The Aries Full Moon and lunar eclipse takes place Friday at 7:38 pm EDT. And then on Monday, Mercury stations retrograde in Scorpio, the sign of secrets, shared resources and the occasional emotional drama.
Eclipses arrive with an ominous feeling, and there is certainly that kind of atmosphere surrounding this event. They describe imminent change; they describe the shift of some context. But there’s also a question: do you take [whatever] drama seriously?
That could be said of any situation that’s under the influence of this eclipse, which amounts to everything happening right now, in whatever realm, whether public or private. I suggest you ask yourself where it’s logical to place the benefit of the doubt: do you assume that everything is going to be fine, or factor in that there is some risk that needs to be addressed?
One thing I’ve noticed is that as time goes on, many people seem more willing to ignore risks, and we are seeing many results of that. Worst-case scenarios deserve mention.
When the Sun is near an eclipse, that’s a little like a karmic toll plaza. You have to settle the karma to move on, or else multiply it. It’s time, therefore, to focus on getting things in order, resolving conflicts and making sure you have a balanced view of your life.
This eclipse event may be placing some stress on relationships. The question is, to what extent does expressing your instability destabilize your emotional and sexual partnerships? How far can you go being yourself before you start to feel unstable with another person? How far can they go being themselves before you start to feel insecure?
There is some information coming from the Mercury retrograde department. I mean that literally — the issue beneath the surface, that is, the deeper material, may involve secrets being kept. If you find yourself in a relationship scenario where the independence issue seems to be a factor, go deeper and account for what has not been said.
You can start with a list of everything that you have not revealed to the person or people you’re intimate with; you can make a second list of everything you think you have not been told. Those lists will tell you where you stand with whoever is involved. Ideally, in any truly intimate situation, you would have no withholds and no suspicions — a condition that most people would probably say is unthinkable.
One other point of astrology to cover: this week, Mars ingressed Virgo. This placement is calling for precision, for focus on the details and for a measure of impeccability. It’ll affect everyone’s chart differently — notice where your physical energy is directed, how you relate to anger and which way your obsessions tend to lean. Notice how you relate to factors in your environment that call for attention and repair. Notice where you direct your best efforts.
While in Virgo, Mars will oppose two planets — first Neptune (exact Sunday) and then Chiron (exact Halloween). For now, let’s consider the Mars-Neptune opposition and what I will call the doubt factor. You may doubt that it’s really worth reaching for integrity; you may doubt what you know; you may feel like your efforts are not worth much and it’s better to have a good time and not worry so much.
You may be right. But how would you know?
You may get good information, and wonder if it’s true. You may get useless information that you trust.
Under the current astrology all of this needs to be handled carefully. In the face of missing information, one must either make an assumption or wait for additional data. All of this needs to be handled consciously over the next five or six days. Who gets the benefit of your assumptions? Who gets the benefit of the doubt?
What information are you waiting for? Pay attention — it’s on its way.
With additional research by Amanda Painter and Alison Beth Levy
Nilou: My sentiments exactly. Thank you for this:
“…‘keeping oneself whole’; which is, of course, not something than one person can do for another…”
Retaining ‘wholeness’, in particular is I feel a slight caution at this sensitive eclipse time. A time that holds so much energy potential for each of us.
Just read your post DarkMary, thank you for mentioning the composite Mars in the 12th. Gives me some insight.
“The question is, to what extent does expressing your instability destabilize your emotional and sexual partnerships? How far can you go being yourself before you start to feel unstable with another person? How far can they go being themselves before you start to feel insecure?” We’ll said. Rings so true for me!
The moon in the coming full moon is exactly on my 12th house Mars…mystic warrior wake up call?
I am confident that my place in the world is in the natural sciences. My life has gotten better since the end of the government shutdown, I’ve even come out stronger from this.
That is one area where I do not have self-doubt.
I know I want to be in the natural sciences, I know my family supports me on this, and I know my community supports me on this.
