A few days ago, a client said: I’m done with the fears I brought with me from other lifetimes, when I was punished for my knowledge of healing and magic. I’m going to pursue my studies and offer my talents and knowledge to other people.
What she was feeling, tells the story of this full Moon and eclipse period. The Sun in Leo and the Moon in Aquarius, give us the courage of Leo and the vision of Aquarius to leave old stories behind and launch new projects without listening to the fear which might devastate us at other times. With full knowledge of our traumas from the past we can push past what holds us back from expressing what we came here to manifest.
It’s an eclipse! Total! No view from North America because the eclipse happens before we see Moonrise, but the power of an eclipse lies beyond what is visible. It is an opportunity to feel the immensity of our connection to earth and sky. With each full Moon we are stretched between perception (the Sun) and feeling (the Moon).
photo: Bruce Lhuillier
The Sun is in the sign he loves the most, LEO! We celebrate our Lion, solar nature! How wonderful to be alive, to have the Sun in us, and and shining on our back. But the full Moon always takes place when the Sun has set, when the Moon reflects the Sun back to us in night darkness. At a lunar eclipse, a mysterious force, a demon, a dragon, devours the Moon bit by bit, and then slowly releases her. How is it possible that the shadow cast by our planet, the earth darkens the Moon at her brightest moment? And what does this tell us about the fears we project outward on to the future?
photo: Robert Fuhro
The Moon is in the sign of Aquarius, his realm is our place in community! Aquarius is grey, maybe pearly, androgynous, neither male nor female. Although the constellation Aquarius is an Air sign, he pours water from a huge urn and lives in a very wet part of the sky, called ‘the Sea.’ His neighbors are Pisces, the fish, Capricorn, the sea goat, Delphinus, the dolphin, Hydra the water spirit. For people who live in areas of the earth with a wet season and a dry season, Aquarius is a gift of life, or a disaster.
photo: Bruce Lhuillier
Aquarius rules our ankles, Leo the heart and spine. Ankles give our bodies mobility and balance, the heart and spine are life itself. At this moment 4:20 pm July 27; full Moon, eclipse, Mars is reversing into the Moon’s degree. Will he knock my Moon off balance, or give me the energy to push into the future, the realm of Aquarius? The old and new rulers of Aquarius: Saturn and Uranus are woven into the tapestry of this moment. Saturn represents solid manifestation. Uranus is about new forms of communication and energy. Together they form an Earth trine with each other. If they work together, is there hope for the future of the earth? This is a personal question for each of us!
This full Moon/eclipse takes place on an intense degree of my natal chart. Perhaps this is true for you as well. I feel challenged to express what lies hidden and feels fearful. I call on Chiron as healer and teacher of the underworld to help me step forward, I call on Leo Sun to light my way, I call on Aquarius Moon with his Martian companion to show me the map to my journey. As for Uranus, who challenges the full Moon from his position in the sign of Taurus, Uranus demands authenticity, and loves to surprise me at every turn in the road.
Each new Moon I feel I am the ‘motherless child’ because the Moon is invisible and disinterested in my struggles. But the new Moon in Cancer is especially ‘motherless’ because Cancer is the Moon’s sign, and the Moon is our cosmic Mother. And to bring it close to home, it is the sign of my Moon and my mother’s Moon. Home is the abode of the sign of Cancer. My home and yours is the planet Earth.
Doesn’t matter what our flesh and blood mother was like, or even if we knew her. The Lunar Mother is off about her business, a seed of a new cycle, We can’t see her and she doesn’t look for us. Instead of a sense of new, we might be feeling the end, which must come before the beginning. If we look carefully we can see this corpse holds together his thumb and fifth finger as a symbol for that promise that ‘in the end is the beginning.’
This is when, in despair, I might head out to a new adventure, without packing a lunch and a raincoat. And as I teeter on the edge of a dark ravine, I see everything from a new perspective!
photo and stone sculpture: Bruce Lhuillier
The end of the Moon cycle clears the psyche of old programs. And to make this Cancer new Moon especially powerful, it is a partial eclipse, visible in the Southern Hemisphere. In other words, even though we can’t see the Moon, she casts her shadow over the Sun, to darken his light. That strikes fear in deep places.
photo: Bruce Lhuillier
And to make this Cancer new Moon event deeper still, Pluto stands exactly opposite Sun and Moon. Pluto (Hades) is the god of the Underworld. While all the other gods live on Mt. Olympus and roam the Earth, Pluto is in charge of an invisible kingdom below the surface. He is angry and jealous until acknowledged, and then he is a source of power, the dark light.
Moon invisible. Sun eclipsed. Pluto as challenge! Thursday, at 10:48 pm (EDT) is an opportunity to face what I cannot see with my eyes, and so I tremble. The Underworld of roots and spiders is daunting. Yet, just like all mothers, this Wolf Spider is related to the Cancer Moon and the tender of care of her children.
Photo: Bruce Lhuillier
The promise of this new Moon is described in the Sabian Symbol: ‘A famous singer is proving her virtuosity during an operatic performance!’ If I fully participate in the life I have chosen, I will push beyond the boundaries of my fear for what I cannot see. Maybe the dark figure of Pluto is cast by my shadow. This eclipse has a strong connection to my natal Pluto, he who hides in my twelfth house of mysteries. What I do not go to visit, will come to visit me.