December’s New Moon: Illuminating Our Self

A clay oil lamp used in India's diwali festival

(photo credit Arne Huckelheim, November 2010)

Life as a Mobius Strip…yes, and that’s apparently what we’re in for. The whole of the incoming lunation which starts on December 3rd at twenty-two minutes after midnight (UT/+0 ) seems somewhat akin to an astrological Mobius Strip.

A Mobius Strip - technically, a one-sided

piece of paper.

 

I remember distinctly what my reaction was when someone told me there was such a thing as a one-sided piece of paper: I looked at them as though they were crazy.

Assuring me they were not, this person then demonstrated how if you took a strip of paper and taped its ends together after installing one twist in the paper strip… how if you then lay that twisted loop of paper down on a table and apply a pen to it, how by drawing the paper beneath the pen… how slowly but surely you’d get back to where you started – and how in that process you had drawn on both ‘sides’ of the paper, theoretically proving it to be one-sided.

And don’t we all do a little bit of that one-sidedness, even while we’re veering hither and yon through life?

Any Sagittarian lunation is going to force us to do two things: learn or learn better (that would be the Sagittarius part) and feel about it – that being the Moon-ish stuff.

Or we could even feel what we think about having to learn something. Or think about our feelings. Or think about how the whole feeling thing applies in the grander scheme of life.

Sagittarius is ‘big’ like that, being one of the last four signs of the zodiac. When Sagittarius turns up on the energetic menu, no matter who we are or how we live we’re moved into a mode where “it” (whatever we deal with) is not precisely about us. That Sagittarius is a fire sign means our ability to envision is called upon…but whether your vision is about what could happen to you or how you could make something work or what glorious new opportunity might come of something you really don’t want to tackle…?

That’s up to you.

One very good thing about fire sign energy – especially where the Moon is concerned – is that the fiery ‘imagining’ and/or ‘not real, just in theory’ quality syncs rather nicely with our intellectual mode of thinking… which may just be entirely useful now as we’re all plowing through whatever complications are normal in your life as a side dish served up with the holidays.

Let’s face it – the holidays are complicated. Even if you’re someone who doesn’t celebrate worth a figgy pudding, you still have to cope with all the people who are celebrating and doing the whole festive thing.

Plus…(dare I say?)…Venus is about to go retrograde, a fact which is likely to summon up that splendidly flagrant human tendency to celebrate before all goes to pot. Call it the binge before the fast - or more likely, the splurge before the budget.

As a matter of fact, just as this New Moon occurs (December 3rd) Venus begins slowing down. (It probably should be taken as a hint.) Wherever Capricorn (the sign Venus is in) falls in your chart, that is the department which is going to come in for some sort of stress during Venus six weeks of retrograde.

Into which comes this Sagittarius lunation. Sagittarius being the sign immediately before Capricorn, we have an uncomfortable semi-sextile which thematically combines ‘hurry up’ and ‘do more’ (Sagittarius) with Capricorn-ian deadlines, obligations, limits and responsibilities to self and others.

As for the degree of this New Moon, that’s 10 Sagittarius - and this is where the magic begins to happen, as despite all that stuff which may sound trying, challenging, even wearisome, 10 Sagittarius is a degree which speaks of the promise and opportunity… even the fateful occurring of moments which teach how our polarities within are the polarities we create in life and between our Self and others.

The trick is to remember that we’re attracting them so that we can understand our own capacities.

In other words, don’t blame them – bless them, particularly when they point out you’re better than you’re letting yourself be.

That’s what that cry of conflict in your soul is all about – and that’s what this Sagittarian lunation will bend in upon itself to show you, though you’re highly likely to be surprised by how things work.

As I say, this starts with 10 Sagittarius – the position of the New Moon. With Antares just behind at 9 Sagittarius, the idea of success hinging on ‘not being obsessed’ is in the mix throughout the month, but what that means is purely individual. With Jupiter (ruler of Sagittarius) pictured in exact conjunction with Black Moon Lilith the choice would seem to be between something about our Self that we wanted to ‘leave behind’…or something about our Self that we refuse to own which, what with energy being sneaky like that, someone else is owning (or has owned) for us of late.

