The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of star stuff—Carl Sagan.
On the evening of August 12th, the temperature will suddenly cool, and a strange silence will settle over the crowds who have gathered to witness the most dramatic solar eclipse in Western Europe in three decades. As the soft round body of the moon slips gracefully between the earth and the sun, a moon shadow will darken the face of the sun and for just a brief moment in time, we may be reminded of our ancient connection to the sun, the moon, and the stars.
This Leo eclipse begins in Siberia, arcs across Greenland and Iceland, the Arctic Circle, and the North Atlantic Ocean. The last place on land to view this eclipse will be Menorca and Majorca. A partial eclipse will be visible all over Europe. After months of drought and wild fires this super-charged new moon (20º Leo) conjures imagery heat and scorched landscapes. It is part of a great cycle of eclipses in the Saros Series 10 South. Astrologer, Bernadette Brady interprets this Saros Series as an opportunity to break out of a very negative situation… a worry that may have been affecting a person will suddenly clear. The solution is shown by the Cosmos and needs to be taken up without too much delay.
In the symbolic language of astrology, eclipses are threshold moments, moments charged with light and darkness. This eclipse carries a sense of urgency, a frisson of tension.
We may feel we are poised on the threshold of a new beginning yet not yet able to see our way clearly (the moon darkens the light of the sun during this total solar eclipse) but we will have time to follow the call of our heart as the effects of this highly charged new moon will last six months.
This solar eclipse aligns with the star Merak, in Ursa Major. Merak is one of the pointer stars in the Big Dipper, associated with guidance and direction as it leads us to the North Star. Eclipses often accentuate important check point times in our lives. This eclipse chart shows Mercury opposite Pluto, Venus opposite Neptune, Mars has just entered Cancer, and there is a powerful concentration of planets in fiery Leo.
Symbolically, eclipses amplify the intensity of power struggles, life-changing choices, triangular dramas, those pivotal moments that charge our lives with a new impetus, a new sense of direction.
Eclipses arrive in pairs, and more rarely, in threes, and there is an eclipse every six months when a new or full moon conjoins the moon’s nodes. On August 28th, the body of the earth passes between the sun and the moon, throwing a shadow on the surface of the moon, a lunar eclipse in Pisces. Symbolically, our earthly concerns overshadow lunar qualities of intuition and imagination.
These two eclipses won’t cause anxiety, upset, a horrible argument, or propel us onto a new trajectory. They symbolise a moment where something is obscured, interrupted, brought to light, and revealed. Some imagination and self-reflection might be needed to interpret the meaning of these two eclipses:
Leo carries the energy of fire, courage, creativity, and authentic self-expression. In a world that is already awash with “influencers”, personal branding, and grandiose politicians, we might direct our energy towards those people or projects that feel whole hearted rather than performative or self-proclaiming.
Pisces encompasses the boundary-less realm of water, the collective, rather than the personal. This lunar eclipse might offer an opportunity to ask ourselves what must I sacrifice, surrender? How can I serve, what can I give, rather than what’s in this for me? Pisces is the imaginative dreamer, the sensitive and empathic expression of an open heart.
Not everyone will resonate with the same intensity as an eclipse brushes over their birth chart. Eclipses are feral, unpredictable things, yet for us all, the symbolism of this season of eclipses calls us to pause and gaze up at the heavens. To remember that we are connected to the earth, and the stars. That, in the words of Carl Sagan, “we are the universe experiencing itself.
Please get in touch if you would like a personal astrology consultation: ingrid@trueheartwork.com
