Photo by Louise Docker (cc)
At the last WSAA meeting Mark Dodich gave a great talk on the use of prenatal eclipses in the horoscope. I had run across this technique before, in Jan Spiller’s writing and in a couple other places, but this was the first time I was able to grasp it thoroughly.
The quick and dirty version:
Although they are not plotted on a regular birth chart, the last solar eclipse and the last lunar eclipse immediately before your birth have a special significance with regard to your spiritual purpose. According to Mark, your prenatal solar eclipse symbolizes what you came to teach in this life, and your prenatal lunar eclipse represents what you came to learn in this life. They are related to, but not the same as, the north and south nodes.
Sign and house placement hold their usual importance, and at the talk we took the additional step of looking up the Sabian symbol for both of our personal eclipses.
A little personal work:
My prenatal solar eclipse was on July 31st, 1981, at 7°51′ Leo. This falls in my 12th house. To get the correct Sabian symbol we round up to 8° Leo, which is:
A communist activist spreading his revolutionary ideals.
Being an astrologer is often about defying convention whether you want to or not, so I found this painfully appropriate. But beyond that, I’ve always felt compelled to urge personal accountability and high ethical standards which sure seems revolutionary these days.
My prenatal lunar eclipse took place on July 17th, 1981, at 24°35′ Capricorn. For me, 6th house. This rounds to 25 Capricorn:
A store filled with precious oriental rugs.
This one is square my natal Pluto, loosely conjunct (3°) my south node in Capricorn. This was tough to interpret for me and I still don’t feel like I’ve really put my finger on it. The south node is about reflex, ingrained knowledge, and past lives if you swing that way. As people develop their north node (where they’re going) they gradually move away from depending so much on the characteristics of their south node. So what I’m getting out of this right now is that as I move forward toward what my purpose is now, to find value in the repository of knowledge and the wealth that my south node contains. Since so many things square my nodal axis I find that both past and future purposes kick up a lot of obstacles for me; sometimes it’s tempting to ditch the south node piece altogether so this is encouraging to me.
It’s always harder to interpret your own chart than someone else’s so this is a little convoluted, but you get the idea. Lots of new food for thought.
Mark gave various examples of this in the charts of public figures and organizations, and discussed some of the mathematical cycles involved with eclipses and planetary patterns. It was a great talk and the first time I had the opportunity to learn about his work. Mark Dodich practices in Portland, Oregon and you can read more about him at astromark.us.
Edit:
Narf. The reference book would be good, wouldn’t it? You can find a good table of solar and Lunar eclipses in Tables of Planetary Phenomena
Thanks so much for this – it’s a fascinating topic and I’m so pleased that you’ve also brought in the Sabian symbols. Have you tried using the opposing pair of symbols to give you an even deeper level of interpretation? I hadn’t thought of doing that before finding Blain Bovee’s site, and his book “Sabian Symbols ahd Astrological Analysis”. It’s actually set out in the pairs so you can read across. If one symbol doesn’t speak to you, the opposing one may well do. I’m off to look at the degrees of my pre-natal eclipses!
Great idea Jan! I’ve never thought of that- I’ll have to go take a look now.
I’ll be posting more about the Sabian symbols later in the week, also.
Twitter: clover
Is there a quick and easy place to find your prenatal Solar and Lunar eclipses?
.-= Michelle´s last blog ..North Node and South Node Rulers =-.
Twitter: astrofix8
Oh dear, great point Michelle! I’ll update the post with where to find that; if you email me your birth date and time from the contact page at the top, I’ll send yours to you now.
Twitter: clover
Serennu Astrology has an eclipse finder: http://serennu.com/astrology/eclipseoccultation.php
Turns out there was a total lunar eclipse before my birth at 25 Taurus 55′ – conjunct frickin’ Algol of all things.
26 Taurus: A Spanish gallant serenades his beloved.
11 Scorpio: A drowning man is being rescued.
Twitter: astrofix8
I was just reading up on this & found my prenatal solar eclipse is 16 Pisces 58
& my natal moon is 17 Pisces- H9 !!!
The prenatal lunar eclipse was conjunct natal uranus conjunct mars- Cancer
Super threads
Lynne
Wish I knew what the above meant