We move through many differing states of consciousness every day – our experience through body, mind, & being constantly changing. In truth, how can we ever say there’s a definitive ‘me’? And yet the mystery of human being is such that we do, and certainly there is a certain flavour of individuality that each human being expresses. This flavour is expressed wonderfully through the zodiac wheel.
In astrology as the zodiac signs arise through the first half of the zodiac wheel, Aries through Virgo, they reveal the development of the human system of individuality. From the great ocean of Pisces (last sign of the zodiac) birth happens, a being emerges. That being moves through physical birth into the state of ‘I am’ (Aries), I desire & I have (Taurus), I think, learn & express (Gemini), I feel, I belong (Cancer), this is who I am, what sparks me, & what I enjoy (Leo) & then into Virgo – the habits & rituals that serve my wellbeing & motivate me into service to life or my work. From Libra onwards, the world of ‘other’ arises and a different field of growth.
Virgo is connected to the ancient role of priestess, where connection to soul/spirit, the Earth & natural rhythms of life expressed through service in the community. That service had a flavour of individuality yet was based in humility. In our process of individuality, when we have discovered our true essence and unique flavour of creative potential (Leo), being of service is the natural evolution. We are called to contribute our uniqueness in the world.
Right now, we are approaching a Solar Eclipse (super-charged new Moon) at 29 Virgo, 20.54BST on 21 September. In this current eclipse cycle the signs of Pisces and Virgo are highlighted for 18 months. Their polarity of water & earth elements relates to a state of beingness or doing, letting go or getting involved, flow or activity, trust or worry. You enter the realm of Pisces daily when you go to sleep & dream, lose yourself in nature or creativity, fantasise or make love. The Virgo energy is present when you tidy your bedroom, pick up your diary, make a list, or cook a healthy meal. This is what I love about astrology; its practical applicability to being human.
As the Eclipse cycles activates these two signs, Virgo & Pisces, we’re in a purification process from soul through all our vehicles of individuality, an uplift in the integration of being and doing. This has been taking shape in the Virgo/Pisces qualities since early January. As 29 degrees of Virgo, the degree of this eclipse, is the final Virgo degree, this is a watershed moment in this evolutionary process.
Eclipses tend to activate surprising developments or insights that have been naturally gestating without our conscious awareness. This one brings focus to daily habits, thought processes & routines, surrender or overmanaging, & how we organise our lives. This is not just about who we are now. It’s a karmic moment, a gathering up of both our ancestral & soul legacy. We are called to explore the ways we lack an integrated balance between soul & humanness, being & doing, releasing & resisting, trust & worry, getting over-involved or abdicating response-ability, playing the victim or engaging life with discernment.
Over this weekend, the eclipse challenge lies in recognizing what aspect of your daily life needs attention and what you can let go. This may have been brewing since the recent Lunar Eclipse. As this is a Virgo South Node eclipse (related to comfort zones & karma) outworn habits, rituals, ways of thinking & being are highlighted. A good question is: What habit of thinking or acting limits who I am being, my wellbeing & my fullest potential at this time? What attitude or habit (lack of self-belief or trust, self-sabotage, hesitating to commit etc) inhibits a feeling of deep wellness in my system? Or limits an expansion in the creative expression of my soul?
This is a purifying eclipse and our part in it is through surrender to facilitate revelation. This may happen through insight (the missing link) or experience (the last straw).
Pisces, where the directional quality of the North Node lies, is the sign of the Mystery, where life dissolves to reappear in new ways & forms in Aries. It’s where we let go, forgive, trust in our higher power & the process of becoming. Pisces is the ocean of consciousness from which we emerge and where we always return. It’s where we go with the flow, surrendering to ‘what is’, allowing our old ways of being to dissolve and new ones to simply emerge. In Pisces we are resourced in seeing beyond the veils. To feel into, acknowledge and honour our Feminine wisdom held in the more mysterious archetypes of priestess, wise woman & crone. Virgo represents how we express that energy in practical, useful ways of being & service. This weekend you’re encouraged to enter the Mystery and discover what you are feeling about who you are becoming. Where are the subtle shifts? Or maybe an obvious one?
Current evolutionary processes, whatever their flavour or frequencies, are calling us to be the living bridge of consciousness and humanness. To be that bridge, we must live well with uncertainty, letting go our futile attempts to manage or control the huge processes that really grow us. Eclipses represent watershed moments in this process. We may feel overwhelmed through emotion, losing our sense of self in abdication of response-ability, or in the hamster wheel of the mental abstraction without action. Virgo calls us to ‘tidy up’ whatever is bothering us, to align with our innate sense of natural order rather than trying to fix or control. We can do this through feeding the roots of our beingness rather than any external issue. Allowing space in our plans, resting in unknowingness and self-compassion, trusting that we will be shown what’s truly needed. In that, our deep Feminine intelligence can ‘do the work’.
Just as an individual emerges from the great Mystery of life (represented by Pisces) at birth, new frequencies of consciousness are always gestating in the ocean of consciousness. We are not separate from that process, although you may be unaware of it. This includes the transmuting of past life issues, ancestral karma, and utterly new frequencies that our human & Earth systems are ready to receive. This eclipse reveals ‘something new’ that has been brewing in the unseen since the spring. It’s lingering on the edges of your awareness – not to be captured & planned or organised, driven by the mind, but to be felt into, intuited & allowed to emerge.
Occurring just hours before the equinox, this final-degree Virgo eclipse signals a major turning point in what’s been unfolding over this year. It’s the missing link of who you are becoming now and may arrive through an experience that feels like the final straw in some part of your life. It may simply arise in you as a knowing that ‘enough is enough’ with a specific habit or routine, way of thinking or being. Or it may reveal itself through dissatisfaction with an aspect of life ( or of yourself) that can’t quite put your finger on. If this is so, simply stay with the discomfort knowing it’s an edge of growth, trusting it will be revealed.
Wisdom reveals that we cannot force ourselves to let go of what is no longer serving. Yet the eclipse frequency encourages us to cultivate willingness to move with what we see or intuit. Or to willingly ride the waves of experience, trusting you do know what’s needed; it just needs to emerge. A strong aspect of this is about letting go of denial, to gently ground new life practices, to recognise ‘I am worth more than this. I am so much more than this’ with compassion, yet also with intention & movement.
If you are consciously awake, you’ll realise you are always stretching, or being stretched, to encompass new frequencies of consciousness. It’s very natural. Right now, you are being offered an evolutionary missing link. Your part in this is to trust, allow it to reveal & surrender to where it guides you. The bigger picture of your soul’s expression is calling – not necessarily in what you do, but in the refinement of how you are with yourself and your life as a sacred expression of individuality.
The Astrology
Solar Eclipse at 29 Virgo, 20.54BST on 21 September. The Eclipse is conjunct Messenger Mercury at 5 Libra, opposes Wise Elder Saturn Rx at 28 Pisces & is in a Grand Trine with Lord of the Underworld Pluto Rx at 1 Aquarius & Asteroid of Feminine intelligence Pallas Athena Rx at 7 Aquarius, Awakener Uranus Rx & Mother of the Sea Sedna Rx at 1 Gemini.
Warrior Mars at 29 Libra is at the point of a Yod Finger of Fate from Saturn Rx at 28 Pisces & Mystic Neptune Rx at 1 Aries, with Disrupter Eris at 25 Aries, Wounded Healer Chiron Rx at 26 Aries, & Uranus/Sedna Rx at 1 Gemini
