And away we go… by Allison Rae;

[Hilda]

These final, still moments of the waning moon are filled with expectancy. A portal of awakening beckons.

Beginning this week and continuing through mid-July, we’re carried by rhythms of creation on a journey of the soul. We’ll explore seeming polarities of light and darkness, masculine and feminine, spiritual and material as we come home to the heart of love. This is a journey of oneness, of divine union with our source, of awakening to unity consciousness.

A series of three eclipses, the June Solstice and the ongoing Ninth Wave of the Mayan calendar pulse with universal rhythms through lunar, solar, star and galactic alignments that fuel our evolution on Earth. We can look at the entire period as a portal of initiation. Within that, each specific planetary alignment creates an energetic portal that facilitates the journey.

During eclipse periods, we explore the play of light and shadow, conscious and unconscious, outer and inner, ego and soul. Our choices and karma – the consequences of our actions and thoughts – are magnified.

Eclipses happen every six months, in pairs or triads. This series is bubbling with magic and surprises. It’s a most sacred and holy time.

The Potential

When we work with eclipses shamanically, we’re able to transform our lives and our world. More than ever before, 2011 is a year to become empowered co-creators rather than passively watching and waiting for whatever comes next.

What’s possible during the June 1-July 1 eclipse period, and beyond?

Embedded within the next six weeks is an enormous opportunity to break free from longstanding patterns, including beliefs, behaviors, addictions or anything that keeps us from expressing our highest destiny.

This is one of those cosmic moments when our intentions and our evolutionary process are extra-supported. Possibilities include:

Release of karmic bonds, including family of origin issues

Purification and healing of the physical, mental and emotional bodies

Purification and healing of the Earth

Dissolving the illusion of separation and resolution of seeming polarities

Balance of sacred masculine and divine feminine energies

Spiritual awakening

Meditation, prayer and ritual are most potent during the times of exact alignment. However, each planetary alignment is an energetic gateway lasting approximately three days, with the energy culminating when the alignments are exact. The entire period through mid-July will be intense, with shifting energies and the seeming acceleration of time.

Highlights and Details

June 1 -  Pre-Dawn Alignment - Theme: Initiation

Around the world, an intriguing planetary alignment will be visible in the early (pre-dawn) morning on June 1. Just before dawn local time, as the Sun and Moon meet below the horizon, Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter will create a stunning visual display for anyone with a clear sky.

Beginning around 5 a.m. local time, Jupiter is the brightest object in the east. As Jupiter rises, Mars becomes visible lower in the sky and slightly north, followed by Venus, then Mercury and the Moon. Beyond Mercury, in the direction of the rising Sun, lie the Pleiades. By 6:30 a.m. local time, the four planets are visible.

The configuration, including a mysterious extra-planetary object, was predicted two years ago in crop formations in the United Kingdom. See the Crop Circle Connector website for details:

http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/anasazi/time2011b.html

In Mayan tradition, Venus is the feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl and represents the exalted spiritual human, the embodiment of heaven and earth, unified. With the Pleiades rising near the Sun, the Ancestors watch over and guide our journey of enlightenment.

What an auspicious way to kick off the eclipse season!

** If you miss it on June 1, you’ll still have a chance to see this alignment (minus the Moon) each morning through June 7.

June 1 – New Moon Solar Eclipse (partial) – 11 Gemini
Theme: Seeding Intent

Eclipse begins 7:25 PM GMT
Greatest eclipse 9:16 PM GMT
Eclipse ends 11:06 PM GMT
Time zone converter: http://www.timezoneconverter.com/cgi-bin/tzc.tzc

This is a “midnight sun” eclipse visible in far northern latitudes, including parts of Asia, northern Alaska, norther Canada, Greenland, Iceland and Scandinavia. At this time, we breathe with universal forces of creation and focus our intent for the coming weeks.

June 7 – Ninth Wave – Beginning of the Third Night

The evolution of consciousness culminataes in the ninth and final underworld of the Mayan calendar, as interpreted by Carl Johan Calleman. New frequencies are transmitted and assimilated in waves of 18-day “days” and 18-day “nights” from March 9 through October 28, 2011.

Much of the June-July eclipse cycle happens during the Third Night of the Ninth Wave. The “nights” are integration phases when we explore what transpersonal psychologist Carl Jung called the “shadow,” or unconscious realms.

June 15 – Full Moon Lunar Eclipse (total) – 24 Sagittarius/Gemini
Theme: Balance

Eclipse begins 5:23 PM GMT
Middle of eclipse 8:12 PM GMT
Eclipse ends 11:02 PM GMT
Time zone converter: http://www.timezoneconverter.com/cgi-bin/tzc.tzc

This total lunar eclipse will be visible in Australia, Japan, Asia, India, Africa, Europe and South America. In a lunar eclipse, we experience extreme acceleration, with a full 28-day lunar cycle happening in just a few hours. For those in the path of totality, a shadow crosses the face of Moon until it darkens completely, then slowly the full moon emerges again, whole.

All full moons are oppositions of the Sun and Moon. In a lunar eclipse, the Earth blocks the reflected light of the Sun, causing the Moon to appear to darken. Like the Moon, we journey deep into the shadow, the underworld of the soul, and emerge wiser, more balanced and whole through this passage.

