What an Opportunity by Norma Gentile

reprinted from January 2000 PhenomeNEWS Magazine

Oftentimes opportunities look more like trouble. Take the new millennium, for example. On an energy level 1999-2001 is a period of intense cleansing. It's like putting the planet through a three-year commercial dryer on high heat. We will experience lots of fast motion, spinning and a few bursts of heat to make sure we come out wrinkle-free.

Part of this cycle includes a series of eclipses during the calendar year 2000 and 2001. In fact, the year 2000 brings us no fewer than six eclipses &endash; two of the moon and four of the sun. Each brings with it the opportunity for fresh energy to enter our planet.

The first of these eclipses occurs late on January 20, 2000. It is a total lunar eclipse and opens our planet to the embrace of a large and loving female energy with which most of us are quite familiar. As a result we are apt to feel "at home" in this energy, experiencing it as a strong support for our life's path. If anything, this should ease the holiday and winter depression that many people have felt.

Just two weeks later, on February 5, 2000, a partial solar eclipse brings a flood of totally different energy to earth. This energy will begin to be felt as the first eclipse wanes, about 3 or 4 days after it officially occurs and will be unmistakable by the end of January.

The energy that this second eclipse supports has been felt before, during the mid-portion of December 1999. The difference is that in its

February appearance this energy will be quick to appear, but not as quick to leave as it was in December. It is an energy that belongs to the opposite pole of creation than that with which we are used to dealing.

The energy of the February eclipse is based in opposition. That is, this energy builds on whatever you aren't used to doing. During the time when this energy has the most influence, February through May, you are apt to create reverses in your life.

For example, if you love watching TV, you may suddenly find yourself enmeshed in reading books constantly. If you are prone to overeating, you may find yourself drawn to walking or movement-based activities. Your color preferences may suddenly shift to the "mirror" color palate &endash; yellow to blue orange to green, etc.

For this reason people may feel "out of sync" during the major times that this energy has influence. This is apt to be during late January and early February, again in late March, all of April and early May and again in late June and early July. It might help to remember that these are all opportunities to explore lesser-known sides of our personalities. Would someone please remind me of this when I'm getting whirled around in the dryer, too?

All of this is a great experiment. We live in duality, choosing to experience only one aspect of each event. We label the side we like "good" and the side we dislike "bad." As the eclipses in 2000 alternate back and forth between lunar and solar pulses of energy, each encourages us to explore the realness of the "good-bad" label and of our shared nature of reality. Is All really One? If you would like to know more about the eclipses, see: http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/ eclipse.html