I admit…there’s a whiff of that recent eclipse thing in the air. It’s symbolically suggested by Mercury still being in Scorpio (26 Scorpio) in the chart of the New Moon.

Mercury’s been in Scorpio since September 29th. Do we all have that much unpacking of our emotional psyche to think about?

Evidently yes.

Link to the 2013 MERCURY IN SCORPIO post

On the other hand, does the Scorpio tendency to make us feel so much about something mean it’s not real?

Link to (2013) SUN IN SCORPIO post

 

Maybe it is real. If so…what does that mean? What does it say about us as people that we can or cannot deal with our Selves and each other as people? How is it that we are so drawn to those who will inevitably test us at the most rip-prone spot in our Being?

And is ripping all bad? Or does it afford us room to grow?

Representing relationships, how well we relate and the process of self-experience we connect with through the process of relating (or refusing to relate), the Lunar Nodes are also still at 7 Scorpio/Taurus in this New Moon chart.

7 Scorpio is the degree the nodes slid into back on October 2nd - as life laid on five or six weeks of pretty intense experiencing in keeping with the Scorpio solar eclipse.

(Oh joy, oh rapture, right?)

And now we’re on the other side of that. With this New Moon, the last New Moon (the solar eclipse) begins to ‘gel.’ Think of it as a cut or thorn prick which finally knits over enough to stop bleeding.

No, things aren’t yet healed. But the universal process which promotes healing has been summoned, and in most cases as been started.

The Sabian Symbol for 10 Sagittarius reading as follows: IN THE LEFT SECTION OF AN ARCHAIC TEMPLE, A LAMP BURNS IN A CONTAINER SHAPED LIKE A HUMAN BODY. Since the New Moon is in fiery Sagittarius (a sign we can typify as ‘expansion of what you know’) and the lunation “arc” goes from that ‘envisioning/realizing’ New Moon in Sagittarius to a Full Moon in airy, option-sorting Gemini knowing that the next New Moon (January’s) will be in earthy Capricorn, land of achievement, social status, all things governmental and generally life consequential… what would seem to be implied here is a pretty straight on process: you get the idea, you think through the parameters and then you choose to act or not act.

And according to the symbol, all of this has to do with ‘a light’ which has, which is being or which has been “left” in the ‘left’ section of an archaic temple. And the lamp…? The ‘light’ may either be ‘shaped like a human being’ because it is a person, or it may be an ideal or idealized person – the ideal furnished by some person.

Considering how ‘light’ often represents information, education or some sort of ‘message’ or mentoring being given to us (or possibly left with us), the whole aura of Sagittarian ‘learning further’ may be our proceeding on with learning and pushing our boundaries or trying to cope based on something we believe we need to understand.

And that left section in an archaic temple – that’s particularly intriguing. Why? Because ‘left’ – especially when you’re talking about the human body in metaphysical terms – is a reference to the future. And yet (she says blithely), the symbol very specifically refers to an archaic temple – in other words, something we did hold high at one point, but which we have walked away from or given up on.

….Which may (now that I’m thinking about it) work very well with astrologer Marc Edmund Jones’ original commentary on the Sabian Symbol as dictated to him by the psychic: ‘The value of the “return to the body” advocated by modern thinkers in order to balance the stress on intellectuality and objective consciousness’ (to which astrologer/philosopher Dane Rudhyar adds ‘relying on organismic responses’).

Und zo…….Remember that Mobius Strip thing? What the above is saying we are now moving into our (left) future (where we will also find we have ‘left’ today’s present behind) we will reconnect in some way, at some level with something which we have allegedly left behind.
Maybe we have, maybe we haven’t.

Could we be headed back towards it? Maybe, but if so, according to the structure of this lunation chart, you’ll know that’s the right thing to do.

Give or take, you know. Before we get to the aspecting and all the planetary do-si-do’s, it seems prudent to add one more note about the Venus retrograde. In occurring on the 21st of December (in the UT/+0 time zone) this Venus station/retrograde falls immediately after this month’s Full Moon, a Full Moon which occurs on the morning of December 17th (UT/+0 time).

