This Full Moon in Capricorn reflecting the Sun in Cancer is the blooming of the Solstice Ring-of-Fire Eclipse. The Sun @ 13+ Cancer is the same zodiac zone where Mercury turned retrograde. This is the third eclipse in a row, ramping up this eclipse season as a memorable one.
This eclipse will be visible mainly in South America, most of North America, western Europe and Africa.
A Full Moon reflects the Sun from across the sky. Lots to unpack with this one:
*This Lunar Eclipse reflects a Sun/ Sirius/ Vesta triquetra, an interesting trinity of deities.
*The eclipsing Moon also opposes retrograde Mercury and squares a potent stellium in Aries, including an eclectic confluence of Salacia, Chiron, Black Moon Lilith and an incoming Mars. We are urged to maintain our center and be open to surprisingly innovative initiatives and waves of crystalline fresh and refreshing waves of insight.
*In the waning Moon, the Sun will soon oppose a close triplicity of Pallas Athena/ Jupiter/ Pluto. Lots of deep wisdom in that grouping.
*Also, Saturn just moved back into Capricorn to reconsolidate and regain its strength after a disconcerting first take on Aquarius. Saturn will add extra weight to clear the decks of even more oldy, moldy projects and plans. Onward to restructuring, reconstructing, restoring worthy ways of living.
The Morning Stars sang together.—Job 38:4-7
Now that Morning Star Venus has turned forward, she picks up the pace to harvest, embrace and integrate the new emotional territory that we have discovered through the 6 weeks of her special Gemini retrograde cycle. What have you discovered about yourself? Is a new level of satisfaction and delight lightening up your life? Did you experience curious, astonishing, revelatory moments, with all sorts of questions and insights popping up? Has your heart informed your head into thinking with an intention toward gratitude and appreciation? If any yes response, you can use this Mercury retrograde to imprint these new elements more deeply into your psyche.
Mercury continues its retrograde inward journey until July 12, as we reflect upon all that has been happening, finding shelter in a crab shell or the heart of a night-blooming cereus— or whatever precious private space you find where you can wrap yourself in this Eclipse shadow and shift its dark to light.
“Can that be true that loves the night?
The darkness is the nurse of light.
Can that be true which mocks at forms?
Truth rides abroad in shapeless storms.”
—from “The Shadows,” George MacDonald
In his story called “Shadows,” Scottish writer George MacDonald (author of The Light Princess, among other tales) tells of “a man whose illness sends him into a dream state between worlds, where he has been named King of the Fairies. He is approached with a petition by beings called the ‘Shadows,’ who ‘go through the unseen, and only by a passing chill do men recognize an unknown presence.’
They are powerful in the moon’s light and shapeshift in firelight and starlight, from humanoid to grotesque forms. Their existence is in danger, they say, because of increasing use of artificial light. Such unnatural lights ‘blind the eyes by which alone we can be perceived.’ Their petition is ‘to restore us to our rights in the house itself, and in the hearts of its inhabitants.’ Their purpose is not to cause fright, unless it is for the good, they assure, but rather
‘to make people silent and thoughtful; to awe them a little,’
to made common things reveal the wonderful through shadow games, and to disclose the truth behind the appearances with a light touch of a wavering shadow.”
—from a discussion of the Dark Moon in my Living Living Lilith: Four Dimensions of the Cosmic Feminine
An apt description for this subtly shadowed Full Moon Eclipse, the third eclipse in a row and the second such penumbral eclipse (first one on June 5). The Moon only catches the edge of Earth’s outer shadow, barely noticeable with nowhere near the drama of a total eclipse. Nevertheless, it is an eclipse and well worth our respect for its flicker of shadow, something we see out of the corner of our eye, like a side door we can slip through into an altered level of experience. Shadows are good that way, so they say in that passage above.
Contending with shadows is a private, personal process. In Cancer we seek a deeper level of safety and security within, brushing away shadows of false security, like a lily pad finding its roots in the muddy bottom of the pond. The outer world continually shows us that we cannot count on external circumstances. In Capricorn we take back our power and claim responsibility for our dealing with our situation as much as we can. We are charged to work out what is holding us back, instilling fear or challenging us. We rediscover and strengthen our capabilities.
Mercury retrograde in Cancer accentuates this need for an inward refuge. With retrograde Mercury square Mars in Aries, guard any hasty words; be careful how you say things. The Cancer tendency for subjectivity with potential shadowy tones may not translate well to others. Keep your own counsel and, as the saying goes, “Think before you speak.” A good time to exercise self-editing.
On the other hand, Chiron-inspired communications may stimulate insights as part of our healing process, which is partly about re-configuring our thought patterns with new neural pathways. When we stand strong, centered and confident, we confirm and speak our truth to others.
Mercury turned retrograde @ 14+ degrees Cancer, at this same Sirius power portal occupied by the Sun on this July 4-5 Lunar Eclipse. This clearly underlines the significance of such a special alignment with the brilliant star, Sirius, the closest star to our solar system. Last time I reminded us that Sirius was a key star in the Egyptian calendar, with its annual heliacal rising announced both the fertile flooding of the Nile and the new year. Sirius was associated with Isis, the great goddess of renewal. The lore of the Dogon people in Mali, Africa, refers to visitations by star beings from Sirius. Read Tom Robbins’ novel, Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas, for his entertaining take on that topic.
