The Astrology Blog 28 September
All times posted in BST
Eclipses hunt in pairs – a Solar Eclipse and a Lunar Eclipse – two weeks apart (ie at the time of the New and Full Moons) and approximately every six months. We’re now just leaving the current Eclipse season so the next ones won’t be until March and September 2016, February and August 2017.
Regular readers will know my view on Eclipses, symbolism that I’ve seen expressed countless times. In brief, they tend to play a role in revealing new pictures. A shadow is thrown but lifts again and some changes may be linked to bringing things out of hiding. Triangular setups, such as affairs or being in competition in business, are sensitized as eclipses are about the intricate relationship between the three bodies of the Sun, Moon and Earth. Someone is inevitably overshadowed while another emerges in a new light – a flavor of death/rebirth symbolism.
These kinds of scenarios are especially applicable to individuals – or nations – with planets or angles at the same place as the Eclipse sign/degree.
Eclipse Stories
I’ve been given permission by one of my students to tell her story. The Solar Eclipse two weeks ago fell at 20 degrees of Virgo, and therefore almost exactly conjunct her natal Moon at 21 degrees of Virgo. She has been going through a long and tortuous breakup with her partner of the last few years. After many months of strange behavior and then disappearance, with no explanation or subsequent news of his whereabouts, the new picture was revealed on Facebook last week – in the shape of a picture of him with his partner and newly born baby… hard to put into words how this has impacted on her but in her own words the key thing was that she felt totally disempowered. This is a key factor wrapped up in Eclipse symbolism, the shifting of power, as in the example quoted last week of the eclipse at the heart of Edward’s abdication that showed powerfully in George’s chart – who was then of course crowned in Edward’s place.
Timing – note that this is actually textbook timing. Often the symbolism of an Eclipse will show at or very close to the actual date, but in terms of being a link in a chain of events then the showing is nearly always in the following two weeks – ie before the next lunation. The symbolism is also spot on, with the Eclipse falling on her Moon who rules women, pregnancy and babies. I said I didn’t expect this would make her feelany better and she said no, it didn’t! But it might do, in time.
The Lunar Eclipse
The news is full of pictures and information about this Eclipse and Supermoon. Astronomically, the Moon takes an elliptical orbit around the Earth (shape of a rugby ball rather than a football) and a supermoon occurs when the Moon is in the closest part of its orbit to Earth, meaning it appears larger in the sky. If you were up in the middle of the night in the UK you would have seen the astonishing phenomenon of a huge moon turning red –
Monday Full Moon/Total Lunar Eclipse at 5 degrees of Aries (03.52)
Astrologically, this event is a link in the chain of events that have resulted in the migrant crisis. This morning’s headlines focus on the power issues – basically, the strain between Russia and the West as Putin wants Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad to stay and everyone else wants to kick him out. Eclipses often carry a “hard to believe” factor – and in this instance it’s how anyone can voice support for a President whose country has been in a state of civil war since 2011, which translates into the death of more than 200,00 Syrians so far and 4 million + already seeking asylum abroad and many more on the move.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34375875
What does the Eclipse mean for you?
This Eclipse will be significant for you if you have planets or angles at or close to 5 degrees of Aries, or in the opposite sign of Libra. Here’s the usual link to check the position of your natal planets in your own horoscope:
http://www.alwaysastrology.com/birth-chart-calculator.html
You can also enter your data into this calculator. Both make all the necessary time zone adjustments for you so simply enter your date, place and local time of birth, eg if you’re born in BST or outside of the UK the calculator will take that automatically into account:
http://astro.cafeastrology.com/cgi-bin/astro/natal
This option lists all your planets and angles rather than bringing up the visual of the horoscope, so for non astrologers it’s a lot easier to use. It also gives you what they call a natal chart report which is an interpretation of all of the planetary aspects in your horoscope. Please read these with a large pinch of salt! They are obviously highly generalized which means that they’ll contain some information that may well apply to you but they’ll fall short of offering you interpretations that would relate only to your own individual chart.
