There are two eclipses this month which intensify the powerful energetic configurations forming in the sky. The first one is the Full Moon lunar eclipse on 15th April 2014 at 7.42 am GMT, which is precisely when the cardinal grand cross reaches its alignment. Here we have the Aries- Libra axis of I am (how to be) and We are (how to be aware), which due to the large amounts of Aries energy is strongly polarised. Not only do we have a full Moon eclipse on this axis, but the nodal pattern too which indicates the new direction we need to take in life. This north node of the nodal pattern is in Libra, which means we are now visiting Libran issues collectively.
This axis is our relationship with the self and how that impacts all other types of relationships, partnerships, groups or communities. This is no spring clean, we are resolving soul issues that have been shackled around our feet for many lifetimes. That means it’s quite likely that we will come up against big edges in belief patterns, programmes or fears that are generations old.
So it’s the time for stepping over our edges and making the changes, if we take the risks, we will have incredible growth right now. The desperation and our potential has hanging in the wings for a long time. Your connection to yourself, others, to the world, how you relate – all this is now priming itself for transformation. And as a collective world, we on the brink of war again, we desperately need to access new patterns of relating.
A lunar eclipse usually signals endings, the point of which there is no return. These can be subtle or literal endings. Ending of relationships, jobs or attitudes. Eclipses bring forth the sacred in life, or what we need to make sacred. In hindsight, what they show us can be the most obvious thing, but somehow it was just lingering on the edge of our awareness until slow movers like Uranus and Pluto bring it into our consciousness so we can process it.
This eclipse to some might feel imposed from above, if you take a look at the full moon chart below, it looks quite scary with all the exacting square red lines, like fate is taking a chunk out of you. For those who have the right intentions and are consciously working towards their evolution, even in small ways, it’s more likely to be experienced as a shift in the right direction or an alignment with your future through letting something heavy go. It might act like an acceleration of understanding, a rebirth, a shift in that what wasn’t possible suddenly becomes possible.
This eclipse is delivering us to a wholeness of ourselves – our relationship to ourselves but in the context of others – we need understanding of both for our wholeness. Often we find ourselves in parts, we speak from parts, experiencing the polarities and fragments of who we are. When you journey so far to one end, you get saturated in one level of understanding of a situation then in order to move forward with your understanding you need to take an entirely different point of view.
This eclipse full Moon opens up a powerful opportunity to contact the wholeness, the sum that’s greater than the parts. Intending to work with the two polarised energies on the Aries-Libra axis will create awareness – they allow for a synthesis of energy – but more than that, we move to a different position allowing for synthesis of both sides and a new position. But it’s the wholeness of situations and people – who we are when we see beyond identification with the parts – that will support transformation. I think this is the new that is beginning to emerge, newly released from this eclipse, a view from unity consciousness – or perhaps, more simply put, a new way of relating to something very old. See if you can tune into the energy of the eclipse from this perspective – you might receive more of the benefits.
The astrology and energies we are exploring in April are very complex and rich. As each one of us undergoes change over the forthcoming weeks we will be shifting things for the collective. I love what we are doing here, it’s perfection playing out – so acknowledge that where ever you find yourself. Our new awareness will ripple out and merge with other ripples of awareness creating other shifts. It’s a beautiful vision that I want to hold now.
Shifting our own perception of our own reality changes the collective at large. So you want to change the world, or your partner, then work on changing yourself, just stay there. Surrender to the timing too. We always want things to happen in our own timing and get frustrated when we work on our issues with no change.
The Full Moon in Libra emphasises how we might be coming across to others. With Libra energy, there’s a tendency to evade being real, not quite relate, but appear very relatable. So those of us who have a strong Aries-Libra tightrope to walk are going to be particularly impacted here. Do you get frustrated with people not saying things as they are, over or under appreciating one another? How can you relate to others from an authentic, integral place within without losing the integrity of what you relate? Do you sometimes beat around the bush and talk about the weather when there are real, edgey things going on in your relationships that need addressing?
