The New Paradigm Divine Feminine
and Masculine energies for August 11 1999: the eclipse of the Sun.

The Eclipse of the Sun on August 11, 1999

[editor's note: this page was redesigned May 2008 to keep up with changes in technology, but the astrological content has been unchanged since first published on this site in July 1999, prior to the eclipse]

There has been much groaning and gnashing of teeth about the coming Solar Eclipse at Leo 18 on August 11 and its associated Grand Cross aspect in Fixed Signs. We were going to avoid any pronouncements, but it's just too important to ignore.

This eclipse will have lasting effects for more than two years concerning all the countries which the eclipse passes over (see Table).

Astrologer and anthropologist, Ian Thurnwald, examines the situation:

 Earthquake Hotspots

This is the last total eclipse of the Sun this century (1901 - 2000), and what's special about it (apart from the astrology) is that it passes over some of the most densely populated regions of the world. It also passes over some known hot-spots and regions which are prone to severe earthquakes.

 Eclipse Path

The eclipse path (the 112.3 km wide shadow cast by the Moon occulting the Sun) begins over the Atlantic ocean about 1,000 km off the coast of New York and moves across the ocean toward Europe. It then passes over the southern tip of Britain, northern France, southern Germany, Austria, and Hungary with the point of greatest eclipse occuring over the southern Carpathian Mountains (45N05 24E18) just NW of Bucharest, Romania. The waning eclipse then passes over the Black Sea, Turkey, northern Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and India, ending off the east coast of India. Maps of eclipse paths can be viewed at: NASA's Eclipse Home Page.

 Disruptive Effects

Solar eclipses don't often pass over populated areas, but when they do, they appear to have significant disruptive effects on the people and nations concerned (e.g., economic or political crises, civil unrest). Solar eclipses also seem to either trigger, or amplify, natural events in the regions they affect (e.g., severe weather, earthquakes). Whether this effect is an astrological one or not, is a moot point.

 Fixed Grand Cross

Astrologically the new moon, solar eclipse of August 11 is significant because it forms the fourth arm of a fixed grand cross. That is, the eclipse at 18 Leo completes the extra arm of rather nasty T-square between Mars at 16 Scorpio opposing Saturn at 16 Taurus, both square to Uranus at 14 Aquarius. In other words, the Sun/Moon conjunction opposes Uranus while squaring Mars on the one hand and Saturn on the other. At the same time, Mercury, Neptune and Jupiter also form a fixed t-square in the early degrees of Leo, Aquarius and Taurus.

What we see here is that the middle and early degrees of fixed signs, already highlighted by the slow moving malefics, are being triggered by the swifter moving planets, namely, the Sun and Moon (the eclipse itself), Mars and Mercury. The cross begins to form when Moon in Taurus opposes Mars and Sun in Leo joins the North Node on August 4-5. By August 6-7, Mars in Scorpio moves into exact square with Uranus in Aquarius and the Sun moves up to oppose Uranus and square Mars. Sun and Mars remain in square aspect as the Sun squares Saturn in Taurus and Mars opposes Saturn, from August 9th.

 World Cosmic Power Points

Now, the middle degrees of the fixed signs (i.e. 15°) are considered to be powerful points of the zodiac in and of themselves (because they symbolically mark the height of the seasons). The other power points of the zodiac are the world points; the solstice and equinox points, which mark the beginning of the seasons. These fall at 0° of the cardinal signs Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn. Any planet near the middle of a fixed sign will be in stressful aspect (45° and 135°) to these world points.

Here's a couple of examples. The last annular solar eclipse of Feb 16, 1999 was already waning when it crossed the west coast of Australia and passed over the north of the country. Within days a severe cyclone hit the coast near where the eclipse passed overhead and army troops began assembling in the north, in preparation for a "peace keeping" role in the troubled Indonesian province of Timor.

The situation in Timor is just some of the "fall-out" Indonesia is experiencing after last year's annular solar eclipse on Aug 22, 1998. It passed directly over Jakata and the Malaysian capital (Kuala Lumpur), through Brunei and parts of Indonesia, with the point of greatest eclipse occuring off the north coast of Papua/New Guinea. Thereafter the Malaysian political scene was thrown into turmoil, when the leader jailed his right-hand man on trumped-up charges and Indonesia experienced its worst civil unrest since the riots that brought Suharto's resignation.

As this eclipse occurs near midday, the fixed signs will be angular, with Scorpio rising and Leo on the mid-heaven in the eclipse charts for countries near the point of greatest eclipse (GE). These are places west of Prague, through to Athens. The eclipse falls exactly on the MC for places including Budapest and Belgrade!

I'd argue that the build up to the next pair of solar eclipses on August 11 1999 at 18 LEO 21 and February 05 2000 at 16 AQU 01 can be traced back to May 1998. This was when planetary stations and an unusual series of lunar and solar eclipses (mostly in Aquarius and Leo), began to sensitize the degrees in fixed signs that will be highlighted again at the eclipses. The degrees in question are 00-04 and 12-18 of fixed signs.

 Mundane Charts

Some Mundane Charts which feature significant placements around these degrees:

• Iraq
  Mercury/Uranus 14 & 10 Leo
  Uranus opposition Uranus Dec 98 - Jan 99
  Uranus stationary opposition to this midpoint in Oct 99
  
• Communist China
  Moon/ASC 03 & 10 Aquarius, Mars/Pluto 14 & 17 Leo.
  Uranus opposition Ascendant Dec 98-Jan 99
  • Neptune conjunct Moon
    Feb 99 to Aug 99
    Nov 99 to Feb 00
    Aug 00 to Dec 00
  Uranus opposition Mars/Pluto Feb 99-Jan 01
• Russia
  Sun/Mercury 15 & 17 Scorpio
  Saturn/Neptune 14 & 7 Leo
  Uranus 18 Aquarius
  Uranus return all 2000, begins Feb 00 to Feb 01
• Northern Ireland
  Sun/MC 03 & 04 Taurus
  Mercury/Fortuna 14 Taurus
  Mars/ASC 16 & 20 Leo
  North Node & Uranus 03 & 19 Aquarius
  Uranus return 2000, Mar to Aug, repeats Dec 00 to Feb 01

A word on the eclipses first. A series of four lunar and solar eclipses in the signs Leo/Aquarius began in August 1998 and finish in February 2000. The first in the series was the full moon lunar eclipse of August 08 at 15 AQU 22, followed by the new moon solar eclipse of Aug 22 at 28 LEO 48. As new and full moons (lunations) travel backwards through the degrees of the zodiac, this tells us that throughout this period all new moons have been occuring in the late to middle degrees of signs, while full moons have been falling in the mid to early degrees (this pattern reverses every 18 months). In any case, for the fixed-sign people, all the lunations (including eclipses) are important during this period. Here's a table: