posted March 16, 2006 01:36 PM
Thanks for starting up this thread, NM! 
Here's more info on solar eclipses:From: http://www.astroprofile.com/2006eclipse.htm ~
Eclipses become personally extremely important when an eclipse creates a close aspect to planets in your natal chart. It’s important to know your planetary positions exactly to determine if an eclipse personally affects you. It is strongly believed that eclipses of close aspect to a birth chart planet (1-2 degrees, or less), can intensely influence events for six months, and can even affect you for up to two years, expressed in your life by the sign and the house in which the eclipse occurs.
Significance of Solar Eclipses if they aspect your chart:
The energy of the Sun is external, paternal, protective and active. When a solar eclipse occurs, the Moon is passing between the Earth and the Sun, creating a New Moon just as in every other month; however, during a Solar Eclipse the alignment is perfect and the Sun is hidden from view for an hour or more. In a total Solar Eclipse, the intensity of the New Moon is strong because the moon is so near to the Earth and because the Sun and Moon are in the same astrological sign, increasing the focus and intensity of that sign, house and planetary aspect, and thus the intensity on your life will be heightened. During the Solar Eclipse, the life-giving energy, warmth and light of the Sun are withheld or suspended for a brief time, and we again experience a lack or absence, a sense of missing energy.
From: http://north-node.com/articles/march-2006 ~
Eclipses
If you have been reading my articles for a while, you already know how I love Eclipses. We get two of these, sometimes three, every six months. Eclipses are special New and Full Moons. Sensitive people can feel a difference in the energy—decisions feel more weighty and significant; energy levels in general seem to increase. Some people get bad colds or even food poisoning, the kind of illness that takes you down for the count, then leaves you feeling cleaned-out afterward. It’s as if our bodies need to undergo a purging to make space for the new energy.
Eclipses signal the beginning of a six month cycle. The houses in your birth chart that they contact (those containing the points 24 Virgo and 8 Aries) will be “lit up” with activity and new developments for the six month period starting now and ending in August.
On March 29, with the Solar Eclipse in Aries, a new astrological year begins. It’s time to think about those New Year’s resolutions! This event fills the skies with energy, and the two weeks following it are the best time of year to start something new—and work some magic.
From: http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEmono/TSE2006/TSE2006.html ~
NASA Eclipse home page
From: http://solar-eclipse-2006.info/ ~
All you need to know about the solar eclipse
From: http://www.astrologycom.com/eclipse.html ~
The Eclipse of the Sun
The eclipse of the Sun has traditionally been viewed with dread over the ages, as the great giver of life seems inexplicably to disappear from the sky. Birds prepare for bed; the sky darkens in the middle of the day. It seems as though something dreadful is about to happen. Over the years, experience has shown us that old things come to an end (or are overthrown!) under a solar eclipse and a new beginning can be made.
Astrologically, solar eclipses signify the fall of the mighty (or at least, they're in big trouble!). Depending where in the zodiac the eclipse occurs, stress is always placed on the matters governed by that sign, or sector of the zodiac. A powerful Solar Eclipse can create massive havoc, in accordance with other aspects in the heavens at the time, as can be clearly seen by the trail of earthquakes and other disasters associated with the Solar Eclipse and Grand Cross of August 1999.
Upcoming Solar Eclipse
The year's first solar eclipse occurs on Wednesday, March 29, 2006. A total eclipse will be visible from within a narrow corridor, which traverses half the Earth. The path of the Moon's shadow begins in Brazil and extends across the Atlantic, northern Africa, and central Asia, where it ends at sunset in western Mongolia. A partial eclipse will be seen within the much broader path of the Moon's penumbral shadow, which includes the northern two thirds of Africa, Europe, and central Asia.
The eclipse path begins in eastern Brazil, where the Moon's umbra first touches down on Earth at 08:36 UT (Universal Time, or GMT), creating a 129-kilometre wide path. The umbra is the dark central zone of the Moon's shadow, as opposed to the penumbra, which is the lighter, outer part of the shadow. It quickly leaves Brazil and races across the Atlantic Ocean with no landfall for the next half hour. After crossing the equator, the shadow enters the Gulf of Guinea and encounters the coast of Ghana at 09:08 UT. The 1.7 million inhabitants of Ghana's capital city Accra can expect a total eclipse lasting 2 minute 58 seconds (09:11 UT).
