Eclipses and significant astrological events can be big business for people going through awakening. Awakening sensitizes us, dissolves density in our system, makes us much more fluid and therefore increasingly more responsive to galactic and planetary events. We are often simply more open to them!

People will constantly reach out to me and ask me why they cannot sleep, why they are intensely affected, by full moon eclipses, potent planetary retrogrades, and big conjunctions of planets. Through awakening, we are becoming very refined energetic beings who are able to be responsive both internally and externally to the world around us and the Divine in exquisite and finely tuned ways. Experiencing the pulls and energetic impacts of planetary events can be felt very strongly in such a system.

One of the challenges is that awakening makes our bodies and systems very attuned, which means that we can be extra receptive to receive the energy, the magnetic field, the astrological influence, the push and pull of planetary change. 

These are some of the common challenges that people have communicated they experience due to awakening:

• Insomnia – sometimes running for days especially around full moons and eclipses.
• Feeling energetically overloaded – sometimes when I look at those people’s systems you can literally see their bodies saturated with luminous light which needs to be cleared. 
• Feeling intensely emotionally overwhelmed. Crying a lot, or in an emotional washing machine because of the pressure that the eclipse or event is putting on the system and the amount of content it is drawing up for examination or release.
• Intensified purification processes – in awakening we are already going through purification and astrological events such as eclipses amplify, sometimes intensely, the amount of purification that is asked of you or required to satisfy the tasks of an eclipse.
• Temporarily feeling lost, confused, or that your life does not make sense – a sense that tends to resolve as the astrological impact fades. If this happens to you I would say “just hang in there, and be patient.”
• A sense of intense pressure bearing down on the person – some people are sensitive enough to feel the astrological pressures on the planet and a force on their whole system , a feeling that is inescapable as long as it is happening. 

Eclipse experiences can range from muted to demanding in their impact depending on the way that they aspect our birth chart and what is happening in our lives. 

Here are a couple of my favorite astrologers that you can follow to get some indication of how it may be affecting you particularly in relationship to your own astrological chart:

• Chani Nichols
• Tashi Powers
• A Hare in the Moon Astrology 

These are wonderful people to follow both through their newsletters or social media to get a sense of a current eclipse’s theme. 

What is an eclipse?

Let’s break it down into simple terms. There are two types of eclipses: Solar (the sun) and Lunar (the moon). As the word ‘eclipse’ implies when a heavenly body, like planet or a satellite, is hidden or obscured by another body moving in between our line of sight or its own source of illumination. This is what makes eclipses dark, a celestial interference with a direct path of light. 

Specifically when we say ‘solar eclipse’ it’s when the planets line up in such a way that the moon can pass in front of the sun.  And when astrology refers to a ‘lunar eclipse’ it’s actually our precious little rock ball, the Earth, that passes in front of the sun, casting the moon into our shadow. 

What do Eclipses ask of us?

Depending on the sign that the eclipse is falling in and how that affects your chart, it can have a range of tasks that it is asking you to fulfill. Here is a summary that you can keep in mind as you begin to feel the pull and call of the eclipse on your system:

• Evaluation: We are often asked to evaluate our life, and reflect upon our deepest values in a certain area of areas of our life. For example: A Libra eclipse (which is part of what is happening now) will ask us to reflect on our values around relationships, and our relationships themselves. In such a contemplation we are asked to consciously examine where things are working or not, where things are out of alignment and need a nudge or serious pull back to center. And especially we are asked to examine where things may be complete.

It is also an opportunity to see if there are new seeds that you have been neglecting watering or a new calling you have been resisting to follow. 

Eclipses can be a deep rumble with your values, truth and destiny or anywhere you are out of integrity with them. Sometimes it is subtle and sometimes it can be very direct and unmistakable. 

• Letting Go: As a natural follow-up to Evaluation, eclipses can often be significant times of letting go of anything that is not working for us, of things that have served us beautifully and have completed their time in our lives, of toxic things that sabotage our destiny path. Eclipses can be a clean-up operation on significant areas of our lives especially in alignment with the energy of the eclipse.

Depending on how detached you are, can dictate the struggle and turmoil that may be experienced in the process of letting go. The eclipse is working for you and on your side, it is not against you. If you can surrender, open your heart and let the feelings move through you and remember that awakening is a process of detachment – you can let the forces of the eclipse carry from your life what is no longer working for you with depth and completion, than if you were doing it on your own. You can use the eclipse to truly support change in your life.  You can also use the energy for the eclipse to take a new direction or action.

• Making adjustments: From the above two processes you can see that an eclipse can support you to make adjustments in your life – working fewer hours, spending more time with family, or on your health. Perhaps it is time to cut down on something that is affecting your well-being.

Eclipses direct us toward where we need to embrace change, to put a stake down, it might not be the exact time to make the change, but it is time to resolve to go toward those changes.

• Emotional and energetic purification: depending on the theme of the eclipse there can be significant emotional and energetic purification processes going on – old, stored debris energies from past events may be pulled up like the tide, pulling the ocean out of your system and carried beyond you. Often this can be effortless and not disturb you much but sometimes it can be significant and dominant in an eclipse process. If you find yourself in one of these transformative purges I encourage you to do everything you can to support yourself. If you are on an awakening path, you will know by now how to take care of yourself.

Some of the basics; rest, good food, water, slowing down, rest, staying home, gentle healing on yourself, receiving comfort and support from people who love you, cuddling your furry four-legged ones, time in nature and lying on the earth. 

• Brokers of Honesty: Eclipses can ask you to confront where you have not been honest with yourself, especially in relation to the eclipse theme. Where have you been deceiving yourself? Pretending a relationship was not over, or a workplace was a good space for you? Eclipses can be a time of reckoning, that that extra glass of wine does not serve your awakening, or staying friends with your ex-partner is not working for you anymore and it is time to truly let go. If you resist the pull of the eclipse toward truth, you are going to find it to be a difficult process. The more you can meditate, contemplate, and reflect on what is true for this process and for you, the easier it will be, the easier it will be to go through the above-mentioned processes. 

 Eclipse Self Care:

1. Know when the eclipses are each year so that you can be prepared. I always look ahead to the coming year and google when the eclipses are so I can anticipate a time where I may be under additional pressures or my students may be.

Here are a couple of websites where you can google the coming eclipses.

* Time and Date
* NASA
* Old Farmer’s Almanac

2. Be aware of the eclipse window – Depending on how sensitive you are, the particular aspect of an eclipse will signify how strongly you are going to experience the eclipse window. The Eclipse window generally starts 3-5 days before the actual eclipse. The eclipse window is the moment the energetic impact of the eclipse starts to be felt, which is well before the actual eclipse occurs in the sky, and ends 3-5 days after the eclipse completes. If we have a double or triple eclipse season (most eclipses are double and sometimes triple eclipses meaning there are two or three eclipses in a row usually 14 days apart) the window opens 3-5 days before the first eclipse, remains open through the entire eclipse season, then closes 3-5 days after the final eclipse of a series. 

When there are multiple eclipses, it is called an ‘eclipse season’—a time marked by the prolonged impact of multiple eclipses on your astrological chart and, consequently, your life. 

An eclipse cycle may start with a particular sign, such as Taurus or Libra. The influence window typically opens a few days before the first eclipse, fully activates on the day of the eclipse, and continues its impact for about two weeks, until the follow-up eclipse if there are two eclipses. This influence then gradually wanes, closing completely a few days after the second eclipse.

During an eclipse season, you may experience up to several weeks affected by the eclipse’s influence. It is important to be aware of these periods, as you might feel more tired or emotional. Recognizing this can help you avoid personalizing these feelings or thinking “there is something wrong with me” when it is actually the result of astrological intensity.

3. Know the exact time of the eclipse and stay indoors (I know this is counter to the eclipse experience chasing recommendations in the West).  NEVER LOOK AT AN ECLIPSE. You are very sensitive to the energy and impact of the eclipse as an awakening soul. The Yogis for millennia have advised us to not watch an eclipse, they say it can be very impactful and especially Karmically, they are inauspicious. Personally, I stay inside and often I draw the curtains, and during the time of the eclipse itself do spiritual practice and meditate. I find some eclipses to be volatile and don’t want to expose my sensitive system to those energies – I am very protective of myself. 

