Videos hosted by Michael Erlewine

Just a few words on the coming eclipse, reminding myself (and any of you out there interested) that this is a solar eclipse of the Sun that is coming up next Tuesday and thus a New Moon, which means we are now heading into that time in the solunar cycle just before any New Moon, what used to be called the "Dark Days" or in Medieval times the "Devil's Days," and in Tibetan Buddhism the fierce "Dharma Protector Days," and so on. I often find that this is a time for me to just wait it out, a time during which to keep my head down until the New Moon rolls in, starting another cycle.

I point out this kind of thing in these blogs for those of you who don't happen to follow it, so that you might be aware that something is happening on the inside of us (and perhaps on the outside too). Awareness of these conditions almost always helps me better understand any changes I may be experiencing at the time. So, when things get a little hairy or sketchy, I try to remember to look at the status of the lunar cycle and find that, once again, we are in those (for me, at least) more difficult days just prior to the New Moon. We are entering them now.

And the fact that on top of that this New Moon is also an eclipse just makes it more emphatic. I have pointed out many times in this blog that the Tibetans teach that at the time of the New and Full Moon our inner winds and channels (chakras or whatever you want to call them) come into alignment and in-tune. If that New or Full Moon is also an eclipse (like now), our inner winds and channels are even more perfectly aligned, bringing yet more emphasis and also creating even more special conditions and an opportunity to be more aware of this eclipse time, if we can stay awake through it.

As mentioned earlier, often the best I can do is to kind of hunker down and wait out these New Moon times, but ideally they are great opportunities to have and lock in realizations, if we can keep them in mind. Too often I am swept away by whatever distractions are going on around me and end up having little awareness. New Moons, for me, too often, are like little internal hurricanes that I am caught up in, staring at the distraction itself rather than experiencing its true nature. And there is more.

Now add to the above the fact that last night around 9:27 PM EDT we experienced a very large solar flare of the most intense X-Class (X1.3) on the west limb of the sun, although the coronal mass ejection (that you can easily see in this photo) is directed away from Earth.

So the bottom line here, as least in my case, is that a lot is going on inside just now and, as the old Dylan song says, "You don't know what it is, do you Mr. Jones?"

Well, we have an opportunity here to find out more of what it is, to relax and open ourselves to what is going on and to see if we can register it on our internal Richter Scale. It is going to happen anyway.

It is the middle of the night here and I am so far behind my schedule that I am heading down to the studio to see if I can catch things up. But I do have my inner eye peeled and am monitoring my own inner changes, as best I can.

There are several books, videos, and articles on New and Full Moons, eclipses, and solar flares here, if you want to read more:

http://dharmagrooves.com/#&panel1-1

[Photo of this very recent solar flare and the CME (coronal mass emission) it projected.]