The Substitute King Ritual

 

Did you know that astrology was, quite literally, born out of eclipses?

The earliest traces of astrology go back thousands of years, to the Babylonians. 

They observed that whenever the Sun or Moon was eclipsed, an important event would follow.

The most significant and feared was the death of a king.

But other dramatic, unexpected events were also linked to eclipses: the birth of a future king, the outbreak of war, or the end of a war - in victory or defeat.

Because eclipses were associated with the fate of the king, Babylonian rulers appointed official sky observers.

Their role was to predict when the next eclipse would occur by closely tracking the sky. These early observers recorded the movements of the stars and planets, identified repeating patterns, and laid the foundations of astrology.

Once they could reliably determine when the next eclipse would occur, the question was no longer when - but how to outsmart fate.

That's how the Babylonians came to perform the ritual called “The Substitute King".

In this ritual, an ordinary man would be chosen to take the king’s place just before the eclipse. He would be dressed like the king and placed on the throne.

The person would literally act as king for as long as the danger associated with the eclipse was believed to last.

After the danger had passed, the substitute king was put to death to fulfill the prophetic omen. 

By dying in the monarch’s place, he “absorbed” the fate intended for the real king. 

The true king was spared and returned to the throne.

Through this Mesopotamian practice, we see that our ancestors didn’t simply submit to fate. They tried to negotiate with it. There was an element of free will associated with eclipses - a chance to actively engage with destiny rather than passively accept it.

The omen itself could not be erased. But its outcome could be redirected.

The ritual also mirrored the astronomy of the eclipse: just as the Moon temporarily takes the Sun’s place in the sky, the substitute temporarily took the king’s place on the throne. The normal order was suspended. A common man became king - and the king disappeared from view.

The Substitute King - Which King?

The Substitute King ritual challenges the idea that “karmic” means powerless.

Yes, the karmic element is there - a king must die. 

But free will enters through a new question: which king?

Astrologically, this explains the dynamic of the South and North Nodes - the 2 points that create eclipses - to a T. 

The South Node is our karmic accumulation: what has reached the end of its cycle. 

The North Node opens a new possibility.

At an eclipse, the entire nodal axis is activated. 

So it’s not as simplistic as “a king must die” - the South Node dissolution - but also the North Node invitation: What will take the throne next?

Understanding this dynamic is at the core of working consciously with eclipses.

And it can make the difference between an eclipse being something that happens TO us, leaving us blindsided (pun intended - and yes, don’t look at a solar eclipse without special glasses), OR something we co-create with the universe.

During eclipse season, we can assume that something about ourselves or our life WILL change. 

The question is how we meet that change: 

let it happen without conscious participation, or take an active role in it.

The Substitute King And Eclipses - Role Reversal

The Substitute King reflects the core role eclipses play: role reversal.

The role reversal is THE thing that differentiates eclipses from all the other transits and astrological events.

At a Solar Eclipse, the Moon changes roles with the Sun. 

At a Lunar Eclipse, the Earth steps between the Sun and Moon, casting its shadow across the Moon. 

The hidden becomes visible, roles are turned upside down, and our destiny gets negotiated.

What has become the default of our lives no longer has to be. 

The career we thought we would always have. The childhood conditioning deeply embedded in our psyche: the same relationship patterns, the same response to rejection, the same choices producing the same outcomes.

If there is a time to really change what’s otherwise the default - the status quo of our lives - it’s eclipse season.

Saturn, Uranus, or Pluto transits challenge, break open, or intensify the story already in motion.

Eclipses do something different:

They flip the script.

Eclipses are NOT your usual transits. They are that window of opportunity when the old order is interrupted, and a different choice becomes possible.

At an eclipse, it’s not enough to know the sign, degree, or house. We need to understand its underlying mechanism - because there is one.

A Solar Eclipse means something very specific. 

A Lunar Eclipse means something different. A South Node Eclipse has a completely different mandate than a North Node Eclipse.

And in each eclipse season, there’s a particular sequence - and that sequence dictates the overarching story.

When we understand the whole story, when we are IN eclipse season as it unfolds, then - and only then - can we have a say in how the story develops.

The eclipse season is officially ON!

August 2026 comes with 2 powerful eclipses: a total Solar Eclipse in Leo and a Lunar Eclipse in Pisces. 

Eclipse season is THE most eventful, life-altering, news-making time of the year.

And while some eclipses land more personally than others, there’s something about the collective atmosphere they create that we all end up feeling.

There are plenty of metaphors used to describe eclipses - from portals and thresholds to cosmic wild cards.

And while all of these are true, there’s something about the astronomy of eclipses that makes its core purpose clear.

An eclipse is, fundamentally, a reversal.

At a Solar Eclipse, the Moon overtakes the Sun. The day literally turns into night - at least along the path of totality.

At a Lunar Eclipse, the shadow of the Earth falls across the Moon, and the Moon turns red. The dramatic sight is a perfect metaphor for what happens when the Earth principle takes over the Lunar one.

Basically, at any eclipse, what is supposed to happen is overturned, overruled, and rerouted. Something that was not part of the original plan comes in to flip the script.

And while these reversals can look disruptive from ground level, from a larger perspective, they are realignments.

Eclipses are acts of restoration - call them karmic if you like - where things get recalibrated so that what needs to happen, happens.

No wonder eclipse season is so intense. 

The script changes, and life moves in a direction we may not have chosen - but is nevertheless needed.

August 12th, 2026 - Total Solar Eclipse In Leo

By far, the August 12th Eclipse is the biggest event of the month.

This is a Total Solar Eclipse at 20° Leo that will flip the script around who we are and what that means in the real world.

The Sun is our identity, and Leo is also our identity - not the instinctual Aries drive to exist, but the identity we wear on our sleeve: I’m a mother. I’m a doctor. I’m an artist.

When the lunar principle comes in and overrides the Sun, our conscious identity becomes flooded with unconscious material we were not aware of, had neglected, or had simply decided wasn’t that important.

But when the dam breaks, the dam breaks.

