We’re reentering eclipse season with tonight’s Full Moon and penumbral lunar eclipse. It seems almost inevitable that we’d end this intensely challenging year with a pair of eclipses, doesn’t it?
“Penumbral” means the Earth will only shadow the Moon rather than blocking the light entirely.
This shadow will be deeper than the last one, and visible throughout North America. If you’re awake in the predawn hours and the skies are clear, you’ll see a shadow with a red tint deepen, shading out the Moon’s glow.
You won’t be able to look away.
Rising Moon Astrology is now a PODCAST on iTunes and many other platforms. Please listen, subscribe, and leave a review.
Eclipses have always fascinated us. The darkening of the lights led ancient sky watchers to begin the precise observations that enabled them to predict when eclipses would happen, one of the paths that led us here to the astrology we practice today.
The Gemini Moon loves to look. Curious, clever, mischievous, innovative, this Moon sees possibilities in everything. This is mutable Air, the place where anything you can imagine might happen and words mean whatever we say they mean–or maybe something else.
The Moon moves to conjunct the North Node, also in Gemini, which means we look toward the future.
Of course, the Sagittarian Sun moves to conjunct the South Node of the past, so the full journey is in play at this Full Moon eclipse.
The distance between the luminaries and the Nodes, Sun and Moon @ 8 and Nodes @ 19, tells us this is a partial, rather than a full, eclipse. The Sun will continue approaching the South Node, bringing us a full solar eclipse with the next New Moon.
Neptune, who has stationed direct, is in closer aspect to the Nodes than either luminary. At 18 Pisces, this planet of deep magic squares the Nodes.
This could bring confusion, but the fact is, Neptune’s been squaring the Nodes all month and we’ve had the full complement of confusions to prove it. I’ve been surprised in the last day or so at how much my spirits lifted as Neptune stationed. Now, Neptune is really central in my birth chart, but still, I’m thinking we’re all feeling just a bit lighter and maybe a little more hopeful.
There is still plenty of darkness around and we won’t be ignoring it.
The word “fascinate” has a curious history. In fact, its roots are debated. Now we think of fascination as something delightful and attractive, but earlier meanings had to do with enchantment, spells, witches, and serpents.
To fascinate was to compel attention, like the gaze of the basilisk. To be fascinated was to be ensorcelled, unable to look away.
This too is part of this Gemini Full Moon.
Gemini is ruled by Mercury, currently at the end of Scorpio. Mercury is sextiling the Capricorn group while already under the beams of the Sun. This suggests a kind of compelling fascination in itself, as Mercury communes with Pluto, Jupiter, Pallas Athena, and Saturn, but is unable to speak of what they see.
So despite the mutable flexibility of the Sun, Moon, and Nodes, there is a fixed quality here as well. We are seeing things from a new perspective.
Those things will be in light and in shadow, from the past and of the future, things to let go of and intimations of what may be coming. But we will not be able to speak of them, or even apprehend them completely, right away.
This fits with the extended timeline of eclipses.
New Moons and Full Moons cast their influence during their own lunar cycle. There might be echoes from previous lunations in the same signs, but generally, what a New or Full Moon brings will play out during its current cycle.
Eclipses are on a longer timeline. Generally, eclipses are said to extend their influence over about six months, or until the next eclipse season. The first eclipses of 2021 will arrive in late May and early June. Astrologer Nina Gryphon noted in her eclipse podcast an older tradition of linking the influence of an eclipse to the number of hours the eclipse lasts. This Full Moon eclipse will last four hours, suggesting an influence of four months.
So tonight’s Full Moon eclipse will focus our attention on something we will not fully understand until events over the coming months unfold. What might we see?
For this, you’ll want to check where the eclipse falls in your birth chart.
I still favor quadrant houses and use Placidus. For me, this eclipse falls across my 10th House/ 4th House axis. My compelling “something” will affect who I am in public, with influences also on who I am at home, in my private self.
If I looked at my chart using Whole Sign houses, the axis would be across my 11th and 5th Houses, my public networks and communications vs. my personal creative processes.
You will also want to take note of where other important transits are happening, as these too will influence the precise forms of fascination this Full Moon will bring.
For me, Pluto is just easing off my Chiron but still very present. Transiting Venus is between my Saturn and Venus, separating from Saturn, applying to a soon-to-arrive Venus return.
So I fully expect mystery and shadow to be part of my experience and look forward to how it all unfolds in the months ahead.
Lunar eclipses are associated with endings, the closing of a door, the realization that something is over. Given 2020, there is much indeed we hope is coming to an end. Yet our own endings might not be what we expect.
The mischief of the Gemini Moon and the strong presence of Neptune point to a certain level of surprise. And although the tone of this Full Moon is mixed, combining mutable, fixed, and cardinal placements, Gemini can be very quick indeed.
So we are in a mysterious time with regard to time itself. It’s possible we might see, fairly quickly, that something in our lives is ending, or needs to end. It’s also likely our experience of this Full Moon will unfold over a much longer time.
We’re in the presence of magicians and sorcerers. Witches and serpents. There will be a shadow on the Moon. We are already fascinated.
The astrological charts are my own. The images in this post include the title,
adapted from the night sky by Mathew Schwartz,
and the following images:
spells by Paige Cody,
snake by Jan Kopřiva, and
the mushrooms by Mathew Schwartz