Pisces Full Moon, 2024

(Originally published on 9/17/2024)

Hi friends, 

We are in eclipse season! Tonight there will be a partial lunar eclipse in Pisces, going exact at 7:34 PDT. This is the first eclipse of a series of eclipses that will happen in the signs of Pisces and Virgo, lasting us for about two years. 

Eclipses happen during new and full moons, but not every time. This is because the moon and the earth do not share the same orbital plane. Relative to the plane of earth's orbit, the moon bobs up and down while it orbits us. So for most new and full moons, the earth, sun, and moon do not make a close enough line to cast shadows on each other. 

Instead, eclipses only happen when the moon is close enough to the places where the two orbital planes intersect. We call these places the nodes of the moon.

These nodes are very important to many branches of astrology, but we don’t hear many modern western or psychological astrologers talking about them as meaningful by themselves. This is an area of astrology that I’m actively learning about, as this work with the moon has been very meaningful to me this year and I want to keep deepening my knowledge. 

As an example of their importance in Vedic astrology, here’s a short version of a Vedic creation myth that tells us how the nodes of the moon came to be. This is copy/pasted from northernlightsvedic.com:

“There was a demon serpent, Naga Vasuki, who rules the underworld. The demons and the gods were fighting a war for the control of the universe. Naga Vasuki decided he would help the Gods find the nectar of immortality, known in Sanskrit as the Amrita. The great serpent's body was used as an instrument for churning the ocean where the nectar was hidden. When the Gods found the Amrita they wanted to keep the nectar from the demons. However, Naga Vasuki secretly drank from the nectar of immortality. Lord Vishnu, the creator of the universe, became very angry when he discovered this and threw a disc at Naga Vasuki. As a result the serpent was cut in two, but because the serpent had already tasted the nectar he continued to live. The head of the serpent became Rahu, and his tail is known as Ketu.”

I love that story particularly because of how much embedded knowledge it holds. How long have we, as humans, known that not only does the moon go dark every month, and the bright moon darkens every six months, but it also reaches down to the surface of the earth to stir the oceans? 

Instead of Rahu and Ketu, the head and tail of the dragon, in western astrology we talk about the north node and south node. (I think we’re missing out.) When psychological astrologers talk about the nodes of the moon, they talk about fate and past lives. The south node represents our past lives and the parts of ourselves that might be overdeveloped. The north node represents the challenges we will have in developing new skills within this lifetime. I’m looking forward to learning more about this and seeing how the different branches of astrology compare in this realm. If you know where the nodes are in your chart, think about what they might mean in terms of what sign and house they occupy. I’d love to hear what comes up for you. And as always, if you don’t know where they are in your chart, you can ask me. 

Anyway. As I was saying about tonight’s eclipse. Tonight begins our series of Pisces/Virgo eclipses, and then our next two eclipses will finish up the Aries/Libra series we’ve been having. It happens in this order because the nodes move in a retrograde direction, going “backwards” in the order of the signs.

But in addition to eclipses happening in series of the signs, they also happen in a much larger pattern. This larger pattern is called the Saros Cycles. I will quote from Bernadette Brady’s book, Predictive Astrology:

Astrologers have traditionally tended to view eclipses as wild cards whose occurrence can be predicted in timing but whose results vary dramatically from one eclipse to another. Yet, each eclipse does belong to a larger pattern. Each eclipse is a member of a family and each family has characteristics.

These families or cycles have beginnings, middles and ends, and were first discovered by the Babylonians. Any one cycle will run for well over a thousand years, making the study of individual eclipses the equivalent to sitting and watching a giant hardwood tree grow.

Lucky for us that we’ve had people watching these eclipses for so long then! She goes on to describe how these cycles work - they begin at either the north or south pole, then work their way up or down. Each series has an eclipse once every 18 years until it reaches the other pole, at which point it is considered to be ended. Brady also gives us an overview of each of the Saros Cycles “birth charts”, which she considers to be a good indication for how the eclipses will show up. 

So this particular eclipse we see tonight is part of a series that began in 1718. Relatively speaking, it is still a baby. It will be around until 2962! The last time we saw it was in 2006. 

This particular eclipse sounds a bit sad. Look for something to be completed, and know that it’s alright if that completion is bittersweet, which makes it feel so apt to be in Pisces, the “last” sign of the zodiac. And maybe don’t push yourself physically today. 

For my cardinal sign rising friends (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn), I would love to hear from you. What has been your experience of this last year and a half with the eclipses on the major points in your chart? Have you felt any major beginnings and endings in your Self, your relationships, your career or your home? Do you have any hopes for what the last two eclipses (one in October, one next spring) will bring you? 

For your moon wishes today, don’t forget to write to the full moon with gratitude as if you already have what you are wishing for. Appeal to the sensibilities of Pisces and be generous in your wishes. 

This is already pretty long so now I think I will just say thank you for reading.

Sending you love. 

Alanna