by Robert Wilkinson
This Solar Eclipse will have a very beneficial stabilizing effect for a very long time. All eclipses shut something down, taking away elements of our lives no longer true for us. Over the next 5+ years many will go through endings while finding more effective ways to work and do forms of deeper and wider service.
Virgo is the sign of health, work, service, and practical discipleship. It is where we do what we have to do, with humility and efficiency, to bring order out of chaos, or at least make the adjustments needed before the process breaks the surface into new archetypes and ideals in Libra. It is how Pisces externalizes, and with the North Node where it is, we’re all going to grow into techniques to bring calm in the midst of agitation.
Because this Eclipse lasts 5 hours and 47 minutes from start to finish of the penumbral phase, and 3 hours 38 minutes of the umbral phase, it’s of extremely long duration, so will have an impact for about 5 years and 9+ months, with maximum intensity for 3 years and 6+ months. Thus it will have effects for a long time to come, so it’s good that we have several productive and harmonizing aspects in play at the Eclipse.
Because the NN shows the line of development, the challenge is to open to seeing what needs to be worked on and adjusted to make it function better. This will help us see the practicality of certain activities, as well as the parts of life that don’t work so well and need correction. Whatever is cleared out via the Pisces SN will over time attract new forms of Virgo expression and activities.
Look to the house where this Lunation falls to see what area of your life will be impacted, just as the houses where past Solar Eclipses fell have already been shutting down obsolete patterns since then. I gave you the positions and links to past eclipses in yesterday’s article. And remember that whatever is taken away will create an attraction for something more appropriate to who you are now, and who you are becoming.
So What’s Happening Where?
This Annular Solar Eclipse happened on Sept 1, 2:03 am PDT, 5:03 am EDT and 10:03 am BST. This practical, distributive, serendipitous and “get it done” Solar Eclipse will be strongest where it falls near one of the angles in locations around the world.
We see the Eclipse on the nadir on the west coast of North America and Alaska, and on the eastern horizon on the east coast of North America down to Brazil. It is near the midheaven along the line from Finland through Cairo to Johannesburg, and setting along the line from Japan through eastern China to Australia.
A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the Sun and Earth. The Moon blocks the light from the Sun and casts a shadow on Earth. In eclipse lore, where the Eclipse is visible will be where the greatest effects can be expected, lasting the number of years that the eclipse is long in hours.
Past Eclipses As Prologue To Our Present and Future
As I've mentioned in previous articles, we had 4 Solar Eclipses in 2011, which was a very rare occurrence. The January 2011 Eclipse was visible in Europe and the major cities of the Middle East. Perhaps that Eclipse had some correlations with the "Arab Spring" revolutions spreading throughout that region.
The Solar Eclipse of January 2011 lasted 4 hours and 20 minutes, which also made it a player in the events of 2012-2015, since it was active for 4 years and 4 months. That influence is now over. As noted, the June 2011 Gemini Eclipse was very long, bright, and powerful, while the July 2011 Cancer Eclipse was short and weak, and its influence only lasted through the end of 2012.
The November 2011 Sagittarius Eclipse was very bright, and has been in effect for about 4 years after that. So besides the usual transits and Lunations, planetary stations and conjunctions to the outer transformational planets, we also have Eclipses as long wave influences still be in play years after the event!
The June 2011 Eclipse was visible in Northern Canada, Iceland, Greenland, and Norway. The July 2011 Eclipse was visible only in a small area between Antarctica and South Africa, so was seen by no one. The November 2011 Eclipse was visible in South Africa, Antarctica, and New Zealand.
The May 2012 Eclipse was visible from S. China and Japan through the Northern Pacific and Aleutian Islands down to S. Oregon and N. California, central Nevada, southern Utah, northern Arizona, New Mexico (Albuquerque!), and the Texas Panhandle. The November 2012 Total Solar Eclipse was partial across a large area of the South Pacific (including Australia and New Zealand), southern South America, and part of Antarctica. The only place it was total was on the east coast of Queensland, Australia.
The May 2013 Annular Solar Eclipse at 20 Taurus will be in effect for 3 years and 9 months, putting its influence through early 2017. That one was visible in Australia, Indonesia, Oceania and much of the central the Pacific Ocean. The November 2013 Hybrid Solar Eclipse at 12 Scorpio will be in effect for about 3 years and 4 months, also putting its influence in play through early 2017.
That one was visible within a thin corridor, which traverses the North Atlantic and equatorial Africa. A partial eclipse was seen in eastern North America, northern South America, southern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
As an aside, of some note is that the Solar Eclipse at 12 Scorpio fell during Diwali, a great sacred Festival of Light celebrating the victory of good over evil through the Grace of Lakshmi, one of the Forms of Divine Mother. I suppose whatever is associated with that Eclipse that has been or is yet to be taken away, will be a form of Grace that blesses us.
The April 2014 Annular Solar Eclipse at 9 Taurus was only in effect for 2 months, so its effects were quick to fulfill and pass away. That one was visible in Antarctica, and partially visible in the southern Indian Ocean, the southern edge of Indonesia and all of Australia.
