Eclipses in Natal & Horary Astrology: The Harbinger & the Hammer

Eclipses make powerful statements in astrology charts: by transit in natal charts, and affecting the event or situation in horary. Again, it's that darn "personal" luminary, the Moon, causing most of the ruckus.

The old rule of thumb (by Debbie Kempton-Smith, I think) is "three days before, and three days after" eclipses, describing when the situations are at their most intense and pronounced, so to try do actually do anything about what arises usually only creates a bigger, reactive mess. So in other words, it's about waiting through the applying and separating orb. And as most astrologers know, events usually happen BEFORE partile, not on exact partile.

The characteristics of eclipses are as follows:

• the issues that arise are usually unforeseen,
• they are crisis-oriented; things rarely go smoothly and pleasant during an eclipse, because that's not its purpose,
• creates an intense and anxiety-producing "malfunction" that will force change to be made to the situation,
• can bring projects and plans to a screeching halt to deal with underlying issues,
• does not resolve quickly; the emotional anxiety passes within a few days, but then you are left with...
• ...rubble. It takes time to dig out from the mess and figure out what to do next
• they are usually reactivated as "reminders" or "progress reports" of the issue during transits to the eclipse point, particularly squares and oppositions.

The solar eclipse on the 9th of May at 19 degrees Taurus on the South Node was a doozy. (For the traditional astrologers brave enough to read this site, it opposed the fixed star Serpentis; and Venus, its dispositor, had just passed up Algol for the Pleiades.) Anytime an eclipse affects the Nodes, it is especially powerful and intense. For example, one querent's natal chart had the solar eclipse in his 2nd house of money, and what seemed like a simple project bid award quickly ran into cost overruns with the contractor, and escalated into a major dispute with the escrow holder (8th house/North Node outlet). It will probably be revisited, reworked, or resolved when the Sun and other planets transit Saturn at the North Node in Scorpio later in the year. So I told him to hunker down for the long haul.

The 24th of May brought the lunar eclipse at 4 degrees Sagittarius (non-Nodal). For another querent, it happened in her 9th house of legal matters. In the days leading up to the culmination of the eclipse, a false and defamatory (Gemini/Sadge) article was published about her and her business, and she was forced to seek legal advice. The day of the eclipse, an attorney advised her that it wouldn't be worth it to move forward, because those kinds of cases are hard to prove--she'd have to live with it.

Sometimes other planets can mitigate and provide a way out of the mess eclipses create. Venus was still in rulership in Taurus for the solar eclipse, and Venus and Jupiter (eclipse dispositor) were conjunct (within 5 degrees) for the lunar eclipse. In the first case above, the unhappy contractor agreed to continue the work in good faith until resolution could be reached with the escrow company. In the second case above, the apparently sage legal advice was given for free by the attorney, and saved the querent a small fortune in litigation fees against a very large corporation.

So look for the unresolved, recurring patterns eclipses use as a monkey wrench in the best-laid plans when interpreting eclipses in charts.

An Unfortunate Example of The Saturn in Scorpio-Pluto in Capricorn Mutual Reception During the Uranus-Pluto Square

The Wall Street Journal recently published an article that perfectly reflects the current planetary transits, particularly the Saturn-Pluto mutual reception in Capricorn during the Uranus-Pluto square. Greed always rises to the top when it comes to solutions to crises (see: Iraq War), and in the aftermath of the Newtown, CT massacre, it's no different:

"Ian Sobieski, founder and managing director of Band of Angels in Menlo Park, Calif., said he hopes to support firms such as Mountain View, Calif.-based ShotSpotter Inc., whose technology helps police pinpoint where shots are fired to respond faster to crimes. 'There is money to be made,' said Mr. Sobieski, whose firm invested in ShotSpotter. 'Gun violence is expensive to society, and there is a big potential market for solutions.'"

Got that? There's money to be made off of other people's pain and suffering, particularly via the country's completely out-of-whack gun policies.  I'm sure the irony is lost on both WSJ readers, and Mr. Sobieski. Remember, with Saturn in Scorpio and Pluto in Capricorn, it's profits over people every time.

To add to the irony, it turns out the only person addressing the issue seriously and rationally is a comedian: Jon Stewart. See:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/17/jon-stewart-nra-limiting-atf-law-enforcement_n_2495301.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/jon-stewart-nra-atf-gun-control-obama-2013-1
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/09/jon-stewart-calls-out-gun-control-opponents_n_2439275.html

The Saturn-Pluto Mutual Reception Only Strengthens Plutocracy—And It's Only Going to Get Meaner

Saturn, currently retrograde at 10 degrees Scorpio, is still in the Via Combust zone (15 Libra to 15 Scorpio), which brings out the worst of Pluto and Scorpio (namely, plutocrats love to spend your taxpayer dollars, and their tax evasion is largely ignored). Saturn will leave the Via Combust zone in late November of this year.

The Saturn-Pluto mutual reception is simply overpowering the Uranus-Pluto square grossly in favor of Pluto, much like a 2-on-1 barroom brawl (and with essentially the same results). Someone's going to get hurt really, really bad, and it's not Saturn or Pluto.

Therefore, Uranus needs help, bigtime, to gain a foothold against The Establishment. And it's going to get it in two ways:

1) Just before Christmas in December 2014, Saturn enters Sagittarius, which is a horrible place for Saturn to be, especially after all the fun and games with the Mutual Reception. Jupiter, which will be in Leo, will be within 4 degrees of a square with Saturn in Scorpio for most of the Fall of 2014, as well as trining Uranus much of that time. The trine will be separating, and the square doesn't perfect before Saturn ingresses into Sadge. But Jupiter will be retrograde during the ingress, so progress will fall apart, and Saturn's dispositor will mitigate much hope of change or reform. Any gains at that point will be stalled and put on hold.

2) Uranus will conjoin Eris in early June 2016 at 23 Aries, forming a T-square  to the US Pluto-Mercury opposition in the Sibley horoscope of  the USA (7/4/1776, Philadelphia,  PA, 5:10 pm—see below). The transiting Uranus-Eris conjunction within three degress of the US natal Chiron will quincunx the US natal Neptune. The outlet leg for the T-square will be in the 10th house. Translation: The problems at home will be too big and troublesome for the government to ignore any longer, and the fight will be on for economic justice. The wounds of the people will be too deep to ignore.

Saturn in Sadge will put a HUGE damper on all the excess the plutocrats have been hoarding for themselves. Note that this occurs one month after the midterm elections.

So where is all that promise of revolution the Uranus-Pluto square was touted as being the harbinger of? Why haven't the masses, enjoying their escapist comas of movies, television, booze and drugs (thanks to Neptune in Pisces), gotten mad as hell, refusing to take it anymore, and poured out onto the streets in rage and revolution? 

As Bill Herbst pointed out in his November 2011 newsletter: 

"So, during the nine months from  September 2011 through May 2012,  we  are betwixt and between, moving steadily away from denial and toward  the reckoning with breakdown and revolution"" Herbst continues. ""No, this is not “critical mass” yet---that doesn’t  initially occur until  June 2012, and then amplifies,  morphs, and shifts over the three years  that will follow, until it  reaches tidal wave proportions  around the globe  by 2016."

Find out more next month when I post, "Look Out America--Eris is Coming!"  Part 1 of 3: A Look KBOs and the Eris-Uranus Conjunction Square Pluto in the USA Sibley Chart Now and In 2016.

Astrologers: Pluto's Recently Discovered Moons Need Your Help!

Just for fun...

Voting is underway to name the two recently discovered moons of Pluto (quick--can you name the other three?). One of their discoverers, Mark Showalter, is accepting suggestions via online voting, which will then be tallied and presented to the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

Help Us Name the Moons of Pluto!

Images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2011 and 2012 revealed two previously unknown moons of Pluto. So far, we have been calling them "P4" and "P5", but the time has come to give them permanent names. If it were up to you, what would you choose?

By tradition, the names of Pluto's moons come from Greek and Roman mythology, and are related to the ancient tales about Hades and the Underworld. Please pick your favorites on the ballot below. 

Go to http://www.plutorocks.com/home and vote early and vote often, because voting ends at Noon EST on Mon., Feb 25, 2013. And then read this to find out the names of Pluto's three other moons. Not because there's a quiz, or because you should use them in your charts, but because the more you know and understand the solar system, the better an astrologer you'll be.

