New Moon Solar Eclipse 7/12-13—Reveal. Release. Rise. Repeat.

As I sat to write this blog, I struggled with what to say. In fact, what typically takes a few hours took days. I typed and erased again and again and again. I mediated. I walked. I ranted. I researched. I cried. I sought out the teachings of other astrologers and teachers. Still nothing.

The current astrology is so ripe and powerful, yet none of my words felt “right”.

So, instead of pushing, I stopped.

And somewhere between cleaning the kitchen, reruns of cheers, and watering my garden, I heard it.

I love astrology for the complexity. I love it for the never-ending nuances of meaning and depth. It’s exciting and vital, alive with layered possibility. Yet, like most spiritual tools, it is not really complex at all. The real power is in the simplicity.

Personally, speaking only for myself here, I need that. I need the lessons to be clear, the signs straightforward and obvious. I also appreciate it when things repeat, just in case I missed it the first time.

And the lessons DO repeat until we get them. (Ugh and also Yay!)

This New Moon is no exception to that rule. What might be different is the intensity- not necessarily the message. It is a message we have heard all year, and it will continue to emerge.

The astro talk: We have a New Moon Partial Solar Eclipse in Cancer (first of 3 eclipses), which is a New Moon on steroids. Eclipses dance with the nodes of the moon, so they excavate some unhealed, likely karmic, wounds. Not only that, but Pluto is precisely opposing the New Moon getting real, getting deep, and getting dirty in the mud of our shadow. Real. Messy. Deep. Profound. Transformative change. The Capricorn part of it says this transformation is happening in our outer world. So,  foundations, structures, power, authority, ethics, money, ideals, politics, and businesses are all being rocked.

Yep. Pretty much.

Thankfully there is some light thrown into the mix with a water trine offering hope, baptism, and rebirth.  This eclipse is also a North Node eclipse, which is meant to offer the remedy to all the chaos. It is illumination in any darkness. It is the beacon signaling us forward. It reminds us we can walk the hero’s journey and be reborn. It’s the simple, not always easy, panacea.

I’m not sure about you, but I could sure use some light at the end of the tunnel and a clear path forward right about now. 

This is where astrology can be so helpful.

What is that remedy? Cancer.

Empathy and compassion.

To feel, to honor, to nurture, to nourish, to connect. To put ourselves in another’s shoes.

That’s it simply.

We are being asked to look squarely at who we are in relation to the whole.

Between

Head and heart,

Reason and feeling,

Greed and altruism,

Masculine and feminine,

Individuality and connection,

Mine and ours,

Me and us,

My will and divine will,

Love and fear.

We are literally living this polarity personally and collectively.

So, if you’re feeling you are doing it right. I am surfing the waves with you. The feelings arise to get your attention.

I went to a Marianne Williamson seminar a couple months ago, and she described how we are all like cells in a collective body. We, like cells, have a specific job to do, a reason for existing (love). Our primary job is to do that thing to the best of our ability. When all cells do this, they add to the health of the collective body. The one adds to the strength of the whole.

What happens biologically though when one cell goes rogue (fear)? When one cell selfishly decides “I’m going to do it MY way”, or “I need to protect ME and what is MINE”. Yeah. Not good. Especially if that cell hijacks other cells to join in the mutiny. You get the idea. In our bodies, we call that disease.

When we lose focus on the whole, we create discord in the system.

When selfishness supersedes altruism, we live the imbalance.

Sovereignty can only be truly healthy when it cooperates not controls.

And I know you are weary. I know you want to turn away. I know this year of feeling has been exhausting. I know you just want to have the sensation of ground under your feet. All those feelings though are the lesson. They enable us to ask the hard questions. Find the source of our fear. Reveal dormant layers. Make new and better choices.

Reveal. Release. Rise. Repeat.

I’ve said this before, and I will say it again.

“Powerlessness arises again so you can take your power back from a time it was stolen. The story appears so you can be revealed, not diminished.”

Something may benefit us individually, but that doesn’t make it right.

Something may be of short-term benefit, but long-term unsustainable.

Something may seem logical on the surface, but integrity tells us otherwise.

Something may feel familiar and habitual while attempting to manage some fear, but freedom isn’t found there.

These are not logical queries. They are feeling ones. We can only know the answers to these big questions when we allow compassion to offer the light of grace.

And just to be clear compassion doesn’t equate with weakness, lack of boundaries, and perpetual self-sacrifice. Compassion is actually linked in the brain to courage and perseverance. It is the ability to witness suffering on any level (human, animal or environmental) and strive to do what you can to make it better.

Imagine a world like that.

That is the medicine of this New Moon (and this whole year). Sometimes our hearts have to shatter to get our attention. 

“There but for the grace of God go I“.

Because you have and you will again.

Cancer reminds us to look back to look forward.

It is asking us to know where we are on the spectrum of the individual versus the collective.

Then it asks us to step closer to the latter.

Because the fact is, we are an Earth family whether we like it or not. Each of us a vital part of the whole. Interdependent.

The simple truth is, we need to start acting like it.

“One doesn’t have to operate with great malice to do great harm. The absence of empathy and understanding are sufficient.”

Charles M. Blow

I’ve written previously about this pervasive theme of  late The Science of Empathy, The Gift of Feelings, The Purpose of Feelings (podcast)

(To find your specific placement look for 20° Cancer and Capricorn).

 (Want to know more about what this eclipse season is revealing for you? Contact me for a reading.  ).