Flowers of the Night
by Jean Hinson Lall

Weather permitting, this week’s lunar eclipse will be visible in much of North America and Europe. The moon will enter the Earth’s shadow (umbra) at 9:14 pm EDT (6:14 pm PDT, 2:14 am BST). Totality will begin at 10:23 pm and end at 11:45 pm EDT, and the moon will leave the Earth’s shadow at 12:54 am EDT on the 28^th.

Taurus and Scorpio, the signs of desire, teach the mysteries of matter. Taurus, which in the solar year belongs to blooming Spring, rejoices in the beauty of the world and grounds itself through sensory experience. It represents the ability to make oneself at home in the body and the physical world and to enjoy the present moment. Through experiences of pleasure and pain we develop a healthy respect for the laws of cause and effect which is essential for adaptation to life. Taureans are sometimes chided for their love of comfort and pleasure, but it should be remembered that our innate capacity for pleasure is just as essential to survival as is the ability to feel pain and to undergo hardship. Beautiful colors and pleasing proportions, alluring aromas and satisfying tastes and textures are nature’s strategies to attract us to appropriate foods and to promising mates. The healthy appetites of Taurus, together with its realism, prompt us to acquire and store what we will need to survive and flourish.

If Taurus teaches us how to take care of ourselves and fosters growth and enjoyment of life, Scorpio understands the power of sacrificing our own desires for a wider purpose, and of deferring immediate pleasure for the sake of later fulfillment. In relationships Scorpio goes beyond physical enjoyment to create emotional and psychological union. It merges its accumulated wealth with that of the partner or invests it, whether for profit (as in the stock market) or for the public good (as in philanthropy). While our Taurus side thinks in terms of staying alive and conserving its assets, the Scorpio impulse enables the individual to risk and to sacrifice – perhaps even to lay down his own life -- in order to fulfill his role in family, tribe or country. Scorpio understands that life feeds upon life, that the prey must die in order for the hunter to eat, and does not shrink from the challenge of the hunt or the confrontation with mortality. Rather than pile up possessions, it helps us eliminate what is no longer needed and keep only that which is essential and life-giving. Scorpio’s gift is to know when it’s time to fold, to shut down a business, cut down an ailing tree, go in for surgery, sell a stock, end a relationship. Letting old things go makes room for new things to come into being.

At a lunar eclipse, sun, Earth and moon are all in alignment so that our planet’s shadow obscures the moon. Astrologically this darkening does not mean a loss or negation of what the Moon represents, but an intensification and an opportunity to see through to its essence. Just as the stars become visible only when the Sun’s light is absent, the Moon can reveal certain secrets when her face is veiled.

With a Taurus Moon in eclipse we might catch a glimpse of the blossoms of the night world, the sensuous realm of imagination which feeds our dreams. "In the depths of matter," wrote Gaston Bachelard, "there grows an obscure vegetation; black flowers bloom in matter’s darkness. They already possess a velvety touch, a formula for perfume." This dark vegetation of the soul lives in us before we ever see a garden in bloom. The face of a lover, the taste of a ripe peach, the laughter of a baby – all these are dreamed and imagined realities as much as they are sensory experiences. Sometimes we realize them more completely when they are no longer in life. The soul of a dead sweetheart shines forth from a faded photograph; the essence of a peach is captured in a still life or a line of poetry. These images of what is no more, yet cannot die, do not for a moment negate the worth of what still lives and blooms; rather, they show the depth behind it, the soul in everything. When this depth in things is treasured, we need fewer things and enjoy them more. Perhaps too we can love people better and cling to them less, letting the strange flowers of their being blossom according to their own nature rather than our desire.

Reference:

Gaston Bachelard, Water and Dreams: An Essay on the Imagination of Matter, translated from the French by Edith R. Farrell (Dallas: The Pegasus Foundation, Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture, 1983), p. 2.

For further information on the lunar eclipse, go to http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/watchtheskies/13oct_lunareclipse.html.

Look for the Scorpio New Moon
on November12, 2004.

© 2004 Jean Hinson Lall
All rights reserved