2. Follow me on Twitter @Astrologyzone for instant updates and astrological trends in the air everyday. I will let you know about the electronic versions of my Year Ahead 2011 book there too once I know more. Remember, you don't have to have an account on Twitter to read Twitter. (You may want to have an account - it is free - because it is fun, and you and I can stay in close touch that way.) To have a look, just go to:
http://www.twitter.com/astrologyzone
By Susan Miller
The following report will give you points to consider when you are preparing to undergo the experience of an eclipse. I have studied eclipses for years, for they are the most dramatic tools that the universe uses to create change. They are fascinating to watch because they always bring a twist that you won't expect. Some eclipses are challenging while others bear gifts and opportunities. Few cosmic events are capable of bringing such dramatically good news, too.
First, however, let's define two terms. What are a solar eclipse and a lunar eclipse?
A solar eclipse occurs when the moon stands between the Sun and the Earth, cutting off the light of the Sun. A solar eclipse is always a new moon and in astrology tends to mark new beginnings.
A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth stands between the moon and the Sun, cutting off the light of the Sun from the moon. A lunar eclipse is always a full moon and usually marks endings or culmination points. They bring up memories, dreams, and emotions, so they often pack a big punch.
An eclipse of the Sun will more likely focus you on a prominent male in your life (father, husband, boss, or other key man).
An eclipse of the moon will center more on the prominent women in your life (mother, wife, or female boss, for instance). This is not always the case, but you will find this will be a good rule of thumb.
Solar eclipses work somewhat differently than lunar eclipses, and emphasize beginnings - that is why they are so exciting. Most of the time they make us happy! (Occasionally something may end too, but the accent will be more on the start than the finish.) The changes could come gradually or suddenly. Still, the news or timing of those changes often comes as a surprise. If a solar eclipse falls on or within a few days of your birthday, you will certainly feel the effects of it over the course of the year. Changes will be complete by the time you reach your next birthday.
Although most solar eclipses are almost always positive, if they form hard angles to other planets, the effect on you can be jarring and difficult. This is not usually the case, but it can be at times. As you see, eclipses are not like other aspects, for they can work in a variety of ways. I will let you know if I see something you should watch in your monthly report on Astrology Zone. Keep in mind that all eclipses are there to help you mature and grow, and that the eclipses are ultimately on your side.
Eclipses come in pairs, always as a new moon and full moon two weeks apart and come up every five-and-a-half months in one family of signs, for example Cancer-Capricorn, or Leo-Aquarius.
Each family of signs lasts approximately 18 or 24 months before moving to the next family of signs, moving, say, from Cancer- Capricorn to Gemini-Sagittarius.
Events that follow an eclipse have more weight than events brought on by a normal new or full moon. In fact, an eclipse is like a new or full moon on steroids! The events brought on by an eclipse often pack much more punch and may even bring on an event that seems "fated."
Now let's review the points to keep in mind about eclipses so that you can better deal with them should any touch you in an unexpected way.
Susan's 29 Points to Consider when Dealing with Eclipses
1. Eclipses are dramatic "wild cards" in our horoscopes that we don't see coming. They shake us up so that we can move from one level of maturity to another, very rapidly. They will provide whatever we need to get moving - a competitor, a rival or critic, a benefactor, funding, or some other force - that get us to think, decide, or change.
If we have become complacent or took someone or something for granted, chances are that we won't after an eclipse is over and has delivered its message. An eclipse will always give you precisely what you need to advance and evolve. They look for weak links in all circumstances and instantly and urgently bring information so that you can decide what you want to do.
2. Eclipses work from the outside in. In that I mean that an outside event that has nothing to do with you, and over which you have no control, will often act in a way that affects your life in a powerful, direct, and lasting way. The outside force can be a small, casual event or comment - it need not be a big - but yet it can have monumental influence on our life anyway.
3. Eclipses bring news of big life events that you long remember. You may sell a house or buy one, or start a new business or close one. You may get a major promotion or a new client, or be given enviable publicity, or be downsized. You may meet someone new to date, or get engaged. Or, on the other hand, an eclipse may "eclipse out" someone from your life, as is the case in a breakup or divorce. Often at eclipse time, we are very aware of the passage of time, and that can make us a bit wistful even when the news is very happy.
You may suddenly be expecting a baby or get news that the adoption you had hoped for is suddenly coming through.
You may come in to a lot of money, or lose an important source of income. You may sign a big business deal or walk away from one. You might have surgery or win a marathon and be on TV. You may acquire a new pet, or sadly suffer the loss of one. Alas, as you see, not all news on eclipses is happy, but eclipses do mark major life events that make us value the good parts of life even more.