For what it's worth, the two names I voted for because they made the most symbolic sense for Pluto were the two top vote-getters at the time I voted. Great minds (astronomical and astrological) think alike? :)
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UPDATE 2/25/2013: No fair! William Shatner skewed the vote with his Twitter lobbying! The fix is in! :) 

Here's the official results, from the plutorocks.com homepage:

Meanwhile, take this 10-question Pluto quiz on Space.com's coverage of the naming contest results (scroll to the bottom of the article for the quiz. If you go 10-for-10 like I did, send me a screenshot of your results, and I'll pick a random winner on March 15th for a free copy of Open Source Modern Horary Astrology.

Modern Electional Astrology 101: A Perfectly Engineered Fundraising Chart

A querent needed to raise funds for a charity and wanted to know the best time to make the funding request public. The only caveat was that she only had 30 days to raise the funds. She needed astrological help because she knew that early in a new year was the worst time to fundraise, as people are tapped out financially from the holidays, and not so willing to open their wallets.

Electional charts are reverse-engineered from a horary chart (where you take what you get at the time you ask the question), because the intent of electional astrology is to put the planets in the best possible houses and relationships with each other at a particular time to achieve a successful outcome.

Using the methodology as outlined in Chapter 7 of Open Source Modern Horary Astrology, the first step was to peruse the ephemeris to find favorable Moon aspects. In this case, the Moon aspects chosen were excellent:

Next, choosing strong significators for the querent (ASC) and quesited (8th house) was sought. The best-case scenario in electional astrology is to have the Moon, querent, and quesited all in harmony with each other (or more realistically, as much as possible). In this chart, the Moon, Venus, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are the strongest planets in strong placement in the chart, so there's a lot to work with. Here is what was chosen, and why:

The Moon double-represents the querent, as it is ruler of the ASC, and the Moon in horary/electional charts is ALWAYS the querent's co-ruler. The early degree rising shows the beginning phases of the project, rather than traditional horary's prematurity or a stricture against judgment, which modern horary ignores to great success. 

Saturn rules the 8th house of the quesited, since the 8th house rules other people's money, and Venus represents personal finance. With Venus applying to conjoin Pluto in the angular 7th house of other people (also ruled by Saturn with Capricorn on the cusp of the 7th), and with Pluto mutually recepting Venus' dispositor, Saturn/quesited, people would rally to the cause and open their wallets. However, it would only be in measured or limited small amounts (Venus in Capricorn), rather than large and generous donations. This was okay, because the amount of money she was trying to raise was only a four figure sum, not hundreds of thousands of dollars.

So the significators of Moon, Saturn, and Venus, are all nicely and harmoniously bound together by dispositor or mutual reception, and applying aspects of the Moon. Electional charts are rarely this easy.

The Moon was placed in the angular 10th house for a visible public appeal. Moon in Pisces, dispositing to Neptune (which it recently conjoined), as well as Chiron, showed it was a charitable cause to help the less fortunate. Note the applying Moon (querent) trine to Saturn (quesited), with the Moon 3 degrees away from partile. This gives an idea of timing in the chart, and due to the Moon in a mutable sign, and succeedent, fixed Saturn, three weeks seemed far more likely than three days to come up with the amount. She reached the funding goal in exactly 22 days; three weeks and one day after the project launched as timed by the election chart.

With Uranus and Mars mutually recepted and ruling the 9th and 11th houses, the project received widespread news coverage via the assistance of a sympathetic reporter (Mars in the 9th; 9th house cusp in Aquarius), as well as significant and unexpected support from her friends (11th house ruled by Aries). The message truly got across, as the Sun, in the 8th house of the quesited, rules the 3rd house of communications, and the Moon's last aspect is a sextile to the Sun before going void-of-course.

A key point to remember to be successful in electional astrology (and horary for that matter) is to focus on the noun and not the adjectives of the subject at hand. A beginner would have made the mistake of focusing on what the funding was for (charity/11th and 12th houses), rather than the fact that the subject was fundraising, period (Pluto, Venus, 8th house), regardless of the type or cause.