photo by PakyuZ; Creative commons license
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Every time there’s a New Moon, Full Moon, or an Eclipse, I get thousands of search engine hits from readers looking for rituals/meditations and information on the upcoming event. Some of this I can help you with, and some I can’t.
If you’re here for a step-by-step ritual, you won’t find it. That’s because you need to do the work yourself. Yes, you can find online rituals, free, word for word, but you’re missing the point. (And yes, some are good for ideas.) But the point is to do the spiritual work yourself, and that’s as unique for you as you are. Spiritual work is not something you can copy from someone else’s homework and get the same result. Their homework is specific to their spiritual needs, not yours. It’s like attending an aerobics class to slim down–others may be doing the same or similar moves in different bodies, but if you don’t move yourself, you won’t gain the benefits. You can observe others moving all you want, but if you don’t put your own energy into it, nothing’s going to happen for you.
So instead of giving you a step-by-step ritual so you can perhaps manifest what I want, I’ll walk you through my process so you can understand how to get the most out of a ritual or meditation to bring to you what you want. Are you with me? Join me, the Queen of Metaphors….
Event: New Moon–and it’s a solar eclipse.
Why elipses are important: Eclipses tend to bring big changes. What, you think I just made this up? I’ve watched it in my own life and of my loved ones for years. Look to history and how so often eclipses have been considered omens and the events that have been linked to eclipses, whether they happened as a result of a natural build-up of forces or people used the eclipse energy to force the event.
Astrologically, they tend to have the regenerative effect of Pluto conjunct a House or Planet, sometimes decimating what was there before to remove it from your life and moving you forward to rebirth that area of your life. I usually see the biggest blast from this laser-life focus of energy within 3 days of an eclipse, but sometimes, it hits exactly 30 days later. [Side note: after the last solar eclipse, I had a major but wonderful life-changing influence enter my life about 3 days later with a related intense and good turning point exactly 30 days later.] Sometimes I think of these eclipses as big erasers, slowly covering and erasing something from my past and making room to write something new.
The change is after the eclipse, not before, unlike with other conjunction patterns. Think of a massive light focused through a lens and burning across an area of your life–it will either sear it or illuminate it.
Where: This annular solar eclipse will be seen mainly in Indonesia and Southeast Asia. Here in Florida, I do believe I’m out of luck…but that doesn’t mean I can’t use the power of this eclipse to aid me in my spiritual work.
When: 1:55 AM, Central time here in the Florida Panhandle, January 26, 2009 (January 25 if you’re in an earlier time zone)–which means I’m happy to have Monday off because I can stay up latelatelate on Sunday night to acknowledge the moment–and the change I want to come into my life.
Signs: This solar eclipse is the first half of a pair of Aquarius-Leo eclipses, with the lunar eclipse coming on February 9. This eclipse is in Aquarius–specifically at 6 degrees 29 minutes Aquarius. This is important to the type of energy or influences at play. Also notable is that the Sun is in Aquarius and the Moon is also a New Moon in Aquarius and they’re conjunct Jupiter in Aquarius. I think here in Northwest Florida, Scorpio will be rising at the time of the eclipse, so it should be extra intense here. The Sun-Jupiter conjunction is a great sign for hope and wondrous new things coming into our lives.
Aquarius energy, to me, is all about visionary, revolutionary, unique ways of doing things–and ways of being. That’s the energy I want to attune to for my meditation.
Houses: My natal astrology chart gives me an idea of how this pair of eclipses will affect me. If you don’t believe in astrology, no problem–just consider it as a language you don’t speak and not a science or math. What patterns that have been in existence long before the English language this post is written in are in play right now? Astrology is all about patterns, personified by celestial bodies. For me, this pair of eclipses takes place in my Twelfth House (spirituality, secrets, the unknown, the subconscious) in Aquarius and in my Sixth House (work, daily life, health) in Leo.
