Faith, Belief and Vision: Sagittarius Solar Eclipse

Kingston Plaza. Photo by Eric Francis.

For nothing is so cherished and protected, as is a goal the mind accepts. This it will follow, grimly or happily, but always with faith, and with the persistence that faith inevitably brings. — A Course in Miracles

Today is Friday, November 25, 2011. An eclipse of the Sun took place overnight in Sagittarius. That is a conjunction of the Sun and the Moon. Currently both are in Sagittarius, close to the eclipse, which takes place at 1:09 am EST. Mercury stationed retrograde yesterday; today let’s focus on the Sun-Moon conjunction, a New Moon eclipse close to the lunar North Node.

Eclipses shift continuity; what seemed to be happening in an uninterrupted sequence gets a chance to change. They’re useful that way — though they need to be handled with intention. If you’re in a pinch, the time around an eclipse (that exact day, few days or even a few weeks) is when to jump out of one movie and into another.

Eclipses can also be used to set a pattern as well as break one, which implies something different emerging than was happening before. This is not always a pleasant experience. Some eclipses represent radical, even violent changes in the flow of events, but any negative effects can be mitigated by working with them consciously. It’s only recently that astrology generally accepts that they can be used constructively. The old books (and many fairly recent books and articles) take them as negative events, but most astrologers you ask will tell you that they take on the meaning that we give them.

In Sagittarius, the general subject matter includes our ideas about how we relate to existence. This is the sign that encompasses faith, belief and vision. It’s associated with the content of religion rather than its form, which means the actual presence of the divine rather than a bunch of ideas about what it’s supposed to be. Sagittarius can hold the archetype of our highest ideals, such as what justice is supposed to represent rather than the imitation foisted on us too often. Sagittarius is therefore the sign of faith rather than of hope. You can think of the difference this way: Hope is a hollow emotion, grounded neither in our inner source or in tangible action; faith is connected to source and often leads the way directly to action. Hope is a kind of mockery of faith. You could say that this eclipse comes with the idea ‘abandon hope’ and connect to something deeper.

A Course in Miracles points out that we don’t have the choice whether to have faith — only where we invest it. This is like saying everything that’s alive has to breathe; the question is how. One useful exercise is to question what you invest your faith in, and why. Faith is extremely powerful. It’s the result of connecting to a direct power source, whatever that connection might be to. If we connect faith to fear, we will get fearful outcomes. If we connect our faith to love, creativity or healing, that’s what we will get. The problem is not that faith doesn’t work; rather, we can struggle when we don’t recognize how we’re using faith.

The best way to size up what you have faith in is to look at your life. What results are you getting? Follow them as far back up the chain of cause and effect as you can go, and find a place where you can make a decision.

There are many ways to experience faith. It can feel like a fire burning in your soul. It can feel like the calm certainty that you’re on the right path. It can feel like clear, easygoing confidence. You might feel connected to what some describe as the higher self, or a facet of your psyche that knows it’s connected to everything else. The more deeply you cultivate this connection the more obvious it will be when you encounter others who are working on the same frequency. You might experience this eclipse as an inner opening into this realm.

Belief is another matter entirely. It’s more like a crust on the mind and on perception. It’s possible to believe things that are absolutely not true, and to even go a step further — thinking that believing what’s not true makes it true. If you’ve ever found yourself in a situation where you’re dealing with people who believe things in direct defiance of the available facts, you know how weird belief is. Today’s eclipse is an invitation to take that inward, and ask yourself what exactly you accept as true even when you have evidence to the contrary. You can go deeper and ask yourself how it feels to hold the contradiction, and why you’re doing so.

Belief is also incredibly powerful — far more than we might think. It can turn day to night — in your own mind. And this can have an effect on others. We’ve all had the experience of being swayed by someone’s false belief. It’s the easiest way to set a limit on yourself: for example, not believing that anything else is possible, other than what you know (or think you know). One of the easiest ways to identify a mistaken belief, or two beliefs that conflict, is noticing when you’re struggling. Relatively few people are willing to question or analyze why they believe what they believe; in fact many people pretend they don’t actually know what they believe. The result is like having a filter in front of their perceptions. Think of this eclipse as the filter falling off for a little while, allowing us to see what we believe and reconcile it against the available facts.