Eclipses often change the status of a situation. While an eclipse will always seek out the weak link in a situation to expose it to you, they are just as capable of helping you in a positive way, such as to help you find new love or be asked to interview for a big position. The luck you uncover can be the change in status you will receive. Check your monthly report on Astrology Zone for how I see the eclipse affecting you.
4. Keep your eye on your health at eclipse time, and doubly so if the eclipse is near your birthday, is in your birth sign, or is six months away from your sign (i.e., opposite). If you need to address a health or dental issue, get advice and help so that you can get back to feeling tip top again soon!
5. You may feel like you are walking across a bridge to a new land at eclipse time. You are - with no ability to go back to the place you started. In that sense, after you start moving toward the new situation (by enforced changes or by your own volition), the bridge will collapse - there will be no way back. While you can't go back to the good old days, you wouldn't want to. You are ready for more. The universe wants us to embrace all that is new, not go back to what is tried and true.
6. The ancients always wrote that if you act under an eclipse, especially a full moon eclipse (lunar), the plan would not work out quite the way you expected. It's better to consider the ideas of others at eclipse time but not to make proposals or announce decisions of your own at that time. Instead, bide your time and act a few weeks later when there will be less cosmic dust in the air and things are more settled. You'll have more information after an eclipse has spoken too, another reason to wait.
Here is the rule: it is better to listen and react rather than set forth dictums under an eclipse. Try to allow some space of a week or more between the eclipse and the date you act.
Sometimes it is not possible to put things off, so do your best. Never make an empty threat, like "Leave her or I will leave!" If you don't mean it, don't say it. The situation could blow up in your face when your partner calls your bluff and says, "OK, then, leave!" Issuing ultimatums under an eclipse rarely work well.
Let's say you need to decide whether to change your job. It is OK to accept a new job, but might not be wise to quit one at eclipse time. You didn't initiate that offer to go to a new job - someone else did - which is why you are safer to accept an offer, rather than initiate an action on your own, most likely impulsively.
If you want to have a major talk with your sweetheart over grievances you have been harboring, do so weeks before the date of the eclipse or else table your talk for a few weeks later, when the atmosphere won't be highly charged. When you act at eclipse time, you may be surprised at the outcome - things could backfire or create an effect that you had not anticipated. Still, admittedly, it may be really hard to put off saying something at a full moon eclipse. Truth tends to surface like a geyser at these times! See how you feel!
7. Eclipses will always play with our sense of time and change it by compressing it and speeding things up. They bring events to bear today, ones that you assumed would happen months or years into the future.
Let's say a couple decided to marry in two years, and in the meantime save up for a down payment on a house. An eclipse comes by and one of the partners in the couple gets a big promotion and a chance to work in the London office. Suddenly the couple decides to tear up their old blueprints and instead get married immediately so that they can start their life together in London right away. Indeed, timetables often change dramatically under eclipses.
Also, at eclipse time, if one of your planets will be touched by the eclipse, you may feel your life moving on fast forward, at greatly accelerated speed. What you'd normally do in three years gets compressed into six months! Time moves so fast, you can almost see the hands on the clock spin around!
8. Eclipses can help you do things you never thought you could do, overcome fears, and show yes, you CAN do it! Consider this little metaphysical story I devised for you to illustrate this point.
Let's say you are in a new area on vacation and feel like riding a horse for a couple of hours, and because your friends would rather swim, you decide to do this on your own. You are not an experienced rider, so you ask the horse trainer for a gentle horse. He suggests the perfect one for you, a horse that is even-tempered and experienced. He also suggests an appropriate path for you.
Before you set off on your trail, you were told by the trainer that you will need to jump a stone fence five miles down the road but that the horse is capable of doing the jump. You start out on the path the trainer suggested. Distracted by the gorgeous scenery, you forget about the fence until it looms suddenly in front of you.
You don't feel ready to jump that fence and besides, it is so much higher than you imagined it to be! You probably would have never taken this path if you knew how big it was. You cannot imagine going over that and surviving it! Yet, it symbolizes something you want to do but are terrified to do, so you feel conflicted (fear vs. wanting). Perhaps as you ride toward it, you try to stop the horse, but in your hesitation, you don't send strong signals to the horse in the way he understands, so before you know it, he jumps!
The horse has been trained to jump, so he is fine - it's you who is scared, not him! Before you can pull on the reins, you find yourself flying through the air on his back and much to your horror and yet giddy amazement, you are flying over the fence. Much to your astonishment, you land perfectly. The horse is fine and so are you - but you feel shaky and count all your fingers to be sure you are all in one piece!
