The Cosmic Story: Sagittarius Total Solar Eclipse 2020

 

The Cosmic Story: Sagittarius New Moon Total Solar Eclipse 2020

 

 

 

Our disruptive, chaotic year of 2020 is coming to an end. Finally!!! Most of us can’t wait for a new beginning in 2021.

But please consider this before we go into that bright new beginning. What if this year was a spiritual initiation for us, a time when we were forced to face our Shadows – both personal and collective? To clean out what no longer serves life. 

 

 

Around the planet, we’ve been forced to face Death through Covid, extreme fires and hurricanes, glacier collapses, collapsing economies and infrastructures, the breakdown of governments, continuing wars, famines, droughts and earthquakes. We’ve faced authoritarian leaders who would take our freedom and stop our peaceful protests. We’ve faced lies and manipulations from our governments, our corporations and our media. We’ve seen leaders refusing to use our own tax money to help citizens in need. (Taxation without representation is tyranny!)

Not to mention the breakdown of the Earth’s electromagnetic field and the shifting of the North Pole, perhaps signaling a polar shift? All the while Earth is being flooded with strong solar winds from heightened sunspot activity.

 

Earth’s frequency is changing, and so that shift is rattling and shaking out old dis-harmonies. The dissonance is dissolving the frequencies that no longer have any juice or relevance. Once they’re gone, a new harmony will develop.

So what is the universe trying to tell us? And what can we do to help?

The simple answer, and simple strategy, is to stay centered and look at yourself and your life choices. Meditate, get in your body, stay grateful. And as in any initiation, when confronted with a Truth about ourselves, we are asked to choose. To make an authentic choice by facing what’s been hidden and embracing all of ourselves. To choose to commit to a higher version of ourselves, a better use of our energies. And then choosing to let go of the past to step into a new story for the future.

If we can raise our frequencies, we can be beacons of calm, of peace, of light in these dark times. We can radiate harmony into our neighborhoods and into the world. We can be the calm, grounded center – radiating frequencies of security for our neighbors. When we let go of fear and anxiety, others can too.

In fact, if we spent these next weeks meditating and radiating, we might lock into Earth’s shaky electromagnetic field and co-create the new one.

We’ve all been sent to our rooms by Mother Earth. Shouldn’t we stop acting like spoiled children and think about what we’ve done? This isn’t just about COVID. This is about choosing a different type of future, one in which we work with Mother Earth to heal the world.

We all say we want freedom, but we don’t even know what that means. It isn’t gathering in large groups with guns to scare people, or to destroy things and hurt people. That’s so adolescent. It isn’t feeling like your freedom is being taken away if you’re asked to wear masks as a courtesy to protect others. It isn’t feeling powerful while you chant with a mob, “Lock her/him/them up” like you’re in The Hunger Games.

Real freedom is taking responsibility for your life. Real freedom is owning your own authority while respecting others. Real freedom is an inner knowing rather than an outer showing. Once we are truly free, nothing can trap us. Then perhaps we can work together to create a free society.

So let’s choose to face our Shadows in this darkest time of year, which Catholics call Advent – a time of waiting and preparing for the return of the Divine Light.

So the Universe asks: if this year was an initiation, did we face it and make it?

The Universe is benevolent. It is sending us last minute help. Before 2020 ends, surprise! We get to experience some interesting energies, some hopeful energies, some future-oriented energies. Energies that we can use to bring the darkness into the light.

The first is a Solar Eclipse and the second is a conjunction of two planets, opposite energies that will come together in a shining star to show the way to our future.

So don’t lose faith in yourself or in the world. Better days are coming. We just have to ‘Make it So!’

Sagittarius New Moon / Total Solar Eclipse

On December 14, 2020 there will be a total solar eclipse at 23*08’ Sagittarius.

The New Moon eclipse will occur at 7:17am Alaska time, 8:17am PST/ 11:17am EST and 4:17pm GMT. The eclipse will be visible in parts of the southern hemisphere.

 

 

The Sabian symbol for the Sun and Moon at 24* Sagittarius is: A Bluebird perches on the gate of a cottage.

Bluebirds are associated with happiness (the Bluebird of Happiness) – the joy that comes when we are true to ourselves and our purpose. This blue bird has come to perch on our garden gate – asking us to walk through into a happier place of security and comfort. A blue bird also symbolizes a more spiritual consciousness. So once again, we are reminded to open ourselves to the goodness of life and lift our vibrations to one of love, hope and truth. What a great message for this time of year when we all say, and hopefully mean, “Peace on Earth, goodwill toward all life.”

This solar eclipse is part of the 142 Saros Series of eclipses which started in 1624. The interesting correlation with this solar eclipse is that the Sun was at 7* Taurus, where Uranus is now, and the Moon was at 29* Leo, where the Great American total solar eclipse occurred in 2017. That eclipse spoke of a mermaid taking on human form – symbolizing a deep unconscious feeling and need that wants to become conscious. With Uranus _RX resonating this original Sun degree, it indicates it’s time to incarnate what that mermaid means. It’s time to birth a new Earth.

Eclipses always signal times of change. Full Moon lunar eclipses are times of seeing things that we’ve been missing, acknowledging them and finishing up old business. Solar eclipses are times when we visualize a new direction we want to head into. Since a solar eclipse is a very potent New Moon, it’s a time to plant seeds for the future.

 

 

This total solar eclipse, which will be visible in the southern hemisphere, is conjunct the lunar south node, so we’re called on to leave something behind so we can open to the new energies coming in. The south node is where we’re stuck, where we’re too comfortable, where we make easy, unconscious choices. The south node shows us the ideas and issues that no longer serve us, whereas the north node can open us to new energies so that we can renew the south node energies. These lunar nodes ask us to let go of old beliefs (Sagittarius) so new information and ideas (Gemini) can expand our consciousness.

With this New Moon exactly between the lunar south node and the Galactic Center (the center of the galaxy sends out radiation that affects us), we are, as astrologer Pam Gregory says, at a tipping point between the old outworn beliefs (south node in Sagittarius) and new, more expansive, cosmic beliefs (GC). The best we can do is stay grounded, see if our vision is acceptable to our values (don’t listen if a god tells you to kill your son), and find ways that vision might be needed in the world.

The south node in Sagittarius tells us that we’re stuck in old beliefs – about ourselves, our world and our spiritual beliefs. This is the south node that stays stuck in thinking we know ‘the truth’. We see this playing out in America with Donald Trump’s insistence that he is right about COVID and the election. This solar eclipse is on his Sagittarius Moon and his Sagittarius south node. He always thinks he’s right, even when he’s wrong. So a humbling question for each us might be: where is the Donald Trump in me? If we all heal that part of our Shadow, perhaps the collective shadow will lighten up.

With Neptune in Pisces squaring the Gemini/Sagittarius lunar nodes as well as the Sun, Moon and Mercury in Sagittarius, this need to examine our truths becomes imperative. Neptune can delude and confuse us, giving over our power and authority to leaders or the media. Or Neptune can inspire us to access our own spiritual vision, which the Capricorn planets are grounding in. For these new visions to have room to develop and grow, we have to let go of old beliefs that no longer serve us or our world.

This solar eclipse shows us the need to compost all the old beliefs that have shaped our world by force, not by choice. Like the false belief that Americans are the best and the bravest, that our government is the model of democracy, that America is exceptional. Because we no longer are. We are young country and we often act like adolescents in many ways. We’re also a country of orphans, with shallow roots here on the North American continent. We need to deepen those roots now. We need to grow up to our responsibility to be the stewards of the Earth.

It’s time to look at false and limiting beliefs about religion. Whoever created us doesn’t think of us as sinners, although many of us choose to be. That’s free will. We’re not condemned to burn in flames after we die, although we’ll have to judge ourselves and our actions. Whatever force or God created us, it was for us to become more creative ourselves. To co-create our world. To make it a hell or heaven. Once again, our choice. But if we’re like any plant, animal, star or galaxy, we’re here to evolve. Whatever power brought about the creation of this beautiful world and all Her children wants us to evolve to a higher state of consciousness.

