Eclipses travel in sets of two or three, occur during full and new moon lunations, and always in pairs. Because the effects of eclipses can begin up to three weeks prior to the actual eclipse, eclipse ‘season’ can last as long as two months. To what purpose does this unsettling, exciting time serve? Eclipses move us along our evolutionary path, often with huge signposts, other times with a whisper – and always with an element of surprise. Imagine you’ve been focused on redecorating several rooms in your house and you’ve been stuffing the attic with all the things you’ve moved in the process. “Suddenly” the roof begins to bow. But this is not really a surprise because out of the corner of your eye you’ve noticed the bulging attic yet because you’ve been so focused on other things the attic just wasn’t a priority. Now the attic demands your urgent attention.

Eclipses are meant to mobilize your awareness on an issue and they do this by bringing concrete events in the form of ‘surprises’ to light. As with our attic, we have previously tucked away all kinds of stuff we didn’t know what to do with and what’s there in the background of our consciousness waiting…for an eclipse…when consciousness and events covene in a dramatic moment. That trigger can be anything, a surprise proposal, an announcement, a change of plans, but it will teach you just how ‘charged’ your stuff is.  Eclipses bring sudden emotional awareness, and that can cause you to want to react, quickly. Awareness is compelling, but we don’t always need to immediately act on our enhanced knowledge. Years of eclipse watching has taught me that new decisions made during this time are often emotional ones. When planetary weather is unstable, and emotions are highly strung, it’s a good rule of thumb to not act just yet. Get as quiet as you can and listen to your body. Receive the awareness for awhile, allow that to integrate into your body and being. Because our intuitive awareness is high right now, if we can hold center during these tenuous emotional times, a middle way reveals.

Let’s imagine another scenario. You realize you’ve been sweeping a few things under the rug in your relationship with your guy. This awareness bleeds through in the weeks preceding an eclipse, and as you talk to your friends about it you’re feeling the emotional urgency to be more honest, to come clean. Eclipses create urgency, letting you know it’s time to take a long, hard look at what you’ve been avoiding. Then, during eclipse week, your boyfriend proposes marriage, forcing you to radically confront everything you’ve been feeling and thinking. Eclipses don’t necessarily tell us it’s time to act, just that it’s time. Have that talk, but if you can, wait a few weeks before making a big decision. If someone presents you with an ‘act now’ opportunity and it’s an opportunity you’ve been waiting for – go for it. But eclipses will heighten our insecurities, and we’d best listen to them. I’ve made eclipse decisions I’ve later reversed. Let things unfold naturally. Get centered before you act.

Eclipses also turn corners; beginnings and endings happen. Again the suddenness isn’t scary or unpredictable but that doesn’t lessen the bumpy ride. You’ve reached the next logical chapter of the book you’ve already started. But perspective is challenging, especially around a lunar eclipse when we have a more subjective view. It’s easy to feel like Fate is at the steering wheel as you sit in the passenger seat holding onto your seat for dear life, but if you feel this way, it is important to remember: Eclipses do not happen to you. You are happening to you. Eclipses ask us to grow by pushing us into the parts of our self we may not feel ready nor equipped to confront. There is nothing here that isn’t apart of the natural unfolding of your life path. If you find yourself feeling fearful or anxious, fear is a sign you’re growing. It takes courage to grow.

At the very least, eclipse energy is emotionally bumpy. Instead of spiraling into emotional symptoms, nurture a healthy response: the bump and adjustments we feel are part and parcel to the dawn of any new awareness. It’s easy to fall into the old eclipse pattern of “I’m a wreck. Gosh, I really had no idea how much of a wreck I was, but now that I’ve had the lights turned on, I can see that I’m an absolute mess.” My practical advice is: try not to go there. Like de-planing from a trip, the cargo in the overhead bins of the cabin (your consciousness) has radically shifted. Expect to be discombobulated, because that’s the price of seeing something new, and deplane with care. Embrace this new awareness, so necessary because it’s happening. If you’ve achieved real insight, look at the world through your newly granted third eye and walk around with it awhile. Observe the subtle shift in the way you’re feeling and thinking, and imagine all the possibilities this new awareness has opened up inside of you. Dare to wonder what it means.

Then, thank heavens that a force greater than you is moving you right along. Thank heavens you’ve been selected to advance out of your stuck holding pattern and move forward into a fabulous phase/daze of expanded awareness. Thank heavens someone up there decided to turn on the lights. The next step is up to you.

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