The suggestion here is that after the Full Moon, there’s something of a ‘retreat’ (if you will) from outside influences. Certainly there will still be commerce, but it would be natural, given these markers to see the general frenzy and crush as something we’re participating in begin to ‘take a turn’ after the 17th – and seeing that the Solstice and Venus’ turn to retrograde happens on December 21st, it wouldn’t seem unnatural for us to take that moment to do something we would find meaningful and which would move us at some level.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

Just to pause a moment here, do you feel like perhaps it’s taking me a very long time (even for

me) to get to the point?

Ah, but grasshopper….that IS the point!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  

The way this New Moon chart is organized, it’s a bit like a Rube Goldberg machine. You know…you get to this through that and you end up getting somewhere you hadn’t suspecting you had started out to arrive at?

We start with the New Moon and 10 Sagittarius, and in looking at the lunation’s chart note that it’s the apex of a t-square.

This t-square is being presented in early degrees of mutable (learning as you go) signs with Sagittarius, a sign about seeing how the thing works in reality and the changes, additions or refinements you need to make in order to maximize effect. That means that at least from here until the Full Moon (on the 17th) will be spent trying to get a fullest perspective on our efforts – replete with all the usual Sagittarian caveats.

The ‘object’ of this t-square is imaged as Chiron at 9 Pisces with Chiron being that thing we can’t imagine doing (or knowing how to do) and 9 Pisces lending the aura of all which is felt when you face the Great Undertaking.

You know…the one you know you need to undertake in your heart of hearts but which just seems full of SUCH grief?

Yes, that undertaking.

And it’s that undertaking that the New Moon is sitting astride of, telling us that whatever you think is at stake…you’re probably thinking too narrowly about the subject. Yes, there may be some really good reason why you (9 Pisces) need to do something, and doing that something requires your substantial (10 Sagittarius) abilities – those things you are really good at.

You’re probably thinking that you need to do ‘XYZ’ because you will achieve ABC…and yet, this image says there’s more to be gained (part one) and that you can indeed achieve your aims (and gains) if you will only approach the problem from not a personal, but a more universal basis.

In other words, life may feel like its all about you or all about one particularly prioritized project when its far more likely that what you are doing involves a far greater set of influences than you are currently thinking of.
So that’s Unknown Factor #1.

And on top of that goes Vesta at 7 Libra.

 
Vesta concerns the protecting of the self and those with whom you abide through the honoring of everyone’s needs and the keeping of one’s promises. In Libra, relationships, negotiations, conversations or the process of ‘relating,’ ‘conferring’ or ‘selling’ are possible…and where they are possible, availing yourself of same will benefit you.

However….

 
…with Uranus at 8 Aries (in opposition to Libra) there’s been or needs to be some flexibility brought to the fore, lest promises and priorities go awry and things come shuttering apart in a show of broken self-conception. In facing off against Vesta, even if Uranus wasn’t retrograde it would be suggesting some self-questioning as to whether there’s somewhere you need to change, flex, join the group – something!

But wait! That’s not all either.

(Yes, I know…I’m beginning to sound like an infomercial.)

 
There’s a little issue called “Pluto at 10 Capricorn” which enters into this mix now. And that Pluto, representing some sort of ‘structural power’ or ‘power structures’ in your life or in your heart is getting in the way. Are you being too rigid. Are you too unstructured? Maybe both?

This is a bit of a oddity as a t-square (yes, it’s another t-square) in that the object is the Uranus in retrograde.
What does that tell us? That tells us that in order to achieve your desired or needed internal changes (or the ability to be flexible) things, your very concept of power – what is yours, what isn’t yours – needs to shift.  

And when it comes to that, then we’re back at the entrance to the maze we’ve just gone through, courtesy of a Grand Trin between Pluto, Pallas and the South Node in Taurus.

