The second eclipse this summer is a total solar eclipse which will occur on July 21 at 9:35 am Eastern time. This eclipse path will cast a shadow over most of eastern Asia. The path of totality will pass over Gujarat, the western-most state in India, move on to Chengdu, site of 2008's Great Earthquake, later pass over Shanghai and then out over the East China Sea, and over Japan's Ryukyu Islands — a path which spans half of the Earth. This eclipse could last for up to 6 minutes all together which is very long for an eclipse. The next eclipse which will last longer than this one will be in the year 2132. What these specifications tell us is this is a solid eclipse, the kind which in the past has corresponded to major change and events in our lives.
The degree of this eclipse is 29°26 Cancer which corresponds to the 30° Sabian Symbol: "A Daughter of the American Revolution". I find it ironic that Supreme court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, a Puerto Rican American is at this moment getting grilled by Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee at her confirmation hearing. Maureen Dowd, op-ed columnist at the New York Times says it well: "A gaggle of Republican men afraid of extinction couldn't root out any sign that Sonia Sotomayor has emotions that color her views on the law." Novelist Alexander Chee noted: "Nothing reminds me more of what it means to be an American quite like watching a bunch of lesser qualified, old white men try to insist a woman of color is under qualified when she had to be perfect to get even half as far as they did, inside the same institutions."
The Daughters of the American Revolution, an organization based in Washington D.C., originated in 1890, and was founded for women who, as it states on the Daughters of the American Revolution web site "felt the desire to express their patriotic feelings and were frustrated by their exclusion from men's organizations." Admittance into the DAR society is lineage-based for women who can prove they are related to patriots of the American Revolution. This organization was founded after the civil war, when millions of formerly enslaved African Americans were hoping to join mainstream society as full and equal citizens. But Washington still practiced its "southern" segregated society habits condemning some Americans of color to second-class citizenship. Certainly the Daughters of the American Revolution was no place for a black woman, even if she was related to the thousands of black men who served in the revolution as soldiers, guides, messengers and spies.
Although The Daughters of the American Revolution do much good promoting literacy and awarding scholarships, the historic disregard for equality lingers. This is not uncommon to organizations and societies all over the world who still don't come clean around issues of race or creed. I am focussing on The Daughters of the American Revolution, because of the eclipse and its corresponding image in Sabian Symbology.
The degree, 29°26, is the last degree of the sign indicating issues which are or nearly are overdue. Cancer is the sign of patriotism, a sense of home, be it a small apartment or a large country, home is where we feel safe. This Sabian Symbol for 30 Cancer, A Daughter of the American Revolution, provokes us to notice where we belong. Who accepts us whole heartedly and unconditionally? Who offers us our rights stated in the Constitution or Bill of Rights where we live? Where in our lives is it absolutely overdue to maintain a daily sense of safety and for that do we need a revolution?
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
A Sense of Home: Total Solar Eclipse at 29° Cancer July 2009 by Deirdre Tanton
Monday, July 13, 2009
Leo Season: Initiating Fearless Actions Now for Winter's Mars Retrograde by Deirdre Tanton
Leo season is coming up and indeed when Sun enters this sign, it does so with dramatic flair. This particular Leo season will radiate greater depth than usual for several reasons:
— Sun enters Leo on the heels of a turning-the-wheel-of-fate solar eclipse on July 22, 2009.
— There will be a lunar eclipse on August 6, 2009.
— But mostly what I am thinking of is that from Fall 2009 to Spring 2010 Mars will be spending seven whole months in the sign Leo as Mars stations retrograde and then forward. We can get a head start now on taking action before the retrograde begins because re-acting works better than acting when Mars appears to be moving backward.
From July 23, 2009 until August 12, 2009, Sun will be passing through the first 19 degrees of Leo, one degree per day as usual. What is so extraordinary about this is that the Sun will be shining on the path Mars will be on from October 17 2009 - May 17 2010. What this means is we can pay close attention to what is going on this summer and align our intentions because the first 19 days of Leo can hold a microcosm or framework regarding the Mars retrograde. This is why I am writing about the Mars retrograde now, because fixed energy like Leo, is conducive to planning a pounce, the way a cat does so still until she has found her line of attack.
Although the sky is pa
cked with rare events this summer, like the eclipses and the triple conjunction of Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune in Aquarius, there is no Mercury retrograde activity until August 18, when Mercury will enter the shadow of its retrograde. Cosmically there is clarity for us to imagine what creative actions we want to be accomplishing this coming Fall through Spring.
