The Sagittarius-Gemini Full Moon Lunar Eclipse of December 21, 2010 - Pt. 1

by Robert Wilkinson

This Full Moon Lunar Eclipse occurs at 30 degrees Sagittarius-Gemini, promising several months of new standards of thinking, feeling, and acting emanating from major blessings. While all eclipses bring endings, this one will bring new ideas and forms of self expression out of seeing new truths and futures.

This powerful Total Lunar Eclipse falls at 30 degrees of Sagittarius-Gemini on December 21st at 0:13 am PST, 3:13 am EST, 8:13 am Greenwich, and will be in effect for 5 1/2 months. This Lunar Eclipse is a prelude to the very powerful Partial Solar Eclipse on January 4 at 14 Capricorn which will primarily affect Europe, North Africa, and Central Asia. Both eclipses are shutting some old ways of life down forever (as all eclipses do), leaving us space to embrace new mutations that are coming on strong.

The Lunation finds 4 Libra rising in Santa Monica, 30 Virgo in Vancouver, 7 Scorpio in Washington DC, 9 Scorpio in Miami, 1 Capricorn in Rio, 30 Sagittarius in London, 4 Capricorn in Amsterdam, 12 Capricorn in Berlin, 11 Capricorn in Tallinn, 6 Aquarius in Sofia, 15 Aquarius in Istanbul, 24 Aquarius in Cairo, and 5 Pisces in Johannesburg.

Moving into Asia and Oceana, we find Ascendants at 29 Aries in New Delhi, 24 Aries in Trivandrum, 21 Taurus in Bangkok, 9 Gemini in Hong Kong, 10 Cancer in Tokyo, 20 Taurus in Perth, 12 Gemini in Melbourne, 24 Gemini in Brisbane, 6 Cancer in Wellington, and 30 Leo rising on Maui (All eclipses fall on Dec 21 except Maui which occurs late Dec 20). As the Eclipse is on or near the angles in the Pacific time zone, the UK and Western Europe, Korea and eastern Australia to New Zealand, you can expect significant effects in those places, as well as where the Eclipse shadow falls, explained below.

Because the New Moon preceding the Full Moon always represents the seed forms that are brought to surface at and after the Full Moon, please check out New Moon in Sagittarius Pt. 1 and Pt. 2 These articles can help focus what blessings and seeds are being released in the world over the next two weeks. As we are still under the influence of the mid-July Solar Eclipse, you may also want to review the 3 articles in the archives concerning its long term influence.

This is the third Full Moon Sun that falls in the same sign as the previous New Moon. We've now closed the old cycle of Full Moon Suns in different signs than the previous New Moon we experienced from July 2009 through September 2010. The current sequence of the New Moon Sun being in the same sign as the next Full Moon Sun happens through May 2012, after which it will again reverse function and the Full Moon Sun will be the same as the following New Moon Sun.

As I've explained in previous Full Moon articles,

... the Full Moon being in a subsequent sign than the previous New Moon indicates that what is released as realizations in the Full Moon period actually "prepare the ground" for the coming New Moon seed. Strange reversal of function, since you would think the New Moon provides the seed for the next Full Moon. But this set of Lunations works the opposite way....

Another way to look at this is the Sun sign of the Full Moon is the same as and precedes the Sun sign of the next New Moon, reversing the usual way Lunations work. So the fulfillment of the Full Moon sets up the next "seed" to be revealed at the next New Moon....

So now the New Moon-Full Moon cycle is "back to normal," in the sense that now we have the illuminated form shown to us at the New Moon which is fulfilled by the light of the same sign at the subsequent Full Moon. The New Moons will all fall in the first half of their signs and the Full Moons will all fall in the last half of their signs from now through May 2012. Seeds shown in the first half, fulfillment in the second half makes some kind of sense.

This Full Moon falls at the last degree of Sagittarius and Gemini. It is said that the last third (decan) of any sign deals with the individual, mental, and spiritual levels of life, and being the third decan of those signs, invokes a sub-influence of Leo and Aquarius.

