Full Moon and LUNAR Eclipse
Pisces Moon and Virgo Sun
August 28, 2007
4:45 Pisces/Virgo
6:35 am EDT
3:35 am PDT
The eclipse taking place bright and early on Tuesday morning along the east coast of the United States will begin before the Sun rises. It starts a few hours before dawn. Turning your back to the rising Sun a few moments before dawn, you can watch the eclipsed full Moon sink and set below earth‘s edge. The moon will carry with her the shadow of our earth home across her face. As our red faced, eclipsed Moon disappears from view in the western sky, Mars, high in the sky, will slowly fade from our view too as the rising Sun brightens the sky. Mars is heading towards a union with the Midheaven of the eclipse chart. Mars in Gemini is exceptionally fueled up with volatile fire energy from his recent opposition to Jupiter and Vesta in the free flowing forest fire energy, uncontained spirit of Sagittarius. Mars is rapidly closing into form a volatile, mutable, versatile, rapidly changing, unstable t-square with Mercury in Virgo opposite to Uranus in Pisces. We can expect all manner of fated, unexpected, emotional and turbulent communications, explosions, collapses, shocks, and actions to take place under this and the upcoming new Moon eclipse on September 11th. It is going to be a very big eclipse period in all of our lives!
The eclipse are south node eclipses. As a south node Saros series, the eclipse will inevitably involve major endings prior to new beginnings. We aren’t that familiar with this Saros series as it only began in 1917. As Bernadette Brady says in her book, The Eagle and The Lark, this eclipse cycle is Saros, 9 New Cycle. It started on July 19, 1917 and ends August 17, 3161. The cycle “appears to be concerned with bringing to the surface long-term worries about loved ones, health or issues to do with paperwork or communication. This could manifest as a worrying piece of news about a loved one or responsibilities with paperwork coming home to roost. Any news will have a sense of destiny or fatedness about it.” Eclipses do tend to brighten our lives! As this eclipse has a forming mutable grand cross with Uranus, Mars, and Jupiter /Pluto’s midpoint involved with the changeable eclipse energy, the news will have a Uranian, or unexpected as well as a rather chaotic quality to it.
Eclipses that involve the South Node herald major turning points in our lives, particularly around the “lights” in our lives. The “lights” are what we look towards for illumination ~ the sun and moon in our sky as well as the suns and moons in each of our lives. Our first lights were our parents, Mom and Dad. Next, our world expanded and our lights evolved to become our teachers, aunts, uncles, grandparents and significant guides, friends or mentors who lit up our world.
Additionally, lights are the men and women that we as both citizens of earth and as regular people look to for leadership, guidance and support while traveling our respective paths. On south node eclipses, the lights in our life often flicker, to perhaps leave us. Or we change or they change in their roles in our lives. We are aware, much more aware during South Node eclipses than North Node eclipses, about the inevitability of time marching on, endings and that funny word called ‘fate’. We move up on the escalator of our life as our elders depart and step off the escalator. We experience the more permanent kinds or types of changes such as divorce, graduation, marriage, career shifts, birth, disease, household changes or death that take place in our world.
This particular eclipse will have more of the ending and changing energies than many other eclipses for at least five and a half reasons! First, Saturn is at the very last degrees of Leo, the sign of Royalty, Kings and Queens. While we are in the middle of the six weeks of eclipse energy, Saturn will enter Virgo the sign of servants on September 2, 2007. We can expect our “Kings” or “Queens” to leave us or to change their roles in our lives as Saturn exits Leo stage left and begins his journey through Virgo’s service oriented, hard working, and harvesting sign. Saturn won’t be back in Leo until September of 2034. That is a pretty long time! So long LEO!
Second, Saturn is joined to the fixed star, Regulus, as the eclipse takes place. Saturn on Regulus suggests our various world, country and personal leaders will experience a conjunction of Saturn to their vital life energy in our lives. They will be ending their roles as our personal kings and queens. Saturn to Regulus. We will be assuming our own authority. We have conquered Leo. We will rule our own lives. We will become our own kings and queens. Or we will seek out new kings and queens if our current leaders leave us for other roles.
Third, Saturn and Regulus are angular, right on the cusp, smack dead on the ascendant of the eclipse chart for the United States of America. This suggests major problems for our country. Our country’s fate affects each of us as we and our charts live here. If I was the astrologer to the leaders of this country, I’d be advising caution around risky activities with that configuration. Saturn joined to Regulus angular and rising as the Sun drops into the South Node says the end of the kingdom of the United State is here. Saturn rising over the horizon of Washington, DC, immediately before the Sun appears as that red faced, eclipsed Moon sets adds an additional “ending” quality to the eclipse energy. The Moon rules the public and people of a country. The moon is setting, red faced and eclipsed. Saturn’s job is to end things as he shows each of us the limits of our body, being, energy, and physical form.
