The spiritual meaning of eclipses & how to work with this insight
Eclipses close one door to help another door open.
This door will usually close out of the blue and, as a result, rock your world.
Eclipses are the Universe's way of accelerating transformation. It’s helping us get closer to what we signed up for when we incarnated into this body.
While you can’t avoid the shocks the Universe sends your way, you can at least temper the potential impact once you understand how the Universe communicates.
THE LANGUAGE OF THE UNIVERSE
The Universe communicates through signs in nature. This is what our sacred land ancestors understood, and thanks to their wisdom, we have the resources to translate this language today.
One of the Universe’s greatest communication tools is the placement of stars and planets. What I’m about to share is thanks to the ancient wisdom of our ancestors and the wisdom of current teachers, such as Aeolian Heart, that I’ve learned over the years.
Via your exploration into how the Universe communicates with you specifically with eclipses and the lunar nodes, you’ll notice how much easier it is to ride the waves of change.
Be sure to read to the end for specific tips on how to gain this insight.
Eclipse Season
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Eclipse season begins the day of the first eclipse and ends two weeks later once the second eclipse has passed.
A solar and lunar eclipse bookends each eclipse season.
Eclipse season sets in motion a new path that will last about 6 months until the new eclipse season begins. But of course, if the eclipses remain in the same sign (see the calendar), this new path could last longer.
Eclipses happen every six months and will remain in a sign for about 18 months until the lunar nodes shift (more on the nodes further below).
For example, if you look at the calendar below, you can see, that on April 30, 2022, there was a solar eclipse in Taurus and then 6 months later, there was a lunar eclipse in Taurus. As the lunar nodes shifted, the eclipses also moved into a new sign.
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The Spiritual Meaning of a Solar Eclipse
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A solar eclipse, as we know, is when the moon casts a shadow on Earth.
Metaphorically speaking, a solar eclipse closes a door by blocking the Sun from entering our lives.
The Sun represents the human self, our ego, and Divine Masculine energy (i.e. the energy of giving instead of receiving).
Another way of looking at it is that the Sun is what the world sees regarding our personal or collective ego.
A solar eclipse helps the Sun recognize its inner shadows (emotional, psychological, physical). These are often habits and beliefs, it (you) may have been avoiding.
A solar eclipse happens when there’s a New Moon. And while New Moons are usually
a time to set intentions for the new lunar cycle, the eclipse takes precedence. This isn’t a time to set intentions. It’s a time to allow the awareness of the eclipse to wash over you. It’s a reflective time.
The Spiritual Meaning of a Lunar Eclipse
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The Moon represents intuition, emotion and the Divine Feminine (i.e. receptivity instead of giving).
The Moon reflects the light of the Sun. The metaphor for the Full Moon is that the Moon helps the Sun to see or to reflect on itself.
On our path toward growth and expansion, the Full Moon highlights the emotions our ego self hasn't yet acknowledged. This is the power of the Full Moon which happens two weeks after the New Moon.
So what happens when the Earth casts a shadow on the full moon during a lunar eclipse?
While it may seem that the lunar eclipse would keep secrets hidden in its shadow, the eclipse coaxes them to the surface.
Just as a dark fabric absorbs heat on a sunny day and makes this heat intolerable, the dark blanket of a lunar eclipse absorbs our emotions and subconscious beliefs, making them more apparent to our energy body.
Lunar eclipses bring truth to the surface in service of us staying on the path of our soul's destiny.
Eclipses and Shadow Work
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So you see a theme here. The word shadow keeps popping up.
Shadow is the part of us that we keep hidden or that we're not even aware of.
It's those dark parts that we might feel ashamed of, or we might be fearful of. We keep those hidden and safe for no one else to see because they're generally scary.
During eclipse season, these shadows come up for us to observe.
But if we're not looking at our shadows and we're just ignoring them, then we're not going to be able to accomplish what we want to accomplish.
Eclipse Season offers an opportunity to face our shadows, to look at them directly, and move on.
The Spiritual Meaning of Eclipses and Lunar Nodes
What makes eclipses even more potent is the fact that they’re often in the same sign as the lunar nodes.
I won’t give the astronomical definition of the lunar nodes here because we’re focusing on the energetic and spiritual meaning.
