The Eclipse Triad

The Eclipse Triad

“It is time, I am here. She may come in a whisper so loud she can deafen you or a shout so quiet you strain to hear. She may appear in the waves or the face of the moon.” Lucy H. Pearce, Burning Woman

It has been exactly a year since the ritual of honoring an eclipse brought forth such monumental awareness.

Summer of 2020 marked an unusual occurrence in the heavens.  A series of lunar eclipses spaced about a month apart.  While we will not see the eclipses in our part of the world, they nevertheless bring forth a unique energy, and those in the know about these things believe them very powerful.  It is thought that the power of meditation, as well as perhaps the power of setting intentions, is enhanced during the time of an eclipse. With the conceptualization that their impact can still be felt and acknowledged, without the viewpoint of the visible, I will honor each of the three by engagement in the same way; ritually letting go and setting intention for manifestation. The first at the ocean, the second at a river in the mountains, and the third again at the ocean. They will each give back in newfound awareness, but it is the first that is the most powerful. This an honoring of the natural world, and its connection with our lives.  It provides an avenue for enlightenment, the gift of allowing it to flow into my spirit, and with it a deepened understanding of the importance of ritual, ceremony, its expression, and how it supports us as we make our way through the journey of life itself.

My sister’s friend, a woman trained in the shamanic tradition of The Four Winds explains the significance of the lunar events and encourages us to do ceremony around them.  The first eclipse will occur this weekend, so she prepares us. Step one is journaling. Giving ourselves spacious time, we are to recognize the eclipse as a transitional opportunity and articulate what we want to let go of and what we want to become, welcome into our lives, or live forward into.  Our writing will contain a list of what it is we want to release and what it is we want to call into manifestation.  As we plan to go to the ocean to do ceremony, she tells us to find something to physically release into the waters and let it carry our message into the vastness of the ocean, something organic that will not harm the sea itself. We will also burn our writings on the beach, and send the smoke to the heavens and the ashes to the water.

Ceremony around celestial events has not, in the past, been something I paid significant attention to as I have not been one to intentionally engage in ritual on a regular basis.  But, as I am a period of significant personal contemplation, I gravitate to this concept and commit to doing ceremony with each of the summer eclipses. There is so much of the unusual appearing in my life these days, that this intuitively seems balancing in some way.

This first eclipse is on a full moon and the sky is clear, the night warm.  I put on a bathing suit and sarong to head to the beach.  Out of my jewelry box I take a chain, and a shell with a hole in its center, the shell picked up on one of my many walks the previous summer.  I lace the chain through the shell and put it around my neck.  It seems important to me to wear this piece of the ocean, although I am not sure why.  I head out into the back yard and make my way to the ancient live oak tree on the edge of my property.  I place my hands on the rough surface and interface with the energy of this magnificent tree and the earth.  The Taurus in me, connected with the earth, revels in this sensation, and in gratitude, I pick a small piece of bark off the tree; this will be my organic offering to the sea. 

Once ready, with our papers in hand, we head to the beach.  It is dusk and the moon is beginning to rise over the ocean.  My sister and her friend climb to the top of the life guard stand to enjoy the moonrise.  I find myself walking down the beach, mesmerized by the beauty of the full moon rising as it grows large on the horizon.  As it reaches up into the sky, its ray of light makes a beautiful path over the waves and toward the sands of the beach, bright golden light against the dark blue of the water, illuminating the waves as they curl shoreward.

We, each in our own time, burn our papers with reverence for the articulation of what we desire to release from our lives, and what we want to invite into our lives.  For myself, I have set the intention to let go of pain and suffering of the past, and also to release anything that no longer serves me.  I welcome into manifestation peace, joy, love and heart-centered right relationships. The ashes burned on the beach are given to the wind and the water. There remains the organic token, symbolically carrying the energy of what we have burned, to be given to the sea.

We are all on the beach, but separated from one another at this point, each woman contemplating her own experience. As I walk down the beach apart from the others, I find myself drawn to the water’s edge.  The sound of the waves hitting the shore and the ray of moonlight beckon.  I drop my sarong on the beach and find myself walking the center of the pathway created by the moon beam into the water.  It is icy cold, but embracing.  The piece of bark firmly held in my right hand, the shell on its chain hanging at my heart center.  I touch the shell at my heart center with my left hand and feel energy pulsing. My energy, the energy of the ocean and the energy of the moon, seemingly merging one with another.  I stay in the path of the moon ray as I wade chest deep into the ocean.  It takes some effort, but I stay steady and strong, standing in the waves and in the glorious power of the moment.  It is a euphoric sensation, being exactly where I am meant to be in this particular moment in time.  A goddess energy, that of the divine feminine, swirls around me and I feel one with it, capable, even formidable, and empowered. The moment holds me captive and I remain there in the water for quite some time, mesmerized by the magnitude of the experience. When it feels right, I remind myself of the words burned on the beach and then remember the piece of bark held tightly in my hand. As I gaze at the moonlight, and the beam of radiance hitting the water, surrounding me and enfolding me in the fullness of its glorious light, I open my hand and let go of the bark.  Offered to the splendor and power of nature, it is instantly swept away by the sea.  I gaze again at the bounty of the full moon, and give thanks in gratitude for this time and the sense of oneness it has provided. This has been a magical experience and something feels shifted, movement forward, and for these few amazing moments I embody what it must feel like to be a goddess. Powerfully feminine, embracing the ancient fullness and wisdom of what it means to be a woman gifted with magic.