Reality Change with the Aries New Moon Solar Eclipse

The eclipse over Nova Scotia this morning wasn’t visible here in Georgia. Even if it had been, the sky behind the green explosion happening on every tree for miles and miles is wrapped in gray. But for hours before the Aries Moon eclipsed the rising Sun, her approach disturbed my sleep. I tossed and turned. My heart beat wildly.

And for just an instant as my awareness crossed that threshold between sleeping and waking — as mysterious as the one between 29’ and 0’ which has been so week-traveled in the ten days between last week’s Equinox and tomorrow’s Aries ingress by the great Neptune, activator of Mysteries, was that everything felt different.

According to traditions of mundane astrology, a solar eclipse's effects last a year for every hour of its length. This one — relatively brief for a solar eclipse — is three hours and 53 minutes long, which means it could be felt until mid-February 2029. Other astrological traditions say the eclipse continues to be experienced until Saturn crosses or opposes its degree. That happens much sooner, on April 26, 2026 (with the giant ringed planet returning again in November 7 and January 2, 2027).

It seems strange and nothing if not mysterious that the Moon’s movement across the Face of the Sun could change reality. Yet humans have known for thousands of years that eclipses form many eerily recurring patterns. These cycles have strange and ancient names — hepton, often, tzolkinec, sar, tritos, meteonic, ibex, exeligmos, semanex, thix, and the most well-known, saros. The saros cycle to which every eclipse belongs repeats every 18 years, 11 days, and 8 hours, each one 11 degrees ahead of the previous one.

Today’s eclipse belongs to a saros cycle that began in August 1664, in 28’ Leo, the sign of the king — and 1’ from the current US presidents Ascendant. The Moon’s North Node was in 12’ Leo, two degrees from the president’s 12th House Pluto. Ten days before that eclipse, Sir John Lisle, a former member of the British House of Commons who had gone into exile in Switzerland after being designated a regicide, or king-killer, was assassinated in a church courtyard on the order of King Charles II.

Twenty-three years earlier, Likae had signed the death warrant for the execution of the king’s father, Charles I. This was the turning point of the English Civil War, leading to the abolition of the monarchy, which lasted for three years, when the monarchy was restored but moderated by an independent parliament. Charles II took the throne, and four years later, just before Saros cycle 149 began, the “king-killer” John Lisle was shot to death in a Swiss churchyard.

Charles II’s reign and Lisle’s assassination wasn’t the end of turbulence for the British monarchy, and today’s eclipse isn’t the end of Saros 149. Fifty-one more of its 71 eclipses remain. The last one won’t happen for 901 years, in 2926, in 5’ Libra.

This is the last partial eclipse in the cycle. The next eclipse, in April 2043, will be total. This morning’s headlines confirm that this one — 90% total — is a game-changer. “Trump Suffers Day of Losses in His Retribution Campaign Against Law Firms” reads the leading headline in the NYT. At the bottom of the page, another reads, “Columbia’s President Resigns as Trump Threatens University’s Federal Finding.” In between, “Visiting Greenland, JD Vance Finds the Weather and the Reception Chilly” and “Top F.D.A. Vaccine Official Resigns, Citing Kennedy’s ‘Misinformation and Lies’”.

Eclipses in cardinal fire signs often “set fire to the mass mind,” as astrologer John Michael Greer puts it, and trigger dramatic events. Riots, revolts, and the overthrow of governments, as well as the sudden deaths of heads of states, are common.

A number of things about today’s eclipse modify its negative aspects, and it will be interesting to see how they play out. Aries is where the Sun is exalted, and at this one, the Moon is in mutual reception with Mars, the Aries guide and the eclipse ruler. This lifts Mars out of what would normally be a very difficult placement from which to be guiding an eclipse. Cancer is the sign of the Red Planet’s fall. But Luna’s mutual reception with Mars shifts things. In the days and months ahead, we'll see what that means. Whatever it is, it's likely to be fast-moving and changeable.

This chart also figures a massive stellium spanning that mysterious divide between Pisces, where one reality ends, and Aries, where another begins. Six planets — Saturn, Venus, and Neptune in Pisces and Mercury, the Sun, and Moon in Aries — are within the 15' between 24' Pisces and 9' Aries. Stelliums bring intensity and drama, and with three planets in the first decan of Aries, this one signals that big change is on the way. And as Greer points out, “it will be difficult to sort out who and what brought about any given series of events. All this suggests that the world is in for a wild ride.”

With the giant planets rare compression of sign changes beginning tomorrow, and Pluto’s first out of bounds transit south of the Equator since the American and French Revolutions, just five months away, I’m betting that the wild ride we're beginning is taking us to a renewed commitment to democracy and empowerment, with Venus’ final Aries Star Point in 2033 heralding a new beginning for our world. We will very likely look at the weeks following today’s eclipse as the time the long tide began to turn.