Dear Friend and Reader:
It’s New Year’s Eve and we have an eclipse of the Moon in Cancer — the sign ruled by the Moon. Eclipses represent dependable transitions; this is fitting astrology for the end of a year, and even a decade. Yet by our calendar, this is not technically the end of the decade; that’s a year from now. When we get wind of the astrology of 2010, we’ll see that the coming year is the peak of something that has been building since before Dick and Junior went to Washington and committed treason. However, it’s been 10 years today since Y2K; 10 years since another foiled terrorist attack — the guy who was going to bomb Los Angeles airport (LAX) who was busted by a worker on the Washington State Ferries. Vigilance is indeed the price of liberty.
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Eclipses come back to any pair of signs every nine years, and the signs where eclipses happen have a way of coloring the world. One of the themes of eclipses across Cancer and Capricorn is emotional dependency and its counterpart, the need to submit to authority. Back when people other than advertising writers thought about psychology, a few of us understood that giving away our power was an emotionally-driven process, fueled by fear and the refusal to take authority for our own lives. Erich Fromm called it the Escape from Freedom.
Here’s a theory for you: humans rarely seem to grow out of the tendencies we develop in our early childhood relationships with authority figures — such as our almighty parents; ministers who claim to personally wield the power of God; and teachers who can inflict torture and humiliation on us. Once instilled, these patterns dominate our emotional landscape; and take up residence in our relationships, our homes, our jobs, our creative experiences — everywhere. Under such emotional conditions, the only acceptable way of life is to be stupid, fat and bored: nobody is threatened. We would in fact express ourselves, if not for the fear of threatening others; which is a ruse for refusing to grow up.
If the Western world is stuck on one issue, this is the one. We love to be told what to do; we love to have our decisions made for us; we love to be told what is right and wrong and who is honest and who is not and whether it’s okay that some golfer had a lot of girlfriends. We need to be told what is perfectly safe and how long we’re going to live and to be angry about lead in Barbie dolls and that toxic dorms are safe; and as a result, this whole concept of becoming an adult is a little like reaching Valhalla. Where the heck is that? I think it’s in Connecticut.
We Americans in particular tend to spend our lives acting like little children, and it’s time we grow up and claim some accountability for our actions, our choices and our destiny — personal and collective. Part of that is admitting that we do indeed make choices, which is to say that we don’t need our internalized parents, teachers and ministers to run our lives. We can do a lot to take care of ourselves; all the ‘health care’ in the world will not substitute for throwing out your microwave oven. We don’t need the president to protect us from terrorism and we don’t need content filters to protect us from ‘unsafe’ materials on the Internet. We need to grow up and pay attention.
At the same time, I think that our particular society needs to take more responsibility for our children: our refusal to admit to having temporary authority over them, when they need it most, is the same thing as letting our own lives run wild. We can twist our knickers all we like about the ‘sanctity of marriage’, but that has nothing at all to do with cultivating devotion to honest relationships. Which will help us and help our kids and help build our society.
Humans tend to be creatures guided by our emotions rather than by reason or intellect; and as such we are easily led around and told what to believe, based on what we think will make us feel better or ‘be safer’. An eclipse of the Moon in Cancer, particularly opposite many significant planets — Venus, the Sun, Pluto and Mercury to name four — is about setting ourselves free from those emotional patterns, crossing the great divide to all those Capricorn planets, and taking on the mantle of authority over our own lives.
Somebody has to; it may as well be you.
Come check out the Cosmic Confidential Diary.
Wouldn’t it be fantastic to live in a world where everyone did the “right” thing. Unfortunately some people where not blessed with the tools to put their thinking caps on. Ignorance is exactly that…..ignorance. It is venues like Planet waves that take the shiny new caps out of the box. I think we also need to take responsibility as individuals to shed some “light” on a more personal level. Unfortunately with Money and Power being our leaders in this great country and the channel 4 news being our guide, well……people remain ignorant. I am going to make it a point this year to give off as much “light” as I can…In Love.
