The chart for the June 26 lunar eclipse at 4.26 Capricorn is a doozy, with the Moon conjunct Pluto, the Sun conjunct Mercury, and the whole shebang square Jupiter/Uranus on one end of the sky and Saturn on the other (click image below for a larger view).
Eclipses always symbolize critical moments in our development as individuals and as a society – but this one, which lights the quivering fuse of the famous cardinal t-square transit, is a moment of truth like few others.
I’ll be writing a full essay about this eclipse a little closer to its exact date. But our New Moon observances today would be incomplete without an acknowledgment of the upcoming Full Moon eclipse. What can you plant today, at this New Moon, to help you navigate this eclipse with more insight and ease? Personally, I’m trying to plant seeds of Gemini curiosity and flexibility, a willingness to learn, excitement about new possibilities…. all the while my little Venus at 2.29 Cancer, bracing for the eclipse and fending off the startling advances of Jupiter/Uranus in Aries, is aching like a tooth that needs a root canal.
For a triptych to your own unfolding development, it can be helpful to revisit previous lunar eclipses that fell at these degrees of Cancer and Capricorn. What do you remember most vividly from the two or three months either side of these eclipses? Even if the events seem unconnected, they have a common thread somewhere inside you:
- June 24, 2001, lunar eclipse, Sun at 3.11 Cancer/Moon at 3.11 Capricorn
- June 27, 1991, lunar eclipse, Sun at 4.59 Cancer, Moon at 4.59 Capricorn
- June 25, 1983, lunar eclipse, Sun at 3.14 Cancer, Moon at 3.14 Capricorn
Eclipses in Cancer/Capricorn
This Full Moon’s lunar eclipse in Cancer is the latest in the Cancer/Capricorn eclipse cycle– the axis of hearth and of worldliness, and of the often uneasy balancing of the two. When eclipses fall in Cancer and Capricorn (most recently in 2000/2001; 1991/92; 1986/87; 1982/83) we reach a crisis in direction. Are we standing in a true and stable place, and are our worldly ambitions in alignment with the yearnings of our hearts?
We may fear becoming bag ladies, or simply alone; that’s a Cancerian eclipse fear, born of estrangement from the root system that nourishes us. Or we may fear that we’ll die without having achieved our most treasured goals, not as a “has-been” but as a “never-was;” these Capricornian fears tell us we’ve lost sight of what makes us truly important.
It’s no wonder that Cancer/Capricorn eclipse seasons can be times when the urge is strong to make a radical change, to pull up stakes and move around the world, to quit one’s job and see the country in an Airstream camper. Families may feel less cohesive than they used to, and more and more of us find our careers stalled by the recession. During the next year, as eclipses fall in these critical signs, it’s time to face the twin terrors of the bag lady and the failed company man.
Eclipses in your chart
In which house of you chart do these eclipse points fall? Which natal planets or angles are between 1 and 9 degrees of a cardinal sign (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn)? (I’ll have more about these at the Full Moon.) These mark the locations of the dull, throbbing ache in your psyche. You’ve been here before; this is an old pain. Don’t dismiss it impatiently (as Jupiter/Uranus currently in Aries might urge you to do), or let it prompt you to rash action – but do leave yourself open to change and, hopefully, forward momentum.For more insight about your personal eclipse cycles, order my report “Followed by a Moonshadow.” Only $35 for a three-year report!
