We will have a New Moon about ten minutes before a partial solar eclipse in Sagittarius on Friday at 1:20 am EST. That means the luminaries, Sun and Moon, are coming together in conjunction while also in the vicinity of a lunar node. The lunar nodes are two points where the Moon’s path intersects with the apparent path of the Sun, otherwise known as the ecliptic. Where the Moon’s orbit goes above the ecliptic is the lunar north node, or Rahu, the arms-length host of Friday’s eclipse. Rahu itself is closely conjoined with one of the definitive points in Sagittarius, the Great Attractor. The involvement of the Great Attractor distinguishes this eclipse as much as any other factor. The corresponding parallel to your life entails distinguishing the appropriate questions before you look for answers.
The Great Attractor is subject to more questions than answers. We don’t know just what it is, only what it does. Philip Sedgwick calls it “one of the most gravitationally potent objects in the Universe,” pulling our galaxy and millions of others on a space-time bridal train, cloaking itself in the same cosmic fabric. That veil of distortion keeps the source of power perpetually around a corner, preventing us from receiving information directly. While science is frustrated by a lack of information, the art of astrology is not. That’s because astrology strives to correlate its observations, not prove them.
Astrology’s plainest form of correlation is when two objects can be seen coming together in the sky. A solar eclipse is the most obvious example. Most of the time, a New Moon finds Luna well above or below the ecliptic. When that happens, the luminaries are conjoined only in longitude. The same event near a lunar node finds the Moon in a range of latitude that puts it between Earth and Sun casting a shadow on the surface of our planet. That shadow marks a place and makes solar eclipses a physical as well as temporal event, a mutuality between now and here.
As the reciprocating factor that precipitates Friday’s eclipse, the lunar north node has correspondences of its own. In the words of Vedic astrologer Komilla Sutton, “Rahu is the head part of the celestial snake,” literally concerned with what is ahead, and encountering it. Rahu in Sagittarius implies that encounter will be with a new season but a conjunction with the Great Attractor reveals that to be only a direction with no answers. That’s where Friday’s eclipse comes in.
As the Moon crosses paths with the Sun in the sky, time and place will merge in our lives. When that happens, try to make some correlations between where you find yourself and the quality of the time. Should the resulting correspondence cast a shadow, take note of where it falls and pause to consider exactly what inquiries would be pertinent. That process may not reveal what’s around the corner, felt only as a pulling, but it will prepare you for what you encounter on the journey. When the luminaries culminate to an opposition (Full Moon) next month, the tables will be turned and it will be Earth’s shadow falling on the Moon. It will help a great deal if by then we are equipped with the right questions.
Offered In Service
alexander — very nifty idea to look at that moment — and i like what it says. good to hear from you here! you’ve been on my mind.
🙂
be: Thank you for helping us get a head start on the appropriate questions.
Kelly: Please accept my condolences for your losses and my thanks for your insight.
Alexander: Ingenious – it is i who should be thanking you.
Okay, so I started thinking about ‘shadow’ and integration of it (as per Sarah’s tarot theme of the past two Sundays). I decided to check at what point Mercury would be in the exact same degree, minutes and seconds as at the solar eclipse and check that chart.
What I noticed was interesting.
Casting the chart for here in Bolton, England the exact overlay on Merc Rx to forward motion comes at 1st January 2012 at 20 Sag 26′ 6″ at 10.45am UK time.
What was instantly noticeable:
Chiron just risen by a degree over the Asc in Pisces
Mercury exactly conjunct the MC
No planets retrograde at that time
Vesta has moved from Aquarius into Pisces
Taken collectively, and as a New Year’s Day 2012 snapshot – A healing year. The emotional blindspot (preventing the understanding and communication of what lays beneath the shadow) resolved – as Mercury conjuncts the Midheaven and indicates this as being fully translatable into the outer world.
When I look at the resonances in terms of the patterns of my natal chart and this chart, I get more personalised meaning.
Both charts Pisces rising. Both charts Vesta in Pisces within 2.5 degrees of the Asc in the 1st house. But the moon is placed in Aries – seemingly having moved along from (transcended) its natal Pisces position.
What I mean in noting this shift into Aries is that my natal moon conjunct Vesta and the Asc, also opposing Uranus and Pluto, has always been afflicted.
What I very much like about this new pattern, with Chiron just rising, is that Vesta is still conjunct my Asc – kind of like the mission is still to serve – but my moon is not tied up in a barrel load of karmic issues, where previously service became self-sacrifice.
I’ve decided to appropriate the Aries moon of the 1st January placement as my ‘rebirth’ moon, representing my ‘healed’ moon, fiery & spontaneous and grounded in the Self, not cast away.
What I’ve enjoyed in this research has been noticing not so much geometric aspects between charts but pattern/shape resonances and parallels. It really struck me that this analogical way of reading meaning may prove conducive in the future – not simply correlating charts on plain geometry.
Thanks for introducing this topic Len. It really has allowed me to follow my own nose intuitively. I feel like this is the beginning of unlocking the karma within my natal set-up. Thanks for the ideas you introduced. They have been highly stimulating to say the least!
Alexander
..meant my natal ‘Sth Node’ in Sadge is amidst this conjunction.
Len
This Friday I will have attended my 3 third funeral in the month of November.
If I look at the moon placement of these 3 wonderful people, and including another 1 in September, I am taken aback by the fact that each had died when the moon was in their own sun sign (different causes of death and different ages). Ever I had to build a bridge between these two realities; life and death – it’s been now. But, I have absolved some of the associated grief caused by all this sudden loss, simply by been aware of the natural cycle of the moon. It feels eerily natural..
With a natal Gemini Nth Node now conjuct my natal, Great Attractor, Venus & Mars in Sagittarius; and, sun in Scorpio – I have to wonder whether I have been handed some questions for the new solar eclipse which are incidental to the above
Hey Len, you have me wondering again. Sometimes I just can’t unravel the symbols’ meanings at all but I know I’m being encouraged to do something besides just stand still. Now the last Full Moon in Taurus seemed to me to be suggesting just that ~ stand still. At least for the moment. But now that moment is passing and the strong pull of the north node to the Great Attractor, and the presence of Pholus nearby too saying it doesn’t have to be a BIG move to get big results, I at least have direction.
With the coming of the eclipse New Moon in Sagittarius, both mutable and fiery, it seems to suggest that there is always something hidden, whether by an eclipse or behind the GA, so put your trust in the spirit of the moment and get ready to shift gears. Then I remember that the south node is where transiting Chaos is and think maybe I understand a little better.
On October 28th Gary Caton reminded us, through a “cosmic blip” from Phil Sedgwick, that “the Node to the Great Attractor refreshes life mission statements.” If you have been standing knee deep in Chaos like I have, and you get a magnetic pull towards something unknown, but away from the chaos, that should be a good place and time to start formulating your first question. For example, is there anything in all this chaos that I need to take with me? Ask it of yourself. Remember too that linear time is only available in the 3rd dimension and on a higher level your path out of chaos is already made, and in some way, unconscious to your conscious self, you have already started the journey.
be