So for me, the January 26 eclipse in Aquarius will be mostly felt in my spirituality-secrets-subconcious sector where I tend to find a lot of my own inner transformation. With a stellium of planets in my Aquarian Twelfth House, I’ve had the tendancy to put up with a lot of crap and I’m putting that in the past and forging a more positive and tranquil place to be, where spirituality and love blend as one for me and where I can explore all the secrets of the subconscious and spirituality, preferably with someone. These are areas where I want to concentrate when meditating on changes and improvements. I could focus on other areas but if I can match the energies, then it’s like getting a tail wind to give me extra mileage.
If you don’t have a natal chart already, I recommend http://www.astro.com where you can find out quickly, at no $$$, but please don’t ask me to cast your chart for you. This informative article is free but my time isn’t 
Conjunctions: As I mentioned above, eclipse energy is like a Pluto conjunction (use the search feature in the right-hand column to look for prior posts on eclipses and conjunctions). I check my natal, or birth, chart to see if I have any planets, asteroids, etc, at 6 Aquarius 29 (or very close) where this eclipse will fall in my chart. In this case, I have Saturn at the exact degree. In the past (see prior articles), I’ve had the eclipse exact on a specific planet or my ascendant. These are like nuclear explosions in my life! I’ve seen several intepretations for an eclipse-Saturn conjunction and they range from blowing apart restrictions to beginning a new relationship to an end of certain fears. The fact that it’s an Eclipse-conjunct-Jupiter (expansion, luck, broadened horizons) conjunct my natal Saturn (restrictions/structure) makes it feel very lucky and hopeful to me. The last time an eclipse was in conjunction to anything Jupiter in my chart, it heralded a mind-blowing new relationship that opened amazing new vistas for me in both heart and mind, so I promise to report back on how this eclipse manifests for me. Saturn seems like a scary planet to have at this position but the last “bad” eclipse I had was conjunct my Ascendant, which many interpret as good but it was extremely stressful and disenchanting, so I’ll wait to see what this eclipse brings to my Saturn and not automatically assume the worst.
If you’re noting which planets you have that are “lit up” by this eclipse, the energy of the eclipse will feel like whatever qualities that planet represents are getting intense attention, whether you want it or not. For example, an Eclipse conjunct Natal Venus may mean a major shakeup in your love life or your creativity.
Length of Meditation/Ritual: Personally? I love to use the slingshot effect combined with eclipses (I do this when Mercury comes out of retrograde, too, if I need to increase or improve communications). Eclipses lasts different periods of time. I didn’t do my homework on one a while back and thought my meditation would last an hour…not four hours! I like to begin my meditation (or ritual or prayer or whatever I choose) as the eclipse begins or as the moon in a lunar eclipse is completely blotted out. I begin wrapping up my meditation when the eclipse is over or when the first glimmer of the moon shows as the lunar eclipse passes. This varies from eclipse to eclipse, depending on the purpose of my meditation. Sometimes I want to really focus on wiping out the old stuff in my life that no longer serves me, and sometimes I want to focus on the return of the light and what that means to me.
Meditation Images: In previous posts, I’ve shared my images for my own meditations and others have found them useful as well. (search meditation or ritual for those posts). I have, for several months now, been seeing the moon’s emotional energy as a river. In June 2008, I was drawn to the idea of BRIDGES over the river of energy, connected past to a new future. WIth the July Full Moon, I was drawn to the idea of the riverbanks or walls and how they structured that emotional energy. The last series of eclipses in August 2008 brought a tremendous sense of joy, sailing, and parasailing, and simply rising above and having fun. Later in the Autumn, I went through a period of despair and grief, before which my meditations saw me bashed against the river rocks and walking on the bottom of the river. The meditations have progressed through a healing process over the Winter months, which bring us now to this new set of eclipses.
In my meditations for this New Moon eclipse, I have a sense of everything beginning to sparkle again and I step back into the river’s water, not so nervous around it since healing and not so disdainful of what it offers. In my visions, I see myself no longer content just to dip a toe in this once-rocky-but-now-sparkly river but wholeheartedly splashing and happy. It’s a sweet feeling that I’ll incorporate into my meditation as I find myself in that river, just having fun and feeling very serene in this place of spirituality and hidden secrets.
This eclipse is all about hope–and the fulfillment that comes thereafter.
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