A Season of Love & Surrender: Total Solar Eclipse on the Spring Equinox

My writing about eclipses has lost some of its thunder due to the amazing abundance of great information already out there about what is going on in a technical sense. I felt -- Why add to the redundancy? Instead, I wrote a piece to cover everything I was just simply feeling intuitively about the Solar Eclipse chart, and in my own life. The biggest message I received in my contemplations of 29 Pisces was “The end of victim consciousness and realizing the divine order.” So I present some words on all that I have been seeing, feeling, and experiencing with reference to these recent and momentous astrological currents...

…

The old self is dying. The future is arriving. Our grief is profound, our new freedom amazing. What we want and wish for the past we know is no longer, and we let it go. Maybe joyfully, maybe with some reluctance. We love and embrace who we were, we celebrate everything that we’ve been through these tumultuous years -- we feel all of our pain, all of our joy, as one unified emotion of gratitude. Blessed to have known these octaves of experience, blessed to have received the gift of life – in this moment, at this time, at this place. Life is different now, the world is different now.  It has all been altered – permanently and irreversibly. For better or worse, everything has changed.

We knew all along that one day this change would come. At least, many of us did – if not consciously, then somewhere deep in our cells. We knew that there would be a moment in time when the world itself was to pass through a threshold of being and that every glorious romance of life as we once knew it would yield to the current of memory. We let go of what we cannot carry. We surrender even our most cherished parts. And we do so with the hope and the anticipation of a future that is beyond the bittersweet and delicate well of our past. A future that, until now, has resided only in dreams.

Today is the day we end our consciousness of victimhood and take full responsibility for our soul purpose. Now is the time to realize our authentic self expression, to create our high ideals, to be our dreamselves. This is the moment we make our final break from the old paradigms – purge the collective record of karma through magical thinking and free our value from sinking foundations. It is not the external world that needs to be righted, it is us. Ourselves. No outer form truly changes without the authentic evolution of inner conditions. Take off the masks. Especially the ones that seem the most real.

Release history, embrace love. This is not just new age tripe or a dismissal of the real. A friend offered this message at precisely the moment I fumbled to find these same words: “We can no longer teach through pain.” Have gratitude for your loss. Hold your pain in your arms and squeeze it with all your love and compassion. Then turn it over. Ask the universe to bring the love you feel for that old self into the present day, into your current relationships, into what you share with others. Remove your own bitterness, your own anger. Remove the bitterness, sadness, and regret of your ancestors. Tell them you will live out your destiny, whatever that may be, whatever it may mean. Be open to change. We live our destiny for the highest good of all peoples past and present. We step into our conscious power in order to completely surrender into divine service. Releasing, purifying, questing, feeling, experiencing – hurt, loss, joy, love, anger, grief, despair, elation – to know it, to know us, deeply, all of it – this is the purpose of life on earth.

There is a world beyond our suffering. It is deep and rich. Full and vibrant. There is a world beyond our fear. It is light and free. Open and endless. Do not tarnish it with doubt, heavy expectations or social chains. We are all capable of complete freedom. We are all capable of seeing reality – Oneness, divine harmony. We all can know our true center, which is the same as knowing truth. Sincere intent, humble gratitude, virtuous action, heartfelt humanhood. The simple path to joy.

In choosing to accept all that is offered to us in life, whether it looks just how we think it should or not, whether it ends up hurting in the end or not, whether it is the final destination or not, we choose to open to every possibility, every learning. We open to Tao, Source, The Divine Flow, God, Our Higher Self -- whatever words you choose to express the concept of deep, intimate connection with the unique rhythm of your own individual design and its place in the greater cosmos. The Divine Order of Pisces is in accepting life as it is, with no alterations, no manipulations, and to live from our heart – emanating, eternally, the infinite vibration of Divine Love -- and surrendering everything, absolutely everything, that could possibly interfere with that state of supreme acceptance.  Holiness.  Oneness.

We can all be this.  It is not something we even have to acquire.

A final word, from my Sifu: “Surrender to the Universe and the Universe will surrender to you.”

On the Star Tetrahedron

Today's very interesting and rare chart has been all the rage in the astrology world for the past month at least. The formation in this chart is referred to as a "Grand Sextile," "Star Tetrahedron," and "Diamond Tetrahedron" among other things. It shows a very exact 6 pointed star formation created by two grand trines, one in earth and one in water (the "yin" or feminine elements of the Western Zodiac), interspersed with two pretty stressful T-squares and a Yod. Though the completion of this formation as we have seen it today is somewhat fleeting, many of the influences involved are enmeshed in long term relationships that have already, and continue to show a substantial and unquestionable change in the world at large on both personal and societal levels. There are many theories about the meaning of this formation. Admittedly, even as an astrologer I approached looking at it with some measure of pragmatism. Does this "star" formation really have any special impact beyond its fleeting few hours of life? Is its message as profound and prolific as many believe?

I did not really have an answer to that question in advance of today. My feeling as I contemplated the chart this afternoon and sensed the energy of the day, was that this chart represents a pretty powerful overall metaphor for the transformative processes at work -- and perhaps a further elaboration on the long term influences involved. The influence of this event, in itself, feels rather like an illumination of new pathways that have not seemed feasible, or may not have even been visible before.

What really stands out to me about this chart, aside from the obvious visual effect, are its stressful characteristics. Mars/Mercury/Jupiter are in a T-Square with Pluto and Uranus, an extremely volatile combination on its own -- Jupiter making Mars' sensitivities in Cancer more extreme and Mercury, more biting, while the on-going Pluto-Uranus combination shows a long-term disruption of established systems. These are not influences that play well together, and without mitigating factors have the feel of very angry, explosive situations and emotions, the essential driving factor being Mars toward Pluto and Uranus -- like all efforts are constantly being thwarted and usurped by greater power, but there is no sense of giving up or yielding. The second stressful aspect of this formation includes a T-Square between the Sun, Moon and Saturn showing an inherent conflict between the soul's desire for pleasure (Moon Taurus) and the ego's desire for recognition (Sun Leo) in a relationship frustrated by the limiting effects of Saturn. The overall theme being that there are inherent obstacles for individuals whose desires are to be seen and live comfortably, but whose needs and wants are constantly being curtailed by the problems imposed by the system at large. This of course connects to the former conflict -- where profound change is taking place, we feel intensely that we are fighting for survival, and that our simple needs must be protected against the force of life's unrelenting, and often unforgiving tests. The needs of the individual are threatened by the disruptive nature of these influences and the potential for dangerous people coming into power, but simultaneously liberated by the situation, for as the established order crumbles, people find the strength to stand their ground -- in the hopes, of course, that there is ultimately going to be some sort of compromise.

Meanwhile, the Grand Sextile itself seems to provide an answer -- in fact, a whole new set of answers -- to the problem posed by the above troubles which we have come to know intimately in recent years. Practical Earth signs and Emotional Water signs suggest heart based solutions, and the matrix of the formation itself supports profound and large scale changes where we have had blocks, obstacles, and stalemates for the past several years. Here, we see Mars and Saturn softened somewhat -- in a less defensive context we see a distinct opportunity to express needs, envision our dream, and then actually begin the process of manifesting those things into lived reality. The earth trine shows that the need for transformation is both an emotional and social process. We want comfort, desire perfection, and surrender (finally!) to the necessity of structural changes in order to move forward. Motivated by the stressful impact of the earlier discussed energies, we find ourselves meeting a unique opportunity to plant seeds and intentions for the new structures we wish to create. There is a greater sense of the "big picture" and reality feels more malleable and workable than it has for some time. Perhaps the phase of crisis was, as it often is, merely a period of discerning our true values and needs. Now that we have a better sense of what we want, our carefully cultivated and protected hopes and ideals have the opportunity to take root.

The final interesting piece is the Yod between Pluto, Neptune and the Sun, emphasizing what has felt to me like a phase of profound transition. As we adjust to changes that are currently dissolving and transforming everything about our approach to life, we are doing so through a process of spiritual renewal and purging. Those things that have been destructive and deceptive on the outside are being rooted out, and the conditioning that we ourselves have created as a matter of course our whole lives is being released. All of this in a constantly evolving effort to reveal our most authentic self expression and inner light.

So -- quite interesting energies are afoot. Even though this particular formation was only up there for a few hours today, I feel the themes of this chart describe very much themes that have been at work since the start of the summer, if not longer. And I don't know about you -- but it has been one crazy adventure so far!!!

OK, just my 23 cents. It is time for rest -- Have a great week and enjoy the cosmic roller coaster ride!