Hold tight, seems the Universe has a sense of humour, and, the joke could well be on us – but, first….
A Question : Do you think Eckhart Tolle is right?…….
“As far as inner transformation is concerned, there is nothing you can do about it. You cannot transform yourself, and you certainly cannot transform your partner or anybody else. All you can do is create a space for transformation to happen, for grace and love to enter.” Eckhart Tolle
I doubt if Terence Mckenna would agree! But, old Eckhart is also surfing a very particular and clean wave here, one that belongs more in the ascetic tradition than that of the psycho-active shaman. Eckhart is a smooth rider, no fancy turns or popping the tube, more your smooth grace-ful arcs and crisp lines, all stripped down to the present moment – and yet, and yet, the ‘ocean’ can be a boiling cauldron too……
I’ll never forget surfing under the full Moon for the first time – somehow in the luminous darkness it made sense of the power of the wave and gave the water a visceral quality of dark primal energy that wove together the planetary dance with the elemental, brought everything to an instinctive level……then there were times when the Sun was setting and shining its light right through the wave, rainbow bejewelled spin-drift and glassy water spirits shimmering all round…..the Neptunian fields sighing at the shore….a total contrast by day and night, two sides of the same coin, and, oh boy! Getting a little nostalgic? Well, invite Neptune into your dreams this night and you may discover that She, yes She, is the great Oceanic Mother who is bringing the full breadth and depth of the Mysteries back from the deeper realms of our consciousness so that we can all surf the Zuvuya (1), all the way into the shores of the coming times……but, then, there were also those times when the storm waves arrived and surfing became transformed into a dance of total exhiliration between survival and a psycho-somatic art-form, turbulent ecstatic madness for the watery hell of it – short of the metaphor this is pretty much where we are at right now, the big rollers are beginning to whip up and its time to get the long boards and the ocean going canoes out….get ready, once we pass the balance point of light and dark at solstice this is going to be one hell of a ride……meanwhile……
We are coming into an eclipse cycle that will bring the Solar and Lunar energies together in ways that cut across the ‘standard time’ experience and open a three strand wave of opportunity that we will miss surfing at our peril – no more ‘for the hell of it’, more the ecstatic dance in which survival depends upon how well we have developed our skills as spiritual warriors and navigators, and, how well we can let go into the frey – perhaps not everyone on this planet is ready, there could be some serious wipe-outs (first signs are there for all to see) and the view from the shore may well begin to look like we’re closed out – but, this is exactly where all that inner preperation finds it purpose – those who are ready will feel the pull of the ocean and know what to do. Neptunia will make sure of it…..
At this Gemini New Moon we enter a quick-fire and potentially transformative eclipse cycle of 3 consecutive eclipses within the space of 1 month – while these are not the only eclipses this year, this cycle initiates lasting influences that will imprint the next 6 months – how we fare through this time will lay down a template that will affect everything that comes after through this year, and our ongoing story also depends upon adapting to that way of thinking. ‘The Power of Now’ (2) gives us access to all time. As if to push the point home, this cycle also straddles the June Solstice. The effects tie in to the seasonal cycles, a different measure of time, more familiar to our ancestors, that was a primary influence on the emergence of contemporary human culture. Duality was born here, emphasising the balance of light and dark on Earth, Life and Death, and how we work with them. And, there is more, much more, but, the turbulence in the world now being thrown up by the rising chaotic complexity of many cross currents is one of our potential stumbling blocks, so lets keep it simple and start with a little technical data…..
The new Moon on June 1st is a partial Solar eclipse at 11º02’ in tropical Gemini – it is in the Saros cycle 118 and will be visible from Northern latitudes initiating in northern China/south-eastern Siberia at 19:25 UT, maxing on the north coast of western Siberia at 21:16 UT, and ending just north of Newfoundland at 23:06 UT – northern Finland and Norway will see a partially eclipsed ‘Midnight Sun’, so, if you are living or visiting up there this could be a great time to make some powerful medicine as well as witness amazing beauty – we need this, a great photo opp. to spread on the net and remind ourselves of the mystery and wonder of Life on Earth – this alone is good medicine! It is also a powerful reminder that in the midst of the constant light of the north beyond the arctic circle at midsummer an eclipse interrupts the natural order of light and dark…….this is of its nature, and a clue to how we can work with its energies and the opportunities they bring.
The Saros cycle 118 is in its final phases and this first eclipse is considered a ‘grandmother’ of the cycle – by contrast, the July Solar eclipse, the third of the 3 will be the first of the Saros 156 cycle, a ‘new-born’…..the middle eclipse of the 3 will be a total Lunar eclipse, midway through Saros cycle 130, and this really is the one to watch for spiritual and earthwise tectonics as it centers on the meeting point of the Antarctic, African and Indian/Asian continental plates – it could trigger some very strong volcanic and EQ activity….infact the whole theme of this triple cycle is heavily Earth oriented, and ‘heavy’ is one of the operative words here…..the three eclipses also remind us of the trigram for ‘Water’ with one Yang line between two Yin, so ‘flow’ is another key word…..and remember, water has the power to shape the hardest substance…..
…..remember also, at the last Moon we saw the focus shifting very much towards the sensual, heart centered and earth-bound, the Taurean/Venusian effect, well, this coming cycle is going to reveal just why this was and is so important now. The inner planets continue to carry this imprint forward, but, the planets do not compel, they impel, which means they ask us to pay attention. And paying attention to how we are intergrating on the earth-plane is challenged by the tensions building through the outer planets. In the midst of growing unrest how well are we able to develop our appreciation of the beauty and values of this incarnate Life experience, and work through the ‘manifest’ to further our inner work while taking this into our practices in this world, the ‘middle world’ – even on the most basic level; how many people just don’t have a clue about growing plants? This is precisely the focus we are now asked to develop further. We do not need to engage with the death oriented consumer culture any more than our intelligence will prevent us from doing – we can help each other in this, sharing rather than selling our expertise to each other and, since Gemini is the field influence for the eclipse, we should pay some attention to Mercury’s disseminating intelligence in our personal charts.
Mercury as go-between is in late Taurus accompanied by asteroid Hecate, the no messing crone mother, emphasising that our very ability to be self-reflectively communicative is open to a new and deeper level of understanding, expression and experience, one with different drives. We need real dialogue that doesn’t hedge the issues – network without fear! And as Mercury is purveyor of hinge point mentality, literally ‘becoming articulate’, this eclipse is an opportunity for some really juicy ‘left-field’ thinking – Saturn trining the darkened Sun will make sure of it being related to our shared issues, in every sense, well outside the ‘norm’. Whatever we feel most strongly will manifest, so, watch your temper and tune in to the buzz on the outer and inner grapevine.
Perhaps a little more emphasis or gravitas is needed after all though and, amongst other things, this eclipse cycle is highlighting even further the escalating effect that our presence on Earth has had this last 13,000 years, as if that perspective hasn’t already become screamingly obvious. But, this harkens back to that very ‘moment’ in which our ability to articlute reality and to be articulate in describing it became superceded by its own product, the false face god of logical thinking, and its despotic little fascistic ruler, the ego. Once this set up kicked in, then, we have polarity, abstraction and a different order of ‘Time’ dictating to us. So, bear this in mind – the ego is an illusion creating our experience through outward appearances, appearances that say ‘everything is coming to a polarised condition’, one that must be controlled or must give way! Don’t buy it! No one is in control, the Ocean of Being is coming alive……
The intention here is not to scare or spread confusion, rather it is to offer a pragmatic reflection of where we are and where we are going, the better to be prepared……the alternatives? Well, we could just carry on ‘as normal’, and it is easy to approach astrology and divination practices in a frivolous and light way, the popular media do it every day, however, it is essential to test out your experiences against the messages all of us receive – they need to be grounded to have any bearing, Neptunian influences demand it. While our emphasis here has been on nurturing and carefully attending to our own ‘seeing’ abilities, we are already fully capable of collectively becoming ‘seeing’ beings, its just a matter of critical mass, so everyone counts. However, how many times do we seek divinations and then fail to follow through, and its when the stories come back of what happened when someone did follow through that are the real soul food that we all as diviners love to receive – that dialogue too is a necessary part of our practice. It helps us to know where we are at. And, since opening our ‘seeing’ eyes is intrinsic to the transformation of our consciousness…….the quality of our awareness is what helps the transformation and brings us fully into the process.
I mention this for two reasons – firstly we are being asked by the planetary process to give serious attention to the very nature of reality at this time, within which our personal and collective blind spots and resultantly destructive inclinations are under severe scrutiny, not least of all as they directly affecting the reality we are experiencing in unconscious ways; how many times have you heard the exhortation that we must become ‘co-creators’ – we already are, its a matter of realising it consciously, and the trouble is, when we are not consciously creating we are like open doors for the 4th dimensional low-life to work through – Neptune’s shadow! Astrologers disagree on who rules Virgo, opposite Pisces, some saying its Mercury, some Ceres and some Chiron….all of whom are figuring here, as we will see, so, look to their placements in your charts for seruptitious indicators of where that Neptunian shadow might be sneeking in and out….
Secondly, while we have also been emphasising the importance of Neptune’s ingress into tropical Pisces, Neptune’s domicile sign, the very nature of Neptunian influence is collective, and, while being the mystic in such times also has its purpose, we will be challenged in taking Neptune’s messages seriously here as well. It is easy to get confused – how many people call a mystic in an emergency?! Truth is not easily won in such circumstances and we will miss the boat if we do not pay attention here as well. Although Neptune will soon slide back into Aquarius for 6 months, the current brief Neptunian domicile time gives us a taste of the new underlying reality for the next 23 years, the length of stay once the mystic planet moves back into the spiritual zone of Pisces next March. Here-in lies the key for a whole generation of incarnation, those born with Neptune in Aquarius. This in itself is astonishingly pertinent, as transformation of Global consciousness is manifesting through ‘the people’ even in the midst of apparent disorder and the big shift in the coming years will come from this generation – it really is not about the shit thats hitting the fan as the old order disintegrates, its about the ability of those who have to clear it up to do so while holding a collective vision, and that begins a year last Tuesday in Galactic time – Neptune in Aquarius also tells us we have to have a new reality within ourselves that we can communicate in order to transcend the old one outside! The indigo children and the rising archetype of the child with stars in its eyes are our future. This, as an opportunity for ‘seeing’, is what eclipses are all about…..we are talking about initiating collective spiritual realities through the generations…..and, as ever, everyone counts in the holographic universe.
So, we have something of the tenor of this opening eclipse, as an old cycle of Solar eclipses is coming to a close, a grandmother is holding open the crack in time, a moment of opportunity to step outside the old structuring principle and press the inner reset button…..and, what of the other planets……
Seems all very complicated, but, again, simplicity is the order of the day, and to re-iterate, this eclipse can be characterised by two perspectives that are interwoven very tightly – one, as the old structures and safety nets are withdrawn a certain willingness to accept that we are not in control, that control is not the issue, and, two, accepting that letting go and getting with the flow will allow our true nature to emerge into the world….in order to live in and experience the ‘holographic universe(s)’ we need to ‘flow’ with inner balance…..its a lesson in surfing…..and is no less a discipline for that.
Heres a ‘time’ check…..speculation on the plane of the outer planets, over the next 2 years. Uranian energies will vie with Plutonian to ensure that both of these strands happen simultaneously – Neptunian influences upon our underlying realities will become increasingly supportive of the process, and, as the Moon’s North Node and Saturn converge upon each other (they will meet exact conjunct, with Venus, in the 9th degree of Scorpio 3 days prior to the September Equinox 2013), we should be finding increasingly powerful ways of manifesting our new reality. By the time the North Node reaches Saturn’s current degree in Libra, the final square between Uranus and Pluto will be manifesting the culminative phase of their ‘joint’ input into this massive transformative process. And once Uranus transits the South Node, he will have helped us manifest our new humanity, ‘singing the body electric’ (not the song from Fame!) by remembering where we came from, our stellar nature, and how we got here…..we are talking March Equinox 2015……
Yes there are many powerful and significant astrological alignments all through this longer period, but, its what we are about in the meantime that will make all the difference to how much we are able to manifest their high side when they arrive……so, what of 2012? Well here is the gift not only of Neptune through the run-up to ‘that’ date, but, also of this flurry of eclipses……and, zooming in to present time once more, the key aspects to this first Solar eclipse are also very simple, but, no less radical for it – on the contrary! Saturn trines the June 1st eclipse to within 1º, and Ceres squares the Nodal axis exactly from late Pisces. Remember, Oct 28th 2011 sees the end of the current cycle in the Mayan long count by one method, December 21st 2012 by another – these twin strands also work together and the intervening time is our time of ‘grace’ – in many ways this is the entry into the experimental zone. All this re-weaving of strands can be seen as a description of how our DNA is evolving – we know that we have 97% of it waiting to kick in consciously, and thats the creative powerhouse that connects us into the cosmic matrix. Relating will take on a whole new meaning!
Saturn continues emphasising how important our ability to relate is at this time – he will turn direct again just 3 days before the second of our 3 eclipses, so there we have the self-reflective process of our inner work turning tangibly outwards again. Neptune and Chiron go retro in the meantime so here the personal focus of this process becomes fed by our how our outer perceptions relate inwardly – the two work together, as within, so without – so, perhaps this will help us see how the dynamic towards intentional activity that ‘goes with the flow’ develops.
In trine to the June 1st eclipse Saturn brings strong unwavering focus and presence to our awareness as the crack in time opens. But, could be this is not only about hitting the ‘reset’ in our connectivity through time and space…Ceres will feed directly into our most precious visions and resources at this time, the Earth Mother teaching her fledgling children about the true nature of our souls’ journey. Jeez its getting to look pretty much like cosmic soup, but, wait……..! Wasn’t there some mention of ‘grounding’ back there……this is where Ceres ruthless pragmatism can really help at that soul level……
“Look around” she will say, “and feel it! – See how much grief is present in this world? Have you let the Plutonic powers steal your soul……our souls, Earth’s soul? No not mine, oh, my children!” Ceres sits at the southern waning square to the nodal axis, which means she is alerting us to whats around us, the incoming from outside, so that we can digest it and make of it soul food as well as jetison what no longer metabolises. So, actually she is working independantly on the same agenda as Neptune and Chiron. Ceres great message is that we are soul makers, transmuters of spirit in matter, infact she is teaching us here in very tangible ways that matter and spirit are one – if we don’t get the grief of the seperation, we continue in the illusion and stand to go down with it…..if we get it and let it teach us we will become the clearer, less burdened and stronger for it.
Ceres grief at the loss of her soul child, Persephone, gave her the unbending determination to find her daughter and bring her back, a mother’s instinct – symbolically, out of her journey (Earths emergence from the last Ice Age, and the myth we encountered at the Dharma Moon) our new seasonal experience through nature of the dance between light and dark emerged, and with it our agricultural relationship to the land and the fertility cycle. We can begin to put the pieces together again on this eclipse……remember Her connection with the Mysteries…….
Do you doubt it?! How is it that the planets provide us with a synchronistic and cosmic reflection of this unfolding reality….well, how about, this is the very thing that the cosmos wants us to become aware of – if the past and the future are also present in the present, then we live in one great divining self-reflective consciousness that is witnessing itself becoming in eternity……here comes the new reality! And as fledglings this is also a vulnerable time……
We can be swept away with realisiation of just how much of the shit that is flying around is of our own mis-guided creation – grief and soul loss are serious issues…..take a step back and take a few deep breaths, help is at hand.
