Bees stop buzzing at the moment of a solar eclipse.  Certain species of beetle move according to the direction of the Milky Way.  The oceans’ tides bear into the bodily cycles of humans, our circadian rhythms, with crime and hospital intake perceived differently by frontline workers along the lunar phases.  How early in the day we’re exposed to the light of the Sun, ‘our’ star, is a major determinant in earthly wellbeing.  The position of Regulus in the natal charts of cultural figures is drawing the interest of renegade physicists.  The four astrological elements, basis for the four basic functions in analytical psychology, bear uncanny correspondence to the four fundamental forces in quantum physics.
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Science continues to reveal dimensions of the astronomical planets which seem to correspond to qualities they’ve long been understood to have in astrology, throughout eras when the act of pointing and naming was not kept segregated from the participatory act of experiencing meaning.  Jupiter, the ‘Bringer of Jollity’ and bestower of blessings, shields Earth from asteroids and space debris; the synodic cycle of Venus and Earth draws a five-pointed flowerlike pattern.  Mars, god of war, in its synodic cycle draws a chaotic loop.  Saturn’s domiciles of Capricorn and Aquarius naturally oppose Cancer and Leo, the taskmaster planet furthest from the Sun and Moon visible to the naked eye.
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In a materialist epistemology, one might evaluate their existence in a vacuum, sterile and supposedly separate from the cosmos in which we are enmeshed.  But certain cycles and moments therein seem to bring more and more of us back to a visceral sense of communion with the constellations, the signs, the planetary wanderers and their catalytic dances.  Friday’s eclipse is one such moment, one which seems to be drawing extra interest as we process the major emotional  shifts of the past few months in particular.
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Tomorrow, the Lunar Eclipse in Scorpio arrives at 1:33pm EST.  Implicitly a full moon, this eclipse follows on the heels of Beltane earlier in the week — whose midpoint between Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice represents the vernal peak of the year, and its mounting fertility in the northern hemisphere.  This Full Moon also puts the luminaries right at the center of the Taurus/Scorpio axis, with the fallen Moon in Scorpio’s swirling instincts staring down the fecundity of the Sun in Taurus.
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In a descent from Aries at the ‘head’ of the natural year, Taurus has a traditional association with the throat.  This highlights not only the end of the body by which we imbibe, and take in items of sustenance, but also the eliminative organs, associated with Taurus’ polar sign of Scorpio. With Scorpio, desire is clarified or it will possess — the feeling body when flooded might struggle with holding onto darker emotions, resentments and emotional detritus.
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Eclipses represent endings and release points, and if one looks to the Taurus and Scorpio-ruled house axis of the birth chart, it’s likely that one will find a lot of processing related to the themes of the Scorpio-ruled house, and communication / mental revision related to the Taurus-ruled house.
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The middle decan of Taurus suggests earthly ideal and a valuation of success in the sensory world; the middle decan of Scorpio, a distillation of desire, and the intimacy of our “emotional and material exchanges” as Austin Coppock wrote.  This eclipse points us toward the integration of our shadow sides, in order to achieve the states of being we are working towards — an integration that likely involves letting go of past definitions we’re clinging to.  Taurus might want stasis, easy plateaus well worked for, but Scorpio knows the dark underbelly, the swirling umbers which reveal that all is flux.  Both can be equally stubborn, as fixed sign energy is prone to being.

Mercury’s retrograde motion through Taurus and recent cazimi with the Sun therein have given us a window to talk through, even if just internally, some of the dimensions of our lives in need of healing, refinement, reconfiguration or release.  The swift planet’s rulership of Venus in Gemini, from the first decan of Taurus, emphasizes our push for manifestation, in some ways against the current of this eclipse’s dark katabasis.
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The eclipse not only takes place in the Moon’s fall of Scorpio, but is dispatched by a fallen Mars in Cancer.  Yet tomorrow’s sextile between Venus in Gemini and Jupiter in Aries also highlights the potential for harmony and pushing forward.  These are particularly seep-y times, yet hopeful ones if the work is done, if our trials are being properly integrated.

Just some of the dynamics and polarity playgrounds to look out for:

*’no mud, no lotus’
*easy plateaus vs. rugged depths
*bright pasture vs. dark purgation
*dealing with the glaring emotional underbelly
*acceptance and denial, cohesion and falling apart
*embracing new ideation, releasing old images of self
*love, lust, unity, severing, honesty, betrayal
*temporary satiation vs. deeper fulfillment
*following seemingly ‘pure’ desires doesn’t always make for an easy road
*do you like how it feels, chewing what you bit off?
*how about the rest of the digestion process?
*April’s momentum has given way to emotional labor over what preceded it
*mental revision, clarification, communication surrounding items of hurt
*dialogue can help us realize what is meant to be embraced or discarded
*are we integrating what we’ve done, or simply turning our backs?

Lighten your heart, open to the coming benevolence as you wade through the subterranean tides of your psyche.  Swim well stargazers ~

—A.B.