Integrating Your Eclipse Experience
Oh, the Eclipses!
Historically speaking, there are probably no more confusing and controversial transits in astrology than those of the Solar and Lunar Eclipses. I often hesitate to write about things like this, about moments like now, because there is already so much online chatter I just don’t want to add to the noise. Sometimes I want to write but just can’t get to it because the intensity of the transit is really impacting people, so I am working more than usual.
In times like now, it has simply taken me a while to figure out the most helpful thing to say, based on the questions people are asking me and the personal experiences they are sharing with me. As a practicing astrologer, I am frequently asked for guidance around Eclipses: what they mean, what they bring you, how to work with them, and for how long. While there will always be a lot of variables depending on the particulars of the sets of Eclipses and of your personal charts, there are some things you can truly count on.
So first, let’s review.
We now know that Eclipses are not a rare thing. For thousands of years, we thought they were. Because the Eclipses are rarely visible to very many of the people of the planet every time they occur, most humans could go for several years - or several decades - without seeing or knowing of one. Because of that, humans of many diverse cultures developed an erroneous belief that Eclipses were quite rare, and that they were very negative omens when they did.
We now know that Eclipses happen in sets about twice a year, usually 5-6 months apart. Generally speaking, Eclipses occur in sets of two or three (though sometimes four) and they are usually spaced about 2 weeks apart. There is usually 1 each: a Lunar Eclipse (usually, but not always, at the Full Moon) and a Solar Eclipse (usually, but not always) at the New Moon. And the influence of these transits is said to impact you – sometimes even dominate your landscape – for about six months. So there’s that.
I find that Eclipses and their impacts are the dominant presenting problem for clients during those times of year.
Here are what I feel are the most pertinent basics.
This past Monday’s Eclipse was the second of a pair. The current set of Eclipses started with a Penumbral Lunar Eclipse that occurred on March 25th. The Moon was Full in Libra, opposing the Sun in Aries. Lunar Eclipses usually involve a Full Moon, and a Full Moon means there will be less rationality and more emotion. Often the revelations of these types of Eclipses involve you coming to a much greater understanding of the depth of the different feelings and emotions you have about a particular person or topic. Another common revelation of these Eclipses is that you come to a much greater understanding of the depth of the different feelings and emotions someone else has about a particular person or topic.
As the Full Moon is always in the sign opposite the sign where the Sun currently resides, there can be some dynamic tension between the things those planets represent during that transit. If the Full Moon happens to be a part of an Eclipse, then that tension will be all the greater – but by the same token – all the more powerful. And revelatory.
There is some really elemental astrological math at work here. The Moon rules your heart, your emotions. The Sun rules that magical place where your intellect meets your ego. Now even on a less impacted day, the interactive energy caused by a Full Moon is going to have your head and your heart arguing like Star Trek’s Spock and McCoy. And you will be challenged to pursue logical actions and solutions rather than passionate ones. In some cases, sorely challenged.
The second Eclipse of the current pair was the Great American Eclipse that happened Monday, April the 8th at the Aries New Moon. New Moons are powerful. But there are ways in which the Aries New Moon is the most powerful one of the astrological year. Part of it has to do with its place in the zodiacal calendar. Aries is the first sign. As such, the opportunities afforded you here are exponentially greater – especially around people and things that have been dogging your steps in the last 12 months. So there’s that.
Any New Moon is the herald of a new beginning: an opportunity to begin again on some – or several – area(s) of your life. Because of this, because the New Moon happens so frequently, and because the Moon and her phases are so easy to see and track in the night sky, the New Moon is an important astrological moment. If you have been blown off course, or fear you may have been, it gives you a chance to course-correct: to realign, recalibrate, re-attune. If you are on course, it gives you the validation and reassurance you need to identify and take the next steps.
And that is just the starting point.
During the Eclipses, you are most likely to suddenly be able to see something, know something, and understand something that has been eluding you for a long time. Sometimes several somethings. Often, it’s things that you’ve kept from yourself, places where you’ve been in denial, things you didn’t want to see or know. Other times it’s finding out the secrets of other people. And often these things were not accidental omissions, they are things that were deliberately hidden, covered up. Often by a lover, partner, or spouse.
