The Sagittarius Lunar Eclipse: Next Steps

An artist's rendering of a lunar eclipse as seen from the Moon

(credit: Lucien Rudaux, 1874-1947)

Arriving at long last at the final eclipse for the first half of 2013, we are taken into the realm of early Sagittarius. The degree 4 Sagittarius is obviously one of the first ten degrees of this most worldly of fire signs. So at once we know that which happens during these few days – and particularly on the date of the Lunar Eclipse (May 25) are emotional high water marks or ‘illumination’ points, as are all Full Moons.

And that this particular eclipse occurs in Sagittarius, that is about our ‘vision’ for ourselves and how well things are – or maybe aren’t going. Sagittarius and the 9th house which is native to Sagittarius is where our ideas reach the ‘application’ stage. It’s where the rubber meets the proverbial road and we our efforts either gain traction or our wheels begin to spin.

So the next time you hear someone in the media (a Sagittarian business) talk about ‘political spin’…now you know how apt that term is, right? Everything about the media is Sagittarian and 9th house in nature as the 9th house is all about ‘getting out there’ or in the case of information, ‘getting the word out there,’ which is what connects Sagittarius to travel, publishing, formalized religion, the media and education all in one. And since fire signs are at their heart about the ‘right thing’ (i.e., the honest and correct thing), thus we come to law and legal proceedings as a sorting out of what’s true or not true, otherwise known as ‘letting everybody know whose guilty of lying’ or breaking some law.

I love understanding why concepts which sound so different fall under the same sign, don’t you?

In particular, 4 Sagittarius is a degree known to carry peace as its core and basic aim. But be forewarned! When there’s ample provocation, the normally sunny and cheerful 4 Sagittarius energy flips, becoming fraught with righteously ‘right-driven’ energetics.

One of the things to reckon with here is the fact that in a season of evolutionary earth-and-water (Taurus-Scorpio) change and growth, this is the “odd element out.” That’s not to say fire is an ‘odd’ element (they’re all odd sometimes!) but rather that Taurus and Scorpio are a polarity.

So the Scorpio lunar eclipse against the Taurus solar eclipses have been part and parcel of the same sort of process, namely that of getting us more in touch with our inner self at a more realistic and tangible level.

Then we add in Sagittarius. In terms of zodiacal order, Sagittarius represents the next step in the process. So things which have been afoot or getting started now proceed. Some of us will try and ignore the possible glitches and find that the glitches don’t ignore us. (I hate it when a glitch bites me, don’t you?) Then again, some of us will proceed with caution and recognize the glitch as it appears, reflecting on what has been learned of late – thus avoiding the pitfall.

Or at least grappling with it, preparing to cross the pit without getting clobbered by the pendulum.

Harry Clarke's illustration for Poe's 'The Pit and the Pendulum' (1919)

(Yes, I’m in an Edgar Allen Poe mood.)

It’s decently easy to see this lunar eclipse as inspiring us to get our get-along into gear so as to get things done. And some of us will do just that. Those who have experienced the intensity of April-May’s Taurus/Scorpio energetics as oppressive or constricting may well now feel liberated and go bounding off along their path.

And sometimes that’s just the idea.

Then again, sometimes that’s just foolhardy.

Considering this is Sagittarius we’re talking about, it would seem to all depends on whether you’re properly prepared and willing to ‘see’ your way through the problems, the challenges, the places where your ‘truth’ meets up with a world which has a few truths of its own. How do you fit in? Are you willing to fit in? Can you swim in a ‘big pond’ with the big fish? Or maybe you’re a big fish encountering small fish hoping they’re not going to flounder.

(I’m guessing flounders really hate that expression.)

 
The semi-sextile between Scorpio (the April lunar eclipse) and Sagittarius is generally some challenge to our ego. Call it feeling offended with the fact that some idea of yours doesn’t work…or that someone has called you on some inconsistency which amounts to having traipsed out into a crowded street without remembering to get dressed.

(And you’re not a nudist.)

It may be simply that you realize you’ve been on the wrong track. Or that your ‘right track’ is more wrong than you thought.

That’s the lunar/lunar eclipse side of it. And then we have the solar (Taurus)/lunar (Sagittarian) side of this evolutionary process. For some, this will be the 210 degree yes, I get it shift into positive gear. For some this will be the oh gosh, now I realize I still have work to do (also known as ‘I’m not as free as I thought I was going to be’) moment.

