Aries Total Solar Eclipse
A Mythic New Moon
Reflecting the zeitgeist of the times, the upcoming total solar eclipse on April 8 at 11:27 AM PT (your time) feels like a hot fusion of cosmic anarchy. I’m not referring to ancient texts or how astrologers describe a solar eclipse as a “new moon on steroids.” I’m referring to an alien but oddly empowered feeling in my body—a palpable sensation of being on a precipice as if the omens are aligned to release mythic stories in prime time. (With the eclipse one degree off my Ascendant, I could be a poster child for this outer limit event.)
Occurring at 19 degrees Aries, if your Sun, Moon, Ascendant, or Midheaven is within three degrees in the signs of Aries, Cancer, Libra, or Capricorn, you’re in the line of fire, too. (By my reckoning, a close aspect to Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter could also qualify.) And, even if the eclipse does not make direct contact with your horoscope, world events affect the empathetic and compassionate among us.
Our Lady of Fortune, four hundred times smaller than the Sun and four hundred times closer, will bravely challenge Sol’s commanding light, ushering in a wave of change here on Earth. This impressive new moon is North America's second total solar eclipse in seven years. It will project a 90-mile-wide path of awe that stretches from Mexico north to the US through Texas, concluding off the coast of Canada.
Some say the closer you are to the path of totality, the more personal the eclipse will be. Still, recurring themes may be tugging at your shirttails no matter where you reside.
In preparation or reflection, consider these timeframes if doing so brings you calm or clarity: April 20 and October 14, 2023 (the opening salvos along the Aries/Libra axis), and the years April 2004-October 2005, the last time there were North Node eclipses in Aries. On April 8, 2005, specifically, the eclipse was also at 19 degrees Aries.
Luna, Sol, and the North Node
Luna, heavy with the wisdom of the Fates, rises from the Pacific Ocean with a mission. It’s all gone too far. Greed, hubris, warfare. The tipping point, pressing against her round borders, casts a shadow across the lands. In perfect alignment with the Earth and Sun, Luna conjures long shadows and cooler temperatures. Her divine presence darkens the sky to an eerie burnt orange singed by the slow awakening of the masses. Bereft of certainty, daytime animals scurry as nighttime creatures chant their corpuscular songs. Sometimes, life gets turned on its head.
Tasked with mind-bending optics, Luna takes the King’s throne for four minutes and twenty seconds at maximum. Blocking the Sun’s light, only His thread-bare corona is visible, revealing an emperor with no clothes. Jagged power and blind adherence to modern materialistic values are exposed as failing propositions for the hoi polloi. In a rigged pyramid scheme, only a favored few reach the top.
In a brief but spectacular moment, Luna’s crusade forms a dazzling diamond ring of engagement. The hopeful onlookers gasp in unison. Secret matriarchal lines emit white rays into the heavens, initiating a liberatory cry. Challenging the dominant paradigm, Luna is a voice for rebalancing masculine and feminine forces.
Examine your attachments closely at this North Node eclipse, especially to your identity. Even as the flames rise, ask yourself, “Where does my self-definition and agency come from? What inner light can be exposed once the outer egoic layers are peeled away? What freedom lies beneath an outdated, slavish hero story?
Waiting for Luna’s arrival in his sign of exaltation and decan, Sol’s radiance is epic. This is the place of kings and lords, generals, and presidents. Armed with expectations of success, the will does not surrender easily. Having carved a commanding presence, any challenge to hard-won victories is not easily surrendered. But alas, even the exalted topple from the pedestal.
With warrior Mars at the helm, you can either dig your heels into righteous indignation or let a profound inner truth build a new fire in your soul. Mercury, retrograde most of April, facilitates deeper inquiry and cultivates new perspectives, sometimes by examining the past. Assuming the trickster takes no prisoners, work with Mercury to slow down impulsive actions and communication. On April 11 at 4:03 PM PT (your time), Mercury conjoins the Sun. On the heels of the eclipse, this Cazimi may be especially auspicious for clear thinking. Perhaps you may rediscover powers you already possess.
Mythic Proportions
The ancients, guided by inconceivable darkness in the daytime, branded total solar eclipses with apocalyptic narratives. In modern times, it’s common to see conspiracy theories and cherry-picked symbols rise to the surface. But this eclipse is something different. End-time prophecies, usually on the fringe, are making headlines. Down the rabbit hole we go.
