Totality: Aries Solar Eclipse Conjunct Chiron ~ Making the Invisible Visible
By Alison Dale
The much anticipated April 8th solar eclipse will be witnessed in 15 US States, everywhere along its path from Mazatlán, Mexico to Montreal, Canada. It will create more than 4 minutes of daytime darkness for over 43.8 million people who live in the path of totality. The path goes directly over numerous major U.S. American cities, including San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Little Rock, Evansville, Indianapolis, Dayton, Toledo, Cleveland, and Buffalo. For all North Americans, there's arguably never been a more populated and accessible path of totality. This path has given the lunation the title of the “Great American Eclipse”.
This quote by French poet and novelist Victor Hugo eerily rings of truth today, as this major astronomical event is coinciding with the erupting tensions of this highly pressurized US-election year. Ancient Assyrians believed that a total eclipse passing directly overhead (when Jupiter was also visible in the sky) foretold the death of the king. In 763 BC, in the Assyrian capitol Nineveh, the real king went into hiding, and another “false king” was selected as a sacrifice - then killed to appease the gods. This substitute king ritual carried on for hundreds of years, until long after the fall of the Assyrian Empire.
There are plenty of theories out there about this American eclipse’s fated potentials for the USA and humanity in general. For example, this eclipse will pass over 7 US-cities called Nineveh. From the Biblical perspective, Nineveh was a wicked city in the book of Jonah, which was saved by God after he gave residents the opportunity to repent for their sins. In the historical record, Nineveh was a cradle of civilization. The largest city in the world at the time of the Assyrian Empire, a great cultural center filled with hanging gardens, zoos, and parks.
Whichever way you shake it, this eclipse is calling our attention to the Middle East, the cradle of humanity, and we cannot look away. This eclipse is asking us, regardless of what religion or spirituality we ascribe to: What does it mean to be wicked? What does it mean to repent? What would a resurrection- of your life, of your country- look and feel like?
The Astronomy of Eclipses
The Great American Eclipse occurs when the new Moon conjoins the Sun at 19 degrees and 24 minutes of Aries. Both luminaries are near enough the north node point of the Moon’s orbit, which is now at 15 degrees Aries, for the cold moonstone of La Luna to completely block out the Sun’s rays.
Throughout each year, eclipses always happen in pairs. A lunar eclipse always occurs during a full Moon, when the Earth is blocking the Sun’s rays and casting a shadow onto the Moon, and a solar eclipse always happens during a new Moon when, from our point-of-view on Earth, the Moon moves directly in front of the Sun.
Astrologically, the Moon represents our embodied emotions and feelings, while the Sun represents our conscious will. When the Sun’s rays are dimmed or blocked out, it is as if the universe is telling our minds to take a backseat to our bodies, for our intellect to loosen its grip and hand the reins to our emotions- if only for just a few moments.
Eclipses, according to the ancients, brought on times of sudden endings and sudden beginnings. We can think of them as short seasons where our embodied feelings are allowed to feel into our personal truths, without risk of the bright rays of our willpower obliterating the subtlety of our emotions. Most times during the year we may feel something but are quick to think our way out of it; during eclipse season, this isn’t an option. Feeling our feelings is the only way through, and to a lot of us, that can be pretty overwhelming!
The Aries-Libra Axis
Eclipse seasons, the two times of year when these pairs of eclipse lunations happen, are characterized by a tension of polarity along the axis of two Zodiac signs. Late last year, we left our series of Taurus/Scorpio eclipses and moved on to the axis of Aries/Libra. The self-focused Ram is in the realm of the north node, the head of the ravenous dragon. The other-focused Scales are in the realm of the south node, the tail that releases and excretes what is no longer needed.
With the Earth casting a shadow on the Moon during the Libra lunar south-node eclipse on March 25, our emotions, and the collective emotions of humanity here on Earth, were brought to the forefront. That eclipse asked us to release and flush out the relationships and dynamics in our lives where we were giving too much of our own light over to others for the sake of a feeling of harmony. It presented us with parts of our lives where we held back from expressing our own desires and inner truths because of assumptions we had about other people or groups of people in power. The house of your chart that contains 7 degrees Libra likely experienced the most clearing during the lunar eclipse.
During the waning Moon between the lunar and solar eclipses, we have had a chance to sit with this release. Once we’ve flush out a system and let things go, we create more spaciousness for new energies to land in our lives. On this April 8 solar eclipse, there is great opportunity for new beginnings in the house of your chart that holds 19 degrees of Aries, especially as they relate to self-improvement, personal growth, and spiritual development.
The Eclipse Highlights an Exalted Sun
The Sun is exalted in Aries, which means she’s treated like an honored guest in the sign of the Ram. The sign of Aries as a whole is ruled by Mars, but the second decan of Aries, where the eclipse is falling, is ruled by the Sun. Aries II is characterized by ambition, creativity, dynamism, and charisma, and the Sun in this sign, this decan, and this degree give a turbocharge to these qualities.
The Moon blocking out the Sun at this degree is dramatically calling attention to this specific, Solar part of the sky- literally, by encouraging millions of us to travel great distances to view this cosmic event! As the Moon passes over the Sun during this season at this exact degree, we may feel an extra weight of the darkness setting in- more than we would at other times of year that are not as defined by Solar Power. But once the Moon passes over, the resplendent light of Sol - the true resurrection of the Sun- has the potential to cast an invigorating light of personal reawakening for each individual in its path.
