23rd/24th October 2014:
Solar Eclipse in Scorpio conjunct
Venus and Pallas
Traversing Divine Darkness
by Sarah Varcas
The Solar Eclipse, flanked by Venus on one side and asteroid Pallas on the other, occurs at 9:45 pm GMT on 23rd October in the 1st degree of Scorpio. This eclipse feels paradoxical, for whilst it signifies a powerful drive inward for answers, forcing us to look beneath the sanitised surface of our lives for deeper and more penetrating truths, it does so in such a way that this depth journey can be pleasurable rather than scary, productively creative rather than underminingly confronting. Whatever it is we need to find in the shadows of this eclipse, we can do so without their revelation tearing us apart or disrupting current progress. As such this eclipse comes as a gift, even if its immediate fruits consist of an awakening to darker and more disturbing tendencies within us.
As mentioned, asteroid Pallas aligns with this eclipse. She is the warrior queen and arbiter of justice. She fights for equality and advocates balance. She pursues wholeness rather than polarisation and honesty rather than deference to an inaccurate but more widely accepted order. Pallas in Scorpio reminds us that we all have dark corners where monsters lurk, but she knows them as our most creative places and deepest sources of wisdom. To neglect them simply leaves us half-asleep and off the boil, like a radio not quite tuned in, full of static and interference. In alignment with this eclipse Pallas offers us sharpness of inner vision and the courage to use it. She doesn’t flinch at the sight of our inner terrain cast in shadow and icy cold from neglect. She simply looks at what she finds, knows it, accepts it and recognises that it is part of a greater whole which is easily vast enough to contain all things without shattering into pieces under the weight of the paradox. She knows the creativity at the heart of pain, the rebirth in the eye of trauma, the integrity at the centre of rage. She loves these aspects of who we are. They are her fuel for the journey into wholeness and authenticity. Without them we would be nothing.
Whilst Pallas bids us enter the labyrinth of our inner world, Venus assures us the journey can be a comfortable one no matter what we find there. If we tend to shy away from self-examination, if acknowledging our grief, fear, rage, pain, is usually too much, Venus takes our hand now and encourages us to give it a go, for we are safe in her company. Venus in Scorpio knows the depths and loves life there. She relishes the play of shadows in light, the tingle of the unknown, the seduction of forbidden passions and the thrill of the twilight world where security meets risk and the latter wins out. She is a treasured friend for us now, leading us into the darkness with a knowing smile and a certain but relaxed gait. There is nothing to fear, she whispers, even as she extinguishes the only flame we had to light the way. Safe between Venus and Pallas we are in the arms of the sacred feminine, entranced by the many faces of the Divine Mother. In this eclipse we meet the destructive face of Kali, the compassion of Kwan Yin, the purity of Mother Mary and the self-possession of The Magdalene. As the light of the Sun is eclipsed at the dark of the Moon we can let ourselves slip into these nether worlds as into a warm bath, fragrant and inviting, bidding us relax, let go and receive.
As heavenly bodies align to mark out this moment of time, Black Moon Lilith partners with Jupiter in Leo, a marriage of light and dark which gives birth to completeness. We cannot have one without the other, and yet so often the greatest block to living fully and without guile is the fear of what may arise from the darkness if we do. This eclipse bids us to relinquish fear and allow a deeper knowing of all that we are; to acknowledge the power of our emotions and desires, the very nature of our being. It bids us to look and listen, to feel into the darkness and claim what we find there as our own, not cast it as some interloper intruding on our purity and peace. Darkness does not destroy the light, it frames it and gives it form. Just as the Sun is eclipsed when conditions are right, so are we turned away from the light to look into the shadows. If we do so, when the light returns, we will view what lies there with new eyes and a bold heart, knowing that light and dark, right and wrong, good and bad, eventually all melt into the one which is all of them and none, beyond words that can bear witness and a mind that can comprehend.
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Sarah Varcas
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