Probing the Sun
Vienna, Austria July 8 1842 Solar Eclipse. Painting by Johann Christian Shoeller, titled “The Total Eclipse of the Sun”
This total solar eclipse on April 8th, is revving up the engines of the collective. Headlines everywhere forecast heavy travel, local resources being pressure tested, side-eyed assumptions of the firing up of CERN after a two-year hibernation, NASA launching rockets into the solar eclipses shadow, Space X AX-1 launching at the time of the eclipse as well. This total solar eclipse is in a Mar’s fire sign, Aries, the zodiac sign that symbolizes the return of spring and the ever growing light in the world. The Sun in Aries is exalted as well, a point we will further discuss. Collectively the temperatures are heating up and the archetypes of the eclipse in Aries are presenting in real time.
In a recent NASA article, NASA to Launch Sounding Rockets into Moon’s Shadow During Solar Eclipse, they discuss the coming rocket launches, “NASA will launch three sounding rockets during the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, to study how Earth’s upper atmosphere is affected when sunlight momentarily dims over a portion of the planet.
The Atmospheric Perturbations around Eclipse Path (APEP) sounding rockets will launch from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia to study the disturbances in the ionosphere created when the Moon eclipses the Sun. The sounding rockets had been previously launched and successfully recovered from White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico, during the October 2023 annular solar eclipse. They have been refurbished with new instrumentation and will be relaunched in April 2024.”
The name of the mission Apep, is named after the Egyptian god of darkness, the enemy of the sun god Ra. The Egyptians believed that eclipses occurred when Apep finally caught up to Ra in the sky and ate the Sun. I write about that here as well, under the Eclipse heading.
What is truly fascinating is that this year was dubbed by NASA, Heliophysics Big Year, a global celebration of the Sun, which they began at the Libra Solar Eclipse October 14th. This space celebration includes rocket launches at the eclipses, first on October 14th, followed by this coming solar eclipse in Aries and the year will finish out on Dec 24th, Christmas Eve, where NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will make its closest approach to the Sun ever, passing through the corona. Probing the Sun. NASA is encouraging all to take part in this global celebration of the Sun and its impact here on Earth, but why now, why all the collective focus? NASA is raising the Sun on high, exalting it, and this rocket launch in Aries, the Sun’s exaltation temple, is quite an ode to the Sun.
The Sun in astrology is our guiding principle, our vital spark, our rational mind, it is the masculine, yang spark, it is the life force for each and everyone of us. The Sun has the power to shine a light on the darker areas of our psyche, and sanitize it by exposing fault lines. This intense focus by the collective on the solar deity can be directly related to all of us feeling a papable change in the direction of the collective overall, you don’t have to be a mystic, an astrologer, an intuitive to feel these societal plate shifts. Since the new year, many exposures of corruption, especially regarding the male, solar archetype, have surfaced and keep coming at us at a warp speed. Wouldn’t it make sense that our own individual focus and relationship to the Sun is shifting too? The Sun is our spirit, dropped from the heavens into this sublunar realm as soul, we forget the mission of our spirit in this lifetime, but the birth chart can clue us in. As above, so below, our life is is a microcosm of the macrocosm. The collective can represent the world in between, the metacosm, this is where we are all at, living out the tension of dark and light, Moon and Sun, soul and spirit. The metacosm is attempting to hold all this tension, a pressure test with infrastructure possibly collapsing.
Are we all participating in a form of participation mystique, have the archetypes fully consumed mankind, and are we at a brink of absolute immersion? Rockets and powerful particle accelerators are quite apropos for this occultation of light, symbolized by the fiery warrior Mars who wields a pointy weapon. The symbol of Mars is after all essentially a dart, an arrow, like a rocket, the glyph is a circle which represents spirit, and the arrow that points up to the heavens. One cannot make up this literal collective play acting out on in real time.
X Marks The Spot: Paths of 2023 and 2024 Eclipses across the United States in accordance to the NASA Rocket Launches Map Credit: Micala Garrison and Scientific Visualization Studio
We get to April 8th, the anticipated and curious date of the total solar eclipse that will cut straight across the United States, tracking like an X marks the spot in accordance to the October 2023 eclipse. The potency of an eclipse is location dependent, those who are living in the US and able to physically observe the eclipse, will endure greater change. Eclipses are harbingers of change, the ancients knew this, and we can observe it collectively each eclipse season. I have written on the anatomy of eclipses here , here and here, so I will not review. The one thing I will mention again though, is that this total solar eclipse in the sign of Aries with the North Node, which is seeking a fresh start.
Aries is the first sign in zodiacal order, ushering in the emergence of spring and all the fresh potential for new life, new beginnings, new opportunities. This is the sign that signifies the light returning to the world, each month up to the Summer Solstice, the days continue to grow longer. The North Node signals an increase as well, symbolic for gathering energy to it and expanding the potential of growth. Solar eclipses are pumped up New Moons, initiators of new beginnings. Is this particular eclipse accelerating our Sun’s intent?
