The Predictive Power of Eclipses

by Bill Meridian

This lecture – delivered on 27 June 2020 at the online Astrological Association Conference – traces the development of eclipse analysis which is regarded as one of the most powerful tools in astrology, as demonstrated in a series of amazing examples by a leading financial and world affairs forecaster.

A really adequate discussion of the significance of visibility areas of eclipses and transits would fill a large book.
– Charles Jayne, 1947

Much of this work comes from Dell Horoscope magazine which I am sad to say published its last issue in April 2020 after 84 years in business, one Uranus return. I wrote for them for one Saturn return. Also, thanks to Ken Irving at American Astrology.

Before I get into the tedious details of how you determine which eclipse is yours at birth this is my natal eclipse path:

Bill's eclipse path

I was born on 25 April 1949, three days prior to a solar eclipse on my Venus in the 4th house. I have lived in beautiful places. Your birth eclipse will energise that chart area in which it falls for the rest of your life. If you have an eclipse on your Mars, you will feel very physically active. The birth eclipse energises that area for the rest of your life. When it gets re-eclipsed by transit it is a major event in your life, something one always remembers.

My eclipse is partial. The ‘path of maximum intensity’ runs right through Vienna, Austria and shadows Eastern Europe. At New York University, I became interested in Ludwig Von Mises and the Austrian School of Economics. At that time, I had trained to be a psychotherapist for nine years. And the wife of the chief psychiatrist, Eva Broch, was a philosopher. Her father was a philosopher, and they were from Vienna, Austria. In New York I met my wife who is also from Vienna. After living in Abu Dhabi, we settled in Vienna. That is how important that point is in my life. The white lines you see, those are the AstroCartography map: you can superimpose the eclipse path onto an ACG map and see where you get crossings with the white and the black lines. You can see here my Mercury and my Venus lines intercept the ‘path of maximum intensity’ and I have spent a lot of my time in coffee houses, listening to live music, writing and that is how it has worked out for me.

Eclipse paths and ACG maps

For my wife, the eclipse line (in red) starts in Madagascar and ends in New York. She was born in Austria and moved to New York where she met her first husband whose origins are from Madagascar. This is her ACG map superimposed with the eclipse path. There are extension lines: these are parallel and perpendicular lines drawn from the Sunrise point, the Sunset point and the Noon point. If you project straight up from Madagascar it intersects her Venus line at Abu Dhabi, which is where we lived. If you go horizontally it intersects her Venus IC line in Rio de Janeiro which is where her first husband proposed to her. The eclipse cuts through her Jupiter Midheaven line right through New York which is where she always found ample employment, so these are the important points in her life.

Introduction to eclipse analysis pioneers

The idea originated with Edmund Troinski, who developed tertiary progressions. His notion was that when an eclipse occurred it would have control and rulership over the events that occur plus or minus three months from the date of occurrence.

Lorne Edward Johndro, an astrologer from California living in Los Angeles, was a mathematician and radio engineer. His astrology was very advanced even by today’s standards. He worked with a man named Ken Brown of Cleveland (Brown being the front man) who brought in the business, and Johndro being the man that developed advanced techniques. Jayne told me that they were the astrologers who did all the work for the legendary stock market trader W.D. Gann.

Johndro developed the idea of the birth eclipse: i.e. the eclipse is the ruler of that time period and anything that occurs within it. If a social club is started, a corporation, a team plays its first game, any event, it is under the rulership of that eclipse. That was the hardest thing for me to accept when I started reading this in the ’80s. As that eclipse chart moves forward, you progress the chart of the eclipse and if Jupiter or Saturn become prominent then all the entities under that eclipse feel it; some will feel it quite directly because their charts tie into the eclipse chart quite closely.

There are some people who do not connect so closely, so the effect is variable. Johndro came up with concepts and Jayne developed the idea. Johndro might mention the idea in an obscure magazine. Jayne would apply them again and again, developing concepts and additions to the rules.

