The Moon’s orbit of Earth is not coincident to the Earth’s orbit of the Sun so the Moon travels above and below the Ecliptic, which is the plane of the Solar System and the path of Sun and Planets as seen from Earth. For this reason, we do not have a Solar Eclipse every New Moon nor a Lunar Eclipse every Full Moon. Unless the Moon and Sun are close to the Lunar Nodes (points in space where the paths of the Moon and Sun intersect), the New Moon will be above or below the Sun from Earth’s view and Earth’s Shadow will be cast above or below the Full Moon. 

We have Eclipse seasons twice a year: one when the Sun is near the South Lunar Node and the other when the Sun is near the North Lunar Node. The Nodes recently moved into Aries (South) and Libra (North), so the 2014 Eclipse Seasons will be during the Aries and Libra months and are listed here (all times PST):

April 15th 12:40am – Total Lunar Eclipse – 25.16 Libra
April 28th 11:14pm – Annular Solar Eclipse – 08.52 Taurus

October 8th 3:50am – Total Lunar Eclipse – 15.05 Taurus
October 23rd 2:56pm – Partial Solar Eclipse – 00.25 Scorpio

The April and October Lunar Eclipses will be absolutely visible from North America. This is the real deal and I suggest you take time to connect to these beautiful events visibly and ceremonially. The coming Lunar Eclipse will begin at 6:40pm on April 14th, reach exact alignment (Blood Moon) at 12:40am on April 15th, and complete at 6:40am. I will be hosting an Eclipse Camp with fellow astrologer Linda Ellinor at MoonReach Ranch in Tubac, Arizona. More information can be found here if you’d like to join our celebration: http://morethanastrology.weebly.com/events.html ***

The Moon also occasionally “eclipses” the Planets. This is called an Occultation and this year the Moon Occults Saturn 11 times. Four of these Saturn Occultations are visible from North America. Others are not because they will align after Moon and Saturn have set. The Exact Saturn Occultation dates with celestial locations are listed below. I’ve included the times and regions of the sky for the occultations we will see. 

January 25th – 22.13 Scorpio – 5:42am – 24 degrees above Eastern Horizon
February 21st – 23.15 Scorpio
March 20th – 23.02 Scorpio
April 17th –21.42 Scorpio - 12:09am – 27 degrees above Eastern Horizon
May 14th – 19.44 Scorpio – 5:01am – 11 degrees above Western Horizon
June 10th – 17.52 Scorpio
July 7th – 16.46 Scorpio – 7:10pm - 28 degrees above Eastern Horizon
August 4th – 16.49 Scorpio
August 31st – 18.02 Scorpio
September 27th – 20.15 Scorpio
October 25th – 23.09 Scorpio

If your Natal Saturn is between 14.04 and 25.48 Scorpio, you are in the midst of a Saturn Return. If Saturn or any Personal Planet or Angle of your Birth Chart (Moon, Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Node, Ascendant, MidHeaven) is between 14.04 and 25.48 of Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius, you are currently immersed within a Saturn Initiation of one form or another. Some of the old astrological paradigms I like to call the Planet Police claim a Saturn Transit will bring 9 months of difficulty. I say Fiddlesticks to that!

Isn’t 9 months the period of human gestation? Yes it is. The average time between ovulation and delivery is 288 days and my current Saturn Conjunct Scorpio North Node Transit is 290 days. How about that? For this reason, I work with Saturn Transits as a time for intentional rebirth. Perhaps I’m extreme with my methods, but what I do is enter my “due date” into the “Baby Bump” app on my phone and track the development of the new me. This week my baby is the “size of a lime” and is “officially developed enough to be called a fetus! The “most critical part of my baby’s organ system development is over. My baby will grow very rapidly and will double in size by next week.” That’s like two limes! 

To guide the rebirth, I present a rule-rewriting ceremony to clients who come to me for a reading during a Saturn Transit. The idea is that Saturn represents the rules and structure. As my teacher Daniel Giamario likes to say, “Saturn is the Operating Manual.” Many of the rules in our manual no longer serve us and when Saturn swings by we have a beautiful opportunity to rewrite them. This process demands some shadow work, perhaps especially now with Saturn in Scorpio. We must look deep into the rabbit hole of soul to find the commandments that have been chiseled within. This process is not meant to be rushed. I wouldn’t want to deliver a lime-sized baby now, would I? 

These Saturn Occultations bring magical times for this detective work. As the Moon slowly covers Saturn in the night sky, the inner critic is put to sleep so we can be more authentic in our search for the rules that bind us. Once we find them, we can eradicate the rules that no longer serve us by chiseling our own commandments.

There might be a few labor pains, but absolute spiritual alchemy and radical rebirth is some kind of reward. 

Love and Planets,
Astrolonaut

Saturn’s Scorpio Dance
10.5.12 - Ingress into Scorpio
2.18.13 - Turns Retrograde at 11Sco32
7.7.13 – Turns Direct at 04Sco49
3.2.14 – Turns Retrograde at 23Sco19
7.20.14 – Turns Direct at 16Sco39
3.14.15 – Turns Retrograde at 04Sag56
8.1.15 – Turns Retrograde at 28Sco17
9.17.15 – Exits Scorpio… won’t return until 11.11.2041