But never fear…lunar eclipses are truly emotional signposts. Their effects have an ‘acute’ cycle which lasts about three months. Then what we learn (or – ahem! – don’t learn) fades back into the woodwork. When all goes well, the evocative moments which occur around the time of any lunar eclipse ‘meld into’ the greater shift denoted by the solar eclipse – in this case the issue of Taurean self recognition, self valuation, re-evaluation, recognizing how much more you can grow – all that stuff.

Not that anything in the Taurus-Scorpio neighborhood of our lives is done or anything. Hopefully you’ve heard me when I’ve said that this Taurus-Scorpio who I am and who I am with regards to others cycle (which includes the ever popular ‘how to get ahead in life without falling flat on my face or otherwise getting embarrassed lastingly and beyond belief’)…how that cycle as denoted by our yearly ‘eclipse seasons’ (two each year) began in November of 2012 and are going to be with us through October of 2014.

That means there’s a total of five ‘eclipse seasons’ which feature either Scorpio or Taurus solar eclipses, of which we’ve now gone through two.

Get the picture?

With this eclipse, as with seemingly every eclipse, we get a couple of planetary pictures. The first is a t-square which features the Sun and Moon – the stars, the ‘us’ in this celestial drama.

Sun – Hel – Aldebaran is pretty plainly a challenge to integrity. Phaethon-Chaldea is ‘quick to choose the old way’ whether that’s the old way out, the old way of doing things, the old way as in ‘traditions’ or just some stick-in-the-mud thing…in the mental sign of Gemini this could even be the old way of viewing mentality or wanting to go with what you know instead of learning something new, and so on.

But then again, this is a lunar eclipse. So with Sun - Hel - Aldebaran being in Gemini and in opposition to the Moon's position in Sagittarius, might this also be 'finding the flaw' in someone's thinking? Or the plan? Or the means and methods currently being employed?

In this scenario, Moon in Sagittarius would represent the finding out (or learning) the truth about some thing...or how life (the Sun) has been made harder (Hel) by some (Gemini) idea or thought which can no longer be held as having (Aldebaran) integrity. 

This seems particularly apt considering how this 'Sun and friends' grouping is positioned as the goal of the t-square. So we want to probably make it hard to be challenged, perhaps? Or maybe that which we have been insisting on doing has actually been making our life harder? Perhaps in our efforts not to have our integrity challenged, we've put ourselves in a position to be our own worst enemy to our own integrity?

And yet…and yet…this is Moon-Hebe in Sagittarius we're talking about. So the Moon-motivation is emotionally driven. It may be convictions. Or some monetary goal. We may be driven by habits or that fervent need to be right which is sometimes the 'down' side of Sagittarius. Hebe being the the idea of being of service (and optimally, being rewarded by being of service), maybe the question is whether our aims are misdirected in trying to get the world to work for us rather than being of service in the world and thus earning our rewards. 

If you want to get all gnat’s derriere about this diagram (which I tried to get in constructing it, and man – there’s a whole bunch of gnats who are ticked off at me!) ….you’ll notice two separate t-squares drawn in the image. That’s because squares and oppositions have a maximum range of 5 degrees. So while Hebe (at 2 Sagittarius) squares Fomalhaut, Neptune and Deneb (which by now I’ve typed so many times I’m beginning to think it’s either a law firm or a singing group)…and Hebe also opposes anything between 2 and 7 in Gemini (which here would be Phaethon, Chaldaea, Sun and asteroid Hel), Hebe is not in opposition to Aldebaran.

AHA! Integrity is not opposed by Service. A good thought indeed. And one which would seem to imply that there is some merit to be being of use and doing something useful while going forward in this world.

The Moon, on the other hand does oppose Aldebaran. So there’s something emotional which is being confronted by questions of integrity.

In short, what I tried to do is color code this drawing so you’d see the two slightly different t-squares. (You can let me know if I get a passing grade on this effort – just leave a comment.)

Either way, the “t” to this t-square is Fomalhaut Deneb and Neptune. Fomalhaut says we succeed only where our aims, our means, our methods and our ability to face ourselves as part of the process is neither corrupt, corrupted or corruptive.

Oh…and by the by, this has nothing to do with whether you like something. In the land of Pisces (read: Piscean ocean) it is the greater Creation Manifest which sets the terms, standards and lines which must be face and not summarily crossed.

Deneb, which gets less press than it probably deserves, is a shamanistic energetic. But since shamanistic energies have to do more with nature and time and evolution and existence than mankind and our Earthly lives, this may be why we talk less about this star than we might otherwise.