The June 15 lunar eclipse aligns with the Galactic Center, a dense mass of explosive, detructive-creative forces at the heart of the Milky Way. Through this alignment, pure divine love emanates from the Galactic Center, opening our hearts, empowering our thoughts and inviting us to new levels of creativity. Like the full moon alignment and the Solstice that follows, this is a place of balance and centering.

June 21 – Solstice

Theme: Awakening

In northern latitudes, the Summer Solstice is the apex of the solar year. We have maximum daylight and minimal night. In the southern hemisphere, this is the Winter Solstice and deepest night.

Solstice means stillpoint. It’s a three-day period when the Sun appears to hang in the most southerly, or northerly, part of its journey through the sky before changing direction and going the other way. During this pause, we reflect on our journey during the previous six months and celebrate the change of seasons.

As the Sun crosses the Sosltice point, we begin again.

June 25 – Ninth Wave – Beginning of the Fourth Day

The Third Night ends and we begin to emerge into the Fourth Day of the Mayan Ninth Wave. This 18-day phase carries us through the remainder of the eclipse series and Venus’ disappearance as Morning Star in the east.

July 1 – New Moon Solar Eclipse (partial) – 9 Cancer
Theme: Resolution of Duality, New Beginning

Eclipse begins 7:53 AM GMT
Greatest eclipse 8:38 AM GMT
Eclipse ends 9:22 AM GMT
Time zone converter: http://www.timezoneconverter.com/cgi-bin/tzc.tzc

This partial solar eclipse is visible only from a small part of the ocean between Antarctica and southern Africa, but the alignment is significant. As the Sun and Moon meet in Cancer, they align with the great star Sirius and form a Grand Cross in cardinal signs (Sun-Moon opposing Pluto in Capricorn; Saturn in Libra opposing Uranus in Aries).

The alignment signals the breakdown of the old world as the spiritual energy of love-wisdom emanating through Sirius opens the heart and begins to heal the world. The ongoing T-square of Pluto, Uranus and Saturn is in place throughout the eclipse period, but it isn’t until the Sun and Moon enter the fourth position that a Grand Cross is formed.

The impact of these powerful outer planets combined with the initiatory energies of the cardinal signs make this the perfect time to begin new projects, head in new directions and change your life in positive, soul-centered ways. In the outer world, the energies will likely express as more political unrest, social movements, extreme weather and Earth changes.

Where the eclipses fall in your natal chart tells gives us a closer look at how the energies are likely to express for you personally.

July 11 – Venus enters the Underworld (rises as Evening Star on September 23)
Theme: Transformation

The current Venus cycle in the shamanic sign of Scorpio guides us in the process of transformation through death and rebirth. Like the mythical phoenix, we shed the past and rise from the ashes of our former selves.

July 13 – Ninth Wave – Beginning of the Fourth Night

Another 18-day integration phase follows the eclipse series. It’s time to reconfigure our lives and our world in alignment with the higher frequencies we’re assimilating.

The Journey

Eclipses signal big changes and offer enormous potential for transformation. During eclipse periods, pretty much everything is accelerated and amplified. The Ninth Wave and volatile outer-planet configurations add to the mix.

Release of the past is incredibly freeing, yet we humans tend to resist change. So life will be intense, and your “stuff” will be in your face through at least the middle of July.

Chaos and breakdown do have advantages. Destruction of the old creates space for the new to emerge.

Here are some ideas for supporting yourself as you make your way through this intense period. Remember that everything we do affects the collective. With each thought and action, every prayer, we have the opportunity to contribute to the upliftment of humanity and the Earth in these transitional times.

Stay grounded

Be present

Do one thing at a time

Be love

Meditate daily (preferable morning and evening)

Do yoga, tai chi, xi gong or other sacred movement

Get your feet on the Earth with a long walk, hike or jog

Tend your garden

Go camping

Laugh

Play

Dance

Channel your energy into something creative, or athletic

Hang out with children

Try something you’ve always wanted to do

Volunteer for something you care about

Downsize

Restructure

Give away what you don’t need or use

Exercise daily

Honor your natural sleep cycles (you may need more or less rest during this time)

Tune up the body with a cleanse

Book a massage or other body/energy work

Soak in a hot bath or visit the hot springs

Eat root vegetables and dark, leafy greens

Be sure to get your vitamins and minerals

Enjoy calming, herbal teas

Allow the plant kingdom to support you with aromatherapy or flower essences

Pay attention to messages in dreams and meditation

Do something unexpected

Care for someone you love, or someone you don’t know

Visit sacred sites

Create an altar

Walk a labyrinth

Write down your intentions, what you choose to create and how you choose to be

Stay positive

Use mantra to help you focus

Allow your heart to open naturally as you absorb the incoming frequencies

Notice your thoughts, feelings and impressions

Notice who and crosses your path (and doesn’t)

Keep a journal

Envision a brighter future

Let go

Cry when you need to

…and most of all, b-r-e-a-t-h-e

The journey of a lifetime begins now. Don’t miss it.