Put simply, this incoming lunation thus becomes more about coming to understand what you’re doing and why you’re doing it…

…Which is rather the definition of illumination.
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Astrologer's Diary: Eclipse Effects

A Microsoft computer keyboard

(photo credit: Felipe Micaroni Lalli)

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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...
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 Boots Hart, CAP - natal chart

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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, 
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Unbeknownst to us, the universe is unfolding as it should

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The 5 Scorpio Lunar Eclipse

Te aa no areois (The Seed of the Areoi) by Paul Gauguin (1892)

The Moon is in it’s sign of Fall when in Scorpio. And a Lunar Eclipse is known by the sign of its Moon, with the Sun being positioned in the opposite sign – in this case, Taurus.

But it’s why the Moon is in Fall in Scorpio which is probably the big clue to how this eclipse is going to operate.

The Moon is about reflection. It’s about our feelings and instincts. The Moon rules Cancer – a cardinal sign which is all about the surf zone and the crab which is free to go on shore or seek refuge in the water and among the rocks depending on what feels safest…or maybe just because it’s in the mood for this and that.

It’s from an image like this that we understand that the Moon is willful, and eminently self-concerned in the very real and corporeal sense where the Sun is about that consciousness or our ability to get ourselves through some situation. That’s also an expression of will, but with the Sun will is expressed through action where with the Moon, will is expressed in how I feel about it.

And yes, everything which may flow from that!

Scorpio is a sign about interactions…and what can be gained through or by interacting. With everything Scorpionic there’s some kind of risk – mostly emotional risk. And when things go bad in the Scorpio realm, the first question we ask ourselves is ‘why did I do that?’ or ‘why did I ever get involved?’ Much as we might be honked off at whoever we deal with in Scorpio (and being the sign of war, there’s obviously plenty of honk-off’ed-ness which goes with this sign!) the real issue with Scorpio, the ‘test’ if you will, is to our values. Wars are most often all about ‘don’t threaten me and my values’…or ‘I so disapprove of your values that I’m going to wipe you out’ – a mindset which is very close to another Scorpio trait, the venomous quality of revenge and vengeance.

To put it simply (and yes, this is a very extreme sort of example we’re using here), the Moon is in Fall in Scorpio because our feelings end up focused on the other. The Moon represents our need to love and respect ourselves – or our Self, depending. And since when in Scorpio we succeed only when we taken into account the aims and values of others on a par with the needs, aims and values we hold for or about ourselves, that’s a ‘sign necessity’ which asks us to use the Moon in a manner the Moon is less than enthrallingly fit to work in.

Scorpio’s longing and desire, it’s tests of our ability to maneuver and the temptation to manipulate is not directly about us. It’s about expending energy to try to get what we want, which by implication says we either don’t have it or we’re feeling threatened about it.

So the Moon in Scorpio always has this shifting, testy sort of edge. And when we talk about a Lunar Eclipse, that quality is likely to be elevated. Yes, this could also indicate a moment when we win through on something we want…I’m pretty sure President Bush (GW Bush) is going to be happy about the opening of his presidential library on the date of this lunar eclipse…but even when we get our way or get what we want from a Lunar Eclipse it’s likely to come at some cost. Or with some challenge to our feelings of settled security.

Could President Bush (the younger) be wondering what people will find in his library and what sorts of fluffles and fracas might evolve from that? He might – and when I heard that this was the Grand Opening for his library, I figured a cavalcade of reporters and researchers would be descending on the place, all determined to dig through the archives.

But I digress – sort of. The Moon of this eclipse is at 5 Scorpio and Saturn (still in retrograde) is at 8 Scorpio, which would describe the Bush Library as a source on all things Scorpio (economics, war, back room deals, etc.) which went on during those presidential administrations. And while most of us have never been President, this ‘aura of the past’ would be very much in keeping with this eclipse. This could be entirely personal and emotional…or it could be about something you are doing based on something you have ‘gotten into’ or ‘how I learned to do it’…or it could be a moment when something you did comes up for review – most of all, personal review.

 Lunar Eclipse of April 25, 2013

(Aries Wheel, location not specific)

With TNO Deucalion at 12 Scorpio, the Saturn of this figure carries a definite whiff of challenge with regards to morality. Yet since the Sun which opposes this Moon is conjunct Mars (and Mars is not a happy camper in Taurus) we have all the stubbornness of Mars/Sun set up against Moon/Saturn (plus Saturn/Deucalion) to contend with, a combination which denotes a very intense ‘discussion’ – be that framed as a choice, a realization, a feeling about some situation or some force being brought to you by someone who represents that Saturn/Moon (plus Saturn/Deucalion) against your wanting to stick with your current (Sun/Mars in Taurus) position.

