The Leo Solar Eclipse, August 21, 2017

The Cosmic Story: Leo Solar Eclipse, August 21, 2017

The Great American Eclipse at

29* Leo: The Heart of the Lion

The Day Sky gives us Life. The Night Sky gives us meaning.

The Milky Way~Womb of our Galaxy

This ‘Great American’ total solar eclipse has turned into an event, as only America can throw one. Millions of Americans are journeying to see this celestial show that stretches from Oregon to South Carolina. The Earth, Moon and Sun line up so well at totality that we’ll get a chance to see the Sun’s corona, it’s outer atmosphere. It will look like a black hole surrounded by iridescent, scintillating, delicate colors. And ‘day will become night’ as we see the winter constellations, usually hidden by our summer Sun as well as Regulus at the ‘heart of the Lion’, Mercury, Venus, Mars and perhaps Jupiter in the dark sky.

There’s a 70 mile area stretching across the US where the eclipse will be total for around 2+ minutes. Everywhere else in the US will experience it as a partial eclipse. The entire length of the eclipse will be about 6 hours. For more information about the eclipse and where to see it, go to GreatAmericanEclipse.com.

The United States is the only country this total eclipse crosses. And it’s the first total solar eclipse to pass over only the continental US since the country’s founding in 1776. It’s also the first time in 99 years that an eclipse is visible across the continental US. 

There are many articles about how this solar eclipse will affect the US and Donald Trump’s chart specifically. (See: Eclipse impact) But more important, this eclipse opposes America’s Sibly 4^th of July chart’s Moon at 28* Aquarius. The Moon symbolizes We the People (We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity...) This is a chance for all of us to wake up to our unity, and our responsibilities to each other, to Mother Earth and to the future.

 

So we can’t mistake the heavenly advice: America, wake up and pay attention.

It is the American People, not the government or the power structures, that this Leo Solar Eclipse calls to. It is our wake-up call to create that more perfect Union. Not only in America, but with the whole world. But first we have to be at one with ourselves. Only then will we stop living in fear and start moving toward hope. To do that, we have to listen to our heart’s truest desires. And then follow our heart’s hope into the future.

This eclipse occurs on one of the four ancient ‘royal’ stars – Regulus, the King. It is the star at the heart of the constellation of Leo. For thousands of years, this bright star was in tropical Leo but in 2012, it moved by precession into Virgo, the Virgin. So while it still represents the King, the underlying energy is the Goddess’ love. So now The Queen takes center stage. With Mars and the North Node so close to this eclipse, perhaps the true King will awaken and return in this time of need. And women will call him forth.

Queen of Wands~ Thoth Deck

Eclipses signify shifts, completions, endings, and releasing along with new beginnings, new directions and openings. Because the Full Moon in Aquarius this month was sandwiched between two Leo New Moons, our cosmic instructions want us to bring our sovereignty, power, leadership, gifts and visions into the world. We need to learn the right way to use personal power. We old hippies learned from Carlos Castaneda and don Juan and don Genaro. This is Queenship and Kingship. We all have personal power, and so we can no longer make believe we don’t have access to power, or reject, misuse or neglect our innate power – to create, to imagine, to help, to love. Learn to let Love guide your use of power.

How do we use our power? To control or to contribute? Do we access our power from a place of Love or fear? When we give our power away, how do we reclaim it? How do we ‘stand in our power’? How do we become channels for power?

Leo rules the Heart and this eclipse opens the heart of the lion. My hope is that our collective masculine energy (especially in men) will focus on being warriors of Love and Light, releasing the Leo shadow characteristics of arrogance, self-importance, overweening pride and the need to be right.

The eclipse will affect Donald Trump’s natal chart in a big way—it sits on his Leo Mars and Ascendant, so it might change the way he deals with people and issues. Or it will keep him stuck in his own old story while his karma comes due. So far it seems to be making him more angry and volatile. (the eclipse is on his Leo Mars and Ascendant). As with all of us, it’s all about opportunities and choices. Opportunities and Choices.

