Solar Eclipse
We come to the last New Moon of the astrological year. This Pisces New Moon on March 8-9 is not only a Super Moon, meaning it is closest to Earth and so has a stronger effect on the tides and our bodies and emotions, but also the first of four eclipses this year. This Pisces New Moon is a total solar eclipse, which is visible in the eastern half of Asia and the Pacific. It's influence will resonate with us until the next solar eclipse in September 2016.
All eclipses disrupt the Earth's electromagnetic fields and therefore each of ours. The Pisces theme that we are all in this together is evident when it comes to these cosmic events. A solar eclipse occurs at a New Moon when the Sun, Earth and Moon's planes align with each other, gathering and focusing their energies into a new shape, a new resonance. A new door opens, a new story begins. Just as a regular New Moon is a time to plant new seeds, a solar eclipse is a time to let go of old, stagnant energy shells, so the new life energy that's been gestating within can begin to grow.
As we end this astrological cycle with a solar eclipse, the electromagnetic fields that have been resonating in all of us change. And we are changed.
The Sign of Pisces
Woodcut illustration of the zodiac sign Pisces used by Alexander and Samuel Weissenhorn of Ingolstadt
(Image by Provenance Online Project) Details DMCA
Pisces is the last sign of the zodiac, a sign symbolized by the Ocean. Our oceans were the matrix of life, the place of origins. Out of these waters, Life itself arose. As a symbolic state, Pisces represents what Jung calls the collective unconscious, the repository of all those things our culture rejects and ignores. It holds the memory of all the life that's been lived on this planet Earth, all the pain, sorrow, happiness, love, hunger, death and rebirth all humans partake in. It is the doorway to the realm of the archetypes of life and the container for all the stories, myths and fairy tales meant to guide us on our way through life.
As a water sign, Pisces is a natural Empath, taking on the feelings of others in a big way. Pisces 'feel' what others are feeling and often suffer along with them. This gives rise to the supreme virtue of Pisces, which is compassion . When you walk in another's shoes, you know how they feel. It's not an intellectual knowing, but a deep visceral knowing.
The initiation of Pisces is that we have to give up our ego-identity and let it dissolve back into the ocean of spiritual consciousness. Can we let ourselves go with the flow of life? This is so hard on our modern, ego-consciousness. And of course, that's the test. Are we more than our self-image? Can we trust enough in our higher Self to let go of 'the world' and let the god-force take charge? We're so afraid to give up our identity, as if it alone defines us. And that identity is the one our society shapes for us, in us. Because our patriarchal society has denigrated the feminine aspects of life (thereby shipping them off to the collective unconscious), it is often an identity sadly lacking in magic, mystery, love, joy, freedom, playfulness and reverie. And yet we cling to it, because we fear losing it will mean our deaths.
And because we are afraid of death, the Waters of Life have been polluted. Beside the literal wasteland we've made of much of the waters of Earth--a Texas-sized areas of plastic waste, a depleted and poisoned fish population, our streams and rivers the repository for poisoned waste runoff--we're also left with a polluted inner ocean of negative and scary images that our corporate media feeds us to keep us scared and on edge. Pandering to the tastes of young men's imaginations has sunk Hollywood's stories into the toilet bowl of juvenile male fantasies of sex, blood and bombs or chick-lite stories of romantic love.
An important gift of Pisces is our creative imagination, our ability to listen through our imagination to the Earth herself as well as to other beings. Our imaginations are vital to living in harmony with Nature and with each other. Unfortunately, that has also been damaged by what we allow into our minds, such as the belief that the realms of the imagination are only for children. That imagination is only helpful in making something the collective wants, rather than opening our imaginations to listen to what the world really needs.
We have both a Waking Mind and a Dreaming Mind, or our rational left brain and our imaginative, feeling right brain. We have been trained to over-use the first and under-value the second.
We spend so much time in our Waking Mind, our rational, deal with the outer world mind that we don't leave any time (except when we sleep) for our Dreaming Mind. But it is our Dreaming Mind that knows the name of the wind and water, of fire and earth. The Dreaming Mind knows the world so deeply and intimately, and with so much love, that it sees the truth of Life all around us.
Most of us don't spend enough time in the Imagination. When we do, we feed it the junk food of TV or the Internet or maybe a hearty meal of a good book, play or movie, but do we look to it to give us its wisdom about our life. Do we stop to listen? Do we sit in revery and silence and drop our questions like a smooth stone into the calm, deep pool of it, waiting and watching the circling ripples come to shore to stand before us with the answers we seek? Then, do we accept those answers or do we let our waking mind rip it apart?
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