by Robert Wilkinson
The Full Moon of Sun in Leo and Moon in Aquarius this month has been called “almost an eclipse” because there won’t be a significant shadow. That is reserved for the third Lunar Eclipse this year coming with Sun in Virgo and Moon in Pisces on September 16-17, which is the Harvest Moon. That one should be spectacular during Moonrise at sunset!
So what can we expect this month? Since all Eclipses shut something down, this Penumbral Lunar Eclipse begins a short period of things gettin "shut down" in the houses it occupies in our charts. However, because it’s not really an eclipse, it will act more like a normal Full Moon. Given that it happens with some excellent specializing, spiritual, and irrational aspects, this one will bring some great openings that will set up the Solar and Lunar eclipses to come in September.
This Eclipse will be visible during Moonset in all of North America, most of South America, and the far northern Pacific area, and during Moonrise in Australia, Japan, Korea and eastern Indonesia. The penumbral phase is only 37 minutes, making this extremely short, and therefore will only last about 16 days. The September eclipses will be much more powerful, and last a lot longer.
It’s important to remember that most worldly events follow celestial events. Whether an event happens simultaneously with or later than an Eclipse, or some aspect configuration, is conditioned by many things. Sometimes a decision is made that will affect many things in the future, but we don’t know about that until the result manifests.
The time of an Eclipse is when the future effects are set into motion. Regard it as beginning a process of elimination to come to an understanding in the future about why those things had to be shut down for a while, or leave the life altogether. We have to close out parts of our past to create space for future ways to do our Being. Eclipses create excellent time periods to do that.
For example, the Eclipses in Gemini and Sagittarius in 2011-2012, both Solar and Lunar, served to shut down old ways of life, thinking, and understanding wherever we have Gemini and Sagittarius in our charts. There's a lot about them in the archives if you want to know more about their ongoing influence. The Eclipses in 2013 shut down old ways of life, feeling, and valuing wherever we have Taurus and Scorpio in our charts, and the Wesak Full Moon Lunar Eclipse opened us to a form of “Buddha Wisdom,” as much by what it took away as by what it introduced.
Last September’s Total Lunar Eclipse was the last for many years where the Nodes were in Libra and Aries, showing we had been in an era when those signs have been most affected in our charts. And in an interesting note, both Lunar Eclipses in 2014 occurred in Aries/Libra, but the Solar Eclipses fell in Taurus and Scorpio. In 2015, both Lunar Eclipses occurred in Aries/Libra, but the Solar Eclipses fell in Pisces and Virgo. So the long wave Solar eclipses were working on different areas of our charts than the short term Lunar eclipses those years.
In 2016, the Lunar North Node is in Virgo, and the South Node is in Pisces. This put the accent on that axis, and like last year, the Solar Eclipse of 2 weeks from now will fall in Pisces, as will the next Full Moon Lunar Eclipse at the Harvest Full Moon in September at 25 Virgo/Pisces. The Solar Eclipse is in September at 10 Virgo. This “eclipse that is not an eclipse” is important because it ushers in the future focus on the Leo/Aquarius axis.
As the NASA Lunar Eclipse page doesn’t consider this an eclipse, the timing on the event is from the Pocket Astrologer, which is a great resource in countless ways.
Here’s the timing on this event:
P1 Penumbral Eclipse Begins: 9:24 UT
Middle of Eclipse: 9:42 UT
P4 Penumbral Eclipse Ends: 10:01 UT
In the next parts coming this week, we'll explore the qualities of the Full Moon, the Sabian Symbols, the aspects, configurations, and other specifics of this Penumbral Lunar Eclipse Full Moon in Aquarius-Leo.
© Copyright 2016 Robert Wilkinson
Thanks for the thorough introduction to the coming Full Moon in Aquarius/Leo. This appears to be an important and meaningful Full Moon for me and I am sure that for many too.
Ready to go in deeper in the coming post!
Blessings be to all.
Posted by: Nic | August 15, 2016 at 04:51 AM
I think this full moon / lunar eclipse is shutting down the power of Saturn in Aquarius / Pisces in mid 1960s.......and the solar eclipse Sept 1 is activating the Pluto Uranus conjunction in Virgo of mid 1960s.
Regards.
Posted by: Adam | August 15, 2016 at 07:11 AM