Capricorn Full Moon Lunar Eclipse, June 26, 2010 & Summer Solstice, June 21, 2010
This cosmic grand cross . . . aligns with the Super Galactic Center (SCG). . .a colossal Black Hole with the mass of billions of suns, around which the Milky Way and many other galaxies revolve. Powerful electromagnetic transmissions emanating from the SGC act as a spiritual beacon, triggering memories of our cosmic origins and destiny.” (Stephanie Austin, Mountain Astrologer, #151)
Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, occurs on Monday, June 21, 2010 at 4:30am PDT/ 7:30am EDT/ 11:30am GMT. This is the day the ‘sun stands still’ (solstice) and hangs in the northern sky before it starts its journey south again. In this natural rhythm of life and growth, death and rebirth, Summer Solstice turns the Wheel of the Year to the sacred marriage between Heaven and Earth, a celebration of life and light. (I’d like to take a moment to shout out to our friends in the Southern Hemisphere who are celebrating Winter Solstice and the birth of the Light!)
At this Summer Solstice when the sun stands still for three days, let us take time to slow down and find out what we really value about our lives. This year, the sacred marriage of Heaven and Earth must become the marriage of a new feminine consciousness married to a new masculine consciousness. And it is our duty to become the conscious connection between Heaven and Earth, just as the kings and priestesses of old did for their people.
This Summer Solstice is weighty and intense. Of course, we don’t need to look to the heavens to know that, we just have to look at the challenges the world faces – oil polluting our oceans, revolutions, wars, lack of real leadership. But in looking to the heavens, and reading the archetypal Cosmic Story, we evoke and understand the energies involved and consciously channel the chaos into new form. We get to take part in creation.
And believe it or not, we are also called to celebrate in the midst of this death and destruction in the Gulf, the wars and hunger ravaging the world, and the fierce imagination of the end of Time. We celebrate life in hard times to ensure our faith in the promise of new Life. We gather and celebrate to energize ourselves, to renew our passion, to engender our purpose. We are called to co-create the future.
We are standing at the crossroads. We can make a deal with the Devil (as Robert Johnson claimed) or step into our collective destiny and bring greater Light into the world. Now is the time; wherever you live is the place. Your assignment: to work with the Cosmic energies of change and help move us forward in a new direction, both personally and collectively. We are at the hero/ine’s stage of the Pluto/Uranus (+Saturn) cycle. This first week of Cancer is another beginning, as the Sun in Cancer becomes the 4th Leg of the Cosmic T-square, grounding these dynamic energies in the primeval Waters of Life.
It is our job to let our emotional intelligence become the 4th leg, grounding and integrating these energies in a conscious way. We need to open our hearts to the wildlife deaths in the Gulf, the oily pollution of our Mother Ocean, the degradation of our Mother Earth. We are called to recognize that we are part of the Earth and one among many of her children. Just as our collective hearts opened after the Christmas tsunami in pain for the loss of human life, let us open ourselves to the pain of Mother Earth.
Let us lead with our hearts and feel the Sacrifice that our Mother Earth is making to teach us an important lesson. The waters of the Earth will be purified once again, but we won’t be here to see it, especially if we ignore the sacrifice and don’t change our ways. We need to honor the sacrifices of the animals and birds and waters by opening ourselves to transformation through our own sacrifice of what is selfish and greedy, unconscious and cruel in ourselves. We have to let go of fear and embrace Love – acknowledging the Divine connection between the universe and all its creatures - not just as an ideal, but as an embodied consciousness.
That can happen – even instantaneously - next weekend on the Capricorn Full Moon Lunar Eclipse. The Moon symbolizes our emotional body – our needs and how we are nurtured; how we seek fulfillment and integrate our life’s experiences. The Moon symbolizes the unconscious part of our psyches, the emotional patterns of our early years that shaped our response to life.
During a lunar eclipse, the Sun, Earth and Moon all align and the Earth, blocking the sunlight, casts its shadow on the Moon, stopping the flow of solar and cosmic energies to our emotional bodies. A moment of released pressure; a cosmic portal into the Shadowlands. Lunar eclipses energize the release and collapse of old emotional patterns, opening up space for new life and new emotions to take hold.
