The Moon blocks the light of the Sun, the central star of our solar system, during a solar eclipse. That's astronomy. In astrology, a solar eclipse is comparable to a cosmic blackboard being erased so new things can be written on it. Eclipse energy leaks out for months before and after the eclipse takes place. People with natal planets near an eclipse degree will experience noticeable changes in the weeks leading up to the actual eclipse.
The Sun signifies ego and identity. People live inside of their personalities and identities. Most people can't mold their personality into a new shape like a wad of Play-doh! But solar eclipses have the potential to transform the identity or anything that corresponds to or shapes the identity. Eclipses in your sun sign, moon sign, or ascending sign will be more noticeable. The effects are even stronger when an eclipse is close to a natal placement. If a solar eclipse doesn't have any powerful birth chart contacts, the changes might be subtle. Small choices add up over time; accumulated changes are more noticeable in hindsight.
A Brighter Day Inside Your Head
Solar eclipses can trigger two kinds of change. Voluntary adjustments to one's head space and/or the immediate environment are refreshing. These open pathways to new discoveries and possibilities of expression. Involuntary adjustments are more difficult. Identity props and roles may be lost or taken. Personality shifts are forced as the person must ask, “Who am I without this job (car, house, relationship, relative, etc)?” That's why it's called an identity prop. When a prop is removed the identity wobbles and totters until a new internal balance is developed.
The most desirable solar eclipse-related changes come about through self-reflection, self-knowledge, and choices made from that basis. It's not always a comfortable process, which is why internal changes may be expressed, consciously or unconsciously, through external identity props. Self-knowledge stimulates growth and evolution, which in turn lead to a well-developed personality. But personality changes are most visible through one's immediate surroundings – people, places, personal adornment and material goods. There's a two-way street between internal awareness and external items.
Erasing the Blackboard
Solar eclipses operate on different levels. The main focal area is changes of status, job titles, designations, and responsibilities surrounding the family or workplace. For example, becoming a “grama” confers a new title and family role on a first-time grandparent. Parents may become “empty nesters.” Roles and titles are transformed! Shifting responsibilities or jobs at work can have a similar effect.
Solar eclipses coincide with shifts in attention and action. Think of the Sun as a big spotlight illuminating what's currently important to you. As the spotlight swivels, old responsibilities are released. Projects are completed. New responsibilities, jobs, and projects come into being. Perhaps one person's issues are resolved and someone else's needs become focal. Shifting social circles and work associations can be another example an eclipse at work. Who a person sees and relates to on a daily basis is as prone to change as the physical surroundings, the where and what.
Material Girl in a Material World
Eclipses can have an effect on our material surroundings. Now more than ever, a person's identity is linked to material goods. We're battered with a constant barrage of advertising designed to make us buy stuff. Films and television shows depict actors in luxurious surroundings. The importance of a well-developed personality has been subverted into outward displays of wealth to disguise shallow and under-developed personalities.
Identity props are a component of self-definition. A person having a mid-life identity crisis might buy a sports car to prop up a waning aura of sexual desirability. Sometimes people buy things they can't afford to appear more affluent. In that case, the identity prop is also a status symbol. We're trained to co-opt a materialistic mind-set, but we are free to choose otherwise. Self-awareness is a tremendously undervalued commodity.
Solar eclipses can coincide with the exchange of material goods (house, car, couch, computer, bed, cell phone, etc). Houses and cars are strongly associated with personality because they reflect personal taste and style while conveying social signals about sexual availability, relative wealth, and status. Simpler identity-related changes can take place through altering personal appearance, redecorating or rearranging physical space. A new hair cut, colors, art or furniture display the here-and-now personality.
Adjustments to appearance and material items have the effect of redecorating around a personality with props and items reinforces the “self” one desires to be seen by others, or the self a person actually has. Choices all depend on self-awareness, in which case the external trappings may be irrelevant.
Collective Eclipse Experience
The solar eclipse on June 21, 2020 is exceptional because it takes place on Summer Solstice, the day that the Sun enters Cancer. 0° Cancer is an “Aries Point.” Aries Point events like this eclipse have a universal and collective quality. Almost everyone is affected for good or ill. Whole groups and whole nations experience identity crises. It's systemic and pervasive, and triggers all kinds of uncomfortable questions that have to be discussed on a collective level.
