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Lunar Eclipse in Libra: You Were Asleep

asleepEclipses are freakish moments when the world ceases to function the way we expect it to. The air turns prickly and the sky turns dark and we panic a little, the way you might if the electricity suddenly went out on a cold, windy night when you’re home alone. Objectively, you know you’re safe. But during eclipse times, objectivity is not on the menu. Your perceptions have been altered, and you’re not sure you can trust your instincts.

This month brings two eclipses. A Solar Eclipse in Taurus (April 28) is the penultimate in a series of Taurus/Scorpio eclipses that began back in November 2012. During this cycle, the changes in perception have been related to resources, security, and sharing.

Gradually, the eclipses are easing backward into Aries and Libra, and this Full Moon Lunar Eclipse comes with a clear message: your relationship style has outlived its usefulness. Don’t feel bad. I’m in the same boat. We all are.

Place the eclipse in a sign of the zodiac, and the landscape comes into sharper focus. With the Sun in Aries and Moon in Libra, your perceptions have changed about who you are in relation to others. For too long you’ve been asleep at the wheel, with your relationships and self-image set on cruise control. Now, an oncoming vehicle is blaring his horn, trying to wake you up before you crash. Startled, you might over-correct, swinging the wheel too sharply in the wrong direction. If you’ve found yourself overreacting lately to perceived slights, or to the flaws of others, the old psychological chestnut probably holds true: that we’re most annoyed by those who reflect our own doubts, fears, and weaknesses.

So your perceptions have changed, and it’s time to reevaluate your relationships. But relationship is a fairly inclusive rubric, isn’t it? You have a relationship with your spouse, and you have one with your postal delivery person; today, you got along fine with one, but picked a fight with the other. What gives?

By transposing this Lunar Eclipse onto your birth chart, we can pinpoint where the relationship skeletons are buried. Which house of your chart contains the Lunar Eclipse point at 25.16 Libra? (If you’re not sure, this blog post might help.) Is it in your third house? Siblings, neighbors, even something you read can present themselves as agents of change, challenging you to weigh new insights against your cherished beliefs. Fifth house? Perhaps an old, beloved friend or lover from your past has turned up to remind you who you used to be… back before you decided that you’d rather be someone else. (See this post for a brief synopsis of each house’s meaning.)

Let’s say this eclipse falls in your tenth house, which could spell big problems with your parents or boss. But as it happens, you’re a self-employed orphan. You’re sitting on easy street, right? I’m afraid not. For there are innumerable tenth house ways in which your relationship with yourself can be dysfunctional, so many tenth house matters and individuals upon which to project your shaky self-image. Authority figures in the government, in the movies, on TV; your relatives, especially the bossy ones; people in a position to offer you fame, or at least a higher level of visibility in your career. Are you willing to dethrone these powerful figures and take charge of your own life? Maybe, maybe not; but either way, it’s doubtful you’re completely comfortable with the idea.

A final layer: Have you any natal planets within a few degrees of the eclipse point and in a cardinal sign (about 21-29 degrees of Aries, Cancer, Libra, or Capricorn)? Because if you do, the shifts in your perception will be significant not just this month, but for a long time to come.

Eclipses simply tell you that a crisis has arisen, and something in your life must change. There are no guarantees that the changes will be permanent or positive, just that they must happen. And while the storm swirls around you and alters the landscape of your life, there you stand, motionless in the deceptively still eye of the hurricane. For you, my friend, are the constant. The eclipse is in your chart. All this turmoil has nothing to do with your boss, your mother, or the checker at the supermarket. You are the one who fell asleep at the wheel of your life; but bless you, you are trying to wake up, and you are unconsciously enlisting others to act as your alarm clock. That’s why the people who are messing with your head and freaking you out the most, deserve your tacit thanks.

It all may seem to be coming out of nowhere, but it’s not really. This is a familiar dance you’ve done before, when eclipses made close aspects to the same points in your chart (most recently in 1986/87, 1995, 2005, and last October). Then, as now, you were dancing in relationships that suddenly spun off in unexpected directions. Who was your dance partner then? Did you give the next dance to someone else? Or did you break your ankle and spend some time on the sidelines, avoiding dancing altogether?

