Courageous Hearts

This is the first of three eclipses this eclipse season, which also features a solar eclipse in Cancer on 21^st June 2020 and a lunar eclipse in Capricorn on 5^th July 2020.

All dates are UT

This lunar eclipse raises the issue of dependence and conditioning. In Sagittarius, it potentises the transfer of power away from the expert elite triggered by the North Node’s arrival in Gemini last month. Against the backdrop of recent unprecedented – and in some quarters hotly debated – social and interpersonal restrictions the world over, further compounded by protests and riots in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of the US police, this eclipse cycle alerts us to a burgeoning shift of perspective, auguring an ever-increasing challenge to the authorities from people who have simply had enough.

The Sabian Symbol for the degree of this eclipse speaks of seagulls circling a ship in expectation of food. It’s fair to say this isn’t the most natural food source for seagulls, but it’s convenient and reliable. That’s why they do it. If you’ve ever eaten a sandwich on the beach you’ll know how quickly you become central to their quest for an easy meal and how easy it is to lead a flock of hungry birds down the beach if you wander off whilst eating!

These images convey a warning: if we make ourselves dependent upon a single supply (of anything), the source of that supply can control and lead us where it wants us to go before we even realise we’ve been led. Focused on the satisfaction and security of an easy meal we overlook the changing scenery and the distance developing between where we used to be and where we’ve wound up now. In Sagittarius we gain nourishment from information and learning, from broad concepts, highly sophisticated bodies of knowledge and honed expertise. Sagittarius is the sign associated with law, religion and medicine: three institutions that have shaped our modern world in many ways. This eclipse is an excellent time to reflect on how much power we’ve given them to determine what matters in our lives, and whether now might be the time to expand our perspective beyond what they want us to believe.

An alliance between Chiron, Uranus and Mercury at the time of this eclipse unlocks fresh perspectives. But to benefit from them we must reclaim the fundamental right to honour our own experience and not have it dismissed, ridiculed or silenced if it runs contrary to the received wisdom of the time. This takes courage in a world where people are being demonised and discredited for daring to question the ‘party line’ and reflect more deeply on the narrative they’re being fed. But if ever there was a time for courage it is now! Courageous thought, courageous speech, courageous hearts open to a new world in which we’re not told how things are but instead discern, through digesting many perspectives and listening, perhaps most importantly, to the voice within that knows truth.

Mercury is currently preparing to turn retrograde in Cancer on 18^th June 2020. Between this eclipse and that moment, we would do well to FEEL into what’s happening in our world right now. Let our intuition guide us towards an understanding that holds water in a deeper and more profound way. Once Mercury is retrograde, and as the next two eclipses occur, we’ll have the opportunity to recalibrate our internal knowing according to information that comes our way. But we can only do that if we give our intuition a platform from which to speak, and reclaim the power invested in the experts as they dictate what our experience should be.

As we stand at this juncture in human history there are weighty choices to be made and we must each make them as best we can. This eclipse season will both reveal the shadow side of readily accepted sources of information – hidden interests, inaccurate assumptions, covert agendas –  as well as illuminate in their wake new sources of knowledge previously eclipsed by the might of received wisdom and unquestioned ‘truths’. The path ahead remains scattered with obstacles and the battle for dominion over the collective mind continues unabated. This lunar eclipse is just the beginning and there is much to be revealed and digested before we can decide, collectively, the quality of our future.

Saturn is now retrograding through Aquarius before returning to Capricorn in July. You can read more about what this means for us in terms of freedom of thought and speech here. But as we encounter this eclipse we may well find stirring within, a more insistent demand for information that challenges the dominant narrative and a burgeoning need to forge alliances with others who sense a more pressing truth bubbling to the surface. For whatever’s going on in this world today, it is we the people, not the privileged elite with vested interests in our obedience to their cause, who can – and must – decide the shape our lives take from here.

Sarah Varcas