Gemini is an effervescent season — of connection, cross-pollination, information exchange, sharing, storytelling. If we are sitting on the back porch and watching spring turn to summer, we are also looking around and taking note of what’s happening right now. It is the season of listening. How else will we know what’s trending now, what’s in the air, unless we look around, unless we listen to the voices within & around us? Today, the hot commodity in Fairfax, CA is Coconut Bliss, a non-dairy agave sweetened coconut ice milk. A few years from now, it won’t be. That’s the nature of Gemini, and also the nature of eclipses. What’s novel and new right now? If there were a time for sharing our ideas, it’s now. Right now, the present, has prophecy in it.

This Gemini New Moon is a Solar Eclipse. The ancients saw solar eclipses as omens of things to come. Eclipses do have a way of launching us out of our comfort zone, and forward. As the lights flicker and an area of our life is ‘lit up’, we’re given a chance to see the issues at hand, be flexible and move quickly into that territory. We may see what’s been holding us back; we may see what we need to move ahead. In that sense how we respond to eclipses impacts the evolution our very life- not just the traditional ‘eclipse period’ of the weeks surrounding our life.

Eclipses are hard to predict, which is why we call eclipses wild cards. As from one eclipse to the next no two are like, this makes prediction challenging. However, eclipse patterns repeat – so they’re not total wild cards. Looking at an eclipse as part of an overall pattern, we look backwards in 18 year (and 9, for the hemi-cycle) to see where we were, what happened in our life then, noting similar themes could recur today. This is a fairly reliable ‘predictive’ tool. BigSkyAstrology.com offers the following dates as relevant to this Gemini solar eclipse:

May 21, 1993 Solar Eclipse 0’31’ Gemini

May 25, 1994 Lunar Eclipse 3’43’ Gemini

November 20, 2002 Lunar Eclipse 27’32’ Taurus

November 23, 2003 Solar Eclipse 1’31’ Sagittarius

Another tool I really love for sorting out the overall feel of a solar eclipse is the Saros Cycle, which I learned from Bernadette Brady’s book: The Eagle and The Lark. The fact that each eclipse belongs to a larger cycle, was first discovered by the Babylonians (the word ‘saros’ means ‘repetition’ or ‘repeated’).  To visualize this, imagine the birth of an eclipse Saros Series as a redwood tree. This tree had a true ‘birth’ at either the North or South Pole and  over the course of it’s lifetime (a whopping 1280 years) the eclipse point moves up or down the poles of the Earth at 10 longitudinal degree intervals (no wonder the patterns are hard to track!). Every 18-years (eclipse time), a new leaf on that particular tree blooms, and that’s when we experience a pattern similar to 18 years before. But you are also experiencing the unique flavor of a very specific eclipse – identified by the Saros Series number.

This solar and lunar eclipse set speaks to success. This eclipse set is part of a 14 South Saros Series, and because I don’t want to overwhelm you with details, the details of this eclipse can be found in her book. The following interpretation by Bernadette Brady can be summarily explained by: Jupiter being at the midpoint of the New Moon/Pluto and the New Moon on the midpoint of Mercury/Pluto and Mars/Saturn (of this eclipse’s birth chart):

“This eclipse family will tend to bring success. There may have been long periods of hard work from which the success has grown. With the Mercury-Pluto content there is also the potential for an obsessive idea to finally be accepted, which then leads to the promised success of the Jupiter. During this eclipse period individuals should push for the acceptance of their ideas or methodologies as this eclipse can bring the long awaited breakthrough.”

As the lights flicker in the sky over the next couple of weeks (with the solar, and then, lunar eclipse), you can look to see where 0’21’ Gemini and then 14’14’ Sagittarius falls in your birth chart. And you might also ask, What ideas have I been working hard on that are ripe for acceptance, and thus success?  Could a little push and tenacity help me get my ideas out there? Gemini season has the novel and new in it, and others are looking around, listening for fresh ideas, wanting to cross-pollinate their ideas with yours. This Saros Series speaks to the readiness for your idea to be heard, seen, spoken about, talked about -with fanfare (Jupiter midpoint!). So don’t be afraid to put your self, your ideas, out there. You may be surprised at the success this eclipse will bring.

image source: http://nawafiai.deviantart.com/art/pinwheel-200453273