The Capricorn Lunar Eclipse occurs on June 26, 2010 at 11:31am GMT/ 7:31am EDT/ 4:31am PDT. Eclipses usually mean a crisis of some sort, which isn’t necessarily bad. ‘Eclipses represent a rip or tear in the fabric of space/time, through which the forces of chaos and disorder can enter or exit our world and our lives’. (Gary Caton) This rip can let in the spiritual energies from the Super Galactic Center to midwife a new consciousness.
This intense lunar eclipse involves 7 out of 10 planets, forming 12 squares that challenge us to change and 6 oppositions that demand to be integrated. When we channel these energies consciously, we can create with them. If we ignore these energies, they will disrupt our lives. Once again, the choice is ours. Will we answer the call to consciously co-create?
Crisis is not necessarily a bad thing – it wakes us up from our sleep and energizes us to do our best. So where can we expect this chaos or disruption to occur? Wherever the eclipse falls in your chart are areas of life that are going to undergo some change or pressure.
So let’s take a look at the energies involved in what astrologers are calling the Cardinal Grand Cross of the Summer of 2010. Cardinal signs – Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn – begin new seasons of the year, and so they mark a shift from one stage of development to another. Cardinal signs like to take action, sometimes impetuously. The tension of the squares and the need for awareness of the oppositions throw up obstacles to that action. So we need to develop patience, stay centered, and get organized if we want to overcome the obstacles. Endurance is the name of the game. Things aren’t going to change overnight, but if we keep at it, something new and potentially beautiful will take shape in the chaos.
The Capricorn Moon is being eclipsed. Capricorn is a hard placement for the Moon, because only collectively appropriate feelings are allowed. By that I mean, the feelings that the patriarchy (Capricorn is the sign of the Father) approves of. And as we all know, the patriarchy is distrustful of feelings, and has spent thousands of years trying to get us to ignore and deny the validity of feelings.
This gives rise to negative feelings of self-doubt, shame, unworthiness and neediness, which then have to be caged in and repressed under the bright façade of our egos. These feelings are symbolized by the wicked witch or step-mother of so many of our fairy tales. Patriarchy creates witches that try to kill us. The feminine aspect of the patriarchy is subservient to its needs, and gives rise to feelings of pain, anger and loss. Is it any wonder that Western society is into power, domination, greed, hypocrisy and violence?
Since the Moon symbolizes our emotional body, in Capricorn we see an emotional body overlaid with rules and regulations for the (patriarchal) communal good. An emotional body in pain because the soul of life has been banished from it. These rules and regulations do not serve our well-being any more, so they need to go.
The Moon in Capricorn is joined by Pluto, who has been wrecking havoc with economies and governments. Astrologers are quick to say that Pluto represents the energy of death and rebirth, but we have to remember that in myth, Pluto is also the judge of the underworld, the judge who makes us face the Truth. The planet Pluto seems to drag up the muck, the underworld stench of what’s rotten in the sign it travels through before it starts the restructuring of new life. In Capricorn, it makes us face the truth of our communal structures. And so far, we’ve seen that our present system is pretty much all smoke and mirrors. It is not taking care of the Commons for us – the intangibles that we all have a share in: our water, our air, our earth and its riches. So the question is: why do we need it if it isn’t doing its job?
Pluto conjunct the Moon means that we have to sit in judgment on our collective culture and the emotional attachments we have to consumerism and corporate-run government. When the mother dies in fairy tales, it means there is no real emotional intelligence to teach us about life. Although the rules (the father) are clear, we have to repress our emotional responses or be judged as wanting.
This eclipsed Moon, coupled with Pluto, will release those repressed feelings. It could get scary. But only if we continue to ignore their presence. We need to understand that all the witches we fear are only our own repressed emotions and thoughts.
What the world really needs is the Mother. That’s the role of the Cancer Sun during this eclipse. We need the Mother to temper those bad feelings, to assure us that we are loved, to give us the security of knowing that all will be well. We need the Mother just at the moment when we are realizing that our vision of the world – the capitalistic, consumer vision of progress – is about to kill the Great Mother of us all – our Earth.
