The Art of Invisible Presence
by
Sarah Varcas
We now find ourselves in an eclipse season which began yesterday (13th October GMT) and will continue until 17th November. During this time we have a lunar eclipse in Aries on 18th/19th October and a solar eclipse in Scorpio on 3rd November, not to mention the next Uranus/Pluto square on 1st November and Mercury travelling retrograde through Scorpio, the sign of the solar eclipse. So, to sum up, there are some interesting times ahead!
Eclipses have a pretty bad name, no doubt arising from the fear eclipses would engender in days gone by when total eclipses plunged people into blackness and the life-sustaining light was eradicated by a seemingly invisible but all powerful force. These days we are better informed in our understanding of the mechanics of an eclipse. We know the light, whether it be solar or lunar, will return and we can marvel at the event if we are lucky enough to experience it, without fearing for our very lives in the process. But still within the collective psyche lies the fear of the eclipse times and all that they may bring to our door.
Whilst I would never suggest fear as a useful response to an approaching eclipse, I would certainly advise caution in terms of our level of consciousness. Eclipses are indeed times of great power when forces from within and without can be unleashed upon us and we need to stay alert to their action in our lives. But unlike our ancestors we can recognise that these are not forces apart from us, intent on our demise, but forces from within intent on expression and acknowledgement. Yes, eclipses sometimes bring forth external events, some which may throw our lives into complete turmoil at the time, but nothing ever happens in a life which is not characteristic of the individual whose life it is. Astrology teaches us this above all else. We each live out the destiny of our birth-chart whilst weaving our own pattern and thread within it. Our birth gives us the raw material but we place our stamp upon it with every word, action, thought and breath.
And so it is during an eclipse season, for whatever it brings to us, however surprising, unlikely, shocking, or welcome the events may be, they are born out of the essential energy field which is us – you and me. They are characteristic of who we are, of the path we have to walk and the growth necessary to become all that we can be. To perceive them as anything other than this is to deny the essential nature of our existence which is woven throughout time and space, connected up, here and there, with the unfolding of this ever-expanding universe that requires we expand with it. An eclipse may change one person’s life forever and leave another’s untouched, not because one was unlucky or fortunate, cursed or blessed, but because each individual, by their very nature, experiences the energies of the eclipse as only they can. As only they must.
As we embark upon this season the heavens highlight two qualities which will be particularly important in our navigation of it: invisibility and presence. Yes, I know, it sounds contradictory. How do we make ourselves invisible whilst making our presence felt? And why should we seek to do either?! Because in invisibility we can lose ourselves in the vastness of space, forgetting our tiny view of infinity and our obsession with our own little corner of the universe. And by making our presence felt we can influence its unfolding from a place of awareness born of that invisibility, knowing that whatever happens in our lives is part of a greater whole which makes so much more sense when you see the bigger picture.
Yes, interesting times ahead that’s for sure, and plenty of opportunity to practice invisibility and presence. Just how to do that in our everyday lives will become increasingly clear and the benefits of following this piece of planetary advice will make themselves apparent before too long.
Have a good week everybody.
Sarah Varcas
