#21 After The Eclipse Portal | Embodied Integration and Somatic Psychology

The portal closes and the real work begins. After weeks of eclipse turbulence, we explore how to turn revelations into a steadier way of living by bringing the mystical into the material—through your breath, your posture, your pace, and the ground under your feet. We map the emotional weather of an Aquarius solar eclipse and a Virgo lunar eclipse, then connect it to a supportive week in the sky: Jupiter stations direct in Cancer, inviting nurtured growth and deeper care, while Mercury meets Mars in Pisces, fusing intuition with action so plans can flow instead of force.

From there, we dig into the heart of integration. Awareness is powerful, but it’s only the doorway. Using a somatic lens, we unpack explicit vs implicit memory and why bodies revert to old patterns without time, repetition, and safety. Through polyvagal theory, we name the states of ventral safety, sympathetic mobilization, and dorsal shutdown—not as moral judgments, but as signals that guide right-sized next steps. The thread running through it all is regulation: you cannot think your way into calm, but you can breathe, ground, move, and be witnessed back into it.

We lean on ancestral and earth-based wisdom to restore rhythm. Feet on soil, hands on trees, slow exhales, and gentle sound help the nervous system entrain to steadier frequencies so integration can stick. Jupiter in Cancer expands containers that protect fragile shoots; Mercury–Mars in Pisces invites softer, body-led decisions that honor capacity. We close with a guided practice that roots you into the earth and carries that steadiness through belly, heart, throat, and mind—so vision becomes action and action becomes a new way of being.