The October 2014 Partial Solar Eclipse at 1 Scorpio will be in effect for 4 years and 3 months, putting its influence through all of 2018. That one was visible across all of North America.
The March 2015 Total Solar Eclipse at 30 Pisces will be in effect for 4 years and 2 months (penumbral length) with the most intense period being 1 year and 2 months (umbral period). That one was visible in Iceland, Europe, North Africa, and North Asia, with the Eclipse visible in its totality in the far north Atlantic, the Norwegian Sea, Svalbard, and the Faroe islands.
The September 2015 Partial Solar Eclipse at 21 Virgo will be in effect for 4 years and 5 months, putting its influence through 2019. That was of a relatively low magnitude, and was only be visible in South Africa, Madagascar, the South Indian Ocean, and Antarctica.
The March 2016 Total Solar Eclipse at 19 Pisces will be in effect for 5 years and 3 months, putting its influence through 2021. It was of high magnitude, and was visible visible in east Asia, Oz, and the Pacific Ocean, with the total eclipse visible in Sumatra, Borneo, Sulawesi, and the Pacific Ocean.
What Does NASA Have To Say About This Eclipse?
I’ve been using information from the NASA Solar Eclipse site for many years. In the past, they included a bunch of information about each eclipse, but last year changed what’s on their site.
There’s a huge amount of information toward the bottom of the page about every eclipse you could ever want to research. Have fun! And this page gives all the technical information about the eclipse.
This Eclipse has a relatively high magnitude, and will only be visible in Africa, southern and western Saudi Arabia, Madagascar, and the Indian Ocean, with the annular part strongest in central Africa, Madagascar, and the Indian Ocean. You can find more by going to the NASA site.
More On the Influence of Eclipses
Besides the factor of where the shadow falls, in Astrology Eclipses are said to be most powerful when they conjunct the Sun, Moon, Ascendant, or Midheaven of a birth chart. When this happens it always brings endings related to the planets and sectors involved, but these can be of great benefit in clearing away old life factors that have no place in our future. As it was once sung, "something's lost and something's gained in living every day..."
Of course, besides these past echoes and the usual general effects, the Eclipse will also bring losses and endings where it falls in our individual birth charts. In an example I offered in the article explaining Solar Eclipses in general of how a loss can work to great benefit, if it conjuncts the Saturn in a birth chart, it can indicate the ending of old, lesser responsibilities, limitations, or fears, and open the being to a greater sense of purpose. If it conjuncts Jupiter, then it could show the ending of an old philosophy or belief system and open the gates to something far greater.
Given a Solar Eclipse is a New Moon, then like all Lunations that work their influence over time, it triggers events related to previous celestial events, and is triggered by subsequent transits to those points. For example, because of where the North Node is, we can assume this Eclipse at 10 Virgo will set developments into motion related to the lessons dating back to when Saturn went stationary retrograde at 9 Virgo in December 2007 through when it went stationary direct at 15 Virgo in May 2009.
That period crystallized effects set into motion at the Sept 2007 Solar Eclipse at 19 Virgo. All of these Virgo “set up” events that were expanded in some way when Jupiter transited this section of Virgo between September 2015 and May 2016 will be revisited in some way, with a new look or new understanding coming via the current Mercury retrograde going direct at 15 Virgo in about 3 weeks. This is definitely a look back to let go and leap into the future!
This Eclipse and these transits are opportunities to understand how we are training and what we are training for in the way of technical skills within an emotional, social, or cultural context. The Eclipse in a tight opposition to Neptune and square Saturn will open new lands for exploration, requiring a pioneering attitude as we break free of old gravitational momentum and change the trajectory of our minds. There are decisions to be made, old lesser duties and obligations to be left behind, and the need for a new view as we enter into a deeper union in the soul realm.
So like last September’s Solar Eclipse in Virgo, this one is also about being educated by experimentation (courtesy of the Mercury RX ruling the Eclipse in an exact conjunction with Jupiter at 29 Virgo), with substantial promise, gifts, and high specialization indicated by this conjunction quintile Saturn and tredecile to Pluto. As the Eclipse forms a trine to Pluto, we also see that opposition-sextile-trine throwing very productive energies into our Cancer sector. I’ll explain more about the aspects in play at this Eclipse in future articles.
In the next part of the series, we'll explore how this Eclipse will manifest and its astrological components, including Sabian Symbols, which signs will be most affected, and more on the mixed energies at work in this Annular Solar Eclipse. Since it’s very bright and of long duration, get ready to say goodbye to old worries or work and service you’ve outgrown, and ready for new work, new health disciplines, and other forms of practice service resulting from your previous training.
See you soon with the next article on this Solar Eclipse!
© Copyright 2016 Robert Wilkinson
Robert, my natal Ascendant is at 9.32 Virgo, Neptune at 9.53 Virgo and South Node at 13.38 Virgo. Clearly the nodal axis of today's eclipse with North Node at 12.40 Rx is hitting all three. I am confused about the impact, whether Virgo or Pisces becomes stronger as a result of the reversal of nodes involved.
Posted by: Jo Garceau | September 01, 2016 at 12:18 PM