Eclipse

I find the idea of astrology fascinating. When I speak of astrology, I’m not talking about birth chart daily horoscopes you’ll find in the newspaper. That is generally rubbish, as far as I’m concerned. No, I’m talking about how the movement of our planet in relationship with the movement of the planets, stars, and moon affect the flow of energy. I have done a little research into it, as it can be an interesting addendum to magic work. At least, so I’m told. I’m still playing around with it, forming my own thoughts.

The idea that life is affected by position of our planet, our sun, and the way that the closer planets in our solar system reflect the sun back to us makes sense, in a way. The sun is already a major player in why we are physically here. Daytime and nighttime also feel drastically different from each other, and I mean that in more ways than simple heat and light. Maybe it's the way that life reacts to that lack of light and heat that creates the energetic shift, but I believe it to be more than that.

I bring this up as I contemplate the recent lunar eclipse. There is a lot of different views of how eclipses affect the unseen world, and I’m personally trying to grasp what I believe about its energy. They have a bad rap, and it is said that the effects of an eclipse can be felt days before and after. Usually, that makes me think it’s just a scapegoat, but, along with the beautiful full moon that we had, it seemed to be a little more intense than usual. That feeling is further exacerbated by the chaos of life here on my hill in Vermont. My step-son was thrust into the position to save a life last weekend. His mother’s boyfriend’s heart stopped as they were hanging out. As the man collapsed, my amazing step-son kept his wits about him, called 911, then proceeded to put his recent CPR training to use. Not bad for a fourteen year old. The man recently came out of the coma that had resulted from his cardiac arrest, about as fine as one can be for being dead for a bit. While it’s amazing that our kid saved a life, that’s pretty traumatic fare that most people don’t have to go through.

Then, yesterday, after a fight with the doctor’s office about some asthma meds, what looked like a clear road ended up being treacherous. I somehow found the only patch of slush on the road, spun 180 degrees, slammed into a boulder, and launched my Volvo wagon into the air. After finishing a complete roll over, the side of my car slammed into an apple tree, roughly putting the vehicle back, right side up, onto its tires in the snowy woods. While I came out of it a little sore, I’m perfectly intact. No broken bones, no blood, minor bruising. I’m still at a loss of how it happened. Good snow tires don’t slide across perfectly dry roads like that, yet here I am.

Now, I’m not blaming the eclipse. The earth’s shadow did not fall upon the moon to specifically warn my family that life was going to get a little crazy. The words of an author that I respect do come to mind, though. I can’t remember the exact quote, but John Michael Greer said something to affect that magic is just the art of intended coincidence. It stems from the idea that magic can cause physical change in the world, as long as it doesn’t break the laws of physics. Instead, it looks more like a coincidence that after a ceremony to call rain, air pressure changed as it does, and rain followed in what seems to be a natural course.

This is absolutely conjecture, yet it seems to me that the area has been a little more chaotic recently. Maybe I’m projecting, or maybe I’m seeing it through the lenses of my own crazier-than-usual life, but it seems everything around here has been more open to disorder. Could part of this be connected to the eclipse of a powerful full moon? Why not? Everything is connected in ways that we have yet to fully understand.

The experiences of my step-son and I both remind me of the rune hagalaz, the rune that shakes things up. If my step-son wasn’t there, his mom’s boyfriend would have died. Josh keeps thinking that my crash was something reaching out to prevent me from finding a more catastrophic experience down the road. What if these are acts of the universe to change for the better, but the change itself is still powerful and traumatic. It reminds me of some of the healing work that I’ve been trained to do. The act of facing your trauma and shadows. It can be hard, and it’s rarely fun, but it leads to a deep healing. Maybe that’s the energy of the eclipse. Maybe there’s a bigger pattern in the chaos.

Or maybe it all just happened, and the proximity to the eclipse is just a coincidence. Maybe it’s all false equivalency.

On a side note, concerning the solar and lunar forces, tomorrow I am heading out to an old building to do a clearing. I’ve felt that this building is haunted for quite a while. Recently, the owner asked me to go in and try to do a clearing, as she finds the building creepy. This being my first building that I’ve tried to clear of noncorporeal beings, this is going to be an interesting experience, one that I will share about more next week. The reason I mentioned solar forces in conjunction with solar forces is that I plan on heading there before sunrise to try and use the energy of the sunrise to help me clean out the space. It may be successful, it may not. Either way, it will be interesting. I can’t wait to share the story with you next week.

Be well. Be safe.

-The Green Mountain Mage