Fire, one of the four elements in classical Greek philosophy, one of five elements in ancient Chinese philosophy, and one of five elements in ancient Indian philosophy, is hot, bright, and active. Associated with passion and transformation, Fire is prominent at this New Moon Eclipse.
The Sun and Moon meet in the third decan of Leo, the sign the Sun rules.
Jupiter, the Great Benefic who expands all things, is in the first decan of Leo, along with Mercury, who has entered Leo after completing their retrograde in the sign of Cancer.
The South Node of the Moon is also in Leo, in the final, anaretic degree of the sign. This is the most intense degree of all.
We also have Neptune, Saturn, and Eris in Aries. The Aries planets aspect the Leo planets. Neptune trines Jupiter and Mercury. Saturn and Eris trine the Sun and Moon.
We can anticipate heat, intensity, passion, and transformation with this New Moon eclipse.
Looking at your chart, the first thing to check is where you have planets and points in Fire signs, Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius. These planets and points will feel activated.
Also check the houses where Leo and Aries fall. These areas of your life are the ones most likely to be involved.
The Sun in Leo is the most powerful planet in this chart. Yet the Sun is the light that’s going to be eclipsed totally, if only for a few minutes, as part of this New Moon. We will experience this in different ways.
In mundane astrology, which looks at world events, solar eclipses often represent threats to a ruler, or ruling body, of a country. Ancient Mesopotamia had a protective practice in which a substitute king and sometimes queen, were chosen to sit on the throne during the time of an eclipse. In one case, the real king actually died during the eclipse and the substitute remained, having a successful reign for over twenty years.
Anyone who follows astrology today has seen predictions and speculation about what might happen on the world stage during this very Leo eclipse. My practice as a consulting astrologer focuses on regular folk, so, while we can all watch the news for big changes in high places, I’ll focus on what we might look for in our own charts and lives.
Eclipses happen regularly. We usually have four each year, in two pairs. Sometimes there are five, as there will be next year, 2027. Each eclipse has a unique signature and shows up as part of wider patterns and cycles.
To find the last South Node Solar Eclipse in Leo, we need to go back to August 2009. There’s an echo between the 2026 and 2009 eclipses, so, if something interesting or important happened for you in or around August 2009, keep that event in mind as we approach this one.
Each eclipse also has a place in the Saros system, which groups eclipses together based on a long pattern beginning at either the South or North pole, moving toward the equator, and eventually reaching the opposite pole where the pattern completes. Total eclipses occur toward the middle of each series.
We’ll be in Solar Saros 126, which began in the year 1179 and completes in 2423. All the eclipses in Saros 126 are South Node eclipses. We’re more than halfway through with this total eclipse.
Astrologer Bernadette Brady has done extensive work with the Saros series and offers interpretations of the character of each series based on its initiating eclipse. For Saros 126, she says the series is about leaving a bad situation for a better one that offers us more options. She notes potential solutions may appear near the time of the eclipse.
It’s also worth noting that this is an eclipse at the South Node of the Moon. This is a place where we let go, a place in our charts, or in the sky in transit, when we reach a time of release. In order to move forward with our lives, we may need to let something go.
The eclipse totality won’t be visible everywhere. Its path includes northern Siberia, the Arctic, Greenland, Iceland, the Atlantic, northern Spain and a bit of northeastern Portugal. Astrologically, the path of totality can point to where eclipse effects will be seen and experienced. We may see these northern areas in the news in the days and weeks ahead.
The New Moon occurs at 20º 01’ of Leo, which is in the third decan. The South Node is at 29º 47’ Leo, also third decan.
Since the Nodes moves backwards through the zodiac, this is the first eclipse in Leo we’ve had in some time. The Nodes have just left Pisces and Virgo to enter Leo and Aquarius.
The Sun and Moon, in their forward movement, are reaching the end of Leo. Not long after the New Moon, Sun and Moon will enter the sign of Virgo, each meeting the South Node on the way. The Moon will conjunct the South Node on August 13 and the Sun on August 22.