All those buried needs, desires, and truths come rushing through, demanding to be acknowledged.

The Eclipse cracks us open at an identity level, showing us what is crucial for our development and what MUST be integrated so we can become more fully ourselves.

The Solar Eclipse is trine Saturn, supporting long-term growth and giving structure to whatever is trying to emerge.

And there’s further support: Mercury is sextile Uranus, bringing breakthroughs and new perspectives, while Mars is sextile Chiron, giving us the courage to act on what has been exposed.

This Leo/Sun identity is the core of who we are. It’s the way we operate in the world and, just like the Sun, it gives us energy, presence, and direction.

This identity is stabilizing. We know who we are because, over the years, we’ve built an entire life – and an entire ecosystem – around it: a career, a family, hobbies, and activities. All these anchor us in the world through their defined roles and predictability.

So what happens when the Sun – and not just any Sun, but a Leo Sun – is eclipsed by the Moon?

We get a system glitch.

All those things that told us who we were – the identities that gave our existence meaning and gravitational force – are temporarily switched off.

And in that void, in that black hole, all our unconscious desires, unmet needs, and unprocessed material come flooding in:

… Things that were part of us when we were younger, but we were told were unacceptable.

… Emotions we swept under the carpet because they were too intense or too dangerous to look at.

… Body truths we overrode because they demanded that we do things that would go against our roles, commitments, or the identity we had built.

For others, being that solar figure everyone can count on – the model employee, the good friend, the devoted parent, the reliable spouse – has come at a considerable expense: neglecting our own inner life.

So when the light goes out, the part of us that has been waiting in the dark finally asks: 

“What about me?” “What about my heart?”

As the balance between who we have been and what we truly need is renegotiated, something will have to give. Something will have to go.

This is a South Node eclipse – meaning it will bring a necessary release or discharge of a model that has been running our lives for too long and is no longer fit for purpose.

Solar Eclipse In Leo – Saros And Metonic Cycle

One thing you can do, even without looking at your natal chart, is go back in time and reflect on what was happening in your life when eclipses from the same Saros or Metonic cycles occurred.

The previous 3 eclipses from the same Saros family – which returns approx. every 18 years – occurred on August 1st, 2008, July 22nd, 1990, and July 10th, 1972.

Saros eclipses move approx. 10° forward through the zodiac with each repetition.

This means that they don’t activate your chart in exactly the same way, but they tend to bring a similar underlying energy or storyline into your life. That’s because all eclipses in a Saros family originate from one “mother eclipse,” which carries its own unique energetic imprint.

The previous eclipses from the same Metonic cycle – which repeats every 19 years – occurred on August 11th, 2007, August 11th, 1988, and August 11th, 1969.

Eclipses from the same Metonic cycle happen on almost the same calendar day – plus/minus 1 day – and the same degree of the zodiac. This means they activate the same area of your chart and return with related themes.

August 28th, 2026 - Lunar Eclipse In Pisces

On August 28th, 2026, we have a partial Lunar Eclipse at 4° Pisces.

This is a Lunar Eclipse - a Full Moon - so it brings something to a culmination. And because it’s a North Node Eclipse, this is not simply about closing an old chapter; it’s about being pulled toward a future we haven’t mapped out yet.

Things might happen unexpectedly - and unexpectedly fast. The Virgo side of the Eclipse is conjunct Mercury, while the entire Eclipse axis squares Uranus.

“Lady, if I told you, your mind would explode” - said Louis Armstrong, when a woman asked him what he thought about while he was playing his music.

And sometimes our minds need to figuratively explode, because our existing mental framework is exactly what prevents us from seeing what is really going on.

This Lunar Eclipse is not a time for letting-go ceremonies. 

A North Node Eclipse wants us to say yes to something - a message, a development, a possibility - even if we haven’t figured out the details yet.

This Eclipse is volatile, surprising, liberating - and once the information lands, impossible to un-know.

Astro Butterfly

The Fool, the Hero and the Calling

 

Why Purpose is so hard to find?

1. Looking for Purpose in the wrong places - trying to locate externally what can only emerge internally
2. Remaining stuck in potential - feeling the pull, but never fully committing, because the dream is safer than the attempt
3. Overriding the signal - building something that looks right, but doesn’t feel like yours

These patterns point to a developmental sequence - which, when understood, reveals why Purpose has been so elusive, and what it actually takes to move forward.

Purpose is NOT a destination, nor something you find at the right career crossroads. It's not something that is suddenly 'revealed' to us at the end of a long search, with the right spiritual technique or the perfect moment of clarity.

Purpose is a journey - and it has stages. 

Skip one, and you end up back at square one. 

Rush through one, and life will find a way to remind you - often not in a very gentle way.

We've identified 3 stages - 3 archetypes - that map this journey of Purpose.

Stage 1: The Fool

Before we could name it or defend it, we were one with the Purpose.

This is the Fool energy - pre-conscious, felt, rather than understood, emerging instinctively through how we show up in life.

Astrologically, the Fool corresponds to the Ascendant - the point where life itself begins, the most personal point in the entire chart. Purpose at this stage is not a question of "what should I do?" but something more fundamental: what is waiting to enter the world through me?

When the Fool is healthy, there's a natural aliveness to how we engage with the world - an instinctive pull toward what is genuinely ours.

When the Fool is bypassed, we end up looking for Purpose in all the wrong places. When the Fool is never completed, we stay in the search - comfortable in potential, never quite landing.

Stage 2: The Hero

The 2nd stage, the Hero, is where potential becomes direction. Here is where we shape the instinct of the Fool stage into something real, taking responsibility for the path.

When we’re in our Hero energy, there's momentum, and a sense of building something real.

When Hero is rushed - when we jump here without the Fool's foundation - we build something that works but doesn't feel fully ours.

Most burnout, apathy, and misalignment - that persistent feeling of being 'off' even when life looks fine from the outside - are symptoms of a Hero energy that was never properly rooted in the Fool's thread.

