Solar eclipse Monday initiates 19-year cycle

January 23, 4:17 PMAstrology ExaminerMaria Barron

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Annular solar eclipse, photo from Wikimedia Commons

Stop it! Drop it! And breathe. The wonderful yet frantic holiday season has slipped by us. The national celebration of our peaceful and democratic transfer of power to a new presidency has wound down. Even the first protest march of the new administration, Thursday’s annual March for Life, has had its day. These things have grabbed a lot of our attention, and rightly so.

But this weekend, whatever is making you scramble, whatever you’re feeling pushed and pressured by, stop it, drop it, and breathe deeply. Take some special time for yourself. Consider where you’ve been this last … oh, say 19 years … since 1990. Consider what you want to make of the next 19 – in the context of yourself and the social or societal circles that you move in.

Have things already been shifting for you in those areas this year? Good, it’s natural that some of us anticipate these energies and begin the shifts in advance. Are you feeling held back from a sense of renewal in terms of your place within the world? That’s OK, you can begin the imagining and planning for how you’d like to participate in group efforts. Wherever you are at this point of new beginnings, it’s time to plant the seeds and tend this garden. So take some time this weekend to think about it.

Why? Because in the middle of night in the United States, as Sun-day gives way to Moon-day, January 26, 2009, our star system’s two lights will come together, not only as an Aquarian new moon but as an annular solar eclipse, invisible to all except people in Indonesia or those who happen to be out on the Indian ocean.

Like every eclipse, it’s a sign of endings and new beginnings. There are a couple of solar eclipses each year, and in truth, every one of them harkens back 19 years and forward 19 years. That’s a function of what’s called the metonic cycle. Eclipses occur in a range of signs and degrees, but each solar eclipse occurs in the same degree as one that occurred 19.0 years before it and one that will occur 19.0 years after.

I bring that cycle up now with special emphasis on this particular eclipse because this one is in Aquarius, which is the focal point for so many of the signs of major generational change we’ve been discussing so far. Also, this eclipse at 6 degrees Aquarius takes place in conjunction with Jupiter at 4 degrees Aquarius. This is a cycle worth watching.

The sign Aquarius gives this doorway from old to new the characteristics of relating to us as individuals within society, thinking outside of the box and inventively seeking something new in a social, societal or group format. Jupiter’s position there expands this energy and gives us a boost of good fortune for our efforts, which will cycle through, like seasons of sowing, tending and reaping, until 2028.

As part of my own plans to take action in tune with this energy, I’ll spend this next couple of days introducing new features, including some fascinating elements of Vedic astrology, which will regularly repeat here in the space I share with you at Examiner.com. I’ll also ask for your input, via a poll, the comments section, emails – whatever form you prefer to use to provide the input – to help me decide whether and how frequently to offer sun sign horoscopes or forecasts.

There are good things and not-so-good things about that type of forecasting, and I’ll be really straight with you about how sun sign forecasts mesh and don’t mesh with real astrology – about what’s useful and valid and what’s just, as they say, “for entertainment purposes.” I’m not averse to entertainment, but I’d like to make some clear decisions together about the mix you’d most enjoy, and about what’s what!

So please watch for those entries this Saturn-day, Sun-day and Moon-day!