But briefly, as per Wikipedia:
"The lunar nodes are the two points where the Moon's orbital path crosses the ecliptic, the Sun's apparent yearly path on the celestial sphere."
The South Node, or the Descending Lunar Node, represents our karmic past.
The South Node represents the doors that are meant to close in this lifetime.
These are the life experiences we’re ready to leave behind. And because we have such a deep soulful connection to this past (we've lived a lifetime or even lifetimes in that energy), it may feel very familiar to us. This is where habits may form.
This means it may be easy for us to slip into the familiarity of these old patterns. If we fall into this trap, it may be more challenging for us to move toward our soul's destiny, which is represented by the North Node (or Ascending Lunar Node).
We incarnated into this life to use the lessons we learned —as well as the talents and skills we gained in our past (South Node)— to help us move toward our future (North Node).
The North Node represents our soul's destiny.
The North Node represents the doors that are opening in this lifetime.
It points to why your soul incarnated into this life. These are the experiences we’re here to learn from.
These new lessons will help us develop, grow and have a more well-rounded spiritual experience.
The North Node is your North Star. And as we know, following our North Star isn't always easy.
The adventure toward spiritual growth is full of unknown twists and turns. It can be tempting to fall back into the familiar groove of the South Node.
A helpful image to work with to help you understand the polar energies of the nodes is that of the dragon. You can read more on the myth of the dragon and the lunar nodes here.
But briefly, the head of the dragon represents the North Node and the tail of the dragon represents the South Node.
The dragon's head moves towards what it hungers for. It hungers for spiritual understanding and enlightenment. This is what the North Node wants.
The dragon's tail, well, that's not as pretty a metaphor. We must always "let go" of what we've ingested, right?
If the dragon holds on to what it's eaten, it'll experience indigestion. Though it once brought sustenance and represents comfort food in a sense, what appears near the tail must be released. This is what the South Node represents.
How do the lunar nodes relate to eclipse season?
Because eclipses are usually close to lunar nodes, this enhances the notion that eclipse season is about releasing what’s no longer in service of our soul’s destiny.
Remember the quote from the beginning of this article:
Eclipses close one door to help another door open.
So what can you do to help that door open? Your greatest tool is reflection.
HOW TO LEARN FROM PAST ECLIPSES
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We can’t embody the light without facing the dark. Simply focusing on the light would be bypassing what it means to be human. As a soul, you signed up to have a human experience.
To help you understand your human experience, I recommend reflecting on eclipse seasons of the past.
All you need to do is look back at the dates on the calendar I shared at the beginning of this article and answer the questions below.
Don't worry about understanding the type of eclipse (solar/lunar) or the astrological sign. Just look back at those months, and reflect on what happened during that time. Flip through your journals or scroll through your calendar to jog your memory.
Reflection Prompts
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As you look at the dates on the eclipse calendar, reflect on any or all of these questions for each eclipse season:
What experiences were you going through and with whom were you going through it?
What unexpected challenges did you face during this time?
What self-sabotage, if any, did you experience?
Did you lash out in any way that caused challenges in your relationship?
How was your emotional state? Did you experience any feelings of fear, anxiety, sadness, grief, shame or guilt during that period?
What did you let go of, either willingly or reluctantly, during this season?
What good came to you due to what you experienced during this time?
The below video is a first-hand account of how intense and revealing eclipses can be. I recorded this 6-minute video in 2022 before launching my first Eclipse Season Healing Circle.
I reflect on the anxiety I experienced during two difficult periods in my life. In the video, I describe that as I reflected on some of the dates I shared in the calendar above, I realized that coincidently (but of course nothing is a coincidence) both these periods fell during eclipse season.
AN ECLIPSE SEASON INVITATION
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If you've answered any of the above questions or watched my video, you now understand how revealing and turbulent eclipse season can be.
This turbulence isn't just to wreak havoc. It isn't haphazard. It's to help you realize who you are and why you're here at this very specific moment.
Eclipse season helps us see the parts we might be ignoring, denying, or simply unaware of.
Being prepared for this turbulence makes its arrival so much easier. This is why I've been offering Eclipse Season Guiding Circles since 2022.
