A larger pattern emerges with the total eclipse in Aries
Saturn in Pisces Conjunct Eclipse Ruler
This eclipse is revealing somewhat of a greater pattern, brought to my attention by an astrologer I love, Jo O'Neill (@jomakerofways) who pointed out that a significant key interwoven throughout each eclipse on this Aries/Libra axis is Saturn in Pisces' presence as the main character. This seems to be leading up to the next eclipse cycle, which will happen on the Pisces/Virgo axis with the north node in Pisces, a new eclipse cycle which begins next year in 2025. I highly recommend checking out Jo's instagram post on how Saturn in Pisces has been a major player in each eclipse starting in 2023 as I wont go into it here, but my interpretation of this eclipse is influenced by her realization and analysis. Saturn's significance as a key player in a larger web gives a huge piece of understanding for us to work with as we traverse the eclipse cycle. It is acutely relevant on this particular eclipse, as the ruler of the eclipse, Mars, is conjunct Saturn in Pisces.
Chiron in Aries Conjunction
A significant aspect of this eclipse has to do with another conjunction, and that is the exact conjunction with Chriron. By exact, I mean literally exact down to the degree and minutes. This is all happening at 19 degrees in Aries, so check out your birth chart to see what's there. For me, ironically, (or rather, serendipitously perhaps) Saturn is in Aries at 19 degrees in my birth chart.
If this all comes back to Saturn, our best efforts will come from putting in the diligent hard work, waiting for the pay off to come at a later time. We are planting seeds in a garden, the blooming of which we won't see for a while to come. But the conditions are right to do this planting now, so this is the time that we must do the laborious work, for the betterment of our future selves. What we do now matters, though it is a lot like being asked to build a part of something that you’ve never seen the overall blueprints for. What it is that we are creating, we’re not quite yet sure. However, we're not realizing how much say we get in deciding what that is as we go.
Chiron is the wounded healer, so this eclipse is triggering healing of our deepest wounds. Since the eclipses have so much to do with the collective, it's likely this is happening not just on an individual scale but a greater collective one. With Pluto in the early days of its stay in Aquarius it is important for us to remember that there is no real separation between the individual and the collective. That these two circles exist together in a figure eight, looping back into each other in an endless cycle of infinity. We must look at our individual journey in the context of our greater collective journey, and vice versa. We are at a critical point in our collective experience, as well as for most of us personally, and deep healing is so needed. First, however, we may feel the greatness and the totality of the wound before we discover its correct medicine. Right now, Aries is our clue. Aries is the warrior and the masculine. We have significant restructuring to do with the warrior and the masculine within us, especially as a collective. Saturn in Pisces is holding this together, it is telling us that we can not escape this work with delusion, fantasy or pretend. We need to get real, practical and find a pragmatic way to ground our spiritual ideals and vision of a more idealistic and beautiful world.
Saturn in Pisces, Conjunct Mars
We need grounding, we need a limit to work within. It seems to me that a path will eventually emerge, and this will be whatever is left. We are slowly removing paths, whittling the options down til one remains. As of now, it is still unclear and undecided what that direction will be. This is connected to a greater cycle, one that works with the timeline of the eclipses -- a 1 and a half year long pathway that is leading us to an ending and a new beginning. (With a marker for that possibly emerging with the eclipse shift into the Pisces/Virgo axis.) Now, we are in the liminal space of deciding and figuring what that will be. Saturn gives the implication that it will not be easy, as nothing with Saturn ever is. We need strength, resilience and discipline to do this right. Saturn in Pisces is showing us realism: we can not escape our current reality. Or, rather, the only way to escape our reality is by looking directly at it, by no longer running from it, by making not a single excuse for ourselves or our collective. We need to look it right in the eye and commit to changing it from within. We have the power to create a new way of life for all of us, but it can only come from holding the contradiction that we do not accept this but that we do not deny its existence. This is represented by the Justice card in Tarot, which is ruled by Libra, the other side of this ellipse axis. We are not victims to the world around us, we hold the power to create and inform where this goes and what it looks like. But we have almost entirely forgotten this. Our individual power has been stripped from us by a world that’s mission is our disempowerment, and since we are disempowered as individuals we are disempowered as a collective. We have forgotten that the people inform the government, not the other way around. We have forgotten that we are the ones who direct the flow of creation and reality. We have the power to change course, yet paradoxically, we can not until we awaken to the knowledge that we can.
Aries -- The Inner Warrior
Aries brings us closer to this personal power. Our creative power and ability to direct our path and our future. We must take this into our own hands, collectively and individually, and give up the idea that we do not get a say in how this thing goes. We are at a crossroads, and our collective fate rests on what direction we choose to head in. The easy way is always harder, more painful and more restrictive in the long-run. The rocky path, the one so intimidating because it demands a higher level of performance and capability from us, paves the way for an easier existence the farther we go. This is what Saturn, the taskmaster and the Lord of Time, is trying to teach us. Going through the motions, living in auto-pilot, will only lead us off a cliff. We must choose to climb, knowing we can endure the hardship of trying. We are being tested, and we are going to continue to be tested. The astrology of the coming years is not light, but this shouldn't be surprising, the world itself does not feel light at this moment. The energy around us is getting heavy, the future unknown and full of apprehension. We are entering a split in our path, and it is up to us what direction we spit off into. We are coming to the end of a very long cycle. Is it possible to make the decision to enter into a new path, or must we stay in this loop and repeat it yet again? I think that is the choice here. Fork off into something new, something we have to create because it doesn't yet exist, or stay in the loop.
Mercury Retrograde in Aries
With this in mind, knowing our creations have real world consequences, we must create with caution, intention and deliberation. As human beings we are creating at all times, it's part of our essence and way of interacting with our environment. The more unconscious this creation, the more stuck we become. The more stuck in the inherited version of reality that has been created around us. This is just an esoteric way of saying that the structures of this current society, with its genocide, poverty, exploitation and dehumanization, continues as long as we keep blindly walking a path of unconscious creation, building off of what's already there and re-enforcing the power of these structures by our very lives. To break free from this, we have to wake up to the power we hold as individuals and therefore as a collective. We are not trapped in a cage, we are just choosing to believe that there is no way out because we haven't yet had the perspective shift needed to see the way out. Part of that key is wrapped up into this eclipse. We can see this also with the fact that Mercury is retrograde in Aries, also conjunct the eclipse. Retrogrades are always about returning to the beginning with fresh eyes, a new perspective that allows us to see where we started from, an angle that holds the key to being free from it. Like the 8 of Swords, we find our escape through a shift in our perspective -- nothing in our outer reality changes but what changes is what we see, and that gives us the knowledge to create the external change we’re looking for. We are being given clues to find our way out of this current labyrinth of human creation, and right now we are being guided to look somewhere in Aries, somewhere with the warrior within us.