Mars is joined by asteroid Euridike in mid Taurus and they are quintile Chiron in early Pisces, a positive and creative aspect. Euridice (‘she whose justice spreads widely’) reflects the soul loss back to us, the result (the myth tells us) of snake-bite in an unconscious moment of ecstacy, and her story with Orpheus carries the warning ‘pay attention, do not doubt – hold fast to your intent, focus, carry the intent of the return through – and don’t look back!’ The latter is just what Euridice’s lover Oprheus did and he lost her to the underworld as a result. Chiron’s role will be to help us live ‘in the wound’ so that it can be healed and here the wound is reclaiming our ancestral souls – we have to go, like Orpheus, to the roots to do so. As a mentor once said ‘the juice is in the tragedy’! We will come back to this story when we look at the Uranus Pluto square off in a future post….
……in a waxing sextile to Ceres we find Venus entering the last decan of Taurus conjunct asteroid Hephaistos, the master smithy whose ax split Zeus head so releasing Athena – the means to release and realise our higher mind and bring earth-wisdom to bear, to craft the medicine (Venus is also in a waning quintile to Chiron). Further on in Taurus, Mercury conjunct asteroid Hecate is squaring up to Neptune – that crone wisdom helps this eclipse become communicated through Mercury’s interventions in the dreamtime. We are, they remind us, getting into serious business here and when Chiron goes retro Mercury will be square the shaman too. Hecate cannot be phased by the urgency of the moment, and it is as well that Chiron’s healing gifts are given a stellar boost here that will lend us the very confidence we need in our ‘left field’ creativity as a healing tool – here are our means for dealing with the challenge of healing our collective wound from within. Life as Art. Chiron’s grounded knowing of ‘Death as our advisor’ releases us from fear – how else can we wise up to our limitations, and understand that sublimation of ego to Life leads us towards embodiment of wisdom. Chiron conjunct fixed star Deneb Adige is atavistic, cunning, clever quick-wittedness and creativity in service to healing and bridging the worlds. Let us not forget that Chiron is the ‘Rainbow Bridge’ to the outer planets (3) – he makes of Mars the spiritual warrior, he emphasises Venus love of the sensual in appreciating our creations and working with nature as a gateway to the other worlds, and he meets Mercury with the creative facility to open the mind to greater knowing as we swim out to meet the stars on the oceanic tides of the Solar plane beyond this eclipse….
…..well, Eckhart has a point, we might well be tadpoles in a very big pond, and, we really are in for one hell of a ride either way – however, perhaps the whole point is that once we make those preparations, for grace and love to enter, even though transformation happens ‘to us’ it is in allowing and enabling this to really happen that we realise our true co-creative role and become the transformation, as it is happening, finally coming home to the cosmos.
The flow of time becomes the ever changing present, a time-out-of-time opened up within this by this first eclipse – and, as Neptunian waves of consciousness flood the field, we turn inwards to find that there are no boundaries…..in that place fear falls away, we are no longer crucified on the cross of time, no longer torn apart by dualism….and as Terence McKenna once famously said “the further in you go, the bigger it gets!” Best not forget our sense of humour then…..
The holographic universe opens through the everpresent Flower of Life in our hearts – each point within the matrix knowing each other point, all contained within the one, endlessly enfolding and expanding along the fractal scale of the space-time continuum – our chance is right here, a break between the breakers, a rip tide in time that will take us out on a journey into the heart of mystery beneath the Black Sun of the 5th World.
(1) Surfers of the Zuvuya: Tales of Interdimensional Travel. José Argüelles; Inner Traditions/Bear & Company. 1989
(2) The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment :Eckhart Tolle; Namaste Publishing, Vancouver: 1997
(3) Chiron : Rainbow Bridge between the Inner and Outer Planets ; Barbara Hand Clow; Llewellyn Publications, US; 1987
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