Witnessing a total solar eclipse can be quite humbling for people, leaving them in awe, and this April many parts of North America were on the path of totality of the solar eclipse. When the sky goes dark it really looks like a scene from a movie, and as if for a moment time stops. What is perhaps even more fascinating is to watch and witness all those people who shared how profoundly they were feeling, humbled, wordless, as if a sense of belonging and togetherness had suddenly held them. And if you haven’t yet realized just how small we all are within the cosmic fabrics, now was perhaps the time; but it is a good feeling, a together feeling, a feeling of trust and faith, and of taking the moment to look at those beside you, and then looking above, holding the preciousness of it all. It is a feeling of knowing the privilege of being alive.
During a solar eclipse, you can see the Moon go through all her phases– and you feel it, you feel inside of you the fullness of life, the waxing and the waning, and each held within the other in fullness, the ebbs and flows of emotions, and the inhale and exhale of our breath, of life. It feels like a privilege to be alive, to witness the miracle of the universe, and the miracle of our life.
The period of 28 and a half days of the Moon’s phases that we can observe in the changing face of the solar eclipse – from new moon to waxing and full and waning and back to new again – is a lunar cycle that is essentially the emotional cycle, the emotional process – it is emotional truth.
Astrology wise, this eclipse has been talked about for months and months, and there has been some fear mongering that I’ve noticed from some, and inadequate rumours circulating about potential predictions, about what is going to happen, will natural disaster happen, will there be earthquakes like the one that happened the last time we had the “devil’s comet” pass by, etc. But I don’t want to get into all of this, because quite honestly, it’s just not what I do as a spiritual guide and astrologer, it’s not who I am, and it’s certainly not what I am here for.
Surely, energies are intense. Surely, you can feel them. It can feel de-stabilizing to both our nervous system and emotional body, so it is important to get rest, stay balanced, take it easy, stay aware and grounded, keep the hands busy with work and art, and do not engage in someone else’s drama or inability to handle their own selves. You’ve been through many eclipses and hard transits in your life, I assure you of that, and yet it all passed. Snows happen, rain happens, storms happen, summer happens also, and the sun still shines. So whatever happens will happen.
As a spiritual astrologer, my intention has never been to play God, nor take my clients down the rabbit holes of prediction paths – because my work is not focused on what will happen, but on discovering what is inside of us, and then experiencing more meaning, deepening and recognition of the beauty outside of us and life experiences itself through us. As above, so below; as within, so without.
We need to understand spiritual reality while staying grounded. The core dynamic happening spiritually is that a solar eclipse is an open gate, a portal, it is a mirrored gate to what may come to you; but what can come to you is only what is already within you. An open gate is an open gate is an open gate.
So if you stay positive, loving, in prayer and in kindness, then this is what the mirror will bring to you even more. Yes some people fear it, yes some people do weird rituals and do bad things, but that’s who they are; they are powerless within so they try to control the outer. But there are also those, many of them, who are good people, who pray for the peace and health of all, and their energy is the energy that is stronger and can banish fears and can lighten up all.
Reflect on the question, what fears may you need to release to experience more freedom? Is life something to fear? Are the omens merely reflecting that which we cannot understand and thus fear – and thus, categorize into “darkness”? What beliefs are your perspectives based upon?
So let’s dive deeper into the solar eclipse today; and you are probably quite familiar with the astrology of it, so let me share with you some of the celestial skies, Sabian symbols, human design, and my own spiritual insight.
The kiss, the calling of faith
In the skies, and you can use an astronomy software to view it yourself, you will notice that the Sun and Moon meet in the rivers of the right stream of the fish. The Sun and the Moon are lovers, just like Venus and Mars are, and when they meet in such eclipses it’s like they share a kiss for all of us to see and witness – they each enter the chambers of the other, but the curtains aren’t closed.
We witness a rendez-vous with this solar eclipse, when the Moon maiden has come out of her mystical nightly skies, and unveils herself to her lover Sun. There are no secrets here, no hiding, we see it. And yet she is who she is, and the sky, when they share in a kiss, darkens upon us as if it is night – she takes us into, in the inside of us, into her nightly kingdom. Only the ring of fire remains – that which binds us, like the wedding ring on our fingers through which we too share in our vows.
The place where they now meet – in the rivers in the right stream of the fish – shows the flow of life, and that faith itself, and our trust in life, are things because of the twists and turns, rather than inspite of them.
This is also what the human design gate associated with this eclipse is: gate 51, known as the gate of “shock”. The Sun is there, the Moon is there, and the North Node is there, at the gate 51, which is also known as the gate of the thunder or thunderbolt. And a thunder sometimes looks like an arrow of fire – an arrow of fire coming down from the skies. Like faith.
Does faith originate from the unknown? Or does it first pass through the body, like an arrow? Is it not faith if our hands can hold it? What is a child? How did we all come to be born, conceived? All your cells came together for a mutual decision to say yes to you, yes to life, so that you are born; and your body is an absolute fascinating intelligence system, with everything communicating with each other. And of this amazing miracles that not only required the prayers and dreams of your mother and father, but also the mystery of life and the universe, and the mutual decision of all your cells – here you are. They all said yes to you, yes to life.
Faith is what true lovers have – when they unveil their true selves to one another and undress in ways in which they can see their hearts. Faith is love. Because how can one love unconditionally if one does not trust nor has faith in the world, universe and life. Why would anyone ever make themselves so exposed, vulnerable, seen, able to be hurt, if not for love? This is why love is a kingdom for the brave, the fearless, and we love not just because but because our souls asked us to.
And faith is like an organ – it is inside of our body, and yet we may not be aware of it until the moment we need it and it speaks, and it moves us, and it holds us, showing us it was always there inside of us, and it calls us back home with its humming.
Because we cannot truly ever say we trust life, if we do not actually have moved through the waters, waves, and its unique twists and turns. And when we let it go, when the tide takes us, when the undercurrents take us, when we open our palms finally, we see that life indeed holds us.
So the question regarding this eclipse is: Do you believe you are living in a benevolent universe or not? Whom or what do you fear, and why? Where does your faith and trust reside? What do you nurture?
The right stream of the waters is about the feminine path – it is about trust, nurturing, surrender, faith, generosity, giving, believing, compassion and absolute radical unconditional love. Gate 51 believes that life is trustworthy because of its twists and turns, and thunderbolts, rather than “in spite of them” – and this is what then becomes absolute faith that every moment is of the unconditional love that the divine is.
A Christian monk once shared with me a story about a nun, who eventually became a saint, and in her diaries she once described how she saw God appear before her. And she described how the light was so powerful, so bright, that if it had stayed longer than the few seconds it did, she would have died, because her body could not handle that kind of energy. It filled her with such depth of love that she was profoundly amazed and humbled and this love stayed with her throughout her life and she helped thousands of people with her work. And/but the light was powerful and it would have burned her had it stayed for more than a few seconds.
Neem Karoli Baba once said, “To see God, you have to have special eyes. Otherwise you cannot bear the shock”. We see with the wisdom of our heart’s eyes, and even then, the light will be too bright – but for a second, when we see it, we see it. Love is a powerful light, and shines every single corner within us. Sometimes it may be too much to bear, to see ourselves, but it is purposeful, and this is where the freedom is found.
Behind the veils of Venus
Near the Sun and Moon, is our beautiful Venus, who went invisible at the end of March. She pulled her veil, closed the curtains to her bed chamber, and retreated within her private sensitive cocoon of mysticism and the inner pathways. When Venus is invisible, she is taking her sweet time to dive deeper into herself. In this phase of hers, she purifies herself and reaches the highest of her manifestation: she forms through formlessness, she gains her true form through the dissolution of all boundaries.
We don’t see her in the nightly skies, because she whispers us to enter ourselves, to deepen in our soul growth – and to learn what true love really is. In her highest manifestation, she loves without expectations and conditions i.e. she becomes unconditional love. This is what “forms through formlessness” and “dissolution of boundaries” mean.
And so, while she is invisible, she is refining and becoming her true self, and then, on 4th of June 2024 when she rises in our sky and becomes visible, she is then born again – as her purest form – becoming Aphrodite. She is then sensual, loving, compassionate, generous, charitable, virtuous, forgiving, graceful, artistic, mystical, creative, emotional, sensitive and intuitive.
And now – with our Solar Eclipse – we see her in her invisible phase, and she is tucked away at the tail of the whale, Cetus. This part of the sky is quiet, dimmer, and shows her need for retreat and privacy and protection. She is the woman entering the convent, the priestess pulling the veils over herself in prayer, the sage going in the cave, she is the one who pulls the curtains and retreats in her bed chambers awakening and deepening her inner worlds, inner wildlands.