If the eclipse is connected to you then the eclipse’s shadow must be very important. And Johndro explains it thus:

For most of us, however, the eclipses that affect our nativities are anything from a few days to six months, and in some cases a full year before or after our birth dates. In any case, the prime consideration is not just how near this or that eclipse falls to a birth date, but whether the eclipses, or the planet thereat, closely overlay or closely aspect any of the natal planetary positions. If they do, then that eclipse chart is extremely important to you. Because in such case the eclipse or its planets intensify or amplify any planet they configure in your birth chart…And by ‘eclipses’ I do not mean merely the position of the eclipse itself, I mean the position of any planet or planets at the time of an eclipse relative to any planetary position in the nativity.

To summarise: Johndro would look plus or minus six months, which is what I do and what Jayne did, and then do a synastry between the eclipse chart and the person’s natal chart. For example, if the eclipse greatly energises the person’s Mars and that person is an athlete, the eclipse and the shadow are both important. In the case of Charles Harvey, two eclipses were both essential, I could not distinguish the strength of one from the other.

Bill and the 1949 oil field

In Abu Dhabi, in 1995, a Saudi television show described their largest oil field. It was hitting its peak production and it came online in 1949, the year of my birth. I thought, “This feels like a peak in my career as well”, and looking back, it was. So, the oil field and I were ruled by the same eclipse. The entity does not have to be a living being…it can be a club or corporation. Johndro also wrote:

Eclipses quite largely define issues for whole groups. But eclipses forward destiny through the medium of mortals far more than merely through varying the climate, the rainfall, the crops, etc. That is to say, men are so born in time as to respond, in an allotted way, to some particular cosmic purpose delegated, so to speak, through the eclipses. The importance of your allotted role depends greatly upon if and how your nativity ties in with the eclipses (and their) planets in and around your birth year.

The eclipse itself affects the whole group. It energises individual people to fulfil that task. When he says “in an allotted way”, here’s my personal example: the eclipse of April 1949 fell on my Venus and it is amazing how many people have asked me if I am in showbusiness. I have a lot of friends who are artists.

Readers must not suppose (that) an eclipse’s effect on mankind is limited to the date thereof; not that events follow in the exact order of the eclipse sequence. Rather, eclipses are the highlight patterns of the trends of their joint times.
(Edward Johndro, 1930s).

We had an eclipse on 26 December 2019 at 4° Capricorn, followed by one at 0° Cancer on 10 January 2020. Anybody caught in the middle of the pair is energised; if they are hit by the first eclipse you know they will be energised by the second eclipse. Charles Harvey said that after fifty or so years of research he was uncertain of the length of time an eclipse was in effect. The rough rule of thumb is 90 days in advance of a solar eclipse and as long as a year afterwards. For a lunar eclipse, it was up to six weeks prior and six weeks following. For example, say the eclipse falls on a client’s Jupiter and the client says to the astrologer, “I think this could be the start of something big”, you can assure your client that is true. Ninety days before the solar eclipse is conjunct Jupiter, it begins to heat up; and as you get closer to the eclipse, it is getting hotter and the inner planet transits to the natal Jupiter of the client are more meaningful. The energy will hit a peak and for the next year it will decline in effect.

The eclipse rules

1. Events which occur in the days around an eclipse are memorable. The ‘time orb’ is plus or minus 10 days. Events taking place in the seven-to-10 days before an eclipse work out in an unexpected fashion. Affairs take turns that are not anticipated. (Jayne)
2. Solar eclipses can have an effect of up to three-to-six months before they occur and as long as one year afterward. Their lunar brethren have an effect for about six weeks before and after the lunar eclipse. (Jayne)
3. There is a difference between the seven-to-10 days before and the seven-to-10 days after an eclipse. The events occurring before the eclipse take on the added attribute of being unpredictable and fated, the period of unpredictability to last until 24 hours after the eclipse. Matters work out unexpectedly. If one must make a decision in the week prior to an eclipse, then expect to make significant changes in your plans in order to reach your objective.

‘Time orb’ is an idea or a concept that comes from Johndro. Jayne developed the rule. He shortened the time frame to seven days and said it lasted up to 48 hours after the eclipse. For example, the marriage of Lady Diana to Prince Charles was a week before an eclipse; it did not work out as hoped.

