COSMIC NEWS

by M. Kelley Hunter ) 2003

THE MEDUSA ECLIPSE

She looked into the obsidian mirror held before her.
The shiny black surface flickered in the torch light.
A dark shadowed face was reflected back to her, haloed by rings in the grain of the gemstone. She smiled and nodded in recognition of her deep secret self, honed from many years of inner reaching, searching, living, feeling. The dark face smiled in return and so did the old woman in front of her holding the mirror.

"The truth of your inner being is revealed in its full strength and beauty," said the elder.

Close to the midnight hour (EDT) on May 15-16 there is a total eclipse of
the Moon that activates the polarity of the signs Taurus and Scorpio. The
Full Moon of May is the Buddha Full Moon, the full moon under which Buddha
was born, enlightened, and died.

The SUN in TAURUS represents awareness of the tangible physical reality of
the world and the senses, while the MOON in SCORPIO pierces beneath surface
appearances to the energetic dynamics that generate experience. An
essential tenet of Buddhism is that desires cause suffering, yet life is
motivated by desire. It is said that the world came into being through the
power of Eros, the god of desire. If we fulfill our desires by allowing the
life force to move through and manifest or transform them, we continue to
grow and learn. Eventually we let go of all but the truest desires that
accord with the will of God/dess. Scorpio is the sign most associated with
the desire nature and the will, be it self-oriented will or surrender to
Higher Will.

A total eclipse is a dramatic event, this time visible in the Americas,
Africa and Europe. The Moon seems to go from full to new, as it disappears
in the shadow of the Earth, and then becomes full again. In essence, we
fast-forward through a whole moon cycle during which our collective shadow
is illumined and transformed in the mirror of the Moon. An eclipse closes
doors and opens new ones. In Taurus and Scorpio, this is a distinct and
definite closure. Imagine it this way: you are watching a video or DVD on
your TV. The electricity goes off and the movie pops out. The electricity
goes back on, and you push the movie back in, BUT it9s a different movie!
It can take up to 6 months or a year for the dynamics of an eclipse to work
out. The follow-up to this May eclipse is on November 9, another total
eclipse in Scorpio-Taurus with a highly unusual and mystical pattern.

This eclipse takes place at 25 degrees of both signs. Thus it is aligned
with the star ALGOL, which marks the baleful eye of MEDUSA, the famous
monster lady with snakes for hair. This star has been called the most evil
star in the sky. The Hebrews called this star Lilith, reminding us that the
Black Moon Lilith colored the last New Moon with her dark soul mysteries.
The total eclipse is an appropriate fruition of that New Moon.

In their intriguing book, Signs in the Heavens, William Bento, David
Tresemer and Robert Schiappacasse point out that the paths of the two
comets Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp in 1996 and 1997 traced a cross in the sky,
which centered on the star Algol. They discussed this in relation to
historical events mentioned in the Bible and to the myth of Medusa. (see
www.sunshinepress.com)

Remember her? Looking in her eye would turn a person to stone. The Greek
hero Perseus had to use a mirror in order to approach her and cut off her
head.

Carefully stepping backwards, feeling each footfall with jaguar stealth,
Perseus kept his eye on the shield strapped to his left arm.
He held it to his side turned like a rear-view mirror.
As he retreated further into the Gorgon9s cave,
irregular light rippled like waves across the polished surface of the shield,
moving in slippery serpentine forms.
Startled, he realized he was seeing Medusa,
her back to him, filling the shield9s surface with dark slithering shadows,
surrounding a faint image of his own face, seen as if from a great distance,
haloed in undulating clouds.
He felt suddenly as if he were underwater and breathed deeply in to steady
himself.
In that breath he could taste her musky scent, like some ancient salty perfume,
evoking strange memories.
Focusing again on the mirror, he was now looking into a vast single Eye,
seeing his future unwind like a long dark tunnel.

During this eclipse, we look into such a mirror a mirror of reflection to
the inner realms, to our deepest fears and deepest desires (often the same
thing). It is the fears which are ephemeral and, ultimately, the desires as
well. Medusa9s Eye looks right through you and perceives

with an objectivity like that of nature itself and our dreams, boring into
the soul to find the naked truth, to see reality beneath all its myriad
forms and the illusions and defenses it displays (Perera, Descent to the
Goddess).

Perhaps Medusa was an African high priestess who wore her hair in
dreadlocks. Her serpentine hair suggests wisdom and the rays of the Sun.
Her raging wildness is like the dance of the Kali, who sweeps away what is
no longer life-giving and vital. Black Moon Lilith is conjunct Mercury,
still retrograde until Monday, another call for deep inner reflection, to
tap the truest desires of our soul. Let go into the void, where the light
is most subtle, vibrant and eternal.

See you on the other side!

Astrologer Kelley Hunter is a resident of St. John, US Virgin Islands, where she leads star gazing nights and teaches with Self Centre International at Caneel Bay Resort. She is finishing her Ph.D. in cosmology and myth.