HAPPY NEW YEAR**:>
The calendar conundrum is an interesting one as when it started in 1AD it was the Julian calendar which was then changed to the Gregorian in the 18th century when some days were “lost”. Think it was about 12 days. So if we were to be pedantic about it we haven’t had Christmas yet.
If we follow your logic Eric then 1990 was the last year of the 80s and 2000 the last year of the 90s. I think most people now assume, rightly or wrongly, that 2010 is the first year of the “teenies” rather than last of the “noughties”.
Similar things happen with birthdays as our birth is “ground zero” day and we only become the age we are at the end of the year. We don’t start out at one do we?
Happy New Year, whatever decade it is for you.
Thank you Eric, and Chelsea and all collaborators and writers of Planet Waves. You really are a daily ‘soothing’ and nourishing source, so welcome.
I am in Italy, and here it’s 12.25. So we are on the 1st of January! You in USA are still in 2009… this makes the whole New Year seem like an illusion, but it’s a fun one.
Not to speak about me, but this Moon eclypse was exactly on my Venus in Cancer. I really appreciated Eric’s article on this subject, and I wish ALL OF US to go beyond emotional dependence and the need to receive ‘orders’ in this 2010… thank you God.
Happy New Year!
Paola
Fe, You used words far better than mine to express this to Eric: “You so magnify what I need to see in my heart ….Thank you so much for your writing, which is really a human service on a grand scale.”
……today’s article expresses so well a conversation I had with close friend just yesterday, and lets me feel stronger about how I/we are sitting on a Moment – one of extrodinary importance – to me at least. I admit to being more than a little afraid of what I’ve come to stand for and what I think I “want” of life – I’ve spent my life so far afraid of my Self, actually, so this moment is extra powerful – time to overcome that –
PWer support is huge and I thank you all again and again for this little ripple on the pond we ride along upon.
Mystes, My son too. Blessings and Merry Tantra Moon Dancing.
Love and Light to guide us into 2010,
Linda
eric:
Thank you so much for the monthly and today’s weekly. You so magnify what I need to see in my heart that I have come to really rely on it, my North Star.
Thank you so much for your writing, which is really a human service on a grand scale. And thank you Planet Waves and Planet Wavers for everything you are and continue to be in my life and each other’s lives. We really are a sacred circle, as full as this ol’ blue moon.
Eric – Thank you. Inspiring as the Full Moon itself. You set such a wonderful example in what you do and how you have achieved it. This, in turn, lends the weight of authentic integrity to your words. Speaking as one of many who have been enriched by your existence (and what you have chosen to do with it), please accept my thanks for perhaps the best year of my life – the year i was able to participate in service to the Planet Waves community.
Mystes – sounds like a good time. May your sinuses be clear, may your heart be at peace, may your energy sustain you all night long. You are one special human being.
On 12/31/09 2:04 PM, “Christine DeLorey”
Hi Eric,
Re LUNAR ECLIPSE IN THE SIGN OF THE MOON.
Great article as always. Please forgive me if I got this wrong, but there does seem to be an error. How can this NOT be the end of the decade of the 00s and (tomorrow) the start of the 10s? 2000 to the end of 2009 is ten years. If, the end of the decade is not until a year from now, that would be 11 years. Just thought you’d want to know.
Love to you, and happy new year!
c
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Dear Christine:
Strictly in calendar terms — not cultural or numerological — there was no year 0. We start counting, theoretically, on Jan. 1 of the year 1. A century is 100 years and the first century would therefore need to go to the last day of the year 100.
The 20th century goes from Jan. 1, 1901 to Dec. 31, 2000.
The 2 in 2000 is the same 2 as the one in 20 for 20th century.
The first decade therefore goes from the first day of 2001 to the end of 2010.
e
Unlike last year’s follies, this Full Year Blue Moon will be spent in with 15,000 ravers. My teenage son will be in the room, so Mother&Son clearlight will be up and at’em.
This will be a big —really big— ritual space, and I intend to carry it as far as there is. FerryCorsten+Eclipse+Bluemoon+NewYear+Decade+TribalTantra+DNAspinning=???
Hop on, I think the Moon will hold us all…
M