.: wait for it :. (Final Lunar Eclipse of 26')

Because I cut out the Lunar Eclipse material from the last eclipse essay, I’ve decided to give it its own here:

On the 27th/ 28th of August, roughly 96% of the moon slides into the Earth’s shadow. It will be partial, but the last partial eclipse of this Saros cycle. Only total eclipses remain for the rest of our lives with this one.

Saros 138 has been running since October of 1521, just a few months after Cortés conquered the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. It’s an eclipse family that seems to carry themes of exploration, land values, and generational chaos. With the last one in August of 08’, we can easily see how the subprime mortgage crisis fits in nicely. Starting in the 16th century, the Age of Exploration offers an interesting entry point for these Saros themes. This one, visible for most of the Americas, also sees dragons circling the summit of this real estate cycle.

If you aren’t familiar with the idea of eclipses belonging to families in the Saros, the idea is simple: eclipses begin near one of the poles, and over a thousand years, every 18 years, 11 days, they repeat as the eclipses coil around the Earth in third steps as they travel towards the other pole. It truly looks like a serpent wrapping around an egg; it’s a hermetic image. By exploring the Saros in context with the eclipses, we try to understand the theme beneath an isolated member of the family. To do that, we look to the origin eclipse:

As you can see in the origin chart for this series, the eclipse is around 18-19° from the north node. That’s what it takes for an eclipse to happen. Once it gets within that orb, eclipse seasons are possible. The closer and closer a luminary gets, the more total the eclipses become. When we look at the chart for the upcoming eclipse, you can see how much closer it has gotten. That’s why the next one in the series in 2044 will be total, and those that follow for quite some time.

The main theme that speaks to me first when I look at the origin chart relates to Eris in Taurus. Currently in late Aries, she is set to return to Taurus in the 40’s, not too far from the next eclipse in this series. And as you can see, she’s just a degree away from the lunar eclipse. Discord? Chaos? Something misunderstood? The early 16th century was an exciting time for some but an absolutely terrifying one for others, especially those being visited by Europeans. Again, themes that carry through eclipse to eclipse in the Saros family. If you have early colonial themes percolating at the base, what comes up with this one? Another way the Steven Forrest drama gains some more context. Plot twists abound!

When we look at the eclipse on the horizon, we have Mercury near cazimi, who is also exalted, square to Uranus, and creating a bending with the nodes. What does it all mean?

Think back to the beginning of the Mercury cycle, which started in Cancer on July 12th, and attach those themes to the eclipse. I talked about memory a lot in the essay I wrote, and it seemed to manifest that way perfectly- for me and the world (memory bottlenecks, the World Cup, nostos with the Odyssey). What we’re seeing is a speeding up around this theme: a quicker shedding of old ideas (or memories), deleting the trail left in our digital footprint, and the way AI is corrupting our memory banks, as well. We have a pretty good idea of where we’re headed now and where this idea is taking us. And with Mercury exalted in Virgo, he’s skilled with discernment, but then you put him 90° away from Uranus, we have a surprise. Is it an unexpected hack or something surfacing in our pool of memory we forgot about? Did we allow those agents to run too far into our machines? Were we careful where we saved our passwords or private keys? What kind of surprise does it have for the world? Just a few threads I’m pulling at.

This theme with Mercury and Uranus is embedded within this iteration of the Saros 138 eclipses. Yes, the Pisces matters and where it points in your chart or where it’s visible, but this Mercury cycle squared off with Uranus is the theme of this chapter for the dragon tale which began way back in 1521.

...There’s lightning out on the water. The ships aren’t safe out there, and it reminds me of Proteus

Proteus was that prophetic sea god who knew things but would reveal none of it. In the Odyssey, it’s Menelaus who attempts to squeeze the truth out of him. But the moment he tries to seize him, he becomes something else: a big cat, a snake, a boar, fire, and even water. The trick is to always hold on through the shapes without mistaking each new form for a new revelation or answer. Menelaus pulls it off, but will we? Mercury square Uranus with this adventurous dreamer of an eclipse can have us thinking and feeling all sorts of ways. Mercury asking the questions, Uranus changing shapes, and the luminaries shining from Virgo/Pisces pull at what is real and what is not. So how can we be more discerning in an Age of AI? Can we hold the shapes long enough to get at the truth?