Vision is a theme bursting from Sagittarius. We all have a vision for our lives, but it’s rare enough that we connect to our vision consciously, much less cultivate it consciously. Many times that vision was set for us, then left unquestioned. What is your vision for yourself? How long have you had it, and what is it based on? This is a place a lot of us could do some excellent growth work. Our vision for self can be limited by faith and belief, or turned loose by them. It’s possible to work backwards, such as expressing your vision to yourself, noticing the parameters and looking for false beliefs and misdirected faith. Then you can make some decisions about what you think is possible and why.

Mercury retrograde in Sagittarius will help with this whole process; we’re about to encounter a powerful tool for self-inquiry. More on that next week.

Looking for insights on how this week’s astrology affects your personal Sun and rising signs? Try out Planet Waves Light, our streamlined horoscope service. For deeper cultural context and astrological investigation, the premium Planet Waves subscription includes the same horoscopes, plus extensively-researched articles on Fridays.

32 thoughts on “Faith, Belief and Vision: Sagittarius Solar Eclipse”

  1. So enjoyed reading everyone’s comments this morning. “Edgar Cayce said family is the most Karma you’ll meet on this plane. Think of it as “homework.” Thanks for this Judith, it’s so true and such a positive way of looking at it. That way the child grows up and becomes an adult. There’s a great book by Jack Kornfield called After the ecstasy the laundry, in which he writes about ardent buddhists who go off for years to the Far East and become spiritual masters of themselves and their lives, but when they come back home to stay with their families, they’re reduced to skulking adolescents again! And a very very (belated) Happy Birthday to you J. xx

  2. How fantastic to wake up here in the UK to these continued riffs on the concepts of faith/belief, fate/destiny, linear/non-linear. Much deep and relevant material to chew on this weekend. Thanks all!

  3. Red-Tailed Hawk, thank YOU for joining this thoughtful tribe… you’ve given me a much needed key to unlocking the riddle of how can I join the “Occupy” movement! This is stunningly brilliant!

    > “… If I do that, if enough others do that, non-linearly occupy non-linearity, the paradigm will shift into place around us like an embrace. Or at least that’s the view from eclipse conjunct natal Chiron…” <

    I would echo from the vantage point of the eclipse conjunct this natal Ceres that shifting one's weight away from linear thinking/acting and moving towards the embrace of the non-linear is indeed how we each bring forth the healing of the world. When we recognize that no part is separate, then it becomes easy and natural to move fluidly with what is the right thing to do when making choices. One can ask: Are my everyday actions arising from a set of beliefs that I hope might be how reality is shaped (and thus my ego can live in the illusion that it is in control), or, do my actions arise from a process of listening within, and honouring the whole and finding alignment with the Destiny stream instead of the Karma/Fate stream to help guide my intentions? This way we can each engage in simple acts of taking the power cord that used to be plugged into the old paradigm/patriarchy and simply unplug it and accept that there is another way of moving/engaging with this manifested world. It is just as you say, an act of consciously choosing where to withdraw energy and where to engage it…this is how we will bring about the shift we are all feeling in our collective bones.

    We are so very nourished by your thoughts/words/presence here, thank you!!

  4. You guys all rock! Grateful to keep finding you here in this space ef has provided. Happy thanksgiving eclipse!

  5. Green-Star-gazer, thank you for the lovely illuminated from within imagery and thank you for adding the notion of linearity and paradigm shift to the dialog. For me, it’s an important aspect of the faith/belief mediation. As we orient ourselves away from the current disastrous linear paradigm and into a non-linear paradigm to be able to identify where our social constructs, our vocabulary, our ways of doing and being, etc fall on the linear/non-linear axis is helpful. Yes, I agree, belief is linear, and faith non-linear. (Fate is a linear construct; destiny is non-linear. Fear is a linear construct; and.. well, what is the non-linear component I want there? Willingness?) As an individual I want to do my part to manifest paradigm shift. But honestly that seems at times just so overwhelmingly monumental and at other times just too woo woo. But if I can identify concepts and constructs and assorted cross-currents of daily life as linear or non-linear, then I know where to withdraw energy and where to invest energy. I know what to inhabit. I know where to be present. I know where to show up and hold space (to be/live vs believe). I know where to occupy. If I do that, if enough others do that, non-linearly occupy non-linearity, the paradigm will shift into place around us like an embrace. Or at least that’s the view from eclipse conjunct natal Chiron….

  6. A lovely meditation and dialog here. In my world there are several vibrant discussions like this going on right now… a lovely manifestation of that New Moon and Mercury retro both in Sagittarius, or to use Eric’s FABULOUS word: “Sagittaurius”.

    For me, the distinction between Faith and Belief has all been rather fuzzy throughout my life. especially when I look at how some popular phrases use them ( as has been beautifully illuminated here by previous contributions).

    As I move forward with my own personal growth I sense that for me, Faith is more like a stream of interaction between my conscious self and my deep-conscious self, or as some might call it the Feminine/Lunar aspect of the Self or as still others might call it: the un-manifested reality. Whereas Belief has been something that my linear/Yang/masculine side has an easier time identifying with if given the chance. As I look outwards to the manifested world, this seems to be reflected out there as well since so many aspects of the old patriarchal paradigm that we have been collaborating in is now dissolving, and having a set of Beliefs seems to be such a part of that fabric. Beliefs seem to be something that can be written down, espoused, enforced even?… but Faith… that is what illuminates one from within… it is in my way of thinking/feeling, something that is directly connected to Source, where Belief is a set of filters. Faith can be illogical and is certainly wordless and therefore somewhat hard to define…but as the article points out beautifully, Belief, misplaced, misused or misunderstood can get us in a world of trouble.

  7. RedTailHawk, thank you for sharing!

    Faith really is a blank slate. Beliefs are humanistic. My church strives at teaching faith in the God who lives within us. It is a difficult concept, because it involves belief in a power that is every bit as powerful as nuclear power, if only we could have the tiny amount of faith that is required to put it to use. The changes in this world will be unimaginable, once we have faith, which is perhaps, absence of doubt?

  8. Thank you redtailhawk. Really appreciate your thoughts and questions here; you have added greatly to my study/meditation on Faith and Belief.

    PS and of course, one answer i know is that I have no “faith” in the myths of my childhood as this is the fallow ground where beliefs are first formed. ..and rather it is Faith in Self to discern and choose, using those familial beliefs as fertilizer for personal growth.

    or some such.

    Thanks for a lovely day all.

  9. Not a usual poster here. Hello to all and happy Thanksgiving. It seems I’ve been meditating on the difference between belief and faith for the better part of a decade (that and the difference between fate and destiny, another, though related story). So I was timidly inspired to drop in on the conversation. There is so much that can be said about belief vs faith. Belief is the need to know something, while faith is the ability to know nothing. Belief is a fixed point; faith is a blank slate. As a blank slate, faith has no expectations which is why hope – and trust – are not the same thing as faith. In relationship drama there is often the issue of “I had faith in you. I trusted you.” Where faith and trust are conflated but usually in the sense of “I believed my expectations of you would be met by you.” But what does it mean to “have faith in” something or someone where faith is the absence of expectation? What sort of state of being is that? What sort of relationship results? What then does it mean to have faith in myself? To have no beliefs about myself? What would that feel like, to utterly set myself free? Why is one so much more willing to have that type of faith in “god” than in oneself? In my experience so many people think belief and faith are the same thing, words that can be used interchangeably. Or might differentiate meanings and yet feel they operate in the same way. Yet it seems the one is an action whereas the other is a refraining from action, more a state of being. Faith exists in the absence of belief. That is why faith is such a stern task master while belief is the ever-indulgent doting grandparent. Or, using a religious framework, since “god” asks the hard stuff of us while the “devil” seduces us with thinking we can get by with going the easy way, then faith is the province of god while beliefs are the handiwork of the devil where the temptation is to forego faith for belief. I love the mediation on faith vs belief. The questions raised and the imagery at hand seem endless, like peeling back lotus petals, and the results always potentially profound. Just a few thoughts… thanks for the space to share

  10. Jude, what a birthday date! Your words should carry a lot of influence through the coming year and changing times. Happy Birthday!