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Transcript

Welcome And Eclipse Recap

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Welcome to Priestess Initiations, the Goddess Coven. I'm Casey Dunn, educator, priestess, and professional somatic therapist. In April 2025, I went through a Priestess Initiation of Old and launched the Priestess Initiations podcast six months later. Whatever brought you here today, I invite you to drop into the spiral with me. Let's begin. Welcome to Priestess Initiations. I'm Casey, and we made it through eclipse season. On February 17th, we had a new moon solar eclipse in Aquarius. Revolutionary energy, the dawning of the age of Aquarius, the fire horse breaking free, Saturn and Neptune, meaning at zero degrees Aries. That was a lot that week. Building a new spiritual foundation. And then last Tuesday, March 3rd, we had a full moon lunar eclipse in Virgo. The closing eclipse, the integration eclipse, Virgo energy asking what needs to be refined, what needs to be organized, what needs to come into right relationship with the body, with the earth, with daily practice. Eclipse season's a portal, a threshold, a time when the veil thins and massive shifts happen, internally and externally. Revelations come through, old patterns dissolve, new visions arrive. But here's what nobody tells you about eclipse season. The portal is only half the work. The other half is integration. And integration isn't about understanding what happened. It's not about analyzing the downloads or journaling the shifts or talking through revelations. Integration is embodiment. It's bringing the mystical into the material. It's moving the vision from the mind into the nervous system, into the cells, into the way you walk through the world. Integration happens in the body. It happens through the body, and it happens as the body. And this week, um, the cosmos is supporting that work. So this week, Jupiter, the planet of expansion, abundance, growth, and faith, stations direct and cancer after being retrograde since December. Forward motion returns, what's been developing internally since the winter can now move outward. And Jupiter is the planet of luck, too. So if you've been feeling a little down on your luck, that might be about to shift. And on Sunday, Mercury and Mars meet in Pisces, the messenger and the warrior, mind and will, communication and action. They're joining forces in the most mystical, intuitive, dreamlike sign of the zodiac. This is the astrology of embodied integration. This is the week when the visions become plans, when the spiritual downloads become grounded action, when the eclipse revelations land in your body and start reshaping your life from the inside out. So today we're talking about integration, not as a concept, but as a somatic ancestral earth-based practice. We're talking about what it means to ground the eclipse energy, to regulate your nervous system after weeks of activation, to come back into your body after being in the liminal space, between worlds, the threshold. Because you can't live in the portal forever. At some point, you have to come back to Earth. And that's not a step down. That is not less sacred. Coming back to Earth, back to body is the sacred work. So let's begin. Let's talk about what's happening in the sky this week. Um, first, eclipse season's officially over, right? Um, we entered eclipse season on February 17th with the new moon solar eclipse in Aquarius at 28 degrees. Um, Aquarius energy, revolution, truth, collective vision, the age of Aquarius itself. And an eclipse at that degree combined with Saturn and Neptune meeting at zero degrees Aries. Um, sorry, I'm still post-sickness, and the shift into the year of the fire horse. Um, that was all massive energy. And then last Tuesday, March 3rd, we had the full moon lunar eclipse in Virgo at 13 degrees. And Virgo is the priestess of embodiment, of daily practice, service, refinement, discernment. And a lunar eclipse in Virgo is about release, letting go, bringing things into right relationship with the body and the earth. Solar eclipses open portals, lunar eclipses close them. So as of last Tuesday, the portals closed. Eclipse season is technically over, but the integration work, that's just beginning. And this week we're getting two major transits that support this integration process. The first is Jupiter stationing direct in Cancer on Tuesday night at 9:30 p.m. mountain time. That's yesterday night, if you're listening to this, when it releases on Wednesday, the 11th. And so this is big because when Jupiter goes retrograde, the planet of expansion and growth turns inward. It's not about external achievement, it's about internal development. That's how you can think of retrogrades. Um, and so this one was about deepening your faith, clarifying your vision, understanding what you truly believe in, what truly feels abundant to you, what you're growing toward. And now on Tuesday, Jupiter stations direct at 15 degrees cancer. Cancer is the sign of the mother, the nurturer, the home, the womb, the emotional body, lineage, roots. Um, Jupiter and Cancer expands our capacity to feel, to nurture, to create safe containers, honor our emotional needs, and to tend what we're growing. So when Jupiter goes direct, forward motion returns. We've what's been developing internally, quietly, slowly in the dark, can now start moving outward into the world. And I want to clarify this is not about forcing, it's not about pushing. Jupiter in Cancer doesn't rush, it tends, it nourishes, it creates the conditions for organic growth. So this week, pay attention to what wants to move forward, what's been gestating inside you since December, what vision, what calling, what next step has been quietly developing in the dark of your internal winter? And we're getting close to solstice. Um and so whatever's been developing, it's ready to grow now. Not all at once, but slowly, organically, with that nurturing attention. So it's a really good week for self-care, too. And a lot of us need that, myself included, coming off of this eclipse season. The second major transit um I want to talk about is Mercury conjuct Mars in Pisces on Sunday at 2:08 a.m. Mountain Time. Mercury's the messenger, the mind, communication, thought, planning, ideas, and Mars is the warrior. Desire, will, action, drive, initiation. And when they come together, mind and will unite. Thinking becomes doing, vision becomes action. And this is until Sunday. So again, like letting yourself nurture this week in preparation for that time to act. Um, but Mars and Mercury are meeting in Pisces, and Pisces is the sign of the mystic, the dreamer, um, the ocean. I'd like to think of it as kind of like the top waves of the ocean. And then I think of Cancer as like the mid-ocean, and Scorpio is kind of the like dark, deep, depth ocean. Um, anyways, that's just my way of thinking about it. But Pisces