12 March 2006 – 18 March 2006
A lunar eclipse is like a Full Moon on steroids. Like turning the volume on an amplifier to its highest setting, during a Full Moon and an eclipse even more so, our systems are pushed to their limits. If your sound system is well-designed with balanced components, full volume produces a quality sound of great energy. If there is a weak link in your system, this high pressure could force a breakdown. Like every Full Moon, a lunar eclipse shines a bright light on people and situations around us. Events build toward the Full Moon point at which they find fulfillment and recognition or they find failure and collapse. Before we run, Chicken Little style, for the bomb shelters, keep in mind we've all lived through many eclipses – they come twice a year – and many full moons – twelve a year.
This Tuesday there will be a lunar eclipse in the 24 degree of Virgo-Pisces. Astronomically, an eclipse is a Full Moon during which a straight line could connect the Earth, the Sun, and the Moon. This is why we can see the Earth's shadow pass across the Full Moon if it's night in our location on the eclipse. The same close alignment is why the Moon's shadow passes across the Earth during a Solar Eclipse like the one coming on March 29th. Around eclipse time the Moon's orbit around the Earth lies in the same plane as the Earth's orbit around the Sun. So the life energy expressed by the Sun, Moon, and Earth are concentrated throughout this period.
Typically there is a solar and two lunar pair of eclipses twice each year in opposite months. The lunar eclipses activate and energize a pair of opposite signs and brings to the foreground the human experience the pair represents. Virgo – Pisces, as a pair, deal with the adjustments we make to our immediate reality. The Virgo adjustments are choices we make more or less consciously to find a balance working from the inside out. Think of health, diet, work, and other ways we fit ourselves and our bodies to the world. Pisces brings adjustments from the outside in. In a Piscean experience we discover a new aspect of reality in our world and then adjust to it. Pisces works to “unify” us with a larger whole. Sometimes that whole is a epiphany of mystical union, but more often it can manifest as a common experience like a snowstorm that shuts down our daily life as it affects all of us.
The opposition of Moon and Sun in this eclipse occurs at a square angle to Pluto who you'll find at the bottom of the chart. The Moon is on the left rising in the Earth's shadow at Washington D.C.; the Sun is setting on the right and both are at right angles to Pluto forming what we call a T-square pattern. Pluto's energy is thus bound into this eclipse, and the coming solar eclipse occurs on the day when Pluto is standing still to go retrograde. Pluto's function is a destructive/creative force in life. He is the agent for profound change, change about which we have no choice. When Pluto enters our lives, we find ourselves in situations that are forced upon us and our only choice is often how we react. When the change is past, we can look back like a surgery patient, and realize that we are now healthier and liberated.
Pluto's involvement means there will be a profound shift in our understanding of reality, and this shift will require us to adjust to the newly revealed aspects of our world. Note also in the Eclipse chart that vertical and horizontal axes (known as the “cross of existence”) contact the zodiac at the 29 degree. The 29 degree is the last degree of a sign and is charged because it feels the pull into the next sign; it's eager, sometimes more than eager, to move on. Here again in this chart, another sign of transition and ending.
T-square patterns find release at the vacant point opposite the squaring planet, in this case in Gemini opposite Pluto in Sagittarius. Often eclipses store energy in their pattern that's later released by Mars as he makes an angular contact with the eclipse positions. Mars is now in Gemini moving toward this position which he will cross on April 3rd or 4th. That will mark the end of the current “eclipse season”. (Some astrologers maintain that eclipses can extend their impact for many months.) Gemini is information and communication. So the overall effect of this eclipse could be the release of some hidden information that has a major impact on how we see the world. It could be a crisis in information systems or media that reveals how dependent we are on these systems. Mercury, the “god of information”, is still retrograde so this may be information about something hidden in the past that surfaces.
Adding to this very complex mix, is Jupiter's move to perfect his square angle with Neptune that comes on Wednesday. This is a peaking of energy that's been affecting us for many weeks like a long wide ocean swell. It's a crisis in symbolism, a crisis in alliances, and a crisis in vision about the future. And that's nowhere near a complete list. We can find this in the political confusion and disillusionment in society. We can find it in religious civil war. We can find it when a democratic election yields an undesirable outcome for those who profess to champion democracy.
Later this week the Sun will make an exact square to Pluto on Friday – he does this twice a year – and it's time to “take out the trash” which could well be a sub-theme of this eclipse. On Saturday, Mercury backs into a square angle with Mars – also a twice a year event. Our minds are buzzing, tempers a bit frayed, and our slightly tongue-tied speech may splutter burst out before we think.