It’s the burning ritual of Texas-born Red Heifers in Israel. Biblical associations to Jonah and the Whale include seven towns in the path of totality named Nineveh, not to mention Jonah and Rapture. It’s forty days to redemption, or all hell breaks loose. The new-agers have their geometric, vibrational calculations, too. Head to the Zone of Silence in Mexico, a “portal” where people will gather to pray for a kinder, gentler humanity.
And, if you can believe it, NASA plans to shoot sounding rockets into the Moon’s shadow 45 minutes before and after the eclipse. APEP, an acronym for Atmospheric Perturbations around Eclipse Path, is also an Egyptian deity representing chaos, darkness, and destruction.
A total solar eclipse, the iconic harbinger of endings and beginnings, can instill fear if you let it. With my Ascendant activated (and a whole bunch more), I’ve had to be proactive: body, mind, and soul. It’s the beauty of astrology. Non-believers may patronize those who choose to stay indoors. Others say you can’t trick the fates. In the face of significant transits, I prefer to think of remedial actions as prostrations to honor the gods. How do you manage astrological anxiety? It’s amazing what you can see when you get used to the dark.
THE COSMIC FIELD
Averse to his Aries home, Mars hides in the waves that crash to the sound of Saturn. The fire in his belly burns to lead, to act, but he must adhere to Pisces’s softer call to arms and Saturn’s fine-tooth comb. Tamped down by a liquid dose of reality, Ares and Kronos will either infuse greater meaning into a holy union or lash out in frustration, summoning a holy war.
The Mars-Saturn conjunction on April 9 is a new synodic cycle for these two heavyweights. It’s the start of a two-year phase that is more apt to highlight challenges than pass out sweets to the masses. Two years ago, it was the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Two years before that, it was Covid. Maybe there’s something to that prayer for universal peace at the eclipse, after all.
Meanwhile, planetary allies are teamed up in Aries to make the most of a rare opportunity. Chiron, unknown to the ancients, will etch his branding iron into the Ram at the exact degree and minute of the eclipse. Aided by Luna’s dashing obfuscation of the Sun, Chiron burns through core childhood wounds. Though The Healer cannot cure himself completely, each time the mask is lifted, wisdom pours in. Alternative forms of healing proliferate.
Venus, situated under the beams of the Sun, brandishes her bedecked sword and dares to break the rules. Entwined in a reception with Mars, she will not let her powers of attraction go to waste, even in the sign of her detriment. Still humming from her exaltation in Pisces at the Libra eclipse two weeks ago, she transforms into a Warrior of Love. Redefining leadership, she joins her feminine cohort, Luna, to bring forth a new, redemptive understanding of leadership – power with, not power over.
Saffron Dennis offers a beautiful ritual meditation for this powerful eclipse, with Carnelian for support. This month, she’s also recorded it so you can take a deep dive. Link here!
Consider this…
There may be enough brakes on this eclipse, thanks to Saturn’s influence on Mars in Pisces and the Mercury retrograde, to slow down any raging fires. Still, eclipses aren’t a day or even a week; they can play out over the course of the next six months to a year. The rest of April will add more chapters to the eclipse story. Next Wednesday, look for AO’s love letters from Jupiter and Uranus as they make their epic conjunction. If the eclipse has you out of sorts, Mars’s ingress into his home on April 30 may bring a boost of energy to align your intentions with right action. Until then, move swiftly but not carelessly.
And a lean, silent figure slowly fades into the gathering darkness, Aware at last that in this world, with Great Power there must also come -- Great Responsibility! - Stan Lee, the narrator of the first Amazing Fantasy comic book in 1962.
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Neva Welton combines her MA in Counseling Psychology with decades of esoteric and astrological studies to astrological services. As the chief editor of Astrum Opus, she’s beyond grateful to support writers producing quality astro-content. Neva also loves to build websites for solo entrepreneurs in the healing and esoteric arts. Contact.
Thanks for the heads up Neva!
Thank you Neva, for this beautiful reminder to keep ourselves sane through all these huge challenges!
May the eclipse be a wonderful new start for you.
And to Liz, thank you for the artwork too! Amazing team effort.