Chances are, your start chart comprises at the very least one planetary configuration so dreadful that astrologers take one look and gasp: “How do you stay with that?”

And also you shrug. As a result of it’s like having been born with blue eyes or purple hair: that’s the way in which it’s at all times been for you, so that you’re just about used to it, a lot the way in which one will get used to a throbbing arthritic joint. A hypothetically terrible side is your cross to bear, as Sister Rita used to say. However the very features that encourage terror within the informal observer are, doubtlessly, your treasure.

Planets woven collectively by tough features are as sturdy as metal. They signify issues you possibly can’t ignore, and conflicts that chew at you till you discover a decision – or at the very least détente. They describe your defining attributes; and every time an eclipse scores a glancing blow off these features (about each 4 and a half years), you’re given one other probability to change into a bit of bit extra … you.

So not even essentially the most disagreeable natal side is inherently terrible. And regardless of the unease they encourage, neither are eclipses. Some are half of a bigger and extra daunting planetary image with world implications. Personally, nevertheless, we are inclined to expertise eclipses most strongly once they type shut features (particularly conjunctions, squares, and oppositions, inside 4º) to planets in our start chart. Every time an eclipse features one of many planetary crosses that you simply bear, a story of change emerges – one that’s repeated again and again all through your lifetime.

Until an eclipse triggers these high-tension natal features, or falls very near the cusps of the primary, fourth, seventh, or tenth homes, you might be more likely to expertise its affect as comparatively delicate, just like the flutter of a leaf in a chilling breeze. However let one among your extra delicate features get triggered, and it’s the distinction between a physician checking your reflexes throughout an examination and hammering an arthritic knee.

• Eclipse aspecting the natal Solar: If life is a film, the Solar is the protagonist – nevertheless flawed – for whom we cheer. Every of us is born to be the hero of our personal life story; however usually, timidity or false modesty persuades us at hand over that position to others. When eclipses side your natal Solar, you might be thrust into the starring position, or should battle to reclaim it. Typically, authority figures like mother and father or bosses abdicate or have to be overthrown so as so that you can stay an genuine life.
• Eclipses aspecting the natal Moon – From the second we’re ripped from mother’s womb, we search to reclaim the safety and security that we knew there. We feather our nests, inventory the pantry with meals we like, and encompass ourselves with individuals who make us really feel snug. However when eclipses side the natal Moon, one thing – a brand new dwelling state of affairs, a change in well being – might depart you feeling as uncovered as a crab along with her shell cracked open.
• Eclipses aspecting Mercury: How do you outline your self? Normally, it begins with a reputation. Then, along with your rank within the household pecking order, on the playground, within the office. Lastly, numbers (grades at school, age, numbers on a paycheck) outline you. When eclipses side natal Mercury, the god of definition, put together for a change in your identify, rank, or serial quantity – and for a change in the way you outline your self. Mercury is the storyteller, so perhaps it’s time to rewrite the story of your life.
• Eclipses aspecting Venus: If solely every of us have been endowed with flawless confidence, nice relationships, bountiful vanity, and oodles of money! Eclipse features to Venus remind us that world won’t at all times give us the remedy, whether or not type or merciless, that we expect we deserve. This consciousness often comes by means of monetary challenges, relationship transitions, or your emotions about your attractiveness.
• Eclipses aspecting Mars: Mars is a educated, ruthless guard canine that solutions solely to you. He guards you and your own home, defends your status, and helps you get all of the issues that you really want. When eclipses side natal Mars, the watch canine is stirred up and straining at his leash; get what’s yours, however don’t let anybody get damage.
• Eclipses aspecting Jupiter: When was the final time you had an journey? When eclipses side Jupiter, you’re itching to take an opportunity, to really feel the joys of being utterly alive. These may be occasions if you overreach out of sheer optimism; however they’re additionally moments when your life jumps tracks and begins shifting in a brand new route.
• Eclipses aspecting Saturn: When eclipses side Saturn, it’s possible you’ll really feel worn out and discouraged. Most likely, you’ve outgrown your life or are taking part in by outdated guidelines. However you’ll by no means get wherever by blaming others on your issues. No matter how issues received this fashion, what are you going to do to make your life higher?
• Eclipses aspecting Uranus: When eclipses side Uranus, it’s possible you’ll really feel like a misfit – and that may damage. Recognizing who your folks are (and aren’t), and in search of a tribe that allows you to be your self, is the problem of those eclipses.
• Eclipses aspecting Neptune: These eclipses compel you to look at your blind spots, query your religion, and dispute what you beforehand thought was indeniable. Should you’ve been fooling your self – like a spouse who ignores the indicators that her husband has strayed, or the person who’s disillusioned by his womanizing guru – these eclipses can ship a wakeup name.
• Eclipses aspecting Pluto: In every of us, there’s a darkish aspect. There are emotions which are unworthy of us – rage, jealousy, concern, covetousness. They weaken us, making us slaves to our feelings and to people who find themselves extra self-possessed. When eclipses side Pluto, we meet that darkish self and the others who embody it for us, grappling with energy and the necessity for management.
• Eclipses aspecting the Lunar Nodes: As youngsters, we want the boundaries and safety of acquainted settings and other people; the job of our mother and father is to organize us to exit into the world with a robust basis, so we are able to transfer towards unfamiliar and rewarding challenges. That’s what’s challenged when eclipses conjoin or sq. the natal Lunar Nodes: it’s time to depart the consolation of the nest and declare some measure of our potential.
• Eclipses aspecting the Ascendant: There are locations – some exterior, some inside – that hinge us to the world, and every little thing else is oriented from them. That’s the position of the Ascendant. When eclipses side this level, we’re known as to alter that orientation, generally voluntarily – a change of look, of identify, of dwelling, of outlook – generally in response to one thing from exterior us. All the opposite angles of the chart, however significantly the Descendant, reverberate from these modifications.
• Eclipses aspecting the Midheaven: That is the mast on which your private flag flies, seen from lengthy distances, and it’s the very first thing folks discover about you. With a bit of luck, it’s derived from the alternative level within the chart, the IC, the dowsing rod that locates the inside fountain of household connectedness that nourishes you. When eclipses side this level, it’s possible you’ll really feel it’s time to pursue a calling, or transfer to a spot, that higher displays your true self.

Mix these descriptions to higher perceive the delicate factors in your individual chart that will probably be woke up by the upcoming eclipses on March 25, 2024 (Lunar eclipse at 5º07′ Libra) and April 8, 2024 (Photo voltaic eclipse at 19º24′ Aries). If a planet in your start chart, or the Ascendant/Midheaven, falls:

• between 1º and 9º Libra, Capricorn, Aries, or Most cancers (March 25 eclipse), or
• between 15º and 23º Aries, Most cancers, Libra, or Capricorn (April 8 eclipse)…

… then your reflexes will probably be working time beyond regulation… and that arthritic knee goes to be actually, actually sore.

© April Elliott Kent All rights reserved.