Since the Moon always focuses the light of the Sun in specific forms, the degree symbols for both are important. The Sun degree is the illumination or enlightenment of the Lunation, whereas the Moon shows us the potential forms that enlightenment will take. The various symbols and their potential manifestations will be discussed in future articles exploring this Lunar Eclipse.

This Lunar Eclipse will shine a light on our spiritual resources that can be used in building a "community of Spirit," and externalize as a new "standard of measurement" about how our ideas can be used to further our Soul's expression. We can see higher and wider truths, and come to both intellectual and philosophical fulfillment as a prelude to entering a wider world of effectiveness.

As this Eclipse is the first one in Sagittarius and/or Gemini in over 7 years, it begins a new cycle of Eclipses falling in those signs. The coming Solar Eclipse in Capricorn in January 2011 will be the last one involving Cancer or Capricorn energy, thus completing a sequence that began in July 2009. We'll finish shutting down old public and professional energies in the years during which the coming Solar Eclipse is an influence. Coming Eclipses falling in June, November, and December 2011 all involve Sagittarius and/or Gemini, which will shut down entirely different energies than the Eclipses of the past 18 months have.

From the NASA site:

...The last lunar eclipse of 2010 is especially well placed for observers throughout North America.... At the instant of greatest eclipse (08:17 UT) the Moon lies near the zenith for observers in southern California and Baja Mexico. At this time, the umbral magnitude peaks at 1.2561 as the Moon's southern limb passes 2.8 arc-minutes north of the shadow's central axis. In contrast, the Moon's northern limb lies 8.1 arc-minutes from the northern edge of the umbra and 34.6 arc-minutes from the shadow center. Thus, the southern half of the Moon will appear much darker than the northern half because it lies deeper in the umbra. Since the Moon samples a large range of umbral depths during totality, its appearance will change dramatically with time.

The Umbral duration is 72 minutes, while the total Penumbral duration is 5 hours 35 minutes. This implies that its effects will be felt through mid-June 2011. Also from the NASA site, we are told that

The entire event is visible from North America and western South America. Observers along South America's east coast miss the late stages of the eclipse because they occur after moonset. Likewise much of Europe and Africa experience moonset while the eclipse is in progress. Only northern Scandinavians can catch the entire event from Europe. For observers in eastern Asia the Moon rises in eclipse. None of the eclipse is visible from south and east Africa, the Middle East or South Asia.

This Lunar Eclipse will begin a several month "shut down" in the houses it occupies in our charts. Given that it happens during a Mercury retrograde, you can bet there will be returns from the past, reconnections between people and circumstances, and new insights into old ideas.

It also is part of a (mostly) separating Mutable T-square, showing a lot has been broken up and/or redistributed in the recent pas. Since Mercury still forms a square to Jupiter, it marks the culmination of the old Jupiter-Uranus in Pisces era through showing us new insights in how we may need to adjust the ways we coordinate our truth with our compassion and our willingness to forgive as we move into newer, unknown zones of life.

So whatever has been jarred loose recently is going to continue to yield valuable insights and information which will lead to ideas and information about the essence of things, where we can strive toward distant possibilities. It also will give us new information about recent developments leading us into a larger form of world or local service, helping us refine our individual expression and function.

We'll see what we need to release or demonstrate associated with this Lunar Eclipse as prelude to other endings to come in future eclipses involving Gemini and Sagittarius coming this Summer. On a related note, this begins a clearance that anticipates the bigger, longer-term endings to be set into motion at the coming Solar Eclipse in January 2011.

So like most Lunar Eclipses, this one also ushers in a transitional period of about 5 1/2 months that will clear things out of our lives, and especially our past (the Moon). The space created can attract circumstances and people through which we can develop skills helping us deal with the wild ride of The Grand Irrationality.

(As Venus is in the heart of the Scorpio zone of the Grand Irrationality in this eclipse but just separating from Neptune and Pluto, it indicates we've all just gone through major choices and forks in the road of our destinies. These have a major part in what will be shut down in our lives in the next few months.)

