Eclipse Ritual Preparation & 🌷 Spring Cleansing
The Eclipse of the Sunflower by Paul Nash
I hope you spent your Spring Equinox reveling in the sun’s final victory over the darkness.
From this point up until the Summer Solstice the light continues to grow…
…along with our powers to exert our will in the material world.
In the old lore of the Greeks, the ancestors of the Western lineage of medicine and philosophy, it is at the spring equinox when the goddess of flowers, Persephone, emerges from the halls of Hades and returns to her beloved mother, the goddess of all growing things, Demeter.
…and with her the good green growing world and the realm of flowers can once again flourish.
Now that the length of days outlasts the length of nights, bring warmth and light to entice these new growing things, the sun has finally won in the battle with the darkness. From here on in the light will continue to dominate the darkness (until the fall equinox, of course).
The sun is exalted in Aries—the masculine sign of Mars, the god of war. Generally, this is a very positive period of quick, rapid growth, enthusiasm for self-development and spiritual transformation, and quick-acting transformation in our lives.
However, this particular Aries season promises more complications than our usual passage through the sign of the Ram.
The normal impetuosity, impulsiveness, and enthusiastic way that we grab life as it bursts forth from the earth is going to be dimmed…
…and come with a deep, primal warning that what we claim in this season may be taken away from us rather swiftly…
…particularly in the area of life that Aries claims in your chart by whole sign houses.
Eclipses may garner excitement and be a cause for celebration in the modern world, but in ancient cultures around the world, as well as modern-day India, eclipses forbade malady and disaster and carry the very strongest malefic influences.
Aries season is universally a cause for celebration in the northern hemisphere. The coming of spring promises a new chance to build our fortunes, nourish ourselves, and begin to take action on all of the insights we gained and dreams we dreamt during the long winter…
…it’s also the time that we reap the rewards of the sacrifices and difficult decisions that we made during Libra season for our families and community to survive the season of darkness.
The coming eclipses tells us that these sacrifices we made may not be enough to appease the stars and the denizens of the invisible realms from whence the spring and our whole material world emerges.
The eclipses tell us that there is more to let go of…
,,,and the wisest of us will begin to make these sacrifices willingly before the solar eclipse occurs on April 8th.
For example, the eclipse will be happening in my seventh house of partnership and one-on-one relationships. In preparation, my husband and I let go of the home that we had together for the past 6 years, and gave away to our community a good portion of the abundance that we accumulated there together as an offering to the gods on behalf of our relationship.
We know that there will still be some trials around the eclipse, and truly, we are feeling them as everyone around the globe is now; however, but we are hoping to be granted a little more ease due to our preparatory remediations.
So what are some preparations that you can make?
Pull up your chart in whole sign houses and look at what house is hosted by Aries.
If Aries falls on your 5th house cusp, you might give away some things that you craft or consider cutting back on parties and/or the number of hobbies that you have.
If Aries falls on your 3rd house, you might spend less time writing on social media or take fewer trips to the local coffee shop.
If Aries falls on your 11th house cusp, you might spend less time daydreaming or planning for the future. You might also spend a little less time going out with your friends, taking some time in isolation instead.
In fact, spending more time alone and in stillness is a great general theme for this eclipse, and in some ways, all eclipses.
Time spent alone with oneself, isolated (traditionally indoors), meditating, and in reflection is the best remediation and way to get through eclipses full of the wisdom that release and surrender always grants when accepted with awareness and gratitude.
Another excellent remedy for Aries season is an herb whose praises I sang in last week’s email: the wondrous’ ally Stinging Nettle.
Stinging Nettle’s Mars rulership and power to cleanse the body while also nourishing your cells makes her a prime ally for those looking to do a spring cleanse in the Wise Woman way.
Working with Stinging Nettle intentionally, with ritual, and while deeply listening the subtle whispers that she sends through the Dreamtime will grant you a magical coat of armor to the malefic influences of this eclipse.
This coat of armor; however, is not a bulky hammered sheet of metal that weighs you down, but instead a living, intelligent vessel that can give you the energy, will, and courage to make the changes that need to be made in your life into to align you with the path that your soul laid out for you before you incarnated in this Gaian vessel of starlight and soil.
Starting on this coming lunar eclipse we will be a ritualistic diet with Stinging Nettle in The School of Heaven and Earth. Around the same time, we will kick off monthly Dreamwork Circle meeting in SHE’s subgroup for magical literary studies and wordcraft: Sibyl’s Cave.
Membership in Sibyl’s Cave comes with membership to SHE.
If you are interested in deepening your relationship with magical and medicinal uses of herbs, traditional astrological wisdom, and the power of the Word and the Dreaming, there is no more powerful place on the internet to study!