Fourth, Saturn is about to enter Virgo. We enter the apprenticeship phase of the development cycle of human beings. We are moving out beyond the carefree, playful quality of Leo into the grown up world of work, school, structure and learnings run by Virgo‘s schedules, rules, regulations and clocks.
Back not so very long ago, the physical age corresponding to Virgo meant a child was now a young adult. An education to eighth grade was completely satisfactory in most cases.
As you reached the age represented and appropriate for Virgo, you grew up. Apprenticed to a master to learn a trade. Married to a mate. Worked on a family or neighbor’s farm as an aide to the adults. Labored in a factory for wages. Tended livestock. When in the human age of Virgo, one was able bodied enough to get out of the house, be productive and contribute to the family’s cupboard, finances, sustenance or survival.
We are soon to find Saturn in the sign of Virgo. Virgo says “This is why you are here. This is your future. These are your skills. This is your training for your work in this life time.” Saturn begins his climb to the outer world of visibility, laboring to rise above the descendant and into the house of partnership and equality. Saturn gets to the horizon of the earth by traveling through the house of training, work, health, apprenticeship, habits and service for the next two years. We learn to work at what we’ve discovered we love while Saturn was in Leo. Get ready!
When Saturn enters Virgo we are each now responsible for our actions. We have deadlines. We have to hand our homework in. We HAVE homework. We are apprenticed to a master to learn skills instead of staying playful and childlike with our parents in our family nest. We are grown up. We are more restricted by tasks, to-do and life chores. We have to help cook, clean, wash and do all sorts of stuff to help support the communal house. There are rules, regs, procedures and processes that need to be followed. We can feel that incipient Virgo energy lurking in the eclipse south nodes, hiding out in the Virgo Sun and Mercury ~ waiting for us. Virgo makes us clean up the play room and get bac
k to work.
Fifth, ther
e is a VERY difficult mutable grand cross forming in the sky between malefic planets ~ Mars, Uranus, Jupiter, the Jupiter/Pluto midpoint, and Mercury are dancing with the lights and the nodes. Grand crosses mean action. Not action we are “in charge” of. Action that is taken by forces which seemingly are beyond our control. During the current eclipse, there is a difficult mutable t-square ~ lets count it as five and a half.
We, adherents and students of Western Astrology like to think of our astrology as being chock full of free will. And it IS chock full of free will. At least it is chock full of free will to a certain extent. J We bring our consciousness, wisdom, natal charts, ephemeris, knowledge of planet cycles and individual hopes and dreams to bear upon our choices as the planets dance in the heavens and move through our charts. And, those various items give us the concept of and belief in free will.
However, we know there is fate! This is one of those fate times. Choices made now are profound and feel so very, very “fated”. We are at a cosmic crossroads. Time to choose. Turn to face your choice. Destiny calls. The Wheel of Time is turning. The Wheel of Fate spins. The Wheel of Fortune is ruled by the three goddesses of Fate or the Moirai. All are beloved daughters of Mother Night and stand in for the Moon in her waxing, full and waning phases. Clotho spun. Lacheis measured. Atropos, or ‘she who cannot be avoided’, cut.
The fates spun and wove the thread of a human life in the secret darkness of their cave. Corresponding to the phases of the moon and the transitions before us, we are each meeting Atropos over the next few weeks of the eclipse energy. It is time to cut. Atropos will cut. She cannot be avoided. No more dilly dallying. No more delay. Time to move on.
There is a deep and mysterious law at work within each of us, unknown and unseen. The law seems to precipitate changes to the established pattern of our lives. Now is one of those turning points. The choices we make now will be irreversible soon, if not immediately after we make them. Choose wisely. Behind the Wheel of Fate, stand the three Moirai sisters. They know there is an intelligent and orderly plan behind the apparent random changes in our life. If we listen to them we can hear why the changes are taking place. The changes spring from our very soul and our life’s karmic purpose. A new phase of our life begins. Atropos prepares to cut the thread of our life so a new chapter can begin. The Wheel of Time, Fate and Fortune spins.
Malefic planets, such as those found so active during this six week eclipse period, mark an ending or cutting phase of life cycles. Uranus separates. Saturn crystallizes, finalizes and finishes. Pluto transforms, evolves and destroys. Mars takes action or fights. And Jupiter, normally a pretty jolly kind of planet, is hanging out with pretty tough characters. Jupiter is going to add quite bit of Jovian excess to the story unfolding before us. Mercury is viewed as neutral. However, Mercury is SO influenced by who he’s hanging with! Remember how your mother said you were judged by your friends and the company you keep? Mercury is hanging out with the heavy duty fellows in the zodiac. Mercury is going to be giving us very important information. We need to listen.
