(Reading time, 7 minutes)
What is the big picture of your life? Is it to make a certain amount of money each month, each year? Is that why you exist, here and now? Or is it about looking good to other people, both literally and figuratively? Is it about being perfect, never letting anything less than the best touch you? How about having fame, recognition, power, and/or certain possessions?
If you are an older soul, I doubt any of the above will feel like an authentic motivator for living and enjoying your life. We know there is deeper meaning, passion, and desire to be explored.
What is it, then, that calls us forward in life? What keeps us here when at any moment we can choose to leave?
Suicide is always an option even if it is a scary option. We are that free: free to live or die. But the truth is that many of us are dying a slow death, anyway. Not a slow death by natural causes but a more “unnatural” death that comes from being on automatic pilot, from being asleep at the wheel of our lives. This death comes when we resist the invitation to take time to understand fear and how it may be hijacking our lives, eroding our joy unnecessarily. Rather than having our fears, our fears have us when we refuse to investigate their shadowy messages directly so that we can address them and move beyond them into a freer, more playful space of creativity and possibility.
To explore the big picture of our lives, we can’t get around the truth of death, of moving through life asleep or awake, or the truth of the fear, pain, and suffering that comes from living an unexamined life. “Unexamined,” here, means spiritual, and “spiritual” means awareness of the real you.
The big picture questions are spiritual questions in that they always circle back to the questions “Who am I” and “Why am I here”? From here we can extrapolate and get more critical questions to contemplate such as: “Am I a victim of life and circumstance, is my worth conditional, what is love, and is happiness worth creating”?
In my honest opinion, I don’t’ think we came here to be unconscious of fear or to ignore these big picture questions! Not the older soul, anyway. It is more likely that we exist to grapple deeply with these questions, to let them be pathways of wakefulness, pathways that carry us toward experiencing the radiant truth, love, and beauty of our lives.
As the Toltec Wisdom teaches (The Four Agreements & The Fifth Agreement by Don Jose and Don Miguel Ruiz), we are messengers from the Source of Creation, and we came here into physical reality with a blessing, with a message. It may take us a while to understand what that message is and how best to express it so that others can receive it, but our entire life is about unfolding the beautiful expression of this message. The Toltec Wisdom says that ultimately, each of us is the message. We are the message, we carry the message, and our lifetimes are the ultimate expression of our message. In this context, another concept for “our message” is our teaching.
What a beautiful way to frame our existence! Everything that happens to us and, more importantly, what we do with what happens to us, becomes a part of the learning process that clarifies and refines our blessing, our message, our teaching. This whole process is our gift to the world. When we breathe our last breath, we can be at peace knowing that we leave our blessing, our message, our teaching behind to continue blessing the world, spreading out and propagating through hearts and minds, like ripples from a stone thrown into a great, eternal and infinite body of water.
Engaging these big picture questions matter because you matter, we matter, our voices matter, our presence matters, our choices matter.
As Woman Stands Shining (Pat McCabe) simply put it: “Your joy matters!” (it’s at approximately 41minutes into the video, but I do recommend the whole video!)
Also, Martha Graham expressed the heart of these ideas beautifully:
“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.”
But as we all know, we face tremendous fear and programming that can keep us from ever waking up to our beautiful selves, our beautiful blessing, our beautiful message. And what a loss, what a heartbreak for our world!
Do not despair because Life has her way of nudging us out of fear and apathy. Help is always on the way! This “help” is symbolized by the current “big picture” of the astrological sky. It might not always feel pleasant! But it is here, nonetheless.
So, what is this help? How is it showing up? First and foremost, this help might be showing up as life “squeezing you,” making you quite uncomfortable. Pain, in essence! Fear, too. Stress, yep. The mind spinning in reaction and resistance to unexpected and unwanted events, check! Or, you may just as easily be feeling excitement and overwhelm at the fortunate flow of inspiring events. All of this may be on the menu at this powerful eclipse portal.
Life’s support is asking us to grow, to become bigger, fuller expressions of who we are in essence. It’s asking us to remember who we are and act accordingly! And who are we, again? Each of us has to answer this question for ourselves, but I’ll tell you who I am, and maybe in relating to who I am, you’ll get a better sense of who you are.
Before I bare my soul, one caveat, though-I don’t know who I am! Not really, anyway. I know what I know, but I don’t know what I don’t know. All I know (pun intended!) is that there is intuitive vision, an intuitive sense of who I am. It’s like a vision of who I am from my highest perspective. And something intuitive tells me that this vision of Self is in the ballpark of truth.