Retrograde Mercury Stories
The big event is that Mercury is still retrograde. I said a while ago “look out for your Librans” and nearly every story that’s been sent to me has come from a Libran, or someone with Moon in Libra. Serious and painful stuff has been going on, including an eviction and an abortion. Otherwise there’s the usual havoc. My brother in law (Sun Libra) tried to download some music on the computer only to find that he’d opened an unstoppable flood of unwanted files all of extremely dubious content, the computer was rendered useless and had to be unplugged and taken into the shop for a major clean up. He’s still waiting to get it back.
One of my best friends (Moon Libra) offered to choose and order a new television for me, a request I said yes to before Mercury turned retrograde I hasten to add, but which for several reasons got delayed. The story then resulted in his having to enter bank data into a Greek site. With a language mix up the bank card wasn’t recognized and was cancelled. He then had to go into the bank in person complete with all the original paperwork from the date when the account was first opened, and answer a barrage of questions in order to prove that it was him on the website and not someone trying to hack into his account! Other stories –
This week has been like walking through molasses … clients late, emails not received, Skype down worldwide on Monday, and a whole day of offices and queues in order to secure a temporary driver’s license (Sun Libra)
And on a lighter note this one made me laugh out loud –
I ordered Aspects in Astrology by Sue Tompkins, only to receive something else entirely, an 80’s book on Stress and Relaxation with a Jane Fonda type woman on the front!! And guess what they have now told me the book isn’t in stock, but as a gesture of good will I can keep the book that I don’t want, great! (Sun Libra)
And there’s more to come….
Mercury is the key player this week, along with the Sun and Neptune – here’s the sequence –
Wednesday
Mercury quinqunx Neptune (04.19) and Sun conjunct Mercury (13.39)
Thursday
Sun quinqunx Neptune (04.07)
This formation happens with the Sun and Mercury at 7 degrees of Libra and Neptune at 7 degrees of Pisces. They are therefore five signs or 150 degrees apart and forming the aspect of a quinqunx, awkward by name and awkward by nature.
If there is any such thing as a high spot in Mercury’s retrograde journey it’s this conjunction with the Sun. Mercury is the Sun’s closest traveling companion as he is never found further than 27 degrees away from the Sun. For this reason, in the horoscope, Mercury is always either in the same sign as the Sun, or in the preceding or following sign. So, during the periods of Mercury being retrograde, he makes a series of three conjunctions with the Sun that play out over a period of four months, the middle one being the retrograde contact. Here’s the sequence –
Sun conjunct Mercury
• 23 July at 0 degrees of Leo
• 30 September at 7 degrees of Libra
• 17 November at 25 degrees of Scorpio
If you want to “retrodict” (as opposed to predict) then you can look back at the last cycle which was –
• 8 December 2014 at 16 degrees of Sagittarius
• 30 January at 10 degrees of Aquarius
• 10 April at 20 degrees of Aries
When any planet is conjunct the Sun to within 17 minutes of arc (ie just over a quarter of a degree) it is said to be “cazimi”, rendered extra powerful by being in the heart of the Sun. So these conjunctions with Mercury tend to throw up important news, information or insights. Pay special attention to unfolding events or the conversations that you have midweek as they’re likely to be pivotal with regards to current plans or life changes. It’s like a little window of opportunity or a gleam of light in the dark that will be helpful until Mercury turns direct again – which will be at the end of next week.
The only problem this time is that the conjunction is bracketed by those awkward aspects to Neptune. This signals that all the usual issues associated with retrograde Mercury – notably communication mishaps of all kinds – are likely to be intensified. The quinqunx aspect itself is associated with blind spots and all issues of ne’er the twain shall meet variety, and Neptune under any difficult aspect symbolizes confusion, distortion, deception, idealization and generally being conned or left to flounder in a total fog of misunderstandings or overwhelming feelings. Sounds like a real bundle of laughs so far doesn’t it! But do take care, question your own judgment rather than racing on regardless, buy yourself time for important decisions, try not to drown your sorrows (Neptune rules booze) too much, and try to get plenty of sleep. Difficult Neptune stuff is classic for insomnia and also for anxieties that grow arms and legs in the absence of any real answers.
On that note this week may feel very much like some kind of impasse but don’t be fooled. Nothing stays the same forever and there’s a lot churning under the surface. Next week brings some major astrological activity, including Mercury getting back on track, and even the things that seem hopelessly stuck could start moving on apace, so make the most of any downtime currently available to you.
Until next week, stay safe,
With love from Greece
Joanna