Harnessing the Power of the Solar Eclipse to Solidify Closure

Today marks “The World”, closure of one chapter and the beginning of another. 

As the moon enters the fiery sign of Aries, heralding the dawn of a new lunar cycle, we find ourselves standing at the precipice of change. The cosmos align in a rare spectacle, with a solar eclipse accompanying the new moon on Monday, 8 April at 2:21 pm. 

It has been my tradition to keep my blog high-level and fairly impersonal because it is not about me. It’s about deepening my spiritual practice and offering up information and experiences that are accessible to anyone who has interest in such practices. But today’s blog must be different.

Ahead of this cosmic convergence, I gathered my courage, crystals, and candles to perform a ritual of closure to let go of the toxic bonds that have tethered me and my friend to an abusive relationship with the same man.

For the past four years, I have devoted my love and energy to a relationship that devolved into a very unhealthy place. Even after I finally had the courage last year to end the relationship, I struggled to let go and could not completely break free. I was unable to discern all the things that belonged to me and all the things that belonged to him. Instead of trusting my judgment and taking care of myself, I abandoned myself. I allowed myself to remain in a toxic swirl in the name of helping someone I loved get sober. With that decision, I became a willing participant in a relationship rife with abuse. I allowed myself to be disrespected, lied to, gaslit and abused because my empathy and compassion for my former partner outweighed the empathy and compassion I had for myself. 

By December last year, I knew I wanted things to be different; 2023 swelled with substantial personal growth stemming from tremendous personal pain and heartbreak. It was time to let go of hope and stop ruminating on the past, permanently. On New Year’s Eve, I attended a Vision Board workshop led by Bones Moon at Sticks and Stones in Fairfax. The intention was to get very clear about where I was at that moment, consider where I wanted to be in 2024, and define how I was going to get there. I had no idea at that moment that I would set an intention that would manifest a powerful transformation that would alter my existence and solidify my faith in magick forever. 

During the workshop I pulled the “Clearing” card and in the first weeks of January I completed my vision board for 2024. I incorporated the meaning of the Clearing card – which admittedly I did not at all understand at the time – redesigned my Wheel of Life to include the chakras and Sabbats, and created corresponding action steps in the areas of grounding, fun, and spirituality. 

On 20 January, I sought out a reading from Samantha at 13 Magickal Moons in Occoquan. I have experienced her as a powerful intuitive who works in a non-traditional but wholly authentic shop, often blaring heavy metal and generally being in some form of disarray with no desire to impress anyone, which in a strange way I find appealing. Anyway, during that reading she told me that I would experience a profound transformation during the middle or end of March. That I would move into my “badassery” as she called it. I liked the sound of that.   

Friday 23 February - Sunday, 25 February, I attended the Snow Moon Retreat led by Kristine Erickson, founder of Outrageous Wellness and Arlene Moshe, founder of Opening Intuition. The retreat was designed to ignite intuition and sensuality. At the beginning, I shared that I felt blocked and wanted to release whatever was preventing me from tapping into my intuitive abilities. On the second day, we did a lot of very physical breath work that left me feeling physically nauseated for a couple of hours; I felt as though I had released moths from my belly. It was a critical step in my process.

On Friday, 22 March, I attended an Ostara celebration with my solstice sisterhood. We each wrote on a piece of paper that which we wanted to let go of and that which we wanted to manifest. One by one, we read our desires to one another and dropped them into the fire. In front of my sisters and the cosmos, I put forward my desire to release toxic people from my life so that I could manifest joy and invite healthy people and relationships into my world. 

On the last Thursday of March, I thought about the reading I’d received in January and thought, nothing transformational has occurred. And then, it did. 

On Friday, 29 March, I connected with an acquaintance that had also been pulled into the swirl of chaos and toxicity by my former partner. What transpired was profound. Together, we examined the past years of our lives and all the energy that we had put into a relationship that damaged us, objectified us, used and abused us. Together we uncovered the truth and in doing so, set each other free and broke the spell of the narcissist who had successfully captured and cheated on two empathic butterflies caught in his web of cheating and deceit. In its place born a friendship, galvanized by the pain that comes from being lied to for years and an unrelenting desire to be free of him, forever. 

On Easter Sunday, 31 March, I met one-on-one with Bones Moon to share my completed vision board. I shared the things that had transpired over the last three months and the steps that my now friend and I planned to take together later that day to sever ties with the narcissist for good. 

Bones looked at my vision board and said, “Have you read today what you wrote on here?” 

“No,” I said. And then I read aloud the words from the Clearing card that I had pulled exactly three months before … 

Take time to rid yourself of negativity.
Allow another to carry away your burdens.
Reflect on your most recent journey.

Hold an egg in the palm of your hand and share your fears, your worries, and your anxieties with the egg; then it can be carried away – by you or someone else – who can release it in a caring fashion.

Allow yourself to remember that dark thoughts and challenges can happen to us all. It is necessary to let go of these burdens rather than be weighted down. 

You can always call upon your most trusted friend to help you clear this burden. And sometimes you are the one summoned to help another unburden themselves.

Go within. See which role you must take today. It’s okay if you must sit with a friend as you both clear the air and yourselves.

Blessed are those who let go of their pasts to embrace the joys of their future. 

So mote it be. 

The night of Easter Sunday, my friend and I supported one another as we severed ties for good with the man that had abused us. Each day since, we have remained connected first to share our pain, then to walk through all the memories that once confused us but now made sense, and then finally to let go.   

On Sunday, 7 April, in the sacred embrace of nature, where the elements dance freely and the energies flow unimpeded, we found solace and strength. It was there, amidst the rustling leaves and the whispering winds, that we set our intentions for liberation. With crystals as our allies, we invoked the power of blue apatite for spiritual attunement, bumblebee jasper to promote health and joy, and fluorite to cleanse and free us from the unwanted attachments of others.

As we lit the candles infused with the fragrances of sandalwood and rosemary, we invoked the incantation: 

“Today, may we lay down the burdens of our past, let go of all the pain and hurt, suffering and shame. May we open ourselves to love and abundance, that we never again expose ourselves to excessive negative energy, abuse, disrespect or less-than-worthy anything, ever again.

I willingly let go of my past, anticipating the new path I now embark upon. With each flicker of the flame, we release the chains of trauma and pain that have bound us to our abuser. We surrender to the transformative power of the eclipse, allowing it to sweep away the shadows of our past and illuminate the way forward.”

Following our sacred closure ceremony, we completed our hike through Sky Meadows and laid to rest our last memories of the man who, through selfishness and deceit, brought us together and born a friendship that will not soon fade.  

In our sacred act of letting go, we stood together, recognizing the criticality of having support to uplift each other, provide strength, offer healing, and stand firm as a force of nature when darkness threatens to engulf us once again. We will remind each of our worth and our resilience, and urge one another to never look back.

As I drove home, I felt true joy in my heart for the first time in a long, long time. I am now free and we will be more than okay. We will thrive.