2023, astrology, eclipse, libra, moon, new moon

Oct 2023: A Solar Eclipse in Libra

The New Moon in Libra today provided the catalyst for the beginning of eclipse season. And this Solar Eclipse has kick-started a domino array of energy that will continue for at least the next year and a half – and for some of us, the energetic currents may have caused permanent shifts.

Let’s talk about what was unique with this eclipse! Eclipses are not rare – in fact, every six months we get eclipses. Typically, we get one solar eclipse and one lunar eclipse every six months (when the Sun and the Moon’s position coincides with that of the Moon Nodes, meaning that the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth are all on the same plane and one of these bodies has the ability to “block” another one from our sight. So if eclipses occur every six months, what is so special about this one in October of 2023?

To answer that, it’s important to understand that the energy of the planets has effects regardless of whether we can see them. i.e. We will all feel Pluto when he passes through important points in our birth chart, even though we can’t see Pluto without a powerful telescope. However, historically in ancient times, the focus of astrology was on what people could observe and see in the sky. In those days Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto weren’t even factored into astrology because they weren’t visible with the naked eye and thus weren’t discovered yet. So, even though these outer planets provide excellent nuance to our understanding of astrology, astrology actually works really well without them – just using the planetary bodies that people can actually see in the sky!

If we take this one step further, when we boil astrology down to its most basic parts, what do people identify with? Their Sun Sign. When someone says, “I am a Scorpio”, “I am a Libra”, they are not referring to the position of their Moon, or their Venus, or their Mercury. They are referring to the position in the sky the Sun was in at the moment of their birth. If we think about what is most visible in the sky, we would all agree that the Sun is it! Many of us can live for years, decades, or even our whole lives without consciously being aware of where Venus is or where Saturn is. But we are all absolutely aware of where the Sun is at any moment – that’s what defines for us whether it’s morning, afternoon, or the middle of the night!

In this same way, eclipses are important because they are so visible. They were viewed as powerful and impactful to ancient people because there was no way to ignore them. As people watched, the Sun or the Moon disappeared from view. Ancient peoples had stories for what caused this, but regardless of the exact story, everyone believed that this was an important and powerful time when there were battles in the sky causing the Sun or the Moon to be temporarily hidden. From a visibility perspective, however, not all eclipses are visible! Many eclipses occur primarily over oceans and are visible to very few people – 70% of our planet is covered by water after all! And many other eclipses aren’t profound enough to notice. So if there is an eclipse that covers 10% of the Sun, we are unlikely to notice. The Sun will be a little less bright, but unless we are carefully noticing how bright it seems outside, we won’t notice. It is really the exact eclipses when the Sun or Moon have a big percentage of them hidden that are the most visible and impactful. These exact eclipses (also called “total” or “annular” eclipses) occur when the Sun and Moon are very close to the Moon Nodes. Most eclipses aren’t exact enough to notice.

Coming all the way back around to our eclipse in October 2023, this eclipse is unique because it is an annular eclipse (meaning that it is exact – the Moon can’t quite cover the Sun, so there was a ring of fire around the Moon as it moved on top of the Sun, but the Sun and Moon nearly exactly lined up with the Moon Nodes) and it was in a highly populated area and thus physically visible over much of the Americas. This gives this eclipse a higher potency and impact.

In addition, this eclipse was opposite Chiron (the asteroid that represents the “wounded healer” archetype, and square Pluto (the planet that represents deep, transformational change).

Put all together, the energy of this eclipse brings a powerful, immovable force pushing us toward change and healing. This is not an explosive energy (the way it would be if this eclipse were in Aries). This energy is more about weighing the pro’s and con’s of the state of our lives right now. It is the energy of leaning on others to give us a different perspective on where we need healing and where we are actually happy and fulfilled vs “going with the flow” of life without really living and experiencing it at its fullest. In the classic Libra sense, this energy will help us weigh the scales and show us where it is absolutely “worth it” to make meaningful, lasting changes in our lives with all of the transformational force of Pluto and the desire to heal our deepest wounds of Chiron.

This eclipse encourages us to let go of what is no longer helping us. Let go of hurt, bitterness, or fear that have prevented us from healing. Let go of what we realize is deeply unsatisfying to our souls. Often this has the feeling of swinging on a trapeze. We have to let go of the bar that is behind us before we can reach out for the bar that is ahead of us. That moment of transition where we find ourselves holding onto nothing and suspended briefly in the air is terrifying. But without that moment of nothingness, we can’t forward – we are stuck swinging back and forth endlessly on our single trapeze bar. We have to let go of what is behind us to focus on what is ahead, and our consciousness needs to move from what we are currently holding to what is awaiting us on the horizon. And once our eyes are fixed on that, we need to make the leap. That leap is the theme of this eclipse.

