Shame and Serving the Present Moment: Pisces-Virgo Eclipse Season

We are now in a Virgo-Pisces eclipse season. There will be a Pisces total full moon eclipse on Monday 8th September at 4:09am AEDT, then a Virgo partial new moon eclipse on Monday 22nd September at 5:54am AEDT.

Eclipses occur at the lunar nodes, which are points of fate that relate to the soul’s evolution. They are times of peak changes and illuminations that suddenly force us to reorient and rebalance polarities. The north node, where we are moving towards, is currently in Pisces, and the south node, where we are releasing or redirecting from, is currently in Virgo.

Virgo and Pisces are sometimes known as the axis of service. Virgo, an earth sign, wants be of practical service, and Pisces, a water sign, of spiritual service. Virgo brings order to chaos and Pisces surrenders to it. Virgo tends to the tiniest details and Pisces disintegrates differentiation. Pisces is the ocean, and Virgo is the grains of sand.

They are both mutable (changeable) signs. When they serve each other, Virgo is the habits, routines and patterns that are meant to continually adjust and align to the Piscean vision and ability to be in flow with the present moment. The Pisces vision and flow feeds back to inspire and give meaning to Virgo’s work.

This eclipse season, I feel we are being confronted with what happens when there is a disconnect in this reciprocity, when our habits, routines and patterns are not aligned with our vision, or if they are, surprising events place us further on our path.

I’ve been noticing this influence build in my own life for the past month on a mundane and symbolic level, and on a deep soul lesson level.

Last week I followed an impulse to move and clean my desk. I had been unhappy with its positioning and stuff had been piling up for a years. It took me a few days to sort through, and I realised that 90% of it didn’t even need to be there. It stirred up all the emotions and beliefs that led me to avoid it for so long, which I processed over those days while eating meals at my dining table surrounded by old birthday cards, business cards, momentos, photos, receipts, and figuring out where they belong. I also had a new and more open vantage point from the desk’s new position. Now that it’s done I feel much more ease and inspiration in my emotional and work flow.

On a soul level, I have been having continuous breakthroughs around shame and how it has been operating in my body. Please be mindful that the following is not clinical advice, it is what has been coming through my body wisdom and it continues to evolve.

On the day I had my initial realisation that what I was feeling a block with in my body for so long was shame and I was ready to work with it, I came across an interview with David Bedrick (highly recommended looking into his work) where he talked about how shame is not an emotion. It’s a part that developed to protect us from rejection so we could survive and belong. It’s our relationship to the inner critic and what kind of boundaries we have with it, how much we believe it and allow it to take control, including inappropriate assignment of responsibility. It’s mostly invisible and hard to detect. However, deeper inquiry into shame reveals an inherent intelligence that wants to be seen and express itself.

In my body, I realised how shame was protecting me from fully feeling the emotions that were not safe to feel in childhood in order to maintain the survival relationship with my caregivers. As soon as I felt anger, shame would swoop in and keep it looping in my head, leading to frustration and confusion, which makes sense as the purpose of anger is clarity and action. When I assured the shame that it was safe to let go of the emotion, the anger dropped down into my lower belly where I could feel it in its pure form (very satisfying btw), validate it, and allow it to fully digest and complete its cycle. I realised this must be where rumination comes from.

I then realised that there were two layers of shame. “Primary” shame (for lack of a more poetic term) that says “you are wrong for feeling this emotion” as a way to protect me from it, and “secondary” shame that tells me I’m wrong for the way the primary shame leads me to behave in ways that are not in alignment with my truth or my values, such as not expressing a need or boundary. Primary shame needs safety and encouragement to validate and express the emotion, and secondary shame needs empathy and compassion for trying to protect me in the imperfect and only way it knows how to.

When we’ve experienced an abusive caregiver, there can be shame about the love we feel for them and the yearning we feel for its reciprocity. Shame merges with the love to protect us from the pain of not having that existential need met which was too much for our system to hold. We then essentially get blocked from complete access to that pure, innocent love and ability to connect with others, and that forms the basis of our relationship patterns (which are changeable).

I’m developing a new habit of noticing when I’m ruminating or having a confusing emotional reaction and what happens when I release it from the grips of shame. This has opened me up to so much more possibility, creativity and ability to be in connection and in the present moment. It has also freed up a lot of energy that was directed towards managing this tension between emotions and shame.

To bring it back to the astrology; Virgo is our inner critic and Pisces is our compassion. The shadow side of Virgo is critical, controlling, neurotic, perfectionistic and ruminating. For Pisces it’s dissociation, escapism, delusion, overwhelm, confusion, self-sacrificing and victimisation. When they are in integrity, Virgo is discerning and Pisces is present.

This eclipse season is an invitation to become more conscious of our relationship to these energies and realign however feels most needed.

Virgo rules the small intestines, the organ that discerns what nutrients to take in from our food and which ones to discard. In Chinese medicine, the small intestines relate to discernment on a spiritual level as well - figuring out what is good for us and what isn’t.

To balance the small intestine meridian you can press on the acupressure point SI3, just under the lowest knuckle of the pinky finger on the outside of the hand.

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ou could also hold it with CV17, the hollow in the middle of the breast bone, which balances the emotions and calms the spirit. Hold for at least 3 minutes.

Let me know if and how this resonates for you.