On November 8th, at 5:02 a.m. CST, the full moon in 16° Taurus opposes the Sun in Scorpio, activating a total lunar eclipse. Endings create space for new paradigms ahead. This cycle brings intensity, plot twists and chaos. Collective shake-ups release old belief systems, expose secret alliances and clear the room for new emerging growth.
During a lunar eclipse, the full moon slowly dims and blackens as it passes under the Earth’s shadow, activating our emotional body and heightening our awareness of unconscious patterns and fears. New insight and awareness bring us space for deeper acceptance for where we are and clearer understanding of what we wish to commit to for long-term growth.
This lunar eclipse is visible from Asia, Australia, the Americas and the Pacific. Since the time of totality is 85 minutes, we will feel the effects of this lunar eclipse for about 43 days.
This total lunar eclipse will also fall on Election Day in the United States; it is the first Election Day total lunar eclipse in U.S. history, and it will not happen again until November 8th, 2394! With the alignment of Uranus in the lunar eclipse chart, we are sure to witness unexpected events and chaos during this time.
This is the bookend of the eclipse window and the final eclipse of the year. It’s time to awaken to where we hold on to perceived ideas of security that are keeping us from moving forward. We notice our clinched grip on what we perceive as security and are invited to lean into the unknown. This lunar eclipse is the climax of tension that has been building for the last several weeks. Synchronicity shows us what we have been suppressing so we can make the conscious decision to show up fully and take responsibility for all we are creating.
This eclipse season taps into the pulse of collective labor pains. We are birthing a new earth consciousness. Old structures and systems are collapsing. We meet the moment with the contraction of the old paradigm and the pressure of the new that is now crowning. We feel our soul calling us to something new, but the landscape is unknown. What is falling away no longer serves who we are now and where we are headed. We are invited to surrender and align to a deeper soul melody guiding us forward. This lunar eclipse is a critical time to redefine our values, access deeper agency and surrender to the higher intelligence that lives within.
It’s been 19 years since there was a lunar eclipse in this degree of Taurus. Take a moment to think back to the 9th of November in 2003: What themes were emerging? What were we learning in relation to our self-value in intimate relationships? What were our perceptions and definitions of security? What was our relationship to our body like? What was our capacity to receive pleasure?
Taurus as an Archetype
Taurus rules the physical senses, our relationship to the earth and the material world. This includes issues of money, possessions and self-worth. Taurus shows us the value of savoring earthly pleasures. It relishes everything that is beautiful, delicious and satisfying. Taurus invests its whole being into what it values building. It follows its own sense of timing and internal rhythms. It finds security in the daily known and moves through life connected and guided to what is aligned with a higher vibrational resonance.
This lunation is inviting you to a greater level of awareness and consciousness in the physical realm. To recognize that life is a sacred practice of bringing our attention, energy and currency toward what we truly value and living in right relationship to the earth. We come into a deeper understanding of where we feel resourced (or not) and align ourselves to what matters most to us. There is a new way of communicating that recognizes the interconnectedness of all things, including that of the exchange of energy between us, nature and the universe. The more that we stand in our own holism the greater the capacity to build a new structure in our lives that nurtures our most authentic expression. It’s time to evolve the way we live in connection with the earth and begin a new cycle of self-worth.
The Shadow of Taurus
Clinging to routines and routine behaviors is one manifestation of the shadow side of Taurus. It may be tremendously resistant to change, and understanding when to let go and how to break out of ruts is a vital lesson for this archetype. We have to know ourselves well to know if we are honoring our own timing or if we’ve just become too comfortable with the familiar.
This is the archetype that truly loves luxury — lush surroundings, beautiful art, natural materials, exquisite meals, gorgeous clothes. Taurus as an archetype teaches us about the art of living. We can learn to slow down and really take in the aroma of the spices as we are cooking, the feel of the fabric on our skin, the tastes of fine wine. Taurus energy can awaken our connection to the earthly plane, enabling us to be fully present and engaged with our senses and heart in what we are doing. When in alignment, we open to a deeper experience of connection and pleasure. When we lose our present connection with our senses and our conscious relationship with the earth plane, we can overindulge and access hedonism, dysmorphia, hoarding or addiction. Our actions should guide us into the moment, not check us out of it. We may also give in to momentary ease and pleasures and mistake the creature comforts for what we truly value and what will bring us joy in the long run. The beauty that we create around us in our environment is meant to connect us to internal serenity, peace and beauty that reflects our connections to the natural world. It isn’t meant to be about the possessions themselves.