With Aries-Libra, when the I am of Aries is fully occupied with integrity and authenticity, or simply being yourself, it shifts the dynamic of the we of Libra and changes those around you. When you allow yourself to be fully seen with all your vulnerabilities, fear and doubt, it relieves the quantum field around you for everyone else. It allows everyone else to be themselves too. Pretence just perpetuates more pretence. Vulnerabilities and mistakes create space for others.
The Moon is conjoined Vesta and Ceres at this full moon. Vesta, the keeper of the sacred flame, rules the themes of service and devotion, essence, purity and our highest potential. Ceres, the earth mother and the mother of all asteroids, rules nurturance received from the earth, the seasons and of course mothering. Incidentally mothering issues always ultimately ends with our own Divine Mother issues – our capacity to relate and connect with the Goddess within. The Goddess and the sacred feminine are highlighted at this full moon eclipse in Libra, ruled by Venus. We need to draw on the essence of what that means to help transform us.
What the Goddess represents is miles away from where we are right now. To delineate, we do not see that what we suffer is our own creation. This concept is a book in itself. On some very deep unconscious level we 100% create what enters into our reality. We are 100% responsible. That’s the good and the ugly – especially what we experience as people doing to us. If we place the creative source in the centre of us, instead of with everyone else around us, then we become the creation centre of our suffering. We can accept this responsibility to see differently, to own our creations fully. But this is a big leap.
Vesta and Ceres ask us to entertain the possibility that our lives are in service to the great spirit, and suggest that it’s our choice as to whether we let go of our own self-centred attachment to others being at the centre of our suffering. Vesta asks us to evaluate ourselves and purify that which dampens our own internal sacred fire. What dampens our fire is seeing the power outside of us. When we decide to dedicate ourselves to the purification of the unconscious programmes running within which create our reality, then as Vesta would ask, we enter into devoted forgiveness, in every moment. This is not a forgiveness of others but of ourselves for creating that which we suffer from. This Vesta offering of redemptive service is an incredibly powerful ritual and alchemy, that as it purifies, we may become a clear vessel, a conduit for our divinity.
Ceres, the life giver, speaks of a relationship to the earth; that is the giving and receiving of energy through ourselves. Ceres asks for self-love, (when debilitated in a chart, it often brings self-harm) from which external goodness arises. With transiting Venus in Pisces we could, if we can drop our focus on ourselves for a moment, begin to see the other in a new way through new eyes. Perhaps, as suggested through the eyes of Piscean compassion and forgiveness.
Put all that together and what do you get? Firstly a readiness to change will bring it on now. Vesta allows us to devote ourselves to what it is that we truly want to be in service of, and from a deeper platform within, Ceres will nourish our wholeness by reconnecting us to our Divine Mother, the one who holds all duality in her earth – she is all things. These concepts are far more powerful concoctions for change. I felt this Vesta-Ceres connection directly only yesterday as I opened my eyes to find my first thought waking me saying (for the first time ever!) I’m calling in my divine presence right now.
These polarised natures, of me and us, you and them, need to come to balance and this comes from our relationship with others, it happens inside and outside us. We need both. But while we are learning about the polarity of each we will swing between the two. But we can’t rush process endings and outcomes nor can our ego be totally in control. Change arises from our connection with reality itself, our grounding, our relationship to the world. It arises from our investment in life, rather than our taking from it. We invest and it ultimately flows back.
Finally, there’s a lot of talk of how Pluto in Capricorn is heralding the collapse of old structures around and also within us. This is difficult, feeling the earth moving beneath, rugs pulled out, you get the idea, and even more so with Pluto turning stationary and then retrograde just hours before this eclipse. The earth moving within our souls is strong and running deep.
So when these energies are shaking our foundations, we need to support our inner process – in whatever way you normally do this, just don’t leave life to chance. Undoubtedly for some, this transition will bring up huge feelings that need processing, but the safest place right now is in the body, as suggested by Ceres. Tap into the non-polarity within your wholeness accessible through your body. What’s trying to emerge through your body needs you to give it more space. Your body is where your wholeness dwells, don’t ignore it. Appreciate these processes are beyond this life time’s healing. Appreciate that and give it time to integrate. Nothing can be considered more important right now.