The eclipse’s effect might last from 6 months to over 2 years, so don’t expect a miracle on August 21^st. Take the energy in and let it move around you and settle in. The results will come. Especially watch what happens on September 3^rd, when Mars reaches the eclipse degree. Also, Mercury retrograde will station on the degree of this eclipse, 28* Leo, on September 5^th. You might get a hint of what new thing you’ve birthed then. Pay attention to your dreams for these next few weeks. I’ll be hosting a free on-line dream discussion of eclipse dreams in early September. Watch for it.

This Leo total Solar Eclipse occurs on Monday, August 21^st at 11:30 am PDT/ 2:30pm EDT/ 6:30pm GMT. Wherever you are, if you look up to the Sun during the eclipse, you need special glasses to protect your eyes.

This total solar eclipse occurs at 29* Leo, right on the royal star Regulus, the heart of the Lion. Sabian symbol for the Sun and Moon at 29* Leo is: A Mermaid Emerges From The Ocean Waves Ready For Rebirth In Human Form. Mermaids are magical beings who can navigate the great realm of the Collective Unconscious. Psychologically, they represent a new feeling and energy that arises out of our collective longing for a different life. For a mermaid to be reborn in a human form symbolizes the incarnation of that new feeling attuned to the World Soul. A new beginning for the Divine Feminine. It is the heart’s desire for a unified experience of life, one in which the head and the heart work together. It is a shared longing for a deeper, richer, more conscious, collective life.

Linda Olsen

In ancient times, eclipses were viewed with fear, but we now understand them in totally different ways. An eclipse is like a vortex that can take you out of your ‘normal’ perceptions of life and leave you with a different view. Just think what happens during a total solar eclipse.

When the Sun goes DARK, we see not only its crown of light (its corona) but also the Universe. We could say that the Sun, our sense of ‘reality’ and even of Spirit, is shut out and we see the wonder of the Cosmos. At the solar eclipse, our ego light (Sun) withdraws so that we can see the mystery behind it – the universal Mind.

We humans hold the universal Heart. Chiron in Pisces forms an inconjunct to this solar eclipse, asking us to include the longings of the heart of humanity. The Heart develops what Mind conceives. When we get that glimpse of eternity before the light of the Sun returns, our reality is changed forever.

On a psychological level, the Sun symbolizes our identity, our sense of self, our ego consciousness. When the unconscious blocks out that ego-consciousness, we can see two things about ourselves. We can see our Shadows, those parts of ourselves we might be ashamed of, so we project them onto others. But we also get to see our souls—the part of us that is Eternal, and so we see the big picture of the cosmos, which gives us a different perspective on who we are and what we think we’re here on Earth for.

Let go of all the old patriarchal categories we’ve lived under: how much money you need to make, who and what you should love, the things that define you. Let them go and let a new story, a new vision, a new category slip into place. This is the gift of this eclipse – finding your true ‘heart’ which has been eclipsed by patriarchal rules.

As it has been for the past 5 years, the Uranus in Aries square to Pluto in Capricorn molds and shelters this eclipse. But now we can add to it Venus and Ceres in Cancer and Jupiter in Libra, bringing in new hope, love and the Goddess of Light to help us on our way. The grand cardinal square of Uranus, Eris, Venus, Ceres, Jupiter and Pluto is the energy that will move this eclipse energy into the future. When we own ourselves and stay true to our hearts (Uranus/Eris in Aries) we search our souls to feed our emotional bodies (Venus/Ceres in Cancer) with the connection, beauty and balance (Jupiter in Libra) that rebuilds our society along partnership lines (Juno/Pluto in Capricorn).

We are still within the fiery triangle of Uranus and Eris in Aries, Sun, Moon, Mars & North Node in Leo and Saturn in Sagittarius, adding passion, inspiration and creativity to our journey. Just don’t let the fire get out of hand and turn destructive.

Mercury retrograde and Vesta in Virgo is opposite Neptune retrograde in Pisces, offering us a direct pipeline to the Unconscious. It’s important to open up to the messages of the Unconscious, while at the same time being aware of what is real and what is illusion.  That’s where Saturn retrograde in Sagittarius comes in. It forms a T-square with this opposition, asking us to be responsible for the images that inform us.

