October’s 0 Scorpio Solar Eclipse (Pt. 2: that ‘Other’ eclipse)

The partial solar eclipse of March 29, 2006 (at 8 Aries) as photographed by Szczery

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Every time we get into ‘eclipse season’ we run through the stats on eclipse duration and such - the answer there being 3 years for solar eclipses and 3 months for lunar eclipses, give or take your having a birthday within five days of an eclipse event (in which case there will be thematic echoes of the eclipse throughout your ‘birthday year’).

And despite all the up-front drama which tends to cluster around eclipses (which I’m guessing we’ve all noticed this year)... with all the chaos and upheaval which sweeps through at the time of any eclipse, there are thousands of years of lore which say that in the long run (that being the operative and imperative term: long run) events of today will ultimately prove beneficial in the evolutionary sense - most of all to those who experience upheaval/s at this time.

Those changes - be they a change of heart or a new opportunity - will begin to occur or formulate somewhere around the two-and-a-half year mark after the original eclipse (our ‘Now’). And despite whatever we may think, we do NOT know what those changes will be except for the fact that whatever happens in the future can only happen because of what we’re going through now.

Just don’t connect the two. It’s natural to think that the two things might be connected - and indeed they may end up being ‘in theme’ as it were. Such ‘eventualities’ often show us precisely what we can gain because we have gone through some sort of giving up of something, whether that’s physical, financial, mental/theoretical or otherwise... and in that are probably part of our overall maturation as human beings, a process which teaches us both to try and to accept, stressing those lessons we need individually.

Not that we like them, of course. But in terms of what we need to learn in the whole of our lives...? Yes, they’re probably needed.

And therefore we get...’eclipsed.’

That said, eclipses - like most things celestial and astrological - have a certain rhythm. In the case of eclipses, we get two ‘eclipse seasons’ a year, which means they happen around every six (6) months.

And that means any given eclipse is really two processes, not just one mega-complicated test of gut, endurance and ability-vs.-inability to focus.  The first process is the one we talk about most often: the eclipse as a focal point in time which is evolutionary in that it represents something which both dismantles and regenerates our life or life around us - the former happening (astrologically) when the eclipse aspects our chart.

But the second process is just as important. It represents that which you’re coming to be aware of now which in some way you couldn’t have gotten to or arrived at if you were still who you were (or where you were) two-and-a-half years ago.

That’s right...that eclipses happen approximately six months apart means that the ‘twist’ on an eclipse already past occurs in tandem with current eclipse effects.

No wonder things get weird, right?

This varies a bit, as when you get down to the nitty versus gritty of it all as eclipses cycle backwards through the year - which makes technical/astrological sense when we remember that eclipses occur when a full or new moon occurs within fifteen degrees of the lunar nodes and they cycle backwards through the zodiac. Add to that the subtle but pervasive iffy quality of a calendar with months of various lengths and what you come out with (after a deal of sitting with eclipse tables) is how most such two-and-a-half-year marks will fall just after a current eclipse season - though I’m not willing to chisel that in concrete and this isn’t the moment to hand-check a hundred years of eclipse cycles.

Still, what this amounts to is an interesting concept: namely that the pre-(solar)-eclipse ‘breaking down’ period is about the current eclipse - meaning in this moment the eclipsing of 0 Scorpio and our ability or willingness to recognize that what life is ‘bringing home’ to us is meant to provoke deeply personal feelings and emotions of vulnerability not so that we can fight about it (or against it) but so that we can ask ourselves how we came to be who we are, and whether that’s valid or (quite possibly) the product of a different time, a time and perspective which is no longer valid.

Scorpio is never “about” them. It’s always about us. The reason we should understand this is simple: it’s our chart and our life.

As for that secondary eclipse, if that eclipse comes into the last half-cycle of its process (at the two-and-a-half-year point) in the wake of eclipse season, then the “opportunity” we associate with with an eclipse which is ‘aging out’ of its transit cycle is also something which buoys us through the natural period of vulnerability letting go of whatever it is being currently ‘eclipsed,’ be it a notion, a relationship, some course of action or conviction - whatever we have been under pressure from, about or because of over these past two months.

That becomes our opportunity - and a worthy explanation of why this 'turn' in any given tale of any eclipse ends up being, or focusing on something generally at a tangent to events which we began with. After all, now we're dealing with a Scorpio eclipse. But back then?

That eclipse...the one which occurred two-and-a-half years ago was at 0 Gemini. It occurred during May 2012 and the blog post (for those who care to traipse back in time) would be this one:

- link to post -

0 Gemini Solar Eclipse of May 20, 2012

Perhaps you’re looking at that ‘0 Gemini’ notion now and thinking... ‘Does it matter that the 2012 eclipse and this 2014 eclipse are both at zero degrees of respective signs?’

