September Partial Lunar Eclipse in Pisces
September Partial Lunar Eclipse in Pisces
Divine Duality and Unity of the Vesica Piscis
Depending on where you are in the world, in the evening of Tuesday 17 September or early hours of Wednesday 18 September, a partial lunar eclipse will turn the moon a murky red-brown colour, when Earth's shadow will cross the lunar surface.
The magnetic energies of this transformative penumbral lunar eclipse have been building steadily over the last six months, finally drawing to their peak in the early hours of tomorrow morning where I sit and write this, around 03:44am BST on Wednesday 18 September.
It will be most visible from the majority of North America, all of South America, Europe, all but the easternmost parts of Africa, western portions of Asia and Russia, and parts of Antarctica.
The exact timing of the partial lunar eclipse depends on your location and you can use websites like Timeanddate.com to find specific timings based on your location. For those in the U.S. Eastern Time Zone, the eclipse will reach its darkest phase, with the moon most obscured by Earth's umbra (shadow), at approximately 22:44 EDT on Tuesday 17 September. While most of us are preoccupied with witnessing how an eclipse looks outwardly, the real transformative magic of these astronomical events comes from journeying within.
Vesica Piscis
Eclipses are like full moons on steroids and have a much longer wax and wane phase than the regular monthly lunar cycles. This lunar eclipse, that we are all being drawn into the vortex of (whether we’re aware of it or not), has been stirring up our emotions since the Vesica Piscis portal opened with the last lunar eclipse we had back in March. A penumbral lunar eclipse is an astronomical event where we see our collective shadow of Earth partially covering an otherwise vibrant full moon. This one is a super moon and her energies have drawn me to dive deeper into the correlation between the sacred geometry of the Vesica-Piscis and the Virgo-Pisces axis that the penumbral lunar eclipses of March and September 2024 mark the opening and closing of.
The Vesica Piscis has been called the Womb of the Universe. Depending on whether you look at it vertically or horizontally, it either looks like a fish or the birth passage. Christianity has adopted the fish version to symbolise how Jesus Christ exists in the space between heaven and earth.
Pre-christian cultures celebrated the sacred geometric pointed oval in its vertical position as the universal symbol of the Divine Feminine. For me, the Vesica Piscis represents the space between the opposing forces of discipline and surrender, the space where we find ourselves in flow. In between the past and the future, there is only the here and now. It is the space of unity and non-duality between the divine duality of the sacred masculine and feminine. These aspects are all captured by the symbol for Pisces which is two fish swimming in opposite directions, forming the harmony of the yin and the yang, the eternal turning of the wheel of the year, the dance of the Earth around the Sun and the Moon around the Earth.
What is a Penumbral Lunar Eclipse?
Penumbral comes from the Latin words paene which means "almost" and umbra which means "shadow." For those of us familiar with psychologist Carl Jung, we all know how intense facing and integrating our shadows can be. With this full moon traversing through Pisces, the most spiritual of constellations that closes out the astrological chart, our deepest held fears and insecurities have the potential to swim up to the surface during dream time. With the planet of the underworld Neptune also currently at home in Pisces, you can expect particularly vivid dreams carrying important messages from your subconscious for you to integrate. This is a great time to read some tarot and journal about your dreams, if you do remember them. If you don’t remember your dreams, then this is also a great time to practice meditation and yoga to give yourself a chance to slow down and rest, so that you can tune into process any feelings that may be coming up during this potent time. Treat yourself to a nurturing bath and listen to a guided relaxation before bedtime tonight to invite in a deeper soul replenishing sleep through the eclipse. It is not recommended to set your alarm with the intention of catching a glimpse of the lunar eclipse. If you happen to wake up then by all means take a look outside your window. But eclipses are not an auspicious time for charging crystals or manifesting. If you are awoken in the night, as Rumi says, “Don’t go back to sleep, the dawn has secrets to tell.”
Light some candles and meditate before pulling some oracle or tarot cards for guidance and do some journaling.
Here is a very helpful spread for this lunar eclipse that my dear cousin Cerian shared with me from Meg Jones Wall of 3AM Tarot and the new podcast Call Your Coven.
September Equinox
Both spring and autumn also bring with them the equinoxes. I’m sure you know this already, but for those new to the key astronomical events in the wheel of the year, equinox is from the Latin aequinoctium, meaning “the time of equal days and nights,” from equi-, meaning “equal,” and nocti-, meaning “night.” They mark the halfway points between the solstices ~ in the northern hemisphere being the longest day of Litha in June and the shortest day of Yule in December (and reverse in the southern hemisphere).
During the equinox, the sun crosses the plane of Earth’s equator, making the number of hours of night and day (roughly) equal length all over the world. In the Northern Hemisphere, the spring equinox or vernal equinox, called Ostara by northern European ancestors, occurs around March 20, when the sun moves northward across the celestial equator. The autumnal equinox, called Mabon by northern European ancestors, occurs around September 22 or 23, when the sun crosses the celestial equator going south. In the Southern Hemisphere, it’s the reverse. For this reason, the terms March Equinox and September Equinox are more often used these days to avoid a Northern Hemisphere bias.
Contrary to the popular misconception, an equinox doesn’t last for a full 24 hours. Technically speaking, an equinox is one of the two specific moments in time when the sun is exactly above the celestial equator. This year the March Equinox was on 20 March at 03:06 UTC and the September Equinox will happen on Sunday 22 September at 13:43 UTC.
In Western astrology these astronomical events are still claimed to be the markers of the start of Aries season in March and the start of Libra season in September. However, when you look up in the sky through a telescope or a stargazing app like Star Walk 2 you will see on Sunday that the sun will still be in Virgo. The March Equinox was five days before the first penumbral lunar eclipse of 2024 that happened with the full moon on 25 March. Because the sun was still actually in Pisces at the time of the full moon, the lunar eclipse was in the opposite sign of Virgo. This marked the beginning of the Vesica-Piscis portal opening that is coming to a close with tomorrow’s lunar eclipse. So this full moon and lunar eclipse may be bringing up endings and completions of lessons that the March lunar eclipse introduced. It is always helpful to reflect back on the last lunar eclipse to see what was coming up for you at that time. You can read my update from the March lunar eclipse here ~>
October’s Annular Solar Eclipse
Eclipses always happen in pairs, as you may recall the March Lunar Eclipse on the 25 March was followed two weeks later by a Total Solar Eclipse with the new moon on the 8 April. Tomorrow morning’s Lunar Eclipse will be followed by an Annular Solar Eclipse on 2 October. During an annular solar eclipse, the moon drifts in front of the sun while it's slightly farther from Earth than during a total solar eclipse, so it doesn't completely cover the sun. Instead, it leaves a distinct ring of light around the moon, hence why an annular solar eclipse is also known as a "ring of fire" solar eclipse. At the point of greatest eclipse on 2 October over the Pacific, the moon will obscure 93% of the sun's center, creating a "ring of fire" that will be visible for 7 minutes and 25 seconds. For all you Johnny Cash fans out there, here’s a great live performance of “Ring of Fire”… may you be emotionally prepared and not fall into the fires of the upcoming annular solar eclipse :)
Wishing you a relaxing and calm lunar eclipse full of insight from your journey through the transformative Vesica Piscis portal over the last 6 months.
Whether you are aware of the blessons (blessings and lessons) yet or whether you are still processing them, may you navigate this transitional season with comfort and ease. If you want to learn more about how to create morning and evening rituals to tune in and live more in harmony with the astrological and astronomical events, I’m offering free discovery calls to anyone considering working with me on a 1:1 basis.
You can book your free discovery call with me by clicking on the link below.
Namaste
Lou