On January 10th 2020, we have a Lunar Eclipse at 20° Cancer. The Lunar Eclipse in Cancer occurs just two days before the Saturn-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn, and it exactly opposes this conjunction. 

A Lunar Eclipse is a Full Moon, but it is not your usual Full Moon. When we have a Lunar eclipse, the Full Moon passes through the shadow of the Earth. The Earth “overpowers” the Moon. The light of the Sun (reflected by the Moon) is completely blocked out, and so is the light of knowledge and wisdom. All is darkness. 

It’s nothing fundamentally “wrong” with darkness. When the Earth overshadows the Moon, this means that the “will” of the Earth prevails. The Earth is “what really matters” in concrete terms.

The Earth is our free will. That’s why sometimes unexpected things happen when we have a Lunar Eclipse. We connect to our primal self, and we do what we want to do in the moment. What needs to happen eventually happens. 

A Lunar Eclipse/Full Moon is an opposition. And an opposition asks for a reconciliation. When we are face to face with the Other we have no choice but to act. We can’t just ignore it. We HAVE to face what needs to be faced. 

The Lunar Eclipse in Cancer is opposite Sun, Mercury, Ceres, Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn. Sun and Mercury are exactly at 20° Capricorn, so we have a cazimi Mercury, Ceres is at 21° Capricorn, and Saturn and Pluto are at 22° Capricorn. The stellium-conjunction is extremely tight, we basically have 4 planets plus Ceres within 2° of orb. 

We have all these planets in Capricorn on one side of the axis, and the Moon on the other side of the axis.

This means that all that tension on the Capricorn axis will be released through the Cancer axis. The Moon alone will have to deal with all that pressure. 

The Moon symbolizes our body and our need for security and nurturing. You can feel an incredible amount of tension and pressure at the time of the Lunar Eclipse. But the good thing is that we have “action”, we have “movement”.

The tension will eventually be released, but reconciliation is necessary. Cancer vs. Capricorn. Nurturing vs. hard work and discipline. Mother vs Father.

You will feel the influence of this Lunar Eclipse more intensely if you have Cancer or Capricorn ascendant, or if you have planets around between 19-23° in Cancer, Libra, Capricorn and Aries. 

Uranus is also stationary and goes direct just hours after the eclipse. Things may not go as planned. Uranus is the God of the sky. When Uranus goes direct, we come into contact with the divine.

The other archetype of Uranus is Prometheus, the Greek Titan who has been credited with the creation of humanity from clay, and who defies the Gods by stealing fire and giving it to humanity as civilization. 

The Lunar Eclipse in Cancer is a North Node Eclipse, and North Node Eclipses are connected to our life’s purpose. If the South Node is connected to Karma and consequences, the North Node is connected to possibilities. Anything can happen. The world is yours. 

A North Node Lunar Eclipse plus Uranus direct means that we can too defy the Gods and act on our terms, whatever that means. For some, that means playing with fire. For others, it means being fully human, with all the good and the bad that it entails. 

The Sabian symbol of the Lunar Eclipse in Cancer is “A famous singer is proving her virtuosity during an opera performance”.

The opera, with all the performers and the orchestra is a “Capricornian institution”. Everything needs to be perfect. You need years, decades of training. Thousands of hours of work to prepare a 2-hour performance.

And while the preparation work is “Capricorn”, the “singer proving her virtuosity” is the Cancerian emotional reward.

To become an opera singer you need years of training. But what comes out of it is pure emotion. Hard work leads to excellence and virtuosity, and this crescendo of virtuosity leads to an unforgettable Grande Finale.  

We all love “10” performances, the perfect pitch, the best acting, the most coordinated dancer, the persuasive public speaker. It is something that feels “right” about excellence. Deep inside, we know that this is who we are. We know that this is why we are here. To master something. To bring whatever our “zone of genius” is to the rank of art. 

Eventually, there comes a time when hard work becomes mastery. And then it doesn’t feel like “work” anymore, it’s pure bliss. We all have the opportunity to excel at something, we all have that one thing we can become exceptional at. 

But we have to “own it” just like the Cancer owns its emotions and its sense of Self. And this is the silver lining of the Lunar Eclipse in Cancer.

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PS: The Lunar Eclipse featuring Pluto conjunct Ceres reminds of the myth of Persephone (Ceres) and Hades (Pluto). The thematic opera of the Lunar Eclipse is Mozart’s “Magic flute”. The Queen Of The Night (the Moon in Cancer) persuades Prince Tamino to rescue her daughter Pamina (Ceres) from captivity under the high priest Sarastro (Pluto). The two lovers ultimately discover that Sarastro is the “good guy” and the Mother is demonized. The Magic Flute is a story of individuation, depicting the process of necessary separation from the “devouring mother”.  

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