Answer: exactness always matters in astrology, mostly because degrees function like frequencies. So when any aspect (or transit) is exact, that’s like a radio station getting perfectly tuned in. It’s louder. It’s stronger! If you’re off the mark, there’s static - which in this case would be confusion, distraction, things being up in the air or unknown. And once you get the station tuned in, all becomes clear.

No, you may not like the song being played - but at least it’s clear while being clearly awful.

The current eclipse being (about to be) in Scorpio, Gemini is the eighth derivative sign from this eclipse, just as seen the other way around, Scorpio is the sixth derivative sign from Gemini.

Eighth sign derivations area always about transformations. They’re also intrinsically Scorpionic by nature, which by implication ‘doubles up’ on the potential to create/experience change now, whether that manifests through some effort to do something or your effectiveness/ability to get where you want to go in life, all of which we learn about through an intense course of effort and reflection.

Eighth sign also derivations speak of emotional ‘check points’ - meaning this eclipse season we’re in (the Aries lunar eclipse plus the Scorpio solar eclipse) may signal a challenge to something you have been working on or towards since May 2012. Or perhaps you now find yourself going (or needing to go) in more than one direction - a fact which tests you emotionally (which is to say through a test of self-confidence and self-determination emblematic of this October’s Scorpio solar eclipse) or mentally (referring to the 2012 Gemini eclipse).

The above is the eclipse map not for the 2014 solar eclipse at 0 Scorpio, but the solar

eclipse at 0 Gemini which occurred back in May, 2012. Unlike the eclipses for this year

(2014) this eclipse back in 2012 was a total eclipse and therefore has a central line of

totality (in red) which is different from the total expanse of the eclipse (marked off with

two vertical blue lines) where the eclipse would be visible in part, but not in its totality.

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That two eclipse signals would be in an exact one-hundred-fifty inconjunct signals various ‘adjustments’ and adjusting to realities which began being (Gemini) ‘thought/talked of’  back then and which is now being revealed to be something other, indicating the need to ‘adjust’ one’s thinking and/or manner of addressing issues (or others). Testing times and finding out about slips, cracks and soft spots in our own sense of ‘feeling secure’ - whether that has anything at all to do with the reality of personal security - would be common during a time like this. And some will, make no mistake, thrive on this energy even if that act of thriving gets them nowhere or undermines their own interest.

Yes, such are the gifts of eighth sign harmonics. And Scorpio, if truth be told.

Others will take it upon themselves to take their Self in knowing...or at least ‘willing to know’ hand. And let’s not be too unhappy here as there is much progress to be made now, even if some of it will take a while. Scorpio is a sign which never rushes. Or at least it does better when it stops to consider without solidifying on the spot. Like it’s polarity partner Taurus, Scorpio is fairly well known for digging in an resisting simply because something isn’t their idea - at least initially. That quality - that(Scorpio) ability-and-willingness to react in one direction then ‘adjust’ to another once all the reactions and feelings get sorted out - is part and parcel of this dynamic too. Scorpio energies always incite emotionality while challenging us to get past that emotion to an act or choice at least driven by thought and not emotion. 

Are we capable of getting past the pluses and minuses of our ego strengths?

Will we are able (and willing) to create alliances and grow opportunities which are not necessarily based on similarities with others but on the capacity to unite in terms of just the goal? Or because something which could be created would be a decided “total which is more than the sum of its parts”?

Some will, some won’t. Eighth sign dynamics always achieve their greatest gains through acting, not relying not on control, but its certainly not easy. After all, even when eighth harmonic energetics don’t indicate mortal threat they tend to stir up insecurities and floating questions which make us feel vulnerable even when we aren’t. Why? Because that’s another side of eighth sign harmonics. Wherever we see active inconjuncts we know there’s an ability... maybe even a propensity to make  emotional mountains out of molehills - sometimes all by ourselves with regards to our Self.

And that may or may not be part of the problem. Given how the gravity of the Sun - despite its massive size - is less ‘apparent’ to us here on Earth than that of our tide-producing Moon, it’s not surprising that the solar eclipse which metaphysically seems so ‘aimed’ at getting us to change our life begins through our more ‘fluid’ or emotional nature.

A lot of the walls have been torn down. We have a chance to be, become and change in response to our world, our times and (evidently rather importantly), our ability and willingness to use our (Gemini) ability to think, choose, organize and prioritize.

What we do with all that moving forward...? Well, that’s pretty much up to us. While Gemini is always about our world (life as we experience it in our mind), Scorpio is about the world - that which we share and which through creating, we ultimately bring upon our Self.
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