That’s what is needed now. It’s time to evolve!

Look at old beliefs about duality. About being Chosen. Because if someone is chosen, someone else obviously is not. That’s such a negative black and white belief. Such a masculine, left-brain belief. It’s about power and domination. If we balance out that left-brain with our right-brain, feminine wisdom and imagination, we’ll see things differently. Nobody needs to be chosen if we’re all chosen. This is not about giving everyone a trophy. This is about knowing that we’re all in this together – which is something this pandemic has made obvious.

All great religious teachers know that all religions are just different aspects of one belief – that there is a greater power at work in this universe than humanity. All beliefs about life, even the belief that there is no god, is worthy if the person who believes it lives a self-aware life. Isn’t it time to stop believing that some of us are better, more spiritual, more blessed than everyone else? That we know better than others about what is morally right and true? That one set of beliefs should outweigh all the others? That’s a good limiting belief to let go of.

With this solar eclipse in Sagittarius, we have the opportunity to let go of old religious and personal limiting beliefs, which no longer serve our higher good, as well as the needs of Mother Earth. 

 

Varda

This solar eclipse is exactly conjunct by minutes the dwarf planet Varda, Tolkien’s Elfish Queen of Heaven. Like the Woman clothed with the Sun, she is Wisdom and Cosmic Law. While we let go of limiting beliefs, let Varda expand our vision and open us to her Wisdom. It’s time we grounded ourselves in cosmic law once again, regaining our place in Mother Earth’s biosphere. The Divine Feminine will guide us now if we let her. That’s a great seed to plant for this New Moon.

Mercury is close to the Sun at this eclipse and will conjunct the Sun on December 19^th, just before the Winter Solstice. Mercury the Messenger God will carry the message of these transformative times to the Sun and to our collective consciousness. This is a time of great awakening.

Mars and Eris in Aries are still squaring the Capricorn Amigos, especially Pluto. Mars will square Pluto for the third and last time on December 23^rd. How can we stand in our own authority and what spiritual awakenings and transformations can we hope for in our culture? We have a lot of work to do, but it will get easier.

Venus in Scorpio opposite Black Moon Lilith in Taurus are supporting any new visions of a better world that Saturn and Jupiter are brewing as they leave Capricorn to meet up in Aquarius on December 21, 2020.

This conjunction of opposing forces is what will make things easier. When we stand in the tension of opposites, a new, third force arises and new ideas, new forms, new life is created. We just have to hold that tension until the new is birthed.

Because this is getting long and it’s going to be hard to retain anything else, I’ll be sending out part 2 about the Winter Solstice conjunction next week.

Until then,

Warm love and blessings as we enter the cold and dark,

Cathy

A Brave And Startling Truth

We, this people, on a small and lonely planet
Traveling through casual space
Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns
To a destination where all signs tell us
It is possible and imperative that we learn
A brave and startling truth
And when we come to it
To the day of peacemaking
When we release our fingers
From fists of hostility
And allow the pure air to cool our palms

********
We, this people, on this small and drifting planet
Whose hands can strike with such abandon
That in a twinkling, life is sapped from the living
Yet those same hands can touch with such healing, irresistible tenderness
That the haughty neck is happy to bow
And the proud back is glad to bend
Out of such chaos, of such contradiction
We learn that we are neither devils nor divines

When we come to it
We, this people, on this wayward, floating body
Created on this earth, of this earth
Have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety
Without crippling fear

When we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world
That is when, and only when
We come to it.

~ Maya Angelou ~

(A Brave and Startling Truth)

 

The Cosmic Story: Gemini/Sagittarius Lunar Eclipse 2020

Learn to Think for Yourself

Be Suspicious of Convention

Take charge of your own thinking.

Rouse yourself from the daze of unexamined habit…

Conventional thinking – its means and ends – is essentially uncreative and uninteresting. Its job is to preserve the status quo for overly self-defended individuals and institutions.

Trust nothing and nobody but yourself.