I have doubts about my capabilities sometimes (Mars square Neptune and Sun square Saturn), but I work hard to overcome those self-doubts. I know there are capabilities I do have.
I prepare myself for anything. I hope for the best, but if bad things happen, I do what I can to deal with them. This is what I have to do during Saturn in Scorpio and the upcoming Scorpio season.
One of the things I am learning is how to deal with institutions and paperwork, which is another dimension of the Mars in Virgo transit.
Beg pardon, Matt Licata. Reading and writing without my glasses today.
Dark Mary,
Thank you for your articulate sharing. Thank you also for introduction to Matt Litari: “Your confusion is not pathology, it is path. It has something to reveal to you that clariity and certainty could never, ever show you. The nature of confusion is wisdom, but you must make a home for it within you to receive its mysteries.”
I know and believe this with my mind, and reading your post, it’s easy to feel the resistance, the unseen criticism, the personal dogma that refuses to walk on.
Today is eclipse day. Onward!
DarkMary, thank you for offering such a powerfully resonant & turbulent story. Many of your ideas have hit home with me. I am deeply grateful to you for sharing.
Darkmary, thank you so much for sharing your story and words. I valued it very much. I also quite enjoyed the last two quotes you offered. Much love to you.
I meant here at PW.. ”the sign Scorpio (my sun sign) is not used to incite voluminous negative contributions”
I have followed a few astrology sites in last decade, each was a fountain of knowledge. Eventually something would lead me further down the path in search of a deeper interpretation, more in tune to how I perceive the world but especially ”how I feel about the world”.
As an example, the sign Scorpio (my sun sign) is not used to incite voluminous negative contributions. I can name another astrology site that digs up something on the nature of the Moon, Rising or Sun in Scorpio every couple of weeks just to engage reader comments. Or, more recently one fav astrologer known especially on FB coined the term ”beastly water sign”. Heal or be still…
PW offers a micro and macro all encompassing view and I haven’t found another substitute. I have found enough compassion and empathy, here, to atone my body, mind and soul.
Plus, Eric you are just a little groovy.
I discovered lots of secret mysteries which proved to me that sage 12 Saturn is expressed in its legendary beauty, I decided to tame the lion in a cage since March to leave the sign of Leo into Virgo it will become wise as an image, after having passed the test of water Neptune…
Thanks Eric and good night of moon Eclipse
Beautiful photography Eric. I love the variations of blue surrounding Artemis’ big beautiful and miraculous hands.
Thank you, P. Sophia, for your contribution. I would just like to share the idea that integrity could mean simply ‘keeping oneself whole’; which is, of course, not something than one person can do for another, though i think this is an area of great confusion and difficulty in the culture. From that place of being-whole other aspects such as relating fall into place more easily because integrity (unlike time, attention, offering and receiving gifts of mind, body, spirit…) is not negotiable. As i see it, the whole self-knowing self (even/especially in its aspiring form) would not negotiate any of its constituent parts away or negate its aspiration to wholeness, as that would be directly opposed to its purpose, and could only cause inner (and hence outer) conflict. all best, nilou
Yep it’s boundaries and balance in cooperation, focus and, apparently expedited it also feels.
Thank you Eric for this very valuable reading. Best part, until we reach “…the Sun’s karmic toll plaza”, come Nov I guess we’ll see compensation and/or if payment is do.
The only prescription I am not sure reads right with me-
“Ideally, in any truly intimate situation, you would have no withholds..”
Whereas, I am picking up -integrity- keep it close. I am holding a slight caution through this period, until notified otherwise that is.
