A ques­tion was asked about my ear­li­er post­ing: “What is the sig­nif­i­cance of the deep­est total­i­ty of the eclipse and the exact moment of the Full Moon being the same?”

Because we are expe­ri­enc­ing a process, not a moment in time, an eclipse event will last many hours. The moon begins to enter the Penum­bra of the earth­’s shad­ow at around 1:24 pm (all times East­ern Day­light), then into the real shad­ow of the Umbra at 2:22 pm with com­plete cov­er­age being attained at 3:22 pm, that is when the Total Eclipse has begun. The eclipse is at it great­est at around 4:13 pm (yes same time as Full Moon), and total­i­ty “ends” as the Moon begins to move out of the Umbra at 5:02 pm. The Moon pass­es out of the Umbra com­plete­ly by 6:02 leav­ing it with­in the Penum­bra until it pass­es beyond any shad­ow at around 7 pm.

So the Total Eclipse times are: Penum­bral: 5 hours 36 min, Umbral: 3 hours 39 min, and Total Eclipse 1 hour 40 min.

Your ques­tion, “Why does the exact Full Moon and Full Eclipse coin­cide?” (again, the exact moment is only a moment, though per­cep­tu­al­ly to us it lasts much longer. That is the Total Eclipse runs from 3:22 till 5:02, yet it is only “exact” at 4:13).

The rea­son the exact moment of the Full Moon and Eclipse being the same comes from the fact that this Eclipse is tak­ing place almost exact­ly on the South Node of the Moon, (the point at which the Earth­’s orbit of the Sun and the Moon’s orbit of the Earth meet). The node today is at 23 degrees, 26 min­utes of Sagit­tar­ius and the Full Moon is at 24 degrees, 23 min­utes. If the Moon was sev­er­al degrees away from the node, there would still be an eclipse, but the Full Moon and Total Eclipse moments would be far­ther apart.

This is a long eclipse, but not the longest. The Moon is “mov­ing faster” now which is a fac­tor deter­mined by where it is in its cycle from clos­est to far­thest from the Earth. If it was at it apogee, far­thest, then a slow­er Moon would cre­ate the longest eclipse. The Moon was at perigee on June 11, and will be at apogee on June 23. Still it is a longer eclipse than many.

Spir­i­tu­al­ly, I do not think these “exact” tim­ings mat­ter so much. I am much more process ori­en­tat­ed than event driven…I have wit­nessed the ris­ing of an eclipsed Moon with the set­ting of the full Sun…Now that is won­drous to behold. Or a Full Moon ris­ing at the Win­ter Sol­stice. Sig­nif­i­cant cer­e­monies and Sacred Ini­ti­a­tions are held at these very impor­tant align­ments. This par­tic­u­lar eclipse is just such a beau­ti­ful reminder of the larg­er forces at play around and through us that many in our mod­ern world for­get to acknowl­edge, or experience!

For me, I want­ed to point out to my read­ers that this area of space is spe­cial; that is from here that Rays emanate from the Galac­tic Cen­ter, (where­in resides the Logos of our Uni­verse). That is what we are look­ing at tonight, and should pay homage to, when we look upon (or beyond) the Moon tonight. We are look­ing to the Divin­i­ty which ensouls our entire galaxy, the watch­er wait­ing; the head of the Hier­ar­chi­cal Host of “shin­ing ones”.

This was in my overview for 2011 and I wrote then:

The Lunar Eclipse on June 15 is in Sagit­tar­ius and we ordi­nar­i­ly expect that a Full Moon would pro­vide some new rev­e­la­tion about the rela­tion­ship between our low­er mind (Gem­i­ni) and high­er under­stand­ing (Sagit­tar­ius), between our Future and our Past. But with the eclipse our present real­i­ty is obscur­ing the mes­sage. We must con­front some­thing in our present state of mind in order to receive the Full Moon mes­sage. 

I wish to add: Per­haps the eclipse is a reminder that we some­times let myr­i­ad dis­trac­tions of the present day obscure (or eclipse) the greater real­i­ty that we exist in. We need to be remind­ed that behind the “day to day” real­i­ties of our earth­ly lives there is a vast hier­ar­chy of Life-Con­scious­ness-Spir­it that con­sti­tutes our true home.

As you look up tonight at the Full Moon, look past it to the great spaces beyond. Know that at this time of the year you are look­ing out into the Heart of our Milky Way, to the Galac­tic Cen­ter locat­ed near the end of the Sign of Sagit­tar­ius. It is from that cen­ter point, around which the entire galaxy dances, that ener­gies flow out­ward to all those who jour­ney with­in this system.

This Galac­tic Uni­verse is the field for the devel­op­ment of a great spir­i­tu­al host. You are part of this fam­i­ly, of this jour­ney. Like every oth­er pil­grim, you went forth as an unself-con­scious spark of the divine, ema­nat­ing, evolv­ing, ever-becom­ing. Your jour­ney is long, your pur­pose unfold­ing as you seek to understand…everything!

