If you look to the sky this evening and the cloud cover in your part of the world is generous enough to thin out in the right places, you will be greeted by a deep red burst of lunar goodness also known as a Super Blood Wolf Moon. This transition is a particularly special one as our old faithful celestial companion will not only be full and completely cast in the shadow of our home planet (totally eclipsed) but also at its closest point in its orbit around us (super blood) and happening in the middle of winter when wolves appear to howl in hunger, at least before or outside of urbanized industrial times.
On the United States West Coast where I take up cosmic residence, the Earth’s shadow will begin to pass in front of the Moon at around 7.30pm. It will gradually progress until completely swallowing her up by 8.40 pm, culminating in a maximum eclipse at 9.12pm before moving out of totality by 9.40pm and reversing its shadowing motion until the whole full moon is visible again. If you are anywhere east of the Pacific Standard time zone, these markers will slip into Monday, January 21.
So much for the nuts and bolts. Might there be more to it than just the opportunity to look at a beautiful, awe-inspiring, transmutational celestial spectacle at just the right time? The question itself is the answer here, as the Moon has been known to evoke quite a bit of human expression outside of orbitual calculations throughout the history of sentient beings.
To get yourself into the lunar spirit (embrace the lunacy!), just feel yourself into sister moon’s gentle presence… . . . . . . . .
Have you ever been stopped in your tracks as the full moon rose over the horizon? Rejoiced as you stumbled upon an insouciant sliver of moonlight playing pinball with the stars? Marveled at the sounds of a rising tide steadily pounding against the rocks on your favorite beach? Felt inexplicably and sleeplessly giddy, inspired, full of love, or otherwise deeply moved? If you’re blessed to be a woman, you could recite a poem from the moon goddess ten times as long as any of us moon-deprived men, but the point is that we are all impacted by her pull, whether we can see her journeying around us or not.
Life on Earth — just as the sky above — is full of transition. In fact, you could say that our lives here are nothing but transitions. Or, as Buddhists would call it, impermanence. Sure, there are times when it might feel like things are standing still, but even when it seems like we’re stuck in our jobs or relationships or otherwise moored, there is movement on the inside. It may not be noticeable at the moment, but with each thought and experience we are adding another layer to our soul map, pushing us to move ahead, adapt to, or overcome obstacles on new roads of possibility laid bare.
This is why I love astrology. The constant motion of the planets feels very much like a reflection, on a big screen, of our own inner state. Some of them, like Saturn or Neptune, move very slowly, as if to signify the kind of changes that are too subtle for us to track in the moment but are indelible as we look back, like discovering a new wrinkle or tuft of gray hair in the mirror. Others, like Mercury or the Moon, move fast enough to keep pace with our daily thoughts and emotions, as if to broadcast in real time our constantly buzzing inner live feed. Once you add in the 12 signs and houses, the possibilities become as nuanced, endless, and intertwined as those boundless oceans of emotions residing within each of us.
Which brings me to this eclipse tonight, to be followed by a meeting of two of the brightest lights in the sky — Venus and Jupiter — on early Tuesday morning.
The Leo lunar eclipse on 1/20 is total, a big one, which asks us to follow our hearts. What brings you most joy? We are shedding the conditioning that our job is to make others happy. It isn’t. Our job is to live a life which is connected to our authenticity (Sun now in Aquarius). Anything which isn’t authentic may emerge to be addressed. The work is to put in place what stems from inside.
– Eric Meyers
As someone who has studied astrology for a long time and read a lot of people’s birth charts, I’ve been remarkably restrained when it comes to anticipating celestial events or applying them to my own soul constellation. Maybe it’s because the mystic archetypes in my birth chart drive me to first experience a transit before analyzing it, or maybe because my servant archetypes that thrive on supporting others are just not that into me. And yet, as I am currently going through some very concrete life transitions in the vocation department, these upcoming alignments are flashing in front of me like beacons in the night.
Thanks to an email from my old astro friend Eric Meyers, I was alerted to the upcoming lunacy earlier than the usual last minute eclipse announcements by major media outlets. What turned his brief but insightful blurbs into a holy toledo moment for me though was the date of the upcoming eclipse: January 20. Little did I know when picking that day a few weeks earlier for a gathering with friends to co-chart my professional path forward in the form of a “sven diagram” that it would coincide with one of the most significant sky gatherings of the year. It was like the universe flicking on the light, yelling “time to wake up and smell the divinity!”
Also of note this month is a Jupiter/Venus conjunction in Sagittarius on 1/21. The “cycle of abundance” begins in the sign of life direction and purpose. If you are truly doing your calling, it very well might pay off. If not, the universe is asking you to make some changes to align with your path. Do you have faith that it can be prosperous?
– Eric Meyers
While his blurbs resonated powerfully with me personally, the reason I decided to write this post was because I thought there could be something useful gleaned from them for others, as well. As we are collectively and planetarily going through a time of great angst and upheaval, fighting hard to stay sane and loving in the face of so much state-sanctioned ignorance and malice, it is important to every now and then take a moment to look inward and upward, breathe in and out, and feel our connectedness to a universe that is meaningful, boundless, and in constant motion. Just like us.
