Heartastrology Muse

The post modern western take on an eclipse is that they have very certain effects. These effects depend on when the first eclipse occurred during what is called the Saros cycle for any given eclipse. At that time the dominate planetary event occurring during the eclipse is taken to be the main theme of the eclipse for its entire Saros cycle. Saros cycles last for 100’s of years. The effect of a given eclipse is said to be 1 year for every hour of the eclipse. The place effected is one of two…The first is where the eclipse path lay, that is where the eclipse is visible from the earth. The second is places where the eclipse point is significant in a chart of a town, city, or country. For instance the current eclipse hit significant points in Haiti and in Eureka California.

Next factor in the element the eclipse is occurring in. Last winter the eclipse occurred in an air sign, we had a flu outbreak. Last summer the eclipse occurred in a water sign, Asia had huge floods. This winter the eclipse occurred in an earth sign, we have had two major earthquakes within the eclipse week.

The third consideration is how the eclipse affects a person’s natal chart. For instance, this eclipse is occurring at 25* Capricorn. Anyone with a significant chart pressure point is going to feel the effects of this eclipse strongly in their personal life. For instance, President Barak Obama has Saturn at 25* Capricorn. So his Saturn, and what it means for his chart, is going to be strongly affected by the eclipse. For this reason many people are worried about President Obama’s safety this coming year, but they are missing out on a few important details. One is, his Saturn is very dignified, so it tends to act well in his chart, rather than in a more malefic way. The second is the meaning of this eclipse cycle is generally positive. This eclipse is 12 N in the Saros cycle, the meaning is “opportunities to accept greater responsibilities come suddenly into one’s life. Although the events which lead to these opportunities are difficult, they tend to create greater harmony and self esteem in the end” In this case we can already see that Barack Obama has been given an opportunity to show how a good president, or ruler, relates to a natural disaster. His rising to the occasion of the Haiti earthquake, I expect will have a good effect on how Americans view him.

James Camerons Avatar is on its way to becoming the top grossing box office hit of all time. Its use of CGI technology, Science Fiction and Eco Mythic plot has struck a nerve in our society that is going to cause it to quickly break all previous box office financial and attendance records world wide. We can ask, why this movie and why now. Astrology has a very simple and direct answer. It is, the Jupiter Neptune conjunction in Aquarius.

First let us talk about why. Jupiter represents idealism, spirituality, what is good, alive, abundant, large and expansive. Neptune represents the unconscious and other worldly as a dream experience, an illusion, a visionary experience, an untouchable and unknowable reality. Neptune is the mysterious, but also the visionary, ethereal, spiritual, and hopeful or deluded. First and formeost, when these two large gas planets combine we get big, and Avatar is huge. Over a thousand people worked on the technical production alone. Technology had to catch up with the vision of James Cameron’s script. It took film making  beyond its previous boundaries and set a new standard for the science fiction and fantasy film.

Avatar is a dream film, it is also an illusion, the Na’vi are CGI taken from real actors, a good deal of the film is flawlessly computer generated and then woven into the actual footage, giving the impression that it is real. The Na’vi themselves are a spiritually idealistic people, in the sense that they live in harmony with nature. They are one with a great mind that is plant based, dream like and in the other world. The world they live in is utopian and the people who work with the Avatars in the film are living the dream of being in a new body that is not theirs.

The Neptune Jupiter aspects of the film are undeniable making it a great escapist film with an idealistic natural message. This Idealism is even further reinforced by the planets both being in Aquarius, which is the sign of the universal, tribal, Utopian idealist. Thus in the film we do not get many shades of gray, we get the good, and ideal, the Na’vi and their way of life which is in harmony, and the bad and corrupted, corporate consumptive capitalism. Aquarius is an air sign, and the film has a good deal of its action taking place with in the air, and the planet Pandora itself has a lighter gravity, thus mountains actually float in the air.

This is the what of the Neptune Jupiter conjunction, now how about the when…well, believe it or not, the film was released theatrically between Dec. 16th and 18th, 2 to 4 days before the exact conjunction of Jupiter and Neptune in Aquarius.

We will be able to look back historically and say, what flim embodied this conjunction and its meaning, and the answer will be Avatar.

The Lunar mansions are giving to be the following. Different authors have different variations, but the differences are not that great. This table is from Agrippa and can be found here. Now It should be stated that this is a very curse explanation, but one which is a great guide to beginning your meditations upon the Lunar Mansions, and watching how they effect your life. More on that in the next post!

Lunar mansions are an ancient method of watching how the moon transits the sky in its 28 day cycle. The lunar cycle is actually 27.3 days long, so the mansions are not evenly divided into 24 hours period. The origins of the mansions are heatedly debated by scholars, and the true source of their existence may be more ancient than writing itself, thus a mystery to modern man, and only the subject of speculation. What we do know is that there are currently three main traditions of Lunar Mansion Astrology. These 3 are Chinese, Jyotish, and Arabic mansions. The Jyotish contains for the most part only 27 mansions, while the Chinese and the Arabic contain 28.

The lunar mansions are extraordinarily helpful to developing harmony with the current of life. We can, and many people do track the moon through the 12 signs of the Zodiac. This gives us 2 and a half day energetic emphasis to watch for and learn from. The Lunar mansions give us 24 hour specific energy patterns to observe in the current of life.

I am using the arabic tradition, as I practice a mix of current thinking and medieval astrology. Medieval astrology takes as one of its roots definitions that came from Ptolemy. The mansions are defined by the nature of the specific stars.

This brings us to an interesting modern dilemma which is whether to use the tropical or sidereal Zodiac. This was not a question for Greek astrologers, from which western astrology has grown, as at that time, the two Zodiacs were in harmony. Now they are significantly out of phase. In a future post I will go into detail about the differences, but here let us just say, we will be using the Tropical Zodiac. Why, because this is considered to be the “immovable” or “archetypal” zodiac, meaning that it is beyond the passage of time, its effects are more subtle and pervasive than the Sidereal Zodiac which is “moveable” and thus closer to the imperfection of human existence.

The 28 lunar mansions, as one can see were considered an extremely important part of astrology, only behind the 12 zodiac signs in there ability to confer information about the native, and the courses of action a person should take on a given day. Modern astrology has not even scratched the surface on the utility of this. For instance let us take a look at the Moons placement in Barak Obama’s Natal chart. His moon abides in 3 degrees Gemini which is the mansion under the angel guide Gabiel known as “the white spot” . The Key words for this are ” intellectual activity, goodwill, universal body, health, and safety.” The image is of a King surrounded by stars.”  this adds a much deeper interpretation of President Barack Obama’s emotional motivation than just the Gemini’s “a rapid learner operating on a mental plane who is out of touch with others emotional needs.”

Cheers and always happy for feedback.