Eclipse Season
Eclipses are like super-charged, wild card New and Full Moons, with a 6-month unfolding/shaping period that follows. The time around and between eclipses can often be felt as a time of intensification and acceleration of time, awareness, change and life happenings. It's wise to build in extra time for rest and renewal during eclipse season.
Eclipses occur when the New Moon and Full Moon are near the Lunar Nodes.
The Lunar Nodes are the two points in space where the Moon's orbital path crosses the ecliptic (the Sun's apparent yearly path on the celestial sphere). For a visual, check out the illustration of the Lunar Nodes below from Alice Smith Astrology.
SOUTH NODE IN LIBRA / NORTH NODE IN ARIES (July 2023-January 2025)
Astrologically, the South Node of the Moon shows us the wounds and disempowered habits/patterns that have ripened and are ready to be resolved and released. The North Node of the Moon shows us the evolutionary energies and experiences the soul hungers to move towards, which will naturally aid in resolving and releasing the stagnating South Node tendencies.
While the Lunar Nodes travel through Libra and Aries (July 2023-January 2025), including several months on either side of those dates, we will experience a number of Libra/Aries eclipses. So, for the next year and a half, we'll have ample opportunity to do some potent work with Libra/Aries themes!
LIBRA / ARIES THEMES
The Libra/Aries polarity centers around LIBRAN themes of relationship (we), consideration of others, collaboration, teamwork, joint desires/joint path, negotiation, equality, fairness, diplomacy, harmony, beauty, peace...and ARIES themes of autonomy (me/I), self-discovery, clarity of my desire/my path, agency, decisive action, self-determination, personal power, boundaries, leadership, activism, forthrightness, intensity, courage to navigate discomfort and conflict...
DISEMPOWERED LIBRAN TERRITORY
When the South Node is in Libra, disempowered Libran territory is ripe to arise in all of its painful, uncomfortable messiness so that these ways of being can be consciously met with the countering, resolving medicine of the North Node – fiery, direct, courage-building, true-to-self Aries energy.
A few examples of tendencies we may encounter within ourselves or those around us in amplified ways as the South Node travels through Libra:
–Enmeshment
–Codependency
–People-pleasing
–Overly compromising to keep the peace
–Politeness/etiquette/superficiality at the expense of truth-telling and authenticity
–Fear of rocking the boat/Conflict avoidance
–The deadening middle ground where no one is getting what they truly desire
18.6 YEAR NODAL CYCLES
The Nodes come back to the same placement in the signs every 18.6 years. It could be illuminating to reflect on the last time(s) the South Node was in Libra and the North Node was in Aries (see dates below), as similar themes or narratives may be arising that are ready for a new layer of release and evolution.
Jan 27, 1949 – July 26, 1950
Aug 20, 1967 – April 19, 1969
April 7, 1986 – Dec 2, 1987
Dec 27, 2004 – June 22, 2006
July 18, 2023 – Jan 11, 2025
ARE YOU IN YOUR NODAL RETURN?
If you were born during one of the date ranges above, you are currently experiencing your "Nodal Return," which is a time of potent activation of core issues/wounds/disempowered patterns in service to liberating, freeing, empowering growth (leaps and bounds). And, the growth centers around your willingness to cultivate and embody Aries courage and intensity, commitment to self-discovery/self-knowledge and raw, real, forthright ways of being.
OCTOBER 14, 2023: LIBRA NEW MOON SOLAR ECLIPSE
The first of the upcoming eclipses will be a Solar Eclipse at the New Moon at 21 degrees LIBRA on Saturday, October 14th at 10:55am PDT.
New Moons signal visionary, new beginnings and the planting of seeds you wish to cultivate and grow over the next Moon cycle. Because this is an eclipse, it is the visioning and planting of new seeds you wish to cultivate and grow over the coming 6 months. Since this New Moon is conjoined with the South Node, a great deal of the new beginning, seed-planting potential here has to do with endings, what can be let go, released and cleared (particularly disempowered Libran territory).
OCTOBER 28, 2023: TAURUS FULL MOON LUNAR ECLIPSE
The second upcoming eclipse will be a Lunar Eclipse at the Full Moon at 5 degrees TAURUS on Saturday, October 28th at 1:24pm PDT.
The October 28th eclipse is the last eclipse in the Taurus/Scorpio eclipse cycle, which began back in November 2021. Even though the Nodes have moved out of Taurus and Scorpio and are now in Aries and Libra, we have the opportunity to check in with Taurean (North Node) themes and what has evolved over the last 2 years in regards to moving towards deeper connection with the rhythms, life-giving abundance and grounding of the natural world, as well as our connection to our own animal bodies and awareness of the nourishment, rest and resources our bodies need to thrive. There's much more to say here, but those pieces are at the core of Taurus evolutionary potential.