Thinking About Eclipses

I’ve been thinking of the upcoming eclipse season and wanted to share some thoughts. We have a total lunar eclipse on the North Node at Pisces 15°24' on September 7th (UK time). And then we have a partial solar eclipse on the South Node at Virgo 28°59' on September 21st (UK time).

Being obsessed with the nodes, I can't help but pay attention to the kind of eclipse and whether they are happening with the North Node or the South Node, because these distinctions do speak to us and what unfolds as a result.

A total eclipse in one part of the world will be a partial eclipse elsewhere as seen in the diagram on the right.

Austin Coppock has a wonderful master-class on exactly this called "Here There Be Dragons" and I cannot recommend it enough. This is some of what he has to say on solar eclipses with the SN: "a solar eclipse on the tail generally has to do with letting go of identifying with something--there is usually a dissolution of part of the ego structure--we stop defining ourselves so much by what is going on in that part of our lives."

And this is what he says about lunar eclipses with the North Node: "...with lunar eclipses on the head, we're looking at surprising births....this is a premature birth or a sudden birth where suddenly something comes out relatively fully formed."

"...and sometimes--as with the metaphor of a premature birth--w/ the lunar eclipse on the head we will see that something is not quite yet finished about the body of the thing, if it's a project."

The designation of whether the eclipse is total, annular, partial, etc gives clues about the intensity of the events coming into play...And I believe whether the eclipse is visible from where you are also makes a difference to how much things play out.

For me, eclipses are times when Time itself is compressed; events & understandings that might normally happen over a longer period of time happen quickly, out of the normal order of things.
And this spurs on the narrative of dynamic change and the search for balance indicated by the natal nodal axis.

But it is worth paying attention as to what kind of eclipse is happening (solar or lunar), the degree (total, partial, etc), and the type (North Node or South Node eclipse).

Addendum: How might we parse the difference between a total solar eclipse and an annular eclipse in delineations? Let’s think about the Sun as Spirit, Moon as Soul, and Earth as Matter. During a total solar eclipse, the Moon’s conjunction with the Sun can be seen as a kind of torrent file download which is then transmitted to Earth.

But in the case of an annular eclipse, the ‘ring of fire’ indicates that the download has not been as complete as it could have been. Annular eclipses occur when the Moon is at or near its furthest point from Earth, and so there is a mismatch in size and the Moon cannot completely cover the Sun and the distance to Earth adds further complication to a clear transmission.

One way to think of it might be like a downloaded file that perhaps is of poor quality, or missing sound or subtitles. In the case of a partial eclipse, we might get fragments of a file, but not a cohesive whole.

And keep in mind that annular solar eclipses are more frequent than total solar eclipses—the latter of which will have a more narrow/targeted eclipse path. So taking such information into account can add to our eclipse delineations.

Likewise, when looking at lunar eclipses, we should bear in mind that there are three kinds: penumbral, partial, and total. A lunar eclipse is when the Earth is between the Sun and the Moon—so Matter is between Spirit and Soul. Lunar Eclipses then are when we are looking substance and attachment. As Austin Coppock so eloquently says: “When we're looking at lunar eclipses, we are looking at those manifest situations that we're attached to…we're looking at things; so if eclipses tend to move things around, to appear and disappear with a greater intensity than normal lunar cycles, then the lunar part--the lunar half of any pair of eclipses is going to be about substance.”

“It's also going to be about our attachment to substances or specific beings—it's that thick lunar attachment energy. I you think about anyone you care about, you are invested in them--it's not something you can stop doing easily; and really caring about someone or something is not something you can start doing easily; it's useful to think of roots when you think of the Moon--roots don't grow overnight, roots ground, connect, and secure, so lunar eclipses are about changes in those roots...”

So just as before, we can judge the changes in the roots of our attachments and in the substances around us by noting whehter the lunar eclipse is penumbral (where the Moon is in the outer portion of the Earth’s shadow and the dimming of the Moon’s light is very faint), partial (where the Earth’s shadow is more easily seen in part on the Moon), or total (where the Moon is fully in the Earth’s umbra or inner shadow).

Coppock makes a persuasive argumen that lunar eclipses on the North Node will speak to surprising, premature, partial births of a substantial nature. On the other hand, he sees lunar eclipses on the South Node as portending the withdrawal of substance and the withdrawal of “attachment to a particular set of manifest things.” My intent here is to posit that comparing the location of the natal chart to the eclipse path can perhaps give us further clues to how these eclipses may play out for the native.