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On 15th June the world saw a spectacular Lunar eclipse that left many breathless, not only for its beauty, something we could all share in, but, also its energetic impact, something felt, much more personal. Just 6 days later at the Solstice this interwoven dichotomy of experience was developed and given a more archetypal context, the dance of light and dark,  a cardinal seed moment whose influence will stay with us until the Equinox in September. And once again, we are hardly given breathing space before the final eclipse of the current triplet sees the Sun once more beshadowed by the Moon on July 1st in 9 degrees Cancer, and this time the emergent pattern will embed into the matrix with even more lasting effect – the cycles and patterns unfolding through this time are emphasising layers upon layers, the energetics of this time are challenging us to both focus and learn how to shift between focii, to develop and hold multiple points of view, balance in motion – this may feel like an overload at times,  like a softening up process, but, awareness and simplicity can be our allies here, help us to see how can we work with the dynamics as they play out, and prepare us for the upcoming months, both collectively and personally…….

The first eclipses have been activating the Gemini Sagittarius axis, and the emphasis here is all about resolving difference through taking the higher/deeper point of view, giving differentiation a higher and more holistic purpose…..in this post we will take a look at into some of the intrinsic qualities of this energetic imprint in the current eclipse cycle, and ask, what do eclipses hold for us. Lets get down to Earth…..

As a ‘mundane’ example of the Gemini influence let us suppose that we are focusing on and seeking solutions to problems of energy production, for instance. Events around the world continue to stimulate our innate knowing and we ‘know’ we must be careful not to get swept along together on the same old ‘band-wagon’ approach to energy production, but, there is an impetus here to become aware of when we are being propogandised, which, with Gemini, means not only developing our personal powers of discernment, but, lending each other our insights. We know that it is dangerous to ‘leave it to the government’ to sort things out, but, Gemini also stimulates us to differentiate what we personally can do with the technologies available. Mercury is ever the inventive left-field spark that lights us up. Under a new Moon we would do well to initiate these conscious drives for change, but, under the influence of an eclipse we may well be confronted with situations that force our hand if we do not.

The Gemini archetype with its emphasis on communication and intelligence can be seen playing out through the masses on a daily basis, as we are so strongly embedded within a culture of media and networking, and with regards energy production we are still seeing and hearing the same old official line, globally. The controlled franchised mass production of ‘alternative energy’ that international and governmental agendas ‘seem’ to be aiming for is still using the model of mass production and big business investment as the vehicle, and this lacks the kind of awareness that shifts us out of the ‘problem’. In the face of this the drive for action becomes ever more visceral on this issue and, so long as we keep on sending the same consumerist message back, the whole situation will continue to carry and manifest the same intrinsic dependancies – this comes at a price, one that is being payed for not least of all by ‘the tax payer’.

There is a far greater cost that is being payed as well, and, if we are not extremely careful, will continue to be payed at ever increasing cost by ‘the environment’, for exactly the same underlying reasons. Massive dams, for example, that obliterate the land and disrupt the natural powerhouses of the ‘eco-system’, such as the Belo Monte Dam project in the Amazon rainforest, destroy blindly in order to manifest power in totally unacceptable ways, ways that expose disregard for the rights of individuals, our natural and inherent relationship with the land, not to mention for Nature herself. The old paradigm clings on with its emphasis on usery and reveals its own unconscious patterning, which the Gemini influence casts a spotlight upon. We know that this political power game does not offer solutions of itself, especially without respect for the people,  public involvement and consultation – so, with Mercury emphasising our communications and connectivity as a counter balance we can utilise the moment and create a feedback loop that brings these issues to the surface, into the light of day.

Being awake is a Mercury attribute that is rising now, the Gemini eclipses also work through this, intensifying, and it is something we will be seeing emphasised of over the coming months, especially as Mercury opposes Capricorn from the last degrees of Cancer and swings into Leo. Things will hot up when he enters Leo. Petitioning, which is becoming a powerful corrective on-line lobbying force, does work and make a difference – through the collective voice our individual voices will be heard, it too is a form of uprising and it utilises Geminian energy in the best way. This can work with unexpected vigour around eclipses – with consciousness the force for change can be turned around and directed towards a goal. With Leo behind Mercury the rhetoric will incite to demonstration and display of public will.

