These last few weeks have been rough for many of us. The Saturn-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn grows tighter, and we feel it every time it gets triggered by the Moon or planet (Mars and Mercury this past month) in the Cardinal signs (Cap, Cancer, Aries, Libra). Saturn-Pluto is doling out challenges, power struggles, shadow energies, controlling tendencies—offering us many challenges and tests. And now, this eclipse in Cancer is opposite Saturn-Pluto.
And yet, I feel such healing energy coming from this eclipse. Cancer is the energy of the Great Mother, the Cosmic Mother, that birthed this world, that creates existence itself. The eternal presence of this energy holds the fabric of existence together, supporting all life and creation in every instant.
Richard Tarnas describes the energy of The Moon, Cancer’s ruler, as “The Matrix of Being.” It’s not the content of our experience, but the container holding it; always present in the background, supporting all within it.
The dominant culture is solar; it predominantly sees and honours the brilliant, the obvious, the central, the Logos; the one who speaks and does. It tends to neglect and undervalue the one who supports, holds, births, nurtures; the one who listens and feels.
And so not only do we tend to undervalue the lunar people in our lives, the lunar parts of ourselves, but we also may not even be aware of the existence of this matrix of being; that which is in the background, holding our experience.
This is the part of our experience created and fostered by our primary caregiver, by our earliest experiences on planet Earth, of being held and nurtured and cared for. These preverbal experiences form that difficult to discern background matrix that we carry into our adult lives.
Its structure determines whether or not we feel safe in the world, whether or not we feel nurtured and supported by the people in our lives, by ourselves, and by the Cosmos itself. But after millennia of the lunar being undervalued and derided, many of us have damaged matrices, if you will.
It’s not through any failure of our mothers (caregiver of any gender) that we weren’t supported, held, nurtured, and loved as we needed to be. I honour all mothers for all the mothering they’ve managed in times that dishonours such work.
Our mother is as the Cosmos itself when we’re an infant. As adults we know our mother is not the Cosmos. And so, while it’s difficult to discern this matrix of being because it is always present, nevertheless, in seeing that it was formed by a particular imperfect relationship, we can begin to heal its ruptures, and bind it to Cosmos itself which has infinite love and support for us.
I think when we go about our lives with a damaged matrix, we lean on the Capricorn energy; we feel we have to control everything and make things happen, and work work work so that we’ll be ok. And then our sympathetic nervous systems are overworking, and we become depleted, tired, sick, and we think we are alone in the world, separate from others, and entirely responsible for making sure we are ok.
We forgot that the Cosmos itself is holding us. And that if we balance the need to work and do and achieve with the need to be quiet and be held and receive, we will be truly cared for.
So, yes, the astrology is delivering us many challenges, and particularly pitting soul against ego, offering us initiatory tests (more on this when we discuss the Capricorn eclipse in two weeks). Yet amid this spiritual exam season, we are offered this immense gift of healing. But we have to accept the gift.
To do this healing work, the key is to ask for it. It sounds like nothing, but on a spiritual level, the act of asking is everything. We have free will. Which means we won’t be given anything we don’t ask for. The universe respects us that much. It’s not going to force anything onto us, even if it’s for our own good.
In these next few days, while this powerful eclipse energy is still with us, if you wish to work with this Cancer energy, find some time to be quiet and relax and go within, and connect to this feeling of what is holding you, supporting your experience.
When you feel into the container, does it feel safe? Can you depend on it? Do you feel the Cosmos has got your back, or do you feel threatened or unsafe?
Connect with the energy of The Great Mother, and ask her to help you heal. Ask her to hold you, to nurture you. Ask her to mend your container so that you feel safe and supported in the world. Take some time to just enjoy her presence, to feel loved and supported.
Everyone is worthy of this love and support. This energy loves unconditionally. It doesn’t deprive some people of support because they aren’t deserving. It sees every being as part of this divine Cosmos, and so divine in their own right. (It’s not that we shouldn’t hold ourselves and others to account; but that’s the energy of Capricorn.)
In a solar eclipse, the Moon comes between the Earth and the Sun, blocking the light of the Sun. This is a significant resetting of the solar energy. So we have this opportunity to release the unaligned, unhealthy, imbalanced elements of the solar within us.
Some of these Saturn-Pluto challenges the universe has issued in these past weeks may have revealed to you where your ego is misaligned, or too big, or too pushy, or too power-hungry, or certain of its lack of worth. Whatever you’ve been shown recently about where your ego is overpowering your soul, here is an opportunity to let that go.
We all have within us echoes of the cultural bias against the lunar. This is a powerful time to release those patterns within us. The solar is consciousness, and so as we become more and more conscious of these subtle dynamics, we can bring more intention to them. With intention, we can foster a balanced, respectful relationship between the solar and lunar within us, and so, within our cultures.
Capricorn is very activated right now, with Saturn and Pluto there, and a lunar eclipse in Capricorn later this month. This eclipse in Cancer offers a healing balm to all that Capricorn work we are doing. It offers a powerful influx of nurturing, soothing, loving, holding.