Or maybe you’re the person bringing your Saturn/Moon ‘reflective determination’ to someone else’s entrenched position.

But there’s an interesting difference here. The Moon in Scorpio is the Moon in its sign of Fall. Mars in Taurus, on the other hand, is in the sign of its Detriment.

What’s the difference? It does sort of amount to the same thing, but fall being the opposite of rulership while detriment is the opposite of exaltation tells us more or less how this works. Rulership is where the sign and the quality of the planet are in synch. So the Moon is (first and foremost) our emotional self and that experiencing of emotions which causes us to reflect on life itself. That matches well with Cancer as the first of the zodiac’s water signs and the native sign of learning how emotions work as children do in the heart of a family or as we all do in general as part of a culture or inherited national tradition.

The Moon is exalted in Taurus, which means the optimal Taurean condition of self respect, self worth and physical security in life and in this world is a good setting in which to learn all our ‘Moon stuff.’

And here (interestingly enough) we have the Moon positioned in a sign Mars is co-ruler of (Scorpio) with Mars being positioned in Taurus, a sign the Moon is exalted in.

That describes discomfort. For most of us that will just be some measure of emotional discomfort or inconvenience. And like all Lunar Eclipses, this one really needs to be focal in your chart or you may not feel much of anything (though you may hear of someone else having a heck of a Lunar Eclipse time and really feel for them!).

So to use the vernacular, at it’s extreme this can be a ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ sort of situation. Then again, it may just be a session of whipping up some favorite dish in the kitchen (with company on their way to your door) only to find half way through your demonstrating your culinary prowess to yourself that some important ingredient you were sure you had plenty of…well, you have practically none of.
What to do? Do you have time to go to the store? Do you have anything to substitute? Are you going to bite the head off your darling spouse who swore they checked but obviously didn’t – and if so, are you capable of smiling through the whole of the evening while your guests are there? 

The lore about 5 Scorpio speaks to a ‘dead end’ and blocked efforts which may indicate one of those ‘do we have to go into that again?’ sort of refusal to discuss something. Conversely, the lore about 5 Taurus is about contentment with what one has and with that being good enough to work with. So this is a moment which is about a clash of ambitions and drive against contentment and satisfaction. To the extent that you are happy with things as they are, you may not want to change. But do you need to? To the extent that you are not happy with things, what can you do to change them?

Any time we see an opposition of any sort (presented by an eclipse or not) we know the optimal solution is to embrace both ideas at once – which in this case is hard, as there’s quite a tug from both sides of the question, most of which can be summed up in the ideas of ‘deserving’ and ‘earning,’ both of which should be taken emotionally. That means that ‘earning’ can be about going to work to earn money, but it’s your feelings about working which apply here.

Also important: is the world (or life) static? Are things supposed to stay “as they have always been”? The obvious answer to that is ‘no.’ If it wasn’t, we’d all be still using oil lamps, parents wouldn’t be parents because…well, never mind having children, they wouldn’t have ever gotten married.

Obviously life evolves. The trick is understanding that it’s not just the parts of life that you want changed which end up evolving!

All this said, now we come to the kite. I mean…what’s a good eclipse without a planetary picture, right?
Okay…so here’s the kite which comes into play during this day – or even the couple of days surrounding April 25, 2013 at 7:58 in the evening UT/+0 time when said eclipse occurs:

 
Kites are always made up of two triangles – the upper one (Sun, Ceres and Neptune/Fomalhaut) which is ‘supported’…or which can be thought of as standing atop the ‘shoulders’ of the lower triangle, which here is composed of Moon/Saturn, Ceres and Neptune/Fomalhaut.

The bottom triangle is a grand trine. More to the point, it’s a grand trine in water, which says emotions and emotionality either can’t be avoided or is going to be entirely avoided. Which you encounter depends on which you come into this moment with as your status quo, as grand trines are all about ongoing energies which are difficult…almost impossible to disrupt, divert or otherwise change.