Stage 3: The Calling

The Calling is where the personal path opens into something greater. This is when Purpose stops feeling like a solo journey and starts feeling like a direction that extends beyond the self. 

When the Calling is reached, there's a coherence to our journey. The thread that began in the Fool, shaped through the Hero, now feels connected to something that matters beyond the individual.

As we move through these stages - from instinct, to action, to alignment - we begin to answer these big questions: Why am I here? What is mine to do? What actually feels like me?

All 3 stages connect to specific astrological signatures and elements of your chart - and when we connect the archetype with the astrology, that's when everything clicks.

Purpose Vs Career Vs Service

No stage is inherently superior - and what looks like the Calling from the outside is not always the Calling from the inside.

People who seem to be living their Calling are sometimes Fools who never completed the journey, spiritually bypassing the harder work of the Hero stage.

So how do we know the difference - in ourselves and in others?

There’s one thing that reveals whether we’re living our Purpose, or just a rehearsed version of it.

That is Service.

Service is NOT career in the same way Purpose is not career, although both can be reflected in career or other areas of our life.

Service speaks of a deeper alignment between who we are and the world we live in. 

Status, accomplishments, success - these are not what Service is about, although Service, when authentic, does bring accomplishments and success.

The whole journey from Purpose to Service consists of 3 stages that build on each other. 

Each stage corresponds to a particular dimension of your psyche and is mapped to specific elements of your natal chart.

These stages cannot be skipped or substituted; when they are, we end up in one of the 3 patterns described at the beginning.

When Purpose unfolds through this 3-step sequence, there's a deep sense of meaning - a coherence between who you are and how you live.

Following your Purpose doesn’t mean changing who you are - it means living who you are.

That said, living your Purpose might mean that some things need to change. 

In Step #2 of the process, we identify what we need to cut away from our lives so the thread can move forward freely.

Many of us fear this Step #2 because it threatens our identity and what we’ve built so far in our lives. But this stage is rarely about turning our lives upside down. 

It's about identifying what's holding the Fool back from reaching the Calling.

It all starts with awareness - and understanding how everything connects in the bigger picture of your life.

If you go back to the major turning points in your life, you'll probably find that everything began with a moment of clarity - a ‘connecting the dots’ recognition of something fundamentally true.

in, Astro Butterfly

Spiritual Bypassing

 

Spiritual bypassing is 

the use of spiritual ideas and practices to avoid or suppress unresolved emotional issues, psychological wounds, and difficult life experiences. 

Instead of addressing pain, a person might retreat into practices like prayer or meditation as an escape, which can prevent deeper healing and growth. 

The term was introduced by psychologist John Welwood and can manifest as avoiding personal responsibility or using faith to dismiss uncomfortable emotions, as seen in instances of "toxic positivity". 

How it works

• Avoids emotional pain: It uses spiritual beliefs to justify ignoring or denying emotions like grief, anger, or trauma.
• Hinders growth: By sidestepping uncomfortable but necessary work, individuals can develop a false sense of enlightenment without true inner healing.
• Shuts down healing: Instead of processing experiences, it offers a superficial layer of escape, preventing deeper, more integrated healing.
• Manifests as toxic positivity: In some cases, it appears as a belief that one should always feel good or "above" pain, suppressing valid negative feelings. 

 

Examples of spiritual bypassing

1. Telling someone to "just have faith" or "give it to God" instead of acknowledging their pain or working through it.
2. Using affirmations to avoid confronting a difficult reality or a psychological wound.
3. Focusing solely on spiritual practices as an escape from challenging situations, rather than engaging with reality.
4. Dismissing one's own valid negative feelings by saying they are not "spiritual" or "good" enough.
5. In a relationship, failing to take responsibility for one's actions and instead blaming spiritual, not personal, reasons for bad behavior. 

How to avoid spiritual bypassing

• Acknowledge all feelings: Accept all emotions, positive or negative, as valid and temporary.
• Face the "shadow": Engage with and integrate the difficult parts of yourself rather than trying to suppress them.
• Use spirituality as a tool, not an escape: Spiritual practices can be powerful, but they are most effective when used to support, not replace, the hard work of emotional and psychological healing.
• Embrace discomfort: Use uncomfortable feelings as a catalyst for positive change and action, rather than as a signal to escape. 

Created by IA

Spiritual bypassing is a term I coined to describe a process I saw happening in the Buddhist community I was in, and also in myself. Although most of us were sincerely trying to work on ourselves, I noticed a widespread tendency to use spiritual ideas and practices to sidestep or avoid facing unresolved emotional issues, psychological wounds, and unfinished developmental tasks.

When we are spiritually bypassing, we often use the goal of awakening or liberation to rationalize what I call premature transcendence: trying to rise above the raw and messy side of our humanness before we have fully faced and made peace with it. And then we tend to use absolute truth to disparage or dismiss relative human needs, feelings, psychological problems, relational difficulties, and developmental deficits. I see this as an “occupational hazard” of the spiritual path, in that spirituality does involve a vision of going beyond our current karmic situation.

Trying to move beyond our psychological and emotional issues by sidestepping them is dangerous. 

It sets up a debilitating split between the buddha and the human within us. 

And it leads to a conceptual, one-sided kind of spirituality where one pole of life is elevated at the expense of its opposite: Absolute truth is favored over relative truth, the impersonal over the personal, emptiness over form, transcendence over embodiment, and detachment over feeling. 

One might, for example, try to practice nonattachment by dismissing one’s need for love, but this only drives the need underground, so that it often becomes unconsciously acted out in covert and possibly harmful ways instead.

I’m interested in how spiritual bypassing plays out in relationships, where it often wreaks its worst havoc. If you were a yogi in a cave doing years of solo retreat, your psychological wounding might not show up so much because your focus would be entirely on your practice, in an environment that may not aggravate your relational wounds. 

It’s in relationships that our unresolved psychological issues tend to show up most intensely. 

That’s because psychological wounds are always relational — they form in and through our relationships with our early caretakers.

The basic human wound, which is prevalent in the modern world, forms around not feeling loved or intrinsically lovable as we are. 

