Healing Shame
A total lunar eclipse in Pisces peaked at 11:11 a.m. PT this morning, and its effects are likely to ripple throughout the coming weeks. Visible in parts of the world where it was dark at the time, the Earth blocked the Sun's light, casting the full Moon into a blood-red shadow for over an hour. For all of us, the eclipse opened a portal for accelerated change that will be bookended by the solar eclipse in Virgo on the 21st. The TL;DR: expect surprises. Abrupt endings, sudden shifts, and new information coming to light are all on the table.
This total lunar eclipse in Pisces is the first of its kind in nine years—the last was in September 2016. For clues about the personal karmic effects of this eclipse, it may help to reflect on what was shifting in your life then. Pisces, the final sign of the astrological cycle, is most closely associated with mysticism and healing—distilling the experiential medicine of the preceding 11 signs. Its shadow side, however, relates to unworthiness and shame.
Individually and collectively, this eclipse portal is an opportunity to bring those feelings into the open and acknowledge them with compassion. For most of us this will be a private exercise, but for others we will be called to speak. On Wednesday of last week, 10 victims of Jeffrey Epstein spoke at a press conference in Washington, D.C., calling for support of a bill to release the full contents of the Epstein files. Despite the disruption of a military jet flyover ordered by Trump – purportedly to honor a Polish soldier – which at times drowned out their voices, the individuals spoke about their sexual abuse by Epstein, many of them as minors.
Jena-Lisa Jones shared that she was introduced to Epstein at the age of 14. She said, "I had never been more scared in my life than I was the first time he hurt me," adding, "I know I was just a little kid but sometimes I still feel that it was my fault this happened."
This misplaced sense of fault and shame is a common experience among survivors of sexual abuse. Beverly Engel, author of Freedom at Last: Healing the Shame of Childhood Sexual Abuse, writes: "Escaping the prison of shame that confines you and continues to wear you down is not an easy task. You will need to learn that the abuse is not your fault—a monumental task in itself." Breaking that silence is often the first step toward releasing shame, yet it can feel like the hardest step to take. As Maya Angelou, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, once put it: "There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."
To add your own voice of support for the Epstein Transparency Act, contact your congressional representatives. You can find your representatives and links to their websites with the lookup tool halfway down this page: govtrack.us.
