Don’t Go Back To Sleep!
By
Sarah Varcas
All dates are UT
By
Sarah Varcas
All dates are UT
This solar eclipse, the second of two eclipses this season (you can read about the first one here), is soft as Autumn mists and tough as Winter storms. In the same time and space it delivers the harshest truths entwined with the most refined states of consciousness. Our challenge is to be open to both, not favouring one over the other. Reality calls and we cannot simply ignore events in this relative world of ego run amok. Nor can we dismiss as irrelevant, the absolute truths that expand our perception beyond the realm of who’s doing what to whom.
At its best, Sagittarius seeks grand truths that weave disparate things into an integrated whole. It inspires us to be the best we can be with its eternal promise of hope and unbounded possibility. At its less than best Sagittarius fosters division through sheer fiery force of opinion which leaves no space for difference or debate. Ruled by Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, under its influence we can become overly confident in our perspective, assuming an innate superiority over those who hold a different view. We are all at risk of this self-deception right now. And everyone can discover something new at this eclipse.
This is not the final act
With some careful handling this solar eclipse will foster positive interaction once we embrace the weighty responsibility that living a human life at this juncture entails. The bodies of thought, understanding and insight signified by the sign of Sagittarius have become tools of discord and mistrust, hatred, disrespect and aggression. Instead of being a force for good that feeds the soul, religion has become a weapon with which to beat our foes and judge those deemed different. Instead of pursuing a safe and inclusive society which protects the vulnerable and fosters potential, politics has become an instrument of division, affording power-over to the few at the cost of the many. Instead of nurturing well-being, autonomy and resilience, the world of medicine has become one of disempowerment, coercion and fear. When such dynamics are laid bare for all to see, it can feel like all is lost and we’ve gone too far down the road of strife to ever claw our way back. From this perspective the dark night of humanity’s soul looks increasingly long and evermore depressing. But the dark night is not the final act. There’s so much more waiting in the wings!
Neptune and asteroid Vesta, forming a Grand Square with Mercury and the moon’s nodes at this eclipse, speak to both the promise of transcendence and the risks of avoidance. These are not easy times to be alive and the tension continues to mount as we move towards the second big conjunction of this year: Saturn and Jupiter on 21st December. Many have arrived in this eclipse season feeling empty of resources for the road ahead. The intensity of 2020 has drained us and it’s been difficult to re-source ourselves amidst the unrelenting march of both tyranny and fear. We’ve lost a great deal this year – people, places, roles, livelihoods, financial security, future hopes and cherished dreams. Little, if anything, has remained untouched. We are all at sea to some extent, and at this eclipse the empty spaces left behind will be starkly apparent as the fog of confusion thickens around us.
But the heavens see the way ahead even when we don’t, and Vesta and Neptune provide the very fuel we need for the next step: commitment. Not to a goal or outcome, but simply to being here now, living this moment as truthfully as we can. This type of living is the most profound spiritual practice: embodying our authentic self, born of a deeply rooted connection with our inner core that always speaks the truth. Even when that truth is the hardest thing to hear.
The responsibility of wakefulness
No matter how rooted we may at times be, resolve can still fade and the responsibility of wakefulness feel too much to bear. It can be easier to rail against life than live it with our eyes and hearts wide open to its many shades; or to cloak ourselves in denial rather than look unpalatable truths in the eye. Living from the heart takes steadfast commitment in excess of what we may first imagine. The exhilaration of initial insight can spur us on for a while as we see the world through new eyes. Its catalyst varies and we each have our own personal experience: an awareness distils in our consciousness, that life is not what we thought and neither are we. Whatever the trigger, be it pleasure or pain, a subtle knowing or a devastating realisation, the first glimpse of freedom is often the sweetest, in stark contrast to our previous life. Born into fresh possibility and a new timeline of potential, our very being resonates with this shift. It knows something profoundly significant has occurred. Every one of our cells vibrate with this new connection to the magnificence of All
No matter how rooted we may at times be, resolve can still fade and the responsibility of wakefulness feel too much to bear. It can be easier to rail against life than live it with our eyes and hearts wide open to its many shades; or to cloak ourselves in denial rather than look unpalatable truths in the eye. Living from the heart takes steadfast commitment in excess of what we may first imagine. The exhilaration of initial insight can spur us on for a while as we see the world through new eyes. Its catalyst varies and we each have our own personal experience: an awareness distils in our consciousness, that life is not what we thought and neither are we. Whatever the trigger, be it pleasure or pain, a subtle knowing or a devastating realisation, the first glimpse of freedom is often the sweetest, in stark contrast to our previous life. Born into fresh possibility and a new timeline of potential, our very being resonates with this shift. It knows something profoundly significant has occurred. Every one of our cells vibrate with this new connection to the magnificence of All
That Is.
Then life confronts us with its darker face and the real spiritual challenge begins: to embody wisdom in the everyday mess of humanity. To stay honest when the truth pains us to our core. To stand firm when an unrelenting hurricane of change is blowing all around. This is the task before us now: to embrace it all – the loss and fear, hopes and dreams, discord, agreement, the truths and the lies and to live awake among it. To allow to blow through us the icy blast of collective pain and infinite possibility, recalibrating as it goes.
Then life confronts us with its darker face and the real spiritual challenge begins: to embody wisdom in the everyday mess of humanity. To stay honest when the truth pains us to our core. To stand firm when an unrelenting hurricane of change is blowing all around. This is the task before us now: to embrace it all – the loss and fear, hopes and dreams, discord, agreement, the truths and the lies and to live awake among it. To allow to blow through us the icy blast of collective pain and infinite possibility, recalibrating as it goes.
Don’t go back to sleep!
Whilst we may be tempted to space out at this solar eclipse, we must not go back to sleep. We cannot relinquish the wisdom of revelation. It comes as a blessing but with great responsibility, insisting on an abiding devotion to its truths in a frank and forthright way. Revelation demands of us character, spiritual backbone and steadfastness no matter what we meet on the path ahead. Any complacency we feel now will be challenged by the events of this eclipse and the coming six months upon which it stamps its mark. A conjunction between Mars and Eris, aspecting Pluto, assures we have what it takes to stand firm and set boundaries beyond which we refuse to go as we’re herded, by purveyors of fear, towards a tyrannical future. But the future is still ours to claim and no one can take it from us if we refuse to offer it up.
This solar eclipse in Sagittarius reminds us that faith is a safety net on the path of awakening. Faith that things change; that what ails us now will become as dust in time; that the promise of peace and the freedom of authenticity are not deceptions dreamt up by a world in need but the very heart of what it means to be human. Once we unveil that heart and know ourselves inside and out we cannot help but reap its riches. The spiritual path is one of removing the heart-veil to embrace all that we discover in doing so, of opening the heart ever wider to contain all that we are and all that is found in this world. But doing so requires faith and presence rooted in the here and now. A willingness to live life in the raw, exposed to the pain as well as the pleasure, the sacrifice alongside the blessing.
And this kind of faith takes commitment.
The future is calling
It’s so easy to throw in the towel, to storm out of the awakening room slamming the door behind us when the truth is too hard to bear. Or to don rose-tinted glasses that speak only of love and light, birthing blind-spots where the darkest threats lurk in the shadows. To those who feel like storming or side-stepping right now, the cosmos reaches out and bids us stop and wait: be still, let go, simply breathe. Life needs time. So do we. And everything has its moment.
The future is calling. Do you hear it? It seduces us with whispers in an unfamiliar tongue. Its promise feels so close and yet out of reach, obscured by a foggy blanket we cannot simply wave away. Timing is everything and everything has its time. Recognising this fact is our act of faith. Knowing that things change and that clarity will return: this is the fuel for our journey through the fog. It will clear in its own time revealing both riches and obstacles, rewards and responsibilities. When it does we’ll know what to do and when, how to do it and why. But for now commitment, faith and steadfastness in the midst of the mystery is a most powerful offering. One that signals we are indeed ready for the path ahead.
Sarah Varcas