We can calm ourselves be being conscious of the fact that major change is swirling around us, largely out in our society. Those of us whose horoscopes connect with this eclipse – birthdays March 13-15, May 13-15, September 13-15, and December 13-15 – will find these energies affecting their personal lives. Periods of major change are stressful, and if we understand that this stress is will not continue endlessly into the future, and if we create periods of rest and reflection, we can make the transition more gracefully into a new version of ourselves.
Daily Forecasts:
The Moon is Void from 7:38am/10:38am until she enters Virgo at 2:23pm/5:23pm. Once in Virgo, the eclipse undertow begins to be felt.
The inflow of information continues to build and so does our tendency to twitch and over-react. Deep breaths, warm baths, and gentle speech will help.
Going slow and being very careful with details is crucial on this Lunar Eclipse so influenced by Mercury retrograde. Double and triple check everything. Be prepared to roll with the punches a bit. “Toughing it out” is not a good idea now. Some of us will be brought high and some low. The Moon goes Void at 8:32pm/11:32pm in square angle to Pluto. A welcome respite follows.
The Moon has entered Libra overnight and cool Venus in Aquarius gains influence. We can calm down a bit and get some perspective on what's happening. Take refuge in your friends and fellow seekers this evening when the Moon makes sweet harmony with the planet of love.
The cool breezes continue through today with the Libra Moon moving through an air triangle from Mars to Neptune. But beneath the surface, we can feel the Sun moving to square Pluto and we know “something is happening” even if we “don't know what it is.”
The Moon goes Void at 8:31am/11:31am in contact with Pluto and stays Void until 2:59pm/5:59pm when she enters Scorpio. Say good-bye to cool detachment for a while. Now we're emotionally involved with no halfway efforts allowed. Both the sting and the insight of Scorpio will be felt today and tomorrow.
Mercury squares Mars today and a casual sarcasm can cause a painful wound, so be very gentle with your speech. Avoid giving unsolicited advice and try to slough off a hurtful remark that may have been intended as humor.
Long Range Forecast:
March 25th - Mercury resumes normal motion on a very busy day that includes both Mars and Venus connecting with Neptune. The hard edges of reality may be hard to find on this day, but romance and imagination will reign. Life is but a dream...as the song goes.
Eclipse Season begins this week with a Lunar Eclipse on Tuesday in 24 Virgo. Eclipses in Virgo – Pisces bring a shift in our perceived reality. We need to make an adjustment to the world we see around us. The shift may come as a change in diet or work or health related areas. Something that's been there all along becomes visible and we cannot ignore its presence. Mars will activate this point early in April. A Solar Eclipse will follow on March 29th at 8 Aries that will call forth a new balance with our relations both friendly and unfriendly. Pluto stands still on that day so the “unfriendly” relations may need first attention.
Long-Long Range Forecast:
March 14, 2009 – August 21, 2010 - Saturn makes a series of squares to Pluto newly in Capricorn. The end of business-as-usual politics. The nationalistic dinosaurs will enter their twilight times. The transition to organic regional government will not be smooth…the result may be some corporate feudal mixture.
June 24, 2012 – March 17, 2015 - Uranus in Aries forms his first major hard aspect to Pluto, a square angle, since they were aligned in the second half of the 1960’s. Hippie dreams may come true when the ecology and/or petroleum-based economies fail. Plan to live where there is food and water and you don’t need a car. Plan to live where you’ll know your neighbors…maybe even love them. What a thought! We may have to choose between eating grain on a commune or growing very thin in the city.
Notices for Los Angeles area readers:
Ongoing Classes:
1:00pm – Intermediate Class in Predictions. Using the charts of well-known people, the effects of progressions, transits, and solar returns will be taught and explored. The class is open to people who know the basics of astrology.
3:00pm – Beginner’s Class. All are welcome. There are no prerequisites except an open mind and curiosity. This class will cover the signs, planets, and houses and show how to interpret these symbols and analyze birth chart patterns. Call the New Age Bible and Philosophy Center, 1139 Lincoln Boulevard, 310-395-4346 or me, 818-316-0702, for details.
Sunday, April 9th – A discussion of the Full Moon in Libra at 10:00am at the New Age Bible and Philosophy Center, 1139 Lincoln Boulevard, call 310-395-4346 or me, 818-316-0702, for details.
Visit the Celestial Weather Web Site at http://www.celestialweather.com
Copyright 2006 Rich Humbert