It’s been some months since the death of her mother, and our young woman has a secret: late at night, after everyone has gone to bed, she has been rewriting her mother’s short story, and it’s been growing and growing.  She’s added pieces of her own story, the one she found in that box a few years ago.  And she thinks – just maybe, when she dares to think about it – that it’s good, this story, and she thinks if she had the time, she could maybe even make it into a proper book.

One morning at breakfast she confides in her husband about the story, the idea of the book.  He tells her what a marvelous idea it is that she has, to write this book!  “Oh, leave that damn job, you’ve hated it so long – why don’t you take a chance and do this marvelous thing?”  And the more supportive he is, the more resistant she becomes.  “I’m not a real writer, I majored in accounting, if I leave my job and this doesn’t work out it’ll leave this big embarrassing hole in my resume…”  In her heart of hearts, she knows she’s found her career, you see.  The hours she has spent working on this story have been the happiest she’s known in years.  But the thought of committing to something so unknown terrifies her.  Who is she, after all, to think she can be a writer?

She feels she needs an objective analysis of her ability, so  she decides to take a creative writing course at the local university.  For her final paper, she submits part of her story.  A week later she receives her paper in the mail with her professor’s glowing comments.  The next day, her heart absolutely in her throat,  she goes to work and gives two weeks notice.

Eclipses in the ninth house, like eclipses to Jupiter, invite us to take a chance in life, to act on faith, even though we feel we are not up to the challenge.  While eclipses in the 3rd house, like eclipses to Mercury, provide the impulse to develop skill.  Often, this is the cycle when we take an existing interest to a journeyman level – make the leap from reading and writing a language to speaking it.
 

2010's Eclipses in
Cancer and Capricorn:

Tectonics

The Buck Stops Here

Turning Time

Live and Learn