Be ceaselessly watchful over your beliefs and impulses.

~Epictetus: The Art of Living~

We’re into eclipse season again. Eclipses occur when the planes of the Sun, Moon and Earth align and we can visually see how the three interact. With a lunar eclipse on a Full Moon, the Earth comes between the Sun and Moon and casts her shadow on the Moon. This lunar eclipse is a partial eclipse, so it will not cover the entire face of the Moon.

Lunar Eclipse

Astrology assigns meaning to the difference eclipses depending on the signs they occupy. With the lunar nodes in Gemini and Sagittarius, the cosmos shines its light on our thinking and our beliefs. After the past 4 years, we’ve been twisted back and forth between truth and lies. Fake news on both sides of the spectrum has put the ball solidly into our own court. We are the deciders. The cosmos pushes us to look at ourselves and our beliefs and decide who we are, what we believe and what we stand for.

Neptune squares these lunar nodes, and since it just turned to direct motion hours before the eclipse, it is a very potent part of what we’re learning. With Neptune changing to direct motion, Uranus is the only retrograde planet in our skies right now. An inner revolution is still at work on us. 

 

Neptune/NASA

Neptune is the planetary energy of dreams, imagination, myths and visions, a misty, illusionary energy that transports us to other dimensions and states of being. While it can inspire us to mystical visions and wonderful works of art, it can also delude us with addictions and fake news if we have no guiding vision of life. On this lower level of Neptune, we get foggy and uncertain about what we’re seeing and believing. It’s easy to be manipulated, especially if it touches off an old belief system. When we connect to Neptune’s higher vision, we’re put in touch with the spiritual basis of life. We connect consciously to the creative imagination, where all manifestation begins.

As Caroline Casey so artfully states, Neptune lays the tracks for Saturn’s reality train. Neptune can delude us into thinking that things are not as they seem.

           Neptune can also set us yearning for what our souls desire most, inspiring our vision. When Neptune is in its own sign of Pisces (Jung’s collective unconscious) it is our shared, collective yearnings that want to be incorporated into our personal reality. These yearning come up against old Sagittarian beliefs. Can we let go of those beliefs and open ourselves to new possibilities?

With Neptune in Pisces turning direct on November 28^th and squaring the lunar nodes, we’ve had time during its retrograde to look at some overblown fantasies that were believed to be the Truth. When in fact these fantasies/ conspiracy theories/illusions often arise from the tension between fear and hope.

The way to discern our truth is to ground ourselves in our own inner guidance system. With Neptune going direct now, it’s up to us to use our imaginations in more creative ways and think for ourselves. As Epictetus said, be wary of conventional, unconscious thinking.

 

Road to Emmaus~Robert Zund

The Sabian symbol for Neptune stationing direct at 19* Pisces is: Teacher and student commune in strength in a long walk. This is an image of that grounding we need. We often have spiritual teachers who shape our beliefs. If they are worthy mentors, they help us to discover our own path and seek our own truths.

Beliefs run deep within our psyches, impressed on us when we’re still children and have no sense that we can decide what to believe in or not. These unconscious beliefs shape our thoughts, our expectations and even our desires.

As we enter the darkest time of year in the northern hemisphere, we have the opportunity to clean out old beliefs and habits that no longer serve us. As we wait for Winter Solstice and the return of the Light, we can let those things die so we have room for something new to fill us.

And since this Winter Solstice is a big turning point in our collective destiny, it is especially important to spend time in self-examination. Because on December 21, 2020, the social planets Jupiter and Saturn will join together, as they do every 20 years, in the Air elements for the first time since 1220 CE (except for once in 1980 when they came together in Libra-- look at all the new relationship options that sprang from that!)

We are ending a 200 year Earth cycle between Jupiter and Saturn – the last happened in Taurus in 2000. As we end this cycle, we need to see what gifts and lessons they brought us both personally and collectively. What have we all learned in this last year of the Earth cycle when we’ve had to let go of our consumerism and our work as we face both death through the Covid virus and the death of our cultural institutions? How have we changed in these past 20 years?

