Total Solar Eclipse/New Moon in Leo: The Rebirth of a Nation

Total Solar Eclipse/New Moon in Leo:  Rebirth of a Nation

Moon conjunct Sun @ 1:30pm CDT on 8-21-17

(time of eclipse, and duration, varies depending on location)

Born in the capital city of Iowa in 1982 and raised in the Midwest for most of my life, I love our nation…especially what it is becoming.  This land is beautiful, but it has its shadows.  In order to become what this country is meant to be, something truly great and awe-inspiring has to bring us all together in an undeniable way (and I’m not talking about a sea of red hats that have a skewed message of making our country “great again”). 

Enter the "Great American Eclipse" of 2017…the first total solar eclipse to pass over the U.S. in the 21^st century.  There is no denying the draw to this event, as swarms of people already have their plans in place for viewing this eclipse along its path of totality through 14 of our states (though Montana and Iowa have only a small patch of viewing area, they are still in the path). 

Eclipses come in pairs, and this solar eclipse is the finale that follows the August 7^th partial lunar eclipse that was visible on all continents but the Americas. From an astrological point of view, the total solar eclipse on August 21^st reverses the energies brought forth by the shadows of the lunar eclipse and the eclipse window between the two. 

Interestingly, our current president was born during a lunar eclipse and this solar eclipse is conjunct his Ascendant (the point of the zodiac that was rising on the eastern horizon when he was born…in astrology, this is significant as not only how you are seen by others, but also what your soul is here to learn).  Essentially, the pressure is on Donald Trump and it’s incredibly uncomfortable for him (with good reason…his abysmal approval rating mirrors an inward division between his insecure ego and his soul’s calling).  It is possible that, because he refuses to operate on a soul level and instead supports ideals that further divide this country, his influence may become eclipsed, reversed, and left behind as the rest of us push forward into a new timeline.  How that will manifest, we’ll just have to see for ourselves.  It is not our responsibility to focus on him and his journey…but to focus on what we DO want for our future.


Within that eclipse window, we had Mercury’s retrograde station on August 12^th…a weekend when the shadows of our country came out full force to be reckoned with.  Emotions were high…and overwhelmingly were soaked with unshakable anger.  White Supremacy came out to be finally addressed, after a long history of those shadows being pervasive but largely ignored and allowed to continue to various degrees.  We were fighting it from the beginning, really…but not well enough.  Thomas Jefferson planned to denounce slavery in the Declaration of Independence, but removed those references to ensure South Carolina (the final state graced by this year’s total eclipse) joined the union.  Slavery was such a part of South Carolina in the late 1600s, that in less than fifty years, the people of South Carolina exported almost fifty-thousand captured American Indians and sold them as slaves, so they could buy more African slaves, who were deemed more knowledgeable and skilled. Despite the gift of allowing slavery to exist to ensure South Carolina join the Union, South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union. Had our Founding Fathers held their plans to denounce slavery, the entire industry of slavery and the civil war might not have existed.  Instead, our country was not only founded with that open wound not addressed…it was founded by white males who knew better, but allowed it for what they thought was more important (momentary gain).  That’s part of our history, painful as that wound is.  While we have to accept that there are deep shadows in our history, we are now at a point where we must choose to not accept allowing that wound to fester any longer.  It’s infected the whole country and it’s all coming to a head in this eclipse window so that we can finally heal it in the light of consciousness.


It isn’t a pretty process.  It’s downright ugly to begin with, for sure, as we are seeing.  These shadows hurt everyone, even those with the privilege to disregard them or mistake them for something less than they are for so long.  Even those who feed those shadows with their worldview, their communication, their mentality, their actions…those ancestral wounds run deepest as they only learn from their history and their environment how to alienate themselves and others with hate and division.  It’s not that they don’t know any better…I believe, deep down, they do know better…but many of them have yet to come across or absorb any lesson that changes their hearts and minds and makes them finally care.

Those of us who do care…make no mistake, we far outnumber those who don’t…we have a responsibility to peer into these shadows and see the truth within them.  The truth is, our power is not in having power over others.  Our power is in unity.  Our country is not the “Great States of White America” it is the United States of America…our focus is not to “Make America Great Again”, it is to make America UNITED finally. 

With foundations built upon genocide, displacement, and suppression of the rights of Native Americans as well as slavery and gender inequality, but also liberation of colonists from oppressors…our nation is a confusing mix of both freedom and oppression. The initial idea of liberty, which has evolved over time, was first only for white men.  Women and non-anglo people had to fight for the same rights, over time and with great effort, that white men had privilege to from the start…including the right to vote. We have come a long way, thanks to the determination of many social justice warriors and movements throughout our history. 

