The Potent New Moon and Solar Eclipse of September 2025

Tonight’s new moon is known as Mahalya Amavasya. It concludes the annual ancestors’ fortnight, when the veil between the spirit world and the material world is thin and you can commune with your ancestors (and your ancestors can commune with you!).

This year, the full moon at the start of the fortnight and this new moon at its end coincide with an eclipse cycle with the lunar eclipse occurring with the full moon and the solar eclipse occurring with the new moon. This is a rare occurrence and it’s an exceptionally powerful moment to harness cosmic energies to remove blocks, ease karmic patterns, and access Divine Grace.

Tonight’s eclipse occurs in the nakshatra or lunar mansion of Uttara Phalguni, governed by the Sun in the sign of Virgo. If you have any natal planets in the nakshatra of Uttara Phalguni then you can expect these energies to impact you in a significant way.

This new moon + solar eclipse are charged with potential and mystery. Here are some tips and suggestions to make the most of this powerful alignment:

Create Your Ancestral Altar

Create an altar, invite your ancestors to be with you and offer their favorite foods, drinks, milk, and water. Send them blessings to move forward on their journey in the spirit of compassion.

Your offerings are a way for you to allow your ancestors’ spirits to experience tripti - satisfaction, and your prayers offer release from attachment to unfulfilled material desires so that they can be united with all the ancestors. Your pray for their journey onward be aligned with the energy of pure love.*

In return, you ask your ancestors for their assistance and blessings to remove obstacles and hindrances, offer their protection, and their wisdom and grace to help you realize your dreams and aspirations as you make your journey on the material plane. Finding ease and fulfillment on the material plane nourishes your lineage and will also help you find release when it is time for you to join your ancestors.

*A special note: For those of us who have complex relationships with our ancestors, who may have relationships that involved a lot of pain or even abuse, this may feel challenging. Instead of forcing a ritual or a feeling of love, you can use this potent time as a way to release generational patterns and karmas that are rooted in pain. You can ask for these to be transformed from pain to the capacity to assist each other with compassion.

I would like to also specifically address the idea of forgiveness, as this is something that I think many people struggle with, myself included. I don’t think forgiveness is necessary or sometimes even possible. However, working with energy to release painful patterns and karma, and accessing the possibilities in the alchemy of transformation can open many pathways, dissolve karmic obstacles, and bring peace to you and your ancestors. I have found comfort and clarity in this approach - my hope is that it does for you too.

For guidance on ancestor worship and ritual from a Great Teacher, you can check out this short video from Dr. Robert Svoboda here.

Amplify Your Spiritual Practice

If you have a spiritual or mantra practice*, the time during eclipses is the most potent to use it. Eclipses can bring about upheaval in the mental and material realms. Engaging your practice during this time not only provides grounding and protection, it also harnesses the energy of the eclipse to amplify the energy of your practice. When you engage your practice during this time, you may specifically ask for intervention to clarify and amplify your authentic desire to align with Divine grace. When your desire is properly aligned, it becomes possible to move mountains with minimal effort.

*Note on using a mantra: If you would like to use a mantra but don't have one you specifically use, you can chant:

Om Namah Shivaya

Uttara Phalguni nakshatra (the nakshatra that is activated during this new moon and eclipse) is associated with the Puranic myth of the churning of the ocean. The great serpent Vasuki was used to churn the ocean, but during the churning Vasuki became agitated and threw up poison that contaminated the Earth. To restore the Earth and remove the poison, Shiva and his bull Nandi drank up all the poison.

Shiva is the manifestation of the Divine Masculine and his stories abound with descriptions of rescuing all sorts of celestial figures from various curses. Using this Shiva mantra in the context of the new moon and solar eclipse in Uttara Phalguni connects you to Shiva's grace to help you become free of the karmic poisons that create obstacles, obscure your authentic desire, and keep you off track.

Sankalpa

This new moon is especially potent to set an intention that is fortified with a Sankalpa, a sacred vow you make with the Divine. Your Sankalpa should support your intention and the more specific you are with your Sankalpa, the more powerfully will you feel your intention vibrate in your life. Your Sankalpa should be a specific thing you do for a specified number of days at a particular time. This specificity in your vow creates potency. Your commitment amplifies its vibration.

With the Divine as your witness, you will experience your intention blossom in powerful ways.

If you need help with creating a Sankalpa ritual, I sent a newsletter a while ago that you can find here.

A word of caution: Sankalpa is a powerful practice as a sacred vow. It’s critical that you do what you say you will. Make sure that you make a vow that you will keep. Just as you will feel the vibrations when you keep this vow, you will also feel them if you break it. Doubly so with the energy of the eclipse.

May this new moon be an empowering energy in your life. May it clear away patterns of fear, anger, and pain to make way for peace and compassion. May you fully engage and experience Divine transformation to usher in fulfillment and achievement.

Peace, love, and light to all.

Sapna