By Amanda Painter

Yesterday’s Leo Full Moon and lunar eclipse put us squarely in ‘the eclipse zone’. Don’t worry if you didn’t notice anything ‘special’ yesterday; eclipses work in pairs (the corresponding partial solar eclipse is Feb. 15), and often the full two weeks in between hold intriguing potential.

Winter surfing at Morro Rock, California; photo by Mike Baird/flickr under CC 2.0. People actually do this in Maine and Canada, too.

That’s going to vary from person to person, depending on such things as where the eclipses occur in your chart; where you are in your life; how you relate to opportunities and synchronicity; and who knows what else.

You might have a friend who makes radical changes in her life during an eclipse period, while you just seem to roll along like you always do. Or maybe you make one unexpected decision near an eclipse that develops in surprisingly productive ways months later, while someone close to you seems to encounter obstacles and setbacks.

My point is simply that there’s no one way that eclipses manifest in people’s lives. So there’s no point in worrying that you’re ‘doing it wrong’, or ‘not doing enough’ to make it ‘count’. You can, however, stay as aware as possible of opportunities, shifts in your outer environment, quiet intuitive nudges, and unexpected insights or urges. Those could very well be some of the openings through which you’re able to harness some energy — as can getting clear on anything you’d like to experience more of, so you can prioritize it and get yourself oriented on it.

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Few things are as familiar as a Full Moon. Plausibly, somewhere in your genes (which, in effect, are the collective experience of life before your lifetime), an ancestral memory of a fully illuminated Moon dwells. It’s also likely that your own first sighting of the Moon on the other side of the sky from the Sun was so long ago as to be lost from readily recoverable memory.

What goes with a Full Moon is also familiar. Night is as bright as it ever gets, as the side of the Moon facing Earth is not only fully lit, but also in the sky all night long. What’s more, there’s a subjective component that depends on who you are and “where” you are at.

Astrology’s approach to a Full Moon provides a detached and emblematic perspective with the potential to enhance your personal, eyewitness experience by contributing to its context. If, for some reason, you’re unable to witness any given Full Moon, astrology also helps you to anticipate what the correlating inner and outer climate are likely to be.

Something of the same might be said for a special case of Full Moon known as a lunar eclipse.

Lunar eclipses vary from solar eclipses (which take place during a New Moon, when the Sun and Moon are moving together in the same part of the sky) in two basic ways. First, solar eclipses tend to be measured in minutes and are visible to a comparative few. Lunar eclipses, on the other hand, are often measured in hours. In addition, lunar eclipses can (weather permitting) potentially be viewed by billions of people at once.

For those who can (and do) see it, tomorrow’s total lunar eclipse will be a dark one. It will be a Full Moon very unlike itself. Hence, an unfamiliar experience. It is thus reasonable to expect that the subjective part of that experience will include something of the unfamiliar, and even the unexpected.

Dealing with the unfamiliar and unexpected is easier for some than it is for others. What is exhilarating for one person can very well be uncomfortable for another. In between (and, in effect, bridging) those two extremes is a perspective which takes interest, seeking to better understand.

Any enhanced understanding derived from an unfamiliar experience would, by definition, be something special — and potentially valuable. If you get to see tomorrow’s Full Moon in Leo (with the Sun on the opposite side of the zodiac in Aquarius) during the lunar eclipse, keep that one principle in mind.

Even if you are not in the right place at the right time to actually see tomorrow’s lunar eclipse, astrology can still prepare you to make the most of the experience. Intrinsically, the notion of unfamiliar (and possibly unexpected) still holds, but more in the context of your environment.

Even more specifically, you would be well advised to notice (and be curious about) any components of your climate tomorrow that have to do with collaborations and groups in your past.

Most of all, no matter what your subjective experience tomorrow, it is very likely that you will not be alone. Whether you are exhilarated or challenged, it is likely that you will have many in your company. For that reason alone, any endeavor to be good company is just as likely to pay dividends — and not just for you.

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Eric is busily working on The Art of Becoming, the 2018 Planet Waves Annual; and it’s shaping up to be an exciting, information-packed edition. You can pre-order all 12 chapter-length signs here, or you may choose your individual signs here.

If astrology were an exact science, it would be possible to anticipate the course of earthly events as far into the future as we can predict celestial movements. Obviously, that’s not the case. Context and correlation are essential. That’s how astrology often works so well to provide deeper understanding in hindsight. Yet, there is undeniably something more.

