Eclipse Stories in Pisces and Virgo

​Today we will be moving through the first in a series of eclipses in the signs of Pisces and Virgo that will be unfolding from September 2024-February 2027. Eclipses occur when a New or Full Moon occurs in close proximity to the lunar nodes—where the paths of the Sun and Moon intersect. Tonight’s partial lunar eclipse will occur at 25º Pisces around 10:33pm eastern, about 9 degrees from the nodal axis.
 
Eclipses can describe a disruptive quality of time. Eclipses are fundamentally an interruption in the usual cycle of light. When we would usually see a bright and luminous Full Moon, the Moon becomes darkened in the Earth’s shadow. During a solar eclipse, when we would usually see the radiant Sun moving through the sky, instead we are confronted with darkness. This quality of interruption is integral to how we might experience eclipses unfolding in different areas of our charts.

Eclipses can also describe a process of shadows being revealed—things that perhaps we have not yet been ready or able to recognize coming into focus, witnessing shadows that start to become visible during this period of time. When we are confronted with things that we have not previously been ready or able to recognize, that can present a kind of interruption in and of itself. We cannot unsee what we have seen, and so often we must find another way of functioning in the parts of our lives touched by eclipses.
 
From my view, it can be useful to think about eclipses as part of an ongoing story rather than as isolated events. Eclipses occur in the same part of the sky for approximately 2-2.5 years. Astrologically, that corresponds to eclipses occurring in the same signs during that period. We have been experiencing eclipses on the Aries/Libra axis since April 2023, and that series of eclipses continues until March 2025. Tonight’s eclipse is the first on the Pisces/Virgo axis, initiating a 2.5-year story of significant interruptions and revelations in the parts of our charts occupied by Pisces and Virgo.
What houses in your chart are occupied by the signs of Pisces and Virgo? These houses are likely to describe where you will be experiencing these eclipse stories over the next several years.
 
Eclipses are always happening somewhere year by year, and some people experience eclipses more dramatically than others. There are several factors worth considering here. First, eclipses may be more personally significant if they are making close conjunctions with placements in your natal chart. When an eclipse occurs close to a planet or angle in your chart, that eclipse may describe a more concentrated or potent part of the longer eclipse stories that are unfolding.
Second, I have observed in client work that eclipse stories tend to be more dramatic when they occur in a sign that is being activated by annual profection, an ancient Hellenistic timing technique that activates a particular sign/house for each year of life and the ruler of that sign/house as the ruler for that year. So, if you are in a Pisces profection year, for example, you may experience these Pisces eclipses in a more pronounced way.
Finally, if you are in a Cancer or Leo profection year—making the Moon or the Sun the profected ruler of the year—then you may experience eclipses in a more significant way because of the eclipsing of the luminaries.
 
Whether you experience this series of eclipses in profound or subtle ways, I hope you give yourself the time and space to ground, to observe, to reflect, and to meet this quality of time from a place of steadiness and ease.