Eclipse season comes again about the time of the Winter Solstice. Part IV of this series will consider:
The Total Eclipse of the Moon, December 21, 2010, at 3:13 AM Eastern/12:13 AM Pacific. It occurs on the Gemini/Sagittarius axis with Moon in Gemini, Sun in Sagittarius, 29° 21'. Moon opposite Sun 8:13:27 AM GMT, Maximum Eclipse at 8:16:53 AM GMT.
The Partial Solar Eclipse, January 4, 2011, 9:02:36 AM GMT (Moon conjunct Sun), 8:50:33 AM GMT (Maximum Eclipse), occurs with Sun and Moon at Capricorn 13° 38'.
The Full Moon on December 21 is a Total Eclipse of the Moon. It occurs on the Gemini/Sagittarius axis with Moon in Gemini, Sun in Sagittarius, 29° 21’. Moon opposite Sun 8:13:27 AM GMT, Maximum Eclipse at 8:16:53 AM GMT.
Moon enters the penumbra 5:28 GMT
Umbra 6:32 GMT this is where it starts to look like an eclipse
Completely in the umbra 7:40 GMT now the moon is reddish brown
Middle 8:17 GMT
End umbra 10:02 GMT
End penumbra 11:06
The duration of the entire show is five hours, thirty-eight minutes, but the beginning and ending parts when the moon enters and leaves the penumbral part of the shadow are often unspectacular and I’ll find myself wondering, “Is it starting? Is it starting?” At the end, I’ve grown tired of watching and don’t much care about the “Is it over?”
The darker part of the eclipse, when the moon enters the umbra until it leaves the dark shadow, is three and a half hours duration. The most spectacular part of the show is definitely the middle, the time of “maximum eclipse”.
Rather than list times for the process in five different time zones please use the list above, calculated for Greenwich Mean Time, and subtract the factor that converts it to your local time. Eastern -5, Central -6, Mountain -7, Pacific -8, and Hawai’i -10 (Alaska, you’re on your own, 9 or 10 and you know which.) Add 12 to the GMT when you need to in order to subtract (time will be PM on December 20). Still confused? Send me an email to STARTALKER@aol.com with your location and I’ll send you your times.
Illustration via Wikipedia
OK, that’s for the watching part. To have a sense of how the eclipse might play out in the environment, we locate the eclipse chart to an area of interest. Take the precise time of the Full Moon (3:13 AM EST, 2:13 AM CST, 1:13 AM MST, 12:13 AM PST) and calculate the horoscope for the location of interest. Then look at that chart for whatever’s emphasized at that location. For the national climate I use Washington D.C.
Another way is to look at the chart of an eclipse with mapping software that shows where charted planets, rise, set, culminate (top of chart), and anti-culminate (bottom of chart) with lines on a map. Mars lines might indicate action and fiery events. Neptune lines might be confusion or flooding. The quality of the planet is enhanced at the location with some difference in interpretation relative to rising, setting, culminating and anti-culminating. If a particular location is “flagged” on the map in a way that I find interesting I then calculate an eclipse chart for the place for more information than one can get from the map.
Looking at a chart cast for the lunar eclipse and set for the White House, the planet that first catches my eye is Venus. In a personal chart we’d say she was Rising and important by her placement in the First House. But that’s not so important in this kind of chart. The Rising degree is 7 Scorpio and she’s about 14 Scorpio. That’s about 7 degrees of separation and I don’t pay much attention unless the separation is less than one degree. Looking at the mapping version of the eclipse, I’d not even bother to look at DC. Since it is the seat of power though, I look. What is critical about this Venus is that she’s at an almost precise right angle with the MC degree (the MC is similar, but not quite what the map shows as “culminating”).
Venus is minutes from 14 Scorpio and the MC is minutes from 14 Leo. That ties the Lunar Eclipse Venus strongly to Washington. In this sort of chart, Venus, among other things, represents the economy, money, finances, and women. The MC represents the chief executive and his public standing. The Venus aspect may be an indicator of improving popularity. The aspect however, is a stressful one, so the message may be mixed.
Venus locally dominant in the DC eclipse chart is a strong indicator of financial and economic matters. Further, the Full Moon/Eclipse axis falls across the financial 2nd and 8th Houses. Mercury retrograde (ruling the 8th of the monetary standard, the national debt and intelligence) is in the money 2nd as well as the North Lunar Node and Pluto. Mercury is also at a right angle to Uranus of surprise and the unexpected. Holiday travel will be an adventure for many. The configuration with other planets in the financial picture (5th House – the stock market, holding Jupiter with Uranus), clearly suggest the cliché, “it’s the economy stupid.” That Mercury is retrograde points to the likelihood of trial and error; and Venus ruling the 7th and 12th points to international involvement and behind the scenes machinations.
A negative read would suggest an enhanced “more of the same”; bad news of slow economic growth, unemployment, foreclosure, etc. A more optimistic assessment might be a President gaining in approval and an economy beginning to respond to stimulation. The point isn’t a good or bad prediction but awareness of the issues in emphasis. After all, humankind presumably has this thing called free will.
Some other places “hit” in the eclipse charting include Salt Lake City, and Phoenix where Mars at the IC maybe activating opposition Parties or pointing to a potential for devastating fires. The IC with Mars might also point up weather problems, storms, and natural disasters. Mars heats things up!
"The lunar eclipse is visible over Britain, northwest Europe and Africa at Moonset (dawn); the Pacific and the Americas; and northeast Asia around Moonrise (Sunset)." [This location information via http://www.astronomylive.org/event/total-lunar-eclipse-21-december-2010]
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Two weeks after the Full Moon Lunar Eclipse comes a New Moon Solar Eclipse.
Solar Eclipse Partial January 4, 2011, 9:02:36 AM GMT (Moon conjunct Sun), 8:50:33 AM GMT (Maximum Eclipse)
Illustration courtesy of NASA,
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OH2011.html#SE2011Jan04P
The first charting of this eclipse I did for Greenwich, England, the traditional place used for a World chart. The most emphasized body at that location (at the Rising degree of the chart) is the big asteroid Ceres. Ceres is the Earth Mother asteroid. Her glyph resembles the sickle, the tool used for centuries for harvesting grain. The suggestion is that food is in emphasis for the period. We can expect both crises that bring food to world consciousness as well as worldwide efforts to deal with hunger and agriculture. While “modern” farming methods have allowed for huge yields of selected crops, those have not always been what are needed. Monoculture has forced small farmers out of business and genetically modified crops threaten world ecology. Clearly, food and agriculture need attention and this eclipse suggests that the time is now.
When we locate the eclipse chart to the White House there’s the surprising repeat of a Venus theme (Venus was also emphasized in the December 2010 Total Lunar Eclipse). Venus is less than a degree from the Ascendant of the chart suggesting finance, women, and international relations will be highlighted in the months ahead.
Venus holds connotations of both the 2nd House - finance, prosperity, revenue, and the 7th House - the general public, the status of the nation in the world, international disputes, trade agreements, cartels, and so on.
While Solar Eclipses are often harbingers of difficulty and crisis this one seems almost benign in its Washington DC outfit. We’ll see.