If an event occurs on the day of an eclipse, then it is very fated. It is like being in the surf; you have to let the wave carry you, you cannot fight it. Whenever I look at anyone’s horoscope I tell them in a week prior to the eclipse that it is best to defer decisions until the week after the eclipse because in the week before the eclipse you are, so to speak, in the shadow of the eclipse. In the week following, you will uncover news or discover something that will change your mind and will cause you to make a different decision. I changed jobs in the week before an eclipse, and Jayne told me it would not work out, which turned out to be true. If you are forced to make a change in the week prior to the eclipse, then it will work out in an unexpected fashion. One will have to make extraordinary efforts in order to achieve your goal. One will run into all developments that you could not expect.

When Jayne wrote for Dell during World War II, he noted that military campaigns started in the week prior to an eclipse rarely went as planned. As I said, sometimes a client is forced to make a decision and if that person cannot extend the deadline then the astrologer can advise the client, based upon the position of the eclipse and all the planets in the eclipse chart, as to how to proceed and what the person might face.

If your birthday is in the week prior to an eclipse you have a very unexpected year coming up, a lot of changes, it is a year that you will remember. However, if your birthday is one or two days after the eclipse it is simply going to be an important year, but matters do not necessarily work out unpredictably.

4. Eclipses near birth have an effect upon the life of the individual. This eclipse may occur before or after birth. (Johndro)If the natal eclipse is again eclipsed, the effects are powerful.
5. Rules governing the eclipse paths:
1. the total eclipse is the strongest;
2. the central path is the most powerful part of the eclipse’s shadow.

My experience with an eclipse on your Sun is that it strengthens everything related to the Sun. Your will increases as does your desire to accomplish. One becomes indefatigable and one refuses to accept any defeat. How many of us had heard the name Julian Assange before there were eclipses conjunct and opposite his Sun? Or how about the 1963 John Profumo affair? As an eclipse was conjunct his Sun, there was talk about making him high in the government. He was Minister of Defence at the time. Six months later the eclipse opposed his Sun and he was swept up in a scandal involving prostitutes that removed him entirely from the public eye.

An eclipse conjunct your Sun emboldens and strengthens you; opposite your Sun, it is like being knocked down on a soccer field. Suddenly you are looking up at the sky wondering, “How did I get here?”. If the native eclipse is eclipsed again, I have found that is particularly important.

6. If an eclipse occurs after your birth, see when it comes exact by secondary progression. This can be a vital year. (Johndro)
7. If a natal planet is conjunct or opposite this eclipse, the planet becomes very powerful for life. (Johndro)
8. Eclipses conjunct opposite the Sun, Ascendant or Midheaven are always more powerful. This is due to the fact that these points have zero latitude by definition. The eclipse will also have zero latitude. Thus, there will be conjunctions and oppositions in both longitude and latitude which are very powerful. (Jayne)

The total eclipse is the strongest. The central path is the most powerful part of a total eclipse. If the eclipse obscures 50% of the sunlight, then it is only half as powerful as a total eclipse, and so on. If an eclipse happens after your birth – five days after I was born there was an eclipse by progression, so eclipses by progression are quite important.

One such transit-to-progressed eclipse case is that of Bill Gates. There was an eclipse by secondary progression; then a transiting eclipse fell right on the progressed eclipse and I thought he might step down as head of Microsoft – and certainly that was the time he made the decision to do so and to engage in charitable work.

Further to eclipses conjunct or opposite the Sun (which I have already mentioned): I include the Ascendant, the Midheaven and the Nodes: they are always much more powerful because the Sun’s path defines the plane; the Ascendant and the Midheaven are on that plane. If an eclipse is conjunct or opposite the Sun, they are not only conjunct and opposite in longitude, they are conjunct and opposite in latitude. It is what Jayne would call a linear configuration. He wrote a pamphlet about this called ‘A New Dimension in Astrology’ which he had written as an article in Dell in 1948. These are extremely powerful: any eclipse on the Ascendant, Descendant, Midheaven, IC conjunct or opposite has zero latitude, because by definition that is where the Sun is, so you get a line-up.

Karl Marx eclipse path 5/5/1818

My favourite example, born on the day of an eclipse, is Karl Marx: 5 May 1818. His theories were designed to affect the working-class of England and Europe, but of course the first country it swept through was Russia. He was born on the day of the eclipse, so he was the embodiment of the idea, and we all know his name today: that is how powerful his Sun energy is.

Born on the day of an eclipse

General George Marshall was born on the day of an eclipse: 31 December 1880. He was the planner of the D-Day invasion for the US Army and the path connects America to Europe.

