April's 8 Taurus Solar Eclipse (Pt. 1: The Map and Basics)

 Eclipse map for the 8 Taurus Solar Eclipse of April 29, 2014
(generated by Solar Fire software/v.8 - recolored for posting purposes)

Above is the solar eclipse map for the April 2014 solar eclipse at 8 Taurus. It's a particularly interesting map as this eclipse path at its western (longitudinal) end stripes through western Russia, with the east end (marking the end of the eclipse path) being off the coast of New Guinea, effectively embracing some of our world's most heartfelt points of human contention...which is to say our contention with being human...in current play.

But it's not just what's going on there - which is to say, not just about what 'those' people are doing or experiencing. The astrological solar eclipse isn't just about what we do or don't do this month or even this year.

It's about everything which could be going on in each one of us which could cause us to do or not do things...which cause us to react to things as we do.

As solar eclipses rolls through we all witness things going on and feel things in our core and - in astrological terms - we react to what we feel in terms of where the eclipse is located not in some other chart, but in ours. In an ever-shifting pattern eclipses range from top to bottom in and around our world, giving us metaphysical images which are as much about where we will 'draw' from in reflecting on our own lives as anything else.

And yes - sometimes each one of us ends up on stage.

When that is for you would be read from your individual chart (alas, some things cannot be done through a blog...) but there are some general effects, the most important of which is that eclipses effects start several months prior to any given solar eclipse (of which we get at least two a year here on Earth).

And after the eclipse, effects evolve over a period of around three years.

Lore also says eclipses are seldom 'about' what they appear to be in the moment whether events are painful or delightful or anything else - they are about what this moment will cause/force/inspire us to fall back on because whatever that thing is, it's harder to do (or be) than what we have 'settled' for in the moment.

(For the record, I totally agree here. I also think this concept is exactly what makes solar eclipse periods so hard to deal with. We always think it's about something which is so very much not the eventual revelation.)

Apparently life as life applies to Earth doesn't like to settle when it comes to human beings...a concept which suggests that as a race we're precious. (Or rather precious, which is how we act from time to time, yes.)

The length of time it takes for any of us to move out of, or let go of whatever notion we have come into this time thinking (or clinging to) varies. However there is one more universal, that being the idea that about 6-8 months prior to the end of eclipse effects (which would be around the end of 2016/beginning of 2017) something which could not have happened...or mattered...will appear.

And that means that while this April 2014 eclipse certainly has its own essence, things which happen now may also have to do with the "twist" which develops as part of a different eclipse - that of November 2011 with the Sun and Moon at 2 Sagittarius. So...particularly if something started (or you initiated some major change) during late 2011, take a look at your chart to see if you have any planet, dwarf planet, node or axis point positioned between...

- 27 Scorpio and 7 Sagittarius (the conjunction)
- 27 Taurus and 7 Gemini (the opposition)
- 27 Aquarius and 7 Pisces (the departing square)
- 27 Leo and 7 Virgo (the approaching square)

If you do, its particularly apt to feel an emotional 'cross current' in your life at this time. Whatever happens now is being brought out by evolving (or new) circumstances, yes. But either on its own or when combined with whatever is discovered by pausing to understand what in you is causing turmoil...some part of that is likely to become part of your motivation to go on from here with more finely honed aims and priorities. 

Whether or not the 2011 eclipse was focal, today's positives and negatives pertain first and most of all to questions of personal growth - which makes perfect sense when we consider the whole of life's process. If, as entities in this world and of this life we won't 'do' or change or let go, life tends to come at us from other angles before moving on. Maybe we'll change, maybe we'll resist again and again.

When that happens life moves on, finding a more receptive funnel for its energetics. Life provides undifferentiated energy to which we apply the conscious sensibility we exist as in, and as an entity of this world.

Our choices...good or bad, productive or destructive are what they are just as there is no good or bad in the eclipse process except at our most human and mortal level.

You know, when eclipses time the end of things we love and cherish.

Sometimes it's just time. We have to let go.

That's just the way life is.

Whether any eclipse factor (solar or lunar) takes the form of a person, event, idea, situation or anything else is unique to each one of us.

And we can count on a good deal of it flowing at some level for this moment from the realms pictured above in the map, manifesting in person thusly simply because energy flows through and is human life, history and planetary as well as universal existence.
.
.
.

Astrologer's Diary: Eclipse Effects

A Microsoft computer keyboard

(photo credit: Felipe Micaroni Lalli)

 .

After writing this blog now for several years it's become apparent to me that some of you who read it are astro-techy and some of you are just learning - or just reading along for insight(s) which hit you here and there (and wherever else).

So considering that per requests I posted the big tech-analysis a couple of days prior to the actual event, I though I'd take today - the actual date of the eclipse here in California - to share something part of an email conversation with one of my clients.

This person has been having a hard time - as have a lot of us. Trying to decide what's worth what has been twisting ears, guts and hankies. But after a few at-length conversations (and a week of letting that percolate, which I'm always in favor of) my client emailed me to say he had decided to shift his mode of thinking. 

He had decided that no matter what happens, no matter how rancid the moment may be (and we all have a few truly rancid moments), while it's okay to be frustrated or hurt or teed off, that he should also start and end with telling himself that he's where he's supposed to be.

I'm where I'm supposed to be. That was his conclusion.

