The wind is roaring through the trees here in Marin County, the sun alternating between brightness and clouded. It already feels eerie and anticipatory for tomorrow’s cosmic event. It will be a psychic event as well, a time of completions and new beginnings. Imagine what is possible. And I must add, as I sit at Peet’s cafe, typing, that “The Age of Aquarius” by the Fifth Dimension is playing. Magic is afoot!
The solar eclipse that will happen tomorrow is called the Great American solar eclipse. It is the first total eclipse whose path is entirely within the United States since the birth of our country in 1776. It is the first time in 99 years it will be visible across the entire country. And yes, you may have heard it has a direct impact on the current President’s natal astrological chart. We do not know exactly what the effects will be. (I imagine he will be gone by October). The shadow of leadership has fallen on our country. The original sin of our country’s founding, our genocidal history with Native peoples, with slavery and festering racism, with the exclusion, fear and hatred of women, has been revealed. It is not just the character of one man. It is the original sin at the roots of our country.
What then are we called to do? Because this solar eclipse is in the sign of Leo, under the fixed star Regulus “the heart of the lion”, it is a call to reclaim our authority, sovereignty, dignity and courage to lead from the heart of hope. To bring our original medicine into ascendence for healing, wholeness, beyond dualities and conflict. It is a wake up call to work together, as “We, the People”, to create a more perfect union. To bring our heart’s hope into the future we imagine is possible. It is happening. It just happened in Boston, in the heartfelt responses and growing courage of leaders after the Charlottesville tragedy.
In the horrifying events of Charlottesville, and the equally horrifying responses of our American President, the shadow of American history is exposed at its very roots. The shadow of our original sin. In response, we bring our original medicine. There is an alignment in this eclipse with the fixed star Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation –the heart of the lion. Regulus moved into Virgo in 2012. The virgin Queen. The feminine ruler. This is the energy of the Goddess available to us now.
Beginning in 2012, and resonant with the prophecies of Native American and other indigenous cultures, the star of leadership is shifting to the Feminine. Awaken your royal heart and be bold, courageous. This is a time of quickening, of acceleration. Everything is up for review (Mercury in retrograde). Release all that is not essential. Honor the old beliefs, the wounds, the old story, but hold to what you love. Be fierce as a mama lion for all of that. Especially release the old story of duality and conflict, played out in such ugly ways in current events. Feel empowered by being in the field of unity, oneness, the flow of change and transformation. How fiercely can you love?
The Sabian symbol for this Leo new moon is: A mermaid emerges from the ocean waves ready to take on human form. This is the divine Feminine rising from the collective unconscious, ready to manifest in visible and fully conscious form.The Sabian symbols came to clairvoyant Elsie Wheeler in 1925 and were transcribed by Marc Edmund Jones. They are symbols for the meaning of each degree of the zodiac. Popularized later by astrologer/philosopher/composer Dane Rudhyar who integrated Jungian depth psychology, Western and Eastern philosophies with astrology in his book An Astrological Mandala: The cycle of Transformations and Its 360 Symbolic Phases.
In a dream this week, I saw another image that speaks to the current situation: There is a group of us women in a circle, holding scripts for a new screenplay or script which is being written. I call a dream teacher to invite her to join us and am surprised when a particular Jungian analyst answers. I didn’t realize she was interested in the role of the rising Feminine, although I know her to be a strong dreamer. I recover from my surprise, remembering her dream of a powerful, mystical healing which came through chanting with the ocean. I tell her I am good at seeing the patterns, the context, the myth beneath the personal stories. In my dream, the theater we are going to use is just emptying out. Row after row of old white men are filing out towards the front, to the side of the stage. We only see them from the back. Balding gray haired men. We come in with enthusiasm, chattering away, to work on our screenplay or our script, each carrying a piece of the story. Or perhaps each with her own story, which will become the script or the screenplay. We are not on the stage yet. But we have filled the theater. We are almost ready to start rehearsing our parts, our lines. Maybe we are ready for at least a read through.
[Lion with flowers art: Sally Barlow at Makaio Design. By permission]
How to find your original medicine? Your wild genius? What you have to offer for these times, to create a future in which it will be easier to love? What is the unique ability or talent, the gift you came here to give? As “original medicine” is a concept from indigenous cultures, I like to recall one of the meanings of indigenous: “born from within. This is how you locate your original medicine. Go inward and really claim your own sovereignty. The power you want to rule with. The values you want to live by and bring to the world. Bring your original medicine to this revealed blackness of original sin in the United States. Crown yourself Queen. Each unique creation, invention, expression of our being is essential and irreplaceable. Own your story. Share it. Make it part of the new story we are readying for the big screen, the big stage. Show up. Be visible, be heard. Discover the key and the core of your personal power. It is found by following the compass of your heart.
The solar eclipse erases the old story. Dissolves into the unity of the hieros gamos – sacred marriage of King and Queen. Claim your Queenship. What is it to wear a crown (see the corona of the sun just visible) Make peace with the old. Then shine with your true enthusiasm (filled with the divine – en theos) and imagine the possible. In my dream of the women entering the theater with their scripts, I almost forgot this dream voice, perhaps the stage director, who cautions: ”Steady. Steady”.
The effects of your intentions set now will be felt for the next 6 months to two years.Do not lose heart. Do not flip into despair with each demented tweet you hear. Keep your heart open to the light which is available to you now, open your heart, and shine that into the possible and emerging future. Hold that higher vibration. Hold steady, steady to what beautiful future you can imagine, “a world in which it will be easier to love”.