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What does the Dec’21 Solar Eclipse offer us?



I love following eclipse cycles; for me they shed light on how we are all impulsed to self-realise, whether we are on a conscious journey or not, and because they affect all of us, they also influence how collective reality shapes and shifts over time.


All eclipses represent a break in the normal transmission of light from the sun, and that means the transmission of spiritual information received at the soul level of our beingness. For me the eclipses represent changes and shifts in the way our self-realisation process unfolds, keeping us in tune with our pre-intended life purpose prior to incarnation.

December 3rd or 4th 2021, depending on your location, was host to a total solar eclipse at 12˚ Sagittarius, and if you know your chart, whichever house this falls in will be the main area of the psyche where the impulse to reset and retune is most felt.


Sagittarius is an archetype that encompasses the concept of truth, and especially what is true for us as individuals and how we make sense of the world around us. We are all being impulsed now from the higher realms of the Self, toward deeper meaning and insight, through an intuitive non-linear way of processing data. The eclipse occurs in a wide square with Neptune in Pisces, and this really highlights the issue of deception and misinformation via the media, whether that be mainstream media (MSM), alternative media or social media. As we are strongly impulsed to know truth we must be careful not to be deceived by false impressions received through the media that will take us away from truth. The issue of what is true and what is false has been ongoing since June 2020 when the lunar nodes moved into the Sagittarius/Gemini axis, a cycle that will end by Feb 2022.


Hasn’t this issue been so in our faces of late? The so called information wars, and culture wars; the clash over beliefs relative to covid, brexit, Trump/Biden, conspiracy vs the status quo, jab or no jab etc…with this total solar eclipse in Sagittarius, square Neptune, and inconjunct with Uranus in Taurus, the issue of the truth will be ongoing for at least another two years, and it will be at the centre of the self-realisation process for everyone on the planet, where many may be faced with the challenge of radical and disruptive (Uranus) new revelatory information, in a murky sea of misinformation (Neptune), and a crisis of integration, which may only be reconciled through the intuition. We are bombarded with so much data, and all of us are challenged to make accurate sense of things, and yet without active use of our intuition, none of us are able to discern which information is credible and useful. At the same time, the dark side of Sagittarius is a fierce certainty of belief bereft of any critical thinking (Gemini polarity). As always balance is key, but I think the evolutionary push will be to get many to reactivate their intuitive function in the months ahead. During this period many of us will have evolved this aspect of our lives, and probably be in a different position than we were before relative to truth, personal truth, and how we relate to information coming from the media. Perhaps we have shifted our position a great deal, or maybe we are more clear of what is true for us than before.




We may see a new wave of people beginning to question the mainstream manicured narrative, as they sense intuitively more and more that something isn’t quite right.



At the time of the solar eclipse, Venus is rebirthing through Pluto, again in Capricorn (an ongoing theme with both Jupiter and Saturn rebirthing in Capricorn in early 2020), indicating a renewal of values, in some cases activated through survival challenges - what is important to us? What should we value? Money? Power? Self-interest? Community? Friendship? Love? Responsibility?

And Pluto itself now moving through the last degrees of Capricorn, will be intensifying the scramble for power amongst those in high positions, while for most of us, more than ever before, the onus will be on responsibility and maturation. Are we going to be pushed around by outside authorities, or are we going to take more responsibility, move out of a false perception of helplessness and step into our own personal authority with the power to self-determine?

In these last degrees, we may well feel hopeless and disillusioned at times, and we may find strength in spiritual practices and wisdom. To be disillusioned throws us into a temporary crisis of meaning, but the evolutionary opportunity is to face reality free from illusions, which in the longer term can only be beneficial.

This is certainly a time to guard against despondency as an escapist reaction, and to recognise that feeling like a victim drowning in futility, is a reaction to overwhelm, and can be overcome if we simplify everything down to what is right in front of us, stay in the present moment, and step by step take action on the things that matter the most, and attend to other less pressing issues at the right time.


The US Pluto Return


While our world systems appear to be unravelling, leaving much of the world in a palpable state of ongoing uncertainty, we astrologers have been looking to the anticipated Pluto return for the USA founding chart.

The term ‘Pluto return’ refers to the motion of Pluto returning to the same position it was when the republic of the USA, with its pioneering humanitarian constitution, was first established. The return of Pluto marks the culmination of a cycle that has been shaping the evolution of the USA for 245 years.

The US Pluto return peaks next year with three exact conjunctions in Capricorn on 20th Feb, 11th July, and 28th Dec 2022, marking the death and rebirth of the USA with a rippling effect all over the world.


