Astrology by Lauren

May 24th ~ 31st

I must admit this Full Moon (Friday/Saturday) is something of a poor excuse for a Lunar Eclipse.  Barely making the 17° range to the Nodes of the Moon, this one only almost qualifies.  But it does bring back shades of our former eclipses from the previous few years when North Node was still in Sagittarius.  And being perigee (the closest point in its orbit to the earth), it makes this Full Moon all that much more grand, and thus rounds up this Eclipse season in a large way.  As if Sagittarius isn’t grand enough on its own.  Sagittarius is, indeed, the sign of largesse.  

With Sagittarius ruler, Jupiter, in the air sign Gemini, one might expect large blustery winds.  But not necessarily winds quite so dangerous as we have seen this past week in Oklahoma.  This event, along with other recent events, reminds us once again of the ubiquitous background noise of the Uranus/Pluto square which can unexpectedly cut these swaths of upheaval through our mundane lives, given a window of opportunity.  And this eclipse season may have just opened this window.  These perigee Full Moons (there are two more to come this Summer), at the very least, have been associated with extra high tides known as the Perigean tides, which can exacerbate storms and tidal floods.  From an astrological view, this is considered even more likely thanks to Neptune, the lord of the Oceans, waters, and all things wet, aspecting this Lunar Eclipse on Friday/Saturday.

The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing... not healing, not curing... that is a friend who cares. ~ Henri Nouwen

Because this Full Moon Eclipse is in Sagittarius, what we may be needing to leave behind are our expectations, or an outgrown point of view.  Full Moons are often a point of disclosure, or even revelation.   We receive news, new information, that inspires us to embark on a new adventure, a new journey of discovery, and Sagittarius unveils a whole world of information, just waiting to be explored.  However, with the Gemini/Sagittarius axis coming up against Neptune in Pisces, probably the greatest relevance in our lives will be a conflict between what we are being told, what we are seeing, and what we intuitively feel to be true.  The key is to able to just sit with that for a bit.    

With Mercury, Sun, Venus, and Jupiter in Gemini, we may begin to feel our world unravel a bit, and become less focussed, as we try to make sense of the insensible.  We are receiving conflicting messages.  The transportation world also falls under the aegis of Gemini season from roads to cars to railroads.  With the square to Neptune it’s like a GPS system that fails to work: we get lost, take wrong turns, get lost in time and space, lose our way in the land of daydreams and chaos.  Language and communications fall under Gemini. What we believe to be true, falls under Sagittarius.  Neptune in Pisces is about silence and inner realizations.  So be prepared for the meaning of messages to get lost in translation.  And sometimes we simply need to tolerate not knowing for a bit, until all is revealed.

While we are being inundated with conflicting information, it’s up to us to translate and sift out the misinformation from the truth.  To be able to discriminate between what we want to be true, and the reality.  And to tell the difference between the dialogues that we have always told ourselves and assumed to be true, and what is actually so.  This can symbolize a shift in awareness.  It can bring a realization that things are not necessarily what you had thought they were.  As a result, be open to alternatives, to new possibilities, and be willing to change your mind if need be.  

Neptune is about sacrificing the ego, the will, for something higher, for that which benefits everyone and everything.  It can bring us to our knees with loss, disillusionment, feelings of helplessness, surrender, deception, illness, confusion, intoxication and even a sense of chaos.  It can also raise us up, especially when we are willing to let go of our ego and assumptions,  and we begin to realize that which is truly most meaningful and important to us.  The good news is that Jupiter, the ruler of the Sagittarius Eclipse, and Mercury, the ruler of Gemini, are not only traveling together this week, but traveling with Venus, the planet of love, desire and happiness. This is a signature of good news, comradery, conviviality, and well wishes.  

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. ~ Leo Buscaglia

My niece recently shared an article from the New York Times, published in March, entitled “Your Phone vs. Your Heart”  in which the author, Barbara Fredrickson, writes about the importance of our connections with others.  This is so relevant to this Lunar Eclipse.  With more and more reliance on digital connections, there is some concern that we are not spending enough face to face time with others, and when we do, the question remains whether or not we are truly connecting.  After an experimental six-week workshop on “metta” or loving kindness, conducted by the author, in which the participants learned about developing more warmth and tenderness towards themselves and others, it was discovered that they felt both happier and more socially connected.  Ms. Fredrickson points out that not only emotionally, but physiologically, via the vagal nerve which connects the brain (Mercury in Gemini=thoughts and communications) with the heart (Venus), the more attuned to others you become, the healthier you also become, and vice versa.  So let us open both our hearts and our minds this week, in the light of the Full Moon in Sagittarius.

When you share a smile or laugh with someone face to face, a discernible synchrony emerges between you, as your gestures and biochemistries, even your respective neural firings, come to mirror each other. It’s micro-moments like these, in which a wave of good feeling rolls through two brains and bodies at once, that build your capacity to empathize as well as to improve your health.  If you don’t regularly exercise this capacity, it withers.  Lucky for us, connecting with others does good and feels good, and opportunities to do so abound. ~ Barbara L. Fredrickson

Image credit of the 6 phases of a lunar eclipse goes to Wrangel at 123rf.com photos 

Barbara L. Fredrickson is a professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the author of “Love 2.0: How Our Supreme Emotion Affects Everything We Feel, Think, Do, and Become.”

