Solar Eclipse (Part 1): Fate Beckons

 The Solar Eclipse of 1900 as photographed by Thomas Smillie (courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution Archives)

At 10:09 p.m. on November 13th (UT/+0 time) Earth will experience a total eclipse of the Sun. As a form of a New Moon, solar eclipses indicate the onset or start of something. Unlike other New Moons however, eclipses involve Earth’s lunar nodes.

Think of it as Earth getting swept up in an intricate dance of Sun and Moon. Or, since Earth’s lunar nodes represent our connections or relationships to the world, society or people around us, our ‘earthly affairs’ being mysteriously and inordinately affected in such a way as to change our playing field.

Or maybe even which game we think we’re playing.

This particular solar eclipse is occurring at 21 Scorpio, the Sabian Symbol for which is HUNTERS SHOOTING WILD DUCKS. Astrologer Marc Edmund Jones gives us this keynote for the image: the socially accepted release of an individual’s…or a group’s aggressive instincts. And in his elaboration on same, famed astrologer and philosopher Dane Rudhyar brings up his oft-repeated point that the whole of the 360-degree zodiac cycle has many sub-sets and cyclic internal workings.

In this case, Rudhyar points out that the preceding symbol (“Obeying his conscience, a soldier resists orders”) discusses an individual who refuses to join with a societally accepted group (a military force) which is about to act with violence – and how that differs from the symbol for 21 Scorpio, which is about people getting together to commit a killing.

Granted, the stakes are different. In war, humans shoot humans for indirect survival where the root of hunting lies in primal, life-or-death survival. And while in today’s world far fewer people are out there hunting down their dinner, the Sabian symbols come to us from the early 1900’s when hunting was far more often a matter of providing for self and family.

The basic idea we can thus deduce here and proceed with is therefore about ‘group survival’ – the joining with others in working towards that which will sustain us. And whatever is ‘done’ together has at this point reached – or involved – some degree of aggression. Even killing, whether that’s of some live thing or an idea…or maybe even our hopes or naiveté about life.

Something.

It could even be that our aggression or aggressive feelings come from that loss of naiveté or hope.

Something.

 Alzatapadule - 'The Flying' by Anchise Picchi

(1982, released to public domain)

Because this is Scorpio we are talking about, we know that at some level risk has been involved. We may have taken it…or then again, we may have played the safest hand in town. Either way, Scorpio involves our reaction and handling of risk. 

So ask yourself…how have my risks (or my unwillingness to risk) been paying off?

But hold on there! Given that this eclipse is happening in a (3rd decanate) degree between 20 and 29 of a given sign, we also know that whatever is going on now doesn’t just involve you. Others are involved. This 3rd decan degree is an ‘ambient’ reference to others…so is that the same as the ‘group’ implied by the symbol? Maybe yes…but probably not. More likely this is about how others in this world or your life in general are reacting to you as part of some ‘specific’ alliance with a group or maybe a relationship partner.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been hearing about a Iot of relationships, personal and professional, which are on the rocks or totally kaput. The trend began about two months ago, which would be what we would expect leading into a solar eclipse. Issues which arise in the weeks leading into the eclipse point to areas of life which have outlived their function – at least as they’re now being experienced. And since in Scorpio dynamics always seem to be coming ‘at’ or happening ‘to’ us, the feelings of angst, frustration and hurt…they all make the underlying need all that much harder to understand.

The key is in what hurts. What’s being threatened – not on the surface, but underneath. I have one friend who needs to get a job. The need for the job is real – he needs to eat, he needs to pay his mortgage. But what underlies his struggle is a feeling of validity which has been there since a huge personal loss several years go.

The eclipse is in Scorpio. But Scorpio is always where our Taurean self confidence, feelings of self worth and values get tested. Those abilities which engender self worth and confidence are what we invest in a job or relationship. And the investing of money in the stock market or some commercial venture reflects our respect for our ability to make a good choice in doing so.

So when the relationship goes south or something else happens, we grieve the money lost. Or the loss of companionship and intimacy. But beyond that, we ache because our confidence is battered. We may not want to risk again – at least not right away because our confidence won’t let us risk.

And yet, when it comes to Scorpio, risk happens no matter what. That which you don’t choose may reveal itself as what you should have done as easily as the other way around.

Scorpio’s lessons are endless.

At 21 Scorpio, we are told that the venue which ‘produces’ the problems is one where some sort of gain is made for a banded, bonded group of whatever size. (Yes, it could be a couple.) That coalition has come together in order to ‘hunt down’ that which it is ‘aiming’ at, with the idea being to make life safe, satisfying and plentiful.

The eclipse however, tells us that external – perhaps social or societal – forces have now ranged against you or your group. Or what you’re aiming to hunt down (or your method of hunting), whatever.

Maybe you’re just part of the wrong group?

Whatever seems ‘threatened’ now, you will be better off if you let it go and evolve. That may be disappointing – even painful. But that’s not to say the process is remotely easy.

Nor is the direction to go in found immediately. Notorious to the last, the tale of whatever a solar eclipse leads you into may go on changing and shifting…until you arrive at a point about 36 months (3 years) from now, at which point all becomes clear and you realize how you can indeed be ‘yourself’ in a much more genuine way.