So, let us see: 1) Saturn is at the very last degrees of Leo, finishing in the sign of Royalty, Kings and Queens; 2) Saturn is joined to the fixed star of Kings and Queens, Regulus, marking an ending (The King is dead! Long live the King!); 3) Saturn joined to Regulus is angular, right on the cusp, smack dead on the ascendant of the eclipse chart cast for the United States affecting all citizens of our nation; 4) Saturn is about to enter hardworking Virgo; and 5) there is a VERY difficult mutable grand cross forming in the sky between malefic planets ~ Mars, Uranus, Jupiter, the Jupiter/Pluto midpoint, and Mercury are dancing with the lights and the nodes while a volatile t-square is active on this full moon eclipse contributing a half of a reason. That is a lot of energy to contend with! Five and a half reasons too!
So what to do with this energy? Remember to breathe. Deep, slow, full abdomen breaths. Be still. Know that whatever happens, it is part and parcel of your fate. Part and parcel of the time in which you were born. Part and parcel of what your soul needs to take you through. Part and parcel of the thread of your life. You won’t be able to do much until the Wheel stops spinning. Then you will get to see where you are. But do remember to breathe. And to love. That love thing is all we actually own! That love thing and our souls.
Lynda Hill’s interpretation of the Sabian Image of Virgo 05 is:
A MAN BECOMING AWARE OF NATURE SPIRITS AND NORMALLY UNSEEN SPIRITUAL ENERGIES
Commentary: ‘A Man Becoming Aware of Nature Spirits and Normally Unseen Spiritual Energies’ shows the rational mind of someone being overshadowed by supernatural and intuitive images, thoughts and feelings. Equipped to see the invisible, this person has started to penetrate into the deeper and more mystical levels of the unconscious.
Oracle: There may be strong feelings of another level of awareness happening and these may be growing stronger by the moment. The imagination is showing a clearer path to some understanding, even though, along the way, there may be confusion. Look for insights and messages in the things that you see and hear around you. Try bringing these insights back into your everyday consciousness, as they can expand your feelings about yourself and life. Remembering a strong sense of who you are while allowing messages to come through from “the other side” can lead to a heightened feeling of aliveness and an increased ‘Awareness’ of the magic and mystery of life. Getting in touch with ‘Nature Spirits and Normally Unseen Spiritual Energies’ can be incredibly enriching and miracles can happen in your life. Indeed, there can be the revelation of being close to God. Your senses can really come alive on many levels, with things revealed that you might have only imagined before. By contrast, the ordinary, everyday world may seem boring, lifeless and shallow. You can have surprising perceptions of existence on another level-but will they be useful or just lead you astray? Remember to stay grounded in your experiences as it can bring you considerable joy. Losing touch with reality, however, can lead to losing the plot to the point where it is difficult to discern what is real and what is not. ‘Becoming More Aware’ of other levels of existence can be enriching in many ways.
Keywords: Creative fantasies. Attuned minds perceiving subtle phenomena in the environment. Fairy tales. Seeing things or imagining them. Fantasizing about people or experiences. Seeing entities. Mental institutions. Halloween. Fairies, nature spirits. Seeing the normally unseen. The
Caution: Confusion. Lack of true perspective. Time wasted in escapes from reality. Imagining things. Losing the plot. Dreaming to the point of insanity. Making up things in order to be noticed or to feel somehow special. Delusions. Dreaming of possibilities that disappear upon waking. Schizophrenia.
The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper. Eden Phillpotts
Today there are no fairy tales for us to believe in, and this is possibly a reason for the universal prevalence of mental crackup. Yes, if we were childish in the past, I wish we could be children once again. Anita Loos
Don’t ask questions of fairy tales. Jewish Proverb
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. Albert Einstein
There are nine orders of angels, to wit, angels, archangels, virtues, powers, principalities, dominations, thrones, cherubim, and seraphim. Pope Gregory
The Great Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go aw
ay. Philip K. Dick
Every time a child says, “I don’t believe in fairies,” there is a fairy somewhere that falls down dead. James Matthew Barrie
Lynda Hill’s interpretation of the Sabian image for 5 Pisces Moon follows:
A CHURCH BAZAAR
Commentary: ‘A Church Bazaar’ is an image of people in a community coming together to have fun, have something to eat and drink, get a bargain, and possibly make some new friends. This ‘Bazaar’ could be an event that the community has long been anticipating, or it could be a more regular event. Either way, there are things being brought and sold, fun and gossip had and new relationships forged. For some, there is a considerable amount of work to be done. Money from the ‘Bazaar’ often goes to the ‘Church’ or to help people in need in the community.