If you can really ground yourself and be present with the moment, there are huge rewards to be had here. Especially if the transiting Sun and/or Moon are aspecting something in your personal charts. When you are being directly transited by an Eclipse, you can expect to have that same sort of revelatory experience (or experiences), only more intense. Eclipses that directly impact your natal chart points - within an orb of 6-8 degrees - will be transformational experiences. These transits will be life changing, in some significant way. They will be moments that you look back on later and know definitively that during and after those transits, you woke up in some way and started making different choices. Better choices.
Eclipses that impact your natal chart points within an orb of 2 degrees usually mean major life changes, in several significant ways. These can be excruciating to experience, and at first may cause you to feel victimized and confused. They can even cause a crisis of faith, or a dark night of the soul.
But as the shock wears off and you can start to address the issues at hand, you realize that in some way, on some level, and at some point, you are getting exactly the change you had asked for. It’s just arrived in a very different package than you had expected. And as they do, they suddenly highlight - and show you in exquisite detail – what to do about the places in your life where you simply could not previously see some things that were/are very important.
And now you can. They also show you what to do about those places where - if you could see anything at all - you could not understand it or understand what to do with it and/or about it. It was not clear. During and after the Eclipses, they are: what was once obfuscated and obscure is now glaringly obvious. And again, why. And if there is a direct conjunction, you usually get an advanced tutorial in identifying and overcoming our habituated struggles and repetition compulsions.
In the most literal, astronomical light, and on the most literal astronomical level, any Eclipse is an interplay of shadow and light. Because of that, Eclipses are a perfect metaphor for how you experience a lot of life’s moments, processes, people, places, and things. They represent those juxtapositions of clarity and confusion so common to human life: the ability to see some things clearly, and other things, not at all.
On the most literal psychological, intellectual, and emotional levels, Eclipses show you what has been hidden. Sometimes who. Always, how, where, why, and by whom. Usually, the what has something to do with our internal and external infrastructures and their real (rather than imagined) weakest links. And usually, the how and why has something to do with our comfort levels and pain thresholds, our blind spots and erroneous zones, coping skills, and denial mechanisms.
These transits require you to open your heart and mind, your eyes and ears in order to see and hear more, connect the dots better, learn faster and show up differently. Regardless of our personal specificities, the generic point of this little astrological and astronomical exercise is the same: making more out of our daily opportunities as they present themselves. And that happens by recommitting to the arts of magic and alchemy: turning the baser, more boring, and more banal elements of our lives into something more beautiful and valuable.
The Eclipses are a very spiritual time. The Eclipses always – and I mean always – show you something you did not know (about yourself, about your family and friends, and about the greater world). So technically this is something you are wise to build into your annual calendar, especially for those of you who really understand the power of different transits and strive to employ them in your life with greater facility. The placement of the Sun and Moon during the Eclipses will tell you how and where the greatest growth and transformation will occur, whether you are paying attention or not.
Because the Eclipses reveal, they are a really good time to do research. Internally and externally. Whatever you want to know more about – whether it is about your new lover, the job you want to get, the reasons why you procrastinate, or some big-ticket item you want to buy, now is the time to do your due diligence and drill down. Way, way, down. Through whatever means are available to you. In the two weeks before an Eclipse, in the weeks in between them, and in the two weeks after, give yourself permission to channel your inner Gemini and ask an otherwise annoying number of questions. And then listen - really listen - to the answers you get.
I love the Eclipses because of what they rule, what they represent, and beyond that, the liberation those revelations provide. The revelations of the Eclipses can be very confrontational. But for the spiritually inclined these revelations are an answered prayer, and they are what you live for. So, regardless of what your natal chart looks like or how these Eclipses have impacted it, I invite you to ask yourself these three questions:
What have I learned – what do I know now that I did not a few days or weeks ago?
How did I help create or contribute to the pain and discomfort of this moment – what is my role in my own suffering?
How can I learn from this and make different choices in the future?
In as much as you can, for the next 3-4 weeks (until the shadow period of the Eclipses, the Mercury retrograde and its shadow period are over) explore and experiment with these concepts. Journal about them, pray and meditate about them, and be lovingly present with yourself as you do. Remember, this is the road less traveled and on it you are breathing rarefied air. Ask your guides, guardians, angels, and ancestors to help you find your way, and if you get lost, call me.
We’ll figure it out.