A friend of mine is traveling from Seattle to Texas to observe the eclipse from the path of totality firsthand–and I can’t help but think it’s a pilgrimage, whether he’s conscious of it or not, meant to heal, with the meeting of Sun and Moon (at 19 Aries 23, 18:20 UT), the Moon throwing itself between us and the Sun, all bodies lined up along the plane of the ecliptic, also conjoined Chiron (only 1 minute apart), this body designating the primal wound, the deepest, farthest-from-consciousness hurt of all–and that says to me that we all may be engaged in a form of healing with this blending of Sol, Luna, and the Wounded Centaur, a chance through renewal of the ‘I Am’ and worth of Self (Aries) to restore at a personal level the vitality of the Sun, the unadulterated sensitivity of the Moon, and the sense of dedication and purpose behind both identity and the Soul’s intent. A resurrection for each of us, if you will.

It’s interesting that this eclipse wipe-out energy doesn’t involve the persistent, everyday obliterating energy of Pluto–there’s no Scorpio involved, and Pluto doesn’t hook in any way into the eclipse dynamic–and yet the event promises us a deep re-think about who we are and what we’re doing, courtesy of the wide conjunction to a retrograde Mercury in Aries (though Pluto is quincunx the Trans Neptunian Object (TNO) Chaos as well as major asteroid Vesta, suggesting anarchic upheaval in the home or in matters we are–or were, until the eclipse hit–dedicated to). The eclipse trines Persephone in Sagittarius, hinting at the journey to the Underworld we all, at least temporarily, must make, and emphasizing the way we will return to the light–even if it seems like we won’t. So, there’s plenty of dynamic (and potentially destructive, or maybe misleading) energy pinging around out there–and our job may be to know it when we see it, which can help us avoid responding unthinkingly, and so falling victim to it.

The eclipse energy represents a spiritual, rather than a cellular, anastasis–and as such may explain a sort of atmospheric fear swirling around right now–because who isn’t at least a little unsettled by the idea of death, or trepidatious confronting the unknown? And we are promised a surprise delivered by the vastness of the Universe, with the eclipse semi-sextile Jupiter in Taurus, which is itself conjoined by Uranus (though the eclipse is out of range). Jupiter is, among other things, a designator of that longest journey we take at the end of life, with Uranus introducing a version of the three-body problem, roughly explained as an inability to predict with any certainty the long-term path of any combination of objects. In Taurus this suggests material roots, and material effects, though it may manifest as changes in our sense of security, our comfort, or or our ability to provide for our own or others’ needs.

Do we even need to mention Black Moon Lilith in Virgo quincunx the eclipse? Something we’d rather ignore or deny, or that enrages us, is an uncomfortable trigger to events–and this discomfort is seated in criticism, or the need for an accounting, or perhaps is spurred by an unfair or inadequate sharing of ‘the harvest’. The Sabian for the eclipse is, ‘A Young Girl Feeding Birds In Winter’. A young girl is just beginning her life, while winter is the season of sleep, torpor, but a necessary step to renewal–and birds are wild things that struggle during periods of scarcity, suggesting that it’s the young, fresh, renewed part of us stimulated by the eclipse that can ‘feed’ those more spontaneous, wilder impulses within us that might not make it through tougher times without a little help. Self-help, then, in its most positive sense, an ability to act, but it’s important to note: timing tells us that winter comes at an expected time, and only lasts so long–remembering that this, too, shall pass, is an important part of dealing with what comes.

An eclipse is a time when what was, at least in one area of our lives, is erased, and with a Solar eclipse (also known as a New Moon) we see this eliminated material replaced by or clearing the way for a spark, a seed, something new, something just beginning. The eclipse makes room in our lives for the birth of a new entity, endeavor, event, or circumstance that holds the character of the sign in which the eclipse occurs, and takes the shape of the House in the natal chart where the eclipse falls. That means for all of us there will be a similar, sign-oriented flavor to what happens, but that for each of us the eclipse material will take a unique and personal form.

This Solar event occurs at 9:12 PM PDT of the 19th. Since we already had a New Moon in Aries this year (on 21 March at 00), we may be wondering about the way the impetus for new beginnings of a similar, Arian kind is duplicated, as if we get a do-over, and in a way that’s what we’re getting. To immodestly quote myself from the post for the 21st: “A New Moon at the Aries Point is the most bare, exposed, fresh, even raw of beginnings, a seminal point of germination, discovery, inception, origination. In Aries we have initiation, both in the sense of the start of something new, and in the sense of being brought or accepted into something–both are personal, in that they are happening to the individual, but one speaks of a new venture, occurrence, or climate, while the other speaks of something that exists already, into which we enter and become a part. At the Aries Point, we are the Initiate; expect to become, to gain an aspect of identity that you did not carry before, and that you probably won’t be able to anticipate.”

