Ketu Lunar Eclipse — July 16, 2019
Scandal is afoot during this lunation period. Endless desires and the thoughts they conjure burn within the heart and captivate the mind, enticingly and often maliciously. Obsessed by a mad attempt to understand and quantify this visceral part of human nature the mind knows no rest and no reward. The more the desire for delight is pursued the more it evades and leaves only a bitter after taste stinging the tongue like a nightmarish vision . . .
Continuing the journey of the previous lunation we find that instead of a need to question all that we believed and inquire into its validity or lack thereof, here the energies are supportive of allow one to gently drift beyond sadness and strife and into a land of solitude and contemplation.
This word, contemplation, is often misunderstood as in thinking hard about something. It actually means entering a space of being wherein one can observe and engage with thoughts or feelings without judgement or prejudice, to “gaze attentively”. Con, the latin prefix for “with”, and template, a term related to time, as in “temporality”, and templum, as in “temple”. Thus to contemplate implies demarcating a sanctum to enter into meditative engagement with whatever arises in that space.
There is a sharp rejection of false limitations, burdens and self imposed ideas of destiny and instead, born from the ashes of failure, a chance to embrace one’s innate destiny, which does not reside in concepts but in actions, in feelings, in self sacrifice. Service through works, however small, will be a huge boon during this time.
This lunation supports our ability to find strength amidst apparent strife and hopelessness, to turn a futile and emotionally tumultuous set of circumstances beset by loss into a treasure trove of gain — gains of the spirit, rather than of the world. We are driven to inquire into why we have failed in the past and how we can succeed in the future, which means discarding the patterns that will continue to guarantee us failure in the times to come.
Rather than ruminating on our own problems, attempting to aggressively improve our own circumstances materially and socially, this is a time where a reminder of the golden rule and of service to others, again large or small, ought to be the focus. And the concept of service again causes us to return to our inherent nature, swabhava, our innate destiny, swadharma, and to discover where the two actually in fact intersect. For there is no greater service than aspiring to one’s highest potential which is unique to oneself and not based on concepts and prejudice (pre-judgements) or morality etc.
A lot of suffering resulting from trapped energies, energies that have been selfishly coveted in the belief that it would yield us power, can and ought to be released. The support is there to burn away, in one decisive action, much or all that has been oppressive to us, mostly as a result of not utilizing the powers and truths we embody in a way that is righteous and selfless. These oppressive forces may appear as behaviors, addictions, ideas or they may come in the form of people, places and things etc. The method of purification via Will, which comes instantly, and is like purgation by fire, is often painful to one part of ourselves, but the results of such an ordeal are most often revivifying and cleansing.
People can move from seeking to do good in the world to actually embodying such inspiration, and often this means subjugating oneself to the state of humility, and acting in a way that is not grandiose, that is instead moment by moment, day by day and for which there is little praise or notoriety. But as a friend has told me often, when you can walk into a room and leave the place better than you found it and no one knows you were even there, then you are really living.
OM TAT SAT OM
Addendum: Tarot Spread for the Eclipse
High aspirations and ideals are symbolized by the Star. Goals are dimly sensed which can shepherd us into greener pastures of tomorrow, but there is something that emerges to distract in the form of The Lovers, whether it be scandal, gossip, pleasure seeking or the illusion of happiness. The Queen of Discs portrays a hoarding of this pleasure and whatever good one has accumulated as opposed to sharing it for the benefit of others. The Three of Lotuses (cups) beckons one to service toward a spiritual cause, to reconsider the importance of friendships and ultimately to do ignore the petty concerns of the mind and dwell within, in peaceful repose, and have faith that the things one is worrying will be taken care of one way or another. We don't need to do everything ourselves and ultimately our hopes and dreams won't be a reality if we continue to act and behave as if our own life and our own happiness are more important or in any way separate from that of others.
OM TAT SAT OM