But it was pretty apparent during the Mercury Station on the 12^th, what we’re really up against.  While angry, hateful, violent, and armed white supremacists rallied in a planned race riot to promote division and inspired one of their ranks to run over a crowd of counter-protestors (killing Heather Heyer and injuring many others)…the police presence was minimal and largely unresponsive (in fact, they were more focused on the counter-protestors).  But at Standing Rock, when our First Nations banded together as water protectors with solidarity and support from all races in this country in peaceful protest against the desecration of our sacred land and water…they were met with rubber bullets, water cannons in freezing temperatures, attack dogs, tear gas, hired thugs, police in riot gear and other examples of brutality and oppression they didn’t deserve.  Water Protectors at Standing Rock had sage and prayers, while white supremacists were armed and shouting hate speech.  Clearly, priorities are completely skewed when peace and protection of our land, water, and people are met with violent opposition while violent domestic terrorism is met with relative allowance.  The difference in mainstream media coverage of both events is telling as well.  This un-response by police in Charlottesville also stands in stark contrast to their presence in Ferguson, BLM North Carolina, and other instances where non-white people were standing up against oppression of their people…many of them grieving losses more important than mere statues.


I mentioned, in my previous post about Mercury Retrograde, that we as a nation are undergoing a collective soul retrieval.  From a shamanic viewpoint, this is when a shaman (represented by Mercury, in the mythic sense) journeys to retrieve lost soul parts that have broken off after trauma to our collective soul.  The deeper the trauma, and the more frequent the trauma, the greater the journey to track down these soul fragments.  It is obvious, in light of the events that transpired during Mercury’s station, that the soul pieces calling for retrieval and re-integration are those that were separated through the history of white supremacy in this nation.  From the obvious to the subtle…from supremacy over race, religion, gender, orientation, and anything else deemed ‘other’ to the violence, oppression, suppression, and gaslighting that the wounded male has inflicted upon others...there is a lot of soul loss to heal. It's not a quick, or easy, process.


There is a period after those lost or stolen soul parts are brought home that is known as the integration.  Especially after such intense trauma, we can’t expect everything to just suddenly clear up and be okay.  Those soul parts carry memory of these traumas…they carry heavy emotion and fear.  Being reintroduced to a place that has been wounded and scarred by these traumas, and more, is a shaky process.  It is important to both have support from others and to understand the importance of each individual carrying out personal responsibility for making the world around them a safe and welcoming environment during the integration process and beyond.  Things can surface in this time that are difficult to deal with…painful to feel.  But we can’t ignore them…no, ignorance is what got us to this place to begin with.  We have to nurture what comes forth with love for our healing collective soul and forgiveness for past traumas it has endured.  For example, when someone has a soul retrieval and reintegrates soul pieces that broke away after childhood traumas…that person must treat the integration of those soul parts as a loving parent who must protect and nurture that scared child self to stay and heal.  Essentially, we must create the same nurturing and loving environment in order to heal the collective soul of our land into wholeness. To do this, it is especially important that the Sacred Masculine within us all experiences a rebirth as is happening with the Sacred Feminine. 

The shadows that have surfaced since the lunar eclipse earlier this month are all part of the brew within this eclipse cauldron.  Within the cauldron, the medicine within these shadows is extracted for widespread use as a healing tincture for our collective wounds.  The rebirth of the Sacred Masculine highlighted with this second new moon in Leo is being midwifed by the Sacred Feminine within us all, especially those who are consciously co-creating this shift of timelines.  This total eclipse is the portal through which that rebirth is possible.  While there will be a vast number of observers peering into that portal, there will also be those among us who are helping to bring this new life in through that birth canal, in a moment of celebration and participatory engagement.

While the distinct beauty of this eclipse can be seen by the naked eye, what you can’t see is the whole cosmic dance that is providing it with such power.  During the eclipse, the Sun and Moon are conjunct Regulus (the heart of the lion) at the end of the sign of Leo, Uranus and Eris are conjunct at the end of Aries, and Saturn is conjunct Galactic Center at the end of Sagittarius…all of which are fire signs.  This is known as a Grand Fire Trine, an aspect pattern which is incredibly beneficial and, with the Galactic Center represented, is a cosmic creative portal itself. 

The Galactic Center of our Milky Way galaxy is, in astrological terms, a portal through which we connect to multi-universes.  It is a powerful source of energy, motivation, and aspiration where its activation allows for downloads of important information from which we Astro-Shamans often refer to as “The Star Nations”.  If you can imagine that an activation of the Galactic Center is like opening a channel, or a line of communication exchange, between our solar system to the rest of the Star Nations…you may understand how the eclipse’s 120 degree connection to it provides a direct channel from our luminaries to our planet.  I could probably write a whole post just about the significance of Galactic Center and its many activations this year, but this is one I want to leave open for personal interpretation.  In my observations, there is an accelerated influx of energetic downloads to those of us living on Earth this year and each of us has access to our own piece of that wisdom coming through.  So our experiences of this wisdom can both be very different from each other’s and creates links in the greater message we’re receiving when we connect with each other on the soul level.  Even in the confusion cast by the illusion of separation we’re all facing now…there is a greater story happening of our coming together as a species and accessing the larger story of conscious existence by each heart-and-soul connection we make.