Robert E. Lee - the eclipse affected his Mars

One of my favourites, Robert E. Lee, commanded the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War and the eclipse energised his Mars. He went to West Point and he became a military officer and led the Confederacy defence against the Union invasion and that line is still very active today.

Harriet Beecher Stowe who wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which is one of the key elements that brought all these racial tensions to everyone’s mind, is also on the same plane and intercepts this path at the side of the Gettysburg battle.

An eclipse swept through America a few years ago; it was called the Great American Eclipse – so whose statues were they tearing down? Robert E Lee’s. The eclipse intercepted Lee’s and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s eclipse and suddenly the American Civil War is on everybody’s mind; not quite in the right mind, but it is on the mind

Extension lines - Douglas MacArthur

Extension lines are simple. The concept derives from an article from the Astrologer’s Guild Journal by Charles Emerson. That is the path of General Douglas MacArthur who Commanded the US forces in the South Pacific. You will note the dashed lines. These are drawn from the Sunrise point, the Sunset point and the Noon point and they run horizontally and vertically. The Noon point, running straight North, goes through Hawaii; the Sunrise point runs westward through Manila. The North line runs through Tokyo. Westward, it runs through next to his offices in New York City and his birthplace in Little Rock.

Karl Marx path with extension lines

See the slide of the Karl Marx path with extension lines; note the focus on England and France.

There are three types of people to work with:

1. Those born close to an eclipse, like myself, and Karl Marx.
2. Those born from two months from one eclipse, and four months from the other, like President Bill Clinton.
3. Those who are born equally spaced between eclipses in time.

With case number 1, if I am born 25 April and there is an eclipse on 28 April, or if you are like Karl Marx and you are born on an eclipse, that is it. Those born about two months from one eclipse and four months from the other, like Bill Clinton, then you have to take the eclipses and weigh them carefully. One eclipse landed on Clinton’s Midheaven which is also his Sun-Moon midpoint. We ask: are male/female relations important in the career and reputation of Bill Clinton? Yes. When that eclipse was repeated, there were very important events in his life and that is how this eclipse was determined. As a little boy he was career-oriented and he watched political speeches on television. These events occurred when the natal eclipse on his MC was re-eclipsed.

What to look for

There are four criteria:

1. Time.
2. The fit of the eclipse chart to the natal chart.
3. The path of the eclipse.
4. Repetitions of the eclipse and their effort on the person.

Re: point three: if you know a person who moved to Hawaii and built a successful business there, you would look to the eclipse that ran through Hawaii, if there was an eclipse. If the time element is not obvious, I would go to points 2, 3 or 4. Let us say that a person was born with Jupiter trine Uranus. The person is very inventive. If that eclipse chart makes the trine tighter than the natal trine, then that defines the person. That is evidence that might well be the eclipse that you should look at. This was the case with Henry Ford.

Born on the day of a lunar eclipse

Born on the day of a lunar eclipse

I wanted to point out that this person, like President Trump, is born on the day of a lunar eclipse.

Man born on the day of this lunar eclipse

This is the area of visibility. At the bottom, I inserted the arrows. The lunar eclipse does not cast a shadow but does have an area of visibility. This map can be obtained from Occult 4.0 from the International Occultation Tracking Association, IOTA, a free download. It gives you a map of the eclipse and all the data that you need to look at lunar eclipses and the linear configurations. This person and President Trump only need four to five hours of sleep per night: that is the advantage of being born on a lunar eclipse; it gives them a shot of energy.

Born on the day of an eclipse

This is the chart of a lady born on 14 February 1934 in Copenhagen. This is her natal path in red and the extension lines.

South Seas path and ACG map

She and her husband met in Africa. Note the extension line intercepts her Venus line in Eastern Africa where she met him. He is from the area around Sumatra. They retired and engage in their favourite activity, sailing, in the region around East Asia. They were very concerned because she, having been born on the day of an eclipse, read my book, and knew this was her eclipse and they wanted my advice about going sailing in that region. They thought it might be like the Bermuda Triangle. I calmed them down by explaining that the shadow described their interest in that area.