The lightning shows us the surface and some of our surroundings but reveals nothing about the underneath. Only when the tides roll back after the eclipse do we start to see a few things glittering among the stones; this is when it begins to come together. Perhaps some evidence of the conquistador’s path or a sneaky coding trail left by a rogue agent? Whatever we find will be crucial in helping us piece together a better story moving forward. The hope is that we become better at telling it, as well.

An eclipse is not a complete reboot. It’s more of a swallowing that fails a bit. Something is always changed by it, and it does matter whether it’s on Rahu or Ketu (☊/☋). Since this one is on Rahu, something novel wants to come through. The dragon is hungry. It’s always hungry for light.

Being that this lunar eclipse is in Pisces, it’s important to understand the polarity here. Pisces isn’t just chaos and openness. It’s a larger language that’s hard to contain with names or symbols. And with Virgo (where the Sun will be), it’s not just control or OCD, but the process of naming, testing, and deciding what to save or delete. You can see the tension. The story of our lives.

So, if it’s Piscean novelty we are after, we must stay curious about what is revealed. If we are graced with a vision, then Mercury opposes it and analyzes the situation. He will ask: do we have the tools to contain it and execute? Is it worth our time? And on the other side of this eclipse, we leave this dragon hole, and the hope is that we weren’t just changed by it, but we understand the work ahead. Eclipses reliably alter the code of the story, and with this one, we don’t want to get caught off guard-especially by Uranus-by these machines-or by colonial thinking.

And so, when it’s all said and done, when the Moon finally pulls the tides back again, we will catch a glimpse of what lies beneath. We will see the artifacts left behind and perhaps be worthy to work with moving forward.

The Chandra Symbol for this eclipse reads:

... Beneath the crumbled waves and the speed of water, lies some sort of valuable. Not always gold; sometimes an undiscovered creature or a sunken treasure in our own psyche. A memory long lost or buried because of the trauma that forced itself deep into our abyss. Eclipses have a way of revealing such content. In this case, it pulls back the water and shows what we’ve been missing all along. Mercury’s memory box broken open.

Pisces provides the awe, where Virgo provides the work required to make it real. Panning for gold was never easy work.

No matter what is revealed to us during eclipses, there is almost always so much more work to be done. In the case of a Rahu eclipse, the dragon swallows the moon, and yet it slips out the other side. Altered, sure, but it’s still the moon. Inside us, the story never goes away. What changes, though, is how we tell it. It’s all those Protean shapes it must take before the truth finally speaks. Our job is not to let go.

Perhaps it’s gold from some old 16th-century Spanish ship, storing its value since the start of this Saros series. Or could it simply be a metaphor for the psychic process we are all in? Wherever it lands in your chart is what matters most. What planets do we have in Pisces? Mutable signs or any other aspects that are significant to this eclipse? Those are the areas we study as the dragon hole closes.

I think it’s important to mention the Sabian symbol here as well, not only because I mentioned it in the last essay, but because it fits the story arc here.

...so you’ve sorted and polished whatever it is that you found beneath the mysteries of the water, and now you have a table at a ‘bazaar.’ The goods are laid out. There’s a crowd moving about all around you. There are stories that you carry now that can be told. Also, at the center of a church bazaar is a faith in something that is much larger than yourself. This is what Pisces points to and it’s what is missing most in the world at the moment.

And so here it comes, the final eclipse of 2026; a partial lunar one that might feel total, that’s been eclipsing since 1521. With the last one weeks before the Lehman collapse in 08’ and the next in 44’ to be total--and those that follow, for the rest of our days. I’m eager to see how it all writes itself.

With the speed of Mercury in its cazimi (also an occultation) square to Uranus, it is to be expected that this will be no ordinary eclipse. The flashes and strangeness of our thinking will resemble an electric eel trapped in our heads. What we choose to talk about will explain much of what is happening beneath the surface. One idea I can’t shake going into it is how important it is to take our cybersecurity more seriously. This square may relate to many more agents writing themselves out of their sandboxes and causing the chaos I referenced at the beginning. It’s already happening, but are you prepared on your own devices?

And who knows, it may come and go like nothing ever happened. I doubt it, though.

If you’d like to learn more about eclipses, you can watch this HERE

• Murray Beauchamp, The Cryptic Cycle: Astrology and the Lunar Saros

• Kory Varlen, Where Dragons Dance: Lunar Eclipse Pathways to Personality and Prediction

~adam

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