The eclipse that will occur on November 8th, 2003, will be accompanied by a powerful configuration of astrological energies. While the eclipse constitutes a major event in and of itself, it also amplifies and articulates the evolutionary themes associated with the August 11, 1999 Solar Eclipse Grand Cross. This major, millennium-ending astrological event introduced the archetypal forces at work as one epoch ends and another is on the cusp of being born. (In-depth discussion of the August 11 eclipse chart is beyond the scope of this article. If you would like more information on it, I will be happy to send you an article I wrote at the time.)

The Solar Eclipse Grand Cross chart presents a “consciousness mandala” of the crucifixion process humanity is now entering. The death and dissolution of the old order must occur, to pave the way for the birth of the New. Central to this process is the necessary completion of an age of solarization, or patriarchal dominance, during which the Feminine and the Earth have been subjugated to such an extent that all forms of life are now threatened. A second key theme in the 1999 eclipse chart concerns the polarization -- of the powerful and the powerless, the haves and the have nots. While some view living beings as commodities to be used and sold, others wish to see every form of life honored and nurtured.

Signs that the crucifixion is well underway surround us; we can no longer deny or ignore the fact that the threads of the planetary life-web are unraveling -- ecologically, politically, economically, and socially -- at an unprecedented rate. Crises continue to proliferate exponentially; at its current stage of evolution, humanity appears far more capable of creating problems than resolving them. It certainly appears that planet Earth is in the midst of a crisis of apocalyptic dimensions.

And this crisis is of our own unconscious creation. The very part of our nature that struggles to cope with or fix things is not only incapable of doing so, but is, in fact, the selfsame level of being that generated the problems to begin with. As humanity recognizes this, the hubris and denial that have armored us from the truth will finally shatter. We will finally see that to find the cause of our planetary malaise, all we need to do is look in the mirror.

The ultimate egoic checkmate has to be the prospect of imminent apocalypse. Perhaps it takes overwhelming, all-encompassing crisis for the human ego to surrender its coping mechanisms: its strategies, plans, goals, programs, and addictions. Maybe planet Earth’s red-alert status is exactly what is needed to trigger the pervasive ego-death that will allow the collective human soul, our true eternal Self, to replace the separate ego as our primary locus of identity. Even in the midst of rampant outer chaos and devastation, the infinite intelligence, love and power of God/Life operate unceasingly!

Since the 1999 eclipse, the world has watched as the issues associated with it astrologically have been magnified and amplified. The global power elite pursues its goal of planetary supremacy more aggressively than ever. A bloodless coup has usurped the executive branch of the US government, along with a portion of the legislative branch, using tactics such as tampering with voting machines and purging thousands of qualified, registered voters from precinct lists. Governmental control is bolstered and financed by powerful corporations, whose profits and influence increase continuously. To guarantee continued high profits, corporations must persuade governmental regulating bodies to relax environmental standards, monopoly regulations, and other safeguards designed to protect ordinary people from corporate power run amok. Thus, corporations will only back candidates for office who promise to make life easy for corporations.

The forces of “terrorism” represent a distorted but understandable attempt by the poor and powerless to exert some sort of control as a counterbalance to the centralization of power. In response, the US government has chosen to attack two Mideast nations, while Israel tightens its grip on Palestinian-occupied territories. In the name of “homeland security,” the unelected government abrogates Americans’ civil liberties; a climate of fear shrouds the planet.

Environmental crises continue to escalate; the US, the world’s greatest consumer of resources, refuses to sign treaties the rest of the world has intelligently endorsed. The potential horrors of genetically modified organisms, added to the millions of routinely-used chemicals whose effects are unknown, threaten to irreparably disrupt, if not destroy, the planet’s ecology. While a few purchase
20,000-square-foot dwellings and fly to Rome for lunch, billions subsist without even rudimentary shelter or a daily meal. Despite continual governmental assurances of never-ending prosperity, the global economy is on the verge of collapse. And on and on and on.... Each of these crises is a manifestation of the separate, masculine- polarized ego’s attempt to control and dominate the intelligence of Life to make it conform to distorted mental projections. But even these ultimately-doomed attempts to control Life must be part of the Plan; within the bigger picture, everything is happening right on schedule. Resurrection cannot occur without death, and since both are taking place simultaneously, things can look pretty confusing at times. Because we are still in the early stages of a vast, all-encompassing evolutionary process, we see far more evidence of death than rebirth at this point.

