LIKE TEARS IN RAIN ~ LUNAR ECLIPSE IN AQUARIUS – August 18th, 2016

On August 18th, 2016 there will be a penumbral lunar eclipse in the sign of Aquarius.

It will not be visible in the sky, but its intensity will nevertheless be felt. The Moon will be Full at 25 degrees Aquarius opposing the Sun in Leo.

When the Moon and the Sun oppose each other, there is a much greater potential to use objectivity as your main observational lens.

This is all the more true because of the experimental and explorative nature of Aquarius.

Imagine that the Sun and Moon are two eyes from the same head that are miraculously able to gaze into one another: two perspectives finally able to exchange information with enough distance between them to remain reflexive.

With Leo’s focus on the self and Aquarius’ focus on the world at large, it is likely that you will ponder and contemplate the question of what it means to be human.

Is it intelligence, sentience, emotions or language?

Or is it something greater?

At this moment in the lunation cycle, Aquarius’ prophetic gifts will enable you to see glimmers of what is universally true, far outside of the boundaries of personal feelings, biases, and imaginings.

At the New Moon in Leo two weeks ago, the journey to discover the authentic self was revealed to be amorphous and uncertain. So too is the quest to define what it means to be human.

This recalls the major identity crisis at the core of the film, Blade Runner, which is by all accounts a masterpiece of cinema and certainly one of the greatest science-fiction films of all time.

It begins. . .

LOS ANGELES NOVEMBER 2019

The opening shot of Blade Runner is a revelation.

Emerging from beneath Vangelis’ haunting synthesizer, the scrolling intertitle provides the essential exposition that describe the politics of a world where humans have created androids, called Replicants, that are equal or superior to their creators in intelligence, talent and beauty.

However, the Replicants were only created to serve as slaves. The intertitle reads in part:

“REPLICANTS were declared illegal on Earth—under penalty of death… Special police squads—BLADE RUNNER UNITS—had orders to shoot to kill, upon detection, any trespassing REPLICANT. This was not called execution. It was called retirement.”

The opening of the film fades into a long shot of the metropolis that reveals a scene of dystopian entropy where everything is disintegrating.

Against this landscape of shadows, a plume of fire flares up from a distant smokestack, a vision that is seen reflected in a disembodied eye.

Like the dialogue between the Moon in Aquarius and the Sun in Leo, this shot traverses between the macro (city/polis) and the micro (the eye/“I”) drifting through the atmosphere and fluidly switching points of perspectives to synthesize a bigger picture in your imagination than what can be shown on screen.

Just as with the Full Moon’s opposition with the Sun, there is a mutual mesmerism between the eye that gazes into the abyss (Leo) and the abyss that gazes back (Aquarius).

Both the Moon in Aquarius and the Sun in Leo will be in supportive aspects with Uranus, the planet that is associated with the inventor, the liberator and the awakener.

In reference to Blade Runner, the Uranian spirit can be seen in the invention of the “more human than human” Replicants.

But it is also the Uranian spirit which mysteriously imbues these Replicants with the light of consciousness.

Thus, it is implied throughout the film that (even if it is unholy) the Replicants have a soul.

“Fiery the angels fell.
Deep thunder rode around their shores…
burning with the fires of Orc.”

The Latin word for the English word soul is anima. There is an etymological connection between anima and words such as animated and animal.

The fundamental idea is that the soul is what distinguishes animate objects from inanimate objects.

With a sextile from Uranus at this Full Moon, expect to feel your soul burning brightly, enamored by a vision of your liberation from fear.

In a surge of righteous anger, you may begin to free yourself from that which oppresses you and keeps you ensnared in somebody else’s plan.

Remember, if you don’t have your own plan you’ll become part of somebody else’s.

Expect to discover something that is deeply resonant with universal truth, for in addition to Uranus catalyzing the Moon, there will also be a trine between Venus and Pluto, bringing into full view the shadows that are born from denial.

What are you remaining willfully ignorant of?

In Blade Runner, the humans who have destroyed the Earth and lost sight of their humanity deny their own creations the right to life. This is a familiar human characteristic even outside of fiction.

The crisis in Blade Runner arises from the idealistic moral standards that one must adhere to in order to be included within the category of human.

Much like in any moral crusade, these ideals are myopic and hypocritical.

In Los Angeles 2019, human-ness is under such scrutiny that a testing machine is needed in order to discriminate between a human and a Replicant.