The Fukushima meltdown continues to unfold its ugly inner truths, now that the meltdowns have been admitted, after the fact. But, then, for all the admissions, neither does re-enforcing safety guidelines and health security checks for the Nuclear industry provide a solution and these will be hot issues under the Cancer eclipse – as an increasing number of national governments are showing, ending nuclear power generation is the way forward. Right there is the Sagittarian higher purpose that has also been at work. This is about listening to Fukushima, not blurring the facts in an attempt to dumb-down the public through ignorance, as has been the case clearly demonstrated (even now) with Tepco, the official stance of the Japanese nuclear authorities and the international nuclear power community. Those with the prime investment, the political and economic muscle, are clearly seen to be blocking progress on this issue – this too will be brought out by the Cancer eclipse as mirrored in Capricorn. In this too we need to be careful about the solutions offered in replacement, that ensure our future well-being  – Cancerian concerns. Gemini encourages the use of discernment, Sagittarius asks us to be conscious of the longer term effects, the bigger picture, whatever we come up with. We can, and must, carry these forward now on the Cancerian impulse – its getting personal.

Mercury also brings us into becoming articulate with the detail. On the ground, reduction in usage, which may well be forced upon us anyway, is key in respect of our resources – we are inequivocably being shown that all of us need to become aware of how we consume and use power. The localised and individual creation of alternative energy sources, of energy networks (and that includes monetary) can provide a realistic solution, or at least the essential beginnings of one. It is also a solution that can be built upon, belong more to the people and can begin to free us from our dependancies upon the ‘big business’ generators of practical power and the economics infra-structure. In the 80’s Local Exchange Trading Systems, L.E.T.S., became very popular as a way of sidestepping the economic binds of currency, inflation and taxation….these can be created and networked any time, anywhere that there is the will and knowledge to do so, even amongst small groups of friends. Trading our skills, personal time and energy, home-made or produced goods, information and knowledge is at the heart of this idea and is the way forward. Infact it is happening everywhere, is natural……the only resistance, once again, comes from the old infra-structures. The Cancerian energies will help manifest these localised home grown initiatives as a break from the past through this coming eclipse and beyond.

Mercury is very electric, the spark in the synapse, his energy follows an interactive web. The internet does offer us another way in which we can utilise difference, diversity of skills and knowledge, in a mutual and more holistic way, but, the internet too is dependant upon the mass production systems that have led to the problems we are now facing. Getting with Nature, our own and this planet’s, as a part of our Earth’s consciousness and spirit, is also being emphasised through this time and is being reflected in the celestial bodies. Jupiter in Taurus trines Pluto and sextiles Neptune – this grounds a revolutionary vision of how our Earth could be and we can expect this to be sustained now, an expanding and inspiring energy for deep change, the pattern will hold through the second half of the year. When Neptune backtracks into Aquarius our inner connectivity within the matrix of nature will seek expression, a great opportunity to get out on the land and feel the Earth beneath our feet, let her speak to us. Communications in the mundane might well need this grounded balance and we could see a tricky time of mixed messages and subversive leaks that seek to bring an end to the rape of the planet’s resources, especially with the building square between Uranus and Pluto. They are coming close to an exact square late in July around the Leo New Moon – this will be one to watch as the NM is at the action point of a yod to Neptune and Pluto! By then Mercury will be entering Virgo – what do we want, virgin wilderness or wasteland?!

Intensity is without a doubt building, and we might think that eclipses engender this, everything seems to point in that direction. But, eclipses are enigmatic, can be both inspiring and provocative. They can challenge our connectivity into realism, but, in reality their effects are little understood and hard to predict. So, why are eclipses considered especially profound in astrology and divination? Utilising the Geminian energies this is a question I put to a number of forums on the web and the insights offered here draw on some of the answers, speculations and conversations this brought out.

Our inner connectivity brings us into the web more fully; we know that our connections as ‘seering’ beings cannot be pulled at the plug and, when we are ‘turned on’ in this way we ‘know’ and can be in the right place at the right time! But, there is a sense in which eclipses can be dis-connective. So, we need to look deeper. What is at work in eclipses and how will the eclipse in Cancer differ from the previous two in Gemini?

