Guidelines for Eclipse Season

“Karma,” the nodes, and timeline jumping during the eclipse portal

The following is a framework for understanding the energetics of eclipse season. It comes from a combination of my own experiences and information my spirit guides have given me, as well as, in the background, the religious traditions that address these subjects. However, I intend this as a secular interpretation of a spiritual reality, something that transcends dogma and speaks directly to a truth of being human. If you read it and it feels aligned for you, I hope it can be a starting point for an exploration that is ultimately completely personal. If you don’t “believe” in karma or reincarnation, I’m not here to convince you — you’re invited to take anything that resonates, and peacefully release the rest.

KARMA

“Karma” is a Sanskrit word that means “an action, work, or deed, and its effect or consequences”. In multiple Indian religions it refers to the sum of a person’s actions in this life as well as previous lives, and is believed to determine both the positive and negative events we experience. Theologically it’s complicated, and as I’ll touch on below, the concept of negative karma has been used to justify oppressive caste systems for millennia. But in my view, what these traditions call “karma” exists independently of any belief system.

The word “karma” was not added to the Oxford English Dictionary until 1989, although it was floating around in the English language since the nineteenth century. I can’t think of a word, or even a phrase, that sums up the concept as succinctly as “karma” itself, so I’m choosing to use it here as a secular term. I’m also going to write about past lives and reincarnation through a secular lens. I believe it’s time to start addressing these ideas as what they are: unavoidable dimensions of the human reality.

Most of us are souls that have reincarnated on earth thousands of times. There are exceptions to this — some souls are truly newer, and others are more ancient than average — but pretty much everyone has been through at least several lives. Karma is the culmination of each soul’s experiences, choices, and repeated energetic and relational dynamics. The south node in the natal chart is a window into this non-linear realm.

Unless our spiritual sensitivity is shut down, we all resonate with something about the concept of karma, beyond any religious framework or semantics. We all feel it, because we all have it.

Karma is not inherently “good” or “bad”, in the same way that our current lives contain massive amounts of nuance. It’s an energetic patterning or blueprint we carry, which can be edited, massaged and adjusted in various ways as our lives unfold. However it’s true that some karma feels supportive (for example, natural musical talent, or an intuitive connection to plants); while other karma, the stuff you’re here to heal, can feel like a major block to your life.

TIMELINES

Our karma tends to keep us locked on certain life paths. Sometimes it’s a manifestation we have to repeat, like ending up in the same relationship dynamic, or a struggle with addiction; sometimes it’s a life-changing event we never saw coming, but that feels strangely familiar as it unfolds. Sometimes we can trace the roots of these challenges to childhood or ancestral traumas, but in other cases, there’s no easy causal line between our past experiences and our current neuroses. The ancestral realm is a separate dimension, and healing there is an entirely different pursuit — but all of it can be considered karma, in the sense that the soul chooses the blood lineage and genetic makeup that match its needs for evolution. Personal struggles that don’t have an obvious root cause can almost always be found illustrated in the natal chart, in my experience most often in retrograde planets or in an aspect to Pluto, Chiron, Saturn or the south node. Karmic events, like a car accident or an unexpected pregnancy, can almost always be traced to transits.

A karmic lens helps us find compassion for ourselves in the parts of life that are toughest for us. It also opens us up to new possibilities for effecting change. While yes, elements of karma are pre-determined, a grasp on the karmic dimension means we can handle the inevitable more consciously. As I’ll cover below, we can’t change fate, but we have plenty of agency over destiny.

I’m using the word “timeline” to broadly describe the path each soul is following on its personal attempt at the journey back to Source. It’s not a perfect word because the journey is multi-dimensional, stretching beyond time. However, chronological time is an essential foundation: there are some lessons that can’t be rushed, some karmic wounds that can’t heal, or even open, until we reach a certain threshold of life experience (astrological transits offer a map of this). Within the more rigid dimension of time, we have a lot of choice as to our frequency, and these choices align us with different people, circumstances and resources. Ultimately our choices create the lives we manifest — ie the timelines we are on. (More on how this interrelates with systemic oppression below.)