With this background, let’s move into considering the November 8th Grand Sextile Lunar eclipse. The Sun and Moon positions in this chart fall on two of the arms of the August 11, 1999 solar eclipse grand cross, powerfully reactivating the core themes of that evolutionary moment which were mentioned above. It’s possible the November eclipse will act as a grand accelerator and catalyst, hastening the resolution of the karmic residue at the end of the age, and expediting the birth of the soul-awakened human species.


The most significant dynamic in the November 8th eclipse chart is a grand sextile, an array of six planets in which each is sixty degrees away from the next. Together, they form a Star of David, symbolizing the marriage of spirit and matter, the function of the Soul. The grand sextile is composed of a grand water trine and a grand earth trine, each consisting of three planets, 120 degrees from one another, in a particular element. The ascending grand water trine contains a powerhouse of emotional/psychic energy. Its message: rather than indulging our volatile emotional natures, we can focus on raising our passion and emotion by offering our lives, our very selves, up to the Divine. The three corners of the grand trine and what they symbolize are:

The Sun in Scorpio -- the need to die and be reborn Saturn in Cancer -- the discipline to do what is most life-supporting Mars in Pisces -- the passion for surrender and divine union

This trine seems to be asking us to completely and totally surrender to the death and rebirth process, which appears to be necessary to ensure the continuation of life.

The presence of a grand earth trine indicates that our death and rebirth process needs a firm, grounded foundation beneath it; a purely transcendent approach will not meet the collective evolutionary need. The death/rebirth process will require us to dive deep into the subconscious to uncover our most painful wounds, which will function as doorways to healing -- individually, nationally, and globally. The three arms of the grand earth trine and what they symbolize are:

Moon in Taurus -- the fecundity of the earth as a source of nurturance, conjunct the Moon’s North Node -- our soul direction and purpose, and the kinds of challenges we will face in fulfilling our destiny
Jupiter in Virgo on the Ascendent -- our spiritual goals and philosophy, and the need to purify and create the optimal circumstances to birth the soul-awakened human
Chiron in Capricorn -- healing our deepest wounds around the father archetype

These placements reiterate the need to delve into the unconscious, this time to face the deep wounds the feminine aspect of our collective psyche has suffered during the age of patriarchal dominance that is now ending. Unless this collective wounding is acknowledged and helped to heal, our psyches will not have the firm foundation necessary to embody the inpouring spiritual energies. When it is not balanced by grounded earth-wisdom, the higher mind’s intelligence can be misused in such “cutting edge” applications as genetic engineering and nanotechnology.

When these two grand trines are activated and integrated in optimal soul-balance, we will find ourselves surrendering with total abandon and passion to God, while we recover from living in a patriarchal culture that has sent the goddess into exile and jeopardized all of life in the process. This is the gift of this configuration, an infusion of grace that can make surrender and awakening the path of least resistance.

Along with the grand sextile, the Nov. 8 eclipse chart contains a second potent astrological dynamic: the lunar eclipse, which is conjunct the Moon’s Nodes. Sun in Scorpio opposes Moon in Taurus, indicating the possibility of conflict and opposition around our needs and values, and how we arbitrate this through the medium of money. At a soul level, we are asked to transcend the material identification and attachment which have become the major karmic obstacle blocking our soul-advancement. Will we hold on, out of fear and attachment, or let go, based on acceptance and surrender?

In a materialistic world, controlling money is the way to control people, since most human beings believe the physical circumstances of their existence define who they are. The planetary power elite, functioning as a powerful evolutionary force, seeks ever-greater control through the power mechanisms of international corporate and financial institutions. Until we develop a spiritual perspective, the fear of losing our material possessions controls us, for we believe our identity is determined by those belongings: “I am my body and what I own.”

The biblical “Mark of the Beast” refers to an emblem on the body required in order to buy and sell. To save one’s soul, according to the Book of Revelations, one must reject the Mark of the Beast. Many have speculated that such a “mark” may one day be necessary to participate in the global corporate economy. Whether the “mark” turns out to be actual or metaphorical, we can begin now to examine the degree to which our possessions determine our sense of self.

Deep karmic significance is indicated both by the occurrence of an eclipse and the fact that it falls on the Moon’s Nodes. The North Node, indicating the path the soul must now travel in its evolution, conjoins the eclipsed Moon, which suggests the need to face the shadow of the dark feminine, the pain of her denial and subjugation. This amplifies the themes of the Grand Earth Trine discussed above.