The Sun and Moon contact the fixed stars Betelgeuse, Polaris, and Menkalinan at the Cancer Gate. Betelgeuse (alpha Orion) signifies leadership, wealth, success, and high status. It has military overtones. Shoulder stars imply personal and professional obligations. Polaris (alpha Ursa Minor) is the North Star. It's meanings include finding a way and navigating a safe course. It's darker side includes violent changes, losses, and evil legacies. Menkalinan (beta Auriga) is the shoulder of the Rein Holder, repeating the emphasis on responsibilities and burdens connected to parenting and career goals. Menkalinan gives personality tests: can the person hold up under the burden of responsibilities, or falter and fail and end up in disgrace? This isn't a dress rehearsal, this is the real thing!
Any solar eclipse in Cancer augurs changes in a family circle or structure. Family identity provides small children with their first real sense of belonging and safety. Similarly, states and nations are undergoing an identity crisis that relates to the perception of what constitutes the “family unit.” The stellar combination with the Aries Point eclipse facilitates both voluntary and involuntary re-assessments of value systems, morality, and collective justice. It's a historic turning point that affects populations and eco-systems around the globe.
Just as children need parents who will keep them safe and well-nurtured, citizens expect their state and nation to provide a degree of protection in a complex world. There's an additional expectation of an environment that's not trashed with pollutants, and that values unperturbed natural settings that are a key to Earth's symbiotic functioning. How's that working right now? Not so well. Not everyone feels like they're part of the national family. Some citizens are excluded from the circle of trust and privilege. Natural environments are being spoiled and ravaged. Cancer likes to feed and nourish, but when that goes sour it can turn into a collective food fight.
The eclipse's star contacts emphasize leaders, people who've been chosen by the collective to wield authority. Leaders still have to adhere to the collective rules, the social contract, while managing their responsibilities. Just as a nuclear family unit can be riddled with dysfunctions and internal strife, states and nations are experiencing social dysfunction and battles over the paths of a divergent leadership. Bad daddy and bad mommy are being made accountable! Current problems are arising for two main reasons: certain authority figures are ignoring the social contract, and the guidelines are being disputed by groups with different priorities and value systems. It's a national food fight and the stakes couldn't be higher.
The Cancer Gate (the 5 degrees before 0 Cancer) is the most permeable and mutable area of the zodiac. It's where things can be transformed from one thing into another with ease. All eyes are on the current leaders and the challengers, the up-and-coming wanna-be leaders. There are battles over who gets to hold the staff of leadership and choose which course the country takes into the future. Whether that course is good for the people and the land, or just for a privileged few, is at the heart of the dispute.
Personal Eclipse Checklist
This eclipse demands responsibility! Check in with others to get advice and insight before making decisions. Take time to look around and evaluate options and opportunities. On a physical level, the contacts to two shoulder stars heighten the risk of neck and shoulder injuries. Tension can gather in these areas if burdens grow to heavy. Extra sleep may be needed if a person is in high-stress situations.
Consider how your identity is entwined with personal and professional obligations and responsibilities. Shine the light inside your head-space and ask some crucial questions:
· Do you have too many burdens?
· Are your expectations exceeding your capacity for achievement? Put some distance between your personality and how it's invested in an overloaded plate of responsibilities, and assess whether or not the constant pressure of excessive expectations is worth the strain. It might be time to deliberately revise your priorities.
· Are your expectations set too low? Is it time to expect more of yourself and take on new roles?
· Who are you if you voluntarily release one of your roles? Or -
· Who are you if a role has been involuntarily taken from you?
· How would you feel (and who would you be) if you released one of your roles?
· What kind of identity impact would role changes have on your personality? How integral are the roles you've assumed to your personality and sense of self?
· How closely are your expectations for the future linked to your identity? (that's a tricky one)
· Would you feel happier or less frustrated if you set your sights a bit lower, or set more reasonable and realistic goals? Or would you feel happier if you set your sights higher?
· How are other people's expectations impacting your personality? Are other people's expectations real or are you just imagining that people expect things from you? If you don't know – ask.
Once you've ascertained the root of an identity crisis (if you're having one), the next step is to look for solutions. If you're in overload, consider re-prioritizing so responsibilities are more manageable. Maybe delegate more or ask for needed assistance instead of trying to do it all yourself. If you're at odds with other people's expectations, consider your future vision of yourself and how you can realistically achieve it. What will it take? How heavy is the pressure to conform and keep the status quo? If it's making you truly miserable, it's time to figure out a new set of protocols for your life path.
Cancer implies a link to conditioned traits and learned behaviors from the family of origin. Are these a source of knee-jerk responses to current situations? Are the results from those automatic responses helpful or counter-productive? If it isn't working for you anymore, go back into your head-space and develop new ways to respond. Your family installs your emotional trigger buttons! It might be time to move those around, too. Just because you were taught one way of responding doesn't mean you can't learn new and better ways of responding. Self-awareness, the gift of the Sun, is the key to enlightenment!
6-9-2020