Fake news isn’t just a ploy by Trump and his gang to confuse us. The Unconscious is vast and untamed, and it can overwhelm us as well as heal us. You have to be able to discern what is coming from your heart from what your left brain rationality will want. When in doubt, bring your images and understanding to a guide to help you decipher the mystery that unfolds in you during this eclipse.

I want to tell you a story, since I believe that stories speak to our souls and organize our energies into wholeness. This story spoke to me about the meaning of this heart-centered eclipse. Let it open your hearts to the mystery. This tale is by Anne Bishop in her series Ephemera.

Long ago, beyond my memory and yours, spirits who were the voice of the world walked among us. And they knew things no ordinary human could know. Like the secret to using the Door of Locks.

Now the Door of Locks was hidden in a garden that lived in the heart of a magic hill, and that hill was the country home of the spirits who resided in this part of the land. When a person had a powerful need for something that was just beyond his grasp, he would set his feet on the road and follow his heart—and if the spirits decided he was worthy, he would find that garden.

And when he reached the garden, which was protected by high walls and a barred gate, a spirit would appear and ask, “What do you seek?”

Now, a foolish man might say he was seeking gold or jewels or some other kind of treasure. He might be allowed to enter the garden after giving such an answer—but he might not. Because the correct answer to the question—and this is most important to remember—the correct answer is “I seek the hope that lives within my heart.” Give the spirit that answer, and the garden’s gate will always open.

And then, once you’re inside . . . It’s a lovely place, as beautiful as a dream, and you’re allowed to wander and look and sit for as long as you please. When you’re ready, the spirit takes you to the Door of Locks.

There are one hundred identical locks on the door, and while you’re standing there, trying to fathom it all, the spirit reaches into your heart and takes out a key, and says, “Every lock leads to a different place that lives within you. Some are dark places, some are light places, some are full of struggle and sorrow while others will shower your days with joy. Choose a lock. The key will fit any one of them. Choose where your heart needs to go. Choose.”

And that is what you must do—choose. Now, some people are hasty, ignoring the spirit’s warning about the nature of the locks and thinking that since the locks all look the same they’ll all be the same. And some people don’t ask for the lock they truly want because it’s high up in a corner of the door or too low to the ground and they don’t want to be inconveniencing the spirit and they figure a lock that’s easy to reach will do just as well.

But it won’t do as well. I’ll tell you that now. It won’t do, and if you settle for what is easy instead of what you truly want, you may never discover the hope that lives in your heart.

So you choose wisely, and you choose well, and you pick the lock that matters the most to you at that moment. Then the spirit takes the key that was plucked from your heart and slips it into that lock.

It changes you. It doesn’t matter if you end up in a place you didn’t know existed or in the village where you’ve lived your whole life. It changes you—and you will never again see the world in quite the same way.

Except we’ve lost the way of it, you see.

A dark and terrible Evil swept through the land in that long-ago time, and the spirits disappeared. Some say they were all destroyed in a great battle against that Evil. Others say that those who survived went into hiding and still tend the magic garden. No one knows the answer, just as no one knows how to find the magic hill or a spirit who can pluck a key out of a person’s heart and open the Door of Locks.

But I can tell you this. That magical place still exists. And someday someone will remember how to find it—and how to open the door that leads to all the hope that lives in the heart. ~Elandar story

(Belladonna by Anne Bishop, ROC Books, New York, NY. pg. 211-212).

May you find your Heart’s Hope.

Cathy

SELF-PORTRAIT

It doesn't interest me if there is one God
or many gods.
I want to know if you belong or feel
abandoned,
if you can know despair or see it in others.
I want to know
if you are prepared to live in the world
with its harsh need
to change you. If you can look back
with firm eye,
saying this is where I stand. I want to know
if you know
how to melt into that fierce heat of living,
falling toward
the center of your longing. I want to know
if you are willing
to live, day by day, with the consequence of love
and the bitter
unwanted passion of your sure defeat.

I have heard, in that fierce embrace, even
the gods speak of God.

~ David Whyte ~

(River Flow)