Because eclipses activate the lunar nodes, which serve as anchorpoints for the soul’s karmic arc, they are unique opportunities to leap, trapeze-artist style, from one timeline to another. Just like on the real trapeze, faith is required: you may have to let go of something before your fingertips have touched what’s next. But if you show up to eclipse season determined to make soul-directed choices, and carry through, you might literally change your destiny.

FATE & DESTINY

Fate and destiny are separate but intertwined forces. Fate refers to the timelines and dynamics we can’t escape. Destiny comes from the choices we make within those fated paths, the way we navigate our agency and direct our power. Astrological transits can give us a chronological map of our fate, but of course, having the map is not the same as going on the journey. We inevitably shape our own destinies as we travel the road of our lives.

In other words, fate is karma, what you brought with you, the energy that’s already here. Destiny is how you work with it this time around.

Eclipses are known to bring events that feel “fated”. Sometimes people you meet around eclipse season become significant quickly in your life; just as often, though, you meet someone who feels significant, but then drops out of your sphere. Or an opportunity pops up, seems amazing for an instant, and then disappears, leaving you feeling neutral. In those instances, you might have defied karma without even really trying, on the basis of your frequency alone. Many times, stepping back from engagement is the quickest way to clear karmic dynamics.

Of course, this framework does not negate the fact of systemic injustice. I’m not trying to say that a person marginalized by oppressive systems can just “make different choices” and “jump to a new timeline” to suddenly achieve a western version of “success” — or that being passive and “disengaged” is the best way to deal with the heavy karma of these systems. This is about picking your battles on the personal level, and looking out for situations where karmic patterns are holding you back from being your best self. Your relationship to oppressive systems is OF COURSE part of your karma. Spiritual growth without proactive resistance to them is impossible, because systems like white supremacy, capitalism and patriarchy inhabit our bodies, and have to be actively removed like weeds. Otherwise individual power stays dim and small, no matter how much a person meditates or how many ayahuasca ceremonies they attend.

Some folks feel a pushback against the idea that being born into oppressive circumstances is “fate”, or karma, because they take it as an indication of punishment, as in, you did something “bad” in a past life and now you’re paying for it; you “deserve” the injustice you’ve suffered. But this shows how deeply a binary, punative ideology has permeated our spirituality. Although it’s true that harm we’ve caused in past lives can play out as some of our challenges in this life, the soul also chooses the body and life in which it can most effectively evolve and contribute. In my view, many of the strongest, most profound and brightest souls inhabit bodies which suffer disproportionately under the colonial project. Maybe they are on these frontlines because they are our soul-leaders, the bright lights we need to follow on the journey towards healing (with payment for their services, of course).

It’s also important to acknowledge that the religious concept of karma has been used to justify oppressive caste systems for over 2000 years. A few weeks after first posting this piece, I learned of Thenmozhi Soundararajan’s new book, The Trauma of Caste, published Nov. 15th, 2022. The book enlightened me on the ancient Brahmin caste system, its shared root with yoga, and how the religious ideology of Brahminism excuses the oppression of the Dalit people with the belief that they have done something bad in a previous life. Brahminism developed before Christianity, but today’s new-age spiritual seekers, many of whom are fresh from a Christian upbringing, are already psychologically primed for a belief system centered on punishment and division.

Finally, to be clear, soul evolution has absolutely no mirror in western “success”. The psychopathic late-stage capitalism we’re living through has catapulted millions of the smallest, least-developed souls into positions of power. As the wealth gap increases, more and more people have less and less resources to work with, and “success” in the form of the “American dream” is growing less possible to achieve. But souls will continue to evolve, even through collapse-times, not by chasing money or recognition, but through sacrifice, compassion and the choice to face tough truths. If you are already leaning away from society’s definition of “success”, you’re ahead of the game. If you’re leaning into it, be careful, because that ground may dissolve beneath your feet.

