astrology Archives - Magic of the Moon Astrology & Tarot

A solar eclipse occurs approximately every six months, so it’s not a rare occurrence. However, each eclipse that happens is unique because of everything else going on in the sky, and this year we have some very interesting “other things” happening in the sky during the time of the eclipse!

Background

First, let’s talk about the Aries solar eclipse in general. If you know what house Aries occupies in your chart, that will be a big help to understanding what area of life you will likely experience the beginnings/endings of this cycle! Aries represents the warrior energy in the zodiac. The desire to fight and to defend. In its best incarnation, Aries is a warrior who is fighting for something. In its more shadowy incarnation, Aries picks petty fights that aren’t meaningful. In modern astrology, Aries is also the first sign of the zodiac, and a cardinal/initiatory sign, which gives it more power to get things started. Eclipses typically strongly facilitate beginnings and endings, but this is even more true when the eclipse is occurring in the “beginning” sign of the zodiac!

With all of this talk of beginnings and endings, though, it’s important to realize that eclipses come in year-and-a-half “series”. We had our first Aries/Libra eclipse back in the fall of 2023, and we won’t have our final Aries/Libra eclipse until March 2025. So the beginnings and endings we see as part of the eclipse on April 8th, 2024 will not bring brand new, unexpected beginnings and endings, but rather will bring the next chapter in beginnings and endings that started in October 2023. Think back to the mental space you were in and what changes you were contemplating. Has your thinking around some of those changes matured now? Do you have clearer ideas around not just what isn’t working in your life, but what you might want to do to fix it? Everything that is unique about this upcoming Aries solar eclipse encourages us to go deeper and take the next step in our journey of beginnings and endings. The eclipse in October was more about dipping a toe in the water; by April 2024, we are all in the thick of it and likely contemplating (or already making!) big changes.

So what is unique about this eclipse on April 8th? Several things, and we will discuss all of them below!

Mercury retrograde

As the solar eclipse is happening in Aries, Mercury is also retrograde in Aries. Mercury retrogrades often give us an opportunity to revisit and re-think. This will help us move forward with eclipse beginnings and endings more thoughtfully. Is the change we are contemplating really the best one for us? Are there other changes we could make that would accomplish the same goal more effectively? Mercury retrograde will help us answer questions like these (although with Mercury in Aries, we will have to fight the urge to just move forward without proper reflection! Mercury in Aries is not known for its patience!).

The connection to Chiron

This Aries solar eclipse takes place directly on the asteroid Chiron. Chiron embodies the archetype of the Wounded Healer. It represents the areas where each of us have experienced wounds. Some of these wounds we have healed from, and we can now use our experiences to help others heal from the same type of wound. Some of these wounds we are still in the process of healing. Still others we have likely buried deep in our Souls and haven’t begun the healing process for them yet.

Regardless of which stage we are at, an eclipse taking place on Chiron will remind us how critical it is to integrate the growth from our wounds into the rest of our lives. Can we help others using our experiences? Is there further deep, shadow work we need to do to heal from our wounds? This eclipse will bring up these topics, especially in the house where Aries falls in your chart.

Mars/Saturn conjunction

Mars and Saturn conjoin every two years, and this cycle they are conjoining on April 10th, 2 days after the solar eclipse. Mars and Saturn both represent challenging energies – Mars represents (among other things) our warrior’s desire to fight for what we believe in and our desire to move forward. Saturn represents the importance of discipline, duty, and work toward our long-term goals.

Eclipses always tend to bring endings and new beginnings, but with Saturn and Mars conjoining just as the eclipse happens, we will be feeling even more energy toward closing out things in our life that don’t contribute to our goals. If we take advantage of this double dose of profound energy – the Aries eclipse and the Saturn/Mars conjunction – we can make changes which echo for years within our lives! What an amazing opportunity!

Visible to many people

This solar eclipse is visible to a large group of people across North America! Even though we have a solar eclipse approximately every six months, eclipses often take place over one of the oceans or somewhere that isn’t visible to many people. When eclipses are visible, their impacts seem to be greater and more profound – we are directly experiencing it! (Please use proper eclipse glasses if you hope to view it – it is too much for our small eyeballs!)

Final notes

It is worth calling out that not everyone is affected equally by every eclipse. In general, if you were born near an eclipse (i.e. if the Sun is near either the North or South Moon node in your birth chart), you are especially sensitive to eclipses.

Additionally, each eclipse affects people differently depending on which part of your chart the eclipse is hitting. If the eclipse is happening in an important house (i.e. your 1st house), or if it’s happening near an important planet in your chart (i.e. your Sun or Moon), you will feel that eclipse much more strongly than others around you might.

Since ancient times, people have been a little frightened of eclipses. That makes sense – evolutionarily humans don’t like change, and eclipses are all about change! However, there is an immense capacity for growth during eclipses. Big changes seem to find us, even if we don’t feel ready for them. And often, when we look back on these times in our lives, we see how eclipse-initiated events were crucial to re-shaping our lives in a positive way. If we can find a way to roll with the energies, to accept what comes, and to lean forward instead of fighting the changes, this can be an incredibly powerful and profound month in our lives. My hope is for all of you to give yourself that opportunity!

