✨This Friday’s Golden Opportunity is to let yourself feel empty in order to fill up with the Lunar Eclipse in Virgo.✨
I woke up feeling lonely this morning.
Try as I might, I could find no reason for this feeling. We just had the sunniest weekend in months in every sense of the word, filled to the brim with family, friendship and the sweetness of spontaneous early spring smiles. And I have so much more human connection to look forward to this week, from long-planned cosmic collaborations to cherished international visitors.
But there I was feeling lonely. I wasn’t even physically alone in my bed and I still felt lonely. I noticed questions circulating in my brain about what was wrong with me, internal inquiries that saw loneliness as a problem available for swift resolution. And then I felt myself wanting to get up and turn on the tv for company, to go get my phone and dive into the mountain of unread messages that (always) awaits.
So I made a courageous choice and did nothing at all, I just lay there and let myself be. And as I stopped trying to figure out a way out of my feeling, I began to marvel at this incredible capacity I have to feel lonely. I’ve even managed to experience loneliness while walking the eternally crowded streets of Manhattan, which is pretty damn impressive.
This leads me to believe that loneliness is divine, that it has something magical to offer us. And as we approach this Friday’s Lunar Eclipse, I am wondering if the Earth sometimes feels lonely, too.
If it ever does, this week would certainly be the time. The Moon is our nearest neighbor, an orbiting celestial security blanket that keeps us company on our journey through the emptiness of space. Our faithful friend usually comes to greet us in its full splendor once a month, but then sometimes - like this Friday - it doesn’t show up in the way we expect it to. There is a piece missing, the light is dramatically dimmer, the color is a haunting blood red.🙀
If I were the Earth, I’d feel stood up and freaked out. Instead of leaning on the regular comfort of my silvery satellite, I’d be forced to find my place in the vast and intimidating expanse of stars beyond. Eeeek.
We humans have a similar experience when someone close to us disappears from view, an unmistakable cocktail of emptiness and grief we drink until we feel their presence around us in a new way. And as painful as it is to process death in any of its forms - from a move to a break-up to a physical passing - it is an invitation to remember that we really are always connected across space and time. So maybe loneliness isn’t drawing us into a hardened reality that we have only ourselves to rely on, maybe it is opening us up to the truth that we are surrounded by more love than we know how to handle.
This is what astronauts experience when they look back at our tiny blue planet floating in the inky infinite, a moment when the perception of distance between us gives way to an indescribably beautiful awareness of the unbreakable connection we share.✨💖🌏💖✨
And indeed, the well-documented “Overview Effect” is a perfectly poignant metaphor for this particular Lunar Eclipse in Virgo - a sign famous for its attention to the finest of details. But with the usual Virgo Full Moon microscope obscured in the darkness, we have only the Pisces telescope to look through. And as we pick it up to gaze into the farthest reaches of Our Universe, we get smaller and smaller until we feel ourselves being fully absorbed into the loving fabric of all that is.
Virgo offers us the blessings of logical reasoning and rational thought, and this Eclipse is also asking us to purify our relationship with our brains. If my early morning loneliness taught me one thing, it’s that you can’t always (ever?) think your way out of a feeling. So let your brain think and let your heart feel. Let yourself grieve that you don’t feel how you want to, let yourself be without whatever it is that you thought you needed to be well. Being without is a portal to being within, and deep down in there I promise you’ll find out that you’re perfect just as you are.
I also encourage you to gather with those you love this week. People around the world come together in celebration as time washes cherished relationships and experiences out of our lives, and these next few days are a powerfully healing time to be in communion.
In this spirit, I invite you to join my own (online) gathering to move with the energy of this Eclipse. Judy and I have added an extra time slot this Thursday evening from 8:00 - 9:00 pm London time, or you can tune in on Friday afternoon from 1:00 - 2:00 pm London time.🖤🌕🖤
Love,
Patrick
PS: If you’re in / around London, there is a space open to join my in-person eclipse workshop on Friday evening and I’d be delighted to see you there!