The test monitors the subject’s emotional responses to psychological questions by means of measuring involuntary iris fluctuations and capillary dilation. (In other words, the machine scrutinizes the subject’s eye/I)

In the case of the Replicants, the failure of the iris to dilate properly when put under certain interrogative distress is reason enough for execution.

Deckard, a morose detective-assassin hired by the police to “retire” several rogue Replicants, is asked to give this test to a woman named Rachel.

While administering the test, Rachel wittily responds to the absurd questions, takes insult at his presumptuousness, and criticizes his ethics, asking if has ever retired a human by mistake.

She also asks:

“Did you ever take that test yourself?”

Deckard does not reply. What is revealed by the end of this scene is that Rachel is a Replicant but does not know that she is a Replicant.

She has memories (implanted) and feelings (programmed) which have offered her an authentic experience of life and an identifiable personality.

Herein lies the identity crisis of consciousness, so relevant to the axis of Leo (emergence of the self) and Aquarius (transcendent gnosis).

Additionally, the trine between the Sun in Leo and Uranus in Aries is a perfect aspect to describe hierophany: when the sacred breaks through to reveal value, direction and purpose.

Thus, Uranus might imply a rather sudden experience of hierophany.

Aquarius, the water-bearer, is a sign that has one ear bent to the whisperings of the gods and one to the murmurings of humanity.

Thus it has one foot in both worlds at all times.

The Replicants in Blade Runner are a perfect description of Aquarius’ existence in that liminal state, where both genius and alienation are experienced at once.

The drama of emerging self-consciousness (Leo) from the perspective of an outcast (Aquarius) is focused on one particular Replicant named, Roy Batty.

Luminous and alive, Roy Batty has escaped to planet Earth to confront his Creator, who is of course the head of an evil corporation.

In lieu of confronting your Creator, this Full Moon in Aquarius asks that you at least confront the many aspects of the self that are obviously artificial, superimposed upon you through mass media and social programming.

Ask yourself, “Does an ever increasing litany of preferences bring me any closer to self-realization?”

Deeply meditate upon where you have obtained your most cherished beliefs, opinions, and personal tastes.

Blade Runner postulates that an inorganic life-form with synthetic memories and programmed feelings might have as much of an experience of the self as humans do.

The difficulty in distinguishing a Replicant from a human is never resolved and the arbitrary nature of these categories become increasingly meaningless.

The Replicants have survival instincts, love for one another, and big questions about the meaning of life. The humans display none of these qualities.

The axis between Aquarius and Leo is looking to integrate and harmonize two perspectives on self-realization.

Aquarian wisdom knows that to over identify with corporeality is to be deluded and enslaved by ignorance.

Yet, Leo knows that corporeal existence must not be denied as it is the vehicle through which one may come to realize the self and its transcendent origins.

In short, the spirit and the self are emanations of one another.

In the final scenes, Blade Runner brings relief from nihilism and eternal doubt by offering a vision of the soul’s transcendence.

The hanging questions regarding the personhood of the Replicants is answered in the final chase scene, where Deckard is hunting down Roy Batty.

Deckard, the inferior physical specimen, ends up hanging off the roof of a building, holding onto the ledge for dear life.

It is here that the Replicant says:

Quite an experience to live in fear, isn’t it?

That’s what it is to be a slave.

He says this knowingly and with compassion just before he extends his hand and saves Deckard’s life.

Roy Batty’s words offer the gift of gnosis, which is wisdom that requires one to face the ignorance and darkness of existence before finding the strength to become illuminated with divine truth.

To live in fear is to be a slave.

This Full Moon will enable you to acknowledge the presence of your soul and express it through great performative acts (Leo) and divine compassion for other sentient beings.(Aquarius)

The soul’s presence cannot be quantified or measured. Thus it requires much courage to have faith in your soul’s journey of self-realization.

In Blade Runner, the presence of soul is illuminated in the moment of Roy Batty’s death.

With heavy rain pouring down, he tells Deckard:

“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe.
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.
I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
Time to die.”

He is serene and gentle in his moment of death. Though he had lived in fear as a slave, he dies in peace as an illumined spirit. As he dies, a white dove escapes from his fingertips and flies up to the heavens.

Through compassion for his tormentor, Roy Batty redeemed his own soul from the evil and misery that he was born into.

If living in fear is what it means to be a slave, then how many people can call themselves free?

No matter what your external circumstances are, at this Full Moon in Aquarius, may you release yourself from the slavery of fear.

<3 Aeolian Heart <3

If you would like a personal reading with Rachel, BOOK HERE!

Merken