November's lunar eclipse--finding our place in the world

Lunar eclipse

The moon has been giving us a lot of activity here in the waning of 2012.  I wrote about the transformative full moon in October last month; now I'm going to talk about the lunar eclipse happening right now.  Why am I writing so much about the moon?  Because one thing spellcrafters and scientists can both agree on is that the moon exerts a profound influence over us earthlings.  Plus, it's one of the Major Arcana, so it's good to know our moon better.

November's full moon, happening today, 28 November, is called the Beaver Moon or Frost Moon.  In the old days, this is the time of year when beavers were hunted for their pelts, which are at their thickest and most luxurious in preparation for the winter.  The beavers are also especially busy fixing up their lodges and dams before the snows set in.  Most of us know what this feels like as we are busy with our fall/winter feasts and holidays.

Today is also a penumbral lunar eclipse.  A lunar eclipse can only happen when the moon is full, and is caused by the sun casting the earth's shadow across the moon.  So, magically speaking, it represents a union of earth and moon, or sun, earth, and moon.  It also represents a microcosm of the entire monthly cycle from full moon to new moon and back to full again.  Understandably, its effects on us can be especially intense.

Today's full moon is in the sign of Gemini, the sign that governs learning, language, and communication (matters represented in Tarot by the suit of swords).  It's actually the opposite sign to Sagittarius, where the sun is currently located.  Where Gemini represents the kind of learning we experience during childhood--where the world is full of wonders and everything is new--Sagittarius represents the "higher" learning we do as adults.  In this adult learning we ponder philosophical and spiritual questions, our place in the world, and we start to want to teach what we have learned (matters associated with wands).  We look more deeply and reflexively into ourselves to see what unites us with people around the globe.  So Gemini and Sagittarius form a kind of axis focused around transforming knowledge into wisdom, and sharing it with others.  It's a bit like a polarity between The Fool and The Hierophant.  The opposition of the sun and moon and the power of the eclipse will not allow superficiality (something Gemini can be prone to) in either your emotions or your beliefs--it demands truth.  Admittedly, that can be a bit stressful, but it does accelerate our personal development.

The Fool, Llewellyn Tarot

The Teacher (a.k.a.
Hierophant), Gaian Tarot

I couldn't describe it better than this lovely post by astrologer Len Wallick:

"The Gemini lunar eclipse will close a two-week cycle that opened with the Scorpio New Moon and solar eclipse of November 13....The end of an eclipse cycle often finds you figuratively, and sometimes literally, farther traveled through events or space than would normally happen in two weeks. That’s because eclipses take place when two-week cycles intersect with cycles of six months and 19 years.... 

Working with tomorrow’s lunar eclipse begins with looking at your life and asking yourself what has gone through more than two weeks of change since the November 13 solar eclipse....If looking back two weeks does not do the trick, try recalling late May and early June of this year when an eclipse cycle segued into a Venus transit across the face of the Sun the very next day, neatly meshing with a Venus cycle that will not resolve until the next century. If, somehow, nothing has changed for you since June 5, think about where you were and what you were doing at this time of year in 1993 [i.e., 19 years ago]. Whatever connects those dates in the past to events of the last two weeks is where you connect with the Cosmos..." [emphasis is my own]

So, to tie this all together:  Late November is a liminal time, between the fall harvest and the hunkering-down time of winter.  Just like busy beavers, at this time we start to make our winter preparations, but before the quiet time often comes a burst of activity.  We have one foot in the outer world of social gatherings and one foot in the private, inner world of home.  The eclipsed/full moon in Gemini and the sun in Sagittarius suggests that an especially appropriate focus for some of this activity is to examine our life path, and how it unites us to larger forces, be they social, natural, spiritual, or cosmic.  Over the winter we will have time to meditate on what we discover now.