Pisces is also about the dissolving of boundaries, um, space between worlds, the realm of intuition and spiritual knowing. And so Mercury conduct Mars and Pisces is about intuitive action. It's about letting your body lead, letting your dreams inform your plans, letting the mystical guide the material. This is not the sharp strategic action of Mars and Aries. It's not the analytical planning of Mercury and Virgo. This is something softer, slower, more fluid. This is the kind of action that comes from being so deeply rooted in your body and your intuition that you don't have to think your way through every step. You just know and you move. This is spiritual integration becoming embodied reality. So this week, between Jupiter going direct and cancer and Mercury meeting Mars and Pisces, we're being supported to move what's been internal outward, to take the eclipse downloads and ground them, to turn visions into plans, plans into action, action into new ways of living, personally and collectively. But here's the piece that matters most. This has to happen through the body. You can't think your way into integration, you can't analyze your way into embodiment, you can't journal your way into grounding. You have to feel it, you have to move it, you have to let it land in your nervous system and your cells and the way you breathe and stand and walk. Integration is a somatic process, and that's what we're talking about today. So let's start with what integration actually is, because I think we throw that word around a lot in spiritual spaces without really understanding what we mean. Um, integration is not the same as understanding. You can't, you can intellectually understand an eclipse download. You can map out the revelation, you can see the pattern clearly, you can know cognitively what shifted. But that's not integration, that's awareness. And awareness is awesome. But integration is when the shift moves from your mind into your body, when it reorganizes your nervous system, when it changes the way you respond to the world without you having to think about it. Um, in somatic psychology, we talk about the difference between explicit memory and implicit memory. Explicit memory is conscious. It's the story you tell about what happened. It's the narrative, the understanding, the analysis. An implicit memory is unconscious. It's stored in your body. It's the way your nervous system learned to respond based on past experience. It's why your heart races in certain situations, even when you cognitively know you're safe. It's why your body braces before your mind registers danger. It's why you feel a certain way in your gut before you can name what's happening. The sensation comes before the cognition. And so most of the eclipse work, most of the shadow work, most of the initiation work happens at the level of implicit memory. It's not about what you now know, it's about what your body now knows. And your body learns through repetition, through safety, which we talked a lot about last week, through regulation, through being witnessed, through somatic experience, and not through intellectual insight. So integration is the process of letting the new information, the new awareness, the new pattern land in your body. It's giving your nervous system time to reorganize around the shift. It's practicing the new way of being until it becomes automatic, until it's something you no longer are doing consciously, but something you simply are. This takes time. And our culture, especially spiritual culture, loves the breakthrough moment, the revelation, the big aha, the shift, the portal opening. But we're not very good at honoring the slow, quiet, repetitive work of integration. We want the next portal, the next initiation, the next level. I call it a phoenix moment. And I am very guilty of this, wanting to phoenix myself, right? Oh, I see the thing, the old pattern. Let's just burn it to ash and rise from the ashes. But here's the truth: if you don't integrate, the breakthroughs don't stick. The downloads dissolve, the shifts revert, you go back to the old patterns because your nervous system didn't have time to learn the new ones. Integration is not glamorous. It's daily, it's embodied, it's ordinary. It's the breath practice you do every morning. It's the way you pause before reacting. It's the moment you feel your feet on the ground and remember you are safe enough. It's the choice to move slower, to rest more, to let your body catch up to your vision. Ancestral earth wisdom understands this in a way modern spirituality often doesn't. In earth-based traditions, um, there are seasons. There's a planting season and a harvest season, but there's also fallow season, the time when the land rests, when nothing is growing above ground, when the soil is composting, regenerating, preparing for the next cycle. We live in a culture that wants constant harvest, constant growth, constant productivity, constant breakthroughs. But the earth doesn't work that way, and neither do our bodies. After eclipse season, after weeks of activation, revelation, portal energy, liminal space, your nervous system needs fallow time. It needs rest. It needs stillness, it needs the quiet repetition of grounding practices that let the new pattern settle into your body. This is not wasting time. This is not doing nothing. This is the essential work of embodiment. Integration is the fallow season of spiritual work, and it's just as sacred as the breakthrough. Let's talk about what's actually happening in your nervous system right now. Um, eclipse season is an activation. In somatic terms, activation means your nervous system is in a heightened state. You're more alert, more sensitive, more receptive. You're processing more information from the collective, from the cosmos, from your own psyche. You're in liminal space, threshold space, between world space, hecate's domain. And that's powerful. That's where transformation happens, that's where the downloads come through. But you can't live there because when your nervous system is activated for too long, it moves from a state of flexible responsiveness to a state of dysregulation. In uh polyvagal theory, developed by Dr. Steven Porges, we talk about three primary nervous system states. The first is the ventral vagal state. This is your social engagement system. This is where you feel safe, connected, present, curious, open. Your heart rate's calm, your breathing's easy, you can think clearly, you can connect with others, and you feel grounded in your body. That's called the ventral vagal state. And the second state is the sympathetic state. You've probably heard of this one. This is your fight or flight response. This is activation, adrenaline, heightened alertness. Your heart rate increases, your breathing gets shallow, your muscles tense, you're ready to move, to respond, to act. This is not a bad state. There's a misconception about that. It's