October’s 0 Scorpio Solar Eclipse (Pt. 3: Aspects, Stars and Dates)

 The partial Solar Eclipse of January 4, 2011 at 13 Capricorn as photographed from Strakonice in the Czech Republic

(photo credit: Hynek)

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The image for 0 Scorpio’s Sabian symbol (‘A crowded sightseeing bus on a city street’) says many things. Astrologer Marc Edmund Jones typified this degree as being about the urge to be social or interact in order to experience and learn through society’s collective achievements - to which astrologer Dane Rudhyar, while agreeing added a decisive comment on how the influences which manifest as part of 0 Scorpio’s energetic refer not only to the moment at hand but much wider, broader and far-reaching considerations which in his words are ‘very concrete and perhaps startling.’

All that being true, when presented by a solar eclipse the effect is both as broad and far reaching as possible...while also being entirely close, personal and inordinately primal. And that’s what we’ve been seeing, hearing about and experiencing in life in many ways over these past two months or so both locally and universally on our national and international stages. That people have reacted with such a depth of emotionality has been typically Scorpio as Scorpio presents us with whatever will get us to feel (or failing that, force us to feel or react emotionally) in part of course in direct reaction to given situations.

But metaphysically? Metaphysically this has been all about our Self: who we are, what our values are, whether our values work or not and (this being the special Scorpio touch) how we feel about our values and thus our sense of security being shaken.

Please Note: the statement is sense of security, not actual security. No single astrological transit - be it a solar eclipse or anything else - is enough to signify disaster or death. Some people (and some charts, be they of people, places or things) will be under a lot of stress from multiple major astrological placements and triggers and they will experience trouble.

The Solar Eclipse at 0 Scorpio (glyph chart)

 October 24, 2014 - 21:58 (9:58 p.m.) UT/+0 - Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

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Yet no solar eclipse - not even this one at 0 Scorpio - signifies disaster or death. A single transit can and often does time a given event and it is common to hear of death/s occurring just around the time of a solar eclipse (generally within a couple of weeks of it). But those charts will have shown multiple indicators generally for some time at least.

Also - to differentiate: Scorpio deals in the emotions of death just as it deals in the emotions of sex and conception. But death’s physicality is far more often astrological associated with Cancer and/or the fourth house in a given chart in a literal ‘ashes to ashes, dust to dust’ sense, and such indications may or may not appear in a given natal, solar, lunar or other return chart.

Unless you’re meting out death, that is. Delivering death and the dangers of delivering death (see: war, surgery, societal violence) or choice to participate in same ARE eighth house and Scorpionic - with a tip of the weighting hat to the eighth house side of this concept rather than the sign.

In other words, if you’re not an astrologer don’t assume Scorpio means something just because your emotional psyche might want to think of it that way... that may in fact be the easiest and fastest metaphysical path to setting yourself up to experience that you dread most.

The Solar Eclipse at 0 Scorpio (text chart)

 October 24, 2014 - 21:58 (9:58 p.m.) UT/+0 - Aries Wheel (Location Not Specific)

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It is a cause/effect universe, after all. If you ask to fear, you’ll get something to fear about - and so often that anger which erupts from fear (and fearing that your position, perspective or thing you like most might get defeated or otherwise eliminated) becomes the ill itself.

As for expanding the idea of this degree to its utmost point, that could take many forms, all of which will somehow display an extreme of emotionality which has to be compensated for in some way. In our individual lives this will function one way...in the life of families, companies, products, societies, movements and nations it will function another way. But all will be in parallel.

Just to explain, I’ll volunteer one idea being meandered through by yours truly in a few more metaphysical moments. Planet Earth must maintain balances  metaphysical as well as physical and though human beings have been a rowdy and often violent species resident on this Earth for many a thousand years, it is in the past sixty to a hundred years that we have seen a new rise of decline in many species. Putting aside all the physical/scientific reasons for same (physicality being on the astrological level an outgrowth or manifestation of metaphysics or what we might call ‘metaphysicality’) it is also during this period of time that humankind’s ability to inflict death (i.e., the scale of same) has multiplied  exponentially. It is in fact arguable that most if not all causes of death are things developed by humans which makes humankind - in the life of Planet Earth - its absolute top predator.

So if you’re a planet and the laws of existence mandate maintenance of predator/prey balances, what happens? Is there a massive decline in prey? Or, because humans are now owning and utilizing so much of what we might call Earth’s ‘predatory energetics’ does that mean natural predators such as lions, leopards, tigers, sharks and so on are bound to decline...or that human energetics will in turn promote planetary developments which will by their essential nature cause us to be less inclined to predation?

