The Aurora Borealis
on Tuesday's partial lunar eclipse
In the kids’ book series, His Dark Materials (a beautiful, gnostic tale), the northern lights serve as a portal to other universes, and through them streams dust, fine, spiritually charged particles that gather around children, in particular. It’s a premise that makes a lot of sense. The northern lights are wild, and it’s nuts that our world contains something so ethereal, otherworldly, and majestic.
The Chandra symbol for our upcoming partial lunar eclipse in Pisces on Tuesday night is The aurora Borealis. Ellias Lonsdale comments:
“The brink of the infinite. Tapping directly into realms of existence beyond the physical, you sense all-pervasively the multiple frequencies of all that is really here. Having a vast grasp of what is possible and of what is asking to be brought in, while extended very far into regions others miss. Feeling, hearing, tasting the power of spirit in action.”
Especially amidst a supermoon conjunct Neptune in this late degree of Pisces, this ought to be an enchanting and majestic time, one in which we sense the full, rich spectrum of life. We’d do well to honor the profundity of the eclipse, as it really is a sort of portal to other worlds, and, like those rare moments when we see the northern lights further south, we’re likely to have a tangible feeling of magic being present.
The far north where the aurora Borealis resides is treacherous terrain, though, and likewise, the next few days also have a higher probability of dangerous, nightmarish experiences arising. Neptune and Pisces are associated with the dreamy, imaginative, blissful sides of experience, but they’re also connected to addiction, escapism, and psychosis. If we have tendencies toward these phenomena, they’re likely to be brought forth.
I really appreciate Rudolf Steiner’s depiction of Lucifer as an emblem of the shadow side of this spiritual consciousness. Lucifer brings ecstasy, but it’s one that disconnects us from the world, isolating us in our own heavenly bubble. Lucifer brings creativity, delight, and even knowledge but not a meaningful relationship with the world. Today, we’re all inflamed in our echo chambers, often enjoying ourselves but not fully consciously, hypnotized into these image-rich caverns or falling into them via escapism.1 We could articulate this Luciferic temptation as an intense Piscean quality that has no relationship to Virgo, the complementary sign. As this supermoon in Pisces is reflecting the light of the Virgo Sun, there is available to us cosmic assistance to sort through, understand, and clearly discern our Luciferic problems and Piscean hopes.
In Steiner’s cosmology, Lucifer forms an adversarial pair with Ahriman, who is a cold, shrewd, materialistic, soul and spirit-denying consciousness—a sort of shadowy, controlling, Virgo-Capricorn supervillain who may be actually incarnated in a body right now. Perhaps the medicine of this super-Pisces moment can dissolve some sclerotic, hyper-Virgoan/Ahrimanic parts of ourselves, too. Regardless, the idea is to bring the Virgoan and Piscean together, just as Christ puts Lucifer and Ahriman in their proper places. We might think of this as a synergy that serves the world in intricate, spirit-led, and precise manners.
It’s worth emphasizing that this partial lunar eclipse highlights energies that are only beginning to consolidate and intensify. The Moon will be within three degrees of Neptune at the end of Pisces, but the North Node and Saturn are still yet to converge there—which they will at the total solar eclipse in March. Altogether, there’s the feeling of an intense oceanic energy, a manifestation of Neptune washing away one world and birthing another. It makes me think of a Flood, or a baptism, and although these eclipse moments can bring particularly poignant, suprising, and consequential manifestations, this archetypal constellation will be present and powerful for much of the next year. I’ll definitely be writing more about it. In the meantime, I hope this lunar eclipse brings each of you inspiration, refuge, kinship and fortitude.
As always, please book a reading if you’d like to explore how all of this is playing out for you personally!
Warmth,
Charlie
P.S. — Paid subscribers, you can find the rest of this month’s forecast at the end of my last post.
Lucifer is a fascinating, enigmatic, and slippery character. I don’t think this articulation of Lucifer is the only authoritative one, and I’m interested in other, more gnostic views of him. Even within the anthroposophical world, though it’s considered that Lucifer is a necessary spirit, especially for art. Lucifer also may have been Lao Tzu, progenitor of the Tao Te Ching, and is also maybe redeemed in our era? Unclear, but I’m here for the riddle of it.