And so the story begins....with the eclipse

It's no good. I can't wait a whole week to add something of interest to this new blog! I have thoughts every day, several times a day, to do with astrology. If it's not in my blood, it's certainly in my brain! Some time soon I will explain how I ended up in this strange place of being constantly fascinated by a subject that attracts such mixed reactions from so many different quarters. For now I want to focus on the dynamics of the February 2008 eclipses and, in particular the 21st February lunar eclipse.

If you know anything about eclipses then you may have come across the idea that they represent dark and light together. In other words the eclipse involves a meeting of the Sun and Moon, which are the two "lights" in astrology. The Sun represents bright, day light and the Moon, of course, dark, night light. The Sun has broadly masculine connotations in astrology and is linked with the conscious, rational mind and therefore the left brain. The Moon, on the other hand, has feminne connotations and is linked with the unconscious, imaginative/creative, right side of the brain. When an eclipse happens there is a symbolic greater merging or distance of these two areas.

How does it work and how do these differences occur? That's easy. When we have a solar eclipse, it's the time of the New Moon and so the Sun and Moon appear to be in the same place. This is the great merging and with an eclipse the New Moon becomes not just a coupling but a complete meshing - so that an apparent blot-out occurs. The two become the one - it's spiritually very symbolic, of course.

When we have a lunar eclipse, this relates to the Full Moon when the Sun and Moon are as far apart from one another as can be - 180 degrees, in complete opposition. They are polar opposites, effectively. We know that there are statistics for higher crime rates and activity in mental hospitals at this time; when the Full Moon becomes an eclipsed full Moon - a lunar eclipse - even relatively sane people may seem less well adjusted! So, if your borderline friends seem to have been edging over the border this month, the eclipse will have been reflecting this.

Remember: it's about the two sides of the brain merging or being more distant, symbolically. Because that's what astrology is: a language of symbols. I think of it as being like the ticker tape of life. Life happens and we can see its events and nuances recorded in symbols, if we care to examine them. So, what are we saying when we say that the left and right sides of the brain are interacting in this different way during eclipse periods? It is my beilef that, at these times, one side of the brain (usually the left, logical side) is allowed greater access into the right, creative side. In this right side we experience the language of dreams, another symbol area. Here we also experience all of our feelings and memories, including past and present laughter, fears, anxieties, hopes, desires, doubts, shame, guilt, joy and tears.

Sometimes - often, in fact - in life we have to suppress the fullness of our feelings. We don't always notice we are doing this and it leads to what Freud would have called repressed emotions - or repressed memories. If some of these remain repressed and unaddressed we can develop strange behaviours to compensate - compulsions, addictions and other learned, bad habits. Which is why, when eclipses occur - and the doorways of the mind seem to be more open than usual - our habits can run riot. Or we may see the light, undertand them better and resolve to do something about them. Sometimes it's only about actually feeling those stored up old feelings. Well, isn't that a relief!

There are many more expressions of eclipse energy but, time after time, I notice that these kinds of mental and emotional insights are available to us around the eclipse periods - and sometimes for weeks and even months aftwards. Feel free to share your eclipse stories and observations here. And keep an eye out for the next lot this year, which will be on August 1st (solar eclipse at 9 degrees Leo) and 16th (lunar eclipse at 24 degrees Aquarius). Do they touch on planets in your chart? The February eclipses are: 7th (solar eclipse at 17/18 Aquarius) and 21st (lunar eclipse at 1/2 degrees of Virgo).