Note the planetary line-up forming at the eclipse. Image credit: Analog Sky Astrology
On the day of the solar eclipse we also have a planetary line up in the sky spanning the signs Pisces, Aries and Taurus, with the eclipse being bookended by two potent forming conjunctions. The Sun and Moon meet the North Node and Chiron at 19 degrees. Mercury will be retrograde at 24 degrees Aries, working his way back to the ecliptic degree, Venus is at 4 degrees Aries. Jupiter and Uranus are in Taurus seeking conjunction. In the sign of Pisces, the sign that proceeds Aries, we have Mars and Saturn nearly conjunct, this itself is a very potent and possibly destablizing energy, in the sense of constriction.
Sky View- Planetary line up at the time of the April 8th eclipse in Aries
One of the last time these two planets, Mars and Saturn, were conjunct was March 31, 2020, at 0 degrees Aquarius, precisely where Pluto is now hovering. We all understand now what that date was portending, global Covid lockdowns. Now I am not suggesting this extreme for this eclipse, but we need to understand that a Mars and Saturn conjunction slows us down, constrains any quick actions, and sets limits upon us. This is also crucial knowledge, since the ruler of the Aries eclipse is Mars, Mars planetary position adds another layer to this Aries Solar Eclipse. Mars is moving in on Saturn in Pisces. Saturn in Pisces seeks to weed out and isolate the toxins in our life’s water, that which nourishes us is getting fully purified, straining out the impurities ever so slowly. Mars rushes in and finds frustration, he cannot move so quickly, and his own personal fire is extinguished. He wants to really pull things apart, shoot his own rockets and move on already, yet Saturn says NO! We must pick apart each and every unhealthy toxin in our environment and isolate it completely, and then look at it again and ask are we really done with this? This transit asks us to apply grounded wisdom, and tempered emotions. This is a period too of intergrating the practical wisdom with our sense of spiritual attunement.
Mars will want to magnify it, and chop it off quickly. This is where the Aries solar eclipse comes in. This eclipse energy also wants to begin something new, something fresh, something innovative and original. It does not want to keep grinding out the same old work, same results. If we apply this also to the work Saturn is doing in our Pisces house of our chart, we can see these are connected. This may also be connected to the Mercury retrograde decisions we made earlier. If we act too hastly, we miss the point. If we respond by pure emotion, there may be backlash. Eclipses are process-oriented aspects, which means whatever is beginning or ending, is a slow moving process that has many chapters to its story. This particular solar eclipse is just the opening of the book, our story is just beginning.
This story may have its roots deeply embedded though in an old wound. The eclipse is occurring directly conjunct the asteroid Chiron, the centaur that symbolizes the wounded healer. Again we have the symbolism of an arrow, similar to Mars’ glyph, the wound Chiron received was from a poisoned arrow, and it never fully healed. Chiron, equally represents our ability to suffer and to heal, and this asteroid is also receiving a solar elcipse. We can see this as finding a new way forward that addresses old wounds, but does so in a new, innovative way, a fresh perspective to heal a wound that never fully closes. This new approach may not fully absolve the past, but it offers us a more productive path forward that opens new doors and shines a light on past shadows that can emerge and regenerate into territories.
There is a lot of action on April 8th, and it speaks to new initiating new ideas, new paths, new projects, but there are also hiccups and shadows to deal with. Moving forward is the name of the game with New Moons, but the real action comes at the first quarter. This eclipse is setting the wheels in motion, or launching the rockets into the air, but the first real check will be April 10th when Mars and Saturn meet, Saturn sets a sound barrier to Mars’ launch and holds it hostage. Saturn and Mercury retrograde are both asking for you to apply sound wisdom and to slow it down. On April 11th, Mercury steps back further into the heart of the Sun and we can mine this wisdom here on that day, you may find that the information you are seeking is found during the cazimi, this is a moment of hidden insight. The Moon herself is now in a more exalted position in Taurus and conjoins Jupiter, transfering the wisdom of light here.
Women in Paris observing the Aries solar eclipse of April 8, 1921. Same degree point this year. Getty Images
On an individual level, how are you probing your Sun? This is your guiding principle, your directive light that sets you on your own unique path. What does it mean to probe and celebrate your Sun? Are you living your life in the fullest and brightest celebration? This total solar eclipse may cast shadows on your own current path, but this is exactly where you want to look, this is the solar gold that contains karmic destinies waiting to unfold.
Move slowly on the 8th, remember eclipses really aren’t the best periods to put action in motion. April 11th brings us greater clarity, and even keener action. By the end of the month, we will know it is time to proceed. Mercury will station direct on the 25th, align your rockets then, rev the engines for blast off. Until then, reflect on your own light, your own solar path that is possibly being eclipsed and pushed towards acceleration. Each one of us has a Sun that wishes to be seen and to shine brightly, first we must lift our own shadows and sanitize the path forward.