Inadequate love or attunement is shocking and traumatic for a child’s developing and highly sensitive nervous system. 

And as we internalize how we were parented, our capacity to value ourselves, which is also the basis for valuing others, becomes damaged. 

I call this a “relational wound“ or the “wound of the heart.”

There is a whole body of study and research in Western psychology showing how close bonding and loving attunement— what is known as “secure attachment” — have powerful impacts on every aspect of human development. 

Secure attachment has a tremendous effect on many dimensions of our health, well-being, and capacity to function effectively in the world: how our brains form, how well our endocrine and immune systems function, how we handle emotions, how subject we are to depression, how our nervous system functions and handles stress, and how we relate to others.

In contrast to the indigenous cultures of traditional Asia, modern child-rearing leaves most people suffering from symptoms of insecure attachment: 

self-hatred, disembodiment, lack of grounding, chronic insecurity and anxiety, overactive minds, lack of basic trust, and a deep sense of inner deficiency. 

So most of us suffer from an extreme degree of alienation and disconnection that was unknown in earlier times— from society, community, family, older generations, nature, religion, tradition, our body, our feelings, and our humanity itself.

Being a good spiritual practitioner can become what I call a compensatory identity that covers up and defends against an underlying deficient identity, where we feel badly about ourselves, not good enough, or basically lacking. 

Then, although we may be practicing diligently, our spiritual practice can be used in the service of denial and defense. And when spiritual practice is used to bypass our real-life human issues, it becomes compartmentalized in a separate zone of our life, and remains unintegrated with our overall functioning.

In my psychotherapy practice I often work with students who have engaged in spiritual practice for decades. I respect how their practice has been beneficial for them. Yet despite the sincerity as practitioners, their practice is not fully penetrating their life. 

They seek out psychological work because they remain wounded and not fully developed on the emotional/relational/personal level, and they may be acting out their wounding in harmful ways.

It’s not uncommon to speak beautifully about the basic goodness or innate perfection of our true nature, but then have difficulty trusting it when one’s psychological wounds are triggered. 

Often dharma students who have developed some kindness and compassion for others are hard on themselves for falling short of their spiritual ideals, and, as a result, their spiritual practice becomes dry and solemn. Or being of benefit to others turns into a duty, or a way of trying to feel good about themselves. Others may unconsciously use their spiritual brilliance to feed their narcissistic inflation and devalue others or treat them in manipulative ways.

Meditation is also frequently used to avoid uncomfortable feelings and unresolved life situations. 

For those in denial about their personal feelings or wounds, meditation practice can reinforce a tendency toward coldness, disengagement, or interpersonal distance. They are at a loss when it comes to relating directly to their feelings or to expressing themselves personally in a transparent way. It can be quite threatening when those of us on a spiritual path have to face our woundedness, or emotional dependency, or primal need for love.

I’ve often seen how attempts to be nonattached are used in the service of sealing people off from their human and emotional vulnerabilities. In effect, identifying oneself as a spiritual practitioner becomes used as a way of avoiding a depth of personal engagement with others that might stir up old wounds and longings for love. It’s painful to see someone maintaining a stance of detachment when underneath they are starving for positive experiences of bonding and connection.

To grow into a healthy human being, we need a base of secure attachment in the positive, psychological sense, meaning: close emotional ties to other people that promote connectedness, grounded embodiment, and well-being. 

As John Muir the naturalist wrote: 

“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find that it is bound fast by a thousand invisible cords that cannot be broken, to everything in the universe.” 

Similarly, the hand cannot function unless it is attached to the arm—that’s attachment in the positive sense. 

We’re interconnected, interwoven, and interdependent with everything in the universe. 

On the human level we can’t help feeling somewhat attached to people we are close to.

From my perspective as an existential psychologist, feeling is a form of intelligence. 

It’s the body’s direct, holistic, intuitive way of knowing and responding. 

It is highly attuned and intelligent. And it takes account of many factors all at once, unlike our conceptual mind, which can only process one thing at a time. 

Unlike emotionality, which is a reactivity that is directed outward, feeling often helps you contact deep inner truths.

The truth is, most of us don’t get as triggered anywhere in our lives as much as in intimate relationships. 

So if we use spiritual bypassing to avoid facing our relational wounds, we’re missing out on a tremendous area of practice. 

Relational practice helps us develop compassion “in the trenches,” where our wounds are most activated.

I help people inquire deeply into their felt experience and let it gradually reveal itself and unfold, step by step. I call this “tracking and unpacking”: 

You track the process of present experiencing, following it closely and seeing where it leads. 

And you unpack the beliefs, identities, and feelings that are subconscious or implicit in what you’re experiencing. 

When we bring awareness to our experience in this way, it’s like unraveling a tangled ball of yarn: different knots are gradually revealed and untangled one by one.

As a result, we find that we’re able to be present in places where we’ve been absent or disconnected from our experience. Through reaching out to parts of ourselves that need our help, we develop an intimate, grounded kind of inner attunement with ourselves, which can help us more easily relate to others where they are stuck as well.

I see relationship as the leading edge of human evolution at this time in history. 

Although humanity discovered enlightenment thousands of years ago, we still haven’t brought that illumination very fully into the area of interpersonal relationships.

John Welwood

Spiritual bypassing is the pattern where people leap into spirituality prematurely - adopting spiritual language, rituals, or identities without doing the necessary shadow work, character work, or the slow, uncomfortable process of addressing unresolved emotional material and restoring energetic balance.

We see spiritual bypassing especially in healer and spirituality circles - astrology included - where many of us quickly slip into “God talk,” high-vibration language, or spiritual practices before completing the important work of shadow confrontation.

Spiritual bypassing can manifest as:

the “I’m above this” stance, or

the more service-oriented form that stems from the Wounded Healer archetype

Carl Jung was one of the first to articulate the “Wounded Healer” concept - the idea that healers often project their own abandoned, victimized inner child onto the people they want to help, unconsciously attempting to heal themselves through others.