On this Aries New Moon eclipse, the more stagnancy we have released about other people’s expectations of us, and the more aligned each of us are with what lights us up personally, the better we will feel. If you are still holding out, waiting for someone else to change or be different so that you can move toward your greatest desires, this eclipse could feel more tumultuous.
This eclipse, along the axis of relationships, evokes the prophetic Kahlil Ghibran’s writing on Freedom:
And what is it but fragments of your own self you would discard that you may become free?
If it is an unjust law you would abolish, that law was written with your own hand upon your own forehead.You cannot erase it by burning your law books nor by washing the foreheads of your judges, though you pour the sea upon them.
And if it is a despot you would dethrone, see first that his throne erected within you is destroyed. For how can a tyrant rule the free and the proud, but for a tyranny in their own freedom and a shame in their own pride?
And if it is a care you would cast off, that care has been chosen by you rather than imposed upon you. And if it is a fear you would dispel, the seat of that fear is in your heart and not in the hand of the feared.
Chiron Conjunct the Eclipse
Adding fuel to the flame, the asteroid Chiron is in exact conjunction with the Sun and Moon during this fire-ruled eclipse.
In Greek myth, Chiron was a centaur who was a noted storyteller, guide, and healer. Rejected by his mother, he was adopted by Apollo, who taught him music, poetry, prophecy, and the healing arts, while Apollo’s sister Artemis taught him hunting and archery. Chiron became a master of the arts, sciences, and medicine, and became a great teacher and healer, diving deep to the healing arts in order to heal himself.
At the end of his life, he got caught in crossfire between Heracles and a rowdy group of centaurs, and was struck by an arrow dipped in hydra blood. This wound, symbolizing the battle between his animal nature (Centaurs were known for unbridled lust and violence) and his cultured ways of the gods, never healed- and he wasn’t able to heal himself. Because he was in so much pain but couldn’t die, he ended up trading his immortality for the release of Prometheus, the god punished for gifting fire to humans. Zeus then placed Chiron among the stars as a constellation for his sacrifice.
Chiron represents the ability in all of us to alchemize earthly wounds into spiritual gifts and teachings, and to foster a healthy balance between our impulses and our cultural refinement. The Aries eclipse conjunct Chiron could act as a catalyst to uncover wounds within us that have previously been lurking under the radar. As Rumi famously said, “The wound is where the light gets in”. With Chiron here, this fact will be supercharged during this eclipse, with the light of the Martian Sun helping to reveal our deepest fears, pain points, and wounds. Once what has been invisible is visible, we can begin to alchemize these wounds and see what gifts they can offer us as we evolve, forgive ourselves and others, and learn from our pasts.
In addition to Chiron, Mercury is retrograding in Aries within 5 degrees of the eclipse as well. What’s more, Aries’ planetary ruler, Mars, is nearing a conjunction to Saturn in Pisces during this eclipse. Both the Mars/Saturn and Mercury Retrograde influences are giving us an opportunity to slow down, review, and structure the fiery impulses that we may be inclined toward during this eclipse. Slow, steady, reflective and intentional is the name of the game on April 8th.
How will this eclipse affect you?
Though this eclipse has the potential to affect all of us, those of us with planets and luminaries at cardinal signs of Aries, Libra, Cancer, and Capricorn between 14 to 24 degrees will be most affected by the total solar eclipse on April 8.
Look to your birth chart for the house where Aries falls, and then look at your Pisces house where Mars, the ruler of this eclipse, is hanging out. These are the areas of life where you may feel over taken by emotion, transmuted by your alchemical wounds, and personally resurrected by the returning of the exalted Sun’s light.
If Pisces or Aries sits on the cusp of this house, you may feel endings and new beginnings in these areas of life:
First House- self image, self expression, identity, and initiative.
Second House- values, security, comfort, money, and income.
Third House- how you communicate, siblings, neighbors, and peer relationships.
Fourth House- home, roots, ancestry, emotional security, family, and mother figures.
Fifth House- children, romance, style, creativity, and expression.
Sixth House- daily routines, health, exercise, daily work, and service.
Seventh House- relationships, partnerships, marriage, commitment, and collaborations.
Eighth House- taboos, sex, reproduction, transformation, and other people’s money.
Ninth House- traveling, higher learning, expansion, adventure, and knowledge.
Tenth House- career, public image, legacy, rules, and achievements.
Eleventh House- community, society, groups, innovation, technology, and the future.
Twelfth House- spirituality, dreams, mental health, and hidden things.'
Whether you’re donning goggles and staring at the cornea of the Sun or staying indoors to go inward and reflect, I send you blessings and calm as the Moon makes herself known on April 8th. May this eclipse deliver you a fresh perspective and deep healing.
About the Author
Alison Dale (she / they) is an ecological and somatic astrologer, using modern and traditional methods to connect body and earth to the cycles of the planets and stars. Alison is from the stargazing paradise of Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she lives with her partner, daughter, dogs and cats. She writes a Substack called Astrosomatics and hosts the weekly podcast Cycles of Time.
Instagram: @ astro.somatics
References
Gibran, K. (1923). The Prophet. Knopf publishing.
This is so well written. The eclipse was conjunct my Moon In Aries in the 1H and the changes in identity are definitely here!! Thank you Alison. <3