Full Moon/Lunar Eclipse [22 Leo 28]

London – Saturday 11 February 2017 [00:33 GMT]

New York – Friday 10 February [19:33 GMT]

Sydney – Saturday 11 February 2017 [11:33 GMT]

This weekend there is the first of four eclipses in 2017. This is a Full Moon or Lunar Eclipse and it’s part of a new eclipse cycle which began in August 2016 and continues until January 2019 cutting across the Leo/Aquarius axis of the zodiac.

Eclipses often cause panic because they have a bad reputation. You can understand the fear in years gone by when little was known about eclipses and the sky would suddenly turn dark. Our ancestors must have thought the world was coming to an end. Yet there are between 4 to 6 eclipses every year and so far we’ve survived them all.

The Royal Factor

Another factor to note is that eclipses have often been linked to key events with royals and leaders. Take Princess Diana, for example, who was born with the Sun in Cancer, the sign that’s ruled by the Moon. She married Prince Charles two days before a solar eclipse, her son Prince William was born the day of a solar eclipse, the announcement of her separation from Charles was announced on the day of a lunar eclipse and Diana died within 24 hours of a solar eclipse. That’s some eclipse story!

Yet eclipses are important for everyone, especially if you have planets or angles within 1-2 degrees of the eclipse degree. Then they often coincide with important life events that turn life around, re-route your direction, take you down a path in life that you didn’t see coming.

Sometimes change happens close to the eclipse date or seeds are sown and events build towards a major turning point. Remember that each eclipse cycle focuses on opposite signs of the zodiac and one cycle lasts for a couple of years. Here’s the current one:

• August 18 2016 – Lunar Eclipse [25 Aquarius 52]
• February 11 2017 – Lunar Eclipse [22 Leo 28]
• August 7 2017 – Lunar Eclipse [15 Aquarius 25]
• August 21 2017 – Solar Eclipse [28 Leo 53]
• January 31 2018 – Lunar Eclipse [11 Leo 37]
• February 15 2018 – Solar Eclipse [27 Aquarius 08]
• July 27 2018 – Lunar Eclipse [ 4 Aquarius 45]
• January 21 2019 – Lunar Eclipse [0 Leo 52]

Eclipses are not by their own nature good or bad. Yes, they can sweep in to move things forward in life, sometimes at a fast rate and they often bring what’s hidden to light. So it’s hard to plan for them other than recognise that they can coincide with life’s highs and lows. They symbolise a time when the pendulum of fate swings dramatically and that can be both exhilarating and scary.

The Leo/Aquarius Axis

It’s important to think about the signs involved too and what they represent. The Sun shines bright in Leo, the sign most closely linked to royalty. The essence of Leo is to be at the heart of proceedings, the centre of attention. The big cat of the zodiac thrives when it receives plenty of stroking, accolade and admiration. Leo is a creative sign, so this is about your identity, your unique skills and talents, what makes you ‘you’.

Aquarius, the opposite sign to Leo, rules the collective rather than the individual. The Sun finds it hard to shine in Aquarius because it has to share the limelight. This isn’t about self-interest, Aquarius is about what’s good for everyone, common goals, a shared mission or purpose.

So you may experience issues around fitting in or not during this eclipse, where do you belong, who can you team up with to achieve mutual goals? Do you find your light is dimmed if you compare yourself unfavourably to others, if other people don’t get who you are, if your contribution goes unwanted?

Alternatively, are you ready to shine bright, share your natural talents with the world, make a difference? This is an important time to consider the groups you belong to, your friendships, your associations. You may decide to leave or move on from one set and find a new group or alliance. As with all oppositions, we can either focus on what divides or work together to create unity out of polarity.

Breakthrough Astrology

What’s especially favourable about this weekend’s eclipse is that the opposition between the Sun and Moon doesn’t stand alone. The planets are inter-connected during the eclipse and there are some powerful planetary patterns, a Grand Fire Trine, a Kite, a T-square.

This is breakthrough astrology that’s buzzing with fire and air sign inspiration. For some, this weekend’s eclipse could be exciting, innovative and it has tremendous creative potential.

To help you understand what the eclipse symbolises for you, here are the areas of life that are highlighted by the Leo/Aquarius axis for each set of opposite star signs. Read your Sun sign first, your Ascendant second:

• Aries & Libra: 11th/5th houses – your friends, groups & societies; your children, creativity, love affairs, what you ‘give birth to’
• Taurus & Scorpio: 10th/4th houses – your career & vocation, where you’re heading in life; your home & family, where you come from
• Gemini & Sagittarius: 3rd/9th houses – your education, neighbours & siblings, how you communicate; the bigger picture, travel, philosophy, what gives your life meaning
• Cancer & Capricorn: 2nd/8th houses – money, what you place value upon in your life; your joint finances, your sexual nature, all that you share with others, the unconscious
• Leo & Aquarius: 1st/7th houses – your image & appearance, personal goals; love & relationships, significant others, contracts
• Virgo & Pisces: 12th/6th houses – retreat, quiet, solitude, a spiritual path; your health & work, service, what you sacrifice for others

Finally, it can help to look back to previous Leo/Aquarius eclipse cycles to see what was happening in your life. They come around approximately once every 18 years so the last cycle which included the karmic nodes in the same sign combination was from August 1998 to July 2000.

On a personal level, this was a major time of change for me. I met my current partner in December 1998, he sold his flat and moved in with me the following year, I became pregnant but then sadly had a miscarriage in October 1999, one of the worst weekends of my life as we were on holiday in New York at the time.

Happily this was swiftly followed by a successful pregnancy and my daughter was conceived on the eve of the Millennium, on a holiday in Sri Lanka that was a last-minute getaway to recover from the miscarriage! Sun Scorpio – major life changes – partner moves in; Ascendant Aries – two pregnancies, one successful, the start of a new family.

This fits the eclipse cycle perfectly and these are the kind of life-changing events that can happen. I’m not sure that this set of eclipses will be quite so momentous, but who knows…

n.b. There was another set of Aquarius/Leo eclipses with the karmic nodes in the opposite signs to our current cycle from February 2008 to August 2009. Events around these dates may also be relevant to what’s happening in your life now.

I hope you find this article helpful in light of the current eclipse cycle. Please do leave your comments below if you have a personal story to share that ties in to the eclipse symbolism, or you would like some help understanding what the eclipse astrology means for you.

The post What Does The Leo/Aquarius Eclipse Mean For You? appeared first on Sally Kirkman Astrologer.

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