As with great music and many other forms of art, astrology is implicit rather than explicit. The same can be said for some works of pure mathematics that have had to wait a long time before somebody came along to recognize a worldly application.

One reason to have faith in yourself and other human beings is our innate ability to work with the implicit. To cite just one example, you don’t have to be told what Beethoven meant to say. You recognize it in correlation to, and in the context of, your own life. Even if the style of a given artist is not to your taste, you know what’s elegant and compelling, and what’s not.

It is precisely your ability to sense a lot without benefit of an explanation which is so very compelling about the astrology of 2018 so far. It started with something plain to see. The civil calendar most of us use told you a new year had started. At the same time, weather permitting, you could look up and see a Full Moon.

In the days since, a significant number of planets came into proximity to one another on the zodiac during a relatively short period of time. As that was happening, a lot of long-standing issues reached a point of coalescence and corresponding precipitation.

Then, just this week, a significant number of successive celestial events (the initiation of a new lunar cycle quickly followed by the Sun changing signs, to name just two) indicated something more still in the process of developing.

In essence, that process implies a substantial shift in what you might call background. As result, context is in flux. Old correlations no longer hold. Redefinition is underway, and evident both in the sky and in your life.

The concept of a “new order” (a phrase originally coined thousands of years ago by the ancient Greeks — and maybe even before that) has finally become so old and outdated as not to resonate with experience anymore. It feels empty because it is.

If, on the other hand, somebody were to say or write “new environment” or “new climate” nobody would need to explain it to you. As profoundly implicit as they are, that particular pair of alternative phrases is bound find a much richer and more vivid correlation to, and context in, your everyday life than “new order” ever will.

That single, self-evident fact may be distressing to those invested in an old order which, for a long time, has been continually disguised under a series of new-order fleeces. The better to fleece you with, perhaps.

And that is where we are as the Sun (self-emblematic of conscious awareness) moves out of Capricorn (the sign of establishment) and into a new background of expression in Aquarius (the sign of a defined collective; or, alternatively, a collective redefined) to begin this weekend.

Among the only pertinent questions from this point forward are whether and when the familiar light of both the actual and symbolic Sun will be recognized to be shining both from and upon something unlike, but not necessarily unlikable.

Offered In Service

Eric is busily working on The Art of Becoming, the 2018 Planet Waves Annual; and we expect to publish by the end of this month. You can pre-order all 12 chapter-length signs here, or you may choose your individual signs here.

A big part of the astrology so far in 2018 can be summarized neatly. In less than a fortnight, the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto have clustered in one quadrant of the zodiac to precipitate a series of conjunctions. Next week, the best known and most fundamental conjunction of them all (a New Moon) will end this brief episode and begin another.

A conjunction occurs when two objects or calculated points occupy the same degree of the same sign. In general, this aspect becomes operative before it is exact, and drops off shortly after the inevitable separation. What a conjunction ‘means’ is usually contextual.

In general, however, one can see three correlations with conjunctions — though often only in hindsight. First, a conjunction represents the start of a new cycle between the two (and sometimes more) objects in question. Implicitly, an old cycle is closed at the same time. Just what the nature of the ending concurrent with a beginning turns out to be depends on the nature of the objects involved, and where their merger takes place.

Moving into and during the conjunction, the objects in question also tend to briefly merge their identities. One temporarily becomes more difficult than usual to distinguish from another. Once again, context pays a big part. Sometimes one partner is distinctively dominant.

Finally, there is usually what you could call a ‘blind spot’ involved. As is often the case with being literally or metaphorically close to a person, place or event, it takes some separation to gain perspective and see with clarity what the coming together implied.

Sometimes you can see conjunctions in the sky, weather permitting. That was recently the case with Venus and Jupiter rising in tandem shortly before the Sun. Notably, such is not the case with a New Moon.

Next week, the template through which all conjunctions are interpreted (the Sun and Moon merging, this time sharing the same degree of Capricorn) will kick off an entirely different — though not necessarily less eventful — fortnight.

With the Capricorn New Moon (coming either late Tuesday or early Wednesday, depending on where you live), you can reasonably expect 2017 to finally begin fading and 2018 to start coming on stronger.

Indeed, well before January comes to a close, you may witness what (at the time) seem to be sharp distinctions and abrupt transitions. In fact, any such perceptions will probably change with time.

If the preliminary conjunctions of January are an indication of events in your life, any upcoming events that appear to be precipitous will (upon separation) instead be shown to be of longer manifestation. This does not have anything whatsoever to do with unalterable destiny or pre-determined fate, by the way.

