Blessings from the Other Side o’ the Solar Eclipse!

“Belief in Mysteries, all manner of Mysteries, is the only lasting luxury in life.”

—Zilpha Keatley Snyder, The Witches of Worm (1972)

Words cannot adequately describe the state of post-ritual, post-eclipse experience of complete euphoria that is surging through my body-mind-spirit as I type this. I truly hope that everyone who sought to marshal and direct the powerful energies at work during the profound astronomical phenomenon that only just recently concluded experiences the manifestation of their magical intentions. I feel so powered-up it’s as though I might be capable of fueling the city of Chicago’s electrical grid all by myself! Wow! Thank you, total solar eclipse at 19 degrees Aries Conjunct Chiron! What a profoundly healing event I will forever treasure in my soul. ❤️

Total Solar Eclipse on April 8: The Astrological Context

I vividly remember the “Great American Total Solar Eclipse” on August 21, 2017, when the moon’s shadow eclipsed the Sun at 28° Leo. My then-husband and I drove seven hours south from Chicago to arrive at the southern tip of Illinois, in a town called Makanda, which is beautifully nestled in the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail. Our destination to view the eclipse with approximately 2,000 other ticket-bearing folks that day was a winery, actually (the beautiful Blue Sky Winery), and I can still recall the visceral response my body experienced at approximately 3 p.m. when the moon’s shadow completely eclipsed the light of our beloved Sun. Lasting several minutes in duration, the moment of totality was profoundly eerie to me, but I was ritually ready then with an altar to Sekhmet laid out on my mandala-themed picnic blanket stretched out across the grass, onto which I’d laid my Egyptian-made Sekhmet statue, my sistrum, an offering plate with various spicy foods for the Goddess, and my massive chunk of quartz crystal, which I intended to program as a “battery” to house the profound healing energies the “detonation” event of an eclipse can bring, spiritually/energetically speaking.

At first hushed, the crowd began cheering, whistling, applauding, and even screaming at the moment of totality. I was grateful for the noise as my own shouting of my prayers whilst vigorously shaking my sistrum went largely unnoticed by folks seated around us (though afterwards, I did field respectful questions on what I was doing from a nearby couple that drove all the way from Louisiana with their adorable Siberian husky just to witness the eclipse). The temperature immediately dropped by several degrees. All wild birds had gone completely silent. It was a complete sensory experience tinged with Numinosity and yes, terror.

While I do heartily recommend that spiritually attuned folks make the most of these cosmic energies by bringing intentionality to their experience of especially a total solar eclipse, you have to be mindful that there are costs or tolls to be paid. On a mundane level, a logistics nightmare of travel to and from cities and towns in a given eclipse’s pathway awaits. You have to deal with limited infrastructure in terms of roadways, jammed as you’ll be with perhaps tens of thousands of other stargazers wanting to create a mass exodus and head home simultaneously. Plan for that. (Our return drive to Chicago took us a whopping 19 hours!)

On an emotional level, eclipses take a toll as well because they invariably eclipse things in our lives we hold dear (e.g., health, jobs, relationships, financial stability, living situations, etc.). A total solar eclipse is always a detonation event. The “Great American Solar Eclipse” of 2017 eclipsed my marriage. This is where astrology can somewhat prepare us, but never truly emotionally prepare us, for the sweeping changes that may arrive in the wake of a total solar eclipse. Tomorrow’s eclipse is a doozy because of the important cosmic backdrop of a powerful array of planetary aspects that are afoot; some will exactly align with the moment of the eclipse itself, while others will build and find fullest expression towards the end of the month. As this is Aries season, it’s always a wild ride, so buckle up!

Jupiter Transits Taurus

It’s always astrology news when our Big Daddy of our solar system, luck- and abundance-dealing Jupiter, makes His yearly ingress into a new sign for a yearly transit. Like other Earth Sign folks (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn), I’ve been eagerly awaiting Jupiter’s ingress into the Fixed Earth Sign of Taurus, which occurred today at 12:20 pm CDT and will last until May 25, 2024.

Friday’s Taurus Full Moon Eclipse: Radical Changes, Ready or Not!

No matter where you are in the world, Friday’s lunar eclipse at 27° Taurus will be impactful. For starters, it’s the longest eclipse in duration in over 580 years of human astronomical reckoning: it will last three and a half hours! In the Central Standard Time zone of the U.S., which is my time zone (please adjust for your corner of the world accordingly), the Taurus Moon will noticeably begin to become engulfed by Shadow at 1:15 a.m. and the Shadow will have dissipated by 4:45 a.m. on Friday, November 19. The apogée of lunar fullness happens at 2:57 a.m.