The rest of this chart is complex.
We see Venus at 05º 51’ Libra where she is strong and balanced. She appears in a T-square in which she opposes Neptune while the Mars–Ceres conjunction squares both.
This T-square calls us to be aware we need careful discernment about what we perceive. Neptune in Aries represents possible confusion about what others seem to be doing. Mars–Ceres in Cancer represent both righteous anger at injustice and the possibility of becoming activated before we fully understand. Venus in Libra reminds us to be sure all voices have a place at the table, and we’re listening carefully to all sides.
Venus is also part of two different Kite patterns. A Kite forms when there’s a Grand Trine in which two of the angles also sextile another planet that opposes the third angle. It looks like a kite.
Venus is in a Grand Trine in Air that forms the base of both Kites. Venus trines Pluto in Aquarius and Uranus in Gemini.
In one Kite, Pluto and Uranus sextile Neptune in Aries who opposes Venus. In the other Kite, Venus and Uranus sextile Mercury and Jupiter in Leo, who oppose Pluto.
Kites are active but supportive patterns. In this chart, they add sources of support but also complexity. There’s a lot to track.
One final note is that both Mars and Pluto are still out of bounds, each adding unpredictability to an already complicated scenario.
It’s fair to say there’s a lot going on.
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At every eclipse, we can orient to our experience without committing to immediate action. Eclipses create fields that can be intense (which this eclipse is likely to be) without giving clear directions for the future.
Let me introduce the motif of the needfire. This is a practice I know from Irish tradition, but also appears in other places around the world. In the ancient Celtic calendar, needfires are part of Beltaine and Samhain.
In the time before Beltaine and Samhain, each home would extinguish its hearth fire. All fires in the community went out. Went dark. Then, on a hilltop, where a special bonfire had been prepared, a new fire would be lit from scratch.
Successfully lighting the fire signaled good luck for the coming season. Each household came to the hilltop fire to light a brand to rekindle their own hearth.
Such times of the year were seen as portentous, carrying portents, meaning, signs of the time to come.
It strikes me that Solar eclipses are like needfires. We wait in readiness for the great fire in our sky to disappear, to go out. We hope and trust in its renewal. When we see the Sun again, we know the world will continue. During the time of darkness, we watch for portents.
While this comparison could be made for any eclipse, it feels especially relevant to this New Moon Solar Eclipse in Leo, with so much Fire in the chart.
Instead of looking to an eclipse as a sign to act, we instead trust in renewal and look for signs. What happens for us, to us, within us, over these next weeks?
We’re about to experience a New Moon Solar Eclipse, followed in two weeks by a Full Moon Lunar Eclipse. Each luminary, in turn, will darken in the sky when it would usually be bright. The quality of light changes. What we notice changes. The world looks different.
In eclipse season, I also think of the blues song, Never Make a Move Too Soon. Written by Will Jennings and Nesbert Hooper, it was first released by B.B. King in 1978 and became one of his signature songs. It’s a blues classic that’s been recorded many times.
It tells a story of someone who walks out on a relationship just as their partner’s luck changes for the better. The partner sings, ya made your move too soon. If you’d just waited a bit more, everything would have changed.
It’s like an old Daoist story about a farmer, his son, a horse, an army, and the neighbors. The farmer experiences a series of events that seem, at first, good or bad. The neighbors keep telling the farmer, too bad that happened to you, or, isn’t that great? The farmer shakes his head, each time, and says, we’ll see.
This eclipse is likely to be activating for all of us. It will be more activating for those with a lot of Fire in their chart, especially a lot of Leo, and for those receiving direct aspects from the eclipse to their birth chart. [Full disclosure: I am in this last category.]
The power move, and the wise move, is to pay attention to what happens around us and within us. Make notes. Consider what messages we might be receiving. Do not take precipitate action.
Don’t make a move too soon. Let the fires burn out and the ashes cool. Then we can see more clearly what’s really going on.
Title image based on the painting Red Horse in Love by Mila Diamant
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