Have any of you been feeling some rather intense energy over the last few days …particularly around family, security, home, mothering, roots?  Well…  its not really surprising, as we prepare for the New Moon Solar Eclipse in Cancer in the early hours of Friday morning (in South Africa).

It’s always emotionally intense  when both the sun and the moon are in the watery, sensitive  sign of the crab, but this one takes it up a good few notches.

When we have a solar eclipse, the sun is overwhelmed by the moon.  In other words the feminine vanquishes the masculine. The light disappears and we are pulled into the darkness for a while.

This can feel scary at first, but when we stay there for a while, our eyes start to readjust and we start to see things differently. When the obvious colours and details are not available, we start to look at things in a deeper way. That is what is asked of us now.

DEEP SEA DIVING

This New Moon eclipse forms an exact opposition to Pluto, the king of the underworld, modern ruler of Scorpio.  Pluto is the plumber of the zodiac, beckoning us beneath the surface, so that we might process any debris that might be sitting there, or, to be blunt,  clear out the sewer. Not a particularly pleasant thing to do, but quite necessary every now and then to avoid even more, serious blockages in the future.

Suffice to say, emotions that are coming up right now might not be comfortable at all, especially for those who have a lot of fire/ air in their charts, who prefer to keep things light and positive!

Amongst myself and my closest friends, here are some examples of what is and has been arising over the past week. Issues around home/security/ finances/;    illness to do with fluids (pneumonia);  flooding of houses; old emotional issues coming to the surface;  leaking roofs,  a feeling of general down-ness or off-ness for no seeming reason; big emotions around parenting/  family issues and responsibilities; feeling sick to the stomach; feeling lost at sea, having lost sight of the shore; vivid disturbing dreams.

So – what do we do?

Well, those troublesome, irritating feelings or general dis-ease,  “off-ness” or “not-so-goodness”, are just the tip of the iceberg. Underneath, if we do some deep sea diving, we may discover beauties like anger, sadness, grief, rage or fear, which are desperately trying to get our attention. And… as usual, we have the choice to feel them or to beat them into submission… guess which one works better?

HONOUR YOUR FEELINGS

The good news is that if we are prepared to honour the feelings that come up, we have a very supportive, very powerful Grand Water Trine, formed by Sun/Moon, Jupiter and Neptune, which can help us to bring understanding to or clear some debris, so that we can move forward, lighter and less encumbered. Jupiter in Scorpio (more water)  has just moved direct after 4 months of being retrograde. With Jupiter being a beneficial planet, this can be seen as a positive thing – much like a giant pressure hose, coming in to clear away all the sticky stuff, if we choose to allow it to do so.

If however, we elect to repress or medicate or numb the emotions that are coming up, they will simply join the others  lurking in the sewer,  until the next time.

If  there was ever a time to ride the wave of emotion, this is it. Many of us are feeling the angst and suffering of Mother Earth and humanity right now, in addition to our own.  Consider this… what if, each time we  feel a feeling, without  censorship or guilt, we help to transmute it, perhaps not only for ourselves, but for mankind and Mother Earth too?

RADICAL SELF CARE

I see this as a time of radical self care. If you feel insecure, needy, inadequate, sad or full of rage, sit with it for a few moments and breathe into it…  or express it in some way… dance it, sing it, paint it, write a poem about it, journal it –   if it’s anger, hitting a pillow really helps.  Then ask yourself how best you can show up, nourish and nurture yourself.  Maybe that means  cooking yourself a warm nourishing meal, sitting next to a fire, or perhaps connecting with the people who love you, taking a nap, or having a hot bath.  What would you advise your best friend, lover or child to do if they were in distress?

…Do that for yourself!

Every single time we abandon or berate ourselves, we deplete our energetic  and emotional tanks. Every time we value and love ourselves, we fill them up. All our tanks need regular cleaning and refilling and this is the time to do it. The fuller our individual tanks are, the more love we have to give.

SOME TOOLS TO HELP YOU RIDE THE WAVE

You might want to try Emotional Freedom Technique. Try it – it’s really simple and sure  does work. Whilst tapping certain points, you acknowledge what you are feeling (out loud preferably EG “Even though I am feeling …. X, Y Z, I deeply love and approve of myself”

Other tools that could help would be grounding – spending time outside with no shoes,  walking, spending time in nature, meditating, deep breathing, or visiting a hypnotherapist, trusted energy worker or psychologist. Just as we feed ourselves nutritional food,  and exercise our physical bodies, our emotional bodies and energetic bodies also need regular nourishment and tune ups!

Eclipses always happen in sets and have much longer lasting effects than normal new and full moons. This one marks the start of the Cancer/ Capricorn eclipse season, which will last until 2020, so there’s lots of time to work with these themes . The last time we had an eclipse at the same degree was 11 July 2010, so you might find that there are similar themes that are coming up.

SET THOSE NEW INTENTIONS

This solar eclipse is also an excellent time to set new intentions. Wherever 20 degrees of Cancer/ Capricorn lies in your chart will usually be where this is most pressing.

If you’d like to plumb further into this, you might consider setting up an Eclipse Reading, where we can explore how and where this is going to be working with you personally over the next few years.

AUGUST WORKSHOP AND RETREAT

My next Art & Soul workshop, CELEBRATING WOMEN will be in Durban on Women’s Day, 9th August, followed by COME HOME TO YOU,  a retreat on 10th to 12th August, where I will be collaborating with Deborah Prosser of Rest & Digest.

CAPE TOWN WORKSHOPS

Stay tuned for exciting new workshops and retreats in the Cape Area.

With  you in the Ocean

Michelle