Today’s Lunar Eclipse in Cancer calls to the family of all things.
There’s nothing like standing on the earth to see several generations at once. So much life is here now, co-existing and sharing the same air. We can lean against a tree that has been alive for 2,000 years. It still carries, within it, a time before we were alive. Or an ear of corn, whose seed has been saved and passed from hand to hand. Today, it bursts forward with the same sweetness that was in someone else’s mouth 1,000 years ago.
All of time, intersecting now.
A sunsplashed LiZhen brings a small ear of corn to their mouth. It is purple, almost marroon in color, the husk is partially peeled back, and a blur of green plants form the background.
Eclipses are supercharged New and Full Moons. They always take place in a pair of opposite signs. One sign is where we experience release and decay, and the other signals new life that can be born. Our work, during eclipse season, is to integrate the dueling energies. We solve the paradox by embracing the both/and.
For the past 2 years, this has been the Capricorn + Cancer duality. Both signs care about security and tradition. However, while Capricorn is busy building structures and a legacy of achievements, Cancer nurtures that which lasts by tending to emotions and generations.
Today’s Lunar Eclipse in Cancer is closely conjunct Saturn and Pluto. (A conjunction is when multiple planets are aligned, from our view on Earth). This makes undeniable what’s already been obvious: that our species way of life is unsustainable, that global superpowers will fight to cling onto a crumbling system, and that rebirth is not only needed, but inevitable. Amidst this, my questions for this moon:
What generational healing wants to be acknowledged for us to make a meaningful attempt at a new way of living?
As some things fall apart in our material, societal — and perhaps personal — world, how can we make a soft landing, a pile of leaves, for the pieces to come to rest and find new life?
What do the wisdom traditions which are re-surging around us have to say? Learning from them to create our next world is the integration of Cancer + Capricorn energies that the eclipses counsel.
It’s a busy weekend in the skies. Today as we witness an eclipse, two other transits bring us clarity and insight. Right before the eclipse, Mercury is cazimi: Mercury is the planet of the mind and it aligns exactly with the Sun. In ancient astrology, this was referred to as “entering the heart of the Sun” — receiving transmissions and illumination. Later today, Uranus stations direct. Ideas and revelations move us forward.
Pay attention to what is waking up inside you today. Listen for the bells that ring clear. Given the intense astrology and the gloomy news right now, your insights are glimmers of light shining through the clouds.
In two more days, Saturn and Pluto will meet in the sky (January 12).
But today — this moment here. An eclipse. A good time to honor those who came before us, those we call ancestor. A good time to give thanks for those who make us feel at home, those we call sibling and cousin. Biological and/or chosen. Human and/or vegetal. Ancestor trees and plants are right here with us, wordlessly supporting our life. Younger-sibling butterflies are here, too, whirling their brief + bright beauty before us.
I make an offering of this corn to all those of past, present, and future. Who have loved this plant. Who have saved the indigenous + heirloom seeds. Who have fed, breathed, and birthed us into being.
The work we do now heals the past — it also changes it. It changes the way we carry the past within us and into the future. All of time finds each other. We in existence feed each other.
Six ears of corn with purple splotched husks are nestled onto a white plate. The plate is trimmed with blue and pink flowers, a design common in many Southeast and East Asian homes of the past few decades.
An ear of corn, eaten and chews clean, now hangs suspended against a background of green plants and trees.