Solar Eclipse in Taurus

The second New Moon of April is a partial Solar Eclipse, happening at 4:28pm EDT. This double-dose of new beginnings is quite special and even rare, urging us to place our foot on the accelerator and embrace sudden change. Liberation – in the physical and material sense – is the prize to keep our eye on as we race towards a new cosmic chapter.

Happening in the grounded, stable sign of Taurus, our expectation might be that the events set to unfold before, during and after this Solar Eclipse, will be slow and steady. However, that’s not the case, seeing as Uranus, planet of unexpected change, is closely conjunct this Eclipse. This means that anything related to Taurus – finances, material security, resources relationships, food security and even our personal values - are set to shift, and shift fast.

With this Solar Eclipse, we’ll need to ensure that we have an anchor to hold onto in order to stay grounded whilst chaos works its magic around us. After all, the start of Eclipse season is always a little unsettling. This anchor may simply be tapping into our own, core sense of security and inner calm. Letting our feet sink into the earth, sitting under a tree, remembering to nourish our bodies - these are all spiritual practices during this Solar Eclipse to help us stay tethered to reality.

Solar Eclipses, in general, carry a somewhat easier energy than Lunar Eclipses – it’s less about needing to release and relinquish, and more about embracing the new. It’s as if the Universe herself is pressing the fast-forward button on anything that we’ve been percolating or sitting on and making sure that circumstances align to get us to our goals quicker than we could ever have anticipated.

Thus, Eclipse Season can always feel a touch exhausting, and for some of us, even a little traumatizing. Old wounds may arise to the surface now, especially wounds around security. Security in our material world, security inside of our bodies and security in our relationships.

Fortunately, the ruler of this Solar Eclipse - Venus – is ‘exalted’ in the sign of Pisces. It helps that the Moon herself is also exalted in Taurus, which allows for healing to happen and eases the way forward so that we are not as startled and stressed as we would normally be.

At this Eclipse, Venus is interlinked in a beautiful, partile conjunction with a strongly dignified Jupiter. This means they’re both at the exact same degree - 27 Pisces – within just a minute of each other. Lunations like this just don’t come all that often, and it’s essential that we take full advantage of their energy by focusing on the themes of forgiveness, compassion and creativity. Creativity, most especially, is a theme during this time, and perhaps we can look at where in life we can harness our own original, visionary ideas and manifest them into reality. The Solar Eclipse has a sweetness to it, despite the formidable reputation that Eclipses carry.

Mars is also linked to this Eclipse via a gentle sextile, bringing the gift of action to our intentions, perhaps action focused around altruism, compassion and giving without expectation of return. This is a rare cosmic moment to share what we have, whilst rebuilding our idea of what security looks and feels like to us in the months and years to come.