Eclipses
Few things in the sky are as dramatic as an eclipse: the Sun darkening in the middle of the day, or the full Moon turning copper-red. For most of history eclipses were read as omens. Astrology still treats them as the most powerful new and full Moons of the year: turning points.
- New Moon0-45°Seed: beginning, instinct
- Crescent45-90°Effort: breaking ground
- First Quarter90-135°Action: crisis and decision
- Gibbous135-180°Refining: perfecting the plan
- Full Moon180-225°Fulfilment: seeing clearly
- Disseminating225-270°Sharing: passing it on
- Last Quarter270-315°Reorienting: letting go
- Balsamic315-360°Release: rest and renewal
The angle is the distance from the Sun to the Moon, measured in the direction of the zodiac. The discs show the Moon as seen from the northern hemisphere.
How eclipses happen
The Moon's path is tilted a little against the Sun's, so most months the new and full Moons pass just above or below the Sun's line, and nothing is eclipsed. Twice a year, the Sun reaches the points where the two paths cross, the lunar nodes. Any new or full Moon near those points lines up exactly: a solar eclipse at the new Moon, a lunar eclipse at the full Moon.
That is why eclipses come in seasons, about every six months, usually a solar and a lunar eclipse about two weeks apart.
North Node
The unfamiliar road that grows you.
A calculated point in the chart rather than a body in the sky. It stands for your direction of growth.
In each sign for about 18 months. Around the whole zodiac in about 18.6 years, moving backwards.
The eighteen-year echo
Here is a less-known rhythm. Eclipses repeat in a cycle of about 18 years and 11 days, called the Saros. An eclipse is followed, one Saros later, by a very similar eclipse, and astrologers have long noticed that eclipse themes can echo across that span. It sits close to the nodes' own cycle of about 18 and a half years.
What is moving in your chart now?
Start with your birth chart: every transit and return is read against it.