Ultimately, climate collapse may end up humanity’s fate, although it’s also clearly a destiny that could have been avoided. Even if at this point we can’t stop war, the rising oceans, and the other crises that are on the way, we can still shape destiny with the choices we make, both personally and collectively. We can still take responsibility for how we show up in these times, and if nothing else, act to lessen the suffering within the collapse.

THE SOUL

Is it possible to define the soul from a “secular” angle? I’m not sure, and I’m not about to attempt a full definition. But I can’t talk about karma without talking about the soul, so it feels important to mention. In my experience/belief, the soul is an autonomous seed of consciousness that inhabits the body. It has essential guidance for us, and although it carries an energetic blueprint of our past-life trauma, it also retains a purity, a clarity, a frequency that transcends the petty drama often entrapping our bodies and minds. When we learn to listen to it, and to live according to its guidance, everything changes. I also believe that all humans have souls, even the ones doing the greatest damage to the earth. This opens up a genuine possibility, however unlikely, for humanity’s redemption.

ECLIPSES & THE NODES

A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves directly between the Earth and the Sun, and a lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth, in the shadow cast by the Sun. Eclipses occur in sets of two or three approximately every six months.

The nodes of the Moon are mathematically calculated points that help to predict eclipses. They’re located at the two opposite points when the Moon’s orbit intersects with the ecliptic, the plane of earth’s orbit around the Sun. Astrologically, the nodes describe the arc of soul evolution, with the south node representing karma, the culmination of our past-life experiences, and the north node offering information about the soul’s growth edge, the themes and energies we need to embrace in order to heal from our karmic wounds.

Although use of the nodes traces back centuries in both western and Vedic astrology, they haven’t been associated with past lives and karma until recently. As this episode of The Astrology Podcast covers, the earliest reference to this connection in western astrology comes from Dane Rudyar, in 1936. Much more surprising, despite the fact that karma is an inextricable element of the Vedic worldview, no texts in its 2000+ years of history linked the nodes specifically with the current concepts until the 1970s. The western tradition of evolutionary astrology, led by Steven Forrest and Jeffrey Wolf Green, has fleshed out nodal concepts much more thoroughly in the past few decades.

After studying my own nodal arc for years, and using the south node in 100+ past-life readings for clients, I am convinced that the basic interpretation of the nodes above is accurate. In my experience, the south node is more palpable, and easier to describe simply as “karma”; the north node, though, can’t be oversimplified as “dharma” or “the future”. The north node is the inherent opposite of the south node, and represents a place where we’ll never feel completely natural or at ease. But leaning in that direction will help us continually pull away from the sticky or stagnant karma that keeps our best selves from rising. The north node doesn’t necessarily speak to “dharma” in the sense of an active duty, although it definitely shows up that way for some people. It really depends on its location in the natal chart, and the location of its ruler. If the north node or its ruler is at the bottom of the chart, or in the 12th house, the work of soul-evolution will be much more private, or even invisible, than if the placement is at the top, or in a more social house.

Eclipses happen when the nodes interact with the Sun & Moon (the two celestial bodies most central to our identity), bringing them into a karmic “line of fire”. This is why we find ourselves in situations that feel “fated” during eclipse season, and why our choices during these times can have big impacts down the road (destiny).

HOW TO JUMP TIMELINES DURING ECLIPSE SEASON

One of my favorite metaphors for eclipse season is the image of rough rapids on a river, and all of us headed towards them in tiny kayaks. The opening of the nodal doors unleashes a non-linear rush of energy that we really can’t control at all, but like a kayaker, we can still take responsibility for navigating our own vessels, trying to keep our heads above the water. Not every eclipse season will knock you completely off your feet, just like not every rapid is a class 6. But even minor rapids are best navigated with intention and technique.