People – understandably – get very routed towards Things Earthy and Materialistic. It never ceases to amaze me that people will ask why they don’t feel like they’re living a ‘spiritual’ life when all their attention is on Earthy or Earthly means of understanding.

Be that as it may, people often reject the esoteric then wonder why they don’t understand it.

Anyway…since Deneb and Fomalhaut appear from our Earthly perspective to be so closely aligned (which holds true even if you go back a couple of thousand years) it’s likely we simply interpret Deneb’s rather ‘other worldly’ intuition and potency as part and parcel of Fomalhaut.

But with Neptune in the mix? Personally, I’ve been wondering if this isn’t why we’ve been seeing more and more investigation into the paranormal (at least we’re seeing more of it here in the US) as Neptune has moved through the end of Aquarius and into Pisces, ‘awakening’ the ‘mass consciousness’ which is so very Neptunian to energies which are beyond the norm – and yes, very much Denebian.

Will this ‘expanding of our knowledge’ which is so Sagittarian mean that we will see something more in the way of thinking of the world and our universe in a more – dare I say – whole or holistic sort of way?

Maybe. On the other hand, it may bring challenges to same…which is fine. One of these days human beings are going to wake up and realize that E=mc2’d means we are all contiguous. And then they’re going to realize what that means, and that those who are able to release their egos are not (almost by definition) the people who are limited.

That’s my Sagittarian eclipse statement for the day!

But in the t-square? That Neptune-Fomalhaut-Deneb is what we have to get past. And those who can’t get past it are going to be taught a lesson by it (probably through the auspices of someone or something which can embody that energy)…and that will set them back on their Moon/Hebe derriere.

At least their emotional one.

And from there the question becomes, how do I make this work?

Ah, life…ain’t it grand?

Moving on to t-square number two…

 
Where t-square number one focused on the ‘us,’ the Sun and Moon of this eclipse, this next t-square focuses on the Nodes. The nodes, as we remember, are groups and collectives and relationships…and our relationships with groups, others and collectives.

Read this starting point as: North Node-Psyche in Scorpio as the ‘you need to’ (North Node) deal with the mind or mindset (Psyche) of the Scorpio (joint) dynamic.

Then we get to Vaticana, Sualocin, Juno and Icarus, all in Aquarius, the land of results, acceptance, income and finding one’s place in the world, the community, amongst your peers – all that stuff.

Juno-Icarus is a straight-forward need to manage impatience and not to jump the gun. So no gun-jumping. Evidently haste will lead to waste now – that, or a hole in your shoe.

Another fixed star with an ineffective PR firm, Sualocin is totally of this world, though it describes that which charms us and maybe 'enchants' us, but which we can't quite put our finger on.

So maybe we’re being tempted to try to get past some challenge by saying we don't understand? Or maybe we'll try to charm our way out of something? Maybe we’re realizing that real self-discipline (Juno) is that which requires that we think not of ourselves as the object, but that which drives the success of the project or aim.

Ah yes…maybe so. (I’m moving into my Charlie Chan imitation now.)

Vaticana, which I have been doing some research on, is not the Vatican. By that I mean, while the Vatican is related to the same idea which gives us the astrological symbol Vaticana, Vaticana does not say “Catholic Vatican.”

Think of it as something akin to a 'which came first, the chicken or the egg?' sort of thing. 

The original concept behind Vaticana comes from the Etruscan name for the hill upon which the Vatican stands. And while I could bore you with a bunch of history about who did what when and how that hill came to be where the Catholic Church built its global "HQ," I won’t. What's important here is that the Vatican has come to be the name for that place where the Catholic church has centralized itself - and the not-unsubstantial amount of power ceded to it by various Italian heads of state along the Roman way (which is not to be confused with the Appian Way, which is a whole other Roman way.)

A section of the Via Appia  - that most famous of all Roman
roads. This section, replete with ancient stones, runs through
a section of Rome itself.

(photo credit: Kleusky, September 2005)

Vaticana, main belt asteroid number 416 is a very main belt asteroid – by which I mean it’s an asteroid which pretty much stays near the center of the asteroid belt. That 'centrality' relates very nicely to the idea of the hill the Catholic church built upon, centralizing its power.

We all have Vaticana in our charts. So where we see Vaticana, by sign, by house, by association with other asteroids, planets, nodes et al that points to where or how we will build our power.

