Hudson Valley Astrologer

“Was he an animal, that music could move him so? He felt as if the way to the unknown nourishment he longed for were coming to light.”

~ Franz Kafka

The eclipse is portentous of dark times ahead, like an angry black sky before a storm. The life giving energy and light from the Sun is blocked and instinctively all the Earth knows at once that a withering is possible.

Technically we see the Moon’s orbit around the Earth as oblique to the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun around the Earth. With a New Moon (when the Moon is in the line of vision with the Sun, from Earth) near the Nodal Axis, and its orbit crossing the ecliptic, there is an eclipse of the Sun. During a Full Moon, (when the Earth is between the Moon and Sun) near the Nodal Axis, there is an eclipse of the Moon. Eclipses may be total, partial, or annular (when the Moon is far enough away from the Earth so that a bright ring of sunlight still reflects around a dark Moon).

In the past, ancient priests controlled the occurrence of eclipses through their knowledge of the timing of the eclipse cycle. They would take credit for the eclipses, feigning great power and thereby manipulate the masses. The symbolic significance of the eclipse is to some degree wired into our consciousness, like the fear of snakes, and has been appropriated by authors to embellish narratives. The crucifixion story for example includes a description of a great eclipse even though there was no eclipse at the time.

The Dark Night of the Soul: The crucifixion story perhaps metaphorically captures the deepest sense of loss we can experience. Such despair and meaninglessness are not necessarily depression, but more of a rite of passage and an opportunity for growth and resurrection. The crosses we carry in life represent a misalignment, something is off-center, and needs to be adjusted. Unfortunately, suffering and sacrifice seems to be the only way in our present state, shrouded in an egoic envelope, to shed our old skins and reveal a gleaming, shining new reason for living.

The death of a spouse, or a child, divorce, experiencing illness, having an accident, being betrayed, bankruptcy and unemployment, are all events that can make one feel as though they are stepping off into the abyss. These experiences are best described by a personal Dark Night, when loneliness and abandonment by the Creative Principle is piqued. For me, these Dark Night related to Divorce, and Cancer. In both instances I experienced a profound surrendering that was quickly followed by nothing short of transformation.

When something is “occulted” it is hidden from sight, covered over; beyond the scope of understanding and mysterious. The concept of occult studies explores the unknown, what is hidden, to formulate spiritual wisdom. From this perspective, the darkness between where we are and the light of the stars is the substance of the soul’s awareness. Yearning, seeking, and searching for revelations that might clarify our purpose.

The process however, of realizing one’s path toward fulfillment, in relation to the all-pervasive Creative Principle, is seldomly found on a straight line. Instead, we meander, and what is hidden in the darkness eclipses the light only so that we might come to know it better. There is an inkling, stumbling along the way through the darkness we discover the light, we head for the light. Therefor, it is precisely our stumbling through the darkness that helps us define and cooperate with the life force, the light.

When we first come to it the sudden brightness of light blinds us, forcing our eyes shut so that we blink, squint, and crinkle the mask of our face until a geyser of tears wash away the darkness, eventually allowing the light to reveal more gently a soft and inviting world, abundant with color.

The light as light, as the dark is dark, as shadow assimilates light, and Ignorance slowly gives way to understanding.

Astrologers develop a keen sense of cycles in studying the motion of the Sun and Moon through the sky, the interplay of night and day, light and darkness. From sunrise to sunset, to the changes of the seasons to the flow of planets and time, within great conjunctions and mutations; from birth to burial, and eulogies recollecting the life lived coming to light.

HVA

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