Shit, it's an eclipse

Eclipses! Another subject that there are entire books written about, but I’m going to try to synthesize what I know for you here real quick. In the ancient of days, people really freaked out when the sun went away, however briefly. Understandably, right? Like, where did the sun go and why? And, as I’m sure all of you know, eclipses happen when the moon comes between the sun and us, and lunar eclipses happen when the earth comes between the moon and the sun, but the earth and the moon need to be pretty much perfectly lined up in order for this to occur, which happens twice a year. Ish.

So, literally: solar eclipses are goal shifts, lunar eclipses are vibe shifts.

Rationale for this oversimplification: in a solar eclipse, the moon (feelings) come between us and the sun, and in a lunar eclipse, groundedness (or the earth) comes between the goals (sun) and feelings (moon).

Observed-over-time fact (I mean since the ancient of days): eclipses create little energy vortices in whatever area of your chart they fall in. They themselves do not generate energy in the way a transiting planet does, but a transiting planet OVER that energy vortex will make noise in your chart and therefore your life. Especially Mars and sometimes the sun.

(Not-my) Theory: the longer the light from either body is blocked, the longer in duration the effect of an eclipse lasts. (1 hour no light = 1 year energy vortex remains in place). Also, the location that actually loses light is theoretically the most impacted. You may have noticed that while eclipses are globally discussed, we rarely see/notice the actual eclipse. And when we do, we buy special glasses and stand around outside.

Definitely a thing: Mars over an eclipse point makes shit happen. Not necessarily to you, but globally, so…also to you. My favorite recent example was there was a solar eclipse at 4° Capricorn and Mars very quickly hit that point and COVID went everywhere. Probably too soon to talk about that, emotionally, but it definitely happened (but we also had the Saturn-Pluto-Jupiter conjunction going on, sky-wise, which was mega-shitty). Saturn over an eclipse point shuts down the vortex, and while that might seem like a thing to cheer about, what does tend to happen is Saturn speeds up that necessary change the eclipse portended with *events* that are often Saturnian in nature (harsh and no fun, or all kinds of new responsibilities, or both together).

When to worry: don’t. People loooove to freak out about eclipses, just like they loooove to freak out about Mercury retrogrades (said another way: people love to freak out about astrological events that they have a cursory understanding of. Everybody understands “the thing that provides light is not currently doing that.”). But in my experience, if you have several major harsh transits going at once, a couple of no-fun progressions, and an eclipse on your sun, moon, ascendant, descendent, IC (the bottom angle of your chart), or MC (the top angle), yeah…some stuff is going to change for you. If not, it’s change you probably won’t notice all that much.

When to pay attention: First, read the previous two sentences again. Then, check to see if the degree of the eclipse is within 3 degrees in harsh aspect (conjunction, opposition, square, but I'd pay more attention to conjunctions and oppositions) to any of your natal planets. ANY OF THEM. This is time-consuming to scan for unless you’ve memorized the location of your planets by sign and degree (like this nerd over here has), but eclipses don’t happen all that often. If you have a planet getting eclipsed, please think about the nature of the planet, and then think about the house it rules in your chart. Expect some type of change accordingly related to those themes. If it’s Jupiter, you might get yourself a change of perspective or learn something new, for example. But it’s boring because you can expect change but you won’t know when or why or how, and that’s like waiting to see if a bee is going to come and sting you just because you’re outside.

All eclipses really mean is change. The thing about the rest of astrology is you can get a flavor for the change with considerably more ease than you can get with eclipses by considering what that "thing" is. Uranus-flavored change has a very specific feel to it, as does Mars or Venus or…whatever. Eclipses are a wildcard. Might be a bee. Might be a windfall. Might be getting a new couch.

If you want to have fun with this and you have a good memory of what happened when, look at where the solar eclipses relative to your chart dating back as far as you want to go (same link as before), and think about whether there was change in the category of the house in your chart where it took place (use a two-year window post-eclipse). Usually something shifts but it’s not necessarily epic. Lunar eclipses are a little more tricky, because honestly, how acutely does one register a vibe shift? I’m pretty sensitive and aside from one or two standouts, I don’t have much to tell you.

Yikes, though: sometimes a solar eclipse and a lunar eclipse will hit basically the same point within 6 months to a year of each other, and if you have your ascendant or sun or…something important there, you’re going to get some change and then get hit with more change while you were adjusting to the first change. Personal experience talking: I had a solar and a lunar eclipse across my ascendant-descendant, and I had what I now lovingly refer to as a “life crisis.” (But I also had about as many harsh transits as one person can have as well as some bad progressions.)

More study needed: there are astrologers who believe firmly in good eclipses and bad eclipses. I've had good stuff happen for "bad eclipses" and bad stuff happen for "good eclipse," so I remain neutral. Also, fun fact: eclipses run in “families” that are numbered, and apparently each eclipse from a certain family is supposed to Mean Something. Entire books are written about this. The reason I don’t get deeply into this stuff is I am satisfied with my current level of paranoia. Eclipses, since they are such wild cards, contain things you don’t see coming. So in my opinion they are an easy way to drive yourself nuts.

Theoretically, can an eclipse by itself fuck your life up? Sure. But it's really not likely.

XO,

J