Mars in Retrograde Is Amplified in This Eclipse Chart.
This cycle connects us to the archetypal process of Mars retrograde in Gemini. We are asked to look at ideas and perceptions of reality that we have adapted. In our world of fake news, conspiracy theories and alternative facts, we can be easily distracted and swayed from what is real. New insight reveals a clearer picture of a version of reality that may be misaligned. Collective alternate realities spiral out in waves with new Twitter laws that nurture and house hate speech.
“Perception is like painting a scenery – no matter how beautifully you paint, it will still be a painting of the scenery, not the scenery itself.”
Abhijit Naskar
This retrograde process guides us into a deeper shadow process connected to alternate versions of reality, how we process information and the current state of our mind. Words become weapons and we are quick to respond. We defend our case through fierce intellect. Polarization of different points of view intensifies. We are learning more about ourselves through confrontation. We may find our need to educate someone on where we stand quite futile, as others are not able to connect from a place of holism and can only meet us as deeply as they meet themselves.
Sometimes gathering more information isn’t the best idea. We can continue to move from one idea to the next and then the one after that, following our curiosity and diving into research and completely lose our agency of where we direct and focus our minds. This retrograde cycle requires the spiritual practice of discernment and to be present to process the information that we do have. Too much information and too much distraction separate us from facing what is real. We are called within to listen and cultivate the connection between our mind and our hearts.
The shadow inquiry that we do during this Mars retrograde cycle is absolutely essential to uncovering the last piece of the Uranus/ Saturn square that asks us to come into our heart and intuitive feeling with clear perception and openness as we begin to build the new structure of our lives. We need to come into the right relationship in our mind and in ourselves so we can serve the new progress and expansion toward our destiny. Deeper inventory of our thoughts, perceptions and fears will guide us into clearer understanding of what is true and show us cleaner building materials for the next steps of our journey.
We Are Repairing the Structure of Our Heart
This lunar eclipse invites us into a deeper understanding of the emotional walls that we have created to protect us from pain and heartbreak. Our past experiences taught us to be resilient and helped us survive, but now they are preventing us from living more authentically and bringing our soul gifts with the world. We can no longer continue to build our internal structure from our past conditioning. The last two and half years have shown us what wasn’t working and where we needed to let go. In the process of letting go, we may be feeling a bit isolated.
We are now called to repair our inner structure to prepare the way for a new beginning. We heal through sharing our story. We heal through connection. We heal by leaning into our heartfelt truth of what brings us joy. We heal through new government structures that honor the inclusion and ideas of everyone, making space for our differences and weaving us through common values. We heal through deeply listening to the stories and life experiences of others. We heal through creative solutions and new innovation that unite us and call us back into community.
The Cosmic Weather
This lunar eclipse is conjunct Uranus in Taurus and square Saturn in Aquarius. Uranus is the individuality of the soul. It represents our most authentic expression and shows us where we suppress our authentic nature. Saturn is a developmental force that teaches us about inner authority and the wisdom that comes through time.
For the last two and a half years Uranus has been in a square with Saturn, inviting us into a deeper level of maturity, into spiritual adulthood. Saturn is now moving away from this square and bringing us forward to integrate the lessons of the past two years, as we step more into our sovereignty and release the ways in which we have given our power to an outside authority to define our success.
This ongoing dance between Saturn and Uranus has brought us two steps forward and one back, from the invitation of claiming our agency and living from our authentic nature to fearing all that we would lose as a consequence of being who we truly are. The known structures of our world have been breaking up so that we can sit with deeper inquiry and live into questions as we mature. How will our relationship to belonging change as we claim the freedom that our authentic expression desires? What relationship dynamics would be threatened? What roles and rules do we need to shed? Where are we being called into more of our creative essence?