Though recent eclipses and the coming Solar Eclipse accent Cancer and Capricorn sectors, remember that elements of past Aquarius eclipses in 2008-2009 will still be active for some time to come, due to Chiron and Neptune continuing to transit late Aquarius. It may be useful to regard Jupiter's time in Aquarius in 2009 as having offered us greater teachings, protection, and possibilities associated with the Aquarian endings portended by those eclipses.

All the occupied points from the past few Solar Eclipses will factor into the intense Aquarian changes and manifestations occurring over the next few years. After you're done here, if you want to go deeper into understanding the Eclipse effects you may or may have known were happening, please re-visit what I wrote about the 2008 and 2009 Aquarius eclipses in the archives.

In part two of this series, we'll go into various elements of this eclipse, and how it will manifest these next 5 1/2 months. It is sure to affect dynamic changes to those with an Ascendant or planets around 24-30 degrees of Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces. However, it will also provide harmony, understanding, and stability to those with planets in the same degrees of Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius, and Aquarius, as well as unique gifts or circumstances for those with sensitive points at 9-12 Leo and Aquarius and 15-18 Aries and Libra.

Those with an Ascendant or planets in the second decan of Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn will also be heavily affected in both productive and frictional ways due to the Mars square Saturn in this eclipse. For most of us, the challenge will be to make what is potential actual while retiring from old duties, responsibilities, and limitations in order to balance our lives. A sense of humor and/or irony will be useful in responding to growth opportunities, as will the ability to turn inward and raise our awareness to higher levels while embracing a new worldly order. Of course, I'll explain more in parts 2 and 3.

On a final note for today, recently I saw something circulating on the Internet that purports that this Lunar Eclipse is one that will be Earth transforming and is the "true event" that so far has been speculated for Dec 21, 2012. Here I'll state for the record that this Lunar Eclipse will not usher in "the end of the world as we know it," and in fact will bring us blessings and a whole new set of higher standards we can live. The Earth will not experience a Polar Shift, the Sun will not blast us into the 4th dimension, and I doubt there will be any more earthquakes than usual! Relax into the blessings this Eclipse promises, and I'll see you here soon with a lot more!

You can find more about the general influence of Lunar and Solar Eclipses in Astrology in December 2010 and January 2011 - A Sagittarius-Gemini Lunar Eclipse and Capricorn Solar Eclipse Are On The Way! which explores whether any Eclipse must produce bad effects, and how to use Eclipses productively.

© Copyright 2010 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[Todd Carnes]

I enjoyed the post, Robert. I thought it was very well done, except for a couple "minor' things.

I'm sorry, I know I'm being nit-picky here, but...

1) There's no such thing as 30 degrees of any sign. They run from 0 - 29d 59s. The eclipse does, however, fall in the 30th degree of the sign (the 30th degree runs from 29deg 00min - 29deg 59min of any given sign).

2) The eclipse occurs at 29 deg 21 min of Sagittarius-Gemini (give or take a few arcseconds).

As I said, I know I'm being nit-picky, but other than those monir errors I truly did enjoy the article. :)

[Todd Carnes]

LOL, I just messed up myself... "monir" should have read "minor". :)

Todd

[Jorge Torres]

ThankYou Robert Wilkinson !!!

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”

Albert Einstein !!!

Blessings !!!

[Sue Moon]

This is very helpful! Thank you for making the spin so positive. I am very grateful to hear about the blessings and will tell everyone I know to focus on that! Merry Christmas Robert, you are such a part of my life. Every morning I check in to see what you have to say, and it sets the tone for my day. Jai Bhagwan, dear teacher.