These two planets that shape our social outlook have come together in Earth signs for the past 200 years (except 1980), focusing our collective attention on material wealth and purpose. Every 200 years or so, the elements of this conjunction change to shift our collective focus. Last time they came together in Air was roughly from 1220-1420 CE – the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance. It looks like we’re about to enter a new age of information exchange, intellectual curiosity and communication. Hopefully, a new Renaissance. 

Renaissance Art 

And since Jupiter and Saturn will conjunct (you can see this happening in the night sky) in the sign of Aquarius, we can perhaps say this is the beginning of the beginning of the Age of Aquarius. Especially since Pluto will be finishing up with transforming the sign of Capricorn in the next two years and will enter Aquarius in 2023-2024. That’s when our Aquarian energy gets re-birthed. 

The Sabian symbol for the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter at 1* Aquarius is: A cubical white temple in the desert. This is a symbol of the seed groups that have a new vision for civilization, a new reality and vision based on spiritual and natural law. This is a symbolic Yes to humanity as we rediscover our place in Earth’s biosphere and assume our role as Stewards of the Earth.

Gemini-Sagittarius partial Lunar Eclipse

This Full Moon lunar eclipse occurs on Monday November 30^th at 12:30 am Alaska time, 1:30 am PST/ 4:30am EST and 9:30am GMT.

 

 Gemini Lunar Eclipse 2020

With this eclipse in Sagittarius and Gemini, curiosity and seeking knowledge are up for us. What is worth believing in? What information fits our soul’s story? Each of us has a different story to live and a different part to play as we begin to re-imagine our world. But old ideas and beliefs won’t encompass this new story. The information we seek to inform us about what’s happening in the world will determine whether we escape the old, worn-out belief systems that shaped our world-view or we open up to new possibilities that might not seem possible yet.

Mercury in Scorpio rules the Gemini Moon and is sextiling both Jupiter, the ruler of Sagittarius, and Saturn in Capricorn. We can use Mercury’s deep insight into death and life to see what needs to change in society. Saturn and Jupiter are at the end of Capricorn, adding to the heaviness we might be feeling as they transit the last degrees of Capricorn. We might get caught up in the heaviness of the government’s power plays. Or we might find our own authority in the world.

The Sabian symbol for the Sun at 9* Sagittarius is: A mother is leading her children up a broad stairway. This is an image of the Morning Star of Wisdom, the Great Mother leading her children into the light. It is an image of an open and unobstructed path to higher consciousness, teaching us to trust our instinctive pursuit of love and the beautiful goals in life.

 

The Sabian symbol for the Moon at 9* Gemini is: Medieval archer, with pointed beard and feathered hat, takes aim with a bow. This image reminds me of Robin Hood when he goes to the archery contest where the Sheriff of Nottingham hopes to capture him. Robin is a trickster, one who can change the course of energy. Robin has to stay alert, use his keenly trained perceptions to win the contest and escape capture. When we aim an arrow, we send our minds over space and time to pin down something we want. This begs the question, What do we really desire? What are we taking aim at?

On both sides of this eclipse, we’re asked to become aware (full Moon) of those beliefs that keep us chained to the denial of our talents, self-worth and needs. Or, those shadow qualities that keep us unconscious of what we really desire. With this global lock down shutting off our usually sources of entertainment and distractions, we can take the time to look into our hearts and discover what we really want out of life. Do we really want more stuff that soon loses its importance, or do we want community and connectedness?

A regular Full Moon challenges us to develop awareness of the life issues the two complementary signs signify, to break free of any unconscious compulsions we have, and to objectively work with its energy. A lunar eclipse is a high-powered Full Moon that offers us a chance to see and finish off dealing with that particular issue. This lunar eclipse offers us the chance to let go of limiting beliefs and open up to new knowledge and ideas that can help us form new beliefs about our self and life. Beliefs that will shape our new story.

Any planets aspecting the eclipse will indicate how we can develop that awareness. As you can see from the chart, there is another opposition that also aspects the Full Moon and which forms a rectangle made up of butterfly wings. The two wings in blue indicate what we call inconjuncts, 150* aspects which are quirky and often hard to see. 