It all happened so quickly! You knew the fence was coming up, but being distracted by the scenery, you didn't expect to see it so soon on the road ahead. (Timetables are moved up at eclipse time.) You had no time to think! Now, however, you feel quite accomplished - proud of what you did, and rightly so! It is a great moment! Had you had time to think, you may not have had the courage to try. But you did react, and you succeeded. Welcome to the effects of an eclipse. This won't be the effect all the time, but many times eclipses DO show us capabilities and strengths that surprise us.
9. Try not to issue ultimatums or make big actions under an eclipse as things won't work out as planned. Bide your time and act in a few weeks when there will be less dust and less electrically charged static in the air. It's best to respond to others' messages and demands, but try not to initiate your own. Said another way, it is better to listen and react rather than set forth dictums under an eclipse.
10. If an eclipse falls on your birthday, the year that follows certainly will be quite eventful. One part of your life is surely due for massive change. You may experience a big change in lifestyle or in one specific part of your chart.
If an eclipse of the moon (a lunar eclipse) touches your birthday, it will be a year of endings, closure, and possibly, of fulfillment. Often a lunar eclipse creates changes within the family or home - you may move, see a roommate come or go, or in keeping with an eclipse's ability to change family dynamics, a new baby may enter the picture, as a few examples.
11. Eclipses always bring unexpected changes of direction, but only if you have the Sun, moon, a planet, or other major point in your natal chart being touched by it.
The eclipse does not have to fall in your sign to affect you, but it would have to be within a ten-degree orb of a major planet or point in your chart. (Some astrologers only use a five-degree orb, but my experience shows you have to allow a wider area of influence, up to ten degrees.) Eclipses fall at random degrees, start late in the sign, and work their way toward early degrees of the sign as they arrive every five-and-a-half months - that is the opposite way a planet would work. This may be why the news of an eclipse always seems so unexpected - the eclipses don't travel in the way planets do.
This is why you would feel one or two eclipses in a series, but not all in the same way. They all fall in different degrees. So summing up, the rule is this: You may feel one eclipse in a given family of signs very strongly, but not the others in the same series.
12. Eclipses in the same family of signs are connected to one another in themes like pearls on a necklace. For example, if an important event happened in your life at an eclipse in January, then the next eclipse coming in July will advance the situation to a new level. Eclipses within one family of signs tend to focus intensely on one area of your life.
The universe seems to know that we can't handle too much radical change at once. Instead, the eclipses will give us time to digest the changes before they heap more on us. Subsequent eclipses will help us move forward, step by step. Additional information will not come until the next eclipse, and by then you will be ready for it.
Let me give you an example. Let's say a man and wife have been married a long time. The husband has been unhappy but the wife perceives the marriage as happy and stable. This could not be further from the truth - in fact, the husband has been unfaithful.
The husband confronts his wife on an eclipse and asks for a divorce, Of course, the wife is completely shocked and is in tears for weeks. By the next pair of eclipses, discussions begin to take place about the division of property. The sale of the house takes place at the next pair of eclipses. Nearly six months after that, at the next eclipse in the same signs, the divorce papers appear and are signed by both parties. The husband will remarry on the following eclipse and by then the wife will be adjusted to her new life - a life she didn't ask for, but will be nevertheless comforted by her friends and family and by knowing the truth.
I have vastly oversimplified this case to help you see the step-by-step process that a series of eclipses can set up for you. I do not mean to minimize the sorrow and amount of adjustment that both parties, especially the wife, would have to endure to reinvent their lives.
Things need not be this dramatic or as sad as this for you under an eclipse (let's hope not!), but you get the idea. If you observe events triggered by eclipses, you will be humbled to see how effective they are in their mission to bring truth to bear and to help us live more productively, ethically, and with integrity.
13. Eclipses are especially effective in revealing someone's character or true motivations. After you discover what you do, you can better protect yourself. Still, this can be very disconcerting and upsetting. Remember, in this case, the eclipse would be trying to help you.
14. Often a lunar eclipse will remove a person or element in your life that you thought you needed, but really don't.
This person or situation may end at eclipse time because you have already learned a great deal from that person or situation, or because the situation is outworn, dysfunctional, or in some way no longer capable of being nurturing and supportive to you. An eclipse will sound the bell to tell you that time has passed and it's now time to move on. Often we wonder why something had to end the way it did, but it is not for us to ask. Everything has its own lifecycle - even jobs and relationships. Focus on the future, not the past. After you have given yourself time to adjust, be eager to find out what comes next.
