The Summer Solstice is the time of the year when the principle of Light manifests itself at its peak. The Sun shines through in all its glory, dimming our senses and our consciousness. This year, just when the Sun is about to touch the highest heights, the shadow of the Dragon crawls in, devouring it.
This is going to be an Annular Solar Eclipse, meaning that the Moon is not going to overshadow the Sun completely. Still, the ring is going to be very thin—to the point that any technical subtleties cannot possibly change the symbolic meaning of the event.
As you may have guessed, a Solar Eclipse at the time of the Summer Solstice is not a good omen. It is going to occur exactly at 0° Cancer, just after the entrance of the Sun in the sign. This is a very rare event, that adds up to the peculiar planetary cycles of this year. Just think about the Saturn-Pluto conjunction that announced the covid-19 pandemic. 2020 is everything but a quiet year.
A North Node Eclipse
Every Solar Eclipse is first and foremost a New Moon, the time of the month when the night is darkest. When one of the nodes is in conjunction with a New Moon you have a solar eclipse. In this case, the North Node is involved, the so called Caput Draconis—the head of the Dragon.
The North Node increases or expands (like a little Jupiter). The South Node decreases or limits (like a little Saturn). Whether the north or south node is involved, you can expect eclipses to cause sudden changes within a 6 month window (some astrologers take more). This because they represent an unexpected break in the natural flow of things.
Specifically, the North Node suggests a new beginning, a sudden expansion, an increase, or even an explosion of earthly matters that will clearly mark the summer.
The Crone Archetype
Being in Cancer, the eclipse is ruled by the Moon herself. In Cancer she is in her domicile, so it is particularly strong. Symbolically, the power of the bright masculine principle (the Sun) is overshadowed by the dark feminine principle (the Moon).
This feared principle of the feminine power is called the Crone. It is part of the three-fold archetype of the divine feminine with the Maiden and the Mother. The Crone represents the most destructive aspect of the natural forces. They cause death and decay in order to bring more life.
In astrology not only Cancer is the sign of motherhood, but it is also “the place where all things end”. As disturbing as it might sound, in Nature cradle and coffin are one thing. When we die we return to the Great Mother’s womb.
Water Related Natural Disasters
In traditional astrology solar eclipses also bring natural disasters, according to the quality of their element. In water signs they cause abundance of rains and floods. Now, not only the eclipse makes a separating square with the Mars-Neptune conjunction. But on top of that the first aspect the Moon is going to make soon after the eclipse is a sextile with Uranus.
As we know Uranus in Taurus is strongly related to environment issues. In human affairs, it is causing the worldwide movement represented by Greta Thunberg. Whereas in Nature, the same energy can properly represent earthquakes. On the other hand the square with the Mars-Neptune conjunction, and a water-sign eclipse, both suggest water related natural disasters.
For this reason, we can speculate that a possible manifestation of this eclipse will concern earthquakes and tsunamis in the areas most affected by the transit. This during the aforementioned time window.
Most Affected Places
Confronting the eclipse Astrocartography and the eclipse shadow path we can see that the most affected places are India, Southeast Asia and Australia. Specifically the midheaven line (in green) crossing the Indian Ocean intersects the shadow path of the eclipse.
As we all know they are tsunami threatened areas, so this astrological speculation is supported by statistics. We really need to monitor the situation for the following months, hoping that the tragedy of 2004 is not going to repeat itself.
A very interesting article from astro.com relates the tsunami of December 26th 2004 to the total lunar eclipse in Scorpio that took place on May 4, 2004. As you can see some respectable astrologers consider an even greater time window due to the sudden and “unpredictable” nature of eclipses. In this case the eclipsed Moon at 14° Scorpio was in hard aspect (square) with Neptune (Lord of the Seas) at 15° Aquarius.
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I consider myself a free researcher in western spiritual disciplines, in particular Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophy and the Neoplatonic Hermetic tradition. I have a three-year training in Astrology at the CIDA delegation of Trieste, the Italian Center for Astrological Disciplines. I graduated in Computer Engineering from the University of Trieste.
