
The new moon this month is part of a total solar eclipse at 23 degrees of Sagittarius hugging Mercury who sits under the beams of the Sun at 20 degrees Sag. This special astrological event happens on the moon’s South Node, or when the Sun and Moon commune with Ketu, the Dragon’s tail. If you will remember, two weeks ago for the lunar eclipse I wrote about the mythology of Rahu and Ketu, head and tail of the disembodied dragon that circles the earth eternally chasing the sun and moon. According to Puranas, the birth of Rahu and Ketu is regarded as one of the most important events in the history of Hindu civilization. Following which, Solar and Lunar eclipses are also associated with ‘Samudra Manthan’, the churning of the ocean. Long ago, in a time that pre-dates ours, there was a great drama that unfolded between the Gods and the demi-gods. Riding an elephant Indra was presented with a garland of flowers by a great sage. The elephant came to be irritated by the garland around his trunk and threw it to the ground. The sage became enraged by the perceived snubbing and cursed the devas to forget their shakti (powers). Now unable to perform their sacred duties they turned for help and were instructed to seek the aid of Lord Vishnu who instructed the ocean should be churned by the Asuras and Devas to produce the elixir of immortality, promising to give both the Amrita after it was expelled from the sea. Except in a separate agreement, he only meant to give the Amrita to the Devas. Hearing of their plan the Amrita was stolen by Asuras. To regain the Amrita, Lord Vishnu took the form of the beautiful damsel ‘Mohini’ and began to dance and distract the Asuras. Finally, Mohini was in control of the Amrita, and in a special ceremony was able to serve the devas the nectar they had been waiting for. In a twist, ‘Svarbhanu’, one of the asuras changed his appearance to a deva to obtain some of the Amrita. However, Surya (Sun) and the Chandra (Moon) realized that Svarbhanu was an Asura and not one of the devas. Knowing this, Lord Vishnu severed Svarbhanu’s head with his scythe. But it was too late, before his body was severed he managed to swallow a drop of Amrit that had landed on his tongue. Infuriated and damned, Rahu and Ketu eternally chase the Sun and the Moon. When they converge on the Sun and Moon they attempt to swallow them causing a Solar or Lunar eclipse.
We are now in the midst of the eclipse portal when the primordial cosmic mother churns the fabric of fate causing rapid reorganization, and firmly impresses the need to transform or die. As this eclipse involves the karmic south node, it leads to the severing of unhealthy cords, hastens endings, and brushes the slate clean so upon it’s vast emptiness you can begin a fresh work. It is the tail of death, where digestion and assimilation happens, symbolic or real.
When I take the opportunity to feel into the distinct signature of a total solar eclipse on the South Node conjunct Mercury, I notice the deep symbolism of what we are all being asked to do at this magical, yet somewhat perilous time. This whole year has been a paradox of multiple storylines all carrying a seed of truth. Mercury governs, thinking, reason, logic, communication, media, writing, day to day technology and travel. But, there is an important part of Mercury’s story that is often not discussed. Mercury is the Father of Alchemy as Thoth the Egyptian God of writing, magic, wisdom, and the moon. We get the word “thought” from Thoth. In its ancient translation thought means; the origin point of all manifestation. With Mercury’s power being diminished by the sun's rays and in the sign of his detriment, it can result in a weakened connection to our mental wisdom. The glare causing us to not immediately see our next move, or “find the answers we seek”. Ketu, the headless body of the dragon being part of this signature, reminds us that through existential chaos the highest form of wisdom is felt through the body. We know things because of our direct experience of them, rather than by thinking about them. In order to maneuver through this portal we will need to reconnect to our intuitive knowing and become feeling navigators. To use our body as a tool for transformation, and to help us ground into the truth. Taking time to digest and assimilate our experiences instead of acting impulsively. And allowing remembrance of our divinity to rise within us.
Deepening into the soft strength of the body’s wisdom is ever more important because the eclipse is trine to Mars at 20 degrees Aries and squaring Neptune at 18 degrees of Pisces. Both Neptune and Mars have particular areas where they both help and hinder us on our quest for truth and knowledge. While Mars can certainly be a helpmate allowing us to easily follow our gut level instincts and intuition, the shadow to watch for here is mistaking intuitive knowing for impulsivity. We can call on our newfound skills from our recent Mars initiation to act as our compass over the next six months as we sharpen a new level of proficiency in embodied living. Carlos Castaneda said “Only the idea of Death makes a Warrior sufficiently detached so that he is capable of abandoning himself to anything. He knows his Death is stalking him and won’t give him time to cling to anything, so he tries, without craving, all of everything…”. In a practice of embodiment we come into a greater understanding of our attachments and cravings, carving out a new relationship to them. Helping remove us from the aimless hamster wheel, snapping our arrow back instinctively, we hit the bullseye of greater presence and intention. Mars in this next cycle is asking you to refamiliarize yourself with your higher instincts. Can you plug into what the body is telling you and act from there instinctually, innately? True embodiment is achieved not through effort, but through allowing.
