One of the oldest and best known Chinese legends is the story of the Dragon’s Pearl. Under the rule of a cruel and corrupt leader, a young peasant boy and his mother scraped a living by cutting grass to sell as fodder. As the days grew hotter, the grass grew scarce and the boy’s mother fell ill from malnutrition.
The boy decided he would venture further out and eventually came to a lush mountain meadow. He plowed the grass and was able to provide his mother with a wonderful meal. The following morning he returned to the same meadow and found it restored. This miraculous restoration went on for weeks until one day the boy discovered a luminous pearl. On returning home, he planted a patch of that mountain grass and gave his mother the pearl. His mother placed the pearl in their rice sack because she wanted to keep it safe.
The next morning the rice sack overflowed with nourishing rice and they shared this abundance with the other villagers. Time passed. Mother and son learned the pearl multiplied whatever it touched and so they prospered.
News of their riches spread far and wide and greedy people arrived wanting to force the secret out of the pair. Both were tortured until the mother told the people about the pearl, but the boy swallowed the pearl and transformed into a serpentine dragon. He ascended into the bright azure sky and became the protector of the land.[1]
The Dragon
The dragon needs no introduction. He is both a reptile and a serpent. He is often horned and feathered. She is tamed with magical incantations or holy water. She is vanquished by heroes with swords. Dragons have symbolized fire, water, evil, darkness, eclipses, the Milky Way…
In Chinese mythology, two dragons fight over a pearl - which some believe is the Moon. In some countries dragons are guardians. In other countries the devil is a dragon and a serpent.
The Total Solar Eclipse on Monday the 8th (11:20am Pacific Time) finds the Sun, Moon and Chiron conjoined at 19º Aries. They share space in the sky with Mercury and Venus and an approaching comet - 12P/Pons-Brooks, the Devil’s Comet.
Here in psychological terms we have the Moon between us and conscious awareness. And in the Moon’s dark mirror, thanks to Chiron, a luminous pearl emerges from the depths of the unconscious.
Mollusks like oysters make pearls as a protection against irritants that find their way into their soft tissue. The material they use to coat the irritating particle is nacre, or mother of pearl.
Like oysters, we cope by adding layer upon protective layer. Sometimes this layering is physical. We eat more than we should to insulate ourselves from un-released trauma. Sometimes this layering looks like addiction or compulsion. Sometimes shame-based secrets make us behave in strange ways.
As a pearl is formed and its layers grow, a rich iridescence begins to glow. The oyster has taken what was at first an irritation and intrusion and uses it to enrich its value. How can you coat or frame the changes in your life to harvest beauty, brilliance, and wisdom?” – Susan C. Young
Mars, the ruler of this new moon, is currently in scuba gear in Piscean waters. He is your defender and protector if you are willing to brave a possible encounter with a dragon or devil. If you have planets at 19º Aries (please read my post on eclipses here) your life will change in dramatic fashion over the next 2.5 years (not necessarily in a negative way).
The question we are all invited to ask ourselves at this time is:
What wound (grievance, pain, trauma) has over time transformed into something precious?
Ponder this question because it asks you to dig into your past (remember Mars and Saturn are in Pisces and in sidereal astrology this eclipse is happening in Pisces - the sign connected to ancestral baggage and toxic family patterns).
Chiron tends to be unfairly lumped with the burden of suffering. Chiron was a teacher and healer and his placement in your birth chart and in transit indicate much more than your primal wound and activation of said wound, but also your healing abilities. I use the word healing here in the sense of “where you achieve wholeness as a person”. In Aries he may very well indicate that you suffer from low self-esteem but he also points to your capacity for heroic action. If you’re honest with yourself you know you have untapped reserves of courage within you.
This is an Aries eclipse so basic sign meanings apply. Aries is a cardinal sign so this eclipse will bring dramatic events.
Suffering
Suffering has a way of drawing out our most authentic desires and attributes.
Aries is preoccupied with essentials - like being true to ourselves so that we thrive not as imitations but as unique beings.
I like that the Chinese think of comets as “broom stars” who sweep away negativity and bring change. I think Rudolf Steiner said something along the same lines - comets are garbage collectors. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the comet currently cleaning up our corner of the solar system has horns.
This eclipse is a school of dragons. You are tasked with dissolving shame and secrets. You are asked to act courageously. And perhaps more importantly, if you’ve been hiding, pretending and sacrificing because you’re a chronic people pleaser, you are asked to grow a pair of horns.
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