Saturday, October 14th
New Moon
Annular Solar Eclipse
in Libra 21°07'
10:54 am PT

Tower Times: Navigating Internal and External Upheaval
by Sarah Faith Gottesdiener

“Directed energy causes change. To have integrity, we must recognize that our choices bring consequences, and that we cannot escape responsibility for the consequences, not because they are imposed by some external authority, but because they are inherent in the choices themselves.” — Starhawk, Dreaming the Dark

This New Moon Solar Eclipse is an opportunity to confront past actions with greater clarity and compassion, and in doing so, take accountability for them. Cause and effect is a theme highlighted now: consider when you tend to act from fear, scarcity, or autopilot, and see how you might build a more supportive baseline to make future moves from. Western culture eschews pondering consequence and responsibility; in part, this is how we got to where we are collectively—a planet on fire, too much smoke in our eyes. True accountability feels like a lost art when we can’t seem to constructively engage in respectful conflict or discomfort. Accountability means bringing values and morals into alignment with your actions. This Eclipse season, instead of living like there is no tomorrow, live like there is one. See how that influences what you do, and why you do it.

One truth is clear about this time: external events will swirl all around you, reopening past wounds that never quite healed. Your shadows and fears will be mirrored back at you: how well you navigate the spiky road stems from how willing you are to locate your agency and use it. Your spirit can determine what to release and what to repair. It’s a particular art to stay grounded while also being open enough to the larger picture: to understand that the pain you feel now will end, and even make sense, eventually. This is the path of the mystic, the magician, the artist, the sensitive, the witch. To be in the world but not of it; to always remember all the other realms available to dwell in, all the possibilities that exist. Then to walk toward them, as you embody their essence.

Libra, the sign that this Eclipse is in, corresponds to Justice in the Tarot, which pertains to balance and adjustment. Adjustment encounters reality and responds in kind. If a plant needs more water—or a relationship needs extra tending—we must first notice its thirst. Often, it is in the noticing that discomfort surfaces, and we grapple with our own accountability and agency. In this moment—when faced with the truth, when being upfront about action or lack of action—we can create a divine path that will truly lead somewhere. Adjustment harmonizes what is already there with deep perception, not mere sight. What part of your life needs more courage in order for you to encounter it with more clarity?

Upheaval teaches some of the greatest lessons: we often break patterns through exposure to extremes. Think about the light turning off in a room, then turning back on suddenly. Plunged into the dark, there is a minute of disorientation, but then you acclimate. Other senses step forward to help attunement and navigation. You turn within, you use interoception for more somatic trust, and you try to orient in another way, with a heightened internal compass. When the lights turn back on, there is relief—but the insights gleaned through other modes of perception are a gift from the darkness.

Eclipse moments happen all the time; they are the Tower Tarot card, swooping in to raze any rotting walls, clearing out cracked foundations. Moments of great loss that lead to perhaps even greater gain: we never lose what is truly ours, and what is ours allows us to navigate turmoil. In Tower moments, one identity gets traded for another; perspectives that weren’t previously available shine bright like the sun. Our ego explosion uncovers what is left after the shards are swept away. We are both villain and hero, total beginner and wise elder.  

— Excerpt from the 2023 Many Moons Lunar Planner. To read the rest of Sarah Faith Gottesdiener's Eclipse essay and access the Gifts of the Tower Tarot spread for this Eclipse, get your copy of Many Moons. The benefit edition is here. The digital edition is here.