This Monday afternoon, April 8th, I will be gathering with family and friends to view a total solar eclipse right in my own back yard. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and that fact alone makes me anxious. What if I don’t make the most of this event? What if my girls don’t remember it? How can I get excited about the eclipse, or enjoy watching it while it happens, if I’m worried about being disappointed or missing out on what I could or should be feeling?
I’m overthinking this, aren’t I? Honestly, this is where my mind goes whenever I’m faced with rare occurrences like this, I don’t want to squander a moment of the magical experience. And so, I will learn; and I will prepare. Life is so much easier if I turn it into a school assignment. This is what I have learned so far.
Solar eclipses always occur during the New Moon. This is because a solar eclipse can only happen when the moon is between the earth and the sun, as it is at the very beginning of the lunar cycle. We are now in the last days of the waning Worm Moon, so called because it is during that moon that the earthworms, every gardener’s best friend, come out of hibernation and begin readying the soil for spring growth. The eclipse will happen on the New Pink Moon, named for the color of so many early spring wildflowers (also called the Breaking Ice Moon, Growing Grass Moon, Budding Moon, Awakening Moon, Egg Moon…you get the idea). Pink is the color most socially associated with the feminine; and since the moon is also associated with the feminine, and it is about to eclipse the “masculine” sun, this feels to me like a very auspicious time to enrich and empower our inner feminine. Regardless of our gender identity, a solar eclipse is a time to celebrate the power of inner work, nurturing, kindness, emotional depth and connection, growth, and beauty. Wear something that makes you feel pretty, do your hair in a special way, put on makeup, tuck a flower behind your ear, wear those badass shoes in the back of your closet—whatever feels to you like an outer manifestation of the more poetic side of your personality, Monday is a good day to shine!
Every New Moon is a good time for starting over, but a solar eclipse brings a rare potency to that transformative energy. In preparation for the eclipse, think about what you need (or need more of) in your life, and what you would be healthier without. An eclipse is a powerful opportunity to set an intention to:
Start a new routine or learn a healthy habit.
Unlearn a habit that isn’t serving you well.
Make a new friend, or turn your attention to an old relationship that isn’t as wonderful for you as it could be.
Take up a new hobby, learn a new language, or instrument. Go back to school, take a new course, set yourself a learning goal. Stretch your mind and imagination.
Find or buy a new notebook and finally write that book, or poem, or get a new journal and start chronicling your shadow work, inner child work, spiritual work, or art work. Inspire yourself.
Make a big life decision or lifestyle change. You can.
Start a new project.
Clean out and reorganize your space. This can be physical, mental, relational, whatever kind of spring cleaning you are most in need of!
Let go. Make a list of all the things you have absolutely no control over. Make a list of your mistakes and regrets. Make a list of your resentments. Burn them, bury them, set them asail in flowing water, tear them up and scatter them in the wind. Let go.
To help you set your intention, make eclipse water! Eclipse water is like moon water, but stronger. Fill a jar full of water (be mindful of what water you use, you might want to drink it later), cover it with a lid, and place the jar outside in view of the eclipse for the duration of the conjunction. The water can be used whenever you need a boost of energy along the path towards making your intention a reality, or just a boost of energy. Add it to tea or coffee whenever you are feeling down or icky, splash it on a plant that isn’t thriving, or into your pet’s water bowl if they seem unwell. Stir a spoonful into the soup you make for a sick friend, or brownie batter to cheer up someone you know who is going through a hard time. Take a sip whenever you find yourself wanting to take up that habit you’re trying to break free from. Splash some into your bath to wash away that which you desire to leave behind. Be empowered, be free.
Another way to set your intention is to light a candle or two; white to represent the moon, yellow or gold to represent the sun, pink for empowering the inner feminine. I have a kit of colored beeswax sheets for candle making and I intend to use them to make a yellow and a white candle and twist them together. If you don’t have any colored candles, anoint whatever candle you have with essential oils: cinnamon, clove, chamomile, rosemary, citrus, or frankincense for Sun; rose, jasmine, peppermint, clary sage, passionflower, or mugwort for Moon. Light your candle during the eclipse to set your intention, or consecrate your new candle during the eclipse to be used later, like the eclipse water, whenever you need a pick-me-up. Having a special candle to burn when I have a particular need is important to me. If crystals are more your thing, an eclipse is a powerful time to recharge those, too.