For the week of May 24th thru the 31st, be sure to read your Rising Sign as well:

Aries

Always seek the truth, even if it is not what you had assumed.  If you truly stick by your principles and what you believe, then try putting these to the test.  Put them into practice in your daily life.  Every part of it.  Not just bits and pieces you are comfortable with.  If something is truly valid, it will stand up to even the most formidable applications in your everyday life.  If you are feeling conflicted between what you are thinking and what your heart is telling you, just allow yourself to sit with that.  The truth will reveal itself eventually.

Taurus

Taurus is all kinds of lucky this week.  Not only can you be privy to some really good news, but a transaction that you’ve been wanting to fulfill, shows some promise this week, as your ruler in business-minded Gemini meets both Mercury and Jupiter.  You may be tempted to spend on special treats that will make your life more pleasant.  Those wonderfully and serendipitous frivolous purchases may be too difficult to resist.  This is fine, provided you focus on quality, as opposed to quantity.

Gemini

Sometimes when Neptune squares critical inner planets, as it has been, and continues through the weekend, it can feel like you are drowning in tears.  Perhaps without an outlet to express it.  This is the lost voice, the lost message, the silent sigh.  But as your ruler, strong in your own sign of Gemini, dances with playful Venus and Jupiter for the duration of the week, allow some laughter, joy and spontaneity to return, as you find your voice again.  It’s like you’ve been saving up all these things that you’ve been wanting to say, and now you can finally say it, and then some.

Cancer

This Full Moon Eclipse is unveiling your inner hidden thoughts, memories and dreams, that come cascading out like a tableau.  One thing that might be revealed to you this weekend is the critical mind/body relationship that is so essential to your well-being, and how easily self-protective Cancer can be inclined to isolate themselves within their own thoughts and imaginations.  Re-read the quote by Barbara Fredrickson about sharing smiles, sharing laughter and the wonderful effects on your emotional and physical well-being they bring.  There is no finer balm than the shared laughter of Cancers.  It makes everyone smile.

Leo

This could be something of a Lost Weekend a la Ray Milland, or it could also be an opportunity to hear music, wander in a museum, or lend a compassionate ear, a kind word or give an honest compliment.  To make the most of this time, be willing to surrender your ego for just a few days, and allow yourself to simply sit with your own feelings, and listen.  Stillness beckons. As the week ensues, be more open to possibility.  Try doing things a little differently than you normally would.  Go off on a spontaneous lark, and take a few chances.  There is a whole world out there just waiting to be discovered.

Virgo

This Lunar Eclipse Full Moon can make one feel as if their life is slowly unraveling, and poor Virgo, who likes everything to be in its place, will be at her wits end trying to organize the chaos.  Do allow that there are times when some things are just beyond your control.  One of your better attributes is your ability to go with the flow and adjust to changing plans, circumstances and conditions as needed.  After the weekend, this is a brilliant time for discussing any business plans, making deals, or plans for the future, as your ruler, Mercury is now strong, and able to see the whole picture.  

Libra

Libra should be feeling happy and hopeful in the wake of this Lunar Eclipse.  Remember that positive energy is infectious, so share it with others!  We’ll all be eternally grateful.  Your words have the remarkable capacity to lift others’ spirits, and the reciprocal feeling you get, will be in kind.  This is not a week to hide away in your rooms, eating bon bons as you recline on a damask lounge chair, though this would be lovely as well.  This is a week to go out into the world and socialize, be festive and jubilant, and find an excuse, any excuse to celebrate with loving kindness and good will.  

Scorpio

Joy comes through sharing, simply sharing.  This Lunar Eclipse can disclose something, not only about your own self-worth, but your inter-relationships with others as well, and how much they value you.  We all have needs that have to be fulfilled, and rarely can these needs be fulfilled without other people.  Commerce depends on reciprocity, but so does our own happiness and self-esteem.  Connecting with others “does good and feels good”.  So go out and make those connections.

Sagittarius

Look at things with a positive outlook this week.  This Lunar Eclipse comes with a bevy of mixed blessings: good news mixed with the feeling that there must be a catch somewhere... Take the good news, and leave the unknowables behind!  All will be revealed in due time.  In the mean time, if there is nothing to be done about it, just allow yourself to celebrate the good fortune that is yours, and share it with others.  Your ruler is just waiting for you to reach out, and make those connections.  So smile, laugh and share those moments.  And allow your heart to grow.    

Capricorn

Pay attention to your dreams, to your reveries.  Watch where your mind is taking you in the light of this Full Moon Eclipse.  It is revealing something to you that may be relevant to you in your everyday life.  Something that needs to be paid attention to, but you may have been ignoring.  Capricorn tends to be very pragmatic.  But in this case this is a time to pay a little attention to your feelings and your intuition as well.  If something doesn’t sit with you, or doesn’t feel quite right, maybe it deserves a little more exploration.  

Aquarius

The philosopher, mathematician and writer from the 17th century, Blaise Pascal, wrote: “Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too; this is why a great and clear mind loves ardently and sees distinctly what it loves.”  Allow yourself to see clearly the people that you love, and be willing to share what you love with them as well.  This is a week for sharing our joys with others.  

Pisces

All that chatter and commotion could be quite distracting for Pisces, who loves her silence, and her moments of serenity.  But there are times when one needs to make concessions.  Especially if it is for the greater good.  And the world does seem to be quite social these days.  And they’re not going to leave you out of the celebrities.  Rather they are going to be visiting you, bearing gifts.  Welcome these house guests warmly, for they come with good cheer and an open heart which will raise your spirits and your outlook.  Enjoy!