The lunar eclipse on September 17/18 is at 25° of Pisces. Pisces, a water sign is highly intuitive. Pisces rules suffering, merging, giving, self-sacrifice. It rules dreams, fantasies, and visions. It rules imagination and creativity; it’s the ruler of the Internet and film. It is spiritual and mystical. It rules all forms of escapism including plant medicines that take us on a journey. It’s also intoxicants and addictions. It is the ruler of fishing, shipping, oil and gas products.
Pisces is ruled by both Neptune the modern ruler and Jupiter the traditional one. The moon is making aspects to both of its rulers. The eclipsed moon is conjunct Neptune and it also makes a wide square Jupiter!
The conjunction to Neptune connects us to a sea of feelings and unconscious emotions. Neptune is in its last days of being in its home sign. It’s been in the sign since 2011 and early next year it will leave the sign. While in the sign of the fishes, it has taken us on a journey. For some of us, this is been a journey into a spiritual realm, for others a spiritual realm assisted by plant medicines, and yet for others, it has been a journey into conspiracies or conspiracy theories. We’ve gotten lost in the fog, lost in the fantasy. We’ve now reached a point where we have a hard time deciphering fact from fiction. Misinformation, disinformation, and deep fakes are all words that were not part of our daily lives before 2011. The eclipse will help us to sift through and sort out some of the truths from the lies. This is because when the moon is eclipsed, the earth comes between the Sun and the Moon, casting a shadow onto the Moon and blocking out the Sun which normally lights it up at a full moon. Earth’s shadow is an experience in the shadow. In the darkness, we must find our way to the to the light. No light means no facts, no lists, no Virgoic details…. Just the darkness and our intuition. At the moment of the eclipse when the light has been removed, we can go inside and know intuitively what is true.. Or at least what’s true for us.
The traditional ruler of Pisces is Jupiter. Jupiter is in a wide square to Saturn, which is also in Pisces. Saturn is a bit of a downer and can bring some depression or low feelings, but it’s also a reality check. The square between Jupiter and Saturn is a tension between expansion, optimism, belief and restriction, constraint and realism. At this eclipse, we may feel like we are on a seesaw. We’re optimistic one minute and pessimistic the next. Maybe we feel duped by a realization and this brings pessimism. Yet whatever we thought to be true at the time was instrumental in helping us to learn something very special and important…. and for that, we can be optimistic!
Two asteroids, Niobe and Atlantis and the fixed star Alkes are opposite the eclipsed moon with the Sun.
Niobe was the mother of Zeus, Apollo, Artemis and 11 other children. She was very proud of them. To her, they were all golden children and perfect in her eyes. Her hubris led her to lose all of them after boasting to another goddess who only had two children! Niobe cried so much that her tears ended up turning her into a stone. Astrologically Niobe is related to falls from grace, bitnerness and issues with children.
The asteroid Atlantis bring in the energy of Atlantis and Atlantian lives. Edgar Cayce, the sleeping prophet, described two groups of Atlantians. Both he described as highly advanced, one spiritual and the other power-hungry. In his readings, he called one group “The Children of the Law of One”. This group was focused on spiritual growth and development. Important to them was a harmonious relationship with nature and a connection to natural laws. The second group called “The Sons of Belial” exploited natural resources and the technological advancements of Atlantis, disregarding the consequences for the planet and its inhabitants. They were driven by a desire for power and control and by greed. Casey describes a technology called “The Great Crystal” in which the children of the law of one used for spiritual growth and the sons of Belial used for power. This led to misuse which was responsible for Atlantis sinking. Casey claimed that records of the technology are kept in three places; under the paw of the sphinx in Egypt, In an area of the Bahamas, possibly Bimini Road, and in the Yucatán peninsula. If we were to find these technologies today do we know which group we were in? Would we use the technology responsibly? Do we know ourselves when in possession of power?
Alkes, also known as Alpha Crateris, is a star in the constellation Crater, the Cup. According to Greek mythology, Crater represents the cup carried by Apollo’s crow, which was sent to fetch water from a spring. The crow, Corvus, took the cup but was distracted by a fig tree with unripe fruit and waited a few days for the figs to ripen. When it returned to Apollo, it blamed a water snake for its tardiness, claiming it had blocked the spring. Apollo was angered by the crow’s obvious lie and condemned it to a life of thirst. As punishment, Apollo placed the crow, the cup, and the water snake in the sky, commemorating the incident. The three are represented by the constellations with Crater (or Alkes which means the Cup)
We are asked to consider these three energies pride, power and responsibility, and honesty and the role they have played in our lives. It’s time for inner truth and for discarding any self-destructive energies.
The Sabian symbol for the eclipse is “a new moon that divides its influences”. Interestingly, the Sabian symbol speaks of a new moon at a full moon! This however is a symbol that suggests the moon will not affect us all in the same way. Its influence is divided between various influences and outcomes. This suggests that what is right or true for us, may not be right or true for someone else. It is not for us to decide for anyone other than ourselves.
Happy Eclipse in Pisces!
September New Moon
Anywhere the struggle is great, the level of ingenuity and inventiveness is high. ` Eleni Zaude Gabre-Madhin