[Robert]

Hi Todd - I don't use "th" behind degree numbers as that's my writing style for the sake of speed in composition. I figure after many years and thousands of pages of articles my readers are hip to that. I often just use 9 or 21 or 30 (whatever sign) but occasionally readers don't know what that means, so I include the word "degrees." For those who are wondering what this is about, as I've explained before I use the system that both Dane Rudhyar and Marc E Jones used to define the parameters of the Sabian Symbols. 0 degrees 1 minute through 1 degree 0 min of a sign is 1 degree. 29 degrees 1 minute through 30 degrees 0 min of a sign is 30 degrees. That's why I use "30 degrees" as I assume by now my readers know that means the "30th degree." It works the same way as we define birth years. When we are born through our first birthday we are not known as "1 year old." We are only one year old when we complete the zero year. We are then one year old until we complete our second year, when we are called "two years old." Even though it's our second year, we're still 1 year old.

Hi Jorge - Einstein, a good Pisces if ever there was one, was spot on with that thought! Of course the task is to separate out what is truly "intuitive" from the many astral "hunches" we have that often lead us into the proverbial ditch. Intuition is always of the heart, aka "inner knowing," rather than from feelings which sometimes are unreliable.

Hi Sue Moon - Well, back in ancient days when I first started studying the craft, eclipses were known to be very dreadful things. But if we approach them as Lunations of a special sort, then their possible manifestations are stripped of the glamor of childish nightmares and we can see them as periods when the "cosmic recycler" takes our recyclables to the processing plant and we no longer have to have them cluttering our lives. "And something's lost and something's gained in living every day...." It's really nice that occasionally the old patterns in whatever house are shut down so we don't have to keep figuring out how to use them wisely. Given that we cannot lose what we need to live, then the only things that are taken away are elements of our past we no longer need. And may you and every one else also have a very Happy Christmas and Merry Solstice, Sue. Aum and blessings to you. May Divine Mother bring everyone what they need for health, abundance, and true happiness, knowing we all are safely held within Her Supreme protection and nurture.

[Tatyana]

Hello Robert, regarding this eclipse. I want to know how it will affect me and where I am. I want to know what time will it pass thru me, because I live in the eastern USA and it will be early 3 am on 12/21. But I was born in Russia and their time is about 9 hours ahead of us. Am i supposed to feel its effect earlier or it matters where you are and not where you were born and that part of the earth. can you explain how it works. thank you

[Aquila ka Hecate]

Hi Robert,

This eclipse (and the full moon Gemini) seems to be occurring during a void of course moon. Can you confirm this?

Love,
Terri in Joburg

[ull]

Eight house eclipse again..BIG eight house. Old powers and old feelings..
Need to deal with it. Would prefer smelling the flowers - but soon there will be
no flowers..

[Irina]

Hello Robert. I have the same question as Tatyana. I was born in Russia and alredy 17 years in Holland. By the way my South and North knop Gemini-Sagittarius. Another question: what is more important Birh Chart or Progressed. Becouse for example my moon is in Scorpio, but Progressed moon in Cancer. Is that means that Cancer-Capricorn Eclipces effecting my Chart directly? And wat I realy wonder- my Bith chart Jupiter is exectly 0 degree Cancer, Milky Way degree. So this full moon must be significant for me, only I don't know in wich way. I'm libra at 4. Could you tell me please If it's goed or bad sign when my own Jupiter wil be "eclipsed".

Thank you, Kind Regards, Irina

[Bilyana]

Thank you, Robert for including Sofia in your article! This Lunar Eclipse falls on my natal Jupiter in 5th house and sextile my natal Saturn. I've got also Sun on 16 Capricorn and I appreciate very much your advice about adding some irony in all that's going around...

[mary]

"we can see them as periods when the "cosmic recycler" takes our recyclables to the processing plant and we no longer have to have them cluttering our lives"

I LOVE that analogy, Robert. Makes so much sense and makes me aware how considerate that cosmos really is, clearing up our mess and clutter and sending it all to the big spirtual processing plant so we can start afresh and appreciate the space that clutter filled! Love it. This eclipse is conjunct my venus, square my saturn and chiron....feels powerful. Is powerful. Is ultmimately good for me!