Dark Waters of Descent: Navigating the 9-9-9 Portal and Eclipse Corridor
© 2025 True Path Co. All rights reserved.
Title: Descent
Read time 20-25 minutes.
When the waters grow dark and the path disappears, do you fight the current or trust the descent?
Lately, I have been feeling like I am paddling through dark, turbulent waters, sometimes floating, sometimes barely staying above the surface. The week before the September 7–8 lunar eclipse awakened something inside me, and it cannot be undone.
Now, time marches forward in the eclipse corridor that stretches until the solar eclipse on September 21. Within this window sits the 9-9-9 portal, a triple alignment of endings and completion.
For me, it feels amplified; a soul pilgrimage. A sacred descent into the black water with a stripping away of skin and structure until all that is left is truth.
The Triple-9 Portal: Completion, Release, Renewal
On September 9, 2025, the numerology speaks loud and clear: 9-9-9. Nine is the number of endings, wisdom, and transcendence. It doesn’t rush forward into the next cycle until it has gathered every piece of experience, every lesson. Tripled, the energy becomes undeniable.
This is not about rising yet. It is about letting yourself descend into the quiet; the liminal space of the underworld, where endings compost into beginnings. My guides—Hecate, Persephone, Lilith, with a fierce touch of Kali Ma—have been advising loud and clear that this is not the season for output and overwork. This is the season for silence, for device detox, for rituals that honor the body and recreate the structures that sustain me.
It feels counterintuitive. I am being asked to pamper myself, to rest, to drink lemon water every morning, to ground and meditate daily. A part of me resists, and I argue back: I have too much to do. My never-ending list calls from the corner, demanding attention like a neglected toddler. But this scenario is the exact cycle Saturn is breaking, going strong for too long, undoing decades of burnout and over-service. Begrudgingly, I stop resisting.
The Perseids Meteors: Sparks in the Corridor
Sprinkling in another dash of astrological glow, on the night of September 9, the Northern Hemisphere sky will still catch the final sparks of the Perseids, scattered like fleeting messages across the dark. These flashes feel like cosmic whispers: brief, bright insights shimmering in the middle of the descent.
For me, they are another reminder that even in chaos, even in silence, guidance appears. Flashes of knowing, if I pause long enough to see them. The Perseids don’t ask us to chase. They ask us to witness, to write down the spark, and then to return to the deeper work of Saturn retrograde: restructuring from the inside out.
Saturn Retrograde in Pisces: House by House
Astrological influences magnify all these events even further. Saturn is retrograde in Pisces right now, and wherever Pisces sits in your chart, that’s where you’re being asked to restructure.
Saturn Retrograde Impact by House
Saturn’s Loop: Level Up or Revisit?
The last time Saturn was in Pisces was 1993–1996. Where were you then? What structures were breaking down, reshaping, or demanding responsibility?
Saturn always moves in loops. When it returns, it asks:
What has proven resilient?
What still needs to be redefined or released?
Am I ready to level up into mastery, or am I revisiting lessons I’ve avoided?
If you are feeling a cosmic “dislodge of soul sludge” right now, you are not imagining it. Saturn is showing you exactly what is ready to shift and offering you the chance to rebuild stronger than before.
For me, Pisces rules my 6th house: the realm of work, health, and daily rhythm. During the 1993-1996 season, my daughter was born, and I chose to leave my partner. I also earned my GED and graduated from college. Saturn forced me to break away from survival patterns, to take responsibility for my life, and to create a new structure out of chaos.
Now Saturn returns to my 6th house again, and the echoes are clear. This time, I am not a young mother scrambling to survive. This time, I am being asked to restructure from a place of sovereignty: to create sacred routines that honor my body, to release overwork, and to stop tying my worth to exhaustion.
As I write this blog, I realize that I have spent nearly twenty-two years working relentlessly to prove my corporate worth. To demonstrate that I am reliable, loyal, and that I add value (cue the gag reflex). This past week, I faced a test of illusions, and the smoke and mirrors were revealed.
Descent as Kundalini
This descent feels like true Kundalini in motion, a shedding of old skin, a cracking open that leaves one feeling raw and vulnerable, yet alive in a way that only profound transformation can bring. It is uncomfortable at best; terrifying, agonizing, and maddening at the worst. It pulls you out of the familiar, away from the comfort zone.
But this is soul-level work, one that I and others must do. It is our higher selves leading us through turbulent waters, like Virgil leading Dante into the inferno, not as punishment, but as pilgrimage.
An Invitation to Descend
If you are feeling chaotic, exhausted, raw, or strangely quiet in this eclipse corridor, know that you are not alone. The 9-9-9 portal is a call to end what is done. To descend into the silence and let Saturn show you where your structures need to change.
Ask yourself:
What cycle am I closing now?
What tiny daily ritual will anchor me for the next two weeks?
Can I allow myself one act of radical rest, even if it feels impossible?
The descent is not glamorous, but it is holy and sacred. When you emerge on the other side of this eclipse corridor, what rises will be truer, more sovereign, more alive than ever before.
Ritual for the 9-9-9 Portal
This is simple, sovereign, and rooted in the themes of completion + descent + flashes of insight:
The 9-Breath Closing & Descent Ritual
Create Space
Step outside if possible, or sit by a candle in a quiet room.
Set devices aside — this is sacred silence.
Breathe in Nines
Take nine slow, conscious breaths.
With each inhale, invite in the wisdom of what you’ve lived.
With each exhale, release one layer of what no longer serves.
Catch the Meteor Flash
In the stillness, ask: What cycle am I completing?
Write down the first flash of insight that arrives, even if it’s only a word.
Offer to the Waters
Place the paper in a bowl of water, or outside beneath the sky.
Whisper gratitude for the cycle that’s ending.
Let the water (Pisces energy) hold it for transformation.
Seal the Descent
Close with one act of grounding — lemon water, bare feet on the earth, a hand on your heart.
Say aloud: I descend into silence to be remade.
If you’re feeling the pull of this season and want to understand how the 9-9-9 portal and Saturn retrograde are working through your chart, I offer both remote and in-person sessions. Together, we can map the energies in your life and create rituals to support your journey. Click here to learn more.
May you descend and shed chaos, and may you rise with strong clarity.
Until next time, let your inner compass guide you. 🧭
💫 Tara
© 2025 Tara Palazzolo, True Path Co. All rights reserved. This piece is part of the Traveler’s Codex—designed to support your journey of inner growth and sovereignty. Sharing is welcome with proper credit. No reproduction or redistribution is permitted without written permission.