Your Eclipse Season 2021 Survival Guide Is Here

On November 19, a full moon partial lunar eclipse in Taurus sets off a new season of subterranean revelations. As the Gemini-Sagittarius saga of eclipses comes to a close, so does the age of reacting and running. It’s time to take back control. You’ve endured a year of retrogrades and awakenings, and a Scorpio season of transformation; now comes the reclamation. Here’s how to survive this November 2021’s eclipse.

ECLIPSE BASICS

Full moons go down every month, when the sun and moon face off directly from opposite signs. Lunar eclipses put the earth directly in the line of fire, coming between the sun and moon and blocking out Luna’s light. On a total lunar eclipse, the entire moon goes dark. This month’s partial lunar eclipse leaves about three percent visible.

Eclipses either blast the lights on, exposing everything, or throw the world into shadow, like a movie theater hitting the lights at the start of the movie. If the planets make slow, epochal changes for most of the year, eclipse season is when the cosmos throws its hands up and stops being subtle. Something has to change. If you aren’t getting the message, you’re likely in denial.

An eclipse is a portal, through which the demons of your subconscious creep into exposure. This is not the time for mood boards and manifesting — save that for the new moon. Your job now is to kick that sucker out of the airlock, kiss your old life goodbye, or let it slither back in beneath the surface of your awareness.

The November 2021 full moon is also known as The Beaver Moon, celebrating the time of year when the delightful rodents take shelter for the winter. This above-to-below momentum will prove apt for this month’s lunar revelations.

THIS MONTH’S SHOWDOWN

Over the last year, and especially through summer 2021, we’ve endured a series of manic eclipses on the Gemini-Sagittarius spectrum, which concludes with the December 4 total solar eclipse in Sagittarius. This axis is built on two mutable signs, defined by their reactivity to outside stimuli, with the elements of air (Gemini) and fire (Sagittarius) dictating action. Gemini and Sagittarius are all about experience, dialogue, and ideas. The bulk of their eclipses went down earlier in the summer, at the start of mass vaccine rollouts and the so-called return to our old social lives. After a grisly lockdown and racial reawakening, it was like we were short circuiting our identity coding. Was every move still political? Were we free to do whatever we wanted? Should we be?

Taurus and Scorpio are far less interested in what’s happening with the rest of the world. The new cycle of eclipses, between the bull and the scorpion, lasts for nearly two years, and immediately puts the choice back in your hands. If Gemini and Sagittarius negotiate the meaning of our experiences, Taurus and Scorpio battle for the power behind them. The Taurus archetype speaks to what you own, what you’re worth, and what’s entirely non-negotiable. Meanwhile, in Scorpio’s freakshow, everything must be relinquished — for the family, the relationship, the money, House of Gucci style.

Scorpio rules the underworld, and calls for those ego dissolutions which lead to rebirth and a new life. Taurus, with its emissaries Barbra Streisand and Grace Jones, won’t change for anyone. In a cosmic throwdown with Scorpio, the transformation may be ordered by force.

WHAT HAPPENS

Incidentally, this eclipse coincides with the release of Hulu’s short documentary The Undressing of Janet Jackson, from the producers of the game-changing Framing Britney Spears earlier this year. As Britney has battled court-sanctioned bodily invasion, and women across the United States have faced the mounting threat to abortion rights, the racist gaslighting of Jackson — herself a legendary Taurean — will hopefully come to large scale reconciliation. The eclipses will bring to the surface private and public instances of gaslighting (Scorpio) and further trigger a personal repossession of one’s finances and sense of personal ownership (Taurus). Revenge has come.

Speaking of abuses of power, this eclipse comes days before the Thanksgiving holiday, an annual gotterdammerung in which we regress to adolescent states of shame and allow irrelevant family members to crush our confidence. Scorpio’s purview is the domain of shared power, and Thanksgiving reminds you that no matter how far you’ve gone in life, there’s always a family hierarchy, a tower of emotional terror, at which you’re on the bottom. After the last two years, you’re likely clear on who has your back, who you lean on, and which relationships are worth fighting for. Cultivate the family relationships that matter, and downsize the rest. You’re the boss now.

And in terms of being the boss, many are returning to physical office spaces after nearly two years of working at home. And, with emergency unemployment largely over, the hustle has resumed in full force. The Taurus eclipse is here to remind you of what you’ve gained in self-respect after all those long nights of face masks and hot baths. If you’re feeling uncomfortable going back to the old office power dynamics and life of undercompensation, you likely should be. Your worth is at stake. Why compromise? Right now, the actual money we use is being reconfigured, by way of crypto, the NFT market, and Mark Zuckerberg’s Libra nonsense. If some boring dudes can literally reinvent money, you can demand enough to pay rent. In this moment, you get a say in what comes next.

ECLIPSE HOMEWORK

This eclipse comes in the final days of Scorpio season. With the galloping entrance of Sagittarius on November 22nd, and the Sagittarius eclipse on December 4th, you’ll have plenty of time to look forward and imagine an open future of possibilities. Until then, you’re still marooned in Scorpio’s underworld. Take this round to complete any digging you’ve done this year: Who made you compromise your worth at a young age? When your light ring shuts off, how do you view yourself? What hidden parts of you are coming up to the surface, and would you stop them if you could? The Sagittarian hooves are about to hit the ground, and when the adventure begins, you’ll have to pack light. Clear out your history now. Don’t wait for New Year’s to let go.

Before you think about who you want to be, take stock of what you have. What do you offer? What are your skills? In Taurean tradition, you get to decide how you want to work, who you work for and what you consider a reward. Make the Taurean greats Nora Ephron and Cher proud: Call your own shots.