Tonight (May 15), all of North America, South America, Western Africa, and parts of Western Europe will be treated to a total lunar eclipse. The earth will begin to cast it shadow on the moon around 9:32pm EDT. The eclipse will reach its peak at 12:11 am (May 16). The moon will fully exit the earth’s shadow at 2:50am.
During this eclipse, the moon which represents our emotions, instincts, feminine energies, and receptivity, will be in the sign of Scorpio, a water sign (water=emotion) whose energies can be deeply cathartic, transformative, initiating a necessary death/rebirth. Additionally, Scorpio is the energy of profound compassion, the capacity to feel deeply the emotional pain of others.
The sun which represents our inner will, our power, the light we are here to shine will be in the sign of Taurus. Taurus is an earth sign whose energies support bringing things into physical form, creating things of value that nurture and sustain physical life and the material world.
The eclipse offers a time for us to not only look into the shadow but to feel into shadow—to feel emotions we may have repressed or kept hidden within ourselves and to open ourselves to the suffering of others (people, animals, the planet). For some of us, this eclipse experience may begin with the recognition of our personal inner pain and grow into the understanding that we are not alone in our suffering, that others are feeling this pain, “just like us.” For others, the experience may begin with the compassionate awakening to the suffering of others and enter our hearts as the awareness that their pain is our pain. In either instance, Scorpio’s emotional revelations can motivate us to take tangible action in the world, to create that which will improve, nurture, and sustain our own life and the lives of others.
Some indigenous tribes have called this moon “The Flower Moon.” At the time of the new moon on April 30, I invited you to consciously plant seeds of something you would like to see come into bloom with this full moon. What seeds did you plant? As you look with courage into the shadow, what weeds need pulling and what care is needed to nurture this new growth? And, as the moon moves out of the earth’s shadow into full illumination by the sun, what is blossoming within us and the world?