One of the year’s biggest celestial events is upon us in the coming week: The Total Lunar Eclipse that occurs across the midnight hour Sunday, May 15 to Monday, May 16, which means that this week is the time for getting ready.
I like to think of eclipses in stages, so that I can align them to fairy tales, or to trials of initiation, but let’s lay down some ground rules, first.
A Solar Eclipse is like a release point, when steam is let off and we are given a celestial hall pass.
A Lunar Eclipse can be a time of receiving destiny forces, as in, now we have to meet those things in our path that are there to help us wake up. Destiny forces aren’t always easy, and they always have the upper hand, so our task is to respond with grace, because think about it, at Lunar Eclipse, the Moon is Full, and then it’s plunged into our own shadow ~ so it’s showing us that part of ourselves that we’d just as soon keep hidden.
If we think of a Lunar Eclipse in stages, then we can make a plan for staying awake to what it means to show us. First stage, the Moon rises; Second stage, eclipse begins; Third stage, total eclipse begins; Fourth stage, eclipse ends. Overnight Sunday to Monday, this process will start at moonrise around 9 pm and last until the Moon passes all the way through Earth’s shadow, around 3 am.
If we likened these stages to a Temple Initiation, then the first stage of Moon rising, is like the Temple Kiss, by which means the soul forces are awakened. The second stage, when eclipse begins, is like the Temple Fire, which frees the destiny so we know what we’re dealing with. The third stage, or total phase of the eclipse, is the stage in which the soul awakens from the Temple Sleep, enflamed. By the time the Eclipse ends, at the fourth stage, we can, ideally, celebrate renewed forces of destiny.
~Mary
“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.” ~ Gautama Buddha
This episode on Interlochen Public Radio and The Storyteller’s Night Sky podcast.