by SOL W JONASSEN
〰️ The quiet mind 〰️
This is the second of four supermoons and on top of that, it’s a partial lunar eclipse. Albeit this lunar eclipse is out-of-sign and pretty far off the nodal axis, rendering it a little weaker in terms of the classic karmic cleanse that occurs when the nodes are making a lot of noise, it will for sure make waves for those who have planets between 25 mutable and 6 degrees cardinal signs. Time to check your charts to see where it falls!
For those who might not land in the middle of the eclipse soup, there is plenty of go-go juice to explore for this full Moon, in particular the Moon’s conjunction to one of the outer planets, Neptune, closely followed by a perfect opposition between the Sun and Neptune the 21st.
Neptune is rarely easy to navigate unless we know how to master our relationship with the collective unconscious. In order for us to truly thrive and feel free living on earth, we have to be able to sort out when and how we are tuning into the collective unconscious, and that means being fully aware of the Buddhist concept of Samsara.
Samsara describes the cycle of death, rebirth, suffering, and the pain involved in being alive. The German romantic author Jean Paul coined a similar term, «weltschmerz» (world pain), in 1827 in his novel Selina, referring to the weariness and sadness about life arising from the acute awareness of evil and suffering, something many a sensitive soul has felt. As if life is almost perfect, but in some ways, it is also always tainted. And the collective unconscious, also known as Neptune in astrology, mirrors the collective experiences of existential horror and despair on one end and the potential of love, perfection, and ecstasy on the other end of the spectrum. Neptune is our collective emotional body, and there is always a lot going on there.
Neptune is THE Romantic, the ultimate hero or the eternal Peter Pan, and Neptune imbues us with a hope of a better life, with a dream that something will happen that will take us out of the suffering and that this grace will eventually soothe the wounds of disillusionment and help heal our hearts. But when there is no deliverance, Neptune leads us to the realization that the ideals of the collective unconscious, whether it is in relation to love and romance or in finding ultimate meaning in life, is not about sitting under a mango tree waiting for the mango to fall into one’s lap, but rather an imperfect journey of hard work where the individual has to wake up, become conscious and start being a co-creator. That realization is often accompanied by a willingness to accept that hope leads to expectations. Nourishing expectations is a way of meeting life in a conditional manner that often leads to disappointment when things don’t pan out as we hoped. So we end up having created suffering.
The true potential of Neptune in our psyche is the capacity for neutrality when approaching life and everything in it. For instance, no one can change the weather by complaining about it. It is still raining even if we don’t like it. The quiet, neutral mind will accept the weather, whereas the mind filled with desire will fight it.
Neutrality is not the same as being shut down and cynical. That type of numbing down is an attempt to deal with sensitivity to pain and suffering, and the only option seems to be to avoid feeling anything at all. This is where the famous escapism of Neptune comes into play, like alcohol, drugs, daydreaming, food, work, or whatever one uses to slip away from the underlying suffering. Neutrality is being capable of holding space for dreams and desires yet also capable of understanding that true happiness is found outside the drama of what life delivers or not.
It is, therefore, implied that Neptune takes us on this journey of expectations and hope into a more aware and conscious state where we realize it is what it is. And accept that, in the end, everything falls apart, be it a life, a body, or a culture. With Neptune now occupying the last degrees of Pisces, it is prepping for a new birth in Aries and, thus, releasing something old and weary. This particular full Moon is a taste of what’s to come in 2025, when Neptune will reside on the North Node while finishing up in Pisces. There could be a feeling of fatigue and lack of inspiration in the collective unconscious or a sense of futility and despair, like some sort of entropy we individually need to be aware of. Those who are very sensitive could very well wake up one morning thinking their life is in danger just because they unconsciously tune into a huge wave of emotion going on in the collective.
This full Moon can teach you about your sensitivity and help you sort out what your own fears and hopes are and how they get triggered by the collective. The best way to work around this full Moon and the times to come is to understand that you have a choice in all of this. You can observe your feelings instead of identifying as them. Mindfulness is, and will always be, the first step in keeping the heart open in a world that is working through some intense karmic lessons. And now’s the time to practice it. Choose whether you react to the collective or respond to your soul. Don’t let yourself be sucked into Samsara.
Sol W Jonassen
