Total Lunar Eclipse. Just saying the words out loud feels like an invocation. The way that “total” is a kind of promise, an envelope the moon slips into, an eclipse like a seal pressed into wax. But, then there’s also something powerful about three words each made of two syllables one after the other — a rhythm that has served many of the greatest poems in the English language. And, isn’t rhythm and poetry a kind of spell all its own?
When Scorpio enters the equation, the potency of that energy only grows. Scorpios, we know, are particularly concerned with power — the birth and death of it, the exchange. Eclipses, too, have a reputation for ushering in a potent time of revelation and transformation. While witch wisdom discourages earthlings from spell casting on a full moon, particularly an eclipse, it's fair to say that under a moon like this, a spell is being cast on us.
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It’s a good thing that human beings are used to being glamoured by the moon and submitting to her thrall. Poetry accounts for that as well, and music too. An essential detail for all those unaware: Jim Steinman, songwriter for Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” wrote the enduring ballad while holding “a vision of this woman lying on the ground looking at the moon like a sacrifice,” with vampire lore in mind. What has gone down in history as one of the most romantic songs of all time was a song written in service to the moon — especially in darkness — and all the creatures who thrive under her eternal light.
What, to a Scorpio full moon, is a sacrifice? The lunar eclipse makes a square to Saturn, and invites us into the ring (or rings as the case may be). Here we are tested and test each other in turn. Here we surrender to the needs of the collective. Here we define the collective’s needs. Old gods and old definitions fall away but what is essential remains. Tonight, with Mercury retrograde nearing the Sun, what's left is ours to define. At a table lit by candles and oil lamps, skirted by country darkness, I heard a Taurus babe agree that a true sacrifice is the one we make of our own lives, of ourselves in service of — what exactly? A higher power or the wild unknown. The temple of desire or the sacred ruin of a broken heart. Sacrifice, too, is a powerful word, a word made of devotion and surrender. Under a Scorpio full moon, a sacrifice is not the end of anything, it’s one closure in the midst of countless openings.
Meanwhile, Mars and Neptune in Pisces make a trine to the moon, filling our hearts with an irresistible courage. To settle our debts, to make a boundary around how much we owe others and refuse contracts that do not honor our inherent worth, to close the door on dynamics that deplete us, to turn away from love when love asks us to betray ourselves — these are sacrifices that the moon demands. These are the sacrifices that release us, that open our hearts and create new worlds.
If under this total lunar eclipse in Scorpio, you find yourself feeling restless and dreaming of something wild, if the shadow on the moon mirrors the shadow of love on your heart, consider yourself part of the moon’s abiding love song. Consider that, across the cosmos, the Sun in Taurus is the symbol of abiding love — the Sun’s gravity and the Earth’s persistence. In every moment, between two luminaries, you have everything you need to make a worthy sacrifice.