Pisces Full Moon (Lunar Eclipse) - August 28, 2007

It's eclipse time, y'all! Eclipses are uber-powerful lunations, as the Moon and Sun are conjunct the Lunar Nodes, which are the points in the sky where the Moon's path intersects with the Sun's apparent path (ecliptic). (The astronomy's kinda confusing, I know!) All you really need to know is this: If a regular Full Moon makes people crazy, a Lunar Eclipse requires that twice as many looney-bin paramedics be on call than usual.

Speaking of psychosis, this Full Moon is in Pisces, the sign of crazies and mental hospitals. After all, when life gets too stressful, you either drink, do yoga, or disassociate from reality altogether. The problem is that rigid Virgo Sun, always trying to analyze and compartmentalize.

Virgo is the nurse practitioner at Bellevue, trying to ascertain whether your psychotic episode is due to mental illness or if it's just alcohol-induced. She's completing a five-page assessment while you're in la-la land, wondering how those bunnies got into the room with the cushioned walls.

The Virgo part of you creates obsessive-compulsive rituals to stave off the anxiety of Piscean boundlessness. If you check that the front door is locked -- three times -- then your home just might be safe! That is, you might be safe. But not really, because you know that you're just this close from the edge of the cliff of consensual reality, and your rigid habits only create the illusion of control.

The conventional psychiatrist will just dose you up with a nice cocktail to zombify you. However, one of those wacko transpersonal docs may prescribe surrender. Just go with the flow, man! What do those bunnies mean, anyway? Can your dreams, however cockamamie, tell you something useful about either your unconscious or God's will? Maybe insanity is just a deviation from the collective's immersion in media and material consumption! If so, then -- PLEASE -- go off the deep end! Let it all hang out!

But if you see the men in white coats, do me a favor -- RUN!

The Fine Print: This eclipse occurs at 4 Pisces, so it will have the most impact for those natives with planets or angles around 4 degrees of mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces).

Note to Commenters: I will be on vacation the week of August 27, and am unlikely to respond to your comments. So help each other out!

Full Moon Lunar Eclipse in Virgo - March 3, 2007

Dear Virgo,

Whether it's the daily yoga routine, the weekly colonic or the three-times-a-day ingestion of multiple supplements and herbs, you get understandably upset when your schedule is disrupted.

Virgo, meet eclipse. You two should get acquainted, although I doubt you'll hit it off. Although the lunar eclipse is in your sign, you're being opposed by a Uranus-Sun conjuction in Pisces. I know that deep down you like Pisces, even though she neglects picking up after herself and plucks away at the guitar too often, singing in that longing, wispy voice. However, Uranus gets your goat. This planet's sole purpose in life is to upset the apple cart, to throw you off your equilibrium. The guy who surprises you from behind when you're perusing vegan cookbooks at the food coop, poking you in that sensitive spot on your waist, nearly making your flower-essence-enhanced spring water spill? That's Uranus.

Imagine knowing that Uranus can catch you off guard at any moment, over the next six months, but you don't know exactly when -- or how -- he'll strike. That's gotta suck, Virgo, because I know you like things just so. And do you know what's worse? There's absolutely nothing you can do about it. You can't tell him to go away. I mean, you can, but it will do no good. He'll say, "Oh, my bad. I'll leave you alone with your organic acai juice," but he doesn't mean it. He's just screwing with you!

So, what can you do to impose order on chaos? Unfortunately, you can't contain the uncontainable. As the astrologers say, "Expect the unexpected." Yet I know you're not going to stop your Virgo ways. You will continue to enter appointments into your Blackberry, consult with your nutritionist, meet with your personal trainer. But as hard as you try, everything will not go as planned. Pisces wants you to let go, and Uranus wants you to identify and dismantle all the rigid structures and attitudes in your life.

Loosen up! Because if you don't, Uranus will be the lightning that strikes down the tower of your carefully constructed life. It will come crumbling down ... but that's a good thing, because these bricks and stones you've laid are covering over your Authentic Self, and the only way to release this alive, thumping heart -- the beating Self constrained by your stratified ways of protecting yourself against Disorder -- is to allow the waves of revolution to wash over you.

The nitty gritty: This lunar eclipse occurs at 13 Virgo. If you have a personal planet or angle between 10 and 18 degrees of Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius or Pisces, this eclipse will have a powerful impact on you. For everyone, look to the houses that contain the middle degrees of Virgo and Pisces to determine which areas of your life will be affected. Jupiter in Sag is making a T-Square to this eclipse, which exaggerates an already unstable situation.

Related posts:
How to prepare for an eclipse
Fear of an eclipse