The Cancer Sun is joined by Mercury, the planet of communication and perception, allowing us to understand what we are feeling and what our real needs are. Once we see the Truth about our society, we can free up our emotions and discover what is really important in life. It isn’t about our political perspective; it’s about our personal standpoint. As Swami Beyondananda says: “We need to be politically inclusive. We need to be conservative with our precious resources, liberal in love and in service, and radical in our Imagination.”
This eclipse is crossed by another opposition (full moons are the opposition between the sun and moon). We have the Uranus/Jupiter conjunction in Aries, opening us to new possibilities and hope. We can use this energy best by understanding which archetypal energy is driving us to our purpose and destiny. For example, I am a storyteller, and when I step into the archetype of the Bard and Storyteller, I gather up my courage to speak the Truth and to spin the tales that will call to the hearts of my people. Others will step into the archetype of the Warrior or the Healer or the Mother. Find out which archetypal energies are calling your name, and channel their power, but don’t try to own it.
Opposite Uranus/Jupiter is Saturn, the old wise man or the devil, depending on how you meet him. Saturn has been opposing Uranus since America’s last presidential election in 2008, pulling us apart as people take sides on the Old vs. the New. And yet, this opposition is all about becoming aware of what in the old is important, and what in the new is irrelevant. We know that the old must make way for the new, but the patriarchy has been swallowing up the new wherever and whenever it can. It is time to break this cycle and really allow the New Masculine and the New Feminine their day. Our culture must change its ways or we will all die instead of it dying. And the only way to do that is through each of us being responsible for those changes.
For this eclipse, Saturn is still in the last degrees of Virgo – it won’t go back into Libra until July 21, after the Cancer Solar Eclipse on July 11th. So we get a chance to keep working on ourselves, organizing our lives and getting healthy. Saturn in Virgo says, you have to belong to yourself, know yourself and offer yourself in service if you want to open up to the archetypal energies of new life and possibilities (Uranus/Jupiter).
So let’s take a look at the Sabian symbols for these planets forming the Cardinal Cross at this eclipse.
The Sun at 5* Cancer: Automobile races a streamlined locomotive to the crossroads. It’s all about the individual vs. the collective. Who will make it through that crossroads and in what shape. Taking the risk, being able to process in the midst of tension, and timing it right.
Mercury at 3* Cancer: Arctic explorer, following up reports of a unicorn, brings back a reindeer instead. It’s all about following the dream but not rejecting the reality that you discover because it doesn’t meet your expectations.
The Moon and Pluto both at 5* Capricorn: A Native American Camp: A fierce war dance begins. Here are the Earth warriors, generating the emotional energy to overcome the obstacles facing them.
Uranus at 1* Aries: A woman just risen from the sea. A seal is embracing her. Not just the emergence of new possibilities and new types of consciousness, but also the emergence of a new Feminine spirit of life. Because of its retrograde on July 5th, Uranus stays at the first degree of the zodiac for 78 days, giving us time to awaken fully!
Jupiter at 3* Aries: A great patriot delivering an address, his face lit by spotlights. Spotlights the emergence of (diverse) leaders for the common good.
Saturn at 29* Virgo: In a cave overhung by twisted roots, a seeker pores over the glowing pages of an ancient manuscript. The cave is the womb of the Mother, the twisted roots are our beginnings, the ancient manuscript not only timeless truths but also our soul’s history and destiny. Take the time to read the story of your lives and see the pattern you are part of.
This eclipse marks a crossroads in our individual as well as our collective destiny. I just watched a very depressing but powerful movie called The Road with Viggo Mortensen. It is about the end of the world and one man’s determination to save his son. My hope is that we never get to that place of total destruction, knowing we’ll need the courage and determination to NOT let it happen.
The Call is clear. Time to depart on the Hero’s Journey to find the treasures that will heal our world. What other choice do we have?
Swami Beyondananda: “There’s good news and there’s bad news. The bad news: civilization, as we know it, is about to end. The good news: civilization, as we know it, is about to end!”
Allow yourselves to live in paradox.
Bright Blessings for the Summer Solstice!
Cathy Pagano, M.A. Jungian Psychotherapist Astrologer Wisdom Coach
Once again, my special is $50.00 for a ½ hour reading on this cardinal grand cross and how it affects you.
@2010 Cathy Lynn Pagano – all rights reserved. |
