It might be useful to compare the astrological components of eclipses to the elements of a telescope. You could say the Sun and Moon are like lenses (or even mirrors). The lunar nodes work like the tube, providing alignment. Finally, Earth (and you) would correspond to the eyepiece, or possibly the telescope’s operator.

Telescopes are great tools. With one, astronomers can spot something (such as a comet) coming. A telescope can also be used to look back in time by taking in the radiant emissions sent out by distant stars and galaxies billions of years in the past.

Ideally, eclipses can function in the same way: as useful tools that provide perspective on both where you have been and what may lie ahead. The partial lunar eclipse coming up on Monday will be taking place with the Sun precisely (to the degree) in the middle of the fixed astrological sign Leo. At the same time, the eclipsed Full Moon will be in the middle of the fixed sign that opposes Leo: Aquarius.

When the Sun occupies the middle degree of a fixed sign, it is the midpoint of a season. Events correlating with such “cross-quarter” points are considered by multiple cultural traditions to provide an excellent perspective on both the past and future.

Even in our modern age, there are vestigial commemorations of mid-season such as Groundhog Day (with the Sun approaching the middle of Aquarius), May Day (with the Sun moving close to the midpoint of Taurus), and Halloween (when the Sun is in mid-Scorpio).

Interestingly, the cross-quarter days corresponding to the Sun at Leo’s midpoint have not been co-opted into commercially or politically oriented culture like the other three have. That’s good news. There will be no contrived artifice to obscure your perceptions when the Sun, precisely at the midpoint of this season, exactly opposes the Moon just as precisely at the midpoint of its monthly cycle during a lunar eclipse. All you have to do is remember just one thing.

It would be helpful for you to recall how many of the best astronomers in history did not (at least at first) understand what they were seeing when they first spotted something through a telescope. Galileo recorded what he thought to be either a star or a moon of Jupiter. In fact it was Neptune, unwittingly sighted more than two centuries before it was recognized to be a planet.

Likewise, William Herschel originally thought Uranus to be something other than a planet. Similarly, galaxies were seen long before they were fully understood to be as we now know them.

So, if you do detect something coming through the compound lens of a cross-quarter day concurrent with the lunar eclipse on Monday, give yourself a pat on the back and appreciate such a special moment. Simply understand that what you have sensed may not yet be fully defined. Be careful not to draw hasty conclusions or make summary judgments about the specifics. Give yourself credit, but allow for later observations and other points of view to determine exactly what you have discovered.

As regards to seeing into and understanding the past (and how we got from then to now), Monday’s lunar eclipse will conceivably function as a telescope in that way too. That’s because the Sun and Moon’s positions on the zodiac will exactly (to the degree) duplicate where they were for a lunar eclipse on Aug. 7, 1998. What’s more, the total solar eclipse coming up on Aug. 21 of this year will see the Sun and Moon merge in precisely the same degree of Leo as the solar eclipse on Aug. 21, 1998.

In other words, what started 19 years ago this month is now (at least symbolically) about to come full circle in some way. Of course, many other parts of the equation will be different. The Aug. 21, 1998 solar eclipse, for example, did not cast its shadow across the same path the Great American Eclipse will trace.

What an extraordinarily precise correlation between past and nearly present events on the zodiac is likely to offer is information. Just as the light only now arriving from ancient stars tells us something about how things got to be the way they are, so will the metaphorical telescope this upcoming set of eclipses will provide.

Hence, starting on Monday, begin looking ahead — but not with any illusions of absolute certainty or clarity. The details will come later, but that’s no reason to dismiss the importance of any discoveries you may make. Also, do not neglect to commence looking back — not in the expectation of repetition, but to gain a greater appreciation of the role rhythm and rhyme play in the song of your life.

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