There is quite a bit of extremism to contend with around eclipse seasons and well, with astrology in general. The very rejection of the language of the stars is born from the careless handlers who may recycle and repackage spiritual psychosis and bypassing into something that looks like cheap candy. Many of us are ushered into new age spirituality with the promise of manifesting our dreams, finding the soulmate, making lots of money, but this is only the initial siren. What we often find waiting for us in the place of the fairy gold is some other profound reality about love, about life, and about spirit. We are living in a time where there is not a lot of space between fear based intellectualism and romantic escapism, between atheism and practically belonging to a cult– these are often our starting points: The extreme. Complete skepticism, utter disbelief in all that is beneficent or dangerously enchanted by a savior, an idol to worship (however inanimate) in hopes of feeling whole. Of course, neither of these paths are sustainable, but they can tell us a lot about what within us needs loving.
Lunations in Pisces, but especially the Full Moons (that are opposite a Virgo Sun) know exactly how to deal with wherever you are in that process whether you are the cynic or the romantic or some secret third thing. The Pisces Moon knows how to provoke the stoic, temper the neurotic, give hope to the lost, Luna in this sign meets you wherever you are and very often will have you vomiting up some truth that may have been hidden under whatever delusion was there before. We delude ourselves all of the time, but something that all of these archetypes mentioned above share is the illusion of control. Why else might someone push divinity far, far away or desperately cling to every almost-synchronicity, within these seeming opposites there is a common ground of inner chaos each are trying to cope with. These behaviors are how one might stave off disappointment, abandonment, aimlessness, or the all too terrible personal responsibility. When we confront the daemon of Pisces, we are confronting our collective relationship to both the pain threshold and the pain tolerance, both are required as measurement for our capacity for joy and love too.
So again, within astrology, spirituality, the fear mongering eclipse narrative, our desires, and even within the rejection of all of these things, there lies extremism. I am being reminded this Lunar Eclipse (that is closely squaring Jupiter in Gemini) that life is rarely so black and white. The eclipse cycle takes six whole months to unfold but we are now stepping through the door to the upcoming nodal cycle through Pisces-Virgo, meeting and greeting the fate that intends to sweep through our lives over the next two years. Stepping through requires that we leave our extremist views at the door, that we surrender to the mystery of what is unfolding.
This may be a time where we are confronting our expectations and projections based on the past. Maybe we are expecting failure or discord, it's possible that the collective is holding someone or something to an unrealistic standard because on the surface it all looks the same to our past triggers– we must remember that like raindrops or snowflakes or any other water based formation (and that includes transits to the water signs, i.e. Pisces), they may hold memory but none are exactly the same. That's the reputation that these little wonders maintain, there may be nostalgia <a reminder> but it can never truly be replicated. There is of course some level of despair in this, nothing you've experienced will ever be experienced again, but there is also refuge from the events too horrible to speak of– you will never have to really relive the past because in fact, every moment in time is made up of some changed variable. Being human is to be changed every day and therefore, anything can happen at any moment, it would be foolish to assume we've discovered it all just because we've tasted pain once or twice before.
That being said, this is is a time where things may feel uncertain. Eclipse season is naturally the time where we must throw up our hands and allow the shifting ground beneath us to settle before we begin walking forward again– if I had any advice for the next few weeks it would probably be something like: do less, be more. Let life surprise you with how it can all work out because it is very likely that the reality is not anything like your worst nightmares or your greatest fantasies, but something else better suited for where your feet are. The reason why eclipse cycles and the nodes are associated with the concept of "fate" and "destiny" is likely because it can feel as though, in these moments where we do not have any control, that we are encountering the divine. Perhaps that's all the divine really is, the sensations and solutions we meet when we are not doing anything all, when we enter a state of allowing like we do when we're breathing. Perhaps entering a state of conversation and acceptance with the circumstances around us is all that prayer really is. At the Lunar Eclipse, it is very necessary to have a dream, a hope, a desire but it is not yet necessary to act on it, this is just the beginning of what is to unfold during the nodal transit through Pisces-Virgo over the next two years.
Is there a way, I wonder, in which we can temper these extremes (good or bad, together or apart, pain or love) and gain a new perspective, alchemizing the sensitivity and leaning on time to illuminate all, but especially whatever we may be currently confused about. The brilliant thing about Pisces is that this is the land where nothing is rock solid, and while that may have our security-longing parts thrashing and screaming, this also means that there is room to morph and change into anything at all. I imagine that this eclipse and the future nodal cycle is telling us now: Stop thinking you know! You don't know! This is the time to open up to the unknown, the millions of possibilities and conclusions one could come to and also the ones that only the divine could conjure. Open up to the vulnerability of the body and its wisdom– The North Node in Aries has hopefully taught you to trust yourself no matter the chaos that surrounds you.
To give it all some body, the Pisces Lunar Eclipse themes are:
confusion, anxiety, black and white thinking
nostalgia, memory, fear of the past, fear of the future, fear of the present
possibility! big dreams! magic! love!
s u r r e n d e r
encountering the divine in the mundane
purging illusions and replacing it with something more grounded
listening to the body, however illogical it may be
Something I like to say a lot and something that is feeling essential to the current moment: Forget astrology! Sure, look at the charts, nerd out about the synchronicities, gain the insight into what you may be experiencing but, astrology is not an exact science for a reason. There are a million different kinds of astrologers with a million different opinions and perspectives so at the end of the day, forget the nuance of astrology and live your life. Throw out the chart, but don't throw out those intuitive feelings, those inner nudges, the things that beckon you closer. This Lunar Eclipse (wedged between Saturn and Neptune who are quickly gaining on each other) may be a reminder to live in reality– you might even find that reality is kinder than you are to yourself.
Sending you love during eclipse season, welcome the fated changes.
Your friendly neighborhood astrologer,
Katie
a channeled song: both sides now by joni mitchell
Amazing read, thank you for your insight. May this eclipse bless us all. 🩷