So, we were given a beginning so completely fresh that it was likely without definitive form–and what will Aries do with such energy? Shape the hell out of it; it’s all about becoming, the process of individuation, the formation of identity, and employing that Cardinal energy to impress ourselves and our Will upon the world. We were probably just beginning to get a handle on these new implications for identity and role when along comes the eclipse–uprooting those tender seedlings and making one thing abundantly clear: the identity we were constructing is inadequate to completely express who we are, with the eclipse at 29 degrees suggesting 1) it’s imperative we recognize that what we’ve chosen is not enough, in some sense, and 2) that it’s important we acknowledge we know a whole lot more than we did back in March–oh, how far we’ve come!–and the roles we’re creating for ourselves must take into account all we’ve learned–otherwise, what we create will be obsolete before we even get started.

A Sun-Moon meeting at the 29th degree carries its own message: this is a crisis. The feeling may be that we’ve been wrestling with these identity factors for a long time, and should be farther along. We feel we have to do something. There’s an emotional dissonance in the identity department that we’ll need to recognize. And all that begs the question: why aren’t we more clear on who we are? The answer is: a state of crisis is Self-defining (we find out who we are in a pinch) and that some hindsight will be necessary before we can get a true and accurate reflection of who we have become in the Self-image mirror of the mind.

The eclipse makes few contacts, though it’s conjoined Vesta in Taurus; this clues us in to the fact that what we’re dealing with now in shaping the ‘I Am’ is both sacred and fundamental to our security, prosperity, and comfort. We’re not just being asked to declare ourselves, we’re being asked to put forward what we stand for, to state explicitly what and who we honor, and what we are willing to dedicate our life energy to. The seriousness of this identity declaration may be the source of the tension and the feeling of crisis. We’re at some level aware of how important it is at this time to know ourselves; to fail to define our identity and character is to fail to prepare ourselves for what’s to come. That said, the world doesn’t come to an end if we remain unsure of our feelings or identity–but it does move forward, whether we’re prepared or not.

The New Moon makes a semi-sextile to Sedna in Taurus at 29 degrees (crisis around comfort, security, stability, prosperity), suggesting that instincts can aid us in our identity quest, and that the instinctual nature will transmit messages through discomfort or an ‘off’ feeling–listen to those. There’s also a novile to Venus in Gemini, implying a spark of genius in the thinking, when it’s centered on values or the mind is focused on seeing the beauty (or the profit) in the world. And the Sun-Moon/ Earth axis forms a T-square with Pluto, itself still raw, newly entered into Aquarius, suggesting that transformation won’t be easy–but that it’s inevitable, and that we, and the landscape, won’t reach the Lunar eclipse with the same outlook, or even wearing the same identity ‘shell’ (like a label, role, or job title).

The eclipse Sabian is, ‘A Duck Pond And Its Brood’. This brings to mind the story of ‘The Ugly Duckling’, which is a tale of finding one’s identity–and also one’s group. It may be that, if we’re really stumped about our own identity, looking around, examining who and what we’re surrounded by, will give valuable clues–as we must know who we are in the present to know what must change to create our new identity, which in turn creates our future. A bit of a ‘duck and egg’ thing, I think.

It may be a matter of the eclipse wiping out who we were (or our idea of who we were) in favor of something hinted at with the New Moon of March 21st, now ready to be born, to be revealed, or to be realized. A kind of denouement may arrive with the Lunar eclipse–until then, we do our best to put the pieces together, and to understand as well as we can who we are, and to move toward who we want to become.

Here’s a good explanation of a hybrid eclipse– The kind of eclipse we experience doesn’t change the astrological effects, but we can’t overlook the symbolism of, in this case, a hybrid event. It suggests something changeable–that then changes back. It hints that permanent change promised by Pluto may at least appear not to ‘stick’–it may morph back to a previous state, before again changing. Just be prepared to witness fluctuation in our perceptions, and to stay nimble enough that we can respond to what we might not fully anticipate.

And here’s a link that describes paths of upcoming eclipses that will be visible in North America-– many thanks to reader John Spirko for sharing this..