Tonight’s penumbral lunar eclipse in Aries is the first of six eclipses on the Aries-Libra axis that will take place between now and April 2015.

At 7:37 p.m. EDT tonight, Luna, glorious and full in Aries, dips into the shadow the Sun casts over the Earth.  This penumbral lunar eclipse is the first of six eclipses that will occur in Aries and Libra over the next 18 months.  Eclipses are the most dramatic ways the Universe brings about change in our lives,  bringing old orders to a close and catapulting us into new ones with sudden, decisive finality.  Between now and April 2015, these beginnings and endings will unfold through our relationships — with ourselves, with others, and ultimately, with the Universe and its animating energy of Divine Love.

Eclipse Truth: The Energy and Power of Love

The overriding reality of Love as the cosmic glue that holds the Universe together has been long known to the seers and mystics among us.  It doesn’t take more than a quick glance around our world today to see that this overriding reality has receded into the shadows.  As a collective organism, we’ve forgotten what holds things together and energizes everything with freshness and vitality.  Around us — and within us — the great transforming power of Love has been overshadowed by the mesmerizing illusions of Fear.  With this eclipse, the Cosmos is pushing us to see the empowering truth, waiting in the shadows for us to recognize it. 

Ruled by Mars, the courageous and passionate Cosmic Warrior, Aries is the sign that brings forth the spring if we live in the northern hemisphere, and leads us into the greatest of life’s adventures in the southern hemisphere — the journey into the Underworld for the secret transformation that takes place during the outer world’s winter.  Wherever tonight’s eclipse falls in our birth charts, an order of being will culminate and the decks will begin to clear for a new season.  At the crux will be the Warrior’s need to break new ground, and the great daring that underlies the drive to live one’s unique and authentic identity.

In the sign of Virgo, Mars is in service to the Divine Feminine, restoring and repairing the broken fabric of life within us and around us.  Across the sky from him at tonight’s eclipse is Neptune, the Cosmic Mystic, prodding him to act on his deepest inspiration.  With both Mars and Neptune on the mysterious points in space that the ancients called the “antiscia,” these two are the secret keys to the new order that this eclipse ushers in.

Planets that are antiscia — as Mars and the Moon are today, and Neptune and the Sun — act as hidden allies.  Both the Sun and the Moon occupy degrees of great potency, and it is Mars and Neptune who can help us unlock their promise.  “A man possessed of more gifts than he can hold” is the Sabian symbol for the Moon’s degree.  In Virgo, Mars reminds us that it is by cherishing Life in its smallest and most humble details that our greatest gifts often unfold.

The energy of our Star at tonight’s lunar eclipse is symbolized by a mighty eagle becoming a dove — the bird sacred to Venus.

The Sun’s energy is symbolized by the equally powerful image of “an eagle changing into a dove,”  reminding us of the great mystery of the sign of Libra — the transformative nature of our relationships.  This is the timeless reality embodied for us since the deep time by the ancient goddesses Persephone and Psyche.  Aside from the exact opposition of the Sun and the Moon, and the nearly exact opposition of Mars and Neptune, it is these two goddess asteroids who make the closest contact between two celestial bodies in tonight’s sky. In the early degrees of Sagittarius, they are separated by just over one degree.

Eclipse Power: The Transforming Feminine

Persephone is a later form of the Sumerian “queen of heaven and earth,” Inanna, whose descent to, and return from, the Underworld is the subject of the world’s first book, inscribed on an ancient clay tablet.  As the daughter of the great Earth Mother, Demeter (later known as Ceres), the innocent maiden Persephone was abducted by the Underworld’s ruler Pluto.  Beneath the surface, she became queen of the underworld, a regal feminine presence of power and beauty.  As a being who moved back and forth between the Underworld and the Upper World, she broke new ground for human consciousness, showing us how to restore and regenerate our lives and our world.

Psyche was a mortal woman who became the bride of the divine Eros.  The condition of their union was that she never look upon the face of her Divine Beloved.  Her insecurity triggered by her sister’s jealousy, Psyche could not resist the temptation. But as she held a candle over Eros’ face, a drop of wax on his cheek awoke him.  Because Love cannot stay where there is no trust, Eros vanished from Psyche’s life.

Heartbroken, she beseeched Aphrodite (who we know today as Venus) to restore her Love to her life.  The great goddess of Love assigned the young woman a series of impossible tasks, which were only accomplished by the assistance of ants, eagles, and the wind.  Finally, the heart of the Divine was opened by the young woman’s whole-hearted dedication, and she metamorphosed into a goddess herself and reunited with her Beloved.