Eclipse season continues – the rapid (r)evolutionary roller-coaster is gathering speed!  Eclipses are amazing evolutionary accelerants and radical recalibrations of perspective.  This one is a total eclipse of the Sun – technically, a very precisely aligned New Moon, exact at 2:30 pm in NYC and 9:30 pm in Estonia, on Aug 21^st.  New Moons always signal new beginnings, and eclipses are especially potent in this regard, opening up possibilities that simply didn’t exist before.  But, before we get all excited about this fresh influx of cosmic goodies, we need to face a terrifying moment of darkness.  During the eclipse, the Moon literally shades out the light of the Sun, turning the world into an eerie twilight zone.

The Sun in astrology symbolizes our core identity, our very sense of self – what fuels our fire, what sustains our life.  In order to access this Solar Eclipse New Moon’s amazing new potentials, we need to face our Shadow Self.  And that, my dear, is scary… we need all the courage we can muster, and more.  This Eclipse is in Leo, the sign that invokes the valor and bravery of lion-hearted knights in shining armor…as well as the shadow side of the same coin, the tyrannical ruler, the “Mad King”.

As millions of people in the USA are marveling at the magnificent spectacle of a total solar eclipse visible in their backyard, the country as a whole is facing its deepest, darkest, most painful shadows of racism, exploitation and hate.  The seismic schisms simmering under the surface have cracked into conscious awareness… the one thing we cannot do anymore is to pretend everything’s alright.  Each one of us has a choice, a choice that requires true, humble and heartfelt courage – we can either fuel the fire further by roaring louder than “the other side” (a very Leo thing to do, and rather tempting!), or we can look at our own life, down to the most minute daily actions and see how we’ve participated, whether overtly or covertly, in creating exactly the kind of world we have.

To access the highest potential of Leo – enlightened leadership – we need an unflinchingly honest face-to-face with our own inner tyrant, our own sense of entitlement and greed.  This may come up in the simplest, most mundane encounters: someone cuts us off in traffic, someone else gets the credit for a project we pioneered at work… if we watch our reaction each time our own sense of self (or, self-importance:) gets “eclipsed”, we can gain true wisdom.  The more we know our own Shadow, the harder it is to manipulate us with the dark forces of fear and hate.  Yes, this eclipse will crush any remaining rose-colored glasses, but the clarity and courage gained is well worth the loss.  The first rays of light emerging from the other side of the eclipse are pure magic, pure joy of Life’s eternal renewal.  From the shadow emerges a light that’s brighter and bolder, clearer and more compassionate than anything we’ve seen before.  We all have a part to play in these dramatic times…I wish you courage, dear friends and cosmic comrades!