Right now, I am in need of some powerful magic. My life trajectory has been treading water for what feels like a few years now. I’m afraid to change, afraid to try, afraid that I’ll be stuck forever, afraid my family will never achieve the life we want or find the community we so desire. I’m stuck, we’re stuck, and I’ve been feeling so lost and helpless. It seems like small problems next to the humanity crisis in Gaza (as in, people on both sides of perpetuating that crisis seem to have lost theirs entirely), and the serious health problems that several people I know are facing; but it’s big in my own life, and that makes it worth addressing. On Monday, for a few brief moments, the bold energy of the sun and the subtler energy of the moon will be perfectly aligned. For that time, the two great—and seemingly opposite—forces that rule so much of our natural lives will be unified, working together to create a spectacular display of heavenly awesomeness. I know how badly I want this change for us because every time I think about this perfect Earth-Moon-Sun alignment I start crying. Not just getting emotional, but choking up and wiping tears. I need this. I badly need to believe that the Divine, so often represented by our two most visible heavenly bodies, want this for me, too.
In her bestselling memoir, Eat, Pray, Love, author Elizabeth Gilbert writes about how she was finally released from a toxic marriage. Her ex had been refusing to sign their divorce papers for months and she was feeling stuck, needing to move on but trapped by his unwillingness to let go. As she was driving with Iva, a friend of hers, she began to voice this frustration. She said, “I wish I could write a petition to God, asking for this thing to end.”
Iva’s response was direct. “So, why don’t you?” she said. Gilbert (“Liz” to her friends, and that’s what I’ll call her here because “Gilbert” feels awkward), writes:
I explained to Iva my personal opinions about prayer. Namely, that I don’t feel comfortable petitioning for specific things from God, because that feels to me like a kind of weakness of faith. I don’t like asking, “Will you change this or that thing in my life that’s difficult for me?” Because—who knows?—God might want me to be facing that particular challenge for a reason. Instead, I feel more comfortable praying for the courage to face whatever occurs in my life with equanimity, no matter how things turn out.
This has been my position, too, throughout my life; except in times of desperation when I am driven to plea directly for help. In recent years, my reluctance to ask for help has stemmed less from a desire to suffer whatever God wants me to suffer, and more from a growing suspicion that God is either unwilling to help me or incapable of it—and given the choice I would prefer to believe them to be impotent rather than fickle. In the face of this, Liz’s friend’s response is, once again, startlingly pointed.
”Where’d you get that stupid idea?” she asked.
“What do you mean?” Liz wanted to know. Iva replied:
Where did you get the idea that you aren’t allowed to petition the universe with prayer? You are part of this universe, Liz. You’re a constituent—you have every entitlement to participate in the actions of the universe, and to let your feelings be known. So put your opinion out there. Make your case. Believe me—it will at least be taken into consideration.
So, Liz wrote a petition to the universe for the divorce to be finalized. When she was done she signed it, then Iva (who was driving) signed it in spirit. Then, Iva encouraged her to think of everyone she knew who loved her and would support this petition. With each name that Liz came up with Iva responded with a confident, “They signed it,” and even added a few names of her own. When Liz could think of no more people she knew, Iva asked her to reach farther, to think of everyone she had ever heard of—alive or not—who might possibly be caring enough to support her petition. Gandhi. Mother Teresa. St. Francis of Assisi. Joan of Arc and Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln and...
The names spilled from me. They didn’t stop spilling for almost an hour, as we drove across Kansas and my petition for peace stretched into page after invisible page of supporters. Iva kept confirming—yes, he signed it, yes, she signed it—and I became filled with a grand sense of protection, surrounded by the collective goodwill of so many mighty souls.
When she finally ran out of anxiety and names to add, Liz feel asleep. She slept deeply, for minutes or hours. When she woke, her phone rang.
I looked at that crazy little telephonino vibrating with excitement in the ashtray of the rental car. I felt disoriented, kind of stoned from my nap, suddenly unable to remember how a telephone works.
“Go ahead,” Iva said, already knowing. “Answer the thing.”
I picked up the phone, whispered hello.
“Great news!” my lawyer announced from distant New York City. “He just signed it!1”
Of the many touching stories in Eat, Pray, Love, this one held me most fervently with the power of its tenderness. I want to believe in miracles again. I want to hope for great things and not be afraid that I’ll be disappointed, or worse: that I’ll begin to listen to the whispered suggestion that I simply don’t deserve any better. If you also have a petition at this time, bring it into the light. Let it be known, and release it into the universe. Believe that all the power of the heavens and on earth stand behind you in this good thing that you desire. Whatever it is, I just signed it.
Green blessings, and may the eclipse be with you, always.
Gilbert, Elizabeth. Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia. United States, Penguin Publishing Group, 2006.