What Mysteries will our beloved Luna undergo during this long descent into Shadow? Her story will ripple out and reach us all, especially with the dramatic backdrop of planetary aspects that set the stage for this eclipse.

 

Tonight’s Amazing New Moon in Virgo Features Triple Trine Action!

Happy birthday to my Virgo readers! September is one of the few months of the year that we get a break from the eclipse cycles, which kick up again in November. This is going to be a largely pleasurable and healing month given the planetary aspects, thanks in a huge part to the New Moon at 14° Virgo tonight: Monday, September 6 (Labor Day in the USA); it will be exact at 7:52 p.m. CDT (please adjust to your local time zone accordingly). If your Virgo birthday falls within a couple of days before or after this New Moon (mine does!), you’ll really want to pay attention: such a once-in-a-decade Birthday Lunation heralds the unfolding of a brand new life path (and the confidence to walk it!), major changes for the better! Read on, gentle reader…

Hail and Welcome, Powers of Air: Tomorrow’s Gemini Solar Eclipse/New Moon

Tomorrow morning’s Solar Eclipse (5:53 a.m. Central Daylight Time) at 19° of Gemini is North Node-oriented, calling out a major energy that we should all collectively be evolving towards. In this case, with Venus and Mars in sensitive Cancer forming a trine to expansive Jupiter in mystical Pisces, we are invited to discover how what we communicate can serve the purpose of a Higher Truth. Mercury Retrograde at 20° Gemini, right on top of this eclipse and New Moon energy, asks us to discard long-held and limiting “shadow” beliefs about the world and our role in it.

Sudden Transformation and the Loud and Steady Beats of the Drums of War: The Astrology of the May 26 Full Moon Eclipse in Sagittarius

In evolutionary astrology, when we talk about lunar or solar eclipses, we’re referring to two things: the astronomical event itself (e.g., its specific date and exact time, placement in the heavens with aspects formed to the planets in transit in our solar system) and the energies surrounding the Zodiacal signs associated with the eclipse and how those energies can build up for weeks in advance of the actual event itself and tellingly play themselves out in one’s life for several months afterwards.

The May 26 Super “Flower” Full Moon Eclipse in Sagittarius is intensely Mutable—we have no less than 8 planets occupying Mutable Signs (Sagittarius, Gemini, and Pisces)—and disturbingly dark given its prominent association with the Fixed Star of Antares, the violently throbbing, warmongering “heart” of the constellation of Scorpio.

Big Astrology News: Jupiter Enters Pisces This Week!

Our Big Daddy of the Zodiac is on the move; starting this Thursday, May 13, at 5:36 p.m. Central Standard Time (please adjust to your corner of the world), Jupiter enters the Mutable Water Sign of Pisces. This signals a major shift in the collective consciousness!

Piles of Trials: April’s Astrologically Ornery Days

As the global COVID-19 pandemic continues, illustrating the ongoing destabilizing effects of January’s epic Saturn-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn, the month opens with another show-stopper of a Capricorn conjunction between two planetary heavyweights: Jupiter and Pluto. It amazes me how many big-name astrologers are ascribing positive energies to this conjunction. “Jupiter! Our Great Benefic!” they cry. “He expands whatever He touches!” Yes, He does. However, unchecked expansion is not always a welcome thing! Think of cancer-causing free radical cells, for example. They’re a Jupiterian phenomenon in the body, expanding the influence of a terminal disease.

Tomorrow Night’s Highly Hyped Friday the 13th Pisces Full Moon

Let’s talk about tomorrow’s highly hyped Friday the 13th Pisces Full Moon! It will be exact at 11:33 p.m. Central Daylight Time. Like all Pisces lunations, it’s going to pack an emotional wallop and will bring both unique opportunities and inherent challenges not just on its own but in relation to the other planets.

As you can see below, we have a LOT of dynamic activity, as the Moon at 21 degrees Pisces will be conjunct Neptune, Pisces’ ruler, within a 4-degree orbit. This Piscean duo will be opposing the stellium of planets in Earthy Virgo (Mars, the Sun, Venus, and Mercury). At one level, many of us will be highly challenged by not being able to feel grounded. The bigger threat, though, especially for people with a preponderance of Earth Sign planets in their charts, is FALLING PREY TO DELIBERATE DECEPTION FROM OTHERS. This can range from contending with liars and cheaters in interpersonal, especially romantic, relationships to being hoodwinked by misleading language in contracts, etc. DO NOT MAKE ANY MAJOR DECISIONS OVER THE WEEKEND. Pisces likes to cast spells of illusion on the unwary. Keep your BS detectors fine tuned and at the ready!