• TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE IN LEO AUGUST 21ST 2017

  • …the big one

    This is the 2nd New Moon in the sign of Leo this year which is in itself a very rare event and it will also be a Total Solar Eclipse at 28°52’ Leo.

    This particular Eclipse will be visible in various degrees of darkness throughout North America with the path of totality passing through Oregon, Idaho and across the US exiting in South Carolina. The longest duration of darkness will be in western Kentucky where the obscurity will last 2’40”, some astrologers suggest that this is the duration in years of the effects of the eclipse.

    The last Eclipse over North America was on June 8th 1918.

    The last Eclipse at 29° Leo was on 22nd August 1998.

    Let’s not forget that this is first of all a supercharged New Moon.

    New Moons are said to bring fresh beginnings to the part of our natal chart (house) where they fall and even more so if they make a conjunction or an opposition to a planet (1-2° orb, up to 5° for the personal Sun or Moon), in this case, in either Leo or Aquarius. Given that it is also an Eclipse we should also consider planets/angles in the other fixed signs of Taurus and Scorpio.

    In his book “Moon Phase Astrology”, author Raven Kaldera describes this moon as the

    “Sun Child’s Moon”

     a creature of smiling, radiant light. The people born under this moon phase in Leo have a tremendous zest for life and love to be looked at, making people gasp and drop their jaws as they charm the pants off them!

    The Sun and Moon in Leo are on the 5-11th axis in the traditional zodiac wheel, so, individuality vs group activity, autocrat vs democrat etc.

    During the eclipse, both luminaries are still only a few degrees separating from the North Node and Mars, both in Leo, and also very close to the fixed star Regulus which is at 0° Virgo where it ingressed in 2012. The star is one of the four Royal Stars of the Persians and is also known as Cor Leonis or the Lion’s Heart. It can confer great honour, generosity and power if well aspected, but violence, destructiveness and ultimate failure, if stressed*. Regulus is one of the male stars and was in Leo, a masculine sign until 2012, nowadays it is in Virgo, a feminine sign, maybe signalling, as many believe, the fact that women now have more power in the world?

    According to Bernadette Brady, renowned astrologer,2 the effects of solar eclipses are more external and deal with events that surround the person, that is, they bring in events that we ourselves have not precipitated. Eclipses are spotlights that shine on our life-path, they catch you in mid-action illuminating that area of your life (house) in which they occur. Whatever has been shoved aside or ignored will turn up for your attention and this could be experienced as dramatic and emotional whilst at the same time giving you the opportunity to deal with it, or not. It depends entirely on you.

    Brady has classified the eclipses in the Saros cycle into precise characteristics according to the planetary configurations present as the moment the eclipse was born (for those interested in learning more about this please consult her book which I’ve included in the reference section).

    This particular Eclipse belongs to the 1 North Saros series and Brady describes this as: “Unexpected events involving friends or groups place a great deal of pressure on personal relationships. The individual (who is affected) would be wise not to make hasty decisions since information is distorted and probably false.”

    Often however, manifestations regarding the eclipses

    do not always occur at or around the actual date

    of the eclipse but are usually triggered by a planet transiting this point (29° Leo). Some planets have already crossed this degree and some will do so shortly:

    Mercury (direct) crossed on 24th July, will go back over this point in retrograde motion and then again in direct motion during the first week of September.

    Uranus made a trine to this point end June/beginning July in direct motion, it will make a second pass retrograde early September and a third pass direct during most of April 2018.

    Mars will conjoin the SE point on 3rd September, Venus will conjoin on the 18th September.

    Moon will square the SE point on 28th August (Scorpio), oppose it on 4th September (Aquarius) and square once again on 11th September (Taurus).

    The Sun will square the Eclipse point from Scorpio on the 20th of November.

    So let’s remember the above dates if our chart is heavily involved in the eclipse degree.

    The energy could be explosive in the days preceding the Eclipse with 5 planets in the Fire signs (Sun, Moon, Mars and NN in Leo, Uranus (R) in Aries and Saturn (R) in Sagittarius. However, it’s possible and hopeful that they could also be “dampened” a little by 5 planets being in retrograde motion (Uranus in Aries, Mercury in Virgo, Saturn in Sagittarius, Pluto in Capricorn and Neptune in Pisces).

    There is a Grand Fire Trine involving Saturn (R), Uranus (R) and the Sun-Moon giving us the energy and intuition to resolve stagnant situations and, hopefully thanks to the retrograding slower planets, we will be able to avoid recklessness, anger and over-confidence if we think before we act…and Mercury retrograde in Virgo could help us a lot here.

    The Sabian symbol for 29° Leo: “A mermaid emerges from the ocean waves ready for rebirth in human form”. Indicating the stage at which an intense feeling-intuition rising from the unconscious is about to take form as a conscious thought.

    “This mess is part of my story.” By Incourage Me.

    Where will the eclipse fall in your chart and will it make contacts with any planets or angles?

    P.S. I purposely have avoided making any reference to the US chart, to President Trump’s chart, to North Korea and its leader in the above article. There are loads of brilliant articles from astrologers around the world on these matters which can be easily retrieved by a search engine of your choice. Please bear with me, mundane astrology is not really my thing!

    References:

    1. Kaldera R. (2011), Moon Phase Astrology, pp 37-40, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont USA
    2. Brady B. (1999), Predictive Astrology, The Eagle and the Lark, Ch. Eclipses and the Saros Cycle, pp 207-236, Red Wheel/Weiser LLC, San Francisco USA
    3. Rudhyar D. (1974) “An Astrological Mandala: the cycles of transformations and its 360 symbolic phases”. p. 149, Vintage Books Edition, Random House Inc., New York, USA
    4. *Robson V. (re-edit 2005), “The Fixed Stars and Constellations in Astrology”, Ch. 5, p 195, Astrology Classics 2005, Astrology Center of America, Abingdon USA

    IMAGE

    Diagram of Saros cycle of Eclipses on World Map drawn up in 1927 by Edward Stanford Limited and modified by the drawing office of the Science Museum in London. Shows Saros cycles from 1927 to 2164.

     

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