Just to compare, the last Mars retrograde period spanned from September 16, 2007 until April 4, 2008. As Mars dipped from Gemini into Cancer at that time, many people may have been concerned with family and housing issues. Some people moved far across the ocean during that time; others tried to. This year, as Mars passes through the degrees of its '07 - '08 retrograde, we may get some recall on some issues, and again we may work on them again during this coming retrograde. The upcoming Mars retrograde season will be solely involved with the sign Leo. Mars in Leo is about taking fearless, creative action. Mars enters its shadow on October 19, 2009 at 0° Leo and stations retrograde on December 20, 2009, at 19° Leo. As I said, it's much better to initiate actions now, compared to on December 20 when Mars may seem inside-out and backstage.
At this station, Mars will be opposed the triple conjunction. Actually, it will be a quadruple conjunction, because Moon will be there too -- at 13° -- which is the same degree as this next lunar eclipse on August 6, 2009, a clear link between the lunar eclipse and the mars retrograde.
There may be some issues around where we belong, if at all, in a group whether it be friends or family. I think this trigger will add more insight into how the Chiron - Jupiter - Neptune conjunction is playing out in our lives. Mars will station forward on March 10, 2010. MEOW! And when Mars leaves its retrograde shadow on May 17 2010, the triple conjunction will be astrological history, Jupiter will have left Aquarius and will now be conjunct Uranus in Pisces. Now that's a Lion of a different color.
A conjunction of Uranus and Jupiter is innovative, suggestive of an optimistic, forward thin king collective movement. It is as if Jupiter moves from the triple conjunction to resolve the Mars retrograde and the eclipses with Uranus in Pisces.
I will give you an example of how this can play out: If we take the sign Aries as an example, the Mars retrograde will be in their solar 5th house, which means this winter they may dealing with issues around children, and or creative projects. For Aries, their solar 11th house is Aquarius, where the lunar eclipse this August will fall, and where the quadruple conjunction will oppose Mars as it retrogrades in December. Because Chiron and Neptune are involved, a friendship issue, fitting into a group, or a reversal in the feeling of obtainable goals may come to the fore as Mars in Leo is saying MEOW at the retrograde station. When Mars leaves its shadow in May 2010, Jupiter and Uranus will be conjunct in Aries' solar 12th house, an optimistic kind of energy in the house of spiritual psychology. Group therapy or a new kind of therapy may have extremely positive effects on the original 5th house issue. This is a great chance for Aries to bring creative projects into the collective.
As Leo season is fast approaching we can all get a headstart planting creative seeds now which will come to fruition in the spring.
Photographs Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons;
Illustration of The Cowardly Lion
by W.W. Denslow who died in 1915
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Sunday the Sun; Monday the Moon
When a season changes from one to the next, the sun is passing over the angles of all of astrology. If you are an astrologer, have you ever met someone whose Sun is conjunct your Nadir? to translate this into non-astrology language, have you ever met someone where food, nurturing and a kind of parental taking care of each other came to light? This is the feeling of the northern solstice: when Sun meets the northern angle, security become a priority as does nourishment. Issues of parenting arise. What makes the solstices since 2008 so powerful is that Pluto is sitting on the southern angle. With Sun opposing Pluto, a reminder for the first day of summer is to be aware of our own powers and resources and to own them as they are the root of our security.
When the sun passes from Gemini to Cancer, this is the moment summer in the northern hemisphere begins. The climate changes from conceptual experience to nurturing safety, like the difference between analyzing a conceptual composition of the painter Morandi, to collapsing into comfort in the domestic still lives of Cezanne. This pair of paintings came to my mind as I thought of think of the change of seasons. As well, both paintings are constructed from clear lighting. Shadow, like in the Pluto opposition, is not denied.
On this year's solstice Sunday, Sun is conjunct asteroid Vesta both at 0° Cancer. At the moment of the Sun's ingress, Moon is in Gemini, and will trine the Jupiter - Chiron - Neptune triple conjunction later in the day. On New Moon Monday, Moon ingresses Cancer as well, creating a second triple conjunction: Sun - Moon - Vesta. Both triple conjunctions are in an out-of-sign trine. With intentions set on nurturing and being nurtured by community, this solstice ushers in a time when we can start trends we want to follow. The rituals of sharing a meal with people important to us may help maintain focus through the Autumnal equinox..
It is a good time to tend to the root of security in our lives. We can devote ourselves to our friends and family, protecting them from all threats and dangers and focus our intentions on providing emotional safety and robust sustenance. Over this coming weekend, have a happy first day of summer, the longest day of the year.
Monday, June 8, 2009
A Door Opens to Summer of Eclipses by Deirdre Tanton
Although we have a month to go, I consider eclipse season to be in full swing now. The June 8 lunation opened a door to some specific geometry: 17°+ Sagittarius was the June 8th Full Moon. The July 7th full moon will be at 15°+ Capricorn and it will be an eclipse, too. Being so close in degree, these full moons will both effect charts sensitive at the mid-degrees, a port of entry for the first in a triplet of eclipses this summer.