Born in Russia

This person was born in Russia on 12 July 1979 in Leninsk, Kazakhstan. Her mum and dad have PhDs in Space Technology, so they were sent to the Secret Soviet Cosmodrome at Baikonur in Kazakhstan. That is where she grew up and started to study ballet. Notice the Moon conjunct Pallas in Aquarius: her mum is a space scientist and a big influence in her life. I determined that this is the selection of eclipses.

Selection of the proper eclipse

These are all the eclipses I considered as being hers and compared them to her chart.

Comparison to eclipse 1

‘Eclipse 1’ is down in her 5th house 7°-8° of Pisces. It is not making that many contacts to her chart, so I went to the second one.

Comparison to eclipse 2

This one is at 29° of Leo up in the 10th house. Then I went to ‘Eclipse 3’.

Comparison to eclipse 3

When I went to this eclipse I said: “Your mother must be a big influence on your life”, and “Your mother is a very brilliant person”. Pallas as we know is Athena, goddess of wisdom and technical problem-solving ability. It is in Aquarius, so it relates to all matters Aquarian. They were sent to Baikonur because of their degrees in aviation and space. That is where mum took her, age 5, to ballet lessons. I thought this one is far more interesting than the other ones because the eclipse falls on a luminary, the Moon.

Eclipse shadow through China

This is the eclipse shadow. And when I went through this process with her she became a bit startled and said that she was invited to dance all over the world, but China was her top choice because she wanted to study the dance there. I later found out that her grandfather was sent there by the Stalin government, and when he returned, he was executed because he had simply been out of the country. So, when she went to China, she saw a dancer doing a dance she had never seen before. She learned it and returned to Russia. Her television performances of that dance made her very well known. Was this area in China important to her? Yes.

This subsequent eclipse energized the birth eclipse

I saw that the 18 August 2016 eclipse fell on her natal eclipse. The eclipse was conjunct Pallas, and both were on her Moon-Pallas-natal eclipse conjunction. This was an indication of a return to China. About six months later, she was indeed invited.

Artist and illustrator

This is the horoscope of Mary Downing born 28 January 1938 in Saint Louis, Missouri. Mary was the National Secretary for NCGR. Mary asked if I could identify her natal eclipse:

The eclipse

I use the Uranian planets and asteroids are added to the chart. I zeroed in on the 2 December 2 1937 eclipse which was at 10° Sagittarius.

Synastry

You will note it is on the IC of her chart, her Midheaven is at 10° Gemini and the eclipse is at 10° Sagittarius. She has always worked for herself and from home.

90° dial

If you go to a 90° dial, you put this on the 90 and you will see it picks out Cupido, the angles and Apollon. Cupido is everything to do with integration within the self. It also rules artwork to the extent where artwork and singing traditional songs makes everyone feel unified, that is how Cupido works. She majored in art and she was particularly interested in foreign cultures. Apollon makes things widespread: one can have far-flung and wide interests. So, the area of the horoscope that has to do with learning about foreign cultures and artwork is energised, as is the MC-IC axis.

Eclipse shadow

The minute I looked at this I wondered how to interpret this water eclipse. Do you tell the client better luck next incarnation? That is not the way to look at it. These eclipses can be valuable if you insert the extension lines:

Studied the art in the shadow

The eclipse line is in red. I drew the extension line to the point by Mexico and dropped the extension line straight down. Her Master’s thesis in art was based upon the study of artwork of the people on Easter Island. This was quite an amazing hit. You see it in her chart, she was energised to do artwork, and the eclipse path tells us where that interest is focused.

Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton is one of my favourite cases. He was born 19 August 1946. There was an eclipse on 29 June 1946. It preceded his birth by about a month-and-a-half; the eclipse is on his Midheaven. That is the Sun-Moon midpoint, and there is a flock of midpoints at that degree so the fact that the eclipse is there energises the Midheaven. In other words, this young man is very career-orientated and is very concerned about what people think of him. Unfortunately, this of course energises his natal Mars, Neptune and Venus rising. When I first wrote about this in Dell Horoscope in the ’90s I said, “Female problems or scandals will plague his reputation with that square to his Midheaven and this eclipse energises it”. This eclipse path connected the US to Europe and a few people remember he was a Rhodes Scholar, so he went over to England and travelled through Europe.

The purpose of this example is to highlight eclipse repetitions. What happened when that eclipse was repeated?