The issue is that when healers themselves are wounded, their helping can come from a place of bias or narcissistic injury.

This can manifest as rescue fantasies, control dynamics, blurred boundaries, or a subtle need to be needed - where the ‘healer’ can do more damage than good, by passing down their own wounded material to the people they are trying to help.

We all know people like this…

And if we’re really honest, we can probably recognize a few of these patterns within ourselves too.

Auch.

That “auch” is actually the most important moment.

If you’ve ever felt that tiny sting of “ouch… this might be me,” then welcome to Shadow! 

That flash of self-recognition is the very essence of Shadow work.

“This might be me” is the most difficult moment in any inner journey - yet it’s also where the most growth happens. 

This moment of self-recognition is what makes the difference between spiritual bypassing and genuine transformation.

Trauma, Shadow, And Spiritual Bypassing

Perhaps this is why the term “Shadow” is so often confused with trauma or with the difficult things that have happened to us.

When we focus exclusively on trauma - which, being rooted in one’s past, is astrologically linked to the IC - we cannot move forward to the next stage of the individuation process: confronting the Shadow, which corresponds to the Descendant.

This is not to minimize the role of trauma or its damaging effects. 

It’s a well-known fact that people who have experienced severe trauma have a far more complex task ahead of them - emotionally, psychologically, and somatically.

But it is important to conceptually differentiate between the 2, because Trauma work and Shadow work require very different approaches.

Trauma calls for trauma-informed support - therapeutic, somatic, or clinical frameworks that help stabilize and heal the nervous system.

Shadow, on the other hand, is encountered through projection - through what we see in others, react to in others, idealize in others, or feel pulled toward in one-on-one relationships.

Trauma is rooted in the past. 

Shadow is activated in the present.

While trauma requires healing, 

Shadow requires integration.

If we consider the psyche developmentally, trauma comes before shadow. 

Here is the “formula,” translated into astrological language using the 4 angles of the natal chart:

Ascendant (Purpose → Ego development)

→ IC (Past / Trauma / Early conditioning)

→ Descendant (Shadow work and relational mirrors)

→ Midheaven (Individuation OR spiritual bypassing / virtue signaling).

Sometimes, when we can’t deal with trauma directly - or when the usual coping strategies stop working - what does work is moving to the next step in the individuation process: Shadow.

Shadow work can be the bridge between trauma and genuine individuation.

Spiritual bypassing, however, is a sign that true Shadow work has been skipped. 

The person has moved straight from IC/trauma to Midheaven/Higher Self, bypassing - or doing incomplete work on - the Descendant stage of Shadow integration.

People who struggle with compulsions, addictions, temper tantrums, or a general sense of “not having grown up yet,” are operating primarily from the IC stage of individuation.

They haven’t done Shadow work because they don’t know how, haven’t been taught how, or haven’t yet developed the internal motivation or psychic structure required to move to the next stage.

Spiritual bypassing is something different.

It mimics Shadow work - or does it halfway.

Unlike people who are stuck in the IC stage, the spiritual bypasser has developed strategies that function well on the surface. They can delay gratification. They can present well socially. They can achieve, succeed, or even inspire others.

But something fundamental has been skipped along the way.

True Shadow work.

When we don’t do shadow work - which is ultimately the process of embracing our whole Self, the good and the bad, the flattering and the unflattering - we cannot be whole.

Even if we achieve success, we don’t fully enjoy it. 

We feel like impostors. We feel anxious, restless, or vaguely unfulfilled. There’s a lingering sense that “there must be more”.

So what happens when Shadow work is skipped?

The Cost Of Skipping Shadow Work

A split occurs - the classic good vs. bad divide in the psyche. The “good” parts are embraced, and the “bad” parts get projected outward.

The spiritually bypassing person naturally places themselves among the “good ones”. And everyone who doesn’t share their views, methods, or level of “awareness” becomes one of the “bad ones”.

The “enemy” becomes the dumping ground for all the negative material the psyche cannot bear to contain on its own.

This splitting strategy kind of works - at least for a while - because it creates a sense of meaning, coherence, and legitimacy. And the psyche loves coherence: “That’s me.” “I’ve always been like this.” “This is who I am.”

But there is a cost.

The cost of not dealing with the Shadow is massive energy consumption.

It takes enormous psychic effort to exile parts of yourself, keep them unconscious, and continually project them outward onto others. There is only so much pressure the unconscious can absorb - only so much our psyche can stuff down and hide in the dark.

At some point, the bubble has to burst.

Eventually, the facade collapses. 

By then, we are so entangled in our own story of who we are - the identity our psyche has carefully constructed to give our life coherence - that we no longer know who we really are.

Because that virtuous, spiritual Self is only half of who we are. The other half sits in a kind of psychic exile, a hole within us that will eventually press to be reclaimed.

And it will be reclaimed. Sooner or later. In this lifetime or the next.

By us - or by our partners, children, or the people closest to us.

Because not dealing with the Shadow has repercussions far beyond our own psychological comfort.

Shadow - Nothing Is Lost, Everything Is Transformed

According to one of the basic principles of physics: nothing is lost - energy is either transferred or transformed.

When the energy 

is not transformed, 

it is transferred. 

This principle explains so much of what we call intergenerational trauma.

Unintegrated psychic material doesn’t disappear - it spills into the relational field, shaping family dynamics, attachment patterns, emotional wounds, and even entire lifelines.

This is why so many children of high-caliber celebrities, successful entrepreneurs, scientists, or public figures - people recognized for excellence, achievement, or “high vibration” virtues - end up stumbling into addiction, emotional volatility, or tragic life stories.

Because the more the parent constructs a facade of being extraordinarily evolved, moral, spiritual, or exceptional, the more exiled the unintegrated material becomes - and that exiled energy has to go somewhere.

Often, it is the people closest to them who unconsciously absorb what the parent refuses to integrate. The child becomes the carrier of the unresolved.

It is this paradox that rings painfully true: 

the more virtuous the parent appears, the more burdened the child often becomes.

