The Sagittarius Lunar Eclipse on June 4 (4:04 am PDT) coincides with Neptune turning Retrograde. The very next day, Venus will make her rare transit to the Sun — a planetary alignment that won’t be repeated until 2117. Chiron will turn Retro on June 11, and Uranus and Pluto will make their first exact square on June 24.

“December 2012 is a coyote distraction from June 2012,” says shamanic astrologer Daniel Giamario. “We’re entering into the most incredible magical times.“

Not feeling so magical? A Lunar Eclipse is an extra-potent Full Moon, bringing to the surface feelings that have been buried in the depths of the subconscious. Old pain rises into awareness, so it can be felt, synthesized, dissolved, and surrendered. Skillful navigation of the emotional Underworld opens access to the available magic — the alchemy of transformation.

The Eclipse squares both Mars in Virgo and Chiron in Pisces, forming a Mutable Grand Cross — a stressful configuration that pushes us to balance and integrate polarities. The Mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces) are about movement, adaptability, perception and communication.

When the Mutable Cross is not working so well, we can feel scattered, get distracted from our purpose, and take actions that don’t necessarily serve the bigger picture of our vision or mission. But the higher potential is a significant shift in perception, an opening to new possibilities for connecting and communicating, thereby creating the scaffolding or structure to support a more optimal future.

Chiron’s square to the Eclipse implies a healing crisis, which Dale O’Brien (“Doc Chiron”) says, “isn’t about getting better, but being reoriented.” Chiron in Pisces reorients and heals through dreams, prayer, the imagination, meditation, music, poetry and art. This is a time for practicing non-linear and non-verbal means of perception and communication, for learning how to speak the language of the soul through images and feelings.

Neptune, god/goddess of the ocean, is also in Pisces, and Neptune’s station on the day of the Eclipse amplifies the emotional tidal wave. Drowning may feel like a distinct possibility, along with the temptation to escape into our favorite addictions.

Mars in Virgo, opposing Chiron and squaring the Eclipse, recommends discernment and precision in our thoughts, language and actions. Instead of despairing that we can’t save the world (or even ourselves), we can identify one simple, appropriate step forward — it might be a prayer, it might be cleaning the kitchen, it might be doing some small kindness for someone.

Jupiter — the ruler of both Sagittarius and Pisces — is in Taurus, asking us to tune into the wisdom of the body, of plants and animals, of our home planet. Taurus is slow and sensual, the earthy expression of Venus, the sacred feminine. My sense is that this Eclipse may require more “being” than “doing,” although the urge to take rash, dramatic action could be strong.

The Sun and Venus are in close proximity, heading toward their June 5 conjunction — which will be another kind of Eclipse, stirring up what wants to be healed in the Venus-ruled realms of love, pleasure, values, beauty, art and attraction. The Venus-Sun transit awakens the Solar Feminine, and the Lunar Eclipse produces the necessary pressure to open us up so we can be available to this cosmic download. (More about the transit coming soon on my Reviving Venus blog…)

To get more specific about what the Lunar Eclipse means for YOU, find the house in your birth chart that contains 14 degrees Sagittarius. The areas of life signified by that house are where you are called to expand your perception, restore your faith, and realign with your integrity. These may also be areas where past events are coming to fruition or completion.

- Emily Trinkaus

People are going back and forth across the doorsill

The Scorpio Full Moon on May 17 launched us into Eclipse Season — a high-pressure period of accelerated, intensified growth and change. Eclipses typically come in pairs, but this time we’ve got a trio, extending this Eclipse Season through the middle of July. The first — a partial Solar Eclipse in Gemini — is coming up on June 1.

Eclipses bring into the light what has been hidden or repressed, triggering powerful emotions and catalyzing into action longer-term changes that have been developing behind the scenes. Navigated consciously, Eclipses are portals, opening you to new cosmic information and higher states of awareness.

The June 1 Solar Eclipse is an extra-potent New Moon, animating all Gemini themes — the mind, perception, communication, information, media, learning and storytelling. While a typical New Moon initiates a month-long process (one lunar cycle), seeds planted at a Solar Eclipse develop for the next six months and beyond.

If you have a copy of your birth chart and want to get astro-technical, you can get more insight into what this Eclipse means for you. The house where you find 11 degrees Gemini shows the areas of life where you’re ready to hit the reset button.

An important reference point for this Eclipse is the Gemini Lunar Eclipse that struck last year on December 21, coinciding with the Winter Solstice. You’re likely to revisit themes that were activated at the end of last year. A Lunar Eclipse — an extra-potent Full Moon — signifies endings and culminations. I wrote then:

The higher potential offered by this Eclipse is to awaken to and release any thinking patterns, beliefs or perceptions that are keeping you from stepping into your true power. What is the old story that keeps you from living your highest purpose? …. The concurrence of the Lunar Eclipse and Winter Solstice deepens the seasonal and metaphorical darkness, presenting a powerful opening to die to what no longer serves you. (Releasing the Undesirable Story)

Reclaiming Mental Authority

“Vital for the Control System (the very few) to make slaves of the people (the enormous many) is to ensure that the people perceive and decode reality only through the lens of mind-body and maintain a life-time disconnection from the influence of their true and eternal self – Consciousness.” – David Icke

The bigger cosmic story of these times is the Cardinal Grand Cross of 2010-2014, reflecting humanity at a crossroads and ideally inspiring us to make radical changes before we self-destruct. The energies of this rare planetary alignment have been building as Saturn, Uranus and Pluto — the main players in the Cross — have been moving into a tense T-square. The upcoming Eclipses are trigger points in this long-term transformation, catalyzing into awareness the necessity to wake up and get moving.

Last summer, punctuated by dramatic Eclipses on June 26 and July 11, offered a preview of the kind of intensity and volatility we can expect this season. Now, in the aftermath of the Japan earthquakes, the stakes are even higher.

The Gemini Solar Eclipse focuses attention on the role of the mind in freeing ourselves from the dominant, self-destructive paradigm and birthing a new reality — the essential work required by the Cardinal Cross.

The second Eclipse this season, on June 15, will be a Lunar Eclipse in Sagittarius — Gemini’s opposite. The Gemini-Sagittarius polarity is about the balance and integration of information and perception (Gemini) with higher consciousness and intuitive wisdom (Sagittarius). Gemini the Twins is the shapeshifter, ruling the idea that there are multiple truths, multiple realities coexisting simultaneously. Sagittarius rules the ultimate Truth that the only reality is consciousness, the Truth that connects us with our infinite Source self.

When Gemini is disconnected from Sagittarius (which pretty much characterizes the mainstream discourse), we get information without meaning, words without substance, and intellectual rationalizations divorced from ethics (e.g., justifications for torture and war).

The World Management Team is now, in Hillary Clinton’s words, “losing the information war.” Sources of independent, non-corporate media made readily available to the masses via the internet threaten the propaganda machine that ensures a compliant population. Attempts to control the free flow of information on the internet are on the rise, publicly led by Bill Clinton and Cass Sunstein.

The primary locus of the “information war” is within our own minds and consciousness. The first two Eclipses offer opportunities to renew perception, reclaim mental authority, and integrate intuitive knowing into everyday experience.

Gemini and Sagittarius are mutable signs, and the energies of the next month support making changes and adjustments. Open-mindedness, communication, flexibility and adaptability are key. We’re in a kind of preparation period for the culminating Eclipse of the season — the Cancer Solar Eclipse on July 1. Activating the “missing arm” of the Cardinal Cross, this final Eclipse will be a powerful initiation, an entry into new realities.

- Emily Trinkaus