"Why don't you come in, Curdie?" said the voice. "Did you never see moonlight before?"
"Certainly not," returned the voice, which was thin and quivering: "I never saw moonlight without a moon."
"But there's no moon outside," said Curdie.
"Ah! but you're inside now," said the voice.
The Princess and Curdie, George MacDonald
To live inside the Moon! That's the gift of this Solar Eclipse in Moon-ruled Cancer. The total Solar Eclipse of July 11, 2010, (3:40pm EDT/ 12:40pm PDT) a powerful new Moon in its own sign of Cancer, is visible across the Pacific, from New Zealand to the lower part of South America. Our southern neighbor's have just gone through their Winter Solstice and this eclipse should be intense, with total coverage lasting over 5 minutes.
The Earth is aligned now on the same plane as the Moon and Sun. The Moon crosses in front of the Sun, coming between Earth and the Sun, blocking the Sun's light. A mystery occurs! The Moon is visible on a New Moon day. A disruption of the usual energies; a shadowing of solar consciousness that can put us in touch with our unconscious depths and feelings.
The Cancer Solar Eclipse calls us to come and Be inside the Moon.
The sign of Cancer is important to all of us. It evokes the Mother, the ebb and flow of tides, the nurturing waters of womb and well, the emotional body that animates the Soul. We are too quick to disregard the Mother in our society, too busy to pay attention to the ebb tides of life, too stressed to listen to the emotional body's messages, too unconscious to heed the call of the Soul. And we have poisoned our waters, so how can they nurture us?
We need to learn to live inside the Moon again. The Moon symbolizes the Unconscious, the inner matrix and Mother that births the Ego and hopefully the Self into the world. The Moon has her own type of consciousness and her own language symbolic language, the language of the Soul.
It's time to re-learn this ancient language, for it is the voice of Wisdom within us. When we enter the Moon's realm of the Imagination, we will discover the solutions to the world's problems, because those very problems are our tests, our initiation into a different relationship with Life on this planet.
So do not despair open yourself to the Moon's light, step inside it and begin your initiation. Let your imagination lead the way.
There is an ancient story about the Wasteland that speaks to what our initiation is all about.
The Maidens of the Wells
In ancient times, Logres was a rich country but it was turned into a Wasteland so that it was worth scarcely a couple of hazelnuts. For the kingdom lost the voices of the wells and the damsels that were in them. These damsels would offer food and drink to wayfarers. A traveler had only to wish for food and seek out one of the wells and a damsel would appear from out of the well with the food he liked best, a cup of gold in her hand. No wayfarers were excluded from this service.
But King Amangons broke this custom. Although it was his duty to guard the damsels and keep them within his peace, he raped one of them and took away her golden cup for his own service. After that time no damsel was seen issuing from the well and the only service which wayfarers received was done invisibly. The king's vassals followed their king's actions and raped the other damsels also, carrying off the golden cups.
And so the service of the wells ceased. The land was laid waste: trees lost their leaves, meadows and plants withered and the waters were dried up so that no man might find the Court of the Rich Fisherman, he that once made the land bright with his treasures.
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