Solar Eclipses – casting a long shadow

“Events, dear boy, events” was what former UK PM Harold MacMillan probably never said in response to a question about what blows governments off course and they most fear. But like most clichés it holds more than a grain of truth. Theresa May, already tottering after a series of political blunders, has been almost certainly sunk by her abject handling of the Grenfell Fire disaster, her Katrina moment. In a more minor way, the collision of the US warship in Japanese waters, is throwing an unwelcome spotlight on the deficits of the Trump administration with no Navy Secretary or US Ambassador to Japan yet appointed.

Theresa May had the February Pisces Eclipse conjunct her Mars; and the late Leo Solar Eclipse this August is conjunct her Pluto. The first brings a shock and failure with tr Neptune conjunct. A Solar Eclipse conjunct Pluto can either bring empowerment/transformation or, in the face of refusal to change – decay and destruction.

Donald Trump has the Eclipse conjunct his Mars and Ascendant, which will make him even more combative than usual. The key to an Eclipse on Mars is to learn how to handle anger sensibly otherwise it leads to physical strain and/or accidents, never mind volcanic arguments.

Jeremy Corbyn and Emmanuel Macron both have the August Eclipse conjunct their Saturn – paying the price for decisions and having to shoulder heavier responsibilities.

The UK has its 11^th house Saturn also conjunct the Leo Eclipse, which will put pressure on the legislature at Westminster. The EU’s 12^th house Pluto is also conjunct the Eclipse – as they face the crisis of Brexit, amongst whatever else fate throws their way, as they try to hold together an untenable structure.

Iraq’s Leo Sun is almost exactly conjunct as they struggle to regain control of territory from ISIS and bridge the sectarian divide.

Israel, worryingly, has their Mars conjunct the Leo Eclipse, which could send them into aggressive overdrive out of insecurity.

The path of this 2017 August Eclipse does run across middle USA, so may have more impact there, though not necessarily instantly, see below for Delayed Effects. It is in the 1 North Saros Series that seems to accompany major events in the USA when it falls due.

The US dropped the Hiroshima atomic bomb, four weeks after the 1945 eclipse in this series. In 1963, next time round for 1 North, Martin Luther King was delivering his rousing civil rights speech in Washington to 200,000 African-Americans campaigning for Black civil rights, four weeks after. Three months later President John F. Kennedy was shot in Dallas. The same cycle repeating in 1981 saw US forces shooting down two Libyan planes, and the US air traffic control strike. Then in July 1999, JFK’s son John was killed in a plane crash three weeks before a 1 North solar eclipse. And NATO forces were at war for the first time since 1945, trying to reverse the Serbian ethnic cleansing and genocide of Albanians. In previous 1 North eclipses: Charles Lindbergh made the first solo, non-stop transatlantic flight, from New York to Paris in 33 hours, in 1927; and in 1909 a major earthquake destroyed Acapulco, two weeks after the eclipse.

For a prime example of the Delay Effect: the path of the August 1999 total solar eclipse in the 1 North rose in the Eastern seaboard of the USA, crossed the UK, curving down across Afghanistan, Pakistan to finish in southern India. There were major aspects to the eclipse from Saturn in Taurus, Mars in Scorpio, Uranus & Neptune in Aquarius. At the time, despite much excitement and trepidation, there was little outward sign of the kind of events such a powerhouse of influences might have suggested. But in January 2001 the same aspects recurred with Mars returning for the first time since 1999 to Scorpio, and along with the Aquarian Sun picking up the tail end of the waning, disruptive Saturn Uranus square.

At precisely the time those aspects repeated, the devastating Gujarat earthquake in central western India on January 26 2001 – exactly on the 1999 eclipse path – occurred as these aspects all came together again. The catastrophic national foot & mouth epidemic in the UK, also started around this time.

Even later still in late March 2002, when Mars was again in a fixed sign – Taurus – running into the square to the eclipse Uranus, it coincided with a major earthquake in Afghanistan, also on that 1999 eclipse path.

Japan is especially sensitive to this series of eclipses, and by early 2001 it was admired that Japan’s economy was at the point of collapse.

This 2017 August Leo Eclipse is not as heavily aspected at the 1999 one – though the Eclipse is conjunct Mars and trine Uranus and trine Saturn, with Uranus opposition Jupiter – so it could lead to restless over-confidence, risk-taking, impatience with restrictions.

Bernadette Brady in The Eagle and the Lark says of 1 North Eclipses: Unexpected events with friends or groups place great pressure on relationships. Hasty decisions will be unwise since information is likely to be distorted or false. Tiredness and health problems can occur.