Total Eclipse of the Sun: November 23, 2003
Nov. 24, 2003 – Following the powerful eclipse of the Moon on Nov. 8-9, with its interlacing cosmic triangles, this New Moon in November is a solar eclipse total — at 2 degrees Sagittarius. A southern eclipse, it will be visible in "A" places: Antarctica, Australia, and the southern tip of Argentina. Let's pull up this energy from the south, the direction of abundance, joy, warmth, community and heart.
"Total eclipse of the …" always reminds me of that haunting song. Do you remember it?
"Turnaround, Every now and then I get a little bit restless
and I dream of something wild
Turnaround, every now and then I know
there's no one in the universe as magical and wondrous as you
We can take it to the end of the line
Your love is like a shadow on me all of the time
Turnaround bright eyes, Every now and
then I fall apart."
— Total Eclipse of the Heart, by Bonnie Tyler
www.romantic-lyrics.com/lt14.shtml.
Yes, that's what an eclipse feels like! In addition to the eclipse, these lyrics evoke the feeling of Uranus, soon to go back into Pisces — the restless and wild, the magical and wondrous. Have you been feeling the intensity of the energy? People are going through physical release, washing away old wounds and tuning into magical moments of manifestation as we and the world around us respond to the new vibrancy from the Sun. Gaia answers, the living energy of the Earth, the anima mundi, the soul of the world. Her voice is in the wild weather, the rains, winds and fires that cleanse and purify. She trembles and the earth quakes. A hymn to Inanna from ancient Sumeria (now called Iraq) gives witness into our time:
Proud Queen of the Earth Gods — Loud Thundering Storm,
You pour your rain over all the lands and all the people.
You make the heavens tremble and earth quake.
Great Priestess, who can soothe your troubled heart?
You flash like lightning over the highlands;
you throw your firebrands across the earth.
Your deafening command splits apart great mountains
The riverbanks overflow with the flood-waves of your heart.
Holy Priestess, who can sooth your troubled heart?
–Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth in Wolkstein and Kramer
The Black Moon Speaks
The voice of the goddess is strong during this eclipse. The Black Moon Lilith is exactly opposite this cosmic union of the Sun and Moon. Just into Gemini, she has a lot to say, and she speaks with two tongues. Lilith conveys truths that are subtle, veiled, often inscrutable and cannot be conveyed in mundane words. Like the great oracles of all time, she speaks in a voice of mystery and sometimes, like the Black Madonna, of miracle.
I am intrigued with the ways in which the oracle speaks today, using the new divinatory modalities of science. With increasingly sophisticated technology we peer into the universe at micro and macro levels, with eyes that perceive once-invisible realms. Electron microscopes bore down into barely material, subatomic worlds. Huge particle detectors track the merest whispers of matter and the ecstatic dance of energy. Telescopes open our eyes to expanded wavelengths beyond our normal visual range‹infrared, ultraviolet, X-ray, microwave, radio wave and gamma wave — to watch the interplay of magnetic fields in interstellar space. The new images are stunning and awesome, leaving us stuttering for words to name a power at once infinitesimal and of such cosmic infinitude. Modern technology has taken us right to the edge of perception, narrowing the threshold between physics and metaphysics, between the real and unreal, reimagining our past and our future.
The Priestess of the Oracle speaks in DNA codes passed down from our ancestors, pointing back to the original Black Mother of us all. DNA researchers have found a genetic code which strongly suggests that all races originally migrated out of Africa. The modern oracle speaks in the radio-wave "chirping" of electromagnetic fields recorded during sunrise, in chorus with the birds. She leaves messages in the mandalas of crop circles and challenges us to evolve through viruses, Aids and Ebola. A door opens to the invisible energy fields beyond what is obvious to our daylit vision. Here glows the mystical, the liminal light that illumines the cusp between worlds. What will you see through the dark door of the eclipse and the renewed Sun? The Sabian Symbol for this eclipse gives us a clue:
WHITE-CAPPED WAVES DANCE RHYTMICALLY UNDER THE WINDS
We are about to catch the second, big wave, as the planet Uranus moves fully into Pisces on New Year's Eve. Saturn now in Cancer also dances in the rhythm of the seas, of the tides. We are experiencing more water, more feeling, collectively than in some time. It can be confusing and disorienting to many folks, who are used to the logical, rational mode. Imagine the white foam of the waves as horses galloping to the shore‹like that scene in "Lord of the Rings."
Black Moon Lilith at 2 degrees Gemini teases us about our rationality, with her two-edged sword. Her Sabian Symbol has an interesting image that leads us into the holiday season:
SANTA CLAUS IS FURTIVELY FILLING CHRISTMAS STOCKINGS
Imagine Lilith as Santa Claus! Santa Claws? What will she put in your stocking: a special present or a lump of coal? We can all be secret Santas, spreading around those random acts of kindness. At the same time, we must watch out for the furtive deceivers who smile and lie. Keep your eyes open: May the Truth be known!
More Planets in Sagittarius
Mercury and Venus flank Pluto, all adding to the truth-seeking theme of this Sagittarian eclipse. Feel the Archer in you. Get out a new arrow from your quiver. Polish it up and on November 25, when the crescent Moon shows in the evening sky near Venus, let it fly, let it fly from your heart, let it fly to the heart of truth. And let's ride onward, on the new wave, ride the stallions of the Good, the True and the Beautiful.
She went to the stallion, whose answers fling from his breath and his hooves,
and whose eyes imagined her freedom.
— C.P. Rosenthal, "Elena of the Stars"
Editor's note: Astrologer Kelley Hunter lives in St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, where she leads stargazing nights and teaches with Self Centre International at Caneel Bay Resort. During January-February she is astrologer-in-residence for the Omega Institute programs in the Caribbean. Hunter recently earned her doctorate in an interdisciplinary combination of philosophy, cosmology and myth. To be on her e-mail list for monthly articles or for an astrology consultation, write her at kellhunter@earthlink.net.
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