4. During the eclipse itself allow yourself to be quiet and conserve your energy. Meditate, rest, chant mantra, sleep. Take a break from food or drink a few hours either side of the eclipse to amplify your clarity and presence. 

5. Call in protection. You can call in protection in advance of an eclipse and you can ask nature, the divine, your spirit team, a deity you feel affinity with, to protect you as much as possible from the influence and impact of the eclipse. You do not need to feel the impact of an eclipse, you can buffer it as much as you can, and receive the homeopathic dose of eclipse energy that you need rather than drink the whole bottle of eclipse medicine.

I work with spirit teams (and teach this in Spirit Magic) where I use my spirit team to buffer and protect me from the strongest astrological impacts on my system. I still take the smallest medicinal dose of the eclipse medicine that is aligned for me and my system. You can do this too by calling in support from beyond you. 

6. Discharge the energy: if you feel that you have absorbed too much of an astrological events’ energy you can discharge this energy by breathing it down your body to the earth, by lying on the earth and imagining the earth absorbing it, you can call on spirit to release this energy from you system. You can feel very buzzed up, sleepless and even anxious from an overload of this energy. 

7. Stay Grounded, humble and close to the Earth and let the world and the planetary influence flow around you and beyond you as much as possible.

8. Be kind, generous, and supportive to yourself if the eclipse is being intense for you, remind yourself that it is a temporary process that will ease off once you are through its impactful phases. 

9. Eclipses can sometimes come with a potent spiritual test – we can find ourselves and our dedication to our spiritual path and awakening journey deeply tested during an eclipse season . You may arrive at a juncture point where you may be asked to surrender more of your awakening path, or destiny, and thus find yourself on your edges to surrender further, to let go of distractions, addictions or ways you avoid your deepest calling or purpose. Pay attention and contemplate such moments. Eclipses can amplify such moments of surrender and commitment in supportive ways.

10. Be patient with yourself, with the process, with the planet and the universal forces. Look after yourself the best you can knowing that you will emerge the other side of this process – that it will and does end.

11. Be Contemplative – eclipses are a powerful time for insight, new perspectives, answers to problems and channeled messages. The eclipse window is a time when the veils between the worlds are thinner, and thus we can more easily receive guidance, wisdom and insight from beyond, from the stars, from the Divine, from our guide and angels, from nature itself. Be open to  receiving that answer you have been looking for. It is a great time for journaling, and creative self expression linked to your inner process and big questions. 

12. Engage in Spiritual Practice – Eclipses are powerful days to amplify your spiritual practice. Yogis will increase their spiritual practice on the days and times of eclipse to harness the spiritual power that is available knowing that an eclipse will amplify the power and potential of all spiritual practice, especially mantras. While I do this, practicing meditation, yoga and deep mantic chanting I do so with caution as I am very sensitive and only seek to receive the amount of energy my body and system can utilize rather than overload it. Take care not to over do this. 

13. Be supportive to others – if you have the capacity, please check in on your loved ones and friends, see how they are doing in their own eclipse process and if needed remind them it is eclipse season and they are not going “crazy”, they are being pressurized. Direct them here to receive their own Eclipse Guide. Be there for each other. Community is healing. And give each other active hope – cheer each other on towards the closing date of the eclipse window. 

Once you have sailed out of the eclipse window, don’t forget to CELEBRATE. Get out the sparklers, bake a delicious treat, and lie under an oak or your favorite tree. Appreciate yourself for the changes you have made, whether tiny or vast, and acknowledge that you made it!

And of course, check your calendar and get ready for the next one! 😃

WAIT!  There is more here for you! We have created a special resource you can keep with you and return to over and over again as you cycle through eclipses each year. An Awakening Eclipse Self-Care Guide full of tips, reminders, and advice for how to navigate these big astrological and energetic times with ease and grace.

Enjoy!