To give some shape to the second question first, where-as the last two eclipses in Gemini were working through the mutable energies of preperation and adaptability for change, the Solar eclipse on the 1st July will be in a cardinal sign – that signals initiation of a new energy pattern. The Moons physical body enshadows the Sun in Cancer, emphasising in visceral and emotive ways issues close to home, our personal and collective security, our inhereted relationships, indigenous traditions and the feeling senses through which we experience and share our psycho-somatic reality, incarnate experience as living spirit – it too is very people orientated in this. This eclipse stimulates the underlying energies of the cardinal cross as well as bringing the water signs and the element of water, with all its implications, to the fore – the Solstice, the Suns ingress into Cancer, heralded the point of shift, the eclipse embeds it with longer lasting and profound effect. But, this eclipse is also the first in a new Saros cycle, its shadow barely impinging on the Earth’s surface – perhaps we can expect it to be a more subtle seeding influence….

……the first eclipse, also a partial Solar, was perhaps more subtle for being at the end of a Saros cycle, less consciously determined. We highlighted a call to feel out a path to compromise, to facilitate this by taking notice of how the bigger picture speaks through us, even in personal ways – a question of getting with the river rather than trying to push it, of getting our egocentricity in perspective within the flow. If we doubted the reality of this at the time, the full Lunar eclipse that followed brought it home more fully, quite literally.

On a mundane level water, and the lack of, over abundance of it, is a huge issue through the time of these big Solar/Lunar events and with the third eclipse in a water sign we can expect this to become even more central and remain with us. Water brings our attention to the issues of availability, cleanliness, pollution, infact an endless list can be rolled out – almost every facet of life is both connected through and affected by our relationship with this life giving element. On a global scale, tsunami alerts are now firmly incorporated into reporting seismic events located near or in the oceans, massive rainfall is being experienced world-wide, swelling rivers and extreme weather are producing both landslides, devastation and inundation, the very ground we have been living and sleeping upon is shifting, becoming fluid, being swallowed up, and is also questioning our sense of certainty with archetypal power.

Globally, through these events, we are seeing the undeniable power of water influence how we see the world we have created for ourselves. And, it is typical of eclipses that in the periods surrounding them something of our accustomed everyday sense of security is swept aside and the challenging truth beneath revealed. On a cosmological scale, the collective dream is being swept away – as our attention is pulled back to the all too easily overlooked subtle collective power of Neptune still in early Pisces, eclipses are returning us to an awareness of Nature reasserting herself, the visionary’s master stroke, a global cleansing of consciousness through the matrix as nature expresses it. Its as if on waking up to the reality of our destructive and unconscious rush towards the future we are realising that the dream was an illusion, that we have neglected our relationships to our ancestors dreams, very 12th house, that the dream did not truly belong to us at all, was the inheretance and consequence of misguided short-sighted egocentric inner dynamics – Neptune dissolves the ego in this sense. There are far more fundamental issues at stake as we enter the unknown….

To get to and work with the dynamics involved we need to be prepared to go through the upcoming times – there is no room for avoidance tactics, deceptions (self or otherwise) or ungrounded faith in outside intervention, governmental or divine! If eclipses do anything they show just how real our lives are. This can be experienced in as many different ways as there are individual astrological charts, so, do look to your own and expect marked effects if the eclipse falls on an angle, natal planet or forms a strong aspect to your own Sun and/or Moon.

Eclipses strip back a layer of consciousness, either mental or somatic, and reveal what has been beneath the surface all along. The sudden presence of underlying dynamics of the psyche within consciousness, when brought to the surface, can be unsettling and challenging – they can also precipitate events that begin or end through those same emergent energies; the house in which they occur will give you the context, the sign its flavour.

It is as if they interrupt the flow of ‘normality’. A better way of imaging them may be to liken the effect to sweeping the surface of a pond of its accumulated detritus, in that brief eclipsing moment – naturally, what lies below then rises to the surface. They also offer us a brief but powerful glimpse beneath the surface. A solar eclipse will alter our thinking and subvert our habitual mentality, questioning our drives, which can bring strong realisations out that we usually ignore, or prefer to shield ourselves from – full Solar eclipses reveal our animal nature at work and give us access to our instinctive soul drives. They will reveal to us something of the direction our soul is taking, by default. Events will reflect this back to us. A Lunar eclipse will work psycho-somatically so that the body-mind becomes the locus for our awareness, an instance in which our spiritual nature speaks more through the body and our consciousness is brought down to earth. They will reveal something of the state of our soul. In both cases our intimacy with the world is hightened. In both cases the collective effects remain potent, especially when the eclipse point is transited, for many months, years even, some astrologers believe. The triple eclipse pattern compounds the effects – this has been a turbulent time!

