The Solar Eclipse occurs at 19:20 (BST) on April 8, 2024. The Moon and Sun will be at 19 degrees 24 minutes of the sign Aries.
The total solar, Great American eclipse will be accompanied by Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks also known as the ‘Devil Comet’ and the ‘Mother of Dragons’ comet. I’m fascinated by these epithets. Of course, the ‘devil’ immediately sparks ideas of evil. Something bad is coming says the unconscious mind with a shudder. The ‘mother of dragons’ too evokes images from the collective unconscious – wild Tolkien tales, flying monsters, fire-breathing. These are mythical images, collective archetypes that speak to everyone across different cultures. I’m also noting that in astrology, we refer to the North and South Nodes as the dragon’s head and the dragon’s tail.
The Nodes are about our karmic evolution, so it seems that the collective unconscious is focused on imagery that speaks of karma…bad (devil) karma (dragon). Essentially, this is a manifestation of the collective shadow, understandable in these stressful and often frightening times. With so much talk of doom and gloom and the ever-increasing urgency of the climate emergency, not to mention the constant struggle to survive in a corrupt system, naturally our unconscious is having a field day with all these scary stories. And now an eclipse and a comet at the same time feels ominous given the names that we have come up with. Note that the names were coined by scientists who noticed two ice ‘horns’ coming out of the back of the comet.
But for me, I don’t necessarily think of it as ominous. But I do think of it as a herald, a messenger, just as comets have been considered to be throughout history. Yes, sometimes they were said to be a sign of a great loss, the death of a king for example or war, disease or other disaster – disaster means ‘against the stars’. But they were also considered to be a sign of a birth of a prominent person. Maybe in the darkness, we will find the light.
Out of interest, the Devil card in the tarot is a card that also displays the idea of darkness before light. This is the darkest place in the tarot, deep in the underworld, deep in the halls of Hades shall we say. But here in the Devil card, we see figures who are chained up, unable to escape – or so it seems. Because if we look again, we’ll see that the figures have their hands free, and the neck chains are wide enough to simply be lifted up and off. When the Devil appears in a tarot reading, this is a conversation about how fears have got the upper hand, how we think we’re trapped when we’re not, how we’re tied to a world view that doesn’t serve us. Materialism and greed are two of the topics that the Devil deals with as well as obsession and hate.
After the Devil comes the Tower, this is the crisis point, the shock, the lightning strike that brings the tower down (note that the Tower in the traditional tarot wears a crown). The physical tower falls but the spirit is revealed in the process. The lightning bolt is the first chink of light after the dark, the flash of illumination that brings clarity. To break out of hell, we have to go through the Tower. Perhaps then, this is the process that we too will undergo, especially given that Jupiter, the owner of thunderbolts (!) and Uranus are about to meet in the skies. A clash of titans of the tallest order. A massive break for freedom, revolution, progress.
Pons-Brooks is not available to be added to my astrology program to see where it lies in the chart - but we can look at the discovery chart for more information. The discovery date is July 12, 1812. There were sightings before that, but this is the official date. There is no time listed so the chart is set to Aries houses.
As soon as I saw the date, the 1812 overture played loudly in my head. I follow the clue, having never known the story of this classic Tchaikovsky piece. I discover it was written to commemorate Russia's successful defence against the French invasion of the country by Napoleon in 1812. I shift uncomfortably in my seat, note that the eclipse is conjunct asteroid Russia. I also note that this was the year that the 1812 War began, the one I referenced in my post about the collapsed Bridge in Baltimore last week. That year also saw the Napoleonic wars, a massive earthquake in Caracas, a great fire in Moscow, and an assassination of the British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval. Grimms Fairy tales was also first published in 1812 too. Grim tales echoes my mind…
Editing Leah cuts in to note that I wrote this piece before the massive earthquake in Taiwan.
The discovery chart of Pons Brooks sees the Nodes at anaretic degrees with the North Node in Leo and the South Node in Aquarius. Leo is the sign of kings so yes, there may be a connection regarding critical issues around kings/royalty/popular figures. There is also a stellium in Cancer between Jupiter, the Sun, Mars and Mercury which suggests something to do with prominent families. Asteroids Babel and Drakonia are conjunct the Sun. Babel is babble - a multitude of voices but no one can understand the other. Babel is also punishment for hubris and another reference to falling towers. Drakonia is named after Drake university whose motto is truth. Honestly though, whenever I see the word Drakonia, I can't help but think of draconian (!) and draconic (a reference to the Nodes and the karmic chart).
I'm throwing out ideas here, following breadcrumbs left by history and the stars. My intuition latches on to signs and symbols, trying to untangle the story. With this eclipse conjunct Chiron, we know that there are likely to be stories of both things that are broken and things that can be healed. Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks will reach perihelion (nearest to the Sun) on April 21, right on the date that Jupiter meets Uranus. Something big is in the air but maybe we need to have faith and keep an open mind as to how this all might manifest and what it might mean. This is just the beginning. Stay strong.
My astro-tarot reading for this solar eclipse is available to paying Substack members below. In the reading, I explored the chart and aspects in full, along with discussion about asteroid Aesculapia along with the Sabian symbol of the eclipse.
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