Unfolding the Heart Chakra: New Moon Solar Eclipse in Leo

VerDarLuz

Behold: The awesome miracle of The Eclipse. The feverish, unfathomable grip this must have had on our ancestors as the light of the sun vanished, and as the luminous body of the full luna was suddenly cloaked in darkness. Can we gaze today with the same kind of infant eye upon this biannual phenomena? Can our knowledge astound us? Knowledge that the Moon is 240,000 miles away from us, while the Sun is 93 million miles away, and yet, in the sky each month during the full moon, these heavenly bodies appear as the same size? And during the eclipse, these deities seem to veil each other completely? How can there distances be so perfectly proportioned to allow this magnificent phenomena? It is as if Source itself must have conspired to perfect the image of The Light and The Reflection, The Image and The Mirror, because Human consciousness needs to witness this Primary Duality.

There is only ever one Day:

Sun/Day/Masculine/Inhalation/Release/Yang/Action/Fire.
Moon/Night/Feminine/Exhalation/Absorption/Yin/Dream/Water.
Tao

But there is a Composite Entitiy.

Who is the One

Who Breathes Between

The Experience and

The Witness?

The trinity completes itself in you. You are the Holy Child – the orgasmic dream, the ecsta-seed of Father Sky and Mother Earth. You, the Human Being. The dove of destiny. The incarnate star paints its movement into the mirrors of nature's body....

* * *

Friday August 1 marks an incredibly potent New Moon Solar Eclipse in Leo. A titanic surge of royal power and inner confidence abound with Sun/Moon/Mercury/Venus/South Node all conjunct in Leo, nearly all personal planets in the sign of personal power and creative self-actualization. With Leo, we have to ask ourselves, what unique gifts do I have to share with the world? What can I offer back to the Creator? For if we have been wielding our power in imbalanced, selfish ways, this New Moon will bring it to light.

This New Moon begins the supercharged 2 week Eclipse window. These windows occur twice a year when the New and Full Moons are close to the Nodes of the Moon, what the ancient Indians called the Dragon's Head and Tail. In the paradigm of Evolutionary Astrology, the nodes are the most karmically sensitive points in the chart. Therefore, these 2 week windows signify massive shifts twice a year during their occurrence, both collectively and individually.

The South Node refers to our karmic traces, our past life energies constellated in automatic behavior. The South Node is a place of comfort, but it also is a place of loss or dissolution of the soul, as if the tail of the dragon has seduced us with too much familiarity. Our South Node gifts must be given away to others in the Higher Work of the North Node, in the heat of the Dragon's breath. Our soul seeks to expand itself through the energetic matrix of the North Node so we must embrace the unknown and make love to this mystery with a leap of faith.

Planets conjunct these nodes in our personal chart reflect powerful forces propelling us towards our destiny or anchoring us to our past. Planets which square the nodes can be skipped steps in our evolutionary path, requiring very intentional, conscious effort to awaken our soul's true potential in this lifetime.

In Synastry, or partnership astrology, when one or both partners trigger the other's Nodes by conjunction or square, it feels as if our souls have contracted our work together in this life. We have likely incarnated many times before, part of what hypnotherapist Michael Newton refers to as being part of the same Soul-cluster. Like migratory birds, we are intensely and instantly magnified.

The houses in your personal chart where these eclipses take place are under the magnifying lens for deep inspection, signifying key areas for evolutionary growth. The actions taken in these realms of life experience during this time tend to reverberate for many months, and possibly years into the future, so the Buddha's eigthfold path of precepts can be an important teaching at this time, especially regarding Right Speech and Right Conduct.

Within weeks on either side of the solar eclipse, concrete events usually resolve whatever has been crawling or gestating in our lives. Evolution proceeds to the next level. The lunar eclipse tends towards a more emotional, inner experience. But in each case, the conjunction of the Moon/Sun/Nodes promises an emotional tug of war on the soul, especially if a planet or angle in our own charts is conjunct the sensitive degrees of the eclipse.

In most ancient cultures, the lack of light during the eclipses warned of a foreboding energy, a higher octave of life-force at play, Great Mystery beyond our control. So ultimately, we should be humbled and motivated by the forward movement at this time, in addition to celebrating, especially because of this Solar Eclipse's exact synchronicity with the Celtic harvest festival of Lughnasad, known in Christianity as Lammas, the breaking of the first bread.

Traditionally celebrated on August 1st, the festival takes its name from the Irish god Lugh, one of the chief gods of the Tuatha De Danann. Lugh is also loosely translated as Light, but more like Lightning. Lugh has many associations with Apollo, the Greek god of Light, who also played the lyre/harp, and Mercury as shapeshifter, adept at many skills. Lugh dedicated this festival to his foster-mother, Tailtiu, the last queen of the Fir Bolg, who died from exhaustion after clearing a great forest so that the land could be cultivated. When the men of Ireland gathered at her death-bed, she told them to hold funeral games in her honor. As long as they were held, she prophesied Ireland would not be without song. Tailtiu's name is from Old Celtic Talantiu, "The Great One of the Earth," suggesting she may originally have been a personification of the land itself, like so many Irish goddesses. In fact, Lughnasadh has an older name, Brón Trogain, which refers to the painful labor of childbirth. For at this time of year, the earth gives birth to her first fruits so that her children might live. Besides being a time for festivals, gathering, celebration, and reunion with friends and family, Lughnasad was a favored time for handfastings - trial marriages that would generally last a year and a day, with the option of ending the contract before the year, or later formalizing it as a more permanent marriage.

We are also in the last week's of the child's pure freedom, before structured education and institution begin again. During this eclipse window, I suggest listening extra intently to these little balls of Leonine fiery light. For every child born in the last fifteen years has been born with the Transcendent Planets, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto in the last four or Transpersonal signs of the Zodiac. Our urges towards Freedom, Divine Union, and Unconditional Transformation culminate in these children. As they reach maturity, they will shapeshift our planetary home with the power of intention and perception. But if we listen now to these children, especially during the auspicious energies of the eclipses, we will hear Great Mystery singing thru them the daring prophecy of change, the brave reminder of rebirth, and the innocent eyes of play

This New Moon in Leo and Lughnasad is the time to take our cue from the children, to "Find your Song," to journey to the place and time when you have felt most blissful, joyful, and full of childlike innocence. Now is the time to vibrate out to the planet your own sweet frequency, to allow the world to sip at the passionate flames of your creative nectar. Remember that the Sun and Leo rule the heart chakra, the meeting of the Higher and Lower selves, the intercourse of Heaven and Earth. Give. Give your laughter, your stride, your romantic roar, your true pride. Give unconditionally. From the third chakra, we must align our Will to unconditional creative generosity so that we may communicate in the 5th chakra the message of Unity, even amidst the primary duality of Sun and Moon, Male and Female, Light and Darkness - the eternal pulse at the center of Infinity's throbbing spiral...

Image by RBerteig courtesy of a Creative Commons license.