If so, the answer to decline in our planet’s wildlife may be wholly or in part a province of our emotional psyches - and therefore a choice (one of many) we may not have currently made, but which is there for us to avail ourselves of. You know...if we come to realize that when it comes to planets, we really are inescapably together on this currently Earth-bound sightseeing trip through space as part of our galaxy.

And that idea of there being choices to make, old choices which need to be ‘eclipsed’ and new ideas which need to be developed so as to serve the difficulties, challenges and possible losses which come with any solar eclipse - that seems natural too in a moment when there is a Gemini influence afoot courtesy of the 0 Gemini eclipse of 2012.

Why would that be? If you missed it, here’s the link to that post:

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October’s 0 Scorpio Solar Eclipse

(Pt. 2: that ‘Other’ eclipse)

For the sake of reference and calendar marking, this eclipse (the solar eclipse at 0 Scorpio) will be taking its’ turn around April 2017 - which will be in the wake of a solar eclipse at 8 Pisces, a degree we will all learn a lot about (for among other things, reference) as Neptune (ruler of Pisces) work through a range of motion between 4 and 8 Pisces during its 2015 (into early 2016) cycle, with 4 Pisces being the position of royal and fixed star Fomalhaut.

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The Royal Stars of Persia (Pt. 4): Fomalhaut

As for fixed stars to be concerned with at the moment, though there is a very wide connection between 0 Scorpio and Arcturus (a leadership or ‘leading’ influence) and Spica (true brilliance versus ‘the brilliant image’) these stars are at 24 Libra and therefore not within 5 degrees of the eclipse. So though matters of leadership and ‘where things are leading’ (or how someone has led, led others on, been led on, etc.) may get referenced, they are not actually involved. With an emblem of skill (Achilles) at 29 Libra, some skills will be eclipsed now, some will be ‘taken off the table’ and others will be revealed, at least in part - this being a partial (not total) eclipse of the Sun.

With Libra being a sign about how we relate to others or how they relate to us because of how we are ‘presenting’ our Self, our thoughts, positions, efforts, projects and products, the [Achilles] skill with which we handle ourselves is a key to the responses we get from others and some - at least - of what we have done or how we have done it will now fall by the wayside at least for three years (the full term of the eclipse). At the same time, being that this eclipse will have the Sun, Moon and Venus in conjunction at 0 Scorpio, there are some highly pronounced qualities which pertain to secrecy, power, greed and all the many ways we try to get or avoid attention (and responses) from others which are now being eclipsed.

Put simply, to have Venus eclipsed will eliminate some evils while spawning others with all such notions or factors having to do with our emotional tendencies to prioritize our Self or what we ‘want’ (or want to be true, want to happen, etc.) which in the small venue is petty and annoying, which in the moderate venue is selfish, emotionally tone deaf or egotistical and which in the grandest view is likely to spawn things, attitudes and behaviors which are patently-reflexively-instinctively narcissistic and which become wholly, grandly destructive - even... and most particularly of the generative aims.

Let’s remember: Scorpio is the sign of karma. With all things Scorpio, what we put out will come back to us, and not always from the same ‘place’ or ‘direction’ we were thinking about or ‘aiming’ at. With Libra, things tend to be direct and timely - the person who sues you is a Libran figure who must abide by the laws of the ‘equal’ playing field (the legal suit). But with Scorpio, emotions come into play - which both defines any Scorpio situation as something which can upset us and something in which people invest emotionally - and not always for the best of productive reasons. Malice is Scorpionic, as is manipulation. But so is rehabilitation, detoxification and the concept of resurrection - especially that sort of emotional resurrection which allows us to purge our beings of that which is dangerous or toxic to us or others, thereby clearing the way to the sort of greater personal power which leads to opportunities and eventual achievement.

The good news is that the worst of Scorpio’s spawn is likely to be relatively short-lived (2.5 - 3 years) before it ‘takes a turn,’ though there is no guarantee that such a turn will be for the better.

But I digress. There are two fixed stars which are very much part of this eclipse. The first is Mirach, a star which is said to have the nature of Neptune and Venus (speaking of Neptune and - ahem! - Venus).

Mirach is part of constellation Andromeda and also part of constellation Pegasus - an odd combination of ‘taking flight’ (Pegasus) and the experience of helplessness in the defense of self (Andromeda).

'Andromeda' by Edward Poynter (1869, oil on canvas)

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The Andromeda part of this influence is purely human, mortal and understandable - its our reaction or tendency to react when we feel powerless because choices have been made for us by others (human beings) who are diminishing our (Taurus) value through their (Gemini) choice. Whoever we are and whatever we are involved in and have been doing over these past months, there are places in our life where we are Andromeda (and where we feel helpless)and places where we have made the choice to put others in a position of helplessness.

At this point, neither one is benefiting us - and that this happens so soon after royal star Aldebaran moved into 10 Gemini seems telling.

