For the past few days, I have had friends and fellow astrologers alike ask me what is my take on Wednesday’s eclipse. I did my best to offer something relatively insightful and inspiring. As my mind pondered, fI could sense the lag from brain to tongue, endeavouring to not simply blurt out, “I dunno.” Not because I don’t know, but because I’m tired. The kind of ‘I can’t be bothered’ tired where you just need to do something else for a while. To release or to escape into a good book or movie and switch of the turning cogs of the mind for a bit.
So after a busy week last week, Friday evening came and I just wanted to sit on the couch and watch TV, something I very rarely do. I really needed to zone out and not think about what I should be doing, or how better I could spend my time. Rather than having the devil/angel on either shoulder whispering in my ear, I had the two fishes (Pisces) and the virgin (Virgo). With a planetary pile up in Pisces, I shut down my laptop, I opened up a block of Lindt and dived into this surreal world known as Netflix. Pisces won! I got caught up in a series that featured a beach house where the main characters spent a vast majority of their time drinking wine. The sound of the crashing waves and the tinkling glasses with a backdrop of rain here at home, was exceptionally therapeutic, as I sipped my favourite herbal tea.
In the series Grace and Frankie, (the main characters), the rug is swept out from underneath them when their husbands announce they are leaving their respective marriages- for each other! So at age 70, the two women are left to find their way in the dark when their world is turned on its head. They have to reassess how they are going to spend their twilight years while coming to terms with a marriage that was a farce . An eclipse can feel like that, the rug being swept out from underneath you. Most of the time there is little you can do but weather the storm, knowing that the Sun will eventually re-emerge again.
So back to my original train of thought regarding my take on the eclipse… still, I dunno. An eclipse is the wild card in the astrologers arsenal, it can build up, happen and fizzle out and nothing really eventuates. Sometimes it can bring about abrupt change or a tipping point and its effects can be profound and last for days, weeks and even months and beyond, like Grace and Frankie.
Despite being a New Moon with its promise of new beginnings and fresh starts, it’s not quite like that due the close conjunction with the South Node, all in Pisces. An ending or release has to come first. You can’t have your cake and eat too with this eclipse. Decisions have to be made, albeit nearly impossible with a predominance of Pisces planets right now. It is this pile up- the Sun, Mercury, Neptune and the South Node of the Moon all in Pisces, inducing themes of lethargy, confusion and general discombobulation . So if you too feel tired now, I don’t blame you. The planetary conditions are pretty draining and will be until the Autumn Equinox on the 21st where things begin to gather a bit of fiery, rather than watery, momentum again.
In the meantime, consider where you’re giving too much of yourself. Where self sacrifice has taken its toll? Have you deluded yourself that giving means getting something back? Where have you failed to set firm personal boundaries? Where is the proverbial ‘give an inch, take a mile’ situation taking place in your life? Are you drowning in duty or obligation that you can’t see who you are any more? What can you cut yourself free from to help generate movement that will help you toward your dreams and ideals?
These are some of the potential issues the current planetary placements may be triggering, maybe they’re not. Maybe, sometimes, like myself, you just…dunno…and that’s ok too. Maybe the eclipse will reveal itself in your life not this week, but the next, or the one after that. Maybe, not even at all- eclipses are like that! Periods of confusion, though frustrating will help you gain greater clarity once the fog lifts. That is the beauty of the meantime, even though it doesn’t feel like it while you’re treading water.
This weeks total Solar Eclipse is just a few minutes from 19 degrees of Pisces. If you have a planet or chart angle at this degree, this eclipse will be one to watch! If you have Gemini, Virgo or Sagittarius (the other mutable signs) around 19 degrees, this will be a potent time for you as well.