As you are able to, spend some time and intention and focus on areas for transformation, healing, and growth for you over the next 18 months (and possibly beyond!). There is a Lunar eclipse at the end of this month in Taurus, which will close out the eclipses for another six months. If you use these next few weeks to set strong intentions, you can use the grounded, determinedness of the Bull to really start moving those changes forward in small steps. If you leverage this energy, you may be shocked next year to realize how far you have come with small, but intentional steps. Sending love & light as you start on a new path of growth that your future Self will be grateful for!

Photo by Marek Okon on Unsplash

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astrology, festivals, scorpio

Scorpio Season & Descent into the Underworld

With the Sun having entered Scorpio just a few days ago and Halloween just around the corner, we are starting down the path of the hours of darkness outnumbering the hours of daylight in the northern hemisphere. In the ancient Celtic world this was celebrated with Samhain, the festival celebrating the end of harvest and the beginning of winter. There is a definite sense of descending into the underworld during this time. In the northern hemisphere, the days are getting darker and colder and rainier, and we can literally see the deciduous trees shedding their leaves and shutting down until spring.

Although this can seem like a dark time and a time of death, there is a beauty in the turning inward and the introspection that this time brings. Even if we may not consciously be reflecting inward, it is highly likely that we are spending more time at home under a blanket than we did during the summer when we were much more outwardly facing and social. This is a time to think about the seeds we are metaphorically developing that will blossom in the springtime. Are we the kind of person we want to be? Are we living out our values? This isn’t a time to berate ourselves (which is rarely helpful for personal transformation anyway!), but it is a wonderful check-in point to see if we want to change course or alter direction.

And in so many ways, this is what the sign of Scorpio is really all about. Scorpio is a sign that celebrates the depths, and the very beginnings of seedlings that form that will grow into something amazing in the spring.

The Sun is not particularly at home in Scorpio. The Sun thrives when it is seen, and nothing about the Scorpio season celebrates what is seen. However, if the Sun spends its time in Scorpio wisely, it is likely that what the Sun manifests when he makes his way around the zodiac to Aries will be simply amazing. There is no beautiful thing to see without much work going on in the depths and behind the scenes. And this is what the Scorpio Sun is all about. Preparing what is below so that it can burst forth into glory.

It doesn’t feel arbitrary to me that in the classic “Zodiacal Man” which correlates Zodiac signs with body regions, that Scorpio is associated with (among other things) the reproductive organs. There is definitely a pre-birth component to Scorpio that ensures that there is something to be born in the spring.

Scorpio is also a Fixed Water sign, which further gives us clues into the characteristics of the Scorpio season. Fixed signs don’t change quickly, and they represent the most stable part of the season they occupy. (For Scorpio, this is midway through the Autumn.) There is a sense that it is really Fall. Leaves are falling, the weather is getting colder, the days are getting darker; we can’t fool ourselves into thinking that we are still in the Summer the way we often can during Libra season. This is one of the beautiful things about the Fixed signs; they so thoroughly manifest the power of the season they inhabit that we can see the full archetype of that season. For Autumn in the northern hemisphere, that full archetype represents a decent into darkness. In most areas, it also represents an increase in moisture and rain (remember that Scorpio is a Water sign! It is not surprising that our Fixed Water sign heralds the coming of wet days!).

With so much happening astrologically in fixed signs in 2021, the Sun’s entrance into Scorpio also prepares it to square or oppose Saturn, Uranus, and Jupiter over the next month. That is a set of three major aspects! There are definitely many areas for each of us to dig up within ourselves that will be difficult and unexpected, but that also have so much potential to really help us in our journey through life (especially with the final major aspect of the month being a square to our greater benefic planet Jupiter). Hard times are hard; but hard times can also bring good, even though good may feel so far from us.

As I watch the rain outside of my front window today and think about what that means for the Scorpio archetype, I am reminded that pre-birth typically involves darkness and water. That could be the water and darkness that cause a seed to sprout in the earth, the water and darkness that surround a baby in the womb, the tears we may cry in the darkness before we can rise at dawn as a stronger person, or the water and darkness from which humanity collectively came eons ago. Water and darkness are the harbingers of the change of life.

This is the beauty of our Scorpio season; it is our time to go deep within the dark areas of ourselves, do our shadow work, look unflinchingly into our truest selves and prepare the correct seeds to sprout during warmer seasons. This season, I hope I can work from this place of not re-birth, but pre-birth. Which dark corners of ourselves are ripe for examination so that we can manifest something different in the future than we have in the past? Scorpio contains the magic of that work; it is a time to prepare.

Photo by Alex Dukhanov on Unsplash