The issue, as we can assume, is that the parent is not truly virtuous. This virtuosity has been constructed - achieved by skipping the necessary steps of genuine self-confrontation, genuine humility, and genuine transformation.

It’s the same principle behind spiritual bypassing. In nature - and in life - nothing can truly be bypassed.

Acting from a “higher self,” feeling morally superior, or imagining ourselves as the “better person” can often be signs of an unintegrated Shadow.

Integrating The Shadow

Human nature is messy. We are not born evolved human beings. Of course, Shadow work is not an excuse to throw tantrums or justify bad behavior - at least not beyond our Saturn return.

But it is an invitation to accept our humanity, to welcome the parts of ourselves we might find less desirable, less flattering, or less convenient.

It means paying attention to what we don’t want to deal with. 

To what irritates us. 

To what makes us angry. 

What gets under our skin. 

What we judge. 

What we idealize. 

What we can’t stop thinking about.

The solution is not always to “take a deep breath”. 

Sometimes, no matter how much meditation we do or how many positive affirmations we repeat,

 “this shall NOT pass” - because it’s not meant to.

Sometimes the inevitable next step is to do the real, uncomfortable, liberating work of Shadow integration.

in, Astro Butterfly

Trust the Signs: Full Moon Eclipse in Pisces 2024

 On September 18th, 2024, we have a Full Moon and Lunar Eclipse at 25° Pisces.

This is a very powerful lunation, and the first Eclipse on the Pisces/Virgo axis.

The Full Moon is conjunct Neptune (at 28° Pisces), and it is sextile Uranus in Taurus and Pluto in Capricorn. In fact, the Full Moon Eclipse forms a beautiful configuration called “Kite”.

The propeller of the Kite, the Sun, is in Virgo, reminding us how important it is to ground our dreams and ideals in the real world.

The planets at the apex of the Kite - Moon and Neptune - will heighten our connection to higher consciousness, deepening our intuition and insight.

This Sun in Virgo/Moon-Neptune in Pisces Kite configuration is a unique opportunity to align the spiritual with the practical, the abstract with the tangible.

Full Moon Eclipse in Pisces - Two Quotes

Here are two quotes that beautifully capture the energy of this Full Moon Eclipse in Pisces:

“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.” 

Napoleon Hill.

This means that anything we can envision with our mind’s eye has the divine potential to eventually manifest.

Sooner or later, whatever idea is generated in the vast cosmic computer that is the Universe has the potential to find its way into 3D, material reality. There’s always a pathway from spirit to matter - and back to spirit. That’s how the universe works.

And the 2nd quote is: 

 

“The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe”.

Albert Einstein

This means that once we send our intention to the Universe, it will guide us toward its fulfillment, showing us signs and paths to follow.

However, if we fundamentally believe that the Universe is hostile - thinking, 'the world is against me,' or 'I can’t do this because of that' - we will likely dismiss those signs, as we won’t trust them. After all, the universe is hostile, right?

If, instead, we trust that the Universe is divinely designed to work in our favor, we will recognize the signs and adjust our path accordingly.

We will eventually manifest our desires, knowing that the Universe is on our side.

Full Moon Eclipse In Pisces - The Aspects

The Full Moon Eclipse in Pisces is conjunct its modern ruler, Neptune, the planet of limitless dreams and possibilities. This powerful alignment holds the promise that our visions have the potential to become tangible realities.

However, this same Full Moon in Pisces squares its traditional ruler, Jupiter (now in Gemini). This suggests that in order to reach our highest potential and manifest our dreams (Neptune), we must be willing to adjust some of our beliefs (Jupiter).

Our mindset can be our best friend - OR our greatest enemy.

Our mindset is the sum of our beliefs. We are wired to default on our beliefs. 

“I’ve always been like that” or “If only I achieve this goal, then I will be happy”. 

But the problem with a fixed mindset is that it keeps us stuck in a rigid plan,unable to adapt to life's inevitable twists and turns.

We miss the subtle signs and opportunities along the way, because we're too focused on one outcome and fail to see the bigger picture.

There are 2 fundamental issues with this approach:

1st: Growth is not a linear process, and neither is life. The world is way too complex, and there are simply too many variables at play. It’s much wiser to let go of what we think things should be and surrender to the flow of life.

2nd: Timing. That’s another important dimension that ties into the first. There is divine timing for everything. The defining characteristic of divine timing is its divine nature - we cannot schedule it in our calendar.

Full Moon Eclipse In Pisces - Trust the Divine Timing

The (friendly) universe always offers clues when that divine timing has arrived. You start seeing signs or omens here and there. Things start to fall into place. There are synchronicities, serendipities, and everything flows. One thing leads to another.

The opposite of divine alignment is when things steadily deteriorate. When that happens, it means we’ve misread the divine directions and veered off course.

If you want to go South, but you’re heading North, guess what - you’re not going to get to your destination; in fact, you’ll get farther and farther away from it.

When things keep going wrong, it’s a sign that we’ve become disconnected from the flow of life, unable to perceive the guidance around us.

This is not about losing sight of our highest aspirations (Neptune). It’s about reading the signs, and not going North when the sign says “go South”. It’s about interpreting the clues - taking the feedback - and adjusting our path accordingly.

Most importantly, it’s about trusting in the divine guidance of the universe.

Lunar Eclipse in Pisces - North Node Eclipse

In Astrology, eclipses are traditionally associated with karmic, fated events. However, not all eclipses signify karmic endings.

There are 2 types of eclipses: South Node eclipses (when the luminary is close to the South Node), and North Node Eclipses (when the luminary is close to the North Node).

South Node Eclipses are about releasing outdated patterns, 

while North Node eclipses often bring twists of fate. North Node eclipses introduce new energy and the potential to alter our karmic paths.

This particular Eclipse in Pisces is a North Node Eclipse - meaning it's about welcoming new energy rather than releasing old karma.

The message of this Full Moon North Node Eclipse in Pisces?

Everything is possible when you trust the divine timing and read the signs - even if they go against what you believed to be true.