The devel­op­ment of your Intel­li­gence-Wis­dom, which is the focus of the Gem­i­ni-Sagit­tar­ius polar­i­ty, even­tu­al­ly returns you to the path of greater under­stand­ing. You are then ready to receive what stands behind all Philoso­phies, Reli­gion and Sci­ence, what has been known as the Ancient Teach­ings or the Wis­dom of the Ages.

These teach­ings are passed down, gen­er­a­tion to gen­er­a­tion, age to age, by those who have gone before you on this jour­ney of Life-Con­scious­ness-Spir­it. They wait, watch and extend a help­ing hand to all those who seek to be lift­ed up into the greater light of Truth. You need only wish to serve…

In that spir­it, today is set as World Invo­ca­tion Day. Here is the Invocation:

THE GREAT INVOCATION

From the point of Light with­in the Mind of God

Let light stream forth into human minds.

Let Light descend on Earth.

From the point of Love with­in the Heart of God

Let love stream forth into human hearts.

May the Com­ing One return to Earth.

From the cen­tre where the Will of God is known

Let pur­pose guide all lit­tle human wills -

The pur­pose which the Mas­ters know and serve.

From the cen­tre which we call the human race

Let the Plan of Love and Light work out

And may it seal the door where evil dwells.

Let Light and Love and Pow­er restore the Plan on Earth.

So Be It…

It’s anoth­er very busy day “up there” (and down here)… The path to a greater under­stand­ing is offered by the align­ment of the Sun and Mer­cury; the delights of new appre­ci­a­tions come from Venus and Uranus; and a renewed empha­sis about the nature of your respon­si­bil­i­ties is her­ald­ed by Saturn.

Her­mes and Sol meet up again. This is the “Full Moon” or supe­ri­or con­junc­tion of Mer­cury and the Sun. It was back on April 9th, while Mer­cury was mov­ing ret­ro­grade, that they formed what is called their infe­ri­or con­junc­tion (like a “New Moon”) which her­ald­ed a new devel­op­ment in your understanding.

This time Mer­cury is on the far side of the Sun, so the Sun is between Earth and Mer­cury. So what does this mean for you? It means that there is a rev­e­la­tion offered; that prob­lems, issues and dilem­mas that you have been strug­gling to under­stand will now come to a climax…you will have answers, but will you under­stand the mes­sage? Mat­ters are going to come to a cli­max and you will need to show that you are ready, will­ing and able to grow.

With Mer­cury and the Sun in Gem­i­ni, that puts you (and Earth) in Sagit­tar­ius; so the les­son is about your expe­ri­ence of those two signs. Among many things, Gem­i­ni and Sagit­tar­ius rule the process where­by you obtain knowl­edge and infor­ma­tion. One of the prin­ci­ple lessons of their jux­ta­po­si­tion is the con­trast between the two fun­da­men­tal approach­es to your acqui­si­tion of knowl­edge: Deduc­tive ver­sus Induc­tive Reasoning.

With Deduc­tive rea­son­ing, you start with fun­da­men­tal prin­ci­ples (assump­tions) and build down to the myr­i­ad exam­ples of those propo­si­tions in the real world. With Induc­tive rea­son­ing, you observe myr­i­ad instances of phe­nom­e­na (data points) and build upward toward a the­o­ry which explains that experience.

With the Sun and Mer­cury in Gem­i­ni the empha­sis is upon the use of your pow­ers of Induc­tion. The revelation/message will be come in the form of some­thing that does not fit; a fact or expe­ri­ence or piece of infor­ma­tion that can­not be explained by what you had hereto­fore assumed.

You need to ques­tion your assump­tions because although they pro­vid­ed a means to view your real­i­ty, they also blind­ed you by lim­it­ing what you would see, (what did and what did not fit with your point of view). It is not that you were “wrong”; you just did not have the nec­es­sary aware­ness. This new “fact” requires that you adjust your point of view.

So pre­pare for a mes­sage that does not “com­pute”, pre­pare to be sur­prised or shocked, and then you must show that you are intel­li­gent by ques­tion­ing your assump­tions. Then you will be able to look beyond your “real­i­ty” to the greater one now revealed to you.

Mean­while, and cer­tain­ly help­ing with the above, Venus is influ­enced by Uranus so as to encour­age you to go beyond your nor­mal, com­fort lev­el of what you like. Today is a day to expand your expe­ri­ence of what life has to offer.

“You nev­er tried to eat raw fish?”…Well today is your day to go beyond the famil­iar into the exot­ic. But it does not have to be rad­i­cal change (which raw fish may be for you), just move towards a greater appre­ci­a­tion of some­thing out of your ordi­nary. Your life (and taste buds) will thank you. Enjoy your friend­ships, espe­cial­ly the ones which take you beyond your “every­day”. You are here to expe­ri­ence more than you can imag­ine, let mag­ic into your life.