Moving inland the umbra enters Togo at 09:14 UT. Unfortunately, the capital city Lome lies just outside the southern limit so its inhabitants will only witness a grazing partial eclipse. Two minutes later, the leading edge of the umbra reaches Benin, whose capital Porto-Novo experiences a deep partial eclipse. Continuing northeast, the shadow's axis enters Nigeria at 09:21 UT. Since Lagos is situated about 120 kilometres outside the umbra's southern limit, its population of over eight million will witness a partial eclipse of magnitude 0.968.
The umbra's axis takes about sixteen minutes to cross western Nigeria before entering Niger at 09:37 UT. During the next hour, the shadow traverses some of the most remote and desolate deserts on the planet. When the umbra reaches northern Niger (10:05 UT), it briefly enters extreme northwestern Chad before crossing into southern Libya.
The instant of greatest eclipse occurs at 10:11:18 UT when the axis of the Moon's shadow passes closest to the center of the Earth. Continuing on a northeastern course, the umbra crosses central Libya and reaches the Mediterranean coast at 10:40 UT.
Northwestern Egypt also lies within the umbral path where the central duration is 3 minutes 58 seconds.
Passing directly between Crete and Cyprus, the track reaches the southern coast of Turkey at 10:54 UT. With a population of nearly 3/4 million people, Antalya lies 50 kilometres northwest of the central line. The coastal city's inhabitants are positioned for a total eclipse lasting 3 minutes 11 seconds while observers on the central line receive an additional 35 seconds of totality. Konya is 25 kilometres from path center and experiences a 3 minute 36 second total phase beginning at 10:58 UT. Crossing mountainous regions of central Turkey, the Moon's shadow intersects the path of the 1999 Aug 11 total eclipse. A quarter of a million people in Sivas have the opportunity of witnessing a second total eclipse from their homes in less than seven years. Let's trust that they do not suffer the fate of so many of their compatriots under the previous cosmic time-bomb.
Earthquake Zone
This is an earthquake zone, so the inhabitants of this region should be prepared for the worst, in case of a repetition of what happened in 1999, though the associated planetary stresses are not quite so intense. Still, the recent Grand Cross is active, although not exact, so we cannot dismiss the possibility; people should not be blasé about the need for precaution. Governments and disaster relief organisations in the area should be on alert. Solar eclipses, especially total solar eclipses, also seem to either trigger, or amplify, natural events in the regions they affect (e.g., severe weather, earthquakes).
At 11:10 UT, the shadow axis reaches the Black Sea along the northern coast of Turkey. The central duration is 3 minutes 30 seconds, the Sun's altitude is 47°, the path width is 165 kilometres and the umbra's velocity is 0.996 km/s. Six minutes later, the umbra encounters the western shore of Georgia. Moving inland, the track crosses the Caucasus Mountains, which form the highest mountain chain of Europe. Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, is outside the path and experiences a magnitude 0.949 partial eclipse at 11:19 UT. As the shadow proceeds into Russia, it engulfs the northern end of the Caspian Sea and crosses into Kazakhstan.
At 11:30 UT, the late afternoon Sun's altitude is 32°, the central line duration is 2 minutes 57 seconds and the umbral velocity is 1.508 km/s and increasing.
In the remaining seventeen minutes, the shadow rapidly accelerates across central Asia while the duration dwindles. It traverses northern Kazakhstan and briefly re-enters Russia before lifting off Earth's surface at sunset along Mongolia's northern border at 11:48 UT. Over the course of 3 hours and 12 minutes, the Moon's umbra travels along a path approximately 14,500 kilometres long and covers 0.41% of Earth's surface area. For more on the science of eclipses, see Fred Espenak's NASA Eclipse Home Page.
Eclipse in Aries
This eclipse is at 8°35' Aries, the sign of the Ram, conjunct the Dragon's Head (Moon's north node: karmic life-path), trine Saturn, the Lord of Karma. Saturn in Leo signifies the fall of kings and the solar eclipse is just the event to push them over the edge.
From: http://www.aquariuspapers.com/astrology/2005/10/the_solar_eclip.html ~
The Solar Eclipse - What It Means and Its Effect On Our Life
by Robert Wilkinson
Since we have two Solar Eclipses each year and they usually affect us for years after they occur, it may be good to explore what they actually mean and how their influence works. This article expands on some things I've offered before about these recurring important stellar events, both regarding the myth and the reality. Historically, an eclipse, whether Solar or Lunar, is one of the most dreaded events in all of astrology.
