This weekend we welcome the rare and powerful Blood Full Moon Total Lunar Eclipse.
The phenomenon occurs when the sun, Earth and the moon align perfectly with one another in a straight line. As the moon passes through the darkest part of the Earth’s shadow – known as the umbra – it causes the moon to turn a deep, dark red colour, giving the Blood Moon its name.
The red colour is due to how the sun’s lightrays refract, scattering blue light and allowing red lightrays to reach the moon. The red moon phenomenon only happens when there is a total lunar eclipse of the full moon. That is, when the Earth’s shadow covers the moon completely. The moon on Sunday is expected to turn a deep dark red as the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon, casting its shadow across the lunar surface. You may want to check out opportunities for you to see the eclipse in your location.
In Ancient times, our ancestors saw Blood Moon eclipses as omens. Signs that massive shifts and endings are coming. It was a cosmic event that made those in power tremble.
As the Earth’s shadow is projected on the screen of the moon in the night sky, removing our main source of natural light & enveloping us in darkness, it follows that lunar eclipses are optimum times for inner shadow work. That is, to courageously lean into our relationship to that which we have not wanted to face because it has felt too painful. Oftentimes the hard dark truths of our own behaviours, personal lives and those of our human collective.
Simultaneously, this lunar eclipse falls in the mystical and dreamy sign of Pisces. Generally (speaking here from experience as Pisces is my sign!), Pisces energy encourages us to dream and imagine. To swim towards longings, higher purpose, and visions of how things could be different, better, more whole.
Pisces invites us to dream a dream of aliveness, for ourselves and for humanity.
But here’s the thing.
Beautiful dreams cannot come to fruition unless the foundations upon which they are built are solid, healthy, strong. New thriving beginnings can’t grow from a rotten root system.
Which brings us back to the Earth’s shadow projected onto the moon on Sunday night.
Symbolically, we may want to make the link between the Earth’s shadow and our planet’s loud call for us as a species to look at our own shadow: the extractive, controlling relating patterns of humanity that are funnelling us towards ever greater depths of degeneration.
As much as we as agents for change want to believe that we are doing everything we can to create a better world for all of us, chances are that we leave ourselves out of the equation. It is far more comfortable looking at the shadows of others than it is to intentionally seek to reveal them in ourselves.
Most changemakers I’ve ever met (including myself) have some form of wounding from our past that affects the way we contribute to changemaking. Not always what we choose to do, but how.
This is part and parcel of being messy humans, but it can be hard to admit, when all we want is to do good.
Dreaming big for humanity’s possible regenerative futures require us to accept that we all carry shadows deep within. All of us need to tend to our inner soil.
When we don’t face our inner shadows we keep running from ourselves, peddling to get away from, distract ourselves from feeling pain, shame, grief and fear.
Peddling can take the shape of trying to control a situation or persons by pushing them change, attempting to fix or rescue them. Peddling can also look like manipulating for our own benefit.
Or always being busy.
Or doing what we believe others want in order to approve of us.
Peddling can look like denying, bypassing or downplaying what we don’t want to face so it won’t hurt so much.
Peddling takes many forms and we all have out own go-to flavours. It uses a lot of vital energy, attention and unconscious focus that could be used for far more wonderful things.
It keeps us preoccupied and entangled with, instead of released from, what’s not working.
And it is high time we release what is not working.
For each of us, and all of us.
Courageous reflections I’m inviting us all to sit with this Blood Full Moon Total Lunar Eclipse
🩸 What uncomfortable hard truths (situations, relating patterns and realities) in my life have I so far swept under the carpet and been unwilling to face because of pain, shame, grief and fear?
🩸 If it seems too foggy to name, start by getting curious about the areas of your life where something feels out of balance , ‘off’ or not ‘right’.
🩸 In what ways is me peddling to get away from these hard truths holding me back in my life and as an agent for change?
🩸What am I willing to courageously face, release and take action on in the name of new beginnings and towards a dream of aliveness?
🩸What do I imagine will be possible for me as an agent for change as I face these hard truths?
Shadow work is the process of making the unconscious conscious, and becoming aware of hidden and repressed aspects of ourselves – exploring them, forgiving them and accepting them. It is not for the faint of heart.
Make sure you stay gentle with yourself as you explore these inquiries. Reach out to a trusted friend, qualified coach or therapist if you feel you want a safe space to process. You are welcome to reach out to me too, here.
If you feel especially curious about your relationship to the kinds of behaviours you engage in to ‘peddle’, then the Free Wish Tree’s Self-guided Immersion Making friends with doing is for you.
When you sign up, you receive 7 audio recorded pause point reflections for you to listen to in your own time. The audio recordings support you to reflect on the places within you you take action from and how things could be different.
You move at your own pace. No deadlines, zoom calls or anything to show up for, other than yourself.