Let’s bring the focus in, now, to the specific degree of this New Moon Eclipse in Leo 29.  The Sabian Symbol for this degree is “A Mermaid emerges from the ocean waves ready for rebirth into human form”.  This Mermaid energy not only mirrors our own evolution, out of the ocean, of our species…but it also mirrors how the total eclipsed sun will rise from the Pacific Ocean, travel across U.S. soil for just over an hour and a half and then travel across the Atlantic Ocean before lifting over that body of water.  It’s quite mythic under the influence of the Mermaid ascension story.  I think it’s quite fitting that the eclipse begins in the ocean told to be the home of the ancient civilization of Lemuria, and ends over the ocean told to be the home of the ancient civilization of Atlantis…two “lost” civilizations that were once “great” but were dispersed and sunk by the great earth changes of their time.  That’s all part of the download we’re getting from this total eclipse…and pieces of this mythic storyline will be re-integrated after the eclipse.  As the story goes, so far as we understand it today from various sources (including Plato), both civilizations existed within the same time period, and both were very different…especially in their awareness and response to the earth changes of that time. The wisdom-keepers of Lemuria were well prepared and ensured that their wisdom would survive (our First Nations are said to be descendants of Lemurians, and some Asian cultures are as well).  The Atlanteans, however, were ruled by royal descendants and, overtime, had lost their connection to their spiritual roots and strayed from the sacred laws of their land.  Both were highly advanced civilizations, but Atlantis fell prey to the destruction and greed that has been plaguing our own nation since its conception.  The eclipse is bringing us valuable insights from both of these ancient civilizations in order to show us how to save ourselves from self-destruction.  This is the rebirth that is called for.  And this is a call to our people, all of us, that it isn’t too late…but the time is now to reverse what damage has been done.


So now let’s bring the focus in even closer to our Earth and make note of the eclipse path.  Here are some of the details that I found interesting:

The shadow touches down in the North Pacific Ocean at 11:48am CDT…where the sun will rise totally eclipsed.

At 12:15pm CDT, the shadow first touches ground. First point of landfall of the eclipse is Government Point, a cape in Lincoln County, Oregon…where the shadow passes through Lincoln Beach. (Note the significance of the names)

Throughout this Mermaid Eclipse journey on land, it hits 5 state capitals:  Casper, WY, Lincoln, NE (1m 25.5s of totality at 1:02pm CDT, where I will be facilitating an intention ceremony), Jefferson City, MO, Nashville, TN, and Columbia, SC

It will only take 19 minutes for the eclipse to cross Nebraska (a swift trip across my current home state).

Not only does Illinois have the most area of overlap for both of the great eclipses of 2017 and 2024, but it also has the point of greatest duration for viewing this eclipse (Shawnee National Forest will see 2m 44s of totality).

At 1:49pm CDT, the eclipse will leave land on a long, isolated beach on a barrier island at the tip of Cape Romain Wildlife Refuge, east of McClellanville, SC.

The total eclipse will travel over U.S. soil for a total of 1hr 33m 16.8s before moving into the Atlantic Ocean.  The shadow won’t touch any more land before lifting off near Africa about 75 minutes after it left the U.S.

In closing, I’d just like to reiterate that I believe there is a reason this path is travelling from Government Point in Lincoln county, across multiple state capitals (including Lincoln, NE…where my focus will be) and into the state of South Carolina as its final destination in our country…a state which clings to its confederate history, flies the confederate battle flag at its capitol building, is home to many racial wounds (including the 2015 murder of multiple black people at a church bible study by a white man), practices voter suppression, and continues to be adamant about keeping their confederate monuments proudly displayed.  I’m sorry, South Carolina.  I don’t mean to harsh on your state specifically.  We all have our contributions to this national wound.  But can you imagine the powerful message of rebirth and unity that this one state could send just by shifting its allegiance from a past of separation to a future of unity?  It may seem impossible, both to South Carolinians as well as to the rest of us in this country…but there’s no time like the present to take this opportunity for rebirth. 

We all have the opportunity to be supportive of such changes as we step into various levels of the unknown in the years between this eclipse and the one in 2024.  This is what I mean by midwifing the rebirth.  Our Mother Earth is asking us all to be those calm, supportive caretakers as these changes are taking place.  It would be disrespectful of the birth process unfolding if we invited shaming, vitriol, or fighting into the birthing room.  We’ve recognized the shadows, we’ve called them out and dispersed them from the room…what remains is the medicine we’ve extracted from them.  And that medicine is the very rebirth of a nation that is beginning this Monday.

I hope you’ll join me and my family and friends, in Spirit, where ever you may be viewing/feeling this eclipse…as we peer into that energetic portal and set our intentions for love, gratitude, and healing all across this land.  May we all welcome, in our unified consciousness, the rebirth of a nation for the best possible outcome of our future generations.

Love and Gratitude,

Felina Lune Kavi