Maybe that old break has completely healed – but I’ll bet if we looked closely we would detect the tiniest hairline crack, such as you might find on a vase that was broken and glued back together. It’ll never be the same as it was before the break. You’ll never be the same person you were before life and relationships happened to you; every person you’ve loved has left a hairline fracture. As eclipses fall in Libra and Aries over the next two years*, you’ll find yourself lifting the vase up to the light to see how well the glue is holding.

You were asleep, you see, and someone has been trying to wake you up. The sister who sits across the ideological fence from you, the lover who took the breakup badly, the friend who talks down to you. They can’t tell you who you are, but they can offer a glimpse into what it’s like to be in a relationship with you. Chances are, they’re not telling you anything you haven’t heard a dozen times before. But maybe this time you’ll be able to hear it.

* Eclipses will fall in Libra or Aries, the signs of relationship and self, on Oct. 8, 2014; April 4, 2015; Sep. 28, 2015; and March 23, 2016.

© 2005/2014 by April Elliott Kent

MoonShadow reportWant to know more about how the eclipses will impact your birth chart? Order my Followed by a Moonshadow eclipse report – 3 years of eclipses for only $35. Click here for a sample and ordering information.

16 comments to " Lunar Eclipse in Libra: You Were Asleep "

  • Tami

    April,

    Yet another well done blog!! So helpful and funny at the same time. I always look forward to your blogs.

    Tami

  • Thank you for this one April….this eclipse falls exactly on my natal Rx Neptune in Libra in my 6th….checking out new opportunities to teach at a local college…Pluto in Cap is in my 9th opposing my Sun too. Changing how I view myself and upping my game! Great article….you teach beautifully!

  • Oh April, you’ve done it again – a wonderful, spot-on article 🙂
    I have just fastened my mental life-jacket 😉 I have felt the storm brewing for a while but after reading this I feel well prepared for whatever the eclipse throws at me 🙂

  • Julie

    Great article April! Thank You! This Eclipse is right on the Mercury/Neptune conjunction in my natal chart and 1986/87, 1995, & 2005 were major turning points in my life. And I have spent some time avoiding dancing since 2005, but the resulting changes in my perceptions have definitely been worthwhile. I’m looking forward to where I’ll be in the Fall of 2016 and thereafter!!!
    Appreciate You!

  • Ty manning

    Capricorn sun, with a natal moon at 20 degrees in Capricorn and the lunar eclipse falling in the 8th house, I am wondering if this will really call into question the truth in relationships?

  • Moira

    The eclipse is falling at the beginning of my 6th (Sun) and 12th (Moon) houses. Your metaphor of the hair-line fractures is really interesting, as I suffered some surprising health issues when Saturn transited this point in 2011. This Aries month, I’ve decided to pretend I have the stamina I used to, the nerves I used to, and to get up and out early in the morning like I used to. I can no longer drive, but I can walk a mile better than I’d thought possible. This week I start a new gig, transcribing the life journal of my friend’s 86 year old mother. I’ll be walking to their house as my daughter walks to school nearby at 7:15 am.

    Sun in the 6th house ~ the adjustments my internal doctor has ordered to re-align my physical life to new creative intentions.

    Mercury @ 28 Cancer, 9th ~ Part of the journalling adventure will be creating a blog for her work, as I also complete details for a new one of my own. Publishing is ON, and all the skills required on this learning curve.

    Great focusing read on this eclipse, April.

  • Rachel

    Lovely jubbly April. You are the best. I love your metaphors. Rachel

  • Kay

    This is too crazy- my birthday is 07-17 and according to my calculations
    It’s hitting me with a bullseye.
    1986- got married- rude awakening
    1995- baby born- I almost died..
    2005- cancer / surgery/ chemo
    10/2013 – nothing major that I can recall – does that mean it’s still coming?
    Is there a way for me to get a clue? Any help appreciated..

  • Kat

    Libra IC at 27degrees.

  • marcie

    Ok….so it looks like , to my that Libra is my first house …which would mean I’m eclipsing myself right ? Uranus is in the first house and Pluto is in my 12th house which is Virgo…. I’m confused….

