Hi, Reader —

Tonight, in the early hours, the lunar eclipse in Virgo arrives — as you’ve probably heard this week! Lunar eclipses are safe to watch, so I hope this is some motivation to stay up a little later this evening.

And while eclipses are simply the moon orbiting through the earth’s shadow, they have held so much mystery throughout the ages, and can be thought to bring powerful, sometimes confusing or chaotic energy, and sometimes clarity, into our lives.

One of the most powerful techniques to harness these unique energies of eclipses is through reflection, contemplation and meditation — like the kind I teach in The Imprint, which begins next week, in alignment with this season of eclipses and our upcoming spring equinox.

In Vedic astrology, eclipses had an entire mythology behind them, and I’d love to tell you about that tonight!

We call the points of intersection between the sun, the earth and the moon’s orbit “nodes,” but in ancient Hindu legend, they were thought of as “shadow planets,” Rahu and Ketu, and they received their place in the sky from Lord Vishnu.

In one of the most important stories of Hindu myth, Vishnu advised the gods and the demons to churn the “Ocean of Milk” in order to produce amrita, the nectar of the gods. (If you were a part of The Imprint – In Purpose a few years ago, you might remember we did an “amrita” pranayama!)

So, the gods worked alongside the demons to churn the ocean and produce this special elixir of immortality. When they finished and it was time to drink, the gods became fearful that the demons would abuse their immortal status, so they devised a plan.

Vishnu transformed into the goddess Mohini, the enchantress, and distracted the demons, while passing the elixir only to the gods. Unbeknownst to them, one of the demons had his own plan! Svarbhanu, a serpent, disguised himself as a god, and took his place to receive the amrita. As he took a sip, the sun and the moon — Surya and Chandra, standing on either side of him — had noticed this deception and told Mohini as soon as they could! When she noticed, she pulled out her sword and chopped off the head of the demon, breaking her enchantment spell and returning her shape to that of Lord Vishnu.

Svarbhanu, on the other hand, had already drunk some of the potion, and became immortal — even after losing his head. Enraged, the two halves of the demon serpent took to the sky to chase the sun and the moon in revenge. In time, the head of this serpent became known as Rahu, and its tail as Ketu. And, every now and then, they catch up with the sun and moon, and eat them! But, because Rahu is a bodiless head and Ketu a headless body, the sun and moon just pop back out again and continue along their paths in the sky, until the next time.

I love how strange and beautiful this story is, and if you google the tale, you’ll also find more gorgeous pictures of the Churning of the Ocean.

So what does this have to do with meditation? Ketu is responsible for this evening’s lunar eclipse. It is thought that Ketu, the serpent’s body, can offer powers of knowing, intuition, and insight: seeing without eyes, hearing without ears, and breathing without breath. This high level of wisdom can be gained by resolving our karmic challenges: living to our highest potential through prayer and meditation.

Rahu and Ketu chasing circles around the sky can also symbolize the “snake of time,” (think: Ouroboros) showing us how to overcome patterns from our past and challenges of our future — our karmic lessons, which can push us toward spiritual growth, potentially leading to new creation, higher insight, and wisdom.

And of course, the snake also symbolizes rising kundalini energy, traveling through the axis of the body, the golden thread from root to pituitary.

This is why meditation can help us resolve the weird and chaotic energy of eclipses, turning our shadow-side into big creation energy.

It really is a fun story! Do you believe in “Vedic Astrology”?

Join me for The Imprint this eclipse season, and let’s move that Rahu and Ketu energy around to gain clarity and create something wonderful!

Lots of love,
Sara