At least for the moment. Considering this grand trine involves the Moon, considering how the Moon moves one degree about every two hours, that means that at a point about ten hours after this eclipse the Moon will be exiting the five degree orb allowed for  conjunctions and trines.

Which means at that point (ten hours or so after the eclipse) this watery grand trine will be Saturn, Neptune/Fomalhaut, Ceres.

What’s the difference? That difference is emotional investment: Moon in Scorpio. So the eclipse may well represent a moment when emotions get invested…or withdrawn, depending.

What’s the rest of it mean? Saturn is durability…which in emotional terms would be enduring. Saturn is also structural, which in emotional terms is a commitment. To what? That depends. For some emotionality will be withdrawn because there is no ‘enduring commitment.’ With others there will be a commitment made or renewed. Or maybe ‘detoxified,’ since Scorpio is very big on rehabilitation of any kind of human messiness.
Neptune/Fomalhaut is pretty much a statement about ‘what’s right and true’ which gets balanced off against ‘what’s possible within the bounds of ethical and moral correctness?’

And Ceres? Ceres is having a plan. Do you know how to turn that handful of seeds into a bountiful harvest?

A lunar eclipse in progress

Again, since the Moon and Saturn are presented here in Scorpio, while this can be a moment to found something and move forward, there is also a possibility that what arises now is based on past (Moon-Saturn) commitments or emotional investments.

Even financial investments.

Or sexual commitments.

The top triangle is composed of one trine and two sextiles, the sextiles representing ‘support’ of the ultimate aim, which is here presented as Sun-Mars in early Taurus. Ordinarily we would simply say this is ‘my security in my values’ but because this is a lunar eclipse we have to toss in that emotional concept, which gives us ‘how I feel ABOUT my emotional security’ or ‘how I feel about how I have invested myself in some ‘defined version’ of emotional security.’ With Neptune/Fomalhaut and Ceres being the connectors between the upper ‘negotiating’ position (which may be a negotiation with yourself or others) and the lower grand trine in water signs, this would seem to make this lunar eclipse about the difference between what we want something to be and what it is. Or what we thought it was going to be and what it is.

Since 5 Scorpio and 5 Taurus occur in every chart even if they’re not highlighted by planets or whatnot, we will all see or feel or hear of this eclipse as it happens. And unlike Solar Eclipses, Lunar Eclipses are prompt. There’s no messing around – you’ll know that the issue is when the gong sounds.

But also unlike Solar Eclipses, Lunar Eclipses are ‘moments in time’ which we get past and move on from. Seldom is a Lunar Eclipse the actual game changer or life altering event – though the difference can be subtle. One good example here would be the proposal of marriage as opposed to the actual wedding. I’m sure many would argue that the proposal ‘changes everything’…but while it may change your feelings about the future of your feelings (which is about as lunar as it gets!) it is not the actual moment which changes your (solar) life in real time, real life, worldly and forever terms. That’s the wedding.

Lunar Eclipses start strong – sometimes it’s an emotional tsunami. But by the time three months passes, their import has been woven into the fabric of our lives.

Solar Eclipses are a whole different thing. And speaking of which, you do know we have one coming up, right? It’s on May 10th and it will be at 19 Taurus.

Anyone whose chart is aspected by both eclipses is in for a rollercoaster shift in their consciousness. And since this is the rare eclipse season which brings with it two Lunar Eclipses and one Solar Eclipse, check your chart for 4 Sagittarius as well.

One other note here: does your birthday fall within four or five days (either way) of this Lunar Eclipse? If it does, the whole of your year is going to be emotionally evocative. Provocative. Intense.

And yes, educational.

And for those of you whose birthdays are within four or five days of May 10th? You’re probably already feeling the effects of major shifts altering your life perspective, and we aren’t even at the Solar Eclipse yet!
Whether you’re a late April baby, a May baby, or just some wandering citizen of this world with a chart to call your own, this is an interesting moment in time – one to learn from, and hopefully to profit from.

Good luck!
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