My first lunar eclipse, I watched totally stoned. It blew my mind. The moon really does turn red, just like they say. Witnessing the moon slip through the earth’s shadow feels eerie, unnerving, and incredibly magical all at the same time. I consumed the edible to help me stay awake. Nothing like a little THC to soar my mystical moon vigil higher.
Welcoming the eclipse to share insights with me plunged me deep into my own internal moonscape. As the moon shifted from full to shadowed to blood red and back again, my innermost awareness intensified. My personal fullness waned and waxed right along with the moon’s. That’s the alchemy an eclipse brings.
Tonight is the Virgo full moon lunar eclipse.
Bonus — the eclipse is visible here in the U.S., clouds allowing. I hope to marvel at another eclipse (gummy or not). But if it’s dumping snow, I definitely won’t complain. Powder on the eclipse full moon is stellar as well.
The main event of the eclipse starts at 2:50 a.m. tonight (early Tuesday morning). The red show starts at 4:04 a.m. and lasts until 5:02 a.m., with the peak at 4:33 a.m. It’s worth a sleepy day sacrifice to see it. If you’re curious, you can find more details at timeanddate.com.
Traditionally, eclipses are associated with the destabilization of power structures and the disruption of authority. Fingers crossed.
I feel eclipses provide a fantastic opportunity to commune with yourself and the sky. They offer a brilliant and shadowy time to stop and observe. Open yourself to receive downloads about your life or even the meaning of life. That’s all you really need to do — just listen. Most change comes from simply tuning in.
How do you listen? Lots of people meditate, while the rest of us should ourselves that we should be. But why? Meditation is only one vehicle to inner communion. For years, meditation felt stressful to me. Sitting in silence heightened my anxiety and accentuated my already level-red stress. Yuck!
I hated meditating.
I continually judged myself for that secret loathing, shaming myself into placing my rearend on that damned cushion. I naively thought meditation would be the answer to all my ails — helping me be better and do better — geez, so much incessant pressure and “shoulding” all over myself.
My first meditation class (yes, I’ve taken more than one) taught me I should (there’s that dirty word again) sit for thirty minutes in the morning and again in the evening. For the math-challenged, that’s 60 freaking minutes a day of choosing to feel tense and anxious. Yikes. But like the good tons-of-Virgo-in-my-astrology-chart little girl that I am, I meditated for years. It was torturous. I did not reach enlightenment, nor calm my anxiety one bit. Instead, I just ramped up my stress and self-judgment.
I learned that, for those of us with complex post-traumatic stress disorder, meditation can be nerve-racking, like nails scratching down our inner chalkboards. Discovering that truth bomb was both liberating and validating. I’d like to report it freed me from the meditation “shoulds,” but it didn’t. It took many more years for me to abandon that self-flagellation ship.
Yet, I still needed a way to hear my inner self communicate with me.
Spending an abundance of time in my head is a five-star recipe for disaster, preceding an imminent self-abandonment crash on the rocks. I can convince myself of anything given the right formula for self-shaming, self-criticism, and a beaker full of “shoulds” tossed in. Yes, it can be a brutal war zone living in my mind.
So how did I finally learn to listen? How did I quiet the droning noise in my skull for a momentary reprieve? I unearthed my own way in. I found short, early morning walks, when the pink dawn light descends the peaks, is my Goldilocks “juuust right.” I feel myself and experience the peek-a-boo sensation of, “Oh, there I am.” Followed by, of course, a healthy dose of journaling. I am a writer after all.
What works for you? Is it meditation? Journaling? A walk in the woods? Shutting up in the gondola?
I hope we get to see the eclipse tonight, but even more, I hope we stop and take a moment to simply listen to what our bodies from the neck down are constantly trying to share with us.
For more astrology insights, you can find my regular astrology coaching columns in The Aspen Times.
🌙 Sheridan
Astrology Coach & Moon Sisters Circle Guide
I work with women to break old patterns, make clear decisions, and take real-life action using astrological insight