Final­ly, as the day ends and you move into Monday…Saturn, the plan­et of real­i­ty, respon­si­bil­i­ty and order turns direct. The focus is upon what works, what is tan­gi­ble and your part in it. Your true nature is spir­it, but you are incar­nate on this Earth, (in the flesh) and so Sat­urn holds domin­ion over you here. The ques­tion is: what does it mean to you to be responsible?

When­ev­er a plan­et changes direc­tion you feel its influ­ence more strong­ly. Take some time now to con­sid­er your respon­si­bil­i­ties. Remem­ber that word real­ly means “your abil­i­ty to respond”. Well, what is it that you are “respond­ing to”?

You are part of a great hier­ar­chy of life-con­scious­ness-spir­it, of beings above and below your­self. You are part of a great spir­i­tu­al host who take respon­si­bil­i­ty for one anoth­er through­out the ages. But in order for you to do your part, your first and most impor­tant respon­si­bil­i­ty will always be to your “self”.

As Sat­urn turns direct you need to take your­self “seri­ous­ly”. You need to make sure that you are tak­ing care of your­self on all lev­els: Are you car­ing for your phys­i­cal, emo­tion­al, men­tal and spir­i­tu­al selves?

But most impor­tant­ly, are you ful­fill­ing your des­tiny? Do you under­stand, acknowl­edge and seek to ful­fill your pur­pose? To do this you must fol­low the path laid out in the Ancient Wisdom:

Know thyself…Become yourself…and so Ful­fill your­self by extend­ing your hand to help those who accom­pa­ny you on this great Jour­ney of Spirit.

Be respon­si­ble by show­ing that you care. 

“You can’t always know what you want”…With Nep­tune chal­leng­ing Venus, the ques­tion is how do you know, real­ly know, the val­ue of any­thing (or any­one)? What are the ways you can mea­sure it? Can you be sure that what appears to be the val­ue is accu­rate? More impor­tant­ly, how do you know what is of val­ue to you?

Today you need to be care­ful of promis­es and offers that seem too good to be true…they prob­a­bly are! Remem­ber Nep­tune rules many things, but among them is Illu­sion and Delu­sion. When you want some­thing or some­one to be some­thing for you, and Nep­tune is involved, well you do have the pow­er to make any­thing appear to be “real”, for a while. That is, you can until an unaf­fect­ed per­son in your parade shouts out, “Why, the emper­or has no clothes on at all!” And that won­der­ful fairy sto­ry reveals the key to the mys­tery and an impor­tant lesson.

The trick with Nep­tune is to approach the thing or per­son “like a child”, with no pre­con­cep­tions, no fil­ters, no bias­es. Then, there is a chance, just maybe, that what is tru­ly there will be revealed to you. For that is the oth­er side of Nep­tune. When you work with Nep­tune from a more spir­i­tu­al­ly cen­tered state, Nep­tune is revealed as the pow­er of Illu­mi­na­tion and Insight; it is clair­voy­ance or “clear-see­ing”. But for this pow­er to work your ego-desire has to be put aside; you have to want to see noth­ing at all in order to see what is tru­ly there.

So take up this oppor­tu­ni­ty posed by Nep­tune’s chal­lenge to your expe­ri­ence of val­ue. Let Nep­tune dis­solve away the sur­face appear­ance of val­ue and reveal a deep­er, inner truth about the nature of val­ue in your life. Your jour­ney is both inward and out­ward as you seek to under­stand your pur­pose and cre­ate val­ue in the Universe.

Ulti­mate­ly, the source of your val­ue, and of all val­ues, is to be found in the truth that you and all of cre­ation are sparks of the Divine. Your val­ue is immea­sur­able because it is part of the ever-unfold­ing, nev­er-ceas­ing won­drous dance of Life-Consciousness-Spirit. 

Shine on!

Vari­ety IS the spice of life! From now till July 3^rd, Venus in Gem­i­ni will turn your appre­ci­a­tions and affec­tions towards the delights of dis­cov­ery. You will need to con­trast one thing to anoth­er, the Hot to the Cold, the Bit­ter to the Sweet, the Smooth to the Rough…Extend your sens­es to take it all in, and then some! Let a thou­sand flow­ers bloom and may every one release its own spe­cial scent for you.

Venus rules your val­ues; it indi­cates what you find plea­sur­able, what you want and how you love. The gift of Venus in Gem­i­ni is that you will be inspired to give more thought­ful con­sid­er­a­tion to the val­ues you share with loved ones. This is the time to have that talk about what brings you togeth­er, to exam­ine the val­ues that you share already, the val­ues that cre­ate the space called “we”.

But just as impor­tant, this is a time to extend your selves and dis­cov­er some new delights in your world and between one anoth­er. Won­der, curios­i­ty, play­ful­ness this is the Gem­i­ni world of eter­nal youth…and no mat­ter your age, you are always young at heart!

You are age­less, yet ancient; you are inno­cent, yet wise. You are Spir­it and your only pur­pose is to become.…so be it!