Ps. to wandering yeti, I second the emotion on the drunks spoiling the fun, not to mention wasting your art and creativity in the haze of alcohol. and thanks for recognizing the stoners are more cool:)
Dear Dark Mary,
thank u for sharing, I think uve got a taker. I was waylaid by love madness after months of love clarity and sanity a fortnight ago, now in menopause, its not so easy to chock things up to hormones so I shelved my recent plunge as the shadow side of passion and the pains of a long-distance relationship where the bridge between my lover and I sometimes feels as if its been washed away in a storm of tears and unknowing. As I emerged from the dark tempest and found my footing again (and saw the bridge was still standing, solid and firm, spanning distant worlds and providing a path to connect) it occurred to me that it was more than desire run rampant and weakness from longing in an insecure world. It seemed clear it was a glimpse of past lives and loves, healing the hurts of my mother or her mother or as you said, the ghost or spirit from another world. During the crash I had a dream, that I tried to be with another man because he was close and more convenient and my far away deep lover flew out the window of my room like a phantom. The message was clear and I emerged, seemingly unscathed, but not the same me. Each time we descend and discover and shed our skin, our fears and pains. And helas, we are not the same. Thanks for the tips on spirit world in this, the onset of the eclipse and a full moon to boot.
Oh…I just noticed that the eclipse squares my Midheaven/Nadir. Gotta clarify my vision for a better life as a musician than getting paid to entertain drunks.
I’m hoping to find information on how a musician can practice his craft and have an audience without having to deal with a high percentage of the audience being drunk. Is it just Portland where we have so many musicians no one cares? Is it America in general? It wouldn’t be an issue if I played punk or heavy metal, but my music has dynamics. Like a wild animal if there’s audio chaos from drunks shouting over the music hitting my ears I can’t keep my focus. It bugs me that the majority of the places for live music are primarily establishments that serve alcohol. I know, music and Dionysus have gone together for ages but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a better way to do it. Stoners are far more respectful listeners than drunks in general.
Brilliant, absolutely brilliant piece, Eric. So many things to be grateful for. Thank you for the level-headed call to realistic risk management – that is so valuable, and those who heed your call are more likely to prosper and be whole. Thank you also for bringing up the complex and meaty issue of balancing being oneself and being in relationship – that is huge. Thank you finally for the tools and guidance to awareness which are a wake-up call in and of themselves. A great reading, and a great read. Thank you.
What a helpful overview, Eric. Thank you. As always, your ability to cogently synthesize the patterns of complex energies is stellar (pun intended.) Thank you, too, for your sense of humor. I love the imagery of the karmic toll plaza! I can take myself, my journey and my dramas so f-ing seriously sometimes! But there really is lightness and magic available in each moment. That said…
I feel compelled to go out on a limb today and share some of my recent experiences on this eve of the lunar eclipse. I think perhaps my need to share is compounded by Mercury in shadow phase (they don’t call it shadow for nothin’!) in Scorpio (exposing secrets/that which is hidden regarding sexuality.) I’ve also noticed in recent eclipse cycles that the energy is available, if not activated, substantially before the first eclipse. I will also preface my sharing by saying that, although the upcoming Mars-Neptune opposition is not in place, my friend/lover to whom I will refer has a Mars-Neptune sextile in his natal chart and we have a composite 12th house Mars as well as a Mars-Neptune square. In other words, issues of sexuality can be very murky or hidden. If worked with consciously, though, sexuality can be a force, if not the force, for transcendence and unconditional love.)
I’m sure what I’m writing about will just sound crazy to some, but I’m writing for the few of you who will have a light bulb go off when you read my words. I just had a short romantic/sexual relationship with a very dear friend. But it brought to the surface our individual awareness(es) the memory of multiple past life sexual traumas that we had played out with each other. In part, prior to crossing over from friends to lovers, both of us had felt that there was something forbidden or wrong about exploring sex with each other. Neither of us said that to the other, but both of us thought and felt it. He said that, although he deeply loved me, the idea of having sex with me felt “incestuous.” For me, I just recognized that he felt more like my brother to me than a lover. Anyway, something happened recently and we both acknowledged our attraction to each other and once we acknowledged it, it was irresistible and exploded exponentially. When we finally had sex, it was very unsatisfying on a number of levels. He couldn’t seem to stay in his body. He was nervous; I felt like I was dancing with a ghost. When I did orgasm (I brought myself to orgasm) it wasn’t clitoral but a full body orgasm and I felt an overwhelming release of energy that I knew was karmic. I sobbed uncontrollably afterward.
