29 Nov The Center Cannot Hold ~ Lunar Eclipse in Gemini- November 30th, 2020

Turning and turning in the widening gyre   

The falcon cannot hear the falconer

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold…

On November 30th, 2020 a penumbral Lunar Eclipse in the sign of Gemini will arrive, inspiring a philosophical awakening that begins in chaos.

In the modern world, the word chaos often stirs a shudder of fear. But in ancient Greece, chaos was defined as the pre-existence of the cosmos, the primordial soup of pure potential that all order emerged from and disintegrated back into. Thus, chaos is the matrix of creation, a wellspring of inspiration and innovation. 

This eclipse in Gemini brings a frenetic mental buzz, the hum of neural pathways twisting themselves together in a widening expanse of potential. You can expect this eclipse to awaken a ceaseless appetite for learning that thrives in the climate of chaos. Juxtaposed against the climate of propaganda and censorship, the allure of forbidden knowledge only continues to grow. And as obsolete narratives and ideas disintegrate, your search for information is liberated and unrestrained, inspired by the freedom to know nothing and learn anything. 

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   

The buzzing mind of Gemini summons a tidal wave of new information to come crashing into your reality: a cleansing and destructive force. False realities strung together by deception will crumble into dust. And though this may feel like a crisis, it offers a tremendous opportunity for growth.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.   

The apocalyptic feeling of 2020 is real. The world is at war. But the weapons are memetic: a constant siege of thought viruses competing for space in the collective mind. The election in the US is a fight between two completely separate realities. 

The center can not hold.

Disguised beneath the haloes of science and journalism, the authoritarian shadow has grown longer and darker by the day. At best, the response to the pandemic has lost its thesis. Economic devastation and a web of cognitive dissonance has demoralized the collective spirit. 

The best lack all conviction, while the worst   

Are full of passionate intensity.

The structure can not hold. And those who think they are in control are the most ignorant of all.

As troubling as this year has been, history proves that humanity has suffered much worse. Knowing how much has been survived and overcome can be a great source of strength.

A poem that evokes the feeling of this year is The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats, written 1919 at a moment in history when the towers of many former glories completely fell apart.

The Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 had killed millions across the world including Yeats’ teacher, the founder of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. 

World War I had drawn to a close, leaving behind a wasteland of devastation and madness. From this darkness, the Russian Revolution arose, materializing another human endeavor that would lead to mass genocide and  death.

The Second Coming was a poet’s response to the spirit of those apocalyptic times that seemed to emerge straight from the Book of Revelations. 

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world

The Second Coming offers a stirring image of apocalypse, where natural order has become subsumed by chaos.

A falcon distanced from its falconer flies up in ever widening spirals. The centrifugal force that holds the world together spirals out of control and falls apart. 

This poem offers Yeats’ view of history and the end of the world, embodied in these spiraling gyres. He sees the eternal flux of chaos swirling into order and dissolving back out again. The Second Coming is not a vision of redemption, but a meditative gaze upon how past and present conditions give birth to the future. 

The second section of the poem is his glimpse into the future. He sees a Sphinx…

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,   

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun

As it moves through the desert, this ancient beast scatters the birds of the desert, its pitiless blank face offering no answers about the fate of the world. The final lines of the poem stir a shudder.

What rough beast, its hour come round at last

 Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

The Second Coming evokes the apocalyptic dread that every generation feels. In 1919, Yeats saw that a lack of humanity had overshadowed the world, erupting in the “War to End All Wars” which had torn so many nations apart. He saw clearly how these atrocities had not been redeemed, but were giving birth to a force of even greater inhumanity.

The inversion of the traditional Second Coming of Christ’s redemption signals the true nature of this rough beast, who will desecrate all that is holy.

Yeats’ The Second Coming warns the reader that the condition of the collective mind is truly what creates the conditions of the world. By all astrological measures, 2020 has been the end of an era. And as this dark and difficult year draws to a close, visions of the future naturally emerge. You don’t need to be a prophet to know that 2021 will be burdened by the same unresolved struggles as 2020. The pandemic of fear and division will give birth to some rough beast that will stalk the globe.

But it is not time to abandon all hope. Whatever you choose to nurture is what will be reborn in the future. If you allow the climate of fear, panic, and hatred to control your mind, then evil will be reborn and the shadow of the New Year will be darker.

Instead, this Lunar Eclipse in Gemini is an opportunity to improve the conditions of the collective mind by shining the light of truth in the darkness. Have the courage to love your enemies and give voice to wisdom, for even the smallest gestures of real humanity will bless the coming new year with the promise of redemption. 

Much Love,

Rachel

 

P.S. If you know someone who might appreciate this insight on the Lunar Eclipse please share!

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