A Solar Eclipse, though, invites us to participate in the ‘Sacred Marriage’ occurring in our Heavens. We can participate in the new beginning that all New Moons represent. The Sacred Marriage replenishes the Land, as well as each of us. A Solar Eclipse asks us to become conscious of the shifting energies that are creating our future and co-create with them.
So what energies have been invited to witness this sacred marriage of the Sun and Moon (visible in the lower Southern hemisphere), and the new birth that takes place in the house of Aquarius? The invited guests are: The Centaur Chiron with his wisdom and his wound, Mercury/Hermes in his role of Guide of Souls, Neptune the Lord of the Collective Unconscious and the Imaginal world, and Vesta/Hestia the Lady of the Eternal Flame of Life.
The other guests - Venus, Jupiter, and Pluto in Capricorn; Mars in Gemini (finally moving forward); Saturn in Virgo and Uranus in Pisces - including ourselves, watch from beyond Aquarius’ house, adding their good wishes to the event. So let’s see what this Marriage portends.
Aquarius, the Water-Bearer, is the sign of our ‘collective’ consciousness. It is a fixed, idealistic Air sign (sorry, not a water sign) and it represents how we collectively think about what it means to be human and our connection to each other. Carl Jung said that the Water-Bearer pours out the archetypal contents of the Collective Unconscious, energizing us to live these instinctual patterns of behavior more consciously. The Water-Bearer image has also been associated with the Tarot Trump #14 – Temperance, symbolizing the Soul Guide who helps us find the balance of Wholeness.
While astrologers give the rulership of Aquarius to Saturn and Uranus, because individual freedom (Uranus) entails responsibility (Saturn), the Titan Prometheus embodies many of the Aquarian qualities. Prometheus, ‘the great cosmic social worker’, rebelled against the King of the Gods when he stole the creative Fire from the gods to give to humanity. This archetype embodies the spirit within us that isn’t content with just living instinctually (being GREEDY FOR MORE) but wants to grow and live more consciously (stopping when there's ENOUGH). Prometheus, whose name means ‘the one who foresees’ (having foresight), knew that Zeus would win the battle with his fellow Titans, and chose to side with Zeus – the new order. He assisted in the birth of the goddess Athena from Zeus’ head, and was said to have created humanity from clay and water in the likeness of the gods, and later taught them all the cultural arts. He is the archetypal energy of the Cultural impulse, the desire to become more civilized, more god-like and conscious. “All human skill and science was Prometheus’ gift.”(Aeschylos) This impulse of good will toward humanity is certainly a part of the Aquarian story.
In the myth, Prometheus runs into opposition from Zeus, the King of the Gods, who doesn’t want humanity to develop the consciousness reserved for the gods (very much like the God of Genesis in the Garden of Eden). This is the part of the story we appear to be in now, don’t you think? It is time for each individual to have freedom – “of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” – and the powers-that-be still want to control everyone and everything. We need to engage the Prometheus energy within us to defy the system and re-create it on a higher level. And like Prometheus, who was punished by Zeus until Chiron offered to take his place, many people, like Cindy Sheehan, have had to suffer for the greater good.
We have lived in an adversarial mind-set for millennia. But the Age of Aquarius, which is just around the corner, will be an age where we all know we are ONE BEING - the Human Being. Aquarius is the Global Village, the Round Table, The Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. Aquarius urges us to look beyond our differences (thank goodness we are different, otherwise how boring the world would be!) to our similarities. Our DNA is 99% the same – and translated from chemical equations into Hebrew tells us, We are made in the image of God. Aquarius says, be inclusive, be inventive, be tolerant of individual freedom, fight for social justice, be responsible for and love your neighbor as yourself. Aquarius is the sign that demands that we look beyond our own personal dreams and start to dream for the world.
When the Sun and Moon join together in Aquarius, the energies of the collective consciousness are brought close up and personal to every one of us. We see ourselves as individuals in the human family. We can abandon our family as a lost cause, or we can work to make a better life for everyone. Our purpose (the Sun) and our personal needs (the Moon) are the same. I think we’re finally getting it – if we are to survive these trying times, we have to work together. We have to come together to create change, new systems, new visions of the possible.
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