As you likely know, yesterday (Saturday night) we experienced the Capricorn New Moon, which was also a partial solar eclipse. So that puts us into ‘the eclipse zone’: the two weeks between eclipses that can be especially useful for releasing that which is no longer needed, and for initiating new patterns that support your growth, goals and desires. Sometimes the eclipse zone can feel a little like a parallel universe, where life takes unusual turns.
Surfer at Blockhouse Beach, Florida; photo by Rusty Clark / CC BY 2.0
At the end of the two weeks, we get the second eclipse in this pair (they usually come in twos; sometimes we’ll get a trio). That will be the Leo Full Moon (with the Sun in Aquarius) and total lunar eclipse on Jan. 20-21, depending on time zone.
Eclipses are currently in the process of moving from the Leo-Aquarius axis (where they were last summer) to the Cancer-Capricorn axis. You may notice a corresponding shift in the areas of your life where change beckons, where opportunities emerge, or where your most pressing questions crop up.
The standard Planet Waves approach to eclipses has long been to ‘look where you want to be’ — a slogan Eric and I once spotted on a surfer’s T-shirt. It’s not just a key principle in surfing; it also sums up perfectly a great way to handle eclipses — whether you feel like a giant wave is crashing around you, or like you’re paddling along a calm lakeshore.
The idea is that when you’re in motion, you’ll tend to steer yourself where your vision and attention is focused. And looking ahead to your desired location is key to ending up there, rather than somewhere else. It’s true whether walking, driving, surfing or making decisions about what to do next in your career, relationship, emotional healing, and so on. We live in the present; retrogrades tend to help us review the past; eclipses can be tools for orienting on the future while still in contact with the reality of what is.
Looking where you want to be is not a guarantee that you’ll get there, thanks to the many unforeseeable factors in life. But it’s an important tool for setting up favorable conditions.
With Saturday’s eclipse nestled between Saturn and Pluto — two dependable agents of change — it’s possible you’re getting a message even more clearly than usual about needed adjustments and transformations you’re on the cusp of enacting. Yet, that doesn’t mean it’ll all happen between now and Jan. 21. Sure, you might experience dramatic changes, depending on the individual circumstances of your life; but it’s just as likely that developments will unfold gradually and even subtly for the next six to twelve months (or longer).
A different kind of Cap: El Capitan (the rock monolith to the left) in Yosemite National Park. Photo by Amanda Painter.
As you steer yourself into the processes of releasing and reorienting, we have some astrology this week that may help you along. First up is Uranus stationing direct in Aries earlier today (Sunday).
Right now, we have ALL of the sign-ruling planets in direct motion for a time (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto — the Sun and Moon are always direct). We even have the first four goddess asteroids (Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta) and the three most-often used centaurs (Chiron, Pholus and Nessus) in direct motion.
This looks like a big green light from the cosmos to move your life forward toward your goals. If that sounds intimidating, remember: we’re in a phase of time when small, simple moves toward what you love, or toward unexpected opportunities, can count for a lot. If you think back to all that you learned and reviewed last year, chances are you’ll feel how ready you really are.
Tomorrow, Monday, Venus leaves Scorpio and enters Sagittarius. Though Venus has been out of its post-retrograde echo (or shadow) phase since Dec. 17, this is the first new sign it will have entered since its retrograde — the final note of 2018’s inner-planet retrograde sonata. Venus in Sagittarius should offer some breezy, affectionate directness to relating, which sounds like a perfect foil to all the serious Capricorn emphasis in the sky currently.
We also have Mercury in Capricorn squaring Mars in Aries on Tuesday (watch your irritability, and figure out how to address any frustration without taking it out on others). And on Friday, the Sun makes its annual conjunction to Pluto in Capricorn. Chances are that will be a day when you feel the need to really get under the surface of something, and it could lend power to whatever eclipse-zone shifts you’re aiming to enact.
I’ll say it again: look where you want to be. It may seem odd to use a surfing metaphor for an eclipse period begun in an earth-sign, but remember, Capricorn is technically a sea-goat.
btw — did anyone else experience the eclipse night and the night before with ridiculously broken sleep? It was way worse than most Full Moons for me in that regard.
Yes Amanda … same. Ridiculously broken sleep.
I certainly did, Amanda. Thank you for pointing this out, I hadn’t associated it with the New Moon. I didn’t have more than two-and-a-half hours’ sleep at a stretch on that and the following night. it crossed my mind to go and look at the New Moon from the local shoreline – it was exact at 01:28 here – but the eclipse wasn’t visible so I decided against.