What does that look like, practically speaking? Here are a few tips:

1. If possible, learn ahead of time where the eclipses will hit in your chart. Start to meditate on this part of your life, noticing what you’re releasing (south node), where you’re evolving (north node), and how things have shifted since the previous eclipse season six months ago. If things are already kinda rocky in that area of life, you might be feeling early emanations of the approaching rapids.
2. Keep your mind alert for signs of karma. These can include: coincidences and synchronicities; feelings of deja vu; unexpected events; relational dynamics that feel familiar, even if your connection with the person in question is new; emotional reactions that feel disproportionate to the triggering event; deals and opportunities popping up but also falling through… and more. Karmic qualities don’t make a situation or relationship “good” or “bad” — they just mean that situation or relationship is karmic. But be cautious when considering decisions with long-term consequences, because karma almost always means that you don’t really know what you’re getting into.
3. Be present. Our karmic patterning usually plays out unconsciously — it takes pro-active presence to notice when you’re about to follow a pattern you’d rather break. Especially if you smell the potential for drama, step back, take some breaths, and find clarity on how you want to move forward.
4. Be embodied. Your body has big answers to the question of how to heal your karma. It knows what direction to go in, what feels like love & freedom vs. what feels negative, stagnant or dissociative. Listening to it takes practice, and eclipse season is a good time to make it a priority, maybe with a short body-scan meditation in the morning or evening, or any other somatic practice that works for you. And/or — put a post-it on your mirror, in the kitchen, in the car etc to remind yourself to check in with your body throughout the day. If you need to make a decision on the fly, trust what feels better somatically, even if your rational mind disagrees.
5. Practice disentanglement. As I mentioned above, often the easiest way to dissolve karmic bonds is to disengage. Of course, that’s not always true, and it’s definitely not an excuse for disregarding relational responsibility. But if it feels like the karmic darts are flying, and you can see the situation clearly enough to stay out of the battle, that’s a choice you can make — often one that will alter your timelines in a big way.
6. Own everything. Although they’re not conscious, we have lifetimes of memories behind our current interpretation of a karmic relationship or situation. So, much of what we experience in karmic situations is actually projection. In my opinion, one of the fastest ways to grow is to own EVERYTHING in our experience as karma — even the stuff that, in the 3D world, is clearly someone else’s fault. I’m not saying that’s easy, or that “releasing blame” is the way to enlightenment. But can you be fully present with what shows up for you, even if it was definitely triggered by something external? If you’re dealing with huge rage, or huge grief, or huge frustration, can you hold yourself fully in that emotion, notice it in your body, restrain from projecting it onto anything or anyone else? For me this practice is crucial during eclipse season and other stretches of deep karmic clearing. It helps me exercise my agency in situations that would otherwise leave me feeling bitter and powerless.
7. Operate energetically. I have a theory that karmic wounding comes in through the energy body, as chakra imbalances and blocks in energy channels, which eventually manifest as weaknesses or illness in the physical body. Although there can be overlap, this is different from the somatic markings of ancestral trauma, which are found in nervous system patterning, the microbiome, and of course genetics. If it resonates, think of karma as something that exists as energy, meaning it can be influenced by energy practices, including anything from yoga to qi-gong to reiki to accupuncture to hakomi to the thousands of other lineages out there. During eclipse season, practices that keep your energy balanced and stabilized will help you move through the rapids more smoothly, like a gel coat on a kayak.
8. Prioritize protection. There’s a reason why many ancient traditions viewed eclipses as negative omens, and practiced rituals of protection during them. The realm that opens up during eclipse season is non-linear, chaotic and unpredictable. It’s not necessarily a great time for a psychedelic journey, or for any extensive ritual or trancework. Instead, stay in your boat with somatic and energy practices that keep you grounded in the 3D, and ask your supportive ancestors and spirit guides for protection. Simple rituals, like a daily offering of food, herbs, salt or whatever else feels good, will help to stabilize your invisible team, so that everyone can make good, grounded decisions together.

Want to learn more about your south node and the rest of the ways karma is reflected in your chart? I offer a astro/tarot package that takes on a deep dive into everything here.

For more astro-political reading, check out my other articles on Medium, as well as the Astrology for Apocalypse ebook.

You can also find me at www.astrologyfortherevolution.com and @astrologyfortherevolution on IG. If you’ve benefitted from my free content, you are invited to buy me a coffee by tipping me at paypal.me/activistastro, or on Venmo @astrofortherevolution .

❤

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