Instead, what you experience and witness before the end of January will most likely be (at least partially) a product of the broader perspective that comes with detachment. You will be able to contribute to the process if you want to.

Should you get a chance to spend a few days (or possibly even hours) away from what you have been close to since the new year dawned, it would probably be a good idea to take it. In particular, you might want to put your personal electronic device down more often. In general, a day or weekend under a different roof or on the road could also function to open your eyes.

Because the Full Moon at the end of January will also be a total lunar eclipse, any eye-openers you can manifest with intent before then will likely pay big dividends before February is even halfway through.

Offered In Service

The Art of Becoming, the 2018 Planet Waves Annual by Eric Francis, will be your best guide to the major astrological shifts ahead. If you pre-order now, you’ll not only get all 12 signs of the written reading for $99, but we’ll include three extra videos covering the forthcoming sign changes of Saturn, Chiron and Uranus. These videos are only included if you get all 12 signs. You may choose your individual signs here.

By Amanda Painter

The astrological traction that has been available to you all week (and which you’ve hopefully used to move some project or facet of life forward) is still in force. Though as we head toward the weekend, there are a couple of shifts in the energy.

Photo by Amanda Painter

The first of these is Mercury’s move out of Sagittarius, where it has been for more than two months due to its recent retrograde. Mercury joins the astrological throng in Capricorn (which includes Saturn, Black Moon Lilith, Pluto, the Sun and Venus) at 12:09 am EST today (5:09 UTC).

You may find this brings a little more grounding and precision to your thought processes. Mercury in Capricorn tends to indicate practicality and good concentration.

Those qualities get a boost from Mercury’s conjunction to Saturn (which rules Capricorn), exact at 2:03 am EST (7:03 UTC) on Saturday. If one of your recent activities has been to formulate a general plan of action, you may find it easier now to focus on the details of that plan.

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Depending on your time zone, Mercury will end more than two months in Sagittarius either late tomorrow or early Thursday. Normally, Mercury clips through a given sign in about three weeks. Only a retrograde can keep Mercury confined for so much longer. As result, this particular Mercury ingress to Capricorn is especially worthy of your keeping it in mind.

In fact, among Mercury’s many terrestrial correlations, your mind (and how you use it) is among the most prominent. The fact that Mercury will begin an in-sign conjunction with Saturn upon entering Capricorn would appear to emphasize that correspondence.

For astrologers, Capricorn is one of two signs (along with Aquarius) where Saturn finds domicile. For this reason, Saturn will implicitly be the dominant partner in its impending merger with Mercury. This single factor indicates that how you think might be something else to be consciously aware of for the remainder of this week.

Saturn has a way of imparting structure, form and order. To a certain extent, the same can be said of Capricorn. As regards to mental processes, such an effect is usually a very good thing — unless it also serves promote a state of mind oblivious to other points of view.

Ideally, the next several days of Mercury moving to finally share the same degree of Capricorn with Saturn on Saturday will be used for tasks requiring acute mental focus. Beyond that, there are even higher aspirations whose time has at long last come. In order to manifest such extra potential, the cosmos will need assistance from you.

To realize the upside of Mercury’s conjunction with Saturn (and, to some extent, that of Mercury in Capricorn until the end of the month), while simultaneously keeping the downside at bay, some discernment on your part will be necessary.

It will be more than helpful to exercise critical thinking without also being critical of either yourself of others. Even more useful will be an ability to practice compassion towards anybody and everybody you cannot bring yourself to either empathize or even sympathize with. One example would be how the Dalai Lama publicly exhibits magnanimity towards a nation that has annexed his homeland, forcing him into exile, while bringing untold hardship onto his fellows in the bargain.

Even though most of us cannot afford to practice the same degree of forbearance exhibited by the Dalai Lama (even if any of us were capable of it), he is a far better example to follow than any of those who feel licensed by possession of a social media account to mercilessly and profusely criticize others.

While a Mercury ingress is not as big a deal as (say) Saturn changing signs, this particular case would be an especially good time to pick your spot instead of picking a fight.

Offered In Service

The Art of Becoming, the 2018 Planet Waves Annual by Eric Francis, will be your best guide to the major astrological shifts ahead. If you pre-order now, you’ll not only get all 12 signs of the written reading for $99, but we’ll include three extra videos covering the forthcoming sign changes of Saturn, Chiron and Uranus. These videos are only included if you get all 12 signs. You may choose your individual signs here.