One thing it would be good to keep in mind about the eclipse is that it’s just a Full Moon, the alignment of which creates an extraordinary view of the line up from here on Earth–so it’s the same event we get on a monthly basis, it’s only our perspective that makes it special. Full Moons are traditionally periods of culmination, so I think it’s only natural, maybe found in our DNA, or our Collective memory, or perhaps a result of the Moon’s pull on the sea elements of the bloodstream, that causes us to be alert, to be looking for, if not danger, then unanticipated change and effect. It’s a primal call we’re feeling right now, on the eve of the event; we must honor the need to be attentive, to be ready to respond, while still remembering that we’ve lived through a lot of eclipses, and chances are we’ll live through quite a few more.

When on Friday Alaska governor Sarah Palin announced she was stepping down from the post later this month, I had to take a look at her chart, because with someone who likes (and abuses, see ‘Troopergate’) power as much as this woman does, resigning an influential and visible position doesn’t make sense. I used data from Astrodatabank, which rates her info as ‘DD’ dirty data, unreliable for one or more reasons, in this case conflicting possible times (11 February 1964  9:43 PM  Sandpoint Idaho USA). I’ll make just a few notes here: first thing that jumped out is that she’s been long-term experiencing transiting Chiron/ Neptune/ Jupiter on her natal gathering of the Sun, Mars, and Saturn in Aquarius, certainly suggesting the possibility of painful times, and circumstances that make it very difficult to know who she is with any certainty (irony alert: and yet, one of her major talking points both during the campaign and now is that she does know precisely who she is–perhaps the lady doth protest too much). Transiting Saturn is quincunx Jupiter, transiting Pluto is square Venus–both offer scenarios of the need to change, one through modification of public image/ contact to suit reality or goals, the other through change (perhaps drastic) to what she values, to relationships, to finances.

All well and good, certainly supporting the move; but then I looked to Solar Arcs, and a different picture emerged. She’s 45 years old, and that puts everything in the natal chart by Solar Arc (with some variation dependent on time of year of birth) semi-square its natal position, and in the process filled in some interesting blanks, a few of which I’ll note here. The admittedly unreliable Ascendant comes to conjunction with the natal Pallas/ Juno conjunction–this suggests a personal need to connect with circumstances of Self-empowerment and that allow the exercise of the Self’s wisdom and skills. How does this mesh with the idea of giving up a governorship? It doesn’t, unless one sees empowerment in going back to school, perhaps, or if one sees the potential for greater empowerment elsewhere–ah-ha, perhaps we’re on to something!

Solar Arc movement also brings natal Venus from sesquiquadrate with natal Neptune to a full opposition; I don’t think there’s a transit that exists that’s more likely than hard contact between Venus and Neptune to lead the individual down the primrose path (for you youngsters, we’ll call it ‘fantasy lane’!) And we should note that natally Ms. Palin has a Mystic Rectangle involving the Nodes, Chiron, and her Pluto/ Uranus conjunction, suggesting, perhaps, a compulsion to act from hurt, to see one’s Chirotic endowments and individuality as having a ‘destined’ quality, and giving a remarkable ability to rise Phoenix-like from the ashes. Clearly, we haven’t seen the last of her.

The number of prominent deaths recently has been nearly overwhelming, but one thing that drew my attention was that both Michael Jackson and pitchman Billy Mays were 50 years old. It would’ve just seemed an oddity if not for astrology, as death at or near the 50 year mark suggests Chiron involvement, with its cycle around the individual chart of approximately 51.5 years (but this varies quite a bit depending on placement). Barabara Hand Clow puts forward in her seminal book on Chiron that the hard contacts of Chiron to itself are potential exit points in the life, and the more I see the more I agree that these points are indeed times when we may choose to move on. Something to ponder on: “What dreams may come, when we have shuffled off this mortal coil, must give us pause.” William Shakespeare’s HAMLET

I saw Tim Burton’s ‘Sweeney Todd’ again recently, the first and only time previous having been in the theatre when it was released. I remembered the movie more clearly and vividly than is typical for me, except for the ending, which took me completely by surprise. I was stunned, depressed, and moved, and though the tragic nature of the circumstances of vengeance, unrequited love, and the murder of what one was seeking all along is on it’s own sad, I think it had an effect on me because it was, really, a lot like life; nobody got out of that pie shoppe unscathed, and nobody gets out of here alive! A morbid note to end on, I know, but I recall the first time the idea that ‘nobody gets out of here alive’ clicked for me with life itself; it made me laugh, and also pointed up our tendency to behave as if, indeed, it’s a desperate situation–and it led me to, every day, re-dedicating my energy to behaving as if it’s not.

Have a great Monday, everyone!

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