  • Laurie

    Great article. This is opposite my sun and conjunct my north node. I have had a hellacious year in my marriage from May, 2013 continuing into the present. I have just about hit my limit, both w my spouse’s behavior and my reaction to the conflict. I’m drained emotionally. on top of that, I am a cancer rising with Pluto hovering over my descendant. to say i am in a pressure cooker is an understatement!

  • Aniket

    This was awesome!! This one falls square to three planets… nn, mercury, Saturn…

  • Nancy

    I left jobs those years, in different states. Oppressed by the job, a control-freak boss & lastly, an unappreciative one.

  • Carole

    Beautifully written, insightful article on the current eclipses. Mine fell in the 3rd house, conjunct natal Jupiter. A significant communication issue (on my end) with my husband busted out last Sat. My awakening has been how my past continues to influence my current relationships. Going within- as always- to gain release and healing.

  • LB

    Sorry for the long comment – hope it’s okay.:) I already commented on another of your Eclipse posts about how this latest Eclipse -which is conjunct my natal 2nd house Sun-North Node-Venus conjunction as well as my progressed Ascendant from the 12th- brought to light specific details relating to someone who lived before me, including her name and the name of the one piece of artwork she won an award for long before I was born – and how her story relates to my own. With both Uranus and Pluto placed in my natal 12th, it’s not unusual for me to receive information or inspiration during dreams and/or twilight sleep. I’ve also occasionally dreamed of other time periods and (possible) lifetimes.

    I’ve spent the past two weeks researching this woman, an artist whose contributions only came to light a few years ago. If I’d received her name back in 1995 or ’96 (which is when my past-life dreaming began), there would’ve been nothing to find – whereas since then, several books have been written about her and her (sometimes) dramatic life. Looking back at my dream journals and comparing notes, I can’t deny the connection. For instance, for a long time now, sometimes when I dream of my husband, he goes by another name and has another face, though I *know* it’s him – after reading about this artist, I discovered the name I’ve been calling him is the name of the man she eventually married. From all accounts, her relationship with him was significant in that he was one of the few men who didn’t die, disappear or (so far as we know) betray her trust. And that’s just one example. It also fits with my 2nd/8th house axis and opposing placements.

    About a week or two before I got these latest pieces of information, I was standing in my kitchen drinking a glass of water when the bottom of the glass I was drinking from suddenly and inexplicably dropped out and I was left to clean up spilled water and bits of glass all over my kitchen floor. Looking back, it now seems as if the glass breaking was a metaphor for the mystery that was about to unfold, in that this current container of mine can no longer hold me or my emotions. Nor do I believe it was ever designed to define or separate me from the larger force which holds and shapes us all, even in those moments when we feel most broken, shattered or swept away and invisible. My old sorrows and resentments, even my previous hopes and ideas about who I am or was are only fragments, pieces of a puzzle that’s taking shape, slowly coming together to help form a larger whole. Sometimes things have to fall apart before they can come together again. And we have to be willing to let go of all of the illusions that hold us back, blind us.

    Your whole post, especially what you wrote about the fractured glass and our need to “wake up” ties in so perfectly with all that I’ve been going through, April. Both literally and in a spiritual sense.:0 I had to share my thoughts, just as the person who came before me once did. It’s through her letters she was discovered – if I had to guess, I’d say she planned it that way; I think she wanted to create something that would last, some trail of shattered glass that pieced together revealed her unique story. Like her artwork (which so far has stood the test of time), I think she also understood the power of words to transform, teach and encourage long after we’re gone.

  • Sylvia

    Fantastic! I have gone over the cycles and events during these cycle of years you have given here, many times, it is amazing how that energy keeps coming back over and over again trying so hard to get the message to you, steadily getting more and more extreme each and every time, while we are merrily going along our way, pretending to be oblivious to the obvious obstacles, houses burning down, vehicles blowing up, boats sinking, abuse of all kinds being slung around, not to mention all of the hidden elements. I wonder why it is that we can see the mirror so clearly for everyone else, and quite calmly ignore the casualties for ourselves. Thanks for sharing!

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