The Career Astrologer 4 2014 | Page 5

The timing of Solar Eclipses is a point of contention among astrologers, but usually planets moving across the zodiac degree of the Solar eclipse up to three months before and six months after will act as “triggers” for the Eclipse related events or changes. Lunar eclipses tend to be more short lived, kind of like a full moon on steroids, and emotional or personal in content, while Solar eclipses tend to be more event or externally oriented. Both types of eclipses work to illuminate what’s been hiding in the shadows. When we look ahead to 2015 there will be two Solar Eclipses, the first at 29 degrees of Pisces on March 20th and the second at 20 degrees of Virgo on September 13. The eclipses moving from fixed signs to mutable signs suggests that rather than dealing with deeply entrenched and hard to change social issues, there will be more of a focus on ways of thinking, communi- cating and making adjustments to current situations. Because Virgo and Pisces are associated with health and illness, I think these eclipses will bring more focus to these issues. On March 20th the Solar Eclipse suggests a focus on typical Pisces issues, like prob- lems with the oceans, drinking water and possibly more troubles with diseases like Ebola. The eclipse will bring any existing problems that have been overlooked or hidden more into the public eye. Because of the shift of Saturn into Sagittarius, another mutable sign, we may see more collective approaches to these problems. In the chart for this particular eclipse the Sun and Moon only make one major aspect, an out of sign trine to Jupiter in Leo. This suggests that there may be an element of protection also at work. The Virgo eclipse in September 2015 may bring issues related to health-care, grains and harvests, and workers issues, perhaps even health care workers. Chiron is oppo- site the Sun/Moon conjunction in this chart amplifying the connections to issues relat- ed to health, healing and disease. Because the eclipses in Pisces/Virgo continue into 2017 it seems to me these eclipses will rep- resent turning points in the ongoing Ebola epidemic and problems finding people in the medical profession willing to deal with Ebola patients. There are many ways to chart the coming changes in 2015, but looking at the signs of the Solar Eclipses will often illuminate areas of crises and change. Eclipses have the power to heal because once situations operate more in the open, they can be The Career Astrologer addressed more clearly, and sometimes solutions can be found. Henry Seltzer INCLUDING A LOOK AT THE NEW PLANET, ERIS eading into the H year 2015, as the current astrology bears out, we have reached a peak of painful necessity for action. I refer here primarily to Uranus- Pluto, and I would also like to mention my characterization of the newly named ‘dwarf’ planet, Eris, which I find to be an excellent indicator for what these fraught times require of us, in her symbolism as a feminine warrior for soul-purpose, a fighter who comes from a place of difficult necessi- ty to do what must be done, on the basis of deep need. (The evidence for this point of view is beyond the scope of this article, and is articulated in my forthcoming book on Eris, called The Tenth Planet.) First let’s discuss Uranus-Pluto, coming to exact square once more on December 15th, the sixth of seven exact hits this decade. The startling thing about the month of December and the beginning period of 2015 is that Uranus and Pluto stay in sync with each other after their mid-December exact hit, never more than 1 degree away from exactly square until their last exact hit in mid-March. The intensity of the Uranus- Pluto combination, signifying a force for radical societal evolution, has grown stron- ger each year, from 2009 onward, and I believe that this first quarter of 2015 will be the most intense of all. Each individual will have to make a stand for what they deeply believe, in order that we as a culture have any real chance of survival. And this is where Eris comes in, as spir- itual warrior. In the December 15th exact alignment of Uranus and Pluto, she makes a partile trine with Jupiter that lasts from mid-November through nearly the entire month of December, including the power- ful Winter Solstice of December 21st that coincides with the Capricorn New Moon. In this symbolic beginning of the new year, Eris is therefore quite prominent. It looks like many will be stimulated to join in the fight for what will allow the human race to grow together, rather than to move further apart. After this first quarter, the intensity might slow down some. One interesting thing OPA’s Quarterly Magazine happens, though, also in regards to Eris, over the summer. The July 15th New Moon in the 24th degree of Cancer features an exact square to Eris in Aries. At this same timing, Mercury and Mars in conjunction make a partile opposition to Pluto, while Uranus comes to within 3 degrees of con- juncting Eris. This could indicate another season of radical activity, in support of the fight that has to happen with t he powers that be, including U.S. energy corporations. The New Moon of mid-August also aspects Eris. So we can divide the year of 2015 into at least three segments, the difficult first quarter, and the response to this protract- ed period of ever-increasing angst, which by the summer might actually reach epic proportions, and then the remainder of the year heading into fall when we might find that the critical mass has grown for begin- ning to take necessary action. Curiously, at the very end of the year, Jupiter in Virgo again aspects Eris, this time an inconjunct, and again over a rather long period of time, within two degrees from late November through February of 2016, because station- ing in January 2016. So we end the year as we started, with a long-term Jupiter-Eris connection. It seems that at least there is hope, and that this chance depends on each one of us stepping up to the plate and doing our part, with everything that we have in us. Blessed be. R SPECIAL CORNER Adam Gainsburg MARS & VENUS IN THE LIVING SKY n 2015 there are I three Venus-Mars conjunctions. Any Venus- Mars contact is a powerful focus on the inner agreements about what drives us within, into, and out of relation- ships. The values (Venus) we hold clearly drive our actions (Mars), just as our willing- ness to go it alone (Mars) often attracts or repels others (Venus). See Figure 1, following page The three conjunctions emanate from 7 April 2013 when they both aligned with the Sun in their respective Gemini Cycles! Both planets were furthest from Earth: Venus invisibly transitioning from morning to eve- ning star, while Mars invisibly beginning his cycle. At 19 Aries, it occurred in the stars of the Southern Fish who swims backward V23 -04 2014 WINTER page 5