Photo by Jongsun Lee on Unsplash

There is a New Moon every month, but we only (typically) get a New Moon in any specific zodiac sign once a year. In March we get a Pisces New Moon, and, as with all astrological events, this one has some uniqueness to its energy!

What is special about this New Moon?

The New Moon occurs when the Moon and the Sun are right on top of each other in the sky (from our perspective on Earth – of course the Sun and Moon aren’t actually on top of each other!). When a New Moon occurs, we can’t see the Moon – the Sun is so bright that it overwhelms the Moon (the only exception to this is eclipses…. but we will talk about that in a few weeks when we enter eclipse season!). Therefore, during this Pisces New Moon, the Moon will not be visible, and the night sky will be very dark. Only the stars will be visible.

Physically, as well as metaphorically, the New Moon indicates a time of darkness. A time when our physical eyes don’t allow us to see much, and we are encouraged to turn our eyes inward and self-reflect. Slowing down and turning inward often results in realizations that we want to take action on, and as a result, New Moons are also times associated with completing cycles in our lives and beginning new cycles. These cycles could be related to relationships, careers, behaviors, etc. Because of the importance of this periodic self-reflection to ensure we are changing anything in our life that is ripe for change, there are a plethora of New Moon meditations and rituals to help facilitate ending cycles that we are spiritually finished with, and starting new cycles of growth.

As mentioned, a New Moon occurs every month. How often are each of us really closing down major cycles in our lives and starting new ones? Certainly not monthly! So how do we know the relative importance of each New Moon, and the area of our life we should be contemplating change? There are two things that help us determine this:

An individual’s birth chart
The other planet’s positionis at the time of the New Moon.

An individual’s birth chart

Each person usually only gets one New Moon in a particular area of life each year. For example, you will only get one New Moon per year in the area of love and partnerships. One New Moon in the area of career. One New Moon in the area of Self. So to fully get the most out of each month’s New Moon, it is helpful to know your individual birth chart to see the areas of life where you personally can contemplate beginnings/endings.

The other planets’ positions

Of course, the Sun and the Moon are just the two most visible points in the sky – there are other bodies moving around us constantly – Mercury, Venus, Mars, etc, are always somewhere in the sky, whether we can see them with the naked eye or not! And they affect the quality and energy of each New Moon as well.

What makes this month’s New Moon in Pisces unique, is that it occurs with both the Sun and Moon sandwiched between Saturn and Neptune in Pisces. This means that this New Moon will have generally Piscean themes, but will be heavily impacted by both Saturn’s and Neptune’s energies as well.

Saturn is the planet of Time. It encourages long-term thinking, delayed gratification, working in a disciplined way toward your goals, and setting strong boundaries around your work and life to help you reach those goals.

Neptune helps us recognize the Universal one-ness of all things. From Neptune’s lens, too much focus on our own individual goals and lives isn’t useful; Neptune encourages us to let go of our ego and bask in the fact that all beings are interconnected. From Neptune’s perspective, ambiguity is better than firm boundaries, and fuzziness is better than clarity.

The energies of these two planets are very different – almost opposed to each other!

So with planetary encouragement to focus on boundaries but also to ignore boundaries, to focus on the long term but also to focus on the present moment, what will this Pisces New Moon look like for each of us? Neptune has an edge in this interaction, because the Sun, Moon, Saturn, and Neptune are all in Neptune’s sign of Pisces. So the Neptunian energy of floating in blissful nebulousness will feel most natural during this New Moon. However, Saturn will be right there to prevent us from completely basking in the present moment and will be encouraging us to set some goals and diligently start working toward them.

Therefore, this New Moon energy will be very focused around long-term thinking vs short-term thinking. We will find ourselves saying “yes, but” frequently.

“Yes, I really like my friends, but I don’t feel like I can be authentically myself with them.”

“Yes, I am happy by myself, but I would really like a partner I love and depend on.”

“Yes, my job is going well, but I don’t enjoy it and wish I could do something more meaningful to me.”

As we create New Moon meditations and rituals for this Pisces New Moon, these questions of balance are the best ones to be asking ourselves.

We can’t focus for too long only on happiness and bliss in the current moment (Neptune), but we also can’t only focus on the long-term such that we are perpetually miserable in the short-term. What do we want this balance to look like for ourselves individually? With the hugely personal “planets”, the Sun and Moon, located in Pisces between Saturn and Neptune, we have to understand that there is no one correct answer – there is only the answer that we determine is right for us.

What in our lives feels dissonant or out of balance? We can never achieve perfect balance, but how do we want to move our existing balance points to be more aligned with our souls? This New Moon, borrowing energy from both Saturn and Neptune, offers us a unique set of energies to help us move our lives towards greater balance.

If you are looking for a New Moon meditation specifically for this New Moon, I have one on my YouTube channel!

Photo by Kevin Butz on Unsplash

Tag: astrology

The 2024 Aries Solar Eclipse