And when I heard that, I knew light had dawned. Contentment, after all, is not always loving every last detail of your day or situation...it's knowing you're where you're supposed to be along your Path.

That is Taurus. The very core of Taurus. All the rest is gravy. With that understanding, you can make the rest happen. 

So I wrote him back, saying the following: 

I think your switching over from (negative) to ‘right place, right process’ is entirely correct. I know a lot of people making that shift, and that seems very much in keeping with the combination lunar/solar (Scorpio-Taurus) eclipses coming in. The lunar (emotional) effect coming from Scorpio is often very fearful and negative where the ‘up’ side of Taurus is all about realizing you are learning what you need to be learning now because that is what will give you the tools to face tomorrow. 

But there is one more step...Once we understand we're on the path, then we use the chart to see the nature of the step to be taken next...the information to be gleaned.

And that comes from where the signs - in this case, Scorpio and Taurus - of any given eclipses hits in your chart.

Wherever these signs fall (and by degree, the eclipses) is where we will feel these things happen.

 

And there's two parts to that, too. For a 'for instance,' we'll use my chart...
.

 Boots Hart, CAP - natal chart

.
Occurring at 5 Scorpio, the lunar eclipse hit my Saturn-Moon in the 7th house. But the sign of Scorpio is on my 8th house. The cusp of my 8th is 28 Scorpio, so most of Scorpio is in my 7th. But it does lapse over into 8, and it does so in a very worldly degree. 

What this creates is a linking of effects. In other words, just around the date of the lunar eclipse (which granted, was under the auspices of the incoming solar eclipse) I had a whole collection of highly evocative moments. This being a lunar eclipse (when the Moon is 'blacked out') the effect wasn't something seen in the world - I didn't go dancing around any rooms. But I definitely experienced several 'high points' of comprehension (the 7th house being an airy, thoughtful house) about how relationships work.

At least in my life. I'm sure we're all different.

Everything I went through came alive in a way I could understand it's value and meaning (Moon) in very realistic (Saturn) terms. All of a sudden I was keyed into differences between people and situations at a level I had never understood before. I saw how I responded to others and how they responded to me.

And in that, I became aware of how I could affect people - which is the Scorpio part - and how I could use knowing that in building better, stronger, kinder and more supportive, productive (8th house) relationships with others. The veil of Neptune confusion was permeated by understanding how my energy works with regards to others, how sensitivity on my part may come out as insensitivity to others - and vice versa.

I saw why life brings us people with whom we can act out the human dramas which with a little bit of luck allow us to eclipse our weaknesses so we will have a somewhat easier time going on to fulfill our potential.

Lunar eclipses evolve over three short months. But since the solar eclipse at 19 Taurus which enfolds this lesson is happening in my first house with Taurus on the cusp of house 2, I have solid hope that like my client, I too will remember when times are tough and I'm sure life is all worms that I'm where I'm supposed to be. 

Wherever the eclipse actually falls (by degree), that's the area of life where you'll experience the 'point' of this time. Lunar eclipses stir us emotionally. Solar eclipses make us think about our life. And yes, sometimes that hurts or is scary. Some fifteen years ago now, an eclipse hit my Sun. In the weeks just prior to that eclipse and for weeks after, I lost nearly everything I think of as 'me.' I lost the ability to read. After twenty years of high finance in the movie industry and doing astrology in my head, suddenly I could neither add nor subtract. I couldn't even walk in a straight line.

That event took away my ability to work the 16 hour days and six day weeks. Heck, it took away the ability to work a 4 hour day and any kind of week.

Not surprisingly, not long after that, I lost my home. I also lost all sense of personal direction.

But I knew two things. I knew I was still alive, and I knew the lore of solar eclipses. I knew that solar eclipses never take away from us anything we really need in order to fulfill who we really are - at our core.

I'm not saying it was easy. It wasn't. But by the end of the solar eclipse transit (which lasts three years) I had been granted disability and had a small apartment to call my own. During that time, of all I had lost, the first ability to come back on line was the ability to write. So that's what I did to cope with the days and feelings of bleakness.

Until then it suddenly occurred to me...the one thing I had always wanted to be, the one thing I truly conceived of being in this world is an author.

So now I share posts and thoughts with you. And on days when I don't do that, I noodle at writing books. Two were released (as eBooks) last year. And this year it looks like my favorite project of all - the one which I envisioned myself writing when I was about seven - will finally achieve publication.

Solar eclipses often take things away. But at the same time, they bring us closer to our truest being.

I'm where I'm supposed to be.

My Sun is in Pisces, a sign all about facing your worst fears. My worst fear in life had always been the great 'what if' about being homeless. And through that experience I learned that life will often bring us our greatest fears to show us how we can...and should get past them so that we can focus not on the negative, but the willingness to be who we are.

I'm where I'm supposed to be.
  
And so I finished the email to my client... 

Give or take we have through next year to play this Scorpio-Taurus eclipse pairing (with the solar eclipse being in Taurus during the spring and Scorpio in early winter) those of us who are able to move through the challenges now – or who are at least able to take the first big step forward are likely to emerge with great strides taken and great deeds accomplished. 

We're not all on the same timetable. But we are on one which is perfect for us.

All things in their own time.

I'm where I'm supposed to be.

After all, 
.

Unbeknownst to us, the universe is unfolding as it should

.

.

.