The Eclipse Doesn't Care About Your Biomarkers
Here's what it does care about and how to use it to support your health
What Astrology Has To Do With Holistic Medicine
Let me start by reminding you that I am not an astrologer. I am a holistic doctor who understands the “whole” as a dynamic concept. The boundaries of the whole are not static and holistic healing requires that we define the boundaries thoughtfully, with intention. There are times in my holistic practice, when the whole is limited to someone’s physical body. However, there are other times when I cannot help someone reach their health goals without including their intimate relationships, or their home environment. Sometimes when the best medicine I can offer is parenting advice, supporting a divorce, or the encouragement to relocate.
Most “holistic” healthcare providers agree with me that relationships, environmental factors, and culture have an impact on our wellbeing. But when I zoom out to the perspective of the third eye chakra, I lose them. Because from the perspective of the third eye, the whole cosmos has an effect on our wellbeing. Many providers can acknowledge that sunlight influences our mitochondria- but few of them actually look to the archetypes in the sky to gain insight and information about their patients’ health.
I may not be an astrologer, but when I see overwhelming trends in my private practice, I look up to get a sense of what’s going on. When a client is stuck in a process, struggling to understand why, I look up to learn more about what’s happening on the cosmic stage.
There are times when holistic care requires us to expand the boundaries and honor the axiom “as above, so below”. There are times when astrological insights are more helpful than your 200+ biomarker test results.
For many of us, this week is one of those times. The cosmos is an undeniable force and no-one is immune.
The point of this post is not to explain what this total lunar eclipse in Virgo means. I’ll leave that to the astrologers. The point is to tell you how I see it influencing our health and how you can work with it.
The Eclipse, Holistic Intelligence and The Solar Plexus
This eclipse is profoundly confrontational. And the confrontation isn’t just personal. It’s collective. It pushes back on a major systemic imbalance in our health care paradigm. The imbalance that keeps us in therapy indefinitely, draining our resources on biohacking and the pursuit of longevity.
Recently I read about Bryan Johnson, the tech entrepreneur who is focused on reversing biological aging. This is one expression of what tonight’s eclipse may force us to confront- our need to control our health. Our need to control nature- to understand and explain everything. Tonight, as we sit between the Sun and the Moon, the cosmos asks us why we feel the need to outsmart the technology that we are, to improve upon the perfection of human biology. And while we may not hear the question being asked of us, we will most certainly feel it.
Many of my clients already are. There is an exhaustion in the air. A sense of the ground crumbling beneath our feet. We may find ourselves at a loss for answers, our old tools and routines are no longer working. We are trying so hard but our efforts aren’t enough. It won’t present the same for everyone. Some will feel it physically, others mental, emotionally, or existentially- but in one quadrant or another we will all be affected. If you’re familiar with my work on Holistic Intelligence, this is an imbalance in the mental quadrant- which is also the shadow of the solar plexus chakra.
When we’re in the shadow of the solar plexus, we are stuck in the mind- trying to figure out answers through logic and intellect. This is absolutely a piece of the holistic puzzle- but it’s not everything.
The physical, emotional and spiritual quadrants are not rational. They use feeling, awareness and faith to find answers … and/or to rest in the questions indefinitely.
It’s in the shadow of the solar plexus where the spider gets trapped in her own web. She mistakes the mental quadrant for the whole- and exhausts herself mistaking subjective narratives for truth. In the shadow of the solar plexus, we cannot see the invisible line between self-care and self-harm. We can’t see that our pursuit of wellbeing is actually driving our imbalance deeper.
Solar plexus healing can require commitment, determination, and that yang kinda power that drives us to persist. But these days, in modern western culture, solar plexus healing usually requires softening, and the touch of yin that drives you to extend savasana or give yourself permission to enjoy a gluten rich cookie.
So as this total lunar eclipse is upon us, I want you encourage you to shift from the mental to the spiritual quadrant. If you haven’t already taken my Holistic Intelligence (HQ) Assessment, that’s a good way to gauge how out of balance your mental quadrant is and to determine the best way to restore balance.
Generally speaking, the work this week is to shift your awareness from the mental into the physical, emotional or spiritual quadrants. This is not the week to feed all of your lab results to chatGPT for answers and analysis. It’s a week to consult the tarot or another divination system you like. It’s a week to get out of your head and into your body. It’s a week to feel everything you’ve been ignoring.
