This Total Lunar Eclipse in Aquarius (exact at 1:20pm PST at 5 degrees) marks the climax of a story symbolized by this current series of eclipses spanning Leo and Aquarius that began in the winter of 2017, and ends in the winter of 2019.
Aquarius on the South Node relates to our traumatic pasts; to the collective history of humanity, the trauma every one of us has experienced, whether in this life, past lives, or through the ancestral trauma that weaves its way into the present. In particular, Aquarius signifies the trauma of exclusion and banishment and persecution; of being cast out of the community or tortured or killed for our beliefs or way of life.
An effective response to trauma is to escape the body, where we feel pain and suffer, and retreat into the mind where there are no feelings or sensations, and we might imagine we can figure everything out, and understand the world, and perhaps even gain some control over our lives. In reality though, living in the head disconnects us from each other, the earth, and the reality of wonder and complexity of life on earth. This eclipse offers the opportunity to come back to our senses, to reinhabit the body, to return to life on earth, to find again our place as part of nature.
But coming back to the body requires dealing with our trauma. With Mars conjunct the Moon and South Node, and the ruler of the South Node, Uranus square to the Full Moon, this is no tepid moon; this signifies events that are impossible to ignore, and that force the process the unfold. I have a feeling this eclipse will be showing us the ramifications of our traumatic pasts in order to force us to contend with our histories so that hopefully we may grapple, process, release, and integrate; so that we may begin the labour of healing.
We can avoid grappling with our pain for years or lifetimes, but sometimes the universe says, now is the time. For some of us (especially those with planets or angles in hard aspect to the Full Moon), the universe will conspire to bring about events out of our control which force a reckoning.
With the North Node in Leo, the lion lights the way: the elixir is heart. Leo the lion has a golden heart of courage and love even amidst the ruins of human history. Leo knows joy and laughter and play, Leo knows how to live in the heart, which is a gift we’ll never understand intellectually, but we can open to if we so choose.
Being in the energy of heart, forgiveness is possible and love is the air we breath. As we forgive ourselves, and each other, we can release the past. Forgiveness may sound meek and yet it has the power to heal generations of pain, it has the power to renew us and release us into the present.
Now is the time for embodiment and heart. To work in collaboration with this energy (which softens its effects), be with the sensations in your body; especially when those sensations are uncomfortable or painful. Ask what the sensations are telling you. Be patient and respectful of the body’s intelligence. Feel into what the sensations mean; notice what arises in your mind and what emotions flow through. Trust that what comes up is relevant.
As we release the trauma associated with Aquarius, its gifts can be harnessed: Aquarius-Leo asks us not to choose either mind or body; head or heart, but to integrate the two. To keep the logic and refined intellect that humanity has developed, in part as a response to pain, and to merge that with the spontaneous and natural life and love that arise as we inhabit our bodies once again.
Through generations of holding strong to our convictions and beliefs and ways of life, despite persecution, the spirit grows strong. And to the extent we are able now to express our truths safely, we can harness the individuality and uniqueness that Aquarius expresses, and work toward creating a world which honours diversity and the many forms of life that humans creatively express.
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