Working Within the Shadow of an Eclipse

We are approaching an Annular Solar Eclipse on February 6th and 7th, depending on where you live on the planet.

In ancient times, Solar Eclipses created quite a stir amongst the people who viewed them. The Sun, gradually darkening in the sky until all was completely dark, brought a sense of great foreboding. Would the King fall to another? Would the crops for that season fail? Would marauding enemies attack them? Eclipses came to be associated with omens of doom and gloom.

Even today, Mundane astrologers will often work with eclipses to track the coming trends in a nation or country, depending on the path the shadow (Umbra or Penumbra) takes across the globe during such an event. Will the nations impacted by the eclipse have crises that must be dealt with? This is often the case.

My focus in this site is more on the individual, however. I’m primarily interested in helping you to see how you can actually work with these occurrences. I want to demystify for you what they mean symbolically. The forces and cycles of nature are around us, and in us. When we work with them, we are more in harmony I feel.

So, without getting too technical with you, remember that we have anywhere from 3 to 7 Eclipses per year. This includes Solar and Lunar. They tend to run in pairs, but not always. This month, for example, we have the Solar Eclipse first, followed by a Lunar Eclipse on February 20-21st. ( I will write about this shortly before it occurs.)

A Solar Eclipse can only occur at a New Moon. This is known as a Conjunction. Furthermore, it can only occur when the Sun and Moon are parallel in declination and conjunct one of the Moon’s nodes. The Nodes describe the path of the Moon around the Earth on the Ecliptic, as she moves above (North) or below (South) this path. Solar Eclipses can be Partial or Total. Keep in mind, also, that Solar Eclipses have a real effect on our Earth’s electromagnetic field that can be measured and tested scientifically. Eclipses run in long cycles that have a very predictable nature. There are 19 different over-lapping cycles known as the Saros Series. A Saros cycle lasts a little over 18 years. Each cycle has come to be associated with key themes, believe it or not. But I don’t want to completely bore you with all these details. I’m only describing a phenomena that astrologers work with just as astronomers do; the difference between us simply being that we astrologers are trying to understand the underlying symbolism of what it all means.

So here’s a clue: At the Solar Eclipse the Moon is, for a brief moment in time, coming between our Earth and the Sun. The Moon is blotting out the Sun’s light momentarily. Think about that. What does the Moon symbolize? For brevity sake let’s keep it real simple: feelings, memories, and the past. The Sun is more symbolic of our heroes or heroines journey—-the intentional path we want to move forward with. So perhaps the Solar Eclipse can focus us on what from our past is keeping us from moving forward into our future? It’s within that rich ‘shadowy realm’ that we need to dig a bit further to understand what prevents us from moving ahead. It’s considered to be a rather ‘Scorpionic’ effect, a Solar Eclipse. Clean up the past before moving into the future. Purge or eliminate that which prevents further expansion and future growth.

The point where the Solar Eclipse occurs can be observed in your own Natal Birth Map. Here is where you either need to have a good working knowledge of your own chart, or the helpful input of your personal astrologer. The location of the Eclipse, then, becomes the area of your life that will be brought into the foreground for approximately six months, or until the next Solar Eclipse. If you have a natal planet or angle within 5 degrees of that Eclipse it will be highly emphasized, and you will very much feel the effects more strongly. The arena opposite this point will also be emphasized, like a polarity, and at the Lunar Eclipse perhaps that area can become a part of your solution in dealing with the release of anything that prevents you from moving forward.

So Eclipses really force us to pay attention and review as we ‘set our houses in order’, so to speak. They definitely track personal evolution and growth if you’re willing to work with them and participate consciously. You’ll see your own ‘progression’ over time. You can even look backwards in a cycle, say 18 years ago, to see how far you’ve come to this point in time with the themes that are being emphasized in your life with each passing Eclipse.

This February Eclipse is occurring in the Sign of Aquarius at the 18th degree (rounded up). The Sabian Symbol for this degree is “A man being unmasked at a masquerade”. Aquarius likes to get to the truth, the whole truth. This symbol implies a coming clean, a dropping away of pretense, a lifting of the persona to reveal one’s vulnerability. It can include either facing an inner truth about oneself or another. Perhaps the authentic self wishes to emerge. What is preventing that? Perhaps another is not revealing who they really are. Why? How can they be unmasked? To quote Groucho Marx, “Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?”

Aquarius

There is a huge emphasis right now on the sign of Aquarius. Amassed in this sign with the Eclipse are Mercury Retrograde, Chiron, Neptune, Vesta, and the North Node. We’re combining intelligence and consciousness through reflectivity, vision, focus and devotion, healing, integration and a path ahead which must embrace the whole through a synthesis of all the diverse elements that make up that totality. Aquarius is always geared to the future if true to its placement in the zodiacal wheel. This is where the big picture needs to be seen. Unmasking anything that prevents one from truly perceiving the truth is very very important right now with this Eclipse.

So look at your own chart. What house/arena does this degree of Aquarius fall in? Are there any planets or angles within 5 degrees conjunct it, or opposite it? These points will be strongly emphasized from now until the next Solar Eclipse on August 1st. This is where you must clean up or deal with whatever prevents you from moving ahead.

I’ll give you a couple of examples from my own work with recent clients: the first is a man who is already highly evolved in his consciousness and is experiencing his Chiron Return at exactly that degree of 18 Aquarius. ( In fact, any of you turning 50 years in the next few months, may have this Chirotic note emphasized. Chiron is symbolic of many things including the path of healing, teaching, and working towards greater social justice, especially when it occurs in Aquarius.) The Eclipse is occurring in his house/arena of work/health/and service. What he really needed was a fine-tuning of that note. Since he has already eliminated habits which were either destructive to his health, or distracting him from real humanitarian service to others, he is now ready to simply polish things up a bit more in readiness for something new in his daily life and work. He will undoubtedly move forward quickly between now and August with the intention of serving others in a more visionary and healing way.

A woman saw me today who will experience this Eclipse directly on her Venus in her house/arena of resources, earning ability, talents, and gifts. We spent a great deal of time focusing on her special artistic gifts and how she can best bring them more into focus as well as increase her earning capacity through the use of those talents. We also looked at ways she can release old patterns and relationships that impede her growth and progress towards greater wholeness and happiness in terms of what she truly loves and values.

Where can you focus and increase your intention with this Eclipse? As you peer more deeply into the shadowy spaces of your own self, and are willing to face whatever holds you back, allow your inner Solar Light to guide you towards greater Self-realization.