 

“The rectangular shape was used in temple chambers of initiation. These buildings were built to symbolize the process of transition from one stage of personal-spiritual unfoldment to the next — the fulfillment of a great goal. Seen in the vertical plane, a rectangle becomes a door, something to pass through, to enter a new realm. This figure joining two oppositions by semi-sextiles and inconjuncts indicates that the oppositions can be integrated through everyday work and all our personal relationships, geared toward better ways to serve other people’s needs.” (Dane Rudhyar)

 

So this eclipse offers us the idea of a great initiation into higher states of consciousness, through the integration of masculine knowledge and feminine wisdom.

The other opposition at this lunar eclipse is that between Uranus retrograde in Taurus and Venus in Scorpio. In the creation myth, Uranus is the Father of Aphrodite/Venus, who is birthed by his phallus/generative energy within the womb of Mother Ocean. It feels like this opposition pushes us to awaken our feminine power, grounded in both our physical and emotional bodies, allowing the original Uranian Mind of Nature to reconnect us to Mother Nature’s biosphere.

The two blue-winged inconjuncts are between Uranus_Rx and the Sagittarius Sun, and Venus and the Gemini Moon. Uranus inconjunct the Sun pushes us to open up to new beliefs concerning the spiritual dimensions of our physical world – acknowledging that the world and our bodies are not evil and corrupt, but as Matthew Fox states, our original blessings. The Earth and our bodies are divine creations and we have to honor them. Venus inconjunct the Moon pushes us to explore and learn about the things that call to us from our depths, to understand their power and purpose and to share them with the world.

Therefore, opening to new beliefs and acknowledging the purpose and power of our desires can aid us in shedding those intellectual shadows and unconscious beliefs that keep us locked in an old story of scarcity and unworthiness.

The next stage of our evolution is upon us. The new story for humanity is waiting for us to step into it as responsible and conscious co-creators of life. 

 

How this Eclipse season is affecting the United States chart

  US 4th of July Chart, 1776

 

This lunar eclipse falls across the ascendant/descendant of the 4^th of July US Sibly chart at 12* Sagittarius—Gemini. It could signify a shift in our national identity, which is already underway from the Trump presidency. Our allies will wonder who we are as we go forward into the next four years.

With the US having its Pluto return in the next two years, we are undergoing a transformation – hopefully a spiritual transformation rooted in returning to our core values. Since we’re in the energies of the American Revolution now, people will continue to take to the streets, especially with Mars and Eris in Aries squaring both Pluto in Capricorn and America’s Mercury in Cancer. If we can communicate with truth and honor about our basic needs, perhaps we can make it a peaceful revolution.

There’s another potent T-Square between transiting Neptune in Pisces opposite the US Neptune in Virgo square the US Mars in Gemini. We have to learn to discern what is truth and what are lies. If America’s original dream was to have a free and open society, transiting Neptune is asking us who and what we’ve left out of that equation. Mars in Gemini says we have the knowledge and know-how to ‘make it so’.

This eclipse occurs on the US Uranus at 9* Gemini, activating our native intelligence and brilliance. We can solve our problems if we put our collective Will behind it. If the media would put its focus and story-telling ability to work showcasing the possibilities before us rather than the issues that drag us down, we could awaken a collective spiritual awareness about the issues that face us and the world.

This is America’s time to transform itself into a truer, more democratic version of itself. It’s time to live out the ideals that shaped our mythology.

With Gratitude,

Cathy

Entrance  /  (After Rilke)

Whoever you are: step out of doors tonight,

Out of the

room that lets you feel secure.

Infinity is open to your sight.

Whoever

you are.

With eyes that have forgotten how to see

From viewing things

already too well-known,

Lift up into the dark a huge, black tree

And put

it in the heavens: tall, alone.

And you have made the world and all you

see.

It ripens like the words still in your mouth.

And when at last you

comprehend its truth,

Then close your eyes and gently set it free.

~ Dana Gioia ~

(Interrogations at Noon)