the full moon eclipse in pisces is HERE (and the collective reality checks are in the mail)

astrology for the week of 9/16/24 - 9/22/24

“so it comes to pass that, when we pursue an inquiry beyond a certain depth, we step out of the field of psychological categories and enter the sphere of the ultimate mysteries of life. the floorboards of the soul, to which we try to penetrate, fan open and reveal the starry firmament.”

—Bruno Schulz

the stars above us:

artist: Tin Can Forest

someone may accuse me of being dramatic, hyperbolic even, in the telling of this week’s astrology but the week begins with a FULLY LORE LOADED eclipse and ends with an equinox (!!). neptune’s tides are changing, saturn’s seasons are shifting and together they are getting ready to deliver a new 38 yr long chapter in the evolution of human consciousness (yes, really). how could we possibly play small under skies so vast?

but first, the admin:

the week begins with the moon in pisces and although the actual full moon isn’t until tuesday night, the high strangeness that surrounds every eclipse will be felt immediately.

on wednesday the moon moves into aries for eclipse part deux, as the moon crosses the north node. we are not done with our aries/libra eclipses, not yet and tuesday issues reminders that the cardinal quest is ongoing EVEN as we see the first flurries of pisces/virgo nodal fortunes on the horizon.

on thursday the aries moon applies to the separating venus/chiron opposition offering illumination (and balm if needed) to any recent heart wounds. an aries moon is an impulsive moon but sometimes that’s what the situation calls for. your heart already knows, so let it say whatever needs to be said.

on friday the moon moves into taurus for some badly needed chill and then saturday the pace picks up once more with the moon conjoining uranus to shoot an electric trine to the virgo sun as it crosses into libra to begin its descent into the underworld (aka persephone season)

on sunday the moon crosses into gemini still in trine with the newly ingressed libra sun and the autumn equinox is upon us. (PHEW)

so now that we have the timeline established let’s get to the story at the center of it all…

saturn, neptune + consciousness unbound:

artist: Tin Can Forest

“saturn is associated with the principle of limit and finitude, the literal material and temporal world of concrete empirical reality; with realism, hard fact, mortality, the dark and problematic aspects of existence; with the impulse towards gravity, judgment, and discipline; with contraction, constriction, and endings; and with the establishing of strict boundaries, defined structures, and tense polarities. 

associated with neptune are the spiritual, ideal, and imaginative dimensions of life; the subtle, the intangible, and the invisible; the impulse to dissolve boundaries and structures in favor of underlying unities and undifferentiated wholes; and tendencies towards illusion, delusion, and escapism.”  

-Richard Tarnas, “The Ideal and the Real, Saturn & Neptune”

do you live in a magical, mystical universe or a mechanistic one? are the skies that smile upon you full of mysteries and wonder or easily mapped out and explained away with a strong telescope and enough astronomical knowledge? is there such a thing as “spiritual” science? how much of the Unseen world is really real and how can we prove it & harness it for human gain? if we can, should we?

welcome to the saturn/neptune cycle, a 35-38 yr long struggle between the collective finite, structured & inescapable reality of saturn and the imaginal, subtle, unrealized + ideal potential that can be felt (but not quite grasped), just beyond our conscious awareness aka Neptune’s realms.

it’s not an easy archetypal complex to sum up but one key takeaway is this- when confronted with saturninan strife and horrors (societal collapse, famine, war, plagues, ideological upheaval) both the collective & the individual tend to reach for neptunian remedies to cope + adjust. spirituality, intoxicants, maladaptive daydreaming, sorcery, store bought transcendence, dissociation in all its forms; these are some of the illusory comforts humanity reaches for when Everything Has Gone Horribly Wrong.

what’s more, neptunian subjects are deeply compensatory. we seek them to provide us agency or protection when we feel powerless in real life. rarely do people dedicate their lives to mastering occult sciences or spending decades in meditation because they are well adjusted, high functioning individuals. abuse, trauma, bullying, social exile, unstable childhoods + caregivers - these are more common catalysts in the quest for transformative power/protection from The Great Beyond. (i am very much in this category, so truly, no judgement). it’s a vulnerable crowd that fills these woo spaces, more open than most to neptune’s shadow; deception.

and now after 13 years of neptune in pisces (a sign that parallels many neptunian archetypes) the metaphysical marketplace is BOOMING.  youtube is filled with channels devoted to consciousness expansion, occultism, mystery traditions, the paranormal + the paranoid.  you can buy magic on amazon (some of it very real but good luck telling which w/o some serious magical study).  

demonolatry + deity worship are no longer (completely) taboo subjects and you can hire anyone from a shaman to an exorcist thru instagram.  but is the collective more spiritually fit, trusting, loving and sane to show for it? maybe not.

so we find ourselves in a loaded + miraculous moment; the otherworlds have never been more normalized, arcane mystery traditions have never been more available to the masses, and the collective consciousness has NEVER been more bloated with magical bullshit.  

something has to give and everyone (magical or otherwise) knows it.  

future lore:

artist: Tin Can Forest

“we see that the distinction between mystic and non-mystic is not merely that between the rationalist and the dreamer, between intellect and intuition. The question which divides them is really this: what, out of the mass of material offered to it, shall consciousness seize upon—with what aspects of the universe shall it "unite"?”

-Evelyn Underhill, “Practical Mystic”

lucky for us the stars are on the side of the truth seekers. the upcoming saturn/neptune cycle begins in “no bullshit” aries (2025) and at the same time, the nodes cross into pisces + virgo for an eclipse cycle that is known for bringing virgo pragmatism and intellectual rigour into historically (piscean) woo spaces.  

one of my favorite examples of this is Evelyn Underhill’s book “Practical Mysticism”. Evelyn wrote this guide to spiritual communion on the eve of World War I, with the entire nation on edge and turning to corrupt spiritualists to assuage their fears.  her hope was to show them two things; union with the Divine Reality can indeed pull you thru the man made horrors and anyone can be a mystic, anyone at all. 

with proper instruction (admittedly hard to find these days) and a commitment to self mastery (a very loud theme of saturn/neptune in aries) there’s no need for corrupt middlemen, witches, wizards, oracles, energy healers or anything else.  you are just as capable of connecting to the Source as they are. it’s a birthright & no one can take it from you as long you are prepared to pay saturn his toll (disciplined practice, immeasurable amounts of patience, and the ability to deny comforting fantasies in favor of the far more humble truth).

tuesday’s eclipse is the beginning of this process of collective demystification and we can all look forward to the veils of illusion being stripped away one by one (for better or for worse). welcome to the revolution of The Real! let’s get this childlike wonder and awe.

see you on the other side everyone,

emilie