Looking at a list of eclipses between 1980 and 2020, seventy-five percent of summers have one pair of eclipses on just one axis. This summer is now in the twenty-five percent and has three eclipses on two axes. From what I see, usually when three eclipses occur in a summer, this pattern will repeat every other year three times. This means the summers of 2009, 2011 and 2013 (when Pluto is in early Capricorn) will have have three eclipses each on two different axes, as did 1998, 2000 and 2002 (when Pluto was in early Sagittarius), as well as 1980, 1982 and 1984 (when Pluto was in early Scorpio). It started to be a tidy geometric package, and then I noticed 1991 was a irregular, isolated summer of three eclipses and it had the nodes freshly in a new sign. Besides 1991, the eclipse pattern I am diagramming seems to roughly parallel Pluto's ingress into a sign. As I stated in a previous post about eclipses, I notice that eclipses start to get clumped together during times of rapid and accelerated change.
The way I started to understand the feeling of eclipses was in the years 2006 - 2008, the years when the eclipses were spanning the Virgo - Pisces axis. I had heard about the eclipse dimension before, but it wasnt until the eclipses being in my sun sign that I got sensitive to it. Since then it doesn't matter what sign the eclipses are in, I look forward to the dimension like getting to read a new favorite book. Eclipses turn the wheel of fate and are integral to altering the general plot. On the days around eclipses, do what you feel comfortable and safe and enjoy doing, because what you are doing may start to be a big topic for the next six months or year. Lunar eclipses help us let go and solar eclipses help us open up. This summer, the pattern is let go - open up - let go. It's always good to let go of fear — a kind of clean sweep so we can open to love. The eclipses are in the signs Capricorn, Cancer and Aquarius. If your sun or personal planets are in any of those signs or in Leo as well, I wonder if you may start to feel what I am talking about. July 7 will be a full moon lunar eclipse at 15° Capricorn; July 22 will be a new moon total solar eclipse at 29° Cancer and August 5 will be another full moon lunar eclipse at 13° Aquarius.
Spring 2009 was a time of retrogrades. Relationships may have ended or at least been up for reflection, review, or a bit of chaos. This may now be firming up to some solid footing as Venus and Mars move toward conjunction at 15° Taurus (there's those mid-degrees again) on the first day of summer, the Northern Solstice. After so much deliberation all spring long, it's time to catch the waves of change in the coming summer of three eclipses. Stay aware, steer the course and enjoy the ride.
Friday, May 8, 2009
A Full Moon, From Suffering To Enjoyment by Deirdre Tanton
A cosmic and spiritual highlight happening now is the Full Moon in Scorpio which will be exact on Saturday, May 9. According to the Farmers Almanac, the name of this full moon is Full Flower Moon, named originally by Native Americ
ans. According to Buddhist tradition, this is the Wesak moon, which is celebrated as Buddha's birthday, enlightment and death. Featured are photographs of lanterns, incense, altars and shrines of Wesak celebrations from around the world.
I am not a pure Buddhist at all, although I like everything about Bhuddism I read and know. What I like about Wesak Moon is it helps to concentrate on this intense energy and keep ego to the side.
Posts ago I wrote about the different phases of the Venus retrograde. We are now at the end of the last shadow period. From February until now, we have been tuning in to our values, friendships and relationships. All kinds of people showed up! What is important and what is not? It fe
els different now compared with February, doesnt it? I think it is starting to get clearer around who is supporting us and who are we supporting, I mean energetically. It's interesting for us astrologers seeing that a Mercury retrograde is following right on the heals of a Venus retrograde. To me its like the cosmos opens a space for us to reflect — and reflect long, hard, vigorously and deeply. This full moon is like a big long comma between
two long phrases, the kind of comma that really brings you to another place.
Mercury just did go retrograde yesterday in Gemini. During this week while Mercury moves so slowly, just one degree, look for signs leading us to support. Then for the following two weeks when Mercury passes back into Taurus, this will be the time to put the finishing touches on the spring season which has been all about planning an approach.
According to Buddhist tradition, one ritual for the Wesak moon is to release a caged animal. This ritual is a magical act to open ourselves up, to become psychologically or emotionally free of any clinging or dark thoughts that plague our minds and keep us gripping so tightly to the past. We can go beyond these perceived and limiting views of ourselves. A best kind of friend can hold space for these fears and witness us opening to solid, comfortable, self esteem and to trusting our lives. May this deep Full Moon in Scorpio shine the light on our transformations and move suffering energy toward an enjoyment which nourishes us.
For readings and consultations contact:
deirdre (at) cosmicguidelines dot com.
