This month’s Full Moon is also a Lunar Eclipse and it’s setting up to be a doozy, with Mercury as the Shadow Agent. The Moon is in sunny Sagittarius, while Mercury and the Sun are in cool Gemini. Gemini and Sagittarius are polar opposite signs, so these factions are involved in a tug-of-war. This eclipse is total, adding to its power. Will you get caught in the middle?
Details About This Eclipse
Date: June 15, 2011
Time of eclipse: 1:14 PM PST
Type: total (strong in intensity)
Visible in: Australasia, Japan, Asia (except the north), India, Africa, Europe, South America (except the northwest).
At: 24 degrees Sagittarius
Shadow Agent: Mercury in Gemini
Does It Affect You Personally?
If your birthday is on any of the following dates, you most likely experienced this eclipse:
June 10-20
September 12-22
December 11-21
March 10-20
Remember, not every eclipse touches everyone, but when it does, it’s usually noticeable. A lunar eclipse is likely to bring up strong emotions and to be experienced as a subjective event (unlike a solar eclipse, which is likely to be marked by an external, real-world event). The following script is just one possible way it could go.
You hear a knock at the door. You answer it. Mercury stands there, flanked by the Sun and Moon. Apparently they are all having an argument and Mercury and the Sun are ganging up on the Moon, who is losing badly. She walks in, looking sulky.
Moon: Why is it so wrong to hope?
Mercury: Logic dictates it makes no sense. Even the Sun agrees with me on this.
Sun: On any other day, I’d be on your side, Moon, but right now I’m in Gemini, so I do agree with Mercury. Logic is important. Besides, it makes me look cool. The Sun pauses to check his appearance in a nearby mirror.
You: What’s the problem here?
Moon (weeping): they’ve burst all my balloons! All my wonderful big ideas, my hopes, my faith, my sense of sweeping possibilities. They’ve popped them all. She opens her hands and shows you a set of sad, empty, bedraggled pieces of rubber that used to be balloons.
You: Now, guys, why’d you have to go and do that?
Sun: Because they were there?
Mercury: No, because they were illogical. They made no sense. She had no foundation to back up her hopes. Based on nothing but hot air. How could I resist?
You: Mercury, you can be really mean sometimes.
Mercury: Just doing my job.
You: And what’s that?
Mercury: Showing you the shadow side of Sagittarius—unfounded hopes, big dreams that lead nowhere and castles-in-the-air with no foundation on the earth. You see, you have no idea how she was before we burst her balloons.
You: How was she?
Mercury: Insufferable. Impossible. Puffed up, loaded with ego, zealous and certain of her rightness. Completely not open to other ideas. Pushing her ideas on everybody. Again, shadow-side of Sagittarius. It’s my job to show that up during this eclipse.
Moon: Without my big ideas I have nothing. I am nothing.
Sun (aside): Strictly speaking, that’s not true, but she might never learn it without having to lose those big ideas she’s so attached to. Next time these two are trined in the sky, they’ll get along fine. For now, the Moon will have a big meltdown, she’ll cry for a while, then she’ll be over it. Mercury will argue, but he won’t really mean any of it. He’ll regret it all later. Want us to stay and show you?
You: No, I think I get the point.
Their job done, their point made, the trio depart.
Read about other eclipses coming up: 2011 Eclipses.