On a personal note, I was surprised at how many people reported feeling drained, bruised and closed down following the full Lunar eclipse. ‘Stop trying so hard’, ‘first rest’ and ‘then, let the work flow through’. Many people reported finding renewed purpose in this. It is in the nature of eclipses that we witness the unstoppable forces at work in the cosmos and, if we have been working with an intent that is not in tune with those forces, the rug is well and truly being pulled now. Any subversive ego serving ambitions we may have attached to our purposefullness are being shorn away – but, this is not a case of divine punishment, that idea belongs to the outgoing paradigm…..rather, what we are seeing here is that, the more sensitive and empathic people were through this month, the more we felt it at this Moon. At our deeper levels we merge.

Unity, if it is being sought, is already there…..the strength and resilience of our souls and how in synch we are with our personal soul path are highlighted in this experience – this, in essense is the only work. Any outstanding business that we have put on the back-burner is likely to emerge, and we know that we must do something about it. As uncomfortable as it may be, rest assured, this offers a route to holistic self realisation. It is the first intimation of the ‘softening up process’ that is releasing us from the shackles of the past. It is going into the wound without fear and leads beyond survival to flourishing….

As the ‘Moons of Zuvuya’ implied we survive and thrive through Grace, and, particularly, we thrive through getting real about who we are. What the Lunar eclipse added to this was the imperative to remember why we came here and, as the Sun reached the cardinal crossing point and swung around the hitching post of the year, the question was deepened to asking whether we are fulfilling this original purpose….both an individual and collective question. As the Storyteller Moon reminded us we are all in the same boat and our individual paths are inextricably interwoven – everyone’s story counts when it comes to our future and our future is collectively interwoven within the great dreaming of life. There is a very visceral medicine path in this.

It is as if our ‘shields’ are momentarily down and this means having greater access to our core essence, our greater self. This can be hard work, at a soul level, and in such moments the sudden absence of our protective and habitual masks and modus operandi can leave us feeling vulnerable, especially if we are not prepared for the experience. When events are triggered in our personal lives that reflect this we can look to the nature of the events to find out something of great value about ourselves and this works in two ways.

Firstly, the event will be the perfect mirror of that part of our circle of shields , or masks of personality, which has become momentarily eclipsed – by its reflection we can get a sense of what we create in our own personal reality that we normally take foregranted. These can more often than not be seen as personality traits, masks we wear, as characters we adopt for our social functioning and survival, both inner and outer. Quite often we create these masks to protect undeveloped, unintegrated or wounded parts of ourselves – they can also be positivistic, compensatory, bring balance, are useful, have social functions that support our outer lives, but, they are also, invariably, secondary to our true nature. It is a part of this process that we become aware of and articulate with, rather than being articluted by those masks. This is where the second way in which eclispses aid our work comes through.

Have you ever been in a radical situation, an accident or unforeseen crisis suddenly happened, and something took over, pulled you into action in a way that you are not familiar with? The radical potential behind eclipses can manifest such initiatic events. When we are exposed, without preperation, to the larger dynamics of life something can happen that by-passes our ego-centricity – the energy released can be awesome! The power of the psyche, its raw spiritual essence, can take over and we will find ourselves responding by doing what otherwise we might consider beyond our capabilities – we might not even recognise ourselves. Or, we might recognise our deeper self more fully. In medicine work, the inner work prepares us for this, is itself akin to a softening up or tempering process. Essentially, in an adrenal rush, we become opened to tapping into the universal energy more directly, its influx from source being more direct, less filtered, great things can be achieved in the face of crisis. It is in the aftermath that we need to be careful with ourselves…..