In esoteric astrology, Sabian symbols represent the unique consciousness matrix embodied in each of the 360 degrees of the zodiac. It can be quite illuminating to study the Sabian symbols that correspond with a chart’s highlights. In the eclipse chart, the Sun’s symbol describes the need for “total reliance on the God within.” The Moon’s symbol is about “fully engaging the Great War within” -- the “battle” between ego and soul for dominion over the human’s life. Both symbols reinforce the same message: turning wholeheartedly to God within is, ultimately, the only worthy objective in life. The ego is on a perpetual search for “more, better and different” material world distractions. As we awaken to the soul, this egoic dance of separation, this looking for meaning in the material world, is revealed as fundamentally empty. The experience of emptiness in form turns us toward our divine core. There and only there will we find what we have sought “out there” forever.

The symbol for the Moon’s North Node describes using the capacity of intuition and divination to interpret the signs of the times from a deeper, more transpersonal perspective. We can refrain from viewing and interpreting the events of the day through outer lenses -- corporate-controlled media, socially-conditioned belief systems -- and instead, rely on our intuition, the “still, small voice” of the soul. We eschew reliance on outer information and appearances as we come to know that God within is the only truly reliable source of guidance and direction.

The Moon’s South Node, which is conjunct the Sun, indicates that we will be challenged to obey our deeper soul-knowing, our innately moral and life-serving true nature, in the midst of outer conditions which may try to force us to do otherwise. It may well become a soul-necessity to refuse the dictates of authoritarian rule. As we commit more fully to the inner path of God-union and surrender, we will find ourselves unable to obey edicts and laws that this life- and spirit-denying culture attempts to enforce through domination. We may reach one fork in the road after another, as we say no! to the soul-debilitating world and yes! to the divine domain of the soul -- even if we face a crucifixion in the process.

The Sabian symbols for the other planets involved in the Star of David configuration reinforce the theme that the eclipse window offers a powerful opportunity for ego-death and rebirth into the soul-awakened state. in the ascending water trine, the symbol for Mars exalts ”the capacity inherent in every individual to seek at whatever cost entrance to a transcendent reality.” Saturn’s symbol contains the image of a very old man facing a vast, dark space in the northeast. Here, cosmic and celestial energies flow into the Earth’s Crown Chakra, the source of illumination and the portal into the vast realms of unchanging, transcendent reality. The old man stands before the Great Void, the apparent darkness we encounter as we make our way toward the intense light of spiritual illumination. The psychic and emotional power of the grand water trine points to one overriding focus: completely committing ourselves to making our primary life objective turning to the divine source within and beyond this physical world. No longer will we look to anything in the material world for our salvation or fulfillment; our passion for God will eclipse all earthly fascinations.

A chart’s Ascendent represents the focus of both personality and soul expression, as well as the way a person or situation at least initially appears to others. In the Nov. 8 eclipse chart, the Ascendent symbol describes the arising of a charismatic leader who will focalize the collective need for order and direction in the face of the chaos caused by the dissolution of a dysfunctional sociocultural matrix. Throughout history, such individuals have often been referred to as the divine parents of the civilizations they guided into their next levels of evolution.

On the path of awakening, we inevitably encounter both assistance and resistance. Within a world of duality, every time a white magician is born, a black master also takes incarnation. What will flourish within a civilization is determined by what its leadership and dominant institutions nurture and energize. As an old age dies and a new era is born within the realm of polarity, forces that both support and resist evolution come forth in their most potent manifestations, Christ and Antichrist being one of the most powerful pairs of archetypes. But even these two are simply manifestations of the One playing their roles in catalyzing planetary soul-growth. One propels us into the light, while the other forces us to face our deepest fears and attachments. Our inner soul-connection will guide us through our encounters with both of these evolutionary forces; through Grace, humanity will experience ultimate God-realization. Out of the unfolding fusion of all apparent opposites, a never-before-known level of deeply embodied spirit will emerge. Ever-vaster realms of experience will be revealed in God’s eternal dance of knowing and experiencing itself in an infinity of possibility.

As the human species sets foot on the path, never to return to ego-identified sleep, we enter a time of profound planetary initiation. No longer will it be possible to sit on the fence. Evolutionary forces will continue to escalate, propelling each of us into either greater awakening or an exodus and reassignment to another evolutionary life station elsewhere in the cosmos, where exploring the realms of separation is in alignment with the divine plan. Planet Earth is moving on now.
There is no turning back.

By Barry Martin
barrymartin@cot.net