Historically, kingdoms, religions and personal fortunes have been timed out by eclipses. And since they repeat on a 19-year Metonic cycle, you can look back nineteen years (to 1993) and ask yourself…what was happening then?

If we learn the lesson of a given eclipse, the next time around the lesson arises and we know how to handle it. And because we do, life allows us to move ‘up’ another run on the metaphysical helix.

But if we don’t? If we don’t let go the first time around, life gives us a hard time. If we don’t let go the next time that eclipse comes around, we generally suffer some sort of loss. This goes back to the idea that we were born to fulfill a Purpose in this world and that Purpose is generally not what we’ve been told it is.
That’s because the world of humans and the world of spirituality and divine guidance do not run as mirror images. In fact, there’s some level at which it could be said that much which is most mortal about our lives and dictated by people and family and traditions and such…that often runs very counter to who we were ‘born’ to be.

Of course, this may not be ‘your’ eclipse. If you don’t have a planet, nodal axis or chart axis (the prime vertical or prime horizontal lines)…

between 16 and 26 degrees of

Scorpio, Taurus, Aquarius or Leo,

(or….)

between 19 and 23 degrees of

Libra, Sagittarius, Aries or Gemini,

…then this eclipse doesn’t have your name written in its corona.

That doesn’t mean you’re entirely out of the woods, but it does mean that you’re less subject to feeling like familiar ground is melting away while you’re trying to find a reliable foothold.

A few words also about the path of this eclipse. Despite the fact that the Earth turns ‘into’ the east (which causes time to flow from east to west through the various time zones) eclipses are astronomically described as moving from west to east.

No wonder their effects are said to be ‘life changing,’ right?

 A map of the November 2012 solar eclipse path across Earth with

the central line of totality indicated in red

(map generated using Solar Fire v8/Solar Maps)

 
Those who study eclipses have often seen events which correspond to the Sun’s movement along the path of its shadow across the Earth. This will be a total eclipse, meaning that when things change, the change is total – something is ‘cast into darkness’…yet at the moment of greatest fear and sense of loss (darkness) there is an opportunity to see, to recognize, to focus on that portion of our mortal brilliance (the corona) which is ordinarily obscured by the overwhelming generality of life in full daylight.

Sometimes the darkness has to come upon us, in other words, if we are to see.

This eclipse begins in Australia.

 A general map of Australia's Northern Territory with the central line of the eclipse marked in red

(map generated by Solar Fire v8/Solar Maps)

 
According to NASA’s eclipse page, this event begins in Australia’s Northern Territory, about 250 km east of Darwin – in Australia’s Garig Ganak Barful National Park (degrees: 133E04 / 11S01).

The only highly populated region this eclipse will aspect directly is Cairns, though the eclipse will pass some 30 km north of that city.

 (as posted by NASA on its eclipse website)

 
After that, the eclipse will move across the vastness of the South Pacific, ending about 800 km short of the coast of Chile (degrees: 79W58 / 29S32).

A general map of the terminus point for the November 2012 solar eclipse.

(map generated by Solar Fire v8/Solar Maps)

Again, according to those who study eclipses as a historical/sociological function (referred to in astrology as the ‘mundane’ aspects) note events which happen not just at the ‘spot’ of the eclipse, but all along that longitude. So…in looking up 133 east (and with the note that there should be a degree or so leniency given to this line) here are the spots Wikipedia lists as lying along this longitude:

- Heilongjiang, China

- Island of Nishido, Honshu, Omi and Shikoku, Japan

- Island of New Guinea and Kai Besar, Indonesia

- Northern and Southern Territories of Australia

- Australian Antarctic Territory

Along 79 west lies a somewhat longer list:

- Ellesmere Island, Coburg Island, Bylot, Emmerson, Frenchette, Rowley, Flaherty, Innetalling and Baffin Islands in Canada

- Koch Island, North Spicer Island, Elsie Island and Long Island in Canada lie just to either side of this line.

- Canada’s Foxe Basin, Foxe Channel, James and Hudson Bay are crossed by this line.

- (Northeastern New York) The line of this eclipse runs just east of Niagara Falls before running through the following states: New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina

- Cuba

- Panama, including the Gulf of Panama, mainland Panama and the Pearl Islands

- Westernmost Columbia

- Ecuador

- Peru

- Chile’s Robinson Crusoe and Santa Clara islands.

***************

Considering that eclipse paths move from west to east (again, how this does tell us how provocative eclipses can be!), effects at the eastern end of this eclipse are to be expected at the end of the three-year eclipse cycle.

Strange events may, scholars tell us, connect the two lines.

But for that, we’ll have to wait.

With that, I leave you for the day, bidding you to…well, keep your ducks in a row, maybe?

Eclipses are wonderful and overwhelming times. So much changes. So much comes into being. So much fades away.

Tomorrow, we’ll tackle the zodiacal effects. In the meantime, evolve as Earth revolves.

That seems to be what we’re supposed to do...or which we will be forced to confront as fate. The difference between those is awareness and the willingness to participate in shaping our own lives.

Will you honor your existence by owning your potential? Or will you abandon your Self to the whims and will of others and thus see your life and efforts being...eclipsed?
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