a necessary state for dealing with challenges, for rising to meet intensity, for moving through thresholds. But if you stay in sympathetic activation for too long without returning to ventral vagal safety, your system gets exhausted. And when that happens, you drop into the third state. The third state is the dorsal vagal state. This is shut down, collapse, freeze, numbness, dissociation. When your nervous system has been activated for so long that it can't sustain the energy anymore, it shuts down to protect you. You feel disconnected from your body, foggy, flat, like you're watching your life from a distance. Eclipse season pushes a lot of us into sympathetic activation. We're processing revelation after revelation. We're in the liminal. We're dealing with sudden shifts, unexpected changes, collective intensity. This has been particularly a collectively intense eclipse season. And now, as eclipse season ends, your nervous system needs to come back down. It needs to return to ventral vagal safety. It needs to regulate. But here's the thing: you can't think your way into regulation. You don't decide to feel safe. You can't force your nervous system to calm down. Regulation happens through the body. It happens through breath, through grounding, through gentle movement, through safe touch, through being in nature, through practices that signal to your nervous system, you are safe now. The activation's over. You can rest. And this is where ancestral earth wisdom becomes so important. Our ancestors understood something we've forgotten. The earth is the ultimate regulator. When you put your bare feet on the ground, when you place your hands on a tree, when you lay down on the grass, when you breathe with the rhythm of the ocean or the wind, your nervous system starts to entrain to the earth's frequency. You co-regulate to the earth. And the earth has a natural electromagnetic frequency called the Schumann resonance. It pulses at about 7.83 Hertz. And that frequency is almost identical to the frequency of human alpha brain waves, the state of calm, relaxed awareness. So when you're in direct contact with the earth, your body literally sinks up with that rhythm. Your heart rate slows, your breathing deepens, your nervous system down regulates. This isn't woo. This is measurable physiological regulation. And it's something our ancestors knew without needing the science to prove it. They knew that after intense ritual, after ceremony, initiation, you return to the earth. You ground. You let the land hold you. In many indigenous traditions, there are specific grounding practices that follow any kind of spiritual activation. You don't just open the portal and walk away. You close the ceremony. You give gratitude. You let your body come back into balance. This is what integration looks like in practice. So if you've been feeling exhausted, foggy, ungrounded, overwhelmed, or emotionally raw since eclipse season, that's not wrong. That's your nervous system telling you it needs to regulate. You don't need more activation, you don't need the next big shift. You don't need another portal. You need rest. You need earth. You need practices that bring you back into your body, back into safety, back into The present moment. Jupiter going direct in Cancer this week is perfect for this. Cancer energy is about nurturing, tending, creating safe containers. Jupiter expanding that energy means give yourself permission to rest more than feels productive, to move slower than feels efficient, to prioritize your body's need for regulation over your mind's desire for the next thing. And Mercury Conject Mars in Pisces on Sunday says, let your intuition guide your action. Let your body tell you what it needs. And let the mystical inform reality. Your body knows how to integrate. You just have to give it space, time, and the practices to do the work. And that's what we're going to do in today's closing practice when we get there in a minute. And on Patreon, there's a there's going to be a whole list of um extra embodiment practices. But today we're going to try to give your body a direct experience of grounding, regulation, and returning to the earth. Eclipse season's over. The portal has closed, but the work continues. Not in the liminal, not in the between worlds, but here on earth in your body. Integration is not less sacred than initiation. Grounding is not less powerful than revelation. And coming back to your body is not a step down from being in the mystical realms. This is the mystical work. This is the priestess path. Because what good is the download if it doesn't land? What good is the vision if it doesn't change the way you live? And what good is the breakthrough if your nervous system reverts to the old pattern a week later? The eclipse gave you the shift. Now you have to embody it. Jupiter going direct in cancer says, tend to what's growing. Nurture it. Create the conditions for it to take root. And Mercury conjunct Mars and Pisces says, let your intuition lead. Let your body move. Let the vision become action. And if you want our full list of transits, they are always on Patreon. And the earth, the ultimate teacher, the original mother, the ground beneath your feet, she's saying, come home. You are safe. You are held. You can rest now. If you want more support with embodiment practices, um, we also have a free embodiment practices library on our website at thegoddesscoven.com. It's the slash goddess slash coven.com. Uh, the other domain was taken when I started this a while ago, but it's a broken link. Anyways, the link is in the show notes. If you click that one, you'll get to the right place. Um, and there are breath work practices, grounding meditations, somatic tools there, all designed to help you live in your body, not just your head. But for now, let's do this together. Let's practice regulation, let's practice grounding. Let's give your nervous system a direct experience of safety and return. And so, if possible, pause this. Find a place to go outside and hit play when you're when you're back on the earth. So just find a comfortable place to sit or lie down. We're gonna take the next seven minutes or so to come fully into your body and back to the earth. This will be a longer practice than usual. So just get comfortable, like really get comfortable. You can sit or lie down, whatever feels most supportive for your body right now. If you're sitting, feel your sit bones on the earth, on the ground or on a chair, wherever you are. Let your spine be long but not rigid. Let your shoulder soften. And if you're lying down, let your whole body be supported by the surface beneath you. Let yourself be heavy. Let gravity hold you. So close your eyes if that feels safe, or soften your gaze toward the ground, and just start with a deep breath in through your nose. And let it all the way out through your mouth with a sigh. Again, breathe in and sigh it out.

