Earth will be directly between the luminaries, Sun and Moon, shortly after 9:30 EST Saturday morning. When it happens, our planet’s shadow will cause the Full Moon to turn red. That will be a total lunar eclipse. It will be visible from Eastern Europe, across Asia and the Pacific Ocean to western North America. Even if you are not in a position to see it, you will be part of the event.
The occasion will likely coincide with an opportunity to integrate patterns you have created or taken on since the partial solar eclipse on Nov. 25. If age and memory serve, you may also be in recollection of last March, or December 1992, perhaps even in anticipation of the new year. That’s because eclipses have a way of connecting the vastness of space-time into the now, a connection that invites your participation.
Earth’s orbit around Sun carves an elliptical plane through space-time. We see it as the Sun’s apparent path across the sky. We call it the ecliptic. Moon’s orbit around Earth traces a different plane, at an angle to the ecliptic. We see it as Moon’s path across the sky. The separate luminary paths cross at two slowly moving and perpetually opposing points called the lunar nodes.
Every month Sol and Luna are also at an opposition (with Earth in between) called a Full Moon. Every six months or so, the luminaries oppose while each one is in the vicinity of a node. When the nodes and opposing luminaries are thus conjoined, they are aligned with our planet. This results in visible evidence of a common connection through space-time: a lunar eclipse. It does not stop there. Eclipses connect to each other.
Eclipses usually take place in pairs, at consecutive New and Full Moons. That’s an eclipse cycle. While there are sometimes three in a row, as earlier this year, there are never less than two. The period between them expands the reach of Luna’s monthly cycle through its connection with the Sun’s annual cycle. Regardless of whether the period begins with a solar or lunar eclipse, the first event opens a fortnight that favors new patterns while old ones tend to dissipate. Awareness of that tendency gives you a chance to connect yourself, participating with a feeling of gain. Lack of awareness can lead to a sense of loss. The results can last for a long time, because eclipse cycles also connect to each other through the nodes.
The two lunar nodes are forever in opposition. The axis that connects them rotates slowly in retrograde motion through the zodiac, returning to the same position after a period of nearly 19 years. Because the nodes dictate where and when eclipses take place, we can expect eclipses to repeat in the same degree every few decades. That will be the case again this weekend, reprising the lunar eclipse of December 9, 1992 when the Sagittarius Sun and Gemini Moon were also at 18+ degrees of their respective signs. While that re-visitation may bring something forward for you, it does not mean that you are fated to be pulled back. That’s because eclipses do not take place in an isolated context. They are part of everything else going on in the solar system, making each eclipse a fresh start.
If ever there was a planet associated with a fresh start, it’s Uranus. This weekend it will station direct in the first degree of Aries, where it was for the Vernal Equinox, less than eight hours before the Gemini lunar eclipse. That concurrence did not happen in 1992 and probably never has. That the Uranus station forward takes place within the eclipse cycle, indeed at its its penultimate moment, clearly implies that no matter what you have done since Thanksgiving, no matter what happened in 1992, no matter how you feel, the cosmos is asking you to consciously acknowledge your connection with all of creation. You can start now and prove it to yourself by the end of the year.
Next week, Mercury will take its turn stationing direct in Sagittarius. As 2011 draws to a close, Mercury will have made its way back to the the axis of Saturday’s lunar eclipse where it will conjoin with four centaur planets in the course of one day. Each one of those conjunctions will correspond to a shadow tugging at you from the past, pulling you back into old patterns of rage, grief, abuse and resentment. Love yourself enough to identify those templates now, so that you can consciously reconfigure each one with behavior of your own design and choosing. Even if you simply acknowledge that such a connection is possible, you will have done yourself a favor for which the Universe will thank you.
Offered In Service
Here’s a mercury retro moment: I just typed in a friends name in google and noticed she did some work for PW in 2004. I found this article in an attached link that Eric wrote then I think. This just hit me in the gut!
http://planetwaves.net/aquasphere/norlnpgg/signs/scorpio.html
Len and Annie,
I’m so touched by your warm words and kindness, and I’m honoured that any small experience I share could reach out to someone else in a positive way. Thank you also Len for explaining the nodes, as I was always a little foggy on what North and South referred to, location speaking.
Namaste Len,
HS
Thank you for this insightful (as always) information, Len. I’ve been trying to especially understand and internalize the messages and lessons of this eclipse. Not only does this eclipse fall *exactly* on my ascendant, I’m a Libra sun (first decan), too. As you might guess, the past 18 months have been the most hellish and sublime of my entire life. And still, never a dull moment!
Thank you again Len! I love the PW community! You all keep me ‘sane’ :-p
I seem to have lost my job today because I’ve stood up for myself and for others – it’s a well-paid job which I loved. I’m happy about it! No idea where to go next, but am okay with the ‘mystery’ of it all and I feel safe.
Hugging Scorpio – I *hug* you. Thank you for sharing. I have (in the UK) been having sessions with a counsellor recently (I get 9, with 3 more to come) and I have been through a lot of what you wrote about recently. It’s what actually made me change my perspective about my job etc.