I’m certainly picking up on the “all planets direct” motion of the heavens at the moment, and it’s good to know that Uranus is at last out of retrograde. Does anyone know how much of our time is spent with all sign-ruling planets direct?
To answer your question, Geoff: it looks like we have until March 5 or 6, when Mercury stations retrograde in Pisces. Then Jupiter stations retro April 10 or 11, and Pluto does the same on April 24 or 25.
Ramona & Geoff: glad to know I was not the only one with disrupted sleep during this eclipse! It definitely caught me off-guard.
Thank you, Amanda. It seems we have but a small window of opportunity between now and March 6 in which to activate unfettered forward motion towards our goals. I feel we should make the most of this short sixth-of-a-year to engage in wonder, enthusiasm for the future, strength, achievement and progress. It’ll make a change from agonising over the flip-flop policies of outdated would-be political grandees. ‘e goes, or should do.
March 6 itself looks like a rather busy day astrologically. There is a New Moon in Pisces, and Uranus enters Taurus for the second of three entrances into the sign of its Fall, a weakened position. Its previous residence in the Bull ran from 1934 to 1942, almost exactly equivalent to the period governing the establishment of Hitler as Germany’s fuhrer (tyrannical leader) and the certain inevitability of his downfall as the USA became involved in World War II.
My question is really when is the next period of “all forward motion” for the sign-ruling planets after March 6? How long do we have to wait for another seemingly perfecto opportunity? And, in the long term, how much of a century is composed of “forward motion only” planets? Is it really a case of two steps forward, 19 back? So many questions, so little time.
Ah, Geoff, as you know by now, there is no such things as “perfect opportunities,” since there’s no such thing in human endeavor as “perfection” — we just get opportunities that are more or less convenient or pleasant or effective. And so your qualifier of “seemingly” is an important one. I’d say we’re always moving along the spiral; and even our moments of seeming limbo or reversal are part of that progress, even if they’re harder to recognize. And from what I’ve heard, astrology offers symbolic opportunities in many forms, all the time — if we “miss” one, we’re sure to encounter later circumstances to help us accomplish similar growth and action, even if they look different.
Maybe that’s why history seems to repeat — or “rhymes” — so often? It’s just the universe giving humanity yet another shot to grow collectively and figure it all out.
As far as how much of a century is composed of “two steps forward, 19 back”? That would be a curious thing to know, just for the heck of it. But I’ll be damned if I’m going to wait for the next “all planets direct” moment to get anything done. 😉
Always a pleasure to chat with you, Geoff…
Always a pleasure to chat with you, too, Amanda. I enjoy the warm camaraderie of PWers and the ability to discuss anything, especially the unlikely.
I hadn’t intended to propose that “all planets direct” periods were the only times when it was worth bothering to make any effort. I see it as a period akin to travelling crosstown where the traffic lights are linked so you can maintain a smooth and constant speed. This enables you to traverse many miles in a relaxed manner but it doesn’t do you much good if, after travelling some distance, you discover that you have been going in the wrong direction. It can also be argued that it’s life’s little detours that deliver the most delightfully unexpected of pleasures.
I still maintain, however, that the chance of a clear run towards any goal or objective should be welcomed as the bonus that it appears, unless, of course, entrapment is suspected. When I encounter a smooth ride I like to believe that I am on the right road and that the journey is right for me at that time and was meant to be. From my history, that attitude has a lot to do with the fact that it’s the other side of the coin from a favourite Al Stewart lyric of mine: If it doesn’t come naturally, leave it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiVneXof1oo
2019 is already indicating that it might turn out to be the year of the cat. My feral feline, who has been about as independent as cats come, is currently recovering from a mighty right-paw swipe from another local moggy. Yesterday I took him to the vets for a bit of surgery and a painkiller. Boy, the difference. Today he’s the most loving cat I’ve ever had the fortune to know. Can’t get enough of me, won’t leave me alone. How amazingly loving can he be? Wouldn’t have wished the somewhat less than minor injury on him for the world, but it’s another green light on his highway of love.
Where the mind goes… the body follows.
Who said that?
A mental stalker.
Hope my reply didn’t offend, Jocelyn. When I were a lad it was often joked that educated women wanted men who were after them for their minds rather than their bodies. Times have changed.
I googled your phrase and it seems that about a million people have used it at some time or another but I couldn’t find a recognisably definitive author.
Exactly, Geoff! (And I love your crosstown traffic light metaphor — perfect.)