If you practice sitting as Buddha, you must kill Buddha. — Dōgen Zenji
There is a sophistication to living truly in attunement with nature that can only be gained with practice. Neptune offers us this refinement, calling us to move past duality, to see ourselves and each other in our wholeness. To let go of limiting beliefs, playing small, resentments, and sense of separation and embrace limitlessness, and all encompassing love. Neptune is an ally in the creative process, and with the crumbling patriarchy will help with a cultural paradigm shift that exemplifies inclusion for the post Covid world. The challenge is to keep engaging Neptune’s imaginal realm without falling prey to her propensity to out-picture illusion. With Neptune squaring the nodes on the day of the eclipse, it is communicating to us that staying fully grounded in the truth will be challenging, and that lies and misinformation will continue to influence events across the globe. I spoke more about the Neptune Transit and her shadow in this video below.
On the 14th Venus at 28 Scorpio is moving into a trine with Chiron, humanity’s mentor at 4 degrees of Aries. Chiron is known by some as the wounded healer, both Human, and Animal, Chiron has a hybrid identity like so many of us and his deepest wisdom translates through the act of rewilding ourselves. He calls us up to his cave on the side of Mount Pelion, to sit around his fire while he warms us with the remembrance of our divinity. He is saying “He who would rule nature must first obey her laws”. Psychologists have long recognized that each partner in a relationship mirrors the mental and spiritual condition of the other. Usually aspects that are underdeveloped and unanimated in yourself. Just as we cannot know a thing by only thinking about it, we don’t come to the existential understanding of love intellectually. We must experience it fully surrendered to the vulnerability of it all. We evolve most efficiently in relationship to other, it helps us to feel vital and alive, experience joy, and ecstasy as well as pain and annihilation.
Elias Lonsdale’s Chandra symbols provide additional insight into the nature of this eclipse.
A STATUE OF ISIS COVERED BY A TRANSPARENT VEIL.
“The one who lives inside is awash in colors, tones, and symbolic ritual displays of an extraordinarily precise attunement to the heart and soul of ancient wisdom. You are suspended in a long-ago time, so much of your being is still back there. The evolution of the world since the ancient times is neither acknowledged nor accommodated in any way. It all depends upon whether this exquisite gift of soul remembrance is honored or exploited. If it is exploited, which is so very tempting, the life empties out of meaning and value and becomes false and repulsive. If it is honored, the expanded faculties on tap become revitalized and find a fresh relevance. As the Divine Feminine reveals what we need to know and draws us to our utmost capacity, it is with an unfallen grace of sensing directly into the deepest parts of people and all they can become in the ancient future just ahead. “
What does the image of a Veiled Isis evoke for you? For me it evokes humanity’s longing for the Goddess. For how long has she been erased, knocked off her throne, disempowered? It’s fun to play in the divination field of this wizard.
All of these influences, Neptune, Mars, Mercury, Chiron, Venus, the Sun, and the Moon converge as the background music of the next few months. In ancient astrology the moon acts as the wheel of fortune, and the nodes represent increase and decrease - loss, decay, destruction, disintegration, a release from bondage, and the letting go of old stories. Sometimes gain is bad and loss is good. In any event, eclipses remind us that we are not in control. And when we are not in control we are challenged to soften into the supple string that the muses use to weave our fate, so we can be there to bear witness, and take our place on the great spiral of time.
Sealing the Energies
For those who don’t have an easy access point to feeling into the wisdom of the body, we’ve curated two playlists for you. The first is by Ancient Future Sound Technologist and Instrumentalist, the brilliant Ani Williams, who fuses ancient sound harmonies inscribed at the Temple of Dendera or Hathor, Goddess of Music. Sit, close your eyes and feel the music move through your body as she inscribes cosmic melodies across your chakras.
We all remember how alive we felt when we’d grab our hairbrush and sing and dance in front of the mirror to our favorite songs. This playlist is meant to inspire you to find the thread of your favorite genre, and create an playful embodiment playlist of your own. We hope everyone knows at least one of these songs.