Glowing asteroid Vesta joins Sun/ Sirius, creating a magnifying glass focus that can flare up with insight. Vesta is goddess of the sacred fire, creating a therapeutic temenos for deep inner work. We may journey to visit a holy grove or sanctuary to stimulate our temple within, yet the inner experience is most clearly evoked, as long as we engage. Vesta in alignment with Sirius brings the very essence of this star system and our connection to it into focus. If you have this star connection, you will feel some sort of “interesting” activation.
So on this Lunar Eclipse it looks like Sirius has a few things to communicate to us through the focused mirror effect of Vesta with the Sun and Mercury retrograde. Messages and meaning continue to unwind until the next New Moon on July 20-21. Mercury comes back around to 14 degrees Cancer on July 28 and Venus will touch in on August 22. We are in the Sirius zone, with some serious, night-blooming cereus celestial activity going on!
For musical inspiration, listen to Alan Parsons Project song, Sirius, (familiar to many sports fans).
More from the last Cosmic Newsletter, worth repeating and rereading during a retrograde in Cancer, which “suggests hunkering in, reflecting and reviewing what has been is going on in these life-altering, mind-spinning, emotionally-stirring times. How can we detach from some old thinking that is not matching up with our new experience? Where are we being overly subjective, even blind, in how we are perceiving life. Perceptual shadows are burning away in the brilliant light of incoming frequencies.
On the topic of the Dogon: I was rummaging around in my Venus files because of this retrograde cycle and found an engaging idea from a Dogon Elder, recorded in Conversations with Ogotemmeli: An Introduction to Dogon Religious Ideas, by anthropologist Marcel Griaule. Venus, as goddess of beauty, has much to say about fashion and style. For the Dogon, clothing and ornamentation are considered essential, exciting love and reflecting universal, spiritual origins in their cosmology. Attraction is essential for mating, fueled by the inherent erotic dynamic that creates all life. An Elder said:
“Clothes give satisfaction, to both the wearer and the spectator. Both well-dressed women and men…Adornment excites love…if there is a connection between ornaments and love, that is because the first ornaments of all, those of the female Nummo [primordial ancestral beings], were in the centre-jar of the celestial granary…and that jar is the symbol of the world’s womb.”
I got all excited by “the centre-jar of the celestial granary…the symbol of the world’s womb.” Of course it must mean the Galactic Center, from which our solar system is currently receiving powerful waves of frequencies that are frequently spiking the Schumann Resonance, Earth’s heartbeat.
Have you in any way altered your style of adornment or your lifestyle? Gemini is about experimenting, exploring options and putting together all the best and beautiful pieces to make our lives better. Through July we still have time to experiment while we remain in the circle of Venus retrograde circle, from 5-22 degrees Gemini. After completing that circle Venus will be highly receptive to input from the Galactic Center, that “jar” of the world’s womb.
In their lore, the Dogon have carried down information about the Sirius binary star system, with its tiny Sirius 2 and even, perhaps a third star. (If you know something about that, I’d be most interested to hear.) I’m not an expert in this area, but it seems that beings from Sirius, only 8 lights years distant, visited the Dogon ages ago.
Mars, just starting into Aries, is shortly moving into conjunction with mermaid Salacia and shaman Chiron in Aries. Salacia is one of my favorites of the new planetoids in the far solar system. How can one not just love her, as Neptune does, when she makes the sunlight (and moonlight) to shimmer on the sea. Something special seems to be in the works, especially since Chiron indicates new dimensions of experience, especially at those times when we can stay in the moment, in a centered alignment with spirit, mind and body. That’s a challenge, but let’s give it a go in this third eclipse window of the season.
We’ll be tracking Mars in Aries for the next 6 months, as the planet of Action and Assertion keeps up a rapid pace, even when it goes retrograde on September 9. No time for slacking the rest of this year. And we thought 2020 was already ramped up. Hmmph, and hip-hip hurrah. Fireworks indeed for the weekend of the 4th of July. Mars will start to set off more fireworks when it begins to square the power players in Capricorn. That’s not until August. More then.
This eclipse does entangle the 244th U.S. birthday chartwith its shadows, shifting tides and shimmering clarifications, with multiple retrograde planets and highly charged energy. It’s a rare birthday that falls on an eclipse, which implications for a major turning point as this Nation moves ever closer to its first ever Pluto return, a 248-year cycle. Big events are in progress, some in play, most largely unseen, with collective ripple effects around the globe.No matter what is going on ‘out there,’ our main ‘job’ is to tend to our inner world, maintain a positive, loving energy to radiate and express in the world.
I’ll leave you for now with some random notes I found while cleaning my desk. Not sure of source. To share before I lose them; let’s use them!
To understand the universe, think light/ sound/ frequency/ vibration.
Sound creating light = sonoluminescence.
What a wonderful Word! What a lovely song!
Say it out loud until it moves like liquid light across your tongue.
