Aquarius Full Moon Lunar Eclipse, August 5-6, 2009

Lunar eclipses are like super powerful Full Moons. The Sun, Moon and Earth all align on the same plane, and for a few hours, the Earth blocks the light of the Sun from reaching the Moon. The Earth cuts off solar consciousness from the reflective power of lunar unconscious. There is a pause, a held-breath, when we get to see what's there in our lives without indulging in our usual emotional complexes. Lunar eclipses clear things out of our lives, especially issues from the past. But if we let go of something, we need something to replace it. We need a new story.

flickr image by henriquetyds

Normally, eclipses come in pairs - a solar eclipse and a lunar eclipse. But this year, amidst all the other strong planetary influences, we have an unusual three eclipses in a row. This full Moon is a partial lunar eclipse, and it occurs on August 5th in the Americas and August 6th in most of the rest of the world. The end of the eclipse will be visible in the Eastern US.

This second lunar eclipse within a month opens the door to release any left-over illusions we still harbor that life will go on as usual. Lunar eclipses energize us to shed old habits and let go of the past so that the doorways to the future can open. In the signs of Leo (the Sun) and Aquarius (the Moon) we are asked to shed our Leo pride and drama, our arrogant belief that we are the center of the universe, and turn our attention to the needs of the whole, to the group.

Aquarius and Leo describe the astrological axis that symbolizes how individuals create and contribute to the group. Leo rules our physical children as well as our creative children. It is also the archetypal energy that can lead us to individuation. It is all about our unique creativity. Aquarius is all about ideals and the importance of the group mind.

When Leo and Aquarius work together, they create groups that value individual creativity and initiative, and that honor high ideals and the good of all people. With Neptune, Jupiter and Chiron all retrograding in Aquarius along with the North Node of Destiny, we are being asked to integrate new visions and possibilities for the future into our individual creative vision as well as our public lives.

The truth of Leo is this. Stories and images (movies, TV, news, radio entertainment - Leo) have a profound influence on the individual as well as the collective psyche. Violence on screen does beget violence on the streets and in homes. Talk and images that create hate have definite repercussions on individual psyches. When people only have stories of hatred and doom that explain the times they live in, they turn into mobs.

Leo's are artists, people who have a need to examine their passions and play with them. It is our artists who can tell us different stories. We need people in our communities to band together and come up with different ways they can use their artistry for create a different vision for our future. Not just the innovations we need to invent, but the stories that fit it all together and touch our hearts, the story that speaks the Truth. We need to take the new story to the streets.

We have a lot of artists in the world; not all famous, but great artists none the less. What if our citizen artists could band together and create venues for telling a different story? Like the flower children of the 60s, artists can offer people a vision of peace, as well as the truth of where we are and how we can all help to save ourselves and the Earth. Through storytelling, dance, film, music, art and writing, we can put our Leo strengths in the service of Aquarius' vision.

Leo has the creativity to imagine different stories. For every story of doom and destruction there is another story of the possibilities of new life. Stories that teach us how to get through this personal and cultural transformation in a positive way.

Many people are afraid and confused and need a "story' to believe in, a story to show them what the future might bring. Hopes of great prosperity must be replaced by similar hopes with different outcomes. The world that comes after is a world where we have to be stewards of the Earth and share resources with each other. If people can't imagine it for themselves, they'll let someone else imagine it for them.

Our artists can create stories about healing the future that will give people hope. Otherwise, we will be manipulated by corporate messages to live in fear and insecurity and imagine the total destruction of everything we love.

The commentators who spew dark and toxic ideas and feelings into our collective headspace can manipulate people into destructive and hateful behavior. This is not what we imagine when we think of America. These three eclipses mark a beginning that will flower in the next years into a renaissance of spirit, art and culture. To get there, we need our artists to become activists again.

And after living in the desert, I've discovered the truth of desert life: in the desert, you have to work together to survive. A group of artists working together can bring images and stories into the community in a powerful way.

And we can do it by performing at the local library, church hall or community center. We need our artists to awaken collective consciousness again, like the artists in the 60s did, (the Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Dylan, Jimmie Hendricks, Simon & Garfunkel). That's one of the potentials that next year's cardinal T-square of planets active in the 60s will energize.

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