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Aldebaran at 10 Gemini

But there’s also the Pegasus part of this dynamic, and when we get to the metaphysics of Pegasus, with all due respect for those who want to think Pegasus is all about beauty, strength and the freedom to fly, it’s all that yes - but also the ability to flee the scene of the crime (avoidance of problems and/or culpability, in other words) by utilizing special or specialized or unique attributes or talents in a manner which hinders us through fear even as it offers us a new way to maneuver, see things or deal with difficulties or threats.

And why is that?

That’s because Pegasus is the offspring of Medusa - the symbol of all we fear knowing, most of all about our Self.

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Medusa: Through Our Mental Mirror, Darkly

The ideas expressed by Pegasus can absolutely be used for good and productivity. But given the idea that Pegasus is allegedly born of blood shed when Medusa is slain by the young and heroic Perseus, there is something within - our native Medusa - which must be confronted and worked through before, in true Scorpio style, our attempts at ‘flight’ (whatever form that takes) become fully imbued with inner strength of character.

'Perseus vanquishing Medusa' by Eugene Thirion (1839-1910)

- that's Pegasus in the background.

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The other star in opposition to the eclipse is Mira or ‘Stellar Mira’, a star once marveled at because of the nature of its variable light. Thanks to modern astronomy we now know Mira is a binary star with a cycle of roughly 11 months (332 days) and there are no specific mentions of Mira in Chinese or Babylonian lore (though over the years Chinese astronomers have described constellations thought to contain Mira)...and thus we would think it natural that anything Mira would come into aspect with (be that Mirach, a solar eclipse or something in your personal natal chart) would have an ongoing on-off (plus-minus, positive-negative, strong-weak) cycle inherent in its nature.

As for what shape that nature tends to take, well-respected astrologer Reinhold Ebertin described Mira as having the nature of Saturn and Jupiter, telling us that Mira star should be associated with two very different things: beginnings and endings along with long-term existence or duration.

Why? Because when or where Jupiter and Saturn appear together (or are associated by linkage) we are being given the symbolism of growth (Jupiter) and durable structures (Saturn) which are in themselves achievements and which afford us the opportunity to achieve that much more. Furthermore, Jupiter and Saturn have a synodic cycle (synodic meaning the frequency with which they conjunct while in orbit around the Sun) of 19.86 years while eclipses are clocked on the Metonic cycle, a cycle which is nineteen years (235 lunar months) long. Both of these cycles refer to what philosophers, historians and story tellers refer to as ‘the rise and fall’ of fortunes - be they of a person, a nation, a reign or anything else.

Mira's (aka Mira A's) bow shock and tail as photographed in ultraviolet

(photo credit: NASA)

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The last time we had this year’s 8 Taurus/0 Scorpio eclipse sequence was back in 1995. And for those of an age and sufficient willingness, there is a value in looking back and thinking about what you were going through then - not in terms of finite subjects of concern which were important then, but in terms of how you coped with those times. How did what you felt then spur you on to more growth or personal development in the wake of those eclipses?

That process is being repeated now. Not in the same form and not (generally) through the same people, places or things, but the pattern of personal growth is being repeated now. Again, this only applies to those of “a certain age” (sorry young folk, but this is one place where being older has a few perks!) but those who learned about their own capacity back then will have the ability to weather these times with more aplomb, calm and general effective efficiency. And those who didn’t? Or those who aren’t old enough yet to have passed through multiple eclipse cycles?

They will have a more robustly trying (emotional) time now - and hopefully they’ll be taking notes, as this is not the last Scorpio eclipse younger folks are likely to see as the Scorpio/Taurus sequence returns in (yes,) another nineteen years.

This is however, the last of the Scorpio eclipses for now. Next time around there will be no 0 Scorpio eclipse (though the year 2032 will bring us an encore of last year’s 19 Taurus/11 Scorpio solar eclipse sequence).

Moreover, given how the lunar nodes cycle backwards through the zodiac we would expect that after the Taurus/Scorpio sequence would come an Aries/Libra sequence.

But if we expected that, we would be wrong. For whatever reason deemed proper by that which manifests as our universe and all which exists in it, after this eclipse our world will be skipping Aries-Libra and moving straight into a Pisces/Virgo mode.

In other words, this very feeling time is preparing us to confront very important questions about what we are willing to endure feeling (as individuals and as collectives of various sorts) in order to make things health, workable and supportive of our aims not only for the foreseeable future, but in the longer range of long runs - which is a very good reason to heed the warning of 0 Scorpio, that being about how it requires both the decision and the effort to turn ourselves (and one supposes, that which is in front of us now) to good.

May we all decide to be and become our finest and most human mortal Self.
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