The next full moon on July 27, 2018 at 20h21 UTC is a total lunar eclipse which totality will last 103 minutes, making it the longest lunar eclipse of the 21st century. Furthermore, the Moon is very closely conjunct Mars and Ketu, Mercury has just turned retrograde in Gandanta position, making it quite a challenging transit for a few days before and after the eclipse. What does this mean?
Put plainly, a few days before and after this eclipse will be a time when we will have to be careful around anger, confusion, frustration. The anger we may feel may be based on misunderstanding or wrong information, or we may not be able to see the whole picture yet. We all carry some pattern from past life or from experiences very early in life. If deep inside us we are prone to feel rejected, we can misunderstand people’s words and become angry, feel sorry for ourselves, sulk or become frustrated. This period may show us this kind of pattern. As there is a lot of energy available, the positive way to use it is to act, to clean, to go on a meditative walk, to move our body in a productive way.
Astrologically speaking, Mars rules energy. Once we have too much energy, we can experience anger or aggressiveness towards oneself or others. Ketu is also a fiery, burning energy. Ketu has been transiting in Capricorn since August 2017 but Mars joined on May 2 this year and will transit together until early November. When those two fiery energies get together, for example we can see events such as Kilauea volcano eruption that started on May 3. All over the world we are seeing volcano eruption, earthquakes, heatwaves, fires, violence, accidents and terrorist incidents which are representations of this energy brought to the surface. An eruption is the explosion of the energy that accumulated over time, so we might see things we tried to hide brought into the surface. This is a very good time to try to understand what pattern we carry with us. The more challenging it is, the more rewarding it is too. Instead of saying it is somebody else’s fault, we can try to go within to see how we reacted to circumstances to understand our own patterns. Because of Mercury retrograde with Sun closely conjunct Rahu, we may have to face communication issues and confusion before reaching a better understanding, but once we become aware and we can let some of it go, we can mover towards the next step.
Yesterday, singer and actress Demi Lovato was hospitalised for drug overdose. Luckily, we hear that her conditions are stable. She was quoted saying “My dad was an addict and an alcoholic, and I guess I always searched for what he found in drugs and alcohol because it fulfilled him and he chose that over a family”. Here she talks about her father but she was raised in a difficult family environment with her mother also suffering eating disorders. She is the only one who can decide how this hospitalisation will affect her. She may say enough is enough and whatever my father saw in this has nothing to do with me, and finally let go of her pattern, or because she is still young and wealthy, she could relapse. There is some heavy karma involved, I pray for her peace of mind.
Even if the circumstances are not this challenging, we all tend to say our unhappiness is the fault of our upbringing, environment, family, workplace, friends. Many things we felt this year show us this pattern we carry with us. As Mars is in a very strong position, if we want we can use the courage to let go of that pattern. Once we are aware we can let go, and we can help other people. This eclipse season (last solar eclipse of the year is on August 11) and until November is a time when we can use our outside events to think about our own patterns. Om Shanti.