The eclipse of the Moon at fifteen degrees of Pisces is an event that opens the heavens to shadow and fire. When the Earth rises between the two great lights, the covenant of Sun and Moon is interrupted, and the mirror that should reflect silver light turns into a vessel of blood.
The ancients saw this as a time of danger, since the nourishment of the soul becomes obscured. The Moon, mother of memory and guardian of the tides, is clothed in red; the Sun, source of the Logos, is concealed from her gaze. In the body of the Tree of Life this is a rupture of vertical harmony, a trembling of the Fire that unites Christ and Mary, Tifereth and Yesod.
I. The Vertical Severing of Temperance
The vertical axis of the Tree carries the golden Sun at Tifereth and the silver Moon at Yesod. Between them flows the path of Samekh, marked by the fourteenth arcanum Temperance. This is the Angel who joins fire and water, measuring the two vessels without spilling a drop. The union of Logos and Sophia depends upon this stream, since it is the breath that allows heaven and earth to speak to one another.
When the eclipse takes place, this harmony falters. The Earth, Malkuth, rises into the bond and interrupts the flow. The Angel of Samekh can no longer sustain the mixing of the two vessels. The Moon falls into shadow and bleeds in the sky. The vertical current that binds Sun and Moon is wounded, and the chamber of memory is left without light. In Pisces, a sign of mutable water, the dissolution is even greater. Boundaries dissolve, the cups of Temperance overflow, and the sea swallows the measure of the rite. What should be harmony turns into excess; what should be clarity turns into intoxication. The blood of the Moon in the dissolving waters of Pisces is the sacrament of a chalice overturned.
II. The Horizontal Clash of Strength
The regent of this eclipse is Jupiter, as the Moon stands in his sign and bound. But Jupiter himself is in Cancer, under the power of the Mother. This creates a closed circle of rulership; the Moon rules Jupiter, Jupiter rules the Moon. It may seem to seal a bond of mutual protection, but the truth is harsher. Jupiter will be carrying the mark of a violent clash with Mars; a separating square of one degree reverberates.
On the Tree this is the horizontal bridge between Chesed and Geburah, mercy and severity. The letter of this path is Tet, marked by the serpent and the lion of the Strength card, associated with Leo and the North Node itself. Jupiter expands, Mars cuts; Jupiter blesses, Mars judges. Their struggle leaves a scar and the regent of the eclipse will not be at peace. The Moon, overshadowed by the body of Earth, will be governed during her eclipse by a wounded king.
III. The Cross of Fire upon the Waters
The eclipse may suggest a drama of water, yet the paths that tremble are fire. Samekh is Sagittarius, fire mutable. Tet is Leo, fire fixed. Although the bodies involved are lunar and jupiterian in signs of water, the Tree points to fire. Two flames cross the heavens at the moment when the Moon turns to blood. The Angel of Temperance is silenced; the lion of Strength is aroused. The chalice of Pisces turns into an ocean of crimson.
This is the paradox written in the firmament: water signs bound to fire, a Moon drowned but burning. The vertical wound cuts the bond of Sun and Moon, the horizontal wound severs the bridge of mercy and severity. The result is a cross of fire upon the waters, a sign of trial and purification. The caldæans feared it, since shadow fell upon the maternal lamp of the night. But it can also be seen as revelation, given that, when the Moon is eclipsed, the hidden face of the soul is exposed.
The lunar eclipse of September marks a moment where the Tree speaks in blood. Temperance and Strength, Samekh and Tet, angel and lion: all converge upon the body of the Moon. The heavens declare a mystery of dissolution and fire, of water that drowns and flame that consumes. To behold it is to witness a sacrament written in shadow, a liturgy where Mary is veiled in the umbra and Christ waits in silence. The eclipse is a chalice overturned, a cross of flame over the waters, and a sign that the Rose will open in blood before it blossoms again in light.
Fiat Lux.