Dancing in the Dark – Big Sky Astrology

Author: April Elliot Kent

Not sure how to find where the solar eclipse will fall in your birth chart? This article will help.

Clients most often come to me when they are at a critical turning point in their life, a “crisis.” Using a solar eclipse, it’s easy to pinpoint the source of a crisis. I map out the solar and lunar eclipses throughout the year and note where these points are in the natal chart based on house positions and difficult aspects to the natal planets. Then I went back 19 years every 4-5 years. These will show me clients over the years who have received conjunctions, squares, and oppositions from eclipses in roughly the same areas of their charts. These are powerful reference points for exploring difficult issues in more depth.

When I calculate the year’s secondary and solar arc progression, transit, and solar return charts, the configurations in the charts that attract the most eclipse attention always appear in those charts as well. Quickly, this year’s theme emerged, providing a solid framework for the reading.

This is the standard way to approach any type of astrological cycle, whether it’s a cycle of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, progressive moon phases, or anything. What is particularly attractive to me about solar eclipses as a cyclical tool is that:

• They are really easy to use. If a client comes to me and says, “When will I find a relationship?” it’s a fairly simple question to say, “Well, when was your last significant relationship?” – Find where the eclipse occurs and work on the 4.5 year cycle from there. The opposition in the 9 1/2 year part of the cycle appears to be particularly strong.
• Of all the tools we use for predictions, solar eclipses are the least subtle! People notice their impact. They have a bare-bones, brass-knuckles immediacy.
• at last, Solar eclipse shows where crisis occurred and how it relates to past eventsin a way that reveals the progress someone has made in dealing with a particular problem. This is very helpful and effective.

Solar eclipse moves clockwise in chartunlike progressions and transits that move counterclockwise. And because eclipses usually occur in opposite signs in a given year, they often fall in houses that directly oppose each other in the chart. Therefore, when interpreting eclipses in houses, I am not looking at twelve individual houses, but rather six groups of houses, or house axes, directly opposite each other.

Of course, the size of the houses in your chart will vary depending on where you were born. If you were born far north or south of the equator, usually one or two of these axes will be quite large, while the rest will be quite small. So naturally, progresses, transits, and—yes—eclipses, take up more time in a big house than in a small one. However, on average, you can count on a solar eclipse occurring once every 1.5 years in a specific axis of your chart.

This article tells a story that illustrates the cycle of eclipses through the houses of the chart. This will be most helpful if you are starting from scratch…

Next article in the series: Eclipses in the 1st/7th House »

© April 1999 Elliot Kent