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Okay beloveds, here we are ~ round two. Our next Eclipse of the Season occurs this Tuesday, March 3rd at 6:33am EST. It is nearly exact, the Sun + Moon coming within 4* of the Lunar Nodes. Bringing the precision of Virgo’s scythe, we are invited to thresh old narratives that have clouded our vision.
This is a Full Blood Moon / Lunar Eclipse, meaning that the Earth will pass between the luminaries, casting a shadow onto the face of Grandmother Moon. There is blood on the moon. It is the shadow of Earth creating this astronomical spectacle. It is also a metaphor, signaling the themes of the blood moon being in the constellation of Virgo; the shadow side. It is a point of release, of purge, of letting go + unraveling our outgrown paradigms.
I’ve been thinking a lot of the relationship between Ontologies (ways of being) and Epistemologies (ways of knowing), in regards to the Pisces/Virgo axis. In the fever dream of modernity we’re collectively living within, these ways of being + knowing have been uprooted and replaced with colonial paradigms. What we consider ‘valid’ knowledge must be measured, empirical data - creating an overdependence on materiality. In other words; we must be able to see it to believe it.
The Virgo side of the axis can verge on this overdependence, when the true gifts of this Zodiac are transplanted into a colonial context. As someone with a stellium in Virgo, ruled by a 29* Mercury in Virgo, I am a lover of systems + patterns. In its true essence, this is a genuine appreciation for the immaculate design of the natural world, a recognition of order within chaos. Virgo as Mutable Earth is the true animist, the one who has tracked the patterns of ecosystems + the natural world closely enough to come into deep, harmonious coherence with them. It is an urge towards rhythm, knowing that with every Summer harvest, there will come a Winter to prepare for rest.
When Virgo’s wisdom is transplanted from its deep animist roots, into a colonial paradigm structured around productivity + linear growth, that impulse of the gardener who follows the cycles of the harvest becomes confused + contorted. Much like global warming confusing the flight patterns of birds; Capitalism has created an unsustainable eternal harvest phase, where the fields are never allowed to run barren. We have diverged from the cyclical, rhythmic intelligence of nature, and created unmaintainable systems that uphold unrealistic productivity standards. What was once a circle becomes a line, that defies all of Nature’s design. How does this live in us?
Our Bodies are a kind of Earth, as Clarissa Pinkola Estes says. To think that this colonial paradigm isn’t internalized into our own blood + bones is folly. The Shadow of Virgo reveals this in a feeling of ‘never enough’. We can never ‘do’ enough, produce enough, BE enough to keep up with this unsustainable linear growth paradigm. Our bodies are no longer honored in their true animal nature, and instead transformed into machines to fuel the engine of capitalism + production. We fall out of rhythm, and into exploitation.
So how do we go about bringing repair? Our pre-colonial Ancestors held expansive, animist lifeways that presented a cohesion of ways of knowing + being, rooted in RELATIONSHIP. Their cosmologies, traditions, rituals and cultural identities were born of this deep communion, and especially influence what they considered to be valid sources of knowledge. Like the meme going around that says; “how did I know that? I saw it in a dream…” Our Ancestor’s epistemologies included these other ways of knowing, that expand far beyond measurable, empirical data. Again, born of relationship to the ecosystems of intelligence around them; not only the seen, but also the unseen. An understanding that the spirit world is just as much a part of this one we’re all participating in together, and the knowledge they hold, just as important (if not moreso). My Ancestors remind me often ‘to be teachable’.
If the Lunar Eclipse is bringing all of this shadow material from the Virgo part of our psyche, the Pisces side of the spectrum holds the counterspell. An ability to be in relationship with All That Is, in a way that transcends perceived + created barriers to connection. Pisces knows that our world is created not from order, but from chaos. In that, our adorable need to control conditions + achieve certainty are like houses made from paper in the face of Great Mystery. The real task is in expanding our capacity to be with All That Is, and allow our ways of knowing + being to reflect this relationship to the unseen forces of mystery + power that create life. To know that it is truly all part of the dance, and any semblance of certainty we may have is falsehood.
Yet, moderation is also good medicine; there is always a potential to overdo it and slingshot in extremes. Without the support of that rich Ancestral root system I spoke about earlier, our relationship to the unseen can very quickly become unfounded and even dissociative. Like trying to navigate new territory without a reliable map, even an intuitive + cosmic one, we very quickly venture into spaces that disconnect us from reality in a way that becomes unhelpful. So much smoke in mirrors jargon has been produced in the realm of New Age Spirituality in the past handful of years, that is evidence of this ungrounded state (in my opinion).
It is no one’s fault. Most of us in the Western world are spiritual orphans that have been viciously torn from our root system, looking for a place to feed our starving spirits. It makes good sense that many of us would go looking, either to other traditions (that we might accidentally end up appropriating), or create our own systems altogether that lend to spiritual bypassing. Again, without a connection to Ancestral Roots or Land Connection, we are a kite without a string to anchor us into the material reality, while connecting to the more-than-human world. Becoming a bridge between the realms is our true work. Many of our Ancestral cosmologies knew how to hold both of these dimensions skillfully, and find their synthesis. In essence, it is the Virgo-Pisces meeting place.
And so ~ this Eclipse is bringing up these themes for me personally. It might be different for you. As a person with a Virgo Stellium, I am shockingly aware of how much colonial paradigms have influence my own definition of ‘valid’ knowledge. That is much of the reason why working with Spirits + Ancestors has become so much a part of my work; it is the exact medicine I need to unwind + reweave other lifeways. To consider that the information I receive in dreams is just as significant as what I can study in books is revolutionary. And, without a grounded approach, I can quickly become disconnected. Holding both, always.
Beyond all else ~ excavating the shadow of Virgo is going the very real, decolonial work of removing capitalist paradigms from how they’ve embedded themselves into our bodies. The feeling of never doing/being Enough is a BIG ONE. The Piscean antidote is the reminder that you indeed have been created in the image of the divine, that everything in this miracle of material reality is an emanation of the One. Connection is your birthright. You don’t have to earn God’s approval like some sky-daddy paradigm.
The Medicine for this Virgoian shadow is that you always have been, and always will be, exactly enough ~ simply by the miracle that you exist. You are just right. My Ancestors remind me of this often; You do not have to earn the gift of this life. But, we do want you to enjoy it. Our work is not in simply enjoying this gift, but removing the internalized barriers that have told us otherwise.
You are enough. Your body is a kind of Earth. It belongs here, to the wisdom and intelligence of all things. It is woven into the fabric of creation in the same way the snowdrops burst through each spring. You are part of this rhythm, as you always have been. Let the soft animal of your body rest in this knowing. You have never had to earn it.
The Magician’s Table 2026! DOORS OPEN! 🌀
Until March 4th! » Doors close Wednesday!
Another opportunity to participate in big communal magick making; the Magician’s Table! Some of you may remember I was a 13th Reader at the table last year, and this year I have the honor of holding down the big ritual energies to support the brilliance of this container + the incredibly magickal individuals it constellates. I LOVE THIS CONTAINER. You can listen to my chat with Britten LaRue to hear more; DOORS ARE OPEN for application!
USE CODE TEAGAN10 to apply with a discount!