In Our Wildest Dreams: Total Solar Eclipse in Sagittarius

December holidays in the past have been hectic, noisy, competitive, and pressured, full of preparations, plans, thoughts of others, mostly about what gift to get them. It has been highly commercialized, and that isn’t going to change for a while, but this December is different. Adversity has brought loss and grief, pain and suffering, shattered faith and desperate hope. We are incredibly vulnerable right now on every level. Our physical welfare is threatened along with our economic outlook. Our minds are flooded with fearful thoughts, our hearts are aching for loving contact, our bodies are in constant jeopardy. This is when we turn to Spirit.

During these Holy Days the Heavens are showering us with gifts, beginning with a Total Solar Eclipse on December 14th. Moving on to Mercury’s visitation to the Sun, and climaxing with The Great Conjunction on the holiest day of all – the Winter Solstice. You can learn more about this special event in my video. It’s my holiday gift to you all.

Total Solar Eclipse

In past posts about eclipses, I have emphasized the shadow theme. The symbolism suggests that when the light of our Spirit Sun, or our soulful Moon, is temporarily blocked, it’s a good time to look into the shadowy corners of our psyche. I think we’ve had our fill of that this year. Sometimes it seemed that’s all there was. But there is another way of looking at an eclipse. It’s a time of increased darkness when we can turn inward to discover the nurturing light.

This New Moon brings us spiritual blessings. First of all, as every year, it takes place in Sagittarius which asks us to lift our eyes to the Heavens and aim our arrow straight. What is the most glorious future we can dream? It’s Dream Time and the eclipse gives us a pause in which to imagine, to search our souls and find that spark of unfulfilled passion, that drop of yearning for something wonderful, that life-long vision of Heaven on Earth.

I do a ritual every year of trimming our Christmas tree. I make a whole afternoon and sometimes into the evening of it. I take time with each ornament and recall who gave it to me, or what was going on when I bought it. I say hello to old friends and think of them with love. I save the best for last – the picture of My Little Lisa as a youngster, grinning and filled with excitement. If I haven’t already been crying, this is when my heart breaks open and love explodes.

I haven’t really thought about the effect of that. I just took it for granted, but I see that this is my spiritual practice of setting the tone for the holidays. It works every time. Seems to me we could all use a huge dose of love right now. And it’s all available, right there in our memory. When we think of someone, and add the dimension of affection, caring, cherishing, we slip automatically into heart-brain coherence. From this state of consciousness, we can create miracles. Just sayin’.

Mercury and the Sun

It just so happens that Mercury is only three degrees away from the eclipse at 23 degrees of Sagittarius. Mercury is speeding toward a rendezvous with the Sun. It happens twice in his cycle. The first conjunction happens when Mercury is retrograde, and turns back toward the Sun which he passed six weeks ago. In this case they joined up on Halloween, just to throw in some cosmic humor and alert us to the dying of the old and the coming of the New Year. I think Mercury was suggesting we examine our faith.

On December 19th, just before the Winter Solstice, when the Sun is furthest South and standing still, awaiting its time to return light and Spirit to the North, Mercury joins the Sun – symbol of our Spirit, the consciousness that enlivens us. Mercury will bring us messages. He will help us see the meaning of the past 11 months – how it has changed us, how it has grown us, strengthened us, empowered us. When adversity strips away something precious, and we are able to let go with grace, we become empowered to create something even better.

2021 will be about perception. First Jupiter, then Saturn, will square Uranus in Taurus. Prepare for a flood of insight, surprises, unexpected gifts. We will be talking a lot about this next year. The point is that Mercury is at the full-moon phase of its cycle. What we have experienced this autumn will begin to make more sense, even though we still won’t comprehend its full impact for some time. We’re going through some pretty thick fog right now and have a way to go.

Neptune and the Nodes

Don’t groan. It’s a good thing. Reality right now is very pliant. Neptune is squaring the nodal axis of the Moon. Quick reminder – the Nodes are the points at which the orbit of the Moon intersects the ecliptic, or path of the Earth around the Sun. It’s the intersection of the physical and spiritual realms. These degrees are energized and participate in our evolution. Right now Mercury is conjunct the South Node asking us to sort through our inner world, take a look at what we want to bring with us on the journey into the future, and what we want to leave behind. The darkness of this time of year draws us within for a reason. 2021 is going to take off and we don’t want to miss the flight.

The North Node is in Gemini conjunct the USA natal Mars. Gemini is about information and communication. Mars is action. This is an opportunity to take action – not out there in the physical world, but within. Get the broom and sweep out the corners. Revisit the parts of the past that are still nagging at us. Most importantly, we need to feel the feelings we just couldn’t bear at the time. This is so transformative. Allow yourself to cry – it’s healing. When we feel, we release. And when we release, we see things differently. The new perception is healing and liberating. The “story” of the past is transformed by new vision.

Neptune’s influence is gentle, but persistent. It’s the relentless and inescapable force of dissolution. Saturn creates structure, Neptune erodes it. Neptune wants to keep us connected to the evolutionary flow. So while Neptune squares the Nodes, both our past and our future loosen up their boundaries. They are open for new ideas, new dreams, transformation. Obviously we can change our future through the choices we make, but what about our past? What’s done is done, right? Well, we can’t erase it, but we can reframe it, see it through new eyes. What we saw as a deep wound, may have been the driving force in our soul’s evolution, the very lesson we needed to learn in this life. As we revisit those dark times, we gain a new perspective on our life – an expanded awareness that allows us to move on, knowing that our life is meaningful. Seeing the trajectory of events that brought us to this moment, we apprehend the pattern and the spiritual wisdom that guided it.

Mars and Eris

Eris is still squaring Pluto, encouraging contention, and Mars is closing in on Eris bringing more fuel to the conflagrations of 2020. The challenge of the next four years will be to pull ourselves together as a nation and face the crises that are threatening not only our Union and our experiment in Democracy, but the viability of our Mother Earth to sustain sentient life. Hopefully all the bickering and struggling to wrest power, all the self-righteousness on both sides can be resolved before we have our Pluto Return. Our work is really only beginning. We have serious choices, and we can only make them for ourselves, not for others. It’s time for some humility. We need to learn how to be gracious winners as well as losers. It’s time to regain our footing through acceptance.

During this time of good cheer, let’s exercise our imagination and dream a better future into existence. Think big in terms of spiritual potential. We have been deeply immersed in the physical plane. Jupiter and Saturn open the door to the mental realm. We can lighten up. Our dreams can fly free. Our Spirituality is our relationship to All That Is. It’s time to heal the rifts. Remember the love.

May your Holy Days be filled with love and joy and good will. I’m taking some time off. There will be a Full Moon in Cancer on the 29th. I can’t promise to write about it, but it’s about family. Appreciate your family and enjoy the beauty of illumination.  I will be back with you in January.

Peace and Love, Diana