It’s all good!! x
be: Thank you for your in-depth observations of QB1 in the Daily Astrology post just below, your words touch my heart just as the words of the Daily Astrology writing team did. And, yes, Hercules was a piece of work with which all of us can find sympathy. The power of a god to inflict damage, the fallibility and passions of a human, compelled to face and overcome one impossible labor after another, deserving of a better fate yet fully responsible for what happened to him. It seems as though Shakespeare’s character may have had Hercules n mind when he expressed the volatile combination of reverence and bitter cynicism in the “what a piece of work” soliloquy.
Huffy: Would not call you crazy. Would call you very kind, however. Thank you for your kind words and congratulations on your “first time ever” breakthrough, that is something to build on.
Hugging Scorpio: Thank you for courageously sharing a vital part of your own journey in such a generous manner. As to your questions, first of all they are big questions, so one piece at a time. Yes, the nodes move. From our perspective on Earth, and in the zodiac, they move in retrograde, or (in the words of Dane Rudhyar) “”…in a direction opposite to that which the Sun and Moon always follow”. As to where they are and how to know, the most convenient thing is to consult an ephemeris and honor the work of people like Tracy at Serennu, who put so much time and care into calculating the positions of objects and points in the sky. Ancient astrologers did not have the benefit of such references and laboriously observed the paths of Sun and Moon in the sky over long periods of time, noting the points in the ecliptic where the Moon is in alignment with Sun and Earth, correlating the observations and recording them, an amazing feat of devotion to their craft which leaves me in humbled awe. Later astronomer/astrologers like Cassini, equipped with telescopes and advanced mathematics added sophisticated precision to the observations and correlations which led to the ephemeris references we have today. As to what the nodes mean, that’s the biggest question of all, and the answer depends on the astrologer. One reader’s comment (Wandering Yeti) once compared them to a cosmic navel, an image which knocked my socks off. You can begin you own definition by taking note of the fact that the nodes are always opposed, perhaps symbolically inferring relationship. You can also note that the lunar north node is where Moon rises above the ecliptic, perhaps symbolically implying the future and its potential, among other things, and the lunar south node (where Moon’s orbit goes below the ecliptic) perhaps symbolizing, among other things, that which has been and its consequences. Most of all, the nodes are where eclipses take place, and eclipses are profound evidence that we can see with our own eyes of how each of us are part of and connected to the cosmos. Hugging, you are not only a product of creation, you are a source of creation. Please, therefore, accept my heartfelt recognition, acknowledgement and validation often conveyed with the word “namaste”.
This is exciting Len. . I just wrote something about QB1 being opposite Saturn right now. QB1 was discovered in August 1992 and that is something to connect to already.
Also, today asteroid Heracles (Hercules) is conjunct Uranus at 0 Aries 42 rx. Heracles is also associated with the centaurs, and known to have a bit of rage himself. Ariel Guttman and Kenneth Johnson in their book Mythic Astrology (pg. 26) say this about him: “But Hercules was just as chaotic as he was courageous – he gets drunk, starts fights, rages and rants, and so on. Like life itself, he is a force of nature, unconstrained by social traditions or ethical values.”
I’m so glad you have made us aware of the upcoming opportunity to integrate our new patterns and dissipate the old ones that only slow down our continuing evolution and growing consciousness. Thank you once again.
be
Thanks Len, amazing and clear writing. If I may, I have a story and a question:
These particular nodes follow right after my natal metonic cycle (born on full moon). So, at 19, I had a culmination in my relationship to my father (toxic and delusional), and this year (19 years later), I had a culmination in my relationship to my mother (rather overbearing and controlling). My philosophy has been to respect my parents, be supportive, and to trust in their guidance. My willingness to subvert my own desires, dreams and individuation was caught between moral ideas of devotion and spirituality, and a guilt that trapped me into feeling that whatever I wished for for myself was somehow selfish and self-wrapped. Further, that whatever happiness I experienced was never truly mine, and that I could “never” be truly happy until everyone around me was happy (a consequence of observing a nasty and abusive divorce as a small boy). As I stopped seeing my father, I unconsciously became a “partner” to my mother. Since I was naturally close to her, any threat to her well being became a way to repair my internal respect toward women, but also isolated me from developing a healthy sexual identity. As we grew to rely on each others shared income, a deep part of me was fading and I was on the brink of losing a vital part of existing. Then in a dramatic turn of events, I found myself fighting back, pulling together fragments of my self, trying to begin to ask questions and demanding answers. So, after a few years, I pulled myself back from a dark and dangerous edge, and filled my life with healing and therapy and friends. I am standing on both feet again, very much transformed as this last full moon passed by. These eclipses occur in my solar 2nd and 8th house – the very ideas of shared resources and material surrounding – psychic energy we have, share, and gather individual/shared strength from, and in which we can get tangled and lost. Its also the place of sex, death and transformation (as sexuality is our prime force of individuation).
My question: Where are the North and South nodes? Do they move? How do you know where they are? What do they mean?
Thanks Len for your amazing work,
Hugging Scorpio
Simply stunning, dear Len. Thank you! One of those ‘conjunctions’ already hit yesterday – but for the first time ever I was able to deal with it with awareness and then let go of it (after much struggling!). Your blog today should be read with the Ride of the Valkyries playing in the background – call me crazy, but I swear that’s what I heard as I read your marvellous piece… xx