THE ECLIPTIC
The “ecliptic” is the apparent path the sun follows as it appears to circle the earth. Though there are many constellations, only those that lie along the ecliptic—those that the sun will pass in front of over the course of a year—were chosen to make up the zodiac. Of course, all of the other planets that orbit the sun move generally along the same path. The moon is orbiting the earth, not the sun, and it regularly crosses over the line of the ecliptic, moving from north to south or from south to north. Eclipses only occur when the moon is making one of these crossings, at the time of a new or full moon, hence the name “eclipse.”
WHAT ARE ECLIPSES?
An eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the earth and the sun (a solar eclipse) or when the earth blocks the sun from illuminating the moon (lunar eclipse). All solar eclipses are new moons (when the sun and moon are together) and all lunar eclipses are full moons (when the sun and moon are on opposite sides of the chart). However, only when the moon is crossing over the ecliptic does a new or full moon produce an eclipse. At any other time, the moon is too far off of the ecliptic to get in the way of the sun or to be blocked from the sun by the earth’s mass.
If you look at a chart, you’ll see the “nodes of the moon” which look kind of like a nose ring and a uterus. These are not planets, but the points where the moon’s orbital path crosses the ecliptic: i.e. the places where eclipses can happen. They are always exactly opposite each other, and whatever sign they occupy in your natal chart is the pair of signs that experienced eclipses in the year of your birth. If you were born during a new moon (sun and moon in the same sign) or a full moon (sun and moon opposite) and the nodes are within 17 degrees of them, then you were born during an eclipse!
The interpretation of the lunar nodes is based partly on Hindu mythology of eclipses. It’s a much longer story, but briefly, eclipses were thought of as an event where a dragon swallowed the sun and the moon, they passed through its digestive system, and then re-emerged in a cosmic bowel movement. The north node, Rahu, is the head of the dragon, and the south node, Ketu, is the tail of the dragon, or what the astrologer Judith Hill calls “the great anus of the zodiac.” I love any excuse I can find to use that phrase. Both are insatiable: the north node swallows and inhales and brings things into existence, the south node drains, releases, purges, and flushes things out of material form. The north node represents new energies we are tasked with cultivating, and the south node old habit patterns that can either drag us down or teach us non-attachment, surrender, and release. Analyzing the nodes in your natal chart is one of the most amazing ways to align ourselves with a bigger purpose, find drive and passion, and discover the roles we have an opportunity to play in this lifetime. Eclipses tend to dramatize these storylines, so they can be key moments in the larger nodal narrative that plays out over the course of your life, especially when the eclipse makes an aspect to your natal chart.
SOLAR ECLIPSE, Oct 14th, 2023
Since ancient times, eclipses have signified shocking reversals, inversions of the existing power structures (like the death of rulers), and moments where fate dramatically reveals itself. It’s obvious why the sun disappearing in the middle of the day was seen as an ominous sign of the natural order collapsing, and the ability to time these eclipses gave those who had perfected the skill massive power, both materially and metaphysically.
However, they are very much wild cards, dark wormholes opening up in reality through which anything—exciting or terrifying or relieving— might crawl out. One of the ways that we’re able to predict the quality of a particular eclipse is not widely known or employed by astrologers, who tend to interpret each eclipse as part of a series of about 4 eclipses that year. However, the astronomical reality is that eclipses are part of a series that lasts 1,200 years, with one event (one eclipse) in the series occurring about every 18 years. All eclipses start as a partial eclipse at either the north or south pole, and then wind their way around the earth in a spiral until, 18 years later, another eclipse is produced, slightly closer to the equator each time. After 1200 years that cycle will terminate at the opposite pole. This is called the “Saros Series” and astronomers number the eclipses based on which saros series it is and which pole it originated at. For example, this eclipse is S.S. 7 South (Saros Series number 7, started at the south pole).
Since each eclipse cycle started at a specific, known time, astrologer Bernadette Brady advocates using the “birth chart” of the eclipse cycle to determine the character of each eclipse in the 1200 year series.
This eclipse series, SS 7 South, began in June of the year 1248. The most defining feature of the birth chart of the eclipse series is Pluto making an exact trine to the sun and moon while Mars makes an exact square to the eclipse. It’s a volatile, explosive energy, characterized by power struggles (and as a Cancer eclipse series, specifically related to ideas of home & the tension between care vs. control). However, on a personal level, the Pluto trine can actually be helpful: things that seemed like they would never change may finally shift or clear; you may discover you have reserves of power & will that seemed beyond your capacity; something that terrifies you may reveal itself to be less threatening when it emerges into the light.
Of course, the chart of this eclipse in the series also needs to be considered. Libra and Aries play out the push and pull between the self & the other, selfishness vs altruism, personal vs. societal conceptions of justice. The axis challenges us to ask whether our personal freedom comes at the expense of others, or if it’s used to empower them. For those of you with planets affected by the eclipse, I suspect that issues and emotional traumas around co-dependency will surface. Honestly, it’s a pretty rough chart, with the sun and moon opposing chiron (the wounded healer), both the benefic planets completely disconnected from the new moon, and the ruler of the new moon, Venus, in her sign of fall in Virgo, it’s like the usual people & things we fall back on to bail us out or tell us the answers aren’t there, so we have to learn what we truly believe, what we need, on our own terms. Seeing Saturn opposed to Venus, social insecurity & fear of judgment could come to the forefront. Try to feel the difference in your body between discomfort & actual present danger to your health and safety; if you observe and feel that you are physically safe, maybe it’s a time to practice tolerating some heavy Saturnian feelings without running from them or dissociating.
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