  11. I hope I win the lottery; but, I have faith that I won’t. There are psalms that cover hope, like the one that says not to put your hope in a racehorse, instead of the Source. I’m pretty sure that a lot of our spiritual beliefs are based upon how little we understand about what was written in the text, and what is hidden – Jesus talks about it quite a bit in fact – not having ears to hear, nor eyes to see, not even the faith of a mustard seed that remembers to grow every year, and so on. What did he say? With faith, you can cast the mountain into the sea. Now we have science that opens the door to other dimensions, something no-one believed possible in the recent past.

    I have always believed that i came to my family to experience whatever karma i had dished out previously, so I’ve diligently tried to work through it with some grace and humility, and help them too as much as I can.

  12. LOVED the picture and a great summary of the current skies (and the world and my life!) too. Was just enjoying the penny dropping on hope versus faith, when Judith kicked in with belief and faith. It explains a lot of cross-purposes talking that takes place between us sometimes. If you are coming from a place of experience and the other person is coming from a place of intellect it can be very hard to connect. I admit to being a bit of a failure at this. I tend towards faith, but I seem to have been surrounded by people of belief lately. And the thing about the intellect is that it is quite happy to switch reasons and rationales and examples to keep popping up the belief. It can be terribly exhausting and frustrating.

  13. Seems to me that the difference between belief and faith — IMHO — is that belief is most often an exercise in intellect. Faith comes from the experiential. When we connect with the Great Mystery, in whatever fashion, we KNOW something happened, something that we can’t explain but can certainly feel. I suspect that’s why the absolutes of religion ultimately fail but the open context of spiritual discovery remains constant. It’s always a matter of following our heart.

    And family? Edgar Cayce said family is the most Karma you’ll meet on this plane. Think of it as “homework.”

    Thanks for the birthday hugs, dear ones. Backatcha!

  14. Hey Amanda – I agree that it’s worthy to feel the good stuff. Of course! And also – to recognize and work through the crappy stuff. ‘Cause it’s there. It’s there. (And we are in opportunity to create a shift in that crap – so that there can be way more of the good. 🙂

    I think most of us could stand to work through some family stuff in order to power the earth toward a “better ” future. And not be in denial/repression about it. And the holiday season is a great time to work with that. — and enjoy people we love as well.

    holiday smooches
    xo

  15. Jude: Happy birthday. Now i know how it is i’m in love with you (or at least your writing). Always have been impressionable to the Sadge spell.

    Amanda: In my response to our friend Huffy, the family thing was not the focus when “heavy” was conceded. More like the month-long economic and caloric continuum that encourages debt, waste and health stressors.

    Eric: Yes. Thanks for mentioning Alice. Never been offended by her perceptions myself, only inspired to think outside the box. Many thanks to you for introducing me to her and counseling me how to read her.

  16. Like Guardian Angels and God, I think Faith has never left but I’ve spent life questioning the myths and beliefs I/we are handed. Thank you for distinguishing, Eric – your words here an important tool in quest for true life.

    I’ve been using a book called “Seven Stages of Money Maturity” by George Kinder to reconcile me with my own values…..the exercise of actually writing answers to questions such as “what are your three earliest memories of money?” and “when and how did money first enter your relationship with your mother? – your father?” has been astonishing what surfaces (and can be dealt with and changed/released). Of course the word “money” could be replaced with “religion” or other – for me money is representative of so many myths and can blanket so many areas of life including sex, relationship etc.

    And so this discussion of Faith fits precisely into the bigger conversation – do I have Faith in the Myths of my Childhood? Where exactly do I place my Faith?

    …looking forward to next week’s articles….and learning more about Sagittarius is excellent; Saturn (natal placement there) is becoming my friend.

    Thank you Eric and PW All.
    xo

  17. i know eric — i wasn’t singling you or this piece out, mainly responding to a couple comments. i totally get the need to recognize the unconscious “stuff” in families. i also think it’s valuable to recognize the presence of genuine joy, warmth, love and enjoyment that is possible, and actually present. just trying to keep the full spectrum in view.

