Three days after the last Uranus/Pluto square (who’s reverberations will be felt for years to come) we have a total solar eclipse and super moon/new moon in Pisces. The eclipse will be visible in some of parts of Europe, Asia and Africa.
A new moon occurs when the moon passes in front of the earth and comes between the sun and earth. A solar eclipse occurs when the new moon passes directly in front of the earth blocking out the sun’s light. A super moon, or pedigree moon, occurs when the moon is at its closest point to earth in its orbit. At this time its effects on the Earth’s oceans are larger than average. This is also a new eclipse cycle. Every 19 years eclipses occur in the same place and this is the first of a new cycle of eclipses in Pisces by the south node of the moon.
To have all of these factors coincide together is unusual to say the least.
Eclipses are extraordinary visual events if we are lucky enough to witness them. A pair occur every six months (and every once in a while we’ll get a cluster of three). One is always a solar eclipse, occurring at the new moon and another is always a lunar eclipse occurring at the full moon. Eclipses were seen by our ancestors as mostly terrifying events, significations that something ominous would occur. Not every eclipse is visible and certainly would not have been to our predecessors. A series of very fortunate events need to line up in our favor in order to witness them: we need to be in the right place on earth, we need to be awake during the process and have clear skies to see the event occur.
We’ve been (trying to) predicting eclipses for the better part of 5,000 years but prior to our ability to understand the phenomena it would have appeared randomly. Every once in a while either the sun or moon – the life giving/life reflecting/guiding lights of life – would be temporarily snuffed out. The greek word ekleipsis, where we get the word eclipse from means to abandon. It must have been a terrifying sight to witness, possibly the end of life itself or the proof of giant sky dragons, punishment from the gods or the signal of a great travesty like the death of a king or the take over of land. We must have felt abandoned and forsaken.
As an astrologer I see the ways in which some of us still harbor these fears and if we are reluctant to change then we have very good reason to fear them indeed.
A solar eclipse obscures the light of the sun. Astrologically speaking the sun represents our ego, and personality. If there is one thing that our ego hates it’s having its light eclipsed by anything else. But this is precisely what our ego needs in order for us to grow spiritually. A crack in the ego can result in feelings of connection and a return of a sense of hope. Accepting that so little of our lives is actually in our control may just be the only sure road to peace.
But the process of getting there is often excruciating.
Feeling crushed by the weight of our burdens, realizing our insignificance in the grand scheme of creation and being forced to let go of the things that we have become overly attached to (but are the very things that hold us back) can often feel like we are getting a raw deal in life.
The ego is quick to reject, diminish and refuse precisely what the soul needs in order to grow. Our ego will tell us that we are better than that. Our ego will tell us that we don’t need what they do. Our ego will try and trick us into staring at pretty, sparkly things instead of doing the harder but far more soul satisfying work of staring into the abyss of our inner life.
Being a spiritual being in human form is a tricky endeavor.
Enter Pisces, the sign of divinity, duality, redemption, recovery and the natural talent of loving without bounds. Pisces is a pacifist. Pisces is willing and able to feel the suffering of others and relates to people’s pain, creating causeways to healing. Kindness, sacrifice, and an energetic connection to the everlasting vibration of life is the cornerstone of Piscean wisdom and power. Pisces in all of its ability to empathize with another can quickly become victim to being taken advantage of. Pisces has to watch out for martyr complexes and savior ones too.
The planets Neptune and Chiron are currently occupying the terrain of Pisces and will be there for a considerable length of time influencing this solar eclipse and new moon greatly. Both planets have an emphasis on connection, healing, and dreaming and lend a unifying principle. Mercury, planet of communication and the asteroid Salacia, Goddess of salt water (also Neptune’s wife in Greco/Roman mythology), are also there.
Neptune can have a tendency to create experiences that leave us feeling untethered from reality. This is often anxiety-inducing as we lose track of who and where we are. The loss of boundary and distinction are important facets of being able to forgive but we need to regain them in order to survive.
Friday’s eclipse occurs at the very last degree of Pisces, a temperamental degree that can be seen as the culmination of the sign’s signification and also the moment just before the end or destruction of the sign itself.
An eclipse in water lets us know that we are dealing with issues associated both to literal water and to what water symbolizes: emotions, the unconscious and the beginnings and endings of life. Water, both our drinking and agricultural supplies, may very well be the largest looming environmental issue that we will face in the near future but there is no way that we got ourselves in that situation with a clean bill of emotional health.
We have issues.
Chief among them listening to our grandiose egos and taking orders to follow its insatiable appetite for more. We are trying to fill the hole in our hearts and resolve the trauma we have faced both individually and collectively with trinkets the ego yearns for. Prestige. Status. Shine. Gloss. Glamour. Our inability to take resolute action against a draining of the earth’s resources is one major global issue that we must face before it’s too late. We simply cannot sustain the life we produce and the lifestyle that we have become accustomed to for much longer.
This denial is sure to cost us everything, if we don’t awaken to our need for a spiritual life and the kind of satisfaction that only connection to ourselves can bring.
This has nothing to do with god (or everything if that’s your worldview). This is about our understanding of interconnectivity to all lifeforms around us. Individuality is a lie. Nothing in this world or universe survives independently without relying on and effecting everything else around it. Nothing.
So perhaps this momentary emphasis on Pisces is perfect, as astrological occurrences always are. If any sign can remind us of our effects on the world around us it’s this one. If any sign can get us to walk a mile in another’s shoes, it’s this one. If any sign can induce a radical state of sensitivity to the pain of others and highlight our duty to be a part of the healing process, it’s this one.
But that’s not all.
Thirteen hours after the solar eclipse in Pisces the sun will ingress into Aries, initiating the Spring Equinox.
Spring waits for no one and the Vernal Equinox has always been considered a time of great activation. A day of equal light and dark, the equinox promises a growing of the sun’s light from here until the Summer Solstice. Our journey becomes more extroverted as our daily life is able to be lived more and more outdoors.
There are festivals at this time of year the world over that honor Goddesses of renewal, the land’s ability to regenerate, awakenings, beginnings, triumphs of good over evil and those that mark the beginning of a new year. This season is chalked full of significance and importance even if for the mere fact that this is a time in the Northern hemisphere of greater ease in food production.
Even though many of us might have a religious or spiritual celebration this is an astrological moment of great significance. Having an eclipse on the same day as the Spring Equinox doesn’t happen every year.
Because solar eclipses obscure the light of the sun and the Spring equinox is about the strengthening of the sun’s light we have a paradoxical event on our hands. We’ll move from the fluid, flustered and deep feeling waters of Pisces into the action-oriented Aries. From the sun’s light being blotted out to the promise of greater warmth, illumination and life-enhancing energy.
It’s a big day.
If you need a second start at 2015 you might see this as the astrological new year. If you need a reason to be inspired you can check out the new growth sprouting from the dark earth and witness the frisky fornications of all of nature. If you need a ritual to mark the occasion please listen to my hour long tele-class on this event.
May the sun warm us and the new life of spring rouse the very best in us,
Blessings!
xoc
*The Pisces new moon/solar eclipse occurs at 5:36 am EST on March 20th.
*The Vernal/Spring Equinox occurs at 6:45 pm EST on March 20th.