Or perhaps resist building power. That can happen too. 

Currently in Aquarius and in this figure atop the cross quarter line at 15 Aquarius, Vaticana suggests very strongly that part of this lunar eclipse is about moving from a ‘thinking about’ or ‘planning phase’ into an active phase which by its nature is public, worldly and maybe even global.

The question would be whether Vaticana supports aiming for personal gain in Aquarius…or whether this asteroid is one which says power built only for the benefit of the self will come to grief.

If you look at Vatican history, that would seem to be the tale.

Anyway…the goal of this t-square is also interesting, as it’s expressed by South Node/Menkar, a making it easier to intersect with the collective in such a manner which makes MY life and MY relationships to those I interact with easier.

Apparently this is all about whether you require others play along with you based on YOUR rules…or whether you’re willing to be part of the greater standard and submit your ego to the ‘greater good’ out of which will come your benefit.

Still with me?

Last figure…a grand trine in water signs.

 
Chiron is that thing we don’t know and which we desperately want to know…but which we can’t stand the idea of having to go through learning. In Pisces, Chiron represents all the touchy, disquieting emotional moments we’ve all had which have been set off through dealings with others and the general state of life itself.

Evidently that’s not letting up. (Huzzah - not!)

The North Node/Psyche in Scorpio we discussed just a minute ago. The only thing I’d add here is that of all the asteroids out there, Psyche is one of the big ones. Really! Asteroid Psyche is about 200 km across, which means its mass is about 1% of the entire asteroid belt (that’s an estimate, mind you).

But if the asteroid belt, in lying between the personal planets and most specifically Mars (motivation, impetus, action) and Jupiter (knowledge, gain, expansion) represents all that we ‘go through’ on the way to gaining that Jovian knowledge (from which we move on to Saturnine accomplishment, then knowing our Psyche is one of the big things we meet up with along the way.

So maybe this is a moment when you either get to know your own mind…or in not knowing your own mind (or whether your mind is being mindful) you continue to meet up with problems or pleasures.

This is a grand trine in emotional water, after all!

The most personal side of this emotional equation is Cancer – our experience of emotion on a very basic, humanistic level. Scorpio is about us and someone else. Pisces is about the world and life and all the ‘ugh!’ or delights which go with that. But Cancer? Cancer is our native, inborn feeling base. Once we knew we were alive as little kidlets, we started having feelings. That’s Cancer.

Vesta-Pappos is the shape (or nature) of the cost. Of what? Of being who you are and that involved in doing what you want, or maybe even need to do. Especially when combined with Charybdis - the requirement that we keep trying (and trying) lest we get eaten up by some monster – this raises the specter of this Sagittarius lunar eclipse as a time when we’re all dealing with something. Or some things. For you, that may be bills. For someone else, that may be some sort of feeling of failure. Or anticipation about what lies ahead.

Maybe all at the same time. That’s the thing about Sagittarius…there are many possibilities and our challenge is to find the one which works.

Then we add in Ceres – the idea of having, making or following a plan. In Cancer, Ceres asks that we keep our emotional ‘feet on the ground’ as we go about doing what needs doing. And in point of fact, in this grand trine, Ceres is a help in that it serves to keep us grounded – which may or may not be comforting for those of us who want to soar among the clouds.

Evidently it’s not yet time to soar.

The last symbol in this grouping is a much-loved on, fixed star, dog star Sirius. To have Sirius in any grand trine implies a touch of brilliance in the mix. But is that the brilliance which leads us on – or the brilliance of not going too far too fast?

Uh, yes. Whichever.

And maybe both.

That’s the thing about lunar eclipses…they evoke an understanding. When all is said and done we get a lot of celestial commentaries on the nuances of the situation, but the ‘solution’ to the question is that which we just ‘know’ is there.

It may not be what we like. Or maybe not what we want to hear from our guiding angels.

(But if they're our better angels, can it really be for our worse?). 

Those of us with Suns or Moons in early Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius or Pisces are going to get the strongest ‘hits’ from this eclipse. The Pisces are trying to move on from something, the Virgos are getting into something, the Geminis are dealing with realizations and the Sagittarians are coming to a whole new understanding.

However this eclipse affects you and those you love, Iet’s hope it’s an enlightening and inspiring time. At it’s best, this is just the kind of eclipse which opens a doorway to a greater understanding of things which were beyond us mere weeks ago…

…and which now provide us with beacons of light, by which we walk into a more honest and wholly productive future.
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