Uranus brings new innovation and creative solutions and wants to break free from past conditioning while Saturn wants to hold onto a reliable form and grow from past experiences. While it can be helpful to remember our history so that we learn from it and don’t repeat old lessons, this time requires a major shedding of the old lens that we have been looking through. There has never been a time quite like this in our existence. We may not exactly know where we are going but we know it’s not where we have been. In some way, where we are standing isn’t who we are anymore, and past conditioning isn’t always our best guide. This time calls for us to feel into the moment intuitively to guide our next steps. As long as we can connect with what we are authentically feeling, we meet each choice with presence and navigate it in the present moment.
We have been in the process of unplugging from the old dimension and firing up a new grid of our potential. We now must feel into our own inner knowing about what brings us joy, what success means to us and what we are authentically called to build. We are invited to trust in the new beginning that is emerging. Trust in our inner authority and our ability to know and express what is right for you.
“Authenticity is a collection of choices that we have to make every day. It’s about the choice to show up and be real. The choice to be honest. The choice to let our true selves be seen.”
Brene Brown
Each eclipse season brings us the energy of the current lunar nodes to assist us in progressing through our nodal path. The north node in Taurus is activated by this eclipse, which provides opportunity for growth and advancement when we connect to the higher call for one world consciousness and are aligned to a cause beyond the self and immediate desires.
Mercury, Venus and the Sun are all in the sign of Scorpio connecting us to the deeper motivations, thoughts and desires that guide us. Mercury in Scorpio is a powerful, direct and serious truth teller. What has been hidden is now coming to light. There is a heightened ability to intuitively feel into what is being said. There is a tendency to react instead of respond and project our emotions.
The lunar eclipse is in harmony with the dwarf planet Ceres. Ceres is associated with grief, the mother-child relationship and nurturing. Our relationship to Ceres tells us how we need to be nurtured. It also connects us to our healing capacity to love and nurture ourselves and the world. Ceres represents both the ability to produce an abundant harvest and the famine that ensues when we are out of alignment with our natural state of equilibrium in our lives.
This lunar eclipse also aligned with the asteroid Kali in Taurus. She is the destroyer of ignorance that our ego creates for us. She guides us out of polarity to face the truth of our ego so that we may move into a deeper acceptance of ourselves. She symbolizes the most primal desire, which is to love all and be one with all. Kali connects us to our wildness so we can release our conditioning and feel what is real. We can release the outside static to fully feel the emotions that have been suppressed. Kali is also a representation of Mother Nature because she is imagined to be timeless and formless. She is also thought to be the one who made life and the universe. Kali serves as a bridge between the illusions of the ego and unity consciousness. What has been seeded in secret during the partial solar eclipse in Scorpio is now being unleashed. In order to get to a place of unity, we must face ourselves and must face the shadow. We are invited to see where the illusions of our ego have kept us from our most authentic expression. Kali in Taurus is a call to come into deeper connection with the earth and the material world, but she also reminds us we must not hold onto it.
The Invitation
This eclipse brings sweeping changes, deeper inquiry and intuitive insight that informs our soul’s journey of continued expansion. We connect to a deeper understanding of what we truly value and wish to commit to building long term. Over the last two and a half years, we have matured in a process of systemic restructuring and are now moving forward to build authentically. There is joy in moving forward with our hearts aligned to what is most valuable. There is a liberation in claiming who we are and living that now. It is an act of self-love to show up for what we value and build the discipline to cultivate what our heart most desires. That is the ultimate gift to our future self.
This eclipse portal implements codes of a new earth consciousness, and we dance with the contraction and expansion as we attempt to metabolize and stabilize evolving new consciousness. We are moving into a deeper state of trust with our inner authority. We are invited into deep inquiry around our motivations and perceived ideas around our physical and emotional security so that we can consciously choose what we wish to create and be fully present to it. It is important to look with rigorous honesty at what we have created and ask if it serves us anymore.
“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”
E.E. Cummings