The specific past-life memories didn’t come until the next day, after he pulled away. He had made dramatic professions of love, asking me to move in with him and be his partner, only days before. It was perhaps, a bit over the top, but both of our hearts were so open to the other. But after we had sex, he did a 180 degree turn. As we hashed things through, he started talking about his sense that our relationship was incestuous. (I should qualify this sharing now by saying that I have been having past life memories for at least three years, so this is not a new experience to me. My friend/lover is a channel for non-physical beings and though he does not usually access his own memories, his guides often reveal his “history” to him.) So as we worked through the emotional fall out between us, I was able to access three lifetimes in which there was deep sexual trauma. In one I was the parent and he the child; in another we were siblings. The third memory was of a life off-planet (i.e., we were not human) and it involved the grossest misuse of sexual power on my part. In all three lives, he was the victim of my machinations. In two of those lives he also felt complicit (as some incest survivors do.) As the memories arose, we were each able to send love and forgiveness to those aspects of ourselves that had played out those violations, understanding that, on a soul level, we agree to certain experiences for our own growth. As we offered them all forgiveness and unconditional acceptance, they were able to re-integrate fully. This was not a particularly easy emotional process, because first we each had to fully feel the feelings associated with those lifetimes: shame, desperation, anger, grief, shock. For me, the memories can sometimes be somatic, too, as was the case of the life in which I was not human. I nearly threw up as I felt that being’s (my own) energy; it was manipulative, controlling, penetrating, vampiric. But we are called, at this time on our planet, to love every aspect of ourselves that has ever existed. We are called to bring the dark energies into our awareness and hold them with love. [Some call those other aspects of ourselves soul fragments. When we get stuck in trauma (which is grossly compounded by judgment of what we have done or experienced) those aspects freeze in time, not unlike parts of ourselves that can get frozen in time in *this* life, particularly during childhood trauma.]
I’m sharing my experiences because I am very aware that many on this planet are attempting to heal past life trauma as we shift our vibration and hold more light and love in our physical bodies. A lot of old soul friends are coming together now (sometimes only for very brief encounters) to help each other heal. Eclipse season is ripe for such healing, which often brings up turbulent, inexplicable emotions that cause us to question our sanity and wonder why, in spite of years of therapy, meditation, or other spiritual practices we seem to be complete messes. There is nothing wrong with you. Whether you are conscious of your experiences as being past-life related or not, please (for those with whom this viewpoint resonates) let me assure you a lot of them are and we’ve unconsciously or only semi-consciously re-created similar situations in order to help wounded aspects of ourselves heal. We are getting to the bottom of the barrel of issues we have recycled through many lifetimes. And, as one of my favorite writers, Matt Licata, recently wrote,
“Your confusion is not pathology, it is path. It has something to reveal to you that clarity and certainty could never, ever show you. The nature of confusion is wisdom, but you must make a home for it within you to receive its mysteries.
“…Your sadness, your loneliness, your fear, and your anxiety are not mistakes. They are not obstacles on your path. They *are* the path. The freedom you are longing for is not found in the eradication of these, but in the information they carry. You need not transcend anything here, but be willing to become deeply intimate with your lived, embodied experience. Your intimacy is your path home.”
It appears my life is currently designed by these two eclipses and concurrent aspects. I have been warned. Saturn is lumbering toward my 2nd exact return, and Jupiter is in return energy NOW. My secrets are bubbling to the surface. A day of reckoning approaches. The focal point of the eclipses and these two big planets is at my service. What will I do with this energy and challenge? See you on the other side of the portal(s) for an update.
Thank you for your clear vision and perceptive reading.