Tables of various eclipse cycles have been kept since antiquity in several cultures, and it is said that the ancient Babylonians had eclipse tables over a 500,000 year period. Traditional thinking says that when the shadow of an eclipse falls on a nation or people, it is assumed to have dire consequences for the future of that nation. Historically, more than not this is accurate. Without this becoming a boring recitation of different empires crashing under the weight of their own excesses rather than an astronomical phenomenon, I will remind you that an astrological event does not make anything happen, correlations notwithstanding. That being said...
There are many cycles of eclipses, some recurring relatively frequently, some taking decades, even centuries to recur. The ancients felt that its shadow signified the passing from power of a ruling family or dynasty, the invasion of the nation by hostile foreign powers, the death of an era, even famine, drought, or pestilence. They indicate the shadowing of the "great light" by another object that obscures the greater light, if only momentarily. So an eclipse blocks the light of the Sun for a period of time, usually a few minutes, during which the skies go dark and we can see other, fainter light coming from stars we wouldn't ordinarily see.
This is certainly true of a total eclipse, and to a lesser degree during partial eclipses. The ancients also thought that the number of minutes a Solar Eclipse lasts over a nation shows the number of years it would suffer affliction, and the number of minutes a Lunar Eclipse lasts shows the number of months it will suffer. But of course, that doesn't happen in our ultra-rationalistic, left-brain reality any more, right?
Well, leaving aside any argument of causality, I have found that where an eclipse falls in a birth chart corresponds with something ending in that part of the life. Whatever house it occurs in is where something is about to end in a significant way. If the eclipse conjuncts a planet, expect to see endings in that old planetary psychological function. And of course, it will affect the houses ruled by any planet it touches.
If an eclipse conjuncts your Venus, you may assume that sooner or later you will confront the end of an old way of enjoying life, an old value, or an old relationship. You will see this work out in the houses ruled by Taurus and Libra. If it conjuncts Mercury, an old mindset or perception or interpretation that was a significant part of your life will pass away through the life areas ruled by Gemini and Virgo. If an eclipse conjuncts your Saturn, an old important responsibility, obligation, hinderance, or fear will leave the life as seen in the areas of life (houses) ruled by Capricorn and Aquarius.
If the eclipse affects the Moon, expect the ending of an old habit or way of experiencing life and the affairs of the house where you have Cancer. If Mars, an old hassle or quarrel will end, or there will be a hassle as a result of an ending in the houses ruled by Aries and Scorpio. If Jupiter, an old vision, philosophical view, or an obsolete moral stance affecting the houses with Sagittarius and Pisces on the cusp. If the eclipse falls on your Sun, expect the end of the light in some way, or perhaps the passing of an old life order. It will most affect the house with Leo on the cusp.
So it primarily shows as an ending in the house in which it falls. It shows as an ending of a psychological function if it conjuncts a planet, and this works out through the houses ruled by the planet it touches. Of course, if it affects a planet, it also affects all the other planets that are connected to the eclipsed planet by sign rulership, i.e., if an eclipse conjuncts your Venus, it will naturally affect whatever planets you have in Taurus or Libra.
Here it is useful to remember that in a chart all the planets represent important people in your life, both past and present. If an eclipse conjuncts your Jupiter, expect a relationship with a Jupiterian, Sagittarius, or Pisces to end, or go through such a radical change that it will seem like you're relating to an entirely different person. The same with Saturn and the rest. When an eclipse conjuncts your Saturn, it usually signifies the passing of an elder, someone in a position of power in your life, or someone who kept you under a limitation or fear. So even an eclipse can be beneficial in that it can remove obsolete elements in your life, or people that no longer symbolize who you really are, or who you have become since you originally met them.
Eclipses occur several times a year, and not all eclipses are equally influential. Yet they all indicate coming endings, obscurations, passings, maybe even deaths, both literal and metaphoric. We always are under the influence of more than one from the past, and always have others coming within a few months, due to the conjunctions with the Moon's Nodes.
One more thing to note: a Solar eclipse is a New Moon, while a Lunar eclipse is a Full Moon. Like all lunations, the Full Moon brings to form the promise of the seed represented by the New Moon. Eclipses work the same way, but are considered more influential over a longer period. Still, the basic relationship of the lunations to each other conforms to the general pattern, which may be helpful in understanding how the energetics work.
'Zala
Lindaland
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posted March 16, 2006 07:34 AM
Enjoy, and get ready! 
posted March 16, 2006 09:13 AM
posted March 16, 2006 11:15 AM
posted March 16, 2006 01:36 PM
One of the biggest turning points in my life, if not the biggest.