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One more time. Breathe in and sigh it out. Let your whole body release.

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Now bring your awareness to your feet. Whether you're sitting or lying down, bring your attention down to your feet. Wiggle your toes, flex your ankles.

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Feel the soles of your feet.

Disclaimer And Safety Note

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And imagine roots growing from the soles of your feet down into the earth. Long, strong roots. They grow down through the floor if you're inside, through the building, down into the soil, and if you're outside, just straight into the soil, down through the layers of the earth, the clay, the rock, the minerals, the bones of ancient trees, the mycelial networks, the underground rivers. Picture your roots growing all the way down to the molten core of the earth, to the fire at the center, to the heart of the planet. And the earth receives you. She says, I've got you.

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You are safe. You are held.

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Now imagine drawing that earth energy up through your roots. Slow, steady, nourishing energy. It rises up from the core, through the layers of the earth, up through the soil, up through the floor, and into the soles of your feet. Feel it move into your ankles, your calves, your shins, your knees. The energy of the earth rises into your thighs, your hips, your pelvis. This earth energy is heavy, grounding, solid. It anchors you, it holds you, it says you don't have to hold yourself up. I will hold you. Now bring your awareness to your belly. Place one or both hands on your belly if that feels good. And take a slow breath into your belly. Let your belly rise as you breathe in.

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Let it soften as you breathe out.

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Take a few breaths here.

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Your belly is your center, your home. This is where you digest. Not just food, but experience. This is where you process. This is where integration happens. So breathe into your belly. Let it be soft. Let it be full of air. Let it take up space. Now imagine that the earth energy rising from your pelvis is coming up into your belly, filling your belly with warmth, with groundedness, with safety. And your belly says, I can hold this, I can digest this.

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I have time. Take a moment there.

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Take a moment to just feel the earth energy throughout your whole lower body, feeling held, letting yourself have time, giving yourself that permission. And then bring your awareness to your heart. Placing one or both hands on your heart center. I like to have one on my belly and one on my heart. But just take a breath into your heart. Feel your chest rise. Feel your heart beating. Your heart has been working so hard, feeling so much, processing so much activation, so much change, so much intensity. And now we're going to let your heart rest. So imagine the earth energy rising up from your feet through your belly and into your heart. Filling your chest with warmth, with ease, with the message: you are safe. You can soften. You don't have to brace anymore. Breathe into your heart. Let your chest soften. Let your shoulders drop.

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Take a few more breaths here.

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Now bring your awareness to your throat. Your voice, your expression. Swallow. Feel your throat. Maybe gently massage the sides of your neck. Your throat's been holding tension. Holding back words, holding activation. And now we're going to release it. So take a breath in and on the exhale, make a sound. Any sound. A hum, a sigh, a groan, whatever wants to come out. Let it be messy, let it be ugly, let it be real. Make sound. Let your throat vibrate.

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Let your voice move the energy through and out. Good.

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One more time. Breathe in and let sound move through you. Whatever feels right. Now bring your awareness to your head. Your skull, your brain, your mind has been so active, so full, processing revelation after revelation, insight after insight. And now it's time to let your mind rest too. So imagine the earth energy rising all the way up your spine, up through your neck, and into your head. It fills your skull with grounding, with calm, with the message.

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You don't have to figure it out right now. You can just be. Let your forehead soften. Let your jaw unclench.

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Let your tongue rest heavy in your mouth.

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Let your whole head feel supported. Heavy. Held by the earth.

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Now take a full body breath. Breathe in from your roots. All the way up through your belly, your heart, your throat, your head. Fill your whole body with breath. And exhale from the top of your head. All the way down through your body.

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And out through your roots, back into the earth. We're gonna do this again. Breathe in from the earth.

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Full body inhale.

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And then breathe out into the earth.

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Full body exhale. You are part of the earth. You're not separate. You are held.

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You are home.

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Take a few more breaths like this on your own.

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Breathing in from the earth.

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Breathing out into the earth.

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And when you're ready, start to bring small movements back into your body. Wiggle your fingers, wiggle your toes, roll your wrists and ankles, stretch if that feels good. Yawn. Make sound. And slowly, gently come back into awareness. You are grounded. You are here. You are in your body. You are on the earth. Eclipse season is over, and you are integrating. Thank you for being here. Thank you for this practice. Thank you for honoring your body, your nervous system, your need to rest and regulate. I appreciate you all um sending light energy, and I will see you in the next episode. Subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss an episode. Trust the spiral. This podcast offers spiritual and psychological education and priestess wisdom. This is not therapy, counseling, or mental health treatment. If you need mental health support, please contact a licensed provider and in a mental health emergency in the U.S., call 988.