I am one with Life itself. I belong to Life. I belong to myself. I am Universal Truth, Love, and Beauty. I have many parts, many facets, many faces-a vast kaleidoscope of being. And though I can have fear, it cannot truly have me. Fear is not who I am. I am Truth, Love, and Beauty. I am Being and Becoming, evolution itself. I am creativity itself. Everything is a part of me, and I am a part of everything. Everything that happens is about my waking up and remembering who I am in essence, and I love it all! I love life! I am as powerful as the Sun, as subtle as a morning breeze. I am a Force of Nature. I am whole. I can go on and on!
And who are you, beautiful human, and what is the message you bring?
At this time, all of us are being called forward by that still small voice, that passion beating in the depths of our hearts. Our deep sense of purpose and destiny is being activated. A path has been presented to us, whether it is clear or full of brambles. Life is inviting us to walk that path. Life is not asking us to be unafraid. It’s asking us to embrace the fear, remember who we are in essence, and summon the courage to explore the path that has opened up for us. Maybe it’s asking us to create new paths!
To walk this Earth-path requires courage in the face of fear. It also requires that we bring our whole self to the journey, the light and the shadow. Our whole life experience is the magic and medicine we will need to walk this path beneath our feet.
For some of us, courage will be needed to explore deeper healing, intimacy and trust in relationships.
For others, it will be career brambles that provoke fear and the need for courage to move forward.
For some, it might be spirituality that frightens, turning within that triggers the fear. It might be hard to sit with ourselves for twenty minutes a day, to truly accept who we are from moment-to-moment. This will be where courage is needed.
Like with myself, it might be in the area of creativity where Life is asking you to courageously move through your fears and blocks, to open the channel so that your higher self can pour through unimpeded. The courage to share that creativity is paramount.
It could be stillness that takes courage. It could be taking action. No matter what the context, it’s time to trust our hearts’ calling and summon the courage to take those next steps. As we step into the path of Great Mystery, we can revel in the dispensation of its divine gifts flowing through us and into the world.
The Vision Quest Tarot card I pulled that reflects this eclipse moment is The Medicine Man (I), traditionally called The Magician:
The message reflected through this symbol is one of awareness, simplicity, and being in harmony with natural forces. Great Spirit is reminding us that when we are aware of who we truly are as a part of this vast and wondrous Great Mystery, our creativity is unmatched. Our ability to overcome obstacles and transform shadow into light is unparalleled. At this time, slow down, pause, stop, and experience the wonder of your existence. Feel your rightful place at home in the Cosmos. Feel your power, your truth, love, and beauty, and know that there is nothing you cannot create and experience. We carry healing medicine with us wherever we go. This medicine heals our bumps and bruises as we joyfully walk our path through Great Mystery. So, play, create, soar, and celebrate along with the rest of Creation. You are here, now.
There is much beauty, wonder, and guidance to be experienced at this time, as we allow fear to become excitement for our ongoing evolutionary journey.
I feel so grateful to be alive with all of you at this time.
I feel so grateful to be alive to share and receive all of Great Mystery’s blessings, to play my small part in the awakening of humanity and the evolution of truth, love, and beauty on our planet.
One more quote before I share the eclipse aspects that speak to me:
“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
~Anais Nin
Happy, wondrous Eclipse, everyone! Wishing you much awakening, clarity, courage, creativity, and love.
April 2024, Aries Solar Eclipse Astrological Reflections
(for a brief introduction to Astrology on my site, click here)
*Sun conjunct Moon in Aries (Solar Eclipse at the North Node of the Moon) ~ Inspiring endings/beginnings, invitation to courage and action, putting fear into proper perspective, destiny calls, the adventure of life beckons, evolution
*Eclipse conjunct Chiron and Mercury in Aries ~ Perception of wounds/pain along with the truth of healing and compassionate sharing of our healing medicine, the courage to heal, the courage to share our voice, the courage to share our medicine
Jupiter conjunct Uranus in Taurus ~ Awakenings, breakthroughs, expansion, growth, opportunity to recognize and trust the expression of our true and unique selves, going at our own pace, grounded evolution, cultivating simplicity of being
Mars conjunct Saturn in Pisces ~ Mature spirituality, committed spiritual practice, slowing down, aiming for concrete results in the realm of transcendence of the little self, direct contact with Great Mystery, channeling sensitivity and vulnerability into creativity, invitation to healthy escapism/escaping into mature spirituality and creativity