When the next unexpected thing hits you - will you frame it as a challenge, or as an opportunity? Will you read the sign, or will you fall back into your default pattern of seeing the world? Will you swim with the current, or against it?

The Full Moon Eclipse will hand us a magic opportunity, but only if we trust the mysterious workings of the universe.

At the Full Moon Lunar Eclipse in Pisces, many planets are connected through supportive aspects like sextiles and trines. We have the full endorsement of the Universe + a cosmic stamp of divine approval with the Full Moon conjunct Neptune.

Full Moon Eclipse In Pisces - How to Approach It

What will be revealed to us will be profound and extraordinary.

But to be able to ‘see’ what the Full Moon and Neptune are here to illuminate, we have to let go of old ways of being.

This is a North Node Eclipse. We have to be OK with not having all the answers.

It’s not that we were wrong. But as we move through life, new and richer layers are gradually revealed. When we trust the divine timing, when we read the signs, we align ourselves with the DNA of the universe and open ourselves to magic and limitless possibilities.

At the Full Moon in Pisces, take a moment to ask yourself:

1. What beliefs or habits might be keeping me from seeing the signs the universe is offering? 
2. How can I open myself up to the possibility that what lies ahead could be greater than I ever imagined?

The Full Moon Eclipse offers a chance for profound transformation, but it requires us to be present, open, and willing to trust the journey.

The universe is always communicating with you. 

All you have to do is listen.

Astro Butterfly

Jupiter Square Saturn – Don Quixote And Sancho Panza

On August 19th, 2024, Jupiter (at 17° Gemini) is square Saturn (at 17° Pisces).

Jupiter square Saturn is a very important transit because it involves the two largest planets in our solar system. So when they form an important aspect like a square (we only have a Jupiter-Saturn every 10 years), we know that we’re up for something BIG.

We are talking about fundamental influences that will challenge and reshape the structure of our lives.

This is the 1st square of the current Jupiter-Saturn cycle, which began in December 2020 when Jupiter and Saturn met at 0° Aquarius.

The 2nd Jupiter-Saturn square happens at 14° Gemini and 14° Pisces and it’s on December 24th, 2024.

The third – and final – Jupiter-Saturn square is on June 15th, 2025 and occurs after Jupiter and Saturn leave Gemini and Pisces and move into Cancer and Aries. At the exact square, Jupiter is at 1° Cancer and Saturn at 1° Aries.

So when we talk about this Jupiter square Saturn transit, we are referring to the whole period spanning from August 2024 until June 2025.

The first square of a synodic cycle is known as a “crisis in action,” meaning that whatever was initiated at the conjunction is now being tested against reality.

You do want to pay attention to the themes that emerge at the time of the 1st conjunction (August 19th, 2024) because will set the tone for the entire transit.

• What makes sense, and what doesn’t? 
• What should we continue doing, and what should we reconsider or change?

Squares are also opportunities for “market feedback,” bringing forth various possibilities.

Take a step back and observe how the world validates – or doesn’t – what you do. 

If your efforts yield no results, perhaps it’s time to change your strategy. 

On the other hand, if a particular opportunity keeps presenting itself, it might be time to say yes.

As a general influence, think of Jupiter as your goals and beliefs – how you want your life to be – and Saturn as your results – what is realistically achievable.

When Jupiter and Saturn clash in a square, this suggests there is a gap between what you believe it’s possible, and what can realistically be achieved.

This isn’t always negative. 

Many people dream too small, lacking Jupiter’s confidence and expansive mindset – so they end up with ‘goals’ that fall short of their potential.

For others, the opposite is true. They might dream too big, becoming entangled in unrealistic expectations.

So what’s to be done? 

The goal of Jupiter square Saturn is to: 

1) help us identify what is truly important to us and 

2) recognize the gaps between our ideals and our current situation.

This clarity will then help us take practical steps forward, one step at a time.

The Jupiter-Saturn square 

in Gemini-Pisces 

makes me think of 

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.

The story of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, from Miguel de Cervantes’ novel Don Quixote, revolves around the relationship between a deluded idealist (Don Quixote) and his pragmatic, down-to-earth squire (Sancho Panza).

The idealist Don Quixote is, of course, Jupiter, and Sancho Panza is Saturn.

In the novel, Don Quixote sets out on a quest to become a knight-errant, reviving knighthood and fighting for justice. He is the ultimate idealist, traits that remind us of Jupiter.

Sancho Panza is skeptical of Don Quixote’s grandiose visions, but he remains faithfully by his side, providing practical support and grounding Don Quixote’s fantastical visions. Similarly, Saturn’s role is to shape Jupiter’s vision into practical realities.

But the journey or reconciliation is not always smooth. 

Just like the novel explores the tension between Don Quixote’s grandiose imagination and Sancho Panza’s pragmatic realism, the Jupiter-Saturn square can reveal the challenges and friction between our big aspirations and practical limitations.

The famous windmill episode in the novel is emblematic of Jupiter in an Air sign (Gemini).

On their journey, the 2 companions come across a group of windmills.

Don Quixote, with his imagination fueled by tales of giants and heroic quests, mistakes the windmills for giants.

He believes that these “giants” are threatening and that it is his duty to fight them. Despite Sancho Panza’s warnings, he tries to fight the windmills – unsuccessfully, of course -, ending up falling off his horse.

The windmill episode is a metaphor for the clash between idealism (Jupiter) and reality (Saturn). Idealism taken to the extreme can blur our vision and detach us from reality.

But that’s not to conclude that with Jupiter square Saturn we should curb our enthusiasm.

What’s interesting in the novel is that Don Quixote and Sancho Panza need each other. 

While Sancho Panza is the realistic one, he is very much drawn by Quixote’s sense of adventure, which gives him meaning and direction.

Without Jupiterian goals, Saturn would not know what to do, and would have nothing to fight for.

At the Jupiter-Saturn square, reflect on which character you identify with:

• Are you the idealistic Don Quixote? If so, how can you bring more practicality into your grand visions?
• Are you the overly-pragmatic and sometimes too-pessimistic Sancho Panza? How can you embrace bigger dreams and find a sense of direction?

