This afternoon in my eastern time zone, the Full Moon in Sagittarius arrives.
This year’s Strawberry Moon is a penumbral lunar eclipse happening across the Sagittarius–Gemini axis. This eclipse Full Moon in mutable signs heralds many transitions, happening at many levels.
There is much to explore.
Eclipses have been feared since ancient times. The experience of having our luminaries–Sun or Moon–blocked out is eerie, unsettling, and has been seen as an ill omen. It’s not wrong to say astrology and astronomy have roots in the desire to predict, and therefore prepare for, eclipses.
It’s almost trivial to say we’re in a time of great change, or that 2020 is a difficult, challenging year. Yet I’m not advocating fear as a response. Let’s look instead at cycles, risks, opportunities, and responses.
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Full Moons illuminate. The opposition between Sun and Moon brings a beautiful light to the night sky and shows us something about the lunar journey we’re on. What seeds did we plant at the New Moon? We’re about to see something related to that.
Eclipses invoke much longer time lines. For one thing, the gifts of an eclipse don’t show up right away. Instead, they unfold over at least six months. Beyond that, eclipses can be tracked through a dizzying array of cycles based on different combinations of solar, lunar, and earth positions.
Saros cycles are my favorite. They fascinate me. They track eclipses over a cycle of 18 years and 11 days, giving an accurate predictive calendar for eclipses, known first to the Chaldeans.
Saros cycles track families of eclipses as they begin at one of the poles (where they are very partial), cycle around the globe until they cross the equator (when they are total), and then move to the opposite pole over hundreds of years.
Bernadette Brady studied historical events linked to solar Saros families and believes each family has a particular character, portending certain kinds of events that might unfold in the world as well as individual lives.
Each of the three eclipses we’ll experience as our summer “eclipse season” belongs to a different Saros family. A lunar eclipse in Saros 111 comes first, followed by a solar eclipse in Saros 137, and then a lunar eclipse in Saros 149.
Why does this history matter today when we’re engulfed in more current events than we can process? Why look back?
History is vital to understanding the now. This is true politically, socially, culturally, and individually. Since this is astrology we’re talking about, we want to learn how patterns can be reflected in celestial movements. This is what astrology is about.
It’s also comforting, in a way, to know we’re not caught in some bizarre confluence of random happenings. Instead, we participate in patterns that are very old. Honestly, if these patterns don’t offer anything useful to today, we can set all this aside and go on to something else.
As one test. each of us can look back to the summer eclipses of 2002, which followed the same pattern unfolding now. On May 26, 2002, a lunar eclipse in Sagittarius was part of Saros 111. The following solar eclipse in Gemini, on June 10, was Saros 137. The concluding lunar eclipse in Capricorn of June 24 was Saros 149.
Whatever was happening for us in 2002 may echo, repeat, amplify, or resolve as this year’s summer eclipses unfold.
So let’s take a look at the patterns of this Full Moon eclipse.
This Full Moon occurs with the Sun @ 15 Gemini and the Moon @ 15 Sagittarius. Since the Nodes of the Moon only recently moved into Gemini and Sag, they are at 29 degrees of each sign. This distance from 15 to 29 degrees is the reason this eclipse is only partial, or penumbral: The Moon will move into the Earth’s path only enough to create a slight shadow.
This eclipse is still real though. It still “counts.”
The Moon in Sagittarius is expansive, optimistic, and light-hearted. This Moon wants the freedom to travel far, explore foreign lands, meet new people, and learn interesting things.
Venus retrograde is conjunct, just past her cazimi, with the Sun. She is still combust, close enough to the Sun’s intensity to be completely hidden from us.
Venus, with the Sun, opposes the Moon. On the Venusian journey within, reflecting on our patterns of relationship, creative expression, and values, she calls us to refocus some of our attention from the outer expansiveness of Sagittarius into the inner worlds of the psyche.
Mars @ 15 Pisces forms a tight square to the Full Moon. Neptune @ 20 Pisces is also part of this T-square in three of the mutable signs, a challenge from Mars and Neptune to the energy of the Full Moon.
Pisces is diffuse. Quiet. Shadowy. Lyrical. Mystical. Neptune is at home here. Mars is not. Mars prefers direct action, a clear path. In Pisces, these things do not exist. So Mars here can become passive aggressive, or simple passive, or can embrace the mystical atmosphere and become a warrior of spirit.
If Mars in Aries is the highly trained athlete poised to begin her race, Mars in Pisces might be the hospice nurse who visits the dying every day, holding space for this sacred transition while offering comfort and support.
Mercury in Cancer sextiles Uranus in Taurus. For some, this aspect adds nurturance to a path of change, a path that is deliberate, grounded in the natural world, and necessary. For others, this aspect might feel more like a need to build walls against an unwelcome pressure.
We are all in transition now. The world is changing. I am not saying we’re all facing the changes together. Clearly, we are not. Yet we are traveling into an unknown future. One in which the rules we thought we knew are no longer operative.
So how can we partner with this Full Moon eclipse?
We turn inward. We allow the Moon to darken. We move into shadowy spaces where we can meet our own hidden and unclaimed selves. We search for the abandoned parts of ourselves. We invite them home.
Now, I want to be clear about the need to distinguish between inner work and work in the world right now. If you are involved in direct action of protest, of organizing, of offering support and care, it is vital for you to stay clearly oriented to what’s going on around you.
What I am saying is that part of the work before us must happen within us. The more privileged we are, the more removed we’ve been from trauma, the more essential this inner work becomes.
I’ve been exploring the difference between day charts and night charts, what’s known as the doctrine of sect. Mine birth chart is a night chart, like, really, really night. Learning about the different ways planets can show up in the day or at night, how the energy shifts, also fascinates me.
If you want to learn about this from a really rich perspective, I recommend Jason Holley’s lectures and workshops, which you can find at Astrology University or in the NORWAC archives.
Holley suggests that the differences between day and night are not as simple as whether the Sun is up or down. He introduces a completely different view of the night, one that is nuanced, negotiated, and shape-shifting in a way the day is not.
And of course we live in a very day-oriented society. Everything needs to be light, bright, sunny, clear, linear, crisp, brisk. Well, you get the idea.
This Full Moon eclipse carries the energy of the night. Notice that it’s Venus and Mars, the benefic and malefic of the night sect, who are configured to the Full Moon. Mercury, who rules Venus,the Sun, and the North Node in Gemini, is now in Cancer, the Moon’s sign. And the Moon will be shadowed. Not too much, perhaps, but still, a shadow will be cast.
At this Full Moon, let’s soften the edges of our perceptions. Perhaps the daytime rules we thought we lived by are not as sunny and clear as we imagined. Maybe it’s time for us to question how the rules are applied and to whom.
Under a noon sky, we can be so sure we are right. We can feel justified, righteous, deserving. In truth, the foundations of our societies are only as strong as they are just. The rules are only righteous when they are the same for everyone.
Change in the world, on the ground, is needed. To fully support and sustain those changes, many of us, most of us, must also welcome inner transformations. The Full Moon eclipse in Sagittarius illuminates the way in.
The astrological charts are my own. The images in this post include the title,
adapted from the night sky by Pono Lopez,
and the following images:
the celestial clock by Fabrizio Verrecchia,
Black Lives Matter by Vlad Tchompalov, and
the golden hand by MUILLU.