• In June 1954, there is another eclipse at that degree – his family moved to Hot Springs. In 1954 his family first began to notice his leadership abilities. In the following year they bought a television and young Bill developed his interest in his politics.
• In June 1973 – he graduated from Yale and returned to Arkansas, setting his political sites on the 1974 Democratic nomination for Congress. He did not win but made such a good showing that he came into the spotlight for the first time.
• In June 1992 – this eclipse gave him the boost that he needed going into the Democratic convention. The Gennifer Flowers scandal was hurting his prospects. But as this eclipse gained energy in the 90 days prior to the 30 June eclipse, that matter was completely forgotten. He went into the Democratic convention and this eclipse greatly energised his career.

The Hindenburg Path

Paul von Hindenburg was born on 2 October 1847 only eight days prior to the 10 October eclipse. On 10 October 1847, the Heppenheim conference took place. At that time there were many efforts to unite all the individual principalities into one state in what is now Germany. The conference occurred on the day of an eclipse, so of course, the people at that conference had the power, they had the influence, to make it happen: the other conferences that did not occur on the day of an eclipse – these did not have that solar energy to make it happen. That eclipse moment was the key date to make a German state. And 18 liberal members from a variety of German states met to discuss common motions for a German nation state.

Hindenburg became part of this idea because he was born only eight days before the eclipse. This eclipse was re-eclipsed on 10 October 1912 at the outbreak of the Balkan Wars. This eclipse marks the birth of the movement towards a Democratic Republic for the German people and it is notable that with Hindenburg’s loss of the war in 1918, Germany became a republic. But he was born before an eclipse, so an unexpected outcome of his life effort was that he handed power over to Hitler. The shadow of the eclipse cut across northern France, the furthest point of the German advance in World War I and the path of the Hindenburg line.

This demonstrates four principles:

• Matters begun after the eclipse are powerful.
• Matters begun before the eclipse work out unexpectedly.
• The area shadowed is important.
• Births near the eclipse tie the person into the issue.

Hindenburg eclipse path

This is Hindenburg’s eclipse path. I like this example because it takes mundane astrology, personal astrology and the eclipse path and it marries them all together.

For example, if you wish to practise mundane astrology, an easy way is to go to the Internet and look up “people born today” on the day of an eclipse. You automatically know the eclipse chart is their solar return so you can say a movie actress is going to have an extraordinary year or a politician or a sports athlete. If their birthday is the day of a solar eclipse it is going to be an important year and you can pull up the chart and you can point people’s attention to it.

A lunar eclipse, having had one on my birthday several years ago, has the same effect but it is not as powerful. It is not a year that I will remember. I will remember it but with some thought. It is not all that important but what it does do is to put you in the spotlight whether you like it or not, as the Sun is opposite the Moon. When I had a lunar eclipse on my birthday, I had a bad flight and I had a lot of inconveniences. I remember that I turned on the news and there was the head of a bank who came to New York and he was charged with trying to molest one of the female hotel employees. I looked up his chart and he was born on the same day in the same year as myself. So, he was put into the spotlight, it was not a major issue, it was in the headlines and then it was out of the headlines.

To wrap up, a quick and easy way to get to begin, is to look at people’s birthdays on an eclipse but also look at the path of an eclipse. In 1979 there was an eclipse along the China-Vietnamese border and China invaded Vietnam. There was an eclipse in an area just off the coast of Argentina and the Falklands War occurred. Just looking at the path or by looking at people born on the day of an eclipse you can learn a great deal. I always like to go through the eclipse sequences, nations and people’s lives.

In conclusion, I have focused on determining the appropriate eclipse for your chart which gets you into synastry and have explained the connection to politics and mundane work.

Notes:
Our grateful thanks to Sophie Winter King for transcribing Bill Meridian’s Carter Memorial Lecture.
The slides were published with the kind permission of the author and the Astrological Journal.
The lecture had to be shortened for space reasons. The full text can be read free on the AA website: astrologicalassociation.com. The audio can also be purchased: astrologicalassociation.com/purchase-recordings/ and search for R1072 The Power of Eclipses Bill Meridian 2020.

Published by: The Astrological Journal, Nov/Dec 2020

Author:

© Bill Meridian, 2020/21

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