The Jupiter-Saturn square is an opportunity to find the sweet spot between ambition and realism, so you can pursue your goals grounded in reality, while at the same time pushing yourself beyond self-imposed limitations. 

Astro Butterfly

New Moon in Taurus – Your UVP

 On May 8th, 2024 we have a New Moon at 18° Taurus.

The New Moon forms a powerful conjunction-stellium with Venus, Jupiter, and Uranus, amplifying the energy of this lunation.

Jupiter and Uranus, as outer planets, represent collective energies. When aligned with personal planets like the Sun, Moon, and Venus, these influences become more intimate and relevant on a personal level.

The upcoming New Moon in Taurus will activate the promise of the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction, bringing forth important insights or revelations that resonate with your personal journey and aspirations.

At the New Moon in Taurus, something important that may have been elusive or unclear before will become more personal and relatable.

New Moon In Taurus – As Within, So Without

The Jupiter-Uranus conjunction last month came with the promise of an important OPPORTUNITY.

The challenge with the ‘opportunity’, given the context of Jupiter and Uranus as outer planets, lies in its collective nature.

There might be opportunities ‘out there’ but this doesn’t mean that we, individuals, know how to tap into them.

In fact, when our self-awareness (Aries) and self-worth (Taururs) are lacking, we might not even recognize these opportunities – even when they are right in front of our eyes – let alone tap into them.

Why?

“As within, so without, 

as above, so below, 

as the universe, so the soul.”

This basically means that the world around us is a reflection of who we are on the inside. 

Those ‘opportunities’ only exist when the person that we are is able to recognize and seize them.

The magic is finding that sweet spot where our personal talent (Sun, Moon, and Venus) meets opportunity (Jupiter and Uranus).

We need to be able to tune into the frequencies of the outer world, we need an energetic alignment between the inner and the outer. And to ‘tune in’, we need a unique set of skills.

A salesperson will notice subtle cues given off by a prospect that indicate they are ready to buy. A photographer will intuitively spot the best shots because their brain is tuned to that frequency.

Abundance and opportunity are not luck; they are about tuning your inner frequency to match the frequency of the universe. As Seneca put it, “Luck is where opportunity meets preparation”.

We can only recognize opportunities when we know who we are, what our skills are, and what we have to offer to the world.

When we don’t know who we are or lack clarity about our abilities, we may overlook potential opportunities that are perfectly aligned with our talents.

However, when we have a clear understanding of ourselves and our unique offerings, we effortlessly attract the right opportunities that resonate with our true selves.

New Moon In Taurus – Your Unique Value Proposition (UVP)

The Unique Value Proposition (UVP) is a term used to describe the specific benefits or advantages that a product, service, or offering provides to its customers or audience, setting it apart from competitors.

People also have UVPs. A personal UVP is what sets an individual apart, what unique skills, experiences, or qualities they bring to the table, and why they are valuable or indispensable in a particular context.

A UVP is our unique combination of skills, expertise, personality traits, and experiences that make us stand out from others in our field of work or any other setting.

Knowing what your UVP is can help you attract opportunities that align with your strengths and capabilities.

Our unique value proposition is centered around value creation. It’s something that actually creates value for the world.

You might be the most amazing accountant, but if the labor market is saturated or if technology replaces our skills, then finding opportunities might be challenging.

You could be the best emerging artist, but if no one is interested in that particular style or genre of art, gaining traction could be difficult. Of course, you can continue making art for the joy of it, but you would still need a viable income to make ends meet.

Our unique value proposition is not only rooted in our talents and skills, but also helps us create or produce something that fulfills a genuine need in the world.

Taurus And Value Creation

Out of all the signs of the zodiac, Taurus is instrumental in understanding what our unique value proposition is. Taurus, the 2nd sign of the zodiac, provides the solid foundations for Aries’ seed of life to take shape and manifest in the material world.

Taurus shapes and creates the tangible realities of our world thanks to its earthy, practical, matter-of-fact attributes.

Taurus is the sign of resources – not only material resources – but also our mental, emotional, and spiritual resources. Basically, everything that is ours – everything that we can use to support and sustain ourselves and others.

We know that our resources create value when we can recognize the connection between what we input (effort, time, energy) and what output results from it.

This output is something that the world needs and it’s willing to pay for.

I’ll never forget my first ‘Taurus’ job as a fruit picker, where I learned the values of hard work and consistency. More importantly, the straightforward nature of this job taught me there’s a ‘basic formula’ to value creation: 1 bushel of picked fruit = x amount of earnings; 1 hour of work = x customers served.

Of course, it becomes more complex when what we offer is intellectual or emotional support – it’s hard to measure what impact a counselor has on their clients’ lives, for example.

Nevertheless, there’s always some sort of basic equation or relationship between what we do, the value we create, and the benefits derived from it.

To achieve success in life, it’s crucial to recognize what exactly it is that we excel at, and then focus and capitalize on that.

Maybe the counselor in our example above has very good results with helping people recover from addictions – because they have experienced addiction themselves – but not so good with relationship counseling.

If what we do (job, personal project) doesn’t actually create value, we will never be able to tap into Jupiter’s proverbial abundance and opportunities.

Taking in any type of client can dilute the counselor’s expertise and effectiveness. The counselor (for their sake, and for the sake of their future clients) would be much better off focusing on addiction-recovery. That’s their core competency. That’s what they’re good at. That’s what sets them apart from other counselors.

New Moon In Taurus – Your Unique Skill That The World Needs

Focusing on what you’re really good at (and removing non-value-adding activities) will give you a unique advantage and maximize your impact.

The New Moon in Taurus conjunct Venus, Jupiter, and Uranus is an invitation to discover your unique value proposition – that thing you’re really good at and that the world needs.

The New Moon in Taurus is an invitation to reflect on the following questions:

1. “What am I really good at?”
2. “What unique skills or qualities do I have that the world needs?”
3. “What is my unique value proposition”?

in, Astro Butterfly