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.