Have you ever wondered how much of our dis-connection from nature is symptomatic of a collective post traumatic stress syndrome – when Barbara Hand Clow coined the phrase ‘catastrophobia’ (1) she highlighted the effects of global cataclysmic events on the collective human psyche. There is every reason to believe that beneath many of our collective disfunctional behaviours is a collective soul-loss, our feeling of seperation from Nature, and all its implications, being the symptomatic wound. It can also be that, when a crisis is so great that it overwhelms us, we go into shut-down. Behind humanity’s ‘fault-line’ may be  a ‘source’ event that we are seeing mirrored back in the world now. Collective soul loss may be the one greatest issue of our times, a natural reflex in which our spiritual center, or a part of it, is shifted out of the personal conscious into the universal unconscious. In healing this fragmentation, through ‘soul retrieval’, we can also experienced a revelation of our wholeness, the restoration of an aspect of our selves that we have lost touch with, but, feel and are aware of  through the loss……with the hightening effects of eclipses this may be a part of their dynamic, a cosmic intervention that aids us in bringing ourselves home. But, it requires sustained care and support for integration, compassion and willingness, on our part. With eclipses the involuntary element makes this and preperation, the inner work, all the more poigniant and can highlight areas we have been unconscious to in our practice. Collectively, if worked with consciously, eclipses can offer anopportunity to engender collective compassion, which can also often come unexpectedly, from an inner resource we may never have realised we have….here too is a part of the softening up process, and it is a sacred call to forgiveness. In some senses its as if a cosmic ‘tough love’ is at work, an opening of the heart. It might help us greatly now if we are able to see the current state of the world in this way…….

The key to working with eclipses is through treating them as time-out zones, making our lives simpler for the moment, paying more attention and care to ourselves and others….and engendering compassion, courage and forgiveness. We may find this visited upon us, but, we are never without choice, never beyond hope. If you are considering launching a new venture, reflect upon your motives. Undertaking any major change through an eclipse time will carry the imprint of the eclipse within our soul path – many astrologers advise against such. It is not impossible though to utilise this in a way that is beneficial in the long term – if the intent is to give ourselves more time to be genuine, more deeply rooted in our soul path, it can be profoundly awakening. The biggest element though is unpredictability – for as much as we are able to forecast eclipses, for all the inner dynamics, insights into their workings, their immediate and lasting effects are unpredictable……they challenge us to be ourselves in the now, no matter what. But, the mirror of the unforeseen is Grace, and healing may enter by her gateway.

The second half of the year will see our world traversing the end count of the Mayan calendar – this has been calculated and exquisitely extrapolated by the Mayan ancestors. Contemporary commentators such as Carl Calleman have brought our understandings to an inspired level of clarity, but, for all that we can fore-see, we cannot know what lies ahead of us. The energies are rising, intensifying, approaching unification within consciousness. We are entering the unknown……deep consciousness that is intrinsic to all life is emergent within us. This, perhaps more than anything else at this time, is what these eclipses are softening our selves up for, through every cell in our body, right down to the core of our being. Eclipses are sacred gateways. We must go through them as we have an appointment with destiny. We are on our way to meeting and being met by the Dark Goddess…..in her, all life is born…..Prima Materia Sapienta. But, more on Her next time….

Blessings one and all!!

(1) ‘Catastrophobia : the truth behind earth changes in the coming age of light’ – Barbara Hand Clow; Bear & Company, 2001

……far from being exhaustive the links below will provide some food for holistic and sustainable thought and action that can make the difference – self empowering, informative and ‘green’ in intent, if nothing else brouse the Wiki pages, follow the links and create your own search path – sharing your findings, creating co-operative support networks and groups, trying ideas out for yourself – if you know of sites, organisations, individuals or educational centers on this theme, now is the time to pass them on – the world is brimming with empowering alternatives to living in dependancy to ‘The System’, so, if we help each other, we can all live in full connection ‘off the grid’ – g’luck!

http://www.gdrc.org/icm/lets-faq.html – an extensive and useful FAQs site about l.e.t.s. systems as they have been concieved in Australia

http://www.gmlets.u-net.com/design/home.html – fully detailed manual for setting up l.e.t.s. schemes from Canada

http://www.letslinkuk.net/ – user friendly UK site showcasing articles and resources for all interested in l.e.t.s.

http://www.littlegreenguide.com/ – simple practical index of ideas inc. solar-voltaic and combined wind generators – Australia based

http://www.carbonneutralenergy.co.uk/hydro.html – resourceful UK based site with many links to water based technologies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microgeneration – great Wiki page on Microgeneration, its uses and forms – lots of worldwide links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_building – another great Wiki page on Green or Sustainable building techniques – lots of links into different technologies and applications

http://www.cat.org.uk/ – based in Wales UK this is the educational center for alternative technologies site – long established tried and tested, always worth a visit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture – the Permaculture page at Wiki is once again filled with great links and info – working with nature as a practical land based way of self-sufficiency