Parallel Eclipses and How They Influence your Life (Part II)

We looked at meditation ideas for the upcoming eclipse and in part I of this series, we looked at how this eclipse parallels previous eclipses in 1951, 1970, and 1989.   This post looks at how I personally connect the 1989 eclipse to the upcoming eclipse, with a glimpse into astrological impacts.

I was terrified, sad, and anxious. It was August 1989, a hot summer when I was working 18-hour days on a multi-million-dollar competition, my spouse and I weren’t getting along very well, and…I was 2 months pregnant.  I’d never had a pregnancy make it to three months.  In spite of two GAO protests against my office and the expectation that I would fly to Washington DC to defend our position the next day, I wasn’t working insane hours on this particular night.  

No, on this particular night, my husband and I stood in line for 30 minutes in the emergency room while other people signed in to get their sniffly noses and sprained ankles and sliced thumbs taken care of.  Finally, it was my turn.  The clerk took my ID and insurance card and pushed papers across for me to sign.  She asked why I needed to be seen in the ER and I leaned forward shyly and whispered to her, “I think I’m having a miscarriage.”

Regardless of how many times I’ve have long waits in the ER since then, I will never complain because at that moment, they cleared the halls to bring me through—no waiting.  They shoved the paperwork at my husband to take care of meanwhile and got me into an exam room within a minute’s time.  After a lengthy exam, the ER physician, Dr. Lon Boutiette, was very kind but solemn.  The worst of the bleeding had stopped but at this point there was nothing more he could do.  All we could do was wait and see.  If I was to become a mother, the next few days would tell.  A few days and several tests later, we had the slightest of proof that Baby Shannon was on her way to me, but it was as much proof as I needed that this was meant to be.

That eclipse, as with the upcoming eclipse, was conjunct my natal Jupiter (and very close to Mars).  This was definitely an expansion (Jupiter) coming to me, even more in the emotional and psychological sense than in the physical sense. I also had Pluto conjunct my natal Neptuneat that time, which was filled with doubts and worries about my impending responsibilities and started a certain deepening of self that manifested in motherhood.  There was much illusion and disillusion to work through before coming to this point, and thankfully only one transiting, slow-moving, outer planet (Pluto, Uranus, or Neptune) had such a direct effect on any chart.  That particular influence, as many 20-somethings know, was extremely confusing and painful before my little bundle of joy arrived, and even afterward, the doubts persisted until I became comfortable in my new role.

With this 16 August eclipse, there are most definitely parallels.  Astrologically, Pluto is now trine my natal Neptune,  so there’s still opportunity for lots of change but probably in a freer way.  Everything else is rather tense, too, but with lots of opportunity for growth:  Neptune is in conjunction with my natal Mars and Jupiter, Uranus is in conjunction with my Venus (woo-hoo!), and Saturn is in conjunction with my natal Pluto on my descendent as it starts to define my new relationship patterns.              But enough about personal astrology—here’s where the aforementioned parallel occurs.

Last week, Shannon told me that all her friends’ parents are freaking out because the kids are leaving for college soon.  I seem to be the only one who isn’t.  Note seem.  I’m fully aware my firstborn is heading to college in a few days and that the house will be lonelier.  I admit I’m not looking forward to it.  We’re very close and I will miss her dearly.   By last Friday, I was starting to feel left out because all her friends’ suddenly insanely controlling parents were adding to her stresses and she had to spend more time at friends’ houses for a bit.  The squeaky wheels trying to control their kids’ for one last week were getting the attention that the laid-back mom wasn’t. I was having to talk with her at 2 AM when she was home from work and before I had to get up for work!   It was beginning to seem that I wouldn’t get to spend time with her before she left.  Then she ended up in the ER Sunday night, the two of us hanging out and me limping on my injured foot but putting off medical care another day in favor of a date we’d planned for Destin/Seaside on Monday.  Not exactly how I would have preferred time with my daughter….

Though I was limping too badly to be much fun, we kept our date.  We went to many of thes places I took her as a small child, sometimes before her sister was born, up to the age of 5 when my back injury sidelined me for a couple of years.  She has been haunted, she tells me, by vague memories of these places–parks, stores, beachsides.  I took her to these places all the time, just the two or us or later with her baby sister, at a time when their dad and I didn’t see each other much, and I devoted a lot of my non-work hours to Mommy-time.  These little adventures were very special to me and made me feel connected to the emotional world.

Sitting in a little park area near a chocolate-and-ice-cream shop where we’d stopped to abuse our diets before she leaves town, I thought about this phase of motherhood that is the influence around this eclipse.  Shannon ushered it in, and it’s not that she’s ushering it out—I still have Aislinn at home—yet there’s something different about it.  Motherhood isn’t exactly completing itself, but I’m more complete in this phase of myself now.  I have raised a child to adulthood, to fledging from the nest I created beginning with her, and she’s a good kid and I did it without once dropping her on her head while bathing the squirmy and slippery little thing–which was once my biggest fear before electrical outlets, sexual predators, drugs, alcohol, STDs, drunk drivers, mean girls, wasps, stupid boyfriends, and 1001 classic wrong-place-wrong-time scenarios.  This phase of mothering through the entire process of conception to adulthood is now complete.  I have a second daughter to fledge as well, but for me, I have mothered through an entire cycle of childhood to adolescence to adulthood and now I’m sending my first baby out into the world.

And she leaves me on 16 August 2008, one Metonic cycle after she came to me.

empaths
More articles on Astrology

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *