Though we’re all poised to receive the Lunar eclipse that occurs today, there are a few other aspects that may quietly perfect and knock us sideways. Whether these overshadow the eclipse influence (by contact to your natal scenario, for instance) or are mere low notes on the scale, barely noticed, the day will be a ‘big’ one, if only in the way we will end it distinctly different in feeling and viewpoint than we began it.

Chiron conjoined the South Node=wounds pull us back to the past, or we realize from past experience what we need to heal. Jupiter sq Saturn=we might at first see this as the forces of ‘Go’ and ‘Stop’ in conflict, but with Jupiter currently retro, we are more likely to experience it as choosing between two unsatisfying alternatives, neither of which is really what we want. This may also bring the matters of the Houses they rule in the natal chart (Sag and Cap) into conflict. The best resolution may be a practical one; re-tracing ones steps involving the details (Virgo) and where in the plan we may have been overly optimistic (Sag) may show us how to salvage most if not all of what we are working with. Venus trine Juno and contra-parallel Sedna=the anima-dominant among us are feeling strong and empowered, and have the assets necessary to implement plans; just take care that old, consciously-forgotten resentments or jealousies don’t interfere.

The final aspect set is Merc conjoined the Sun in Superior Conjunction as well as parallel Chiron=this may be a significant aspect set that flies largely under the radar; we may see the culmination of something specific to the Mercury cycle (seeded at the Inferior Conjunction, when the Sun and retro Merc meet) or something related to the Aries House of the natal chart, that we may find is separate from the Lunar eclipse effect. How can we tell the difference? The Lunar eclipse Sun Sabian interpretation I give below mentions seeing our own (psychic) shadow at the eclipse; the Merc-Sun meeting and Chiron parallel point to a second effect of realization surrounding our own role in hurting, whether that wound is our own or one we’ve inflicted (Sun-Merc in Aries, Chiron in Pisces). We see the effect, and we see what we can do about it.

Today’s word image is a video ‘You’ve Done Nothing Wrong’ by Iris DeMent, or if you prefer, google for the words to this song. They spoke to me, so I thought they might speak to you.

The Lunar Eclipse occurs on 23 March 5:01 AM Pacific Daylight Time at 3 Libra 17

The Lunar Eclipse is a Full Moon in Libra, sextiling Mars, opposing Mercury just before its Superior Conjunction with the Sun, novile Juno, and is quintile to Saturn, which is stationary and poised to retrograde. The novile and quintile both suggest a small spark of ingenuity, genius, inspiration, cleverness, and carry the impulse of the creative and innovative; this suggests that what ends with the Full Moon carries inherent within it the creative seed of something new—that is, we’ll be able to see the new start already sprouting from the ashes of the old ending.

What ends here may be something involving our role as an individual (Mars) within partnership (Juno, Libra); we may ‘get the message’ from our opposite number (Mercury, as anyone ‘not us’ delivering info), and this ends a previous emotional situation (FM) while beginning a brand new one, one where we are more likely to be responsible for and see to our own emotional well-being in both personal empowerment (Juno) and real-world (Saturn) terms. It’s not a message of independence or selfishness, but rather one of finding emotional fulfillment through the Self, and the clever ways we can be in charge of ourselves within the reality picture. We’ll no longer look to the partner for affirmation or support (at least, not as much as we have in the past); even if we remain in a close, and for some a dependent, interaction, we will develop something within at the Full Moon that serves our own individuality as a source of nurture and support (the Moon).

The Sabian for the Lunar Eclipse is, ‘Around A Campfire A Group Of Young People Sit In Spiritual Communion’. This suggests that in becoming more Self-responsible we will not be alone; the thing about this kind of development is that we will go from needing to be surrounded by people who are in material/ physical terms like us to being surrounded by those who are spiritually like us, no matter what their outer circumstances or appearance. It’s like moving from a clique in high school where there’s only one standard of ‘cool’ and everyone strives to be, dress, and act the same, to moving through the world gravitating to and attracting others of like spirit. The fire is the enlightened energy that attracts us all, and the quality of youth mentioned in the image a feature of active spiritual perception—a lightness and an eagerness—that does not feel the need to judge differences. We become more attuned to the essences, rather than the externals, with whom we interact—and this is all for the good, even as some connections are lost as we move on, and they don’t.

With a Lunar Eclipse we also look at the Sun Sabian: ‘Two Lovers Strolling On A Secluded Walk’. For a Lunar Eclipse the Earth moves between the Sun and Moon within the same plane, blocking the Sun’s light from reaching the Moon. It’s our own shadow we observe at a Lunar Eclipse; in this case, we may be seeing how our interaction within partnership, as well as our attitudes toward it, may have been making us feel alone and lonely (the ‘Secluded Walk’ of the image).

I don’t usually discuss things for an eclipse that aren’t directly triggered by that eclipse, but in this case I’ll make an exception, because many people may be feeling this gathering in Pisces and understandably mistaking it (that’s a Piscean specialty, after all) for a Lunar eclipse influence. At the time of the Lunar Eclipse, Ceres, Chiron, and the South Node will all sit within 24 minutes of each other at 21 degrees Pisces. This brings hurt, authority figures or one’s own personal authority, and the past together in such a way that a memory of, for instance, a past power struggle lost becomes, through the haze of imagination, a more significant (and possibly more injurious) event than it really was. That is, we may suddenly designate this a seminal event that seems to be the source of the Lunar eclipse effect, when it’s actually just a carry-over of the Solar (Pisces) Eclipse that preceded it—and we are doubly likely to do this if the struggle we have in mind was one within a partnership. The Pisces area of the natal chart will be sensitized by the Solar Eclipse, and like a tuning fork, this grouping of Ceres, Chiron, and South Node may continue to carry the reverberation long after our awareness of the eclipse would usually be relegated to background noise within the unconscious.

Fun facts: according to Space.com, “Since the moon formed about 4.5 billion years ago, it has been gradually moving away from Earth (by about 1.6 inches, or 4 centimeters per year). Right now the moon is at the perfect distance to appear in our sky exactly the same size as the sun, and therefore block it out.” And this: “Researchers say that when it formed, the moon was about 14,000 miles (22,530 kilometers) from Earth. It’s now more than 280,000 miles, or 450,000 kilometers away.” To answer the question, Will the Moon ever escape Earth’s orbit? we have this somewhat snarky explanation from Physics Forums: “. . . the moon will only move away from Earth until it reaches an orbital resonance when the length of the Earth’s day and the Moon’s month will be equal – that’s in about 50 billion years. In theory the moon could then move closer to Earth, but since they are both going to be consumed by the sun before that – it’s a bit academic.”

Enjoy this extraordinary Wednesday!