Channelled direction
Meanwhile we also have Saturn conjunct Mars in the waters pouring from the vessel of the waterbearer. This is about tenderness, and knowing what is needed, and how. Saturn is the left pedal with the brakes, and Mars is the right with the gas. With this conjunction, you drive with both feet – left on the brakes, right on the gas.
So with the two feet together, you need to know yourself and control yourself, otherwise you’ll push them both too hard. This conjunction can be your best ally, when you learn how to drive it – it’s controlled fire, channelled fire, and this is what makes you go really, really far in life, accomplishing all you want and have dreamed of. It’s just about learning how to drive it – with patience and kindness of rhythm – because this conjunction is the most powerful engine you can have, much more powerful that just Mars alone; and with power comes responsibility. Everything in nature can be either poison or medicine depending on how you use it.
Feeding the birds in winter
The Sabian symbol associated with this eclipse is “a young girl feeding the birds in winter”. This reminds us of our humanness, humbleness, togetherness and generosity of heart. This is about the purity, innocence and fearlessness of the human heart – to love.
This is about overcoming the harshness and hurdles of life through compassion. Nature too is harsh, yet without the harshness we would never know what compassion looks like – the word itself wouldn’t even exist. There is no higher higher purpose than to live life through love and compassion, to not just “feel” love but to shape it through your every day lips, hands and ordinary gestures. Love is a consciousness to be embodied.
To live a life in constant expression of compassionate love, to be willing to kneel and help another more vulnerable, a little creature, a hungry stranger. to be a comfort for someone’s tears, to be a helping hand – this is what life is about. This is what makes us human and humane. And in return, life gifts us with showing us how to experience it through as a constant opportunity to experience love.
Feeding the birds in winter is about nurturing innocence – the innocence of our hearts, and the giving of our compassionate love to others, and sharing it with others. To join in hands. To join in looking up. To join in nourishing, to join in looking after. To give our energy and time to those who perhaps currently feel a little cold. No gesture is too small. And under these skies, even the smallest gestures of a pure heart, can bring big returns. More than that though, it will deepen you in meaning.
Weaving the faithfulness of lace
And so, with our human hands we weave and weave, together, and hopefully warm things. And what forms and shapes is a story of trust, a story of hope, a story of love.
In my poetry book The God-like Things, I often explore the concept of faith, and in one of my poems I refer to it as the weaving of lace. There is frailty in our humanness, and yet there is also strength, humbleness and great responsibility in this frailty – we need to be aware of human hearts and their fragility, and take care of one another.
Along the paths of life, our hands weave the complex, the devoted, the openwork fabrics – for there is also some open, and unwritten, this is where God breathes and miracles surprise us. Some layers are clothed, some layers expose our sensitivity; a perfect acoustic of both silence and melody.
And so we weave and weave, the secret invisible threads, worlds within worlds within multiverses.
We weave our faithfulness, love and trust and dedication every day, in every way, through moons and suns and stars.
Until the lace one day speaks, of all that it has learned and witnessed through us; of how no matter what we touch, whether textures, objects, photographs, fabrics, or hands, we can be deeply moved. And yet what moves us isn’t the seen; it is this delicate thing inside of us – the lunar and emotional, in the home of our heart – the pristine, unblemished, and pure thing called love.
In a solar eclipse, the knowledge of God that the Moon gives us is, for a few brief moments, greater than the “speech” of the Sun. It is about the inner world, the inner church, the inner voice of truth – illuminated.
The shrouds of heavens have no pockets. The real wealth is the spiritual and emotional, not the material. We are here to be of service to others, not self. We are here to embody the virtues, the love; it is about how and where were we kind to others, how did we love? What are you weaving; what threads do you choose to use?
So here we are. The Sun is high and bright without a single cloud in the sky; it’s like a new day entirely. Rejoice in that. And instead of fearing life, witness life; witness wildlife, feed the animals, feed your loved ones, embrace life and embrace your family, go outside in the park together and have fun. And from time to time, look up – just like humanity did today for a few minutes, when instead of fearing life and fearing each other, they looked up, together, towards the same horizon in awe of all that is greater than us while this all holds us.
For more of my writings, browse through my Art of Love.
If you wish to support me, you may do so by sharing my articles and poems, buy my poetry books or donate some magic coins in my hat on Paypal. If you would like to work with me, visit my Offerings.
Your support means so much to me! Thank you wholeheartedly!