May 14, 2003 — She looked into the obsidian mirror held before her.
The shiny black surface flickered in the torch light.
A dark shadowed face was reflected back to her,
haloed by rings in the grain of the gemstone.
She smiled and nodded in recognition of her deep secret self,
honed from many years of inner reaching, searching, living, feeling.
The dark face smiled in return
and so did the old woman in front of her holding the mirror.
"The truth of your inner being is revealed in its full strength and beauty," said the elder.
Close to the midnight hour (EDT) on May 15-16 there is a total eclipse of the Moon that activates the polarity of the signs Taurus and Scorpio. The Full Moon of May is the Buddha Full Moon, the full moon under which Buddha was born, enlightened, and died.
The SUN in TAURUS represents awareness of the tangible physical reality of the world and the senses, while the MOON in SCORPIO pierces beneath surface appearances to the energetic dynamics that generate experience. An essential tenet of Buddhism is that desires cause suffering, yet life is motivated by desire. It is said that the world came into being through the power of Eros, the god of desire. If we fulfill our desires by allowing the life force to move through and manifest or transform them, we continue to grow and learn. Eventually we let go of all but the truest desires that accord with the will of God/dess. Scorpio is the sign most associated with the desire nature and the will, be it self-oriented will or surrender to Higher Will.
A total eclipse is a dramatic event, this time visible in the Americas, Africa and Europe. The Moon seems to go from full to new, as it disappears in the shadow of the Earth, and then becomes full again. In essence, we fast-forward through a whole moon cycle during which our collective shadow is illumined and transformed in the mirror of the Moon. An eclipse closes doors and opens new ones. In Taurus and Scorpio, this is a distinct and definite closure. Imagine it this way: you are watching a video or DVD on your TV. The electricity goes off and the movie pops out. The electricity goes back on, and you push the movie back in, BUT it¹s a different movie! It can take up to six months or a year for the dynamics of an eclipse to work out. The follow-up to this May eclipse is on November 9, another total eclipse in Scorpio-Taurus with a highly unusual and mystical pattern.
This eclipse takes place at 25 degrees of both signs. Thus it is aligned with the star ALGOL, which marks the baleful eye of MEDUSA, the famous monster lady with snakes for hair. This star has been called the most evil star in the sky. The Hebrews called this star Lilith, reminding us that the Black Moon Lilith colored the last New Moon with her dark soul mysteries. The total eclipse is an appropriate fruition of that New Moon.
In their intriguing book, "Signs in the Heavens," William Bento, David Tresemer and Robert Schiappacasse point out that the paths of the two comets Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp in 1996 and 1997 traced a cross in the sky, which centered on the star Algol. They discussed this in relation to historical events mentioned in the Bible and to the myth of Medusa. (See www.sunshinepress.com
Remember her? Looking in her eye would turn a person to stone. The Greek hero Perseus had to use a mirror in order to approach her and cut off her head.
Carefully stepping backwards, feeling each footfall with jaguar stealth,
Perseus kept his eye on the shield strapped to his left arm.
He held it to his side turned like a rear-view mirror.
As he retreated further into the Gorgon¹s cave,
irregular light rippled like waves across the polished surface of the shield,
moving in slippery serpentine forms.
Startled, he realized he was seeing Medusa,
her back to him, filling the shield¹s surface with dark slithering shadows,
surrounding a faint image of his own face, seen as if from a great distance,
haloed in undulating clouds.
He felt suddenly as if he were underwater and breathed deeply in to steady
himself.
In that breath he could taste her musky scent, like some ancient salty perfume,
evoking strange memories.
Focusing again on the mirror, he was now looking into a vast single Eye,
seeing his future unwind like a long dark tunnel.
During this eclipse, we look into such a mirror‹a mirror of reflection to the inner realms, to our deepest fears and deepest desires (often the same thing). It is the fears which are ephemeral and, ultimately, the desires as well. Medusa¹s Eye looks right through you and perceives with an objectivity like that of nature itself and our dreams, boring into the soul to find the naked truth, to see reality beneath all its myriad forms and the illusions and defenses it displays (Perera, "Descent to the Goddess").
Perhaps Medusa was an African high priestess who wore her hair in dreadlocks. Her serpentine hair suggests wisdom and the rays of the Sun. Her raging wildness is like the dance of the Kali, who sweeps away what is no longer lifegiving and vital. Black Moon Lilith is conjunct Mercury, still retrograde until Monday, another call for deep inner reflection, to tap the truest desires of our soul. Let go into the void, where the light is most subtle, vibrant and eternal.
See you on the other side!
Editor's note: Astrologer Kelley Hunter is a resident of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, where she leads stargazing nights and teaches with Self Centre International at Caneel Bay Resort. She is finishing her Ph.D. in cosmology and myth. To be on her e-mail list for monthly articles or for an astrology consultation, write her at kellhunter@earthlink.net. See Web site: www.heliastar.com, with a list of workshop offerings and other things. She will be traveling in the States July through October. Contact her for her travel schedule.
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