On this day of the "Great American Eclipse"—a total Solar Eclipse that spans an area across the entire continental United States (the first since the country's birth in 1776 when a total Solar Eclipse was visible only in the continental U.S., according to astrologer Steffan Vanel)—is a great time to consider "appearances."
In a blink of a moment, the small Moon only "appears" the same size as the huge Sun, obscuring its light. Or as Steffan explains: the more unconscious Lunar energy—"instinctual programs of childhood—extinguishing the conscious Solar light of the Soul's essence." (However, it's only for a moment; so keep watch over your own heart!)
Where else in our lives are "appearances" having a great consequence? What's really "real" anyway? Stay awake, aware, conscious; fill yourself with your own light for those hazy, dark moments...and breathe your attention within, even as you gaze heavenward!
Sound shaman and clairvoyant Norma Gentile shares this about staying "true" to your best self:
The August 21st eclipse that passes over the U.S. is about breaking the societal enthrallment with what is now centered around
politics. It is about breaking the entrainment that is drawing people away from
seeing what else is happening in their lives. This eclipse opens our heart
space and our own body of integrity, to whatever is true for each person to
express into their lives and hence into our shared world.
And there's this celestial delight! Maria Popova's "sun and moon" post on her always-inspiring "BrainPickings" website is a lovely reminder about "ancient allegorical reflections on the universal themes of
life, love, time, harmony, and our eternal search for a completeness of being."
Gazing heavenward in cosmic wonder is always a fun way to expand our imaginations, connect with our essential self, and bring a sense of harmony to our lives! Maria features the charming book, Sun and Moon: Folk Tales by Various Artists, that will do just that:
“The dark body of the Moon gradually steals its
silent way across the brilliant Sun,” Mabel Loomis Todd wrote in her poetic
nineteenth-century masterpiece on the surreal splendor of a total solar
eclipse. Nearly a century earlier, in his taxonomy of the three layers of
reality, John Keats listed among “things real” the “existences of Sun Moon
& Stars and passages of Shakespeare.” Indeed, the motions of the heavenly
bodies precipitated the Scientific Revolution that strengthened humanity’s
grasp of reality by dethroning us from the center of the universe. But,
paradoxically, the Sun and the Moon belong equally with the world of
Shakespeare, with humanity’s most enduring storytelling — they are central to
our earliest sky myths in nearly every folkloric tradition, radiating timeless
stories and parables that give shape to the human experience through
imaginative allegory.