Oracle: This Symbol shows the pooling talents and resources to help people or create uplifting experiences for others. It also represents old-fashioned values brought to the community through simple commerce and the warmth of sharing. This is primarily a time for group cooperation to benefit the people of the community. People can cooperate and be involved in activities that have a people-centered outcome rather than a purely economic one. In this situation, you may be unable to achieve your goals on your own, so a certain amount of trust must be bestowed on those around you. Altruistic and selfless attitudes should be employed. The community can be enriched in many ways from displays of togetherness, giving and sharing, and through charitable works. There can, however, be a tendency to use faith or communal goodwill to extract money or services from people. Be sure that the benefits go to the correct causes, not simply using others for one’s own gain. However, someone may need to learn to give up always doing or giving for others, in order to be able to receive. There are often small rewards here, but they can be bigger or better than you first realized or prove to be more important than they first appeared. For the ‘Bazaar’ to be successful, people need to gather together the bits and pieces for the sale, bring the jars of jam, organize the stalls and ensure that the community knows about it.
Keywords: Overcoming loneliness and alienation. Selling things. The issue of real worth. Putting in a lot of effort for small rewards. Small scale commercial bartering and interchange. The collection plate. Generosity and charitable community attitudes. Jars of jam and things handmade. Bric-a-brac. Bargains. Practical spirituality. Volunteers. People sharing the load. Charity work. Money raising. Garage or yard sales. Second hand clothes.
The Caution: Spiritual or social exclusivity. Giving things smaller worth than they deserve. Using people. Deception on the grounds of faith. Fussing about small details. Fighting over “position”. Issues of territory. Pushy people. Social boundaries that exclude some.
Sharing is sometimes more demanding than giving. Mary Bateson
One man gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want. The Bible
He who bestows his goods upon the poor shall have as much again, and ten times more. John Bunyan
Some people give time, some money, some their skills and connections, some literally give their life’s blood. But everyone has something to give. Barbara Bush
If you have great wealth, give alms out of your abundance; if you have but little, distribute even some of that. But do not hesitate to give alms. Apocrypha
Charity has its own rewards. Anon
Never let your zeal outrun your charity. The former is but human, the latter is divine. Hosea Ballou
In necessary things, unity; in doubtful things, liberty; in all things, charity. Anne Baxter
I keep getting a recurring image of the closing scene in the movie, Camelot, before the big battle as King Arthur reflects on the journey he‘s taken to get where he is and talks to a young boy about his life. The lyrics to the song keep running through my head:
It’s true! It’s true! The crown has made it clear.
The climate must be perfect all the year.
A law was made a distant moon ago here:
July and August cannot be too hot.
And there’s a legal limit to the snow here
In Camelot.
The winter is forbidden till December
And exits March the second on the dot.
By order, summer lingers through September
In Camelot.
Camelot! Camelot!
I know it sounds a bit bizarre,
But in Camelot, Camelot
That’s how conditions are.
The rain may never fall till after sundown.
By eight, the morning fog must disappear.
In short, there’s simply not
A more congenial spot
For happily-ever-aftering than here
In Camelot.
Camelot! Camelot!
I know it gives a person pause,
But in Camelot, Camelot
Those are the legal laws.
The snow may never slush upon the hillside.
By nine p.m. the moonlight must appear.
In short, there’s simply not
A more congenial spot
For happily-ever-aftering than here
In Camelot.
At the end of the movie, King Arthur says to the young page, Tom,
Each evening, from December to December,
Before you drift to sleep upon your cot,
Think back on all the tales that you remember
Of Camelot.
Ask ev’ry person if he’s heard the story,
And tell it strong and clear if he has not,
That once there was a fleeting wisp of glory
Called Camelot.
Camelot! Camelot!
Now say it out with pride and joy!
Camelot! Camelot!
Yes, Camelot, my boy!
Where once it never rained till after sundown,
By eight a.m. the morning fog had flown…
Don’t let it be forgot
That once there was a spot
For one brief shining moment that was known
As Camelot.
Please remember your journey of Saturn through Leo as time spent in your own personal Camelot. You‘ve learned about love. Onward we each go to the next chapter of our lives. The wheel spins.
Slowly, slowly, the earth and the wheel spin as that red faced, eclipsed Moon disappears from your view in the western sky. Send it all of your dreams, hopes and prayers with your new found and hard won knowledge of what you love, the source of your creativity and the heart of your passion. Saturn’s journey through Leo has helped to make your love, creativity and passion crystal clear to you. Now it is time to spread the knowledge you have learned each and every day for the rest of your life. Ask every person if they have heard the story. And tell it strong and clear if they have not! That once there was a fleeting wisp of glory. Now say it out with pride and joy! Don’t let it be forgot that once there was a spot for one brief shining moment that was known as …
Copyright © 2007 Anne Ortelee
