As you may have heard, we’re nearing an eclipse in the midst of a rather spectacular cardinal grand cross this weekend. For a little more background on how to work with eclipses, I thought I’d re-post this piece by Eric from Next World Stories, the 2009 annual. Although this piece is focused mainly on solar eclipses, eclipses come in pairs, and the solar companion to Saturday’s partial lunar eclipse arrives July 11, 2010.

Being a somewhat over-busy with this eclipse making everything seem to be due at once, I’m going offer one short, useful idea about eclipses. They tend to function as planetary points. I find this is particularly true with Solar eclipses; I’ve never actually noticed it with lunar eclipses, but it may be from the lack of looking.

Most astrologers are familiar with the lunar nodes. The nodes are associated with eclipses because they tell us approximately where the next and most recent ones will happen or happened. That’s just about their whole job, from a technical standpoint, though they point to one fact — eclipses have effects long before and after the actual event. Most astrologers would agree that eclipses have observable effects for six months, though some have influence that can linger for years.

The way to test this is to memorize the positions of important solar eclipses (Aug. 11, 1999 at 18_ Leo or June 21, 2001 at 0+ Cancer), to give two examples) and notice the synchronicities of what occurs when those degrees of the zodiac are activated. Those are two that tend to linger; you can use more recent ones as well. The most recent solar eclipse as of this writing [Feb 8, 2009] was at 6+ Aquarius. You can add that degree into any chart and count it as a minor planet. Transiting aspects to that point will count, and any planet that the event has touched (such as by conjunction) may be especially sensitive for a while.

Keep in mind that eclipses are about making progress and establishing new patterns, so if you look at the event in that context, it may seem and in fact actually be friendlier to work with.

Eclipses in the future can also be worked with. If you see that you or a client is having an eclipse (for example) on the midheaven, you can plan a career move for around that time and be working with the forces of nature instead of against them. Notice them; notice any chart where an eclipse is in the vicinity. That means any chart where the Sun is close to one of the lunar nodes; you can be sure that there is or was an eclipse within around two weeks vicinity.

Another very useful thing to do is study the eclipses that came immediately before you were born. Use your place of birth, or that of your client, and use the time of the eclipse out of the ephemeris. You can consider these secondary birth charts. If an eclipse occurred shortly after you were born, say, within one month, those will be potentially helpful charts to look at as well, though properly those would fall under the larger heading “progressions”.

Good morning…we are just past solstice and heading into a partial lunar eclipse — and I’ve done my best to present the implications of this astrology. Here is your link. Remember, this isn’t really free audio — it’s sponsored by subscribers to Planet Waves Astrology News, our Tuesday/Friday news, horoscope and astrology magazine. If you’re one of those people who has always wanted to sign up, you’re invited to slip out of contemplation and into action — the more subscribers we have, the more services we can offer everyone.

With love from Cedar Rapids, this is

Hello Cosmic Confidential Visitor. This is the daily blog associated with Cosmic Confidential, the 2010 annual edition of Planet Waves. There’s lots of info about Cosmic Confidential along the margin to the right. We are back to updating daily, and looking for interesting features to keep the content fresh and interesting. One of the things we’re going to do is select horoscopes from the past and let them see the sunshine. Unlike on the Planet Waves Oracle, where the horoscopes are selected at random, these will be selected by an editor – usually Amanda Painter. Here’s a thought-provoking one from earlier this year.

January 15, 2010 – Scorpio – Weekly

Your concept of a partner or loved one has to change. In polite spiritual company one would say evolve, but I mean shift entirely. You’re holding onto a lot of old ideas about this person, or trying to; they are pretty much useless as anything except souvenirs now. The past few weeks have taught you how deep into yourself you can go, without ‘losing yourself’ in there. You have seen how close to a seemingly dangerous possibility you can come without losing your nerve. All of this is helping you make a new map to your own mental process and psychic interior. Now, back to this other person: update your files; see them in their current context; and most of all, envision them on their chosen path to the future. Don’t worry: this is much likelier to bring you closer than it is to draw you apart.

Hello Cosmic Confidential Visitor. This is the daily blog associated with Cosmic Confidential, the 2010 annual edition of Planet Waves. There’s lots of info about Cosmic Confidential along the margin to the right. We are back to updating daily, and looking for interesting features to keep the content fresh and interesting. One of the things we’re going to do is select horoscopes from the past and let them see the sunshine. Unlike on the Planet Waves Oracle, where the horoscopes are selected at random, these will be selected by an editor – usually Amanda Painter. Here’s a hot one from 1999.

January 1, 1999 – Libra – Weekly

If I were a Libra I would surely be an uncontainable ball of fire and rage and loving every second of this delicious, explosive, passionate creation and heat that is so unlike me on one level, but is so who I really truly am inside on every other. I would resolve never to forget these days and nights in which so much is activated by my desire, my initiative and my outgoing spirit of connection and creation. 1999 will be the year of release from anything and everything meaningless, and dancing with perfect grace and poise while experiencing the unique view from the top of the highest tree.

Hello Cosmic Confidential Visitor. This is the daily blog associated with Cosmic Confidential, the 2010 annual edition of Planet Waves. There’s lots of info about Cosmic Confidential along the margin to the right. We are back to updating daily, and looking for interesting features to keep the content fresh and interesting. One of the things we’re going to do is select horoscopes from the past and let them see the sunshine. Unlike on the Planet Waves Oracle, where the horoscopes are selected at random, these will be selected by an editor – usually Amanda Painter. Here’s a fun one from 2006.

May 19, 2006 – Sagittarius – Weekly

We all know that you centaurs are super party animals. You’re also known to be explorers. This week provides you with the opportunity to combine these two qualities. But, in exploration, try not to be attached to where the journey leads. Sometimes it’s nicer to go on an adventure with no notion of what you’ll experience. That’s why they call it an adventure, duh! The mystery that you’ve been longing to understand is calling you like a voice in the woods. I suggest that you answer it.

In our current year or so, the Sun is reaching both winter and summer solstice close to eclipses; this is because the lunar nodes are in Cancer and Capricorn (the signs of the solstices), and where go the nodes, so follow eclipses. This creates a super concentrated, condensed astrological effect, one that is like a vortex now and which can also last for months. The Sun enters Cancer Monday, and then Saturday, June 26, there is an eclipse of the Moon.

Pluto is involved in this eclipse: the Sun is opposite Pluto at the exact moment of the Full Moon (when the eclipse happens), and the Moon is conjunct Pluto. This feels like pulling back another veil on Pluto in Capricorn: imagine that the ‘disappearance’ of the Moon at the eclipse is like a curtain being drawn back, revealing what’s behind it.

As I’ve said in Planet Waves Astrology News, there are many planets gathered for this eclipse, in the early degrees of Aries, Cancer and Capricorn; with Saturn about to enter Virgo. This makes it a grand cross in the cardinal signs, involving Mercury, the Sun, the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Pluto — all of which are ‘activated’ at the same time on the same day, Saturday.

Sometimes eclipses this potent have immediate effects; sometimes they portend a season of intense changes. The last time we had an eclipse so close to a solstice was the total solar eclipse of June 21, 2001, which occurred just six hours into summer. That was followed about six weeks later by the opposition of Saturn and Pluto, on Aug. 5, 2001. We now have many of those factors collecting again, though in a different sequence: eclipses on the Aries Point, Saturn opposite Uranus and Saturn opposite Pluto.

If you ask me, the world will feel like a different place by the equinox on Sept 22. Let’s do our part to make that a creative, constructive difference. We can.