Justin Hawkes, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Total Solar Eclipse @ 19 degrees Aries 24'
April 8, 2024
11:20 AM PDT
2:20 PM EDT
Solar eclipses can correlate with profound transitions in our lives, both significant beginnings and endings, which seem to unfold simultaneously. Especially for those living where the eclipse is visible, it can correlate with emotional amplification and confrontations with numerous hidden and unconscious aspects of ourselves and the external world. These can be dramatic periods, but also highly revealing and liberating, especially if we attune ourselves more inwardly to the unconscious mind.
With this eclipse, we are met with a barrage of seeming contradictions. The Aries archetype, ruled by the planet Mars, desires to assert and take willful action. As a north nodal eclipse, we are compelled forward into the future to free ourselves of numerous dependencies and unhealthy attachments. Yet, Mercury is moving deep into its retrograde cycle, bringing up the past and throwing the mind into reflection, revision, and potential hesitation.
Additionally, Mars will be heading toward a conjunction with Saturn in Pisces that exacts within a day of the eclipse on April 10. This is not a time in which we should take careless or impulsive actions. We should be mindful that whatever we implement and launch now will not likely align with the ego's ideals and expectations. This is a time to focus our shifts more internally and trust that dramatic changes of attitude, perception, and emotional expression will eventually trickle into our external experiences.
Additionally, the eclipses' exact alignment with Chiron, and wide conjunction with Mercury retrograde, and the dwarf planet Eris suggest a further amplification of wounds and vulnerabilities. If we're not careful, we can easily get swept up in the internal and external chaos of the moment and lose sight of the bigger picture.
Yet, these symbols also speak to the ability to heal and integrate unfinished business, to learn deeply from the past and utilize our pain and suffering to motivate us toward courageous action in the world to pave the way for a new order and way of being. Reflect on what has been holding you back from your fierceness and ability to claim your destined place in life. Sometimes, going back and turning inward can counterintuitively push us further forward.