Eclipse Prequels, Eclipse Sequels

Sunrise, looking towards a downpour from Loutra Harbor (Kythnos, Greece)

(photo credit: Takaway, September 2007)

So there’s this solar eclipse about to happen when the Sun and Moon meet up at 11 Scorpio. (Yes, we’re back to that again.) Said event happens on November 3rd – a fact we’ve already established.

But what we haven’t talked about is one of the reasons why your month leading into the eclipse might have been truly terrible…where the month your friend has been having has only been mildly awful.

Call it the eclipse of a different perspective, maybe.

(Very maybe.)

But whatever: take the following two charts…both of which have Scorpio Moons natally, meaning they will have a lunar return within 24 hours of the eclipse.

Here’s the first chart:

Person One/Moon at 7 Scorpio (Nov 2 @ 11:05pm PST)

Here’s the second chart:

Person Two/Moon at 14 Scorpio (Nov 3@ 9:55 PST)

These charts are both drawn as Aries wheels (with 0 Aries at the Ascendant and zero degrees of each sign on each following cusp)...so the 'shape' of the wheels or what is being emphasized isn't the focus here. No, all I'm talking about is the degree of the Moon - which in this second chart is 13 Scorpio.

If we start by saying both natal Moons are in position to be eclipsed by conjunction on November 3rd, then we come to one very important difference shown in the two above charts.

The chart at 7 Scorpio is a return which happens before the eclipse. The other (the chart at 13 Scorpio) is a return which happens after the eclipse.

(And by the way, in case you’re curious, the second lunar chart belongs to esteemed astrologer Robert Hand.)

So saying…remember that old rule about planetary stations?

As you come into the orb of time described by the station, things which happen before the object changes direction concern things yet to happen while things which happen afterward are a playing out or result of things which have already taken place.

By taking this ‘before/after’ theorem which we know from stations and applying it to the two lunar returns above, we understand that the lunar month cycle embracing the eclipse’s effects will be strongest prior to the eclipse for the second chart (the one at 14 Scorpio) because the new lunation is after the eclipse. In other words, when the eclipse happens, the Moon in the 7 Scorpio chart (which happens to me mine, if you care) has not yet reached 11 (the degree of the eclipse) and thus the ‘crux of the matter’ is still to come.

I’m taking a deep breath as I’m writing this (a bit in advance of the actual day of posting) because what this says is that the strongest shift I am likely to experience in conjunction with this eclipse hasn’t (shudder) even happened yet. Really? And here I thought my life had just imploded. Last time I checked, I was still shaking.

So…what now, more? Really? Well, okay….

(Sometimes being an astrologer is no help at all.)

AND….(getting back to biz)….back to the central theory and we arrive at the idea that if your personal natal Moon falls between 0 and 10 Scorpio (the degree after the eclipse)…then you too have also not hit the point where ‘letting go’ turned to ‘rebuilding in a mode which is more true to who you are as a person, never mind society and life conveniences.’

Conversely, those with a natal Moon beyond the degree of the eclipse (11 Scorpio) have theoretically already found (or even fallen into) come gap in your plan, some crack in your wall of plans…something.

There is even a school of astrological thought which would extend this theorem out through the rest of the zodiac. So what I’ve said about degrees beyond the eclipse…at some level that applies all the way through Scorpio into Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius Pisces, Aries and Taurus up to 10 Taurus (11 Taurus being the opposition point to 11 Scorpio). Since we’re using the eclipse’s position as dividing point, that means everything from 12 Taurus on through the balance of Taurus and Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra and 0 through 10 Scorpio – if your Moon falls anywhere in this grouping, you have yet to ‘reach’ your eclipse point.

This may sound counter-intuitive until I remind you that the Moon, being a satellite to Earth, is Earth’s natural and metaphysical ‘timer.’

Then again, maybe I should have left well enough alone?

In any case, this is an interesting idea to thing through as this rather trying eclipse comes running towards us along the river of time.

For some of us, the worst of the ‘shake up’ is over and we are about to feel life pushing us forward into a ‘rebuilding’ space. Whether you do well or terribly with that is a whole other matter, but for some of us, the hardest of the hard parts is over.

And for some of us, it hasn’t even shown its coronal filament yet. Call it the 'prequel versus sequel' eclipse effect.

Whichever group you fall in, whichever group your cherished loved ones fall in, this may also help explain why whatever happens over the next few weeks happens.

And why what you might be expecting just might not happen at all.
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