15. Keep this rule in mind: The universe will not abide an empty space. Whenever a vacuum is created, the universe rushes to fill it. Have faith that this will happen in your life and all that you "lose" will be replaced. Often the next stage turns out to be far better than the one you just left.
16. Take note of ALL news and signals you get near eclipses. While news is often delivered in a dramatic and obvious way, sometimes the news will come in much more subtly, as a secret or as a piece of gossip. Nevertheless, no matter how news arrives, take it seriously because it could foretell dramatic changes to come.
17. If someone brings news you don't like and don't want to hear on an eclipse, realize that it will be impossible to change things back to the way they were before. Take the information seriously. View the news as essentially a non-negotiable dictate. Accept what you are told and move on.
For example, if your beloved says, "It's over," accept this news and move on. Of course, it's good to talk, especially if this person means a lot to you. However, don't grovel. Save your dignity by not pleading for the relationship to continue. Eclipses make us acknowledge that something has changed, most likely forever.
18. At eclipse time, we realize that we can't control everything in life. Accepting the finality of a certain relationship or situation can be very painful, but is a part of the life experience. If you should feel very upset or sad, trust in the kindness and wisdom of those around you. Spend time with those you love and who love you. Eclipses help us to evolve and to become more mature, seasoned, reflective, and philosophical.
19. Eclipses shine the bright light of truth to the part of your chart that is touched by the eclipse. Most of the time, eclipses act as brilliant illuminators, revealing a condition or proclivity that has existed that you had ignored, denied, or never noticed before.
20. Eclipses also often act as catalysts to a major life decision. Without the news of the eclipse, we would probably go on as we had, with little or no change in direction.
21. Under an eclipse, you may finally see someone's true character. This may be a person you know well, or thought you did. Discovering a dark side to a person can be very disillusioning, but fortunately it won't happen at every eclipse, only rarely.
22. Eclipses also have a way of changing perspective. It will be as though a puzzle piece suddenly fell from the sky, right into your hands. Once you add this piece to your puzzle, the whole complexion of the situation will change. Suddenly a mystery will be resolved, and you will say to yourself, "Now I understand!" Now that you have a full picture of the situation, you will know what you need to do next. You are no longer in the dark. That's exactly what an eclipse accomplishes.
23. Even if an eclipse won't affect you (and I will tell you in your forecast), you will nevertheless notice that there is plenty of action around you, not only in your own circle but also in the world at large. The news media will be filled with information.
In your personal life, you will hear of many monumental life events in the lives of people you know, both friends and family. You may be called on to help others at this time, so try to keep an open schedule.
24. You may be feeling more emotional than usual under an eclipse, especially if the eclipse is lunar (full moon). Since your judgment may be impaired with so much being stirred up at once, before you respond, take time to think about things. If you can, wait a week before deciding on anything. If someone comes to you with an offer you are excited about, consider it carefully and find out what's involved. If after looking at the offer from all sides you still like it, proceed. In your excitement for the offer, try not to make assumptions about it without checking out all the facts.
25. A quick response to news may be required of you. Have your wits about you! As said earlier, keep your normal schedule light because you might have something new to focus on that will need your immediate attention. If someone is demanding an answer, you will have to give it and go with the flow. The sense of surprise or shock often accompanies an eclipse.
26. Don't be too quick to judge an eclipse as "good" or "bad" because it can take weeks to understand the real meaning of what is going on. An eclipse always has a second act, so be patient - it may take six months or more to hear more information. As you wait, the picture may keep changing. Chances are, if you lose something under an eclipse, the universe has something better it is cooking up for you. Be patient and keep an open mind.
27. Let's talk about the area of influence of an eclipse. A message brought to you by an eclipse is usually delivered within four days of the actual date of the eclipse, but not always. Yet you can sometimes feel a full moon lunar eclipse as early as a full month prior to it (plus or minus five days), on the date of the eclipse (plus or minus five days - the most common experience), or one month to the day later, plus or minus five days. It is also possible (but less typical) to feel it up to six months later when another planet comes in to help trigger the news.
If you don't feel an eclipse, then look to Mars or Saturn. If either planet goes over the same degrees later in the year (or soon after) or in the sign opposite the sign in the eclipse, take note of the dates this will happen - I will help you with those by letting you know in your monthly reports on Astrology Zone.
28. Eclipses sometimes can make big heavy iron gates swing open, even ones that have never opened for you before. Be optimistic! What do you wish for, dear reader? If you work hard toward your goals, an eclipse can help make it all happen! Be optimistic!
I hope you have found this helpful! Perhaps you may want to refer to this list as you move through the eclipses of this year.
Susan Miller
Previous Month's Forecast
