Our Wild Earth Bodies
And Healthy Respect for Eclipses
How many generations back do you suppose it was when your ancestors had a bodily relationship with the weather, knowing what was happening outside without consulting phone apps, or even meteorological reports? How far back was it when every person alive could detect subtle changes in the atmosphere and had a healthy respect for the forces of nature that cause weather patterns?
While our dog Pivot was still alive she would tremble when thunderstorms were afoot, sensing something my human body wasn’t aware of. She would naturally seek shelter and connection with her loved ones during these times. I observed the intelligence of her animal body and received it as a teaching. It seemed she always knew her body’s place in the natural world around her, demonstrated hearing far more acute than mine, could always find her way home, and had a healthy respect for the forces of nature.
It’s astonishing how reliant we humans have become on gps to navigate. We have almost entirely relinquished over to our phones, that capacity of our bodies and brains to navigate through space. Perhaps this helps us get to places faster. Perhaps also though, our continued dumbing down of our instinctive, animal sense has dispossessed us of our wild earth body connection with the natural world?
This is relevant to any conversation about eclipses, since:
all astronomical events, being part of the natural world, are events we can sense in our own bodies.
It’s hard to talk about eclipses as an astrologer and not sound ominous. I often get the feedback, “Gosh I just get scared when you talk about eclipses – what could you say that would help me not be so fearful?” Mulling this over, I’ve come to an analogy that I hope explains astrologers’ tone of caution when speaking about eclipses:
The scope of the effects of eclipses is similar to the scope of the effects of lightning – they won’t affect everyone drastically, though most everyone will be aware of them, and some will feel their effects sharply. There’s no need to live in fear of them, but when one’s around you want to have a healthy respect for them and understand how they operate in order to stay out of harm’s way.
Now here’s the kicker: if we were all still linked up to our wild earth bodies, we would instinctively know and feel the difference in energy around an eclipse, and what astrologers say would only either confirm or deny what we already experientially know.
So how do we get that body intelligence back if we’ve lost it? I think we can relink our bodies to Earth through an ongoing practice of small interventions:
Pay attention to the signals your body gives you. Sometimes those signals are subtle, so develop your somatic perception.
Privilege the body’s interior knowing over the mind’s endless commentary.
Develop your sense of proprioception (awareness of the position and movement of your body in space) through staying present in your body as you move through your world, rather than getting caught up in whatever your mind is thinking or your emotions are feeling. Awareness of breathing can be a doorway in.
Relinking our bodies to Earth will have profound benefits in the times to come. I will explain why, but first, let’s start with an overview of the planets’ current positions in space.
Today we’re building toward a total lunar eclipse, which peaks around 2:59am Eastern Daylight Time early tomorrow (Friday) morning. A lunar eclipse always occurs at a full moon, when the Earth stands directly in the path of the Sun’s light before it reaches the Moon.
Since it will be visible here in the U.S., we will see its red hue, which gives rise to its nickname, “blood moon.” (“Totality” will be visible from 2:26am to 3:31am EDT early tomorrow morning, which is when the moon’s red color will be most visible.) Pay attention to how you feel. What do you notice happening energetically, inside you, around you in other people, in the natural world, even in Earth’s atmosphere? Set an intention as you’re reading to track this for yourself.
This total lunar eclipse affects everyone on earth, but the places where it is visible will feel the effects more strongly. It happens to be a potent lunar eclipse for many astrological reasons, including the planet Saturn’s involvement. The main reason I think it’s particularly relevant is its relationship (and exact square) to the current United States president’s own natal Sun and Moon. (He also happened to be born on a total lunar eclipse.)
This does not bode well for our country’s stability, and I don’t say that to be sensational or to create alarm in the reader. I say that in much the same way a meteorologist might say, “lightning storms will strike in the region and with the lack of rainfall we’ve had there’s a heightened risk of wildfire spreading.” The difference between the astrologer and the scientist is that astrologers are speaking to effects scientific instruments have not yet been able to detect.
But our wild earth bodies do.
While I hope you don’t cower in fear of eclipses, I do hope you will develop a healthy respect for all the forces of the natural world, including eclipses. So please measure what I’m about to say against what you yourself feel these next couple days.
The ancient Seers of India associated the part of the sky this total lunar eclipse is taking place in, with partnerships, contracts, the fruits of partnerships, tangibly manifesting goals, and choosing wisely. When this part of the sky is eclipsed, we will see more of this constellation’s shadow side operative – in the world and in ourselves – and get to work with things like greed, pride, self-centeredness, stubbornness, insensitivity, and not wanting to take responsibility for the choices we make.
On a broader level, we are entering a time of great uncertainty and instability, astrologically speaking, while Saturn enters sidereal Pisces from March 29, 2025 until June 2, 2027, and again from October 19, 2027 until February 23, 2028. Impermanence and suffering are realities of this earthly plane, and never more so than with Saturn set against the stars of this constellation.
Here in the United States our lack of charity is likely to become a hallmark of this time period and that has its karmic consequences that will be highlighted during the six months following this total lunar eclipse. (Each eclipse’s effects last about six months until the next pair of eclipses occurs and shifts the focus in the shadowlands).
As spiritual beings, we are asked to take our faith in a higher power deeper, realizing the limits of our human control over our material lives. Agents of Evolution will relink their body’s perception to Earth, and develop their awareness of the interior landscape through practices like meditation, or mindfulness and compassion. Rather than expecting security or permanence in external conditions, they will develop their capacity to turn within for refuge.
The potential for Agents of Evolution during this period of Saturn in Pisces is to wake up, know who we are, and what our true work here on Earth is together – not as an idea or abstraction, not as a reaction to what’s happening or not happening, but as an intuitive response of our wild earth bodies. When we begin operating from this level of humility, we are able to work with Saturn (and Neptune while he’s along for the ride,) to bring about the right kinds of structures that fit our current circumstances. Saturn calls us to take spiritual responsibility for what is being created here on Earth, which is to say, to understand what we do have power to change, what we don’t have power to change, and to know ourselves to be participants in the infinite aliveness amidst all the change.
Tonight’s total lunar eclipse gives us the view necessary to see what change is now needed, not only in the world at large, but within our very own selves.
Wow. What a brilliant, multifaceted and educational piece. Thank Marga. I’m enriched.