    🙂

  18. It’s my Solar Return, here on Black Friday and Eclipse Day and feast-recovery day … and despite all that, I feel very calm. It feels like my spirit is peeking out at the news of the day and the emotional excess I see around me, calm, poised. Quiet. I take that as a portent that All Is Well, here on planet Terra — at least on soul level. Faith, indeed!

  19. Yes I know. I try to speak to the traumatized at holiday time. So few people recognize their plight, especially those who actually enjoy time with their families. That said, many in family situations do not quite recognize what is happening to them when they have the reactions that they do, even though the time might seem pleasant enough…there are often extremely strict rules around whom we can be. I feel it even in the most casual family environments.

  20. re: thanksgiving & christmas:

    believe it or not, i think there really are people who enjoy having both opportunities to connect with family; not everyone makes a big production out of both; and i think for some families it actually provides a way to have some sort of holiday with two sides of family, esp if they are far apart (one holiday for each). i think it all depends on the individual family dynamics whether it’s “heavy” or not…

  21. One point we’ll be getting into next week is that Sagittarius has as its ‘esoteric ruler’ The Earth. So it’s the most cosmic energy (the Galactic Center, Great Attractor) at the same time it’s the most worldly. AAB points out in her one astrology book that the Earth has not gone through its initiation into being what she calls a ‘sacred planet’. This offends many people, but if you look honestly at the prevailing state of affairs here, the hundreds of wars fought in one short century, it’s easy to see what she means.

    Next week we will also cover Mercury retrograding over Ixion, Pholus, Hylonome, the Great Attractor and the North Node.

    And finally I would point out that the eclipses have retrograded backwards (as they do) into Sagittarius, coming off of the Aries Point (where they had been for nearly two years). The combined effect of eclipses on the Aries Point was just brutal many times. These mutable sign eclipses will have more even-handed manifestations, taking longer to emerge; mutable energy is a lot closer to how humans actually think, feel and process reality than is cardinal or fixed.

    Note that mutable implies that we can be cardinal OR fixed or some other state; it shows the variance with which we experience our lives. Nobody is as fixed as they think, for example, and many who are fixed are doing so in reaction to what they perceive as constant change within.

    More on these points as we develop them with the writers next week.

    ef

  22. I am regularly astounded by how in tune your articles are with what is going on in my life…today is no exception! Thank you thank you thank you to your amazing team for bringing the macros into my micros in a relevant and accessible way, EVERYDAY.
    Faith is what’s up today, so how will I apply it? Good fodder for my quiet time.

  23. Huffy- I don’t know about everywhere else, but land taxes come a week after Christmas here. That is the heavy in my mind. There is money for either/or in this household. This year it’s neither…. so far. I still have faith 😉

  24. This is why you are so worthy of being subscribed to. Between this daily blog, Len, the oracle, Jude, Amanda and others not mentioned, You have the best faith raising, heads up sites EVER !!

  25. re: the photo. Love how the leaves so closely match the paint, and how the stark shadows give them an appearance of something other than leaves. Thanks.

  26. This is so where I am at right now. On the one hand, a sense of faith that has grown in the last 6 years or so, that’s getting stronger and stronger, on the other hand a lot of my faith/belief is still invested in a lot of fear, much of which is habitual or unconscious. Once again, can’t thank you guys enough for this blog. It has helped me so much – it acts as an amazing compass, will help keep me on course, or help me back on it when I lose it.
    A very Happy Thanksgiving to all you ‘yankees’ out there!
    Much love xx

    ps I’ve always wondered, in the US you have both Thanksgiving AND Christmas, isn’t that a bit heavy? Two family gatherings in the space of (not even) two months?

  27. This self-inquiry has been going on for about a month, and revelations abound from the ground up–or shall I say childhood to adulthood. Your posts are the most magnificent tool for enablying focus on a much needed deeper level. I have been dealing with a lot of family members who are stuck in a personal belief so fully, that they can’t hear their own words, or how ludicrous they sound. Keeping calm and allowing has been the only way for me to handle this. Allowing them to choose whether to evolve or stagnate, is really the only choice. As for me, change is not only a necessity, it’s always been my destiny. I appreciate fully articles such as this one as I so clearly resonate with the truth I read here.

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