The archetype of Pluto generally drives evolution through death and rebirth processes. These processes can be gradual and ongoing much like the sea eroding rocks, or they can be sudden, intense and cataclysmic, like an earthquake. The level of intensity of Pluto transits is largely due to resistance to change and a clinging to the status quo, and in this sense the USA in the midst of its Pluto return is undergoing an evolutionary shift that demands radical social and systems change.

We can only wait and see whether this signals the end of the US as an empire, or the renewal of the US as a democratic republic true to its original constitution. A sign in favour of this, is the notion that president Trump dissolved the corporation known as the USA in 2019, and opened the way for the US to return to the values and intentions of the founding fathers.


I shall be keeping my eye on this because the fate of the USA has obvious ramifications for the rest of the world moving forward.


In my view, total solar eclipses are significant astrological events, because they initiate a change in the way we pursue purpose and meaning in our lives. Depending on where it falls in your personal natal chart, eclipses can be powerful catalysts for changes that occur over many months past the actual event. This recent total eclipse in Sagittarius is notably in the same sign as the last total eclipse in Dec 2020, marking a continuation of the same evolutionary theme, related to the quest for personal truth and meaning, through an intuitive process and the study of philosophy and metaphysics - we all feel the need to try and understand the bigger picture somehow.


And yet eclipse energy tends to want to move us forward through both inner and outer change. This eclipse lies close to the lunar south node, indicating that the emphasis on change is through the clearing out and decluttering of the past i.e. of the things we no longer need; it is through letting go of old ideas about what we thought was true, that we can move forward into a more meaningful understanding of our world.


The Lunar eclipse last November 2021, which occurred in Taurus closely conjunct the lunar north node in Gemini, puts the focus squarely onto survival themes, where money and basic human needs may well be of most emotional importance in the next 6 months and more. The lunar eclipse cycle began with a total lunar eclipse in Sagittarius in May 2021, a clear repeating theme for these current times, where the issue of truth versus what we believe to be true, has become highly energised. This partial lunar eclipse brings in a support energy, bringing us back to reality, and drawing us to reconsider what we think is most valuable in life. For example should we lose long term friends over a clash of beliefs (where neither opinion is completely true), or is friendship more important? Is actual truth more important in the end than our cherished beliefs about reality? Are we going to be better off with the facts, rather than our comfortable biases?

The Uranus inconjunct is a key factor, because it indicates a disruptive and unpredictable element to this eclipse season. On the one hand this could manifest as shocks and surprise events that jump start a need to know what is true from what is false in the world. This could occur as personal confrontations with others whose heterodox version of reality causes us to doubt our own belief foundations, or it could occur as shocking external revelations reported in the news. A good current example of this is the recent story in the UK about alleged parties in Westminster last Christmas during lockdown, in breach of all the rules imposed on everyone else, which has caused a lot of anger and disillusionment within the general public. Or the recent Canadian government's admission that covid hospitalisation stats were inflated by as much as 60%.



The main take-way from the current astrological symbols in play, is that the issue of truth is an ongoing evolutionary avenue for most of us at this time, where each of us must learn the difference between actual truth, and what we believe to be true. We must learn the relativity of truth, and overcome the impulse to defend our personal take on life, and cultivate openness to new information even if it means a radical shift in our reality view.


Those of us following spiritual paths, may well find themselves drawn more deeply to understand metaphysical systems such as astrology, or find philosophical ideas enriching and enlivening. How do we position ourselves in the unfolding drama in a meaningful and purposeful way?


Above all, our version of the truth is only as good as the quality of information that we take on and use as a basis for our reality. If our information sources are polluted or distorted, then so too will our personal truth about the world. The question I ask myself is how can any of us battle it out with others, when so much of what we believe comes from sources outside of ourselves? How much of our reality view is based on what we actually know versus what we read in the papers, on social media, or books? More than ever this is a time to question, in a social environment where to question is becoming increasingly taboo. This is the challenge of the times - to trust in personal truth, to openly question what we believe, and encourage respectful discourse and sharing of information in order to counteract the current strong gravitational forces toward group think and collectivism, where in the case of Austria for example, who recently put a third of their population into isolation on the grounds that being unvaccinated, they were more of a danger to society than the vaccinated. This assertion of technocratic ideology presented as fact, is deeply problematic and threatens human freedom in ways that are alarmingly familiar to anyone who remembers WWII.

May the truth win out in favour of human freedom and dignity.


Aquila offers Astrology Readings, Self-Realisation Mentoring and Tarot consultation for anyone wanting to make more sense of their unfolding world.


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