On April 19th/20th, at 12:13am EDT,  a powerful New Moon/Solar Eclipse becomes exact in an exalted degree of Aries — 29 degrees and 50 minutes! That’s only 10 minutes shy of 0 degrees of Taurus. This launches a new Moon and Eclipse cycle.

This is a Hybrid Solar Eclipse which is not observable from the U.S., but will be visible from western Australia, East Timor, and Eastern Indonesia. 

Hybrid Solar Eclipses shift from “Total” to “Annular” as the Moon’s shadow races over the Earth. According to Space.com, these Eclipses are quite rare, occurring just a few times every century.

Solar Eclipses are extra-powerful New Moons that occur approximately every six months — this is the first in 2023 and the first Solar Eclipse in Aries (in this particular Eclipse cycle that will be in effect until January 2025). You may also want to watch my Solar Eclipse video.

During a Solar Eclipse, the Moon momentarily interrupts the normal flow of Solar Radiation, destabilizing existing energy configurations and reorganizing consciousness to a higher level. Solar Eclipses indicate the beginning of a new experience, project, or cycle.

Eclipses usually come in pairs (Solar and Lunar), and “Eclipse seasons” start with the Lunation that precedes the first Eclipse and ends with the Lunation that follows the last Eclipse.

This Eclipse season began on April 6th, when the Full Moon in Libra became exact. It will end 14 days after the Lunar Eclipse in Scorpio that follows this Solar Eclipse with the New Moon in Taurus (in other words, by May 19th).

If you want to know how Pluto’s current journey and Eclipse Season might impact you personally, feel free to click here and get my latest  webinar: “Pluto in Aquarius & Eclipse Season

While Eclipse season is underway, allow for new templates to download, stay centered, and do your best to ground from within — try using conscious breathing and conscious flexibility — and best of all, see if you can move to the “observer position” when it comes to the emotional and mental body. And remember, this will only last for a while: on May 19th, the downloads are complete.

Eclipses are a time for clarifying and affirming our highest path. We are bound to experience a release and recalibration of some sort — “old” codes will get deleted and new ones downloaded — and for this Eclipse, this is especially true in connection with our relationship to our human identity and our sense of agency in the world — in other words, how capable we feel to get things done.

This begins with our role in our interactions with others, whether we are capable of being direct with others about our personal goals and passions, and whether we can inspire others to follow our example. This helps us be more aware of how passionate we are about life or what’s missing to get us back on track with our passion-projects.

The Sun and Moon are connected to one of the Moon Nodes during an Eclipse, alternating between North and South Node Eclipses, emphasizing the evolutionary upgrades available to us during such times.

This is the first North Node Solar Eclipse in Aries since 2004. The Moon Nodes will move into the Aries-Libra polarity on July 17th, 2023, and land on the Solar Eclipse degree. So it is safe to say that something will happen around July 18th that will resonate back to what began around April 20th…to read the whole Solar Eclipse article and get access to all of the Coaching questions, click here.

North Node Eclipses help us move towards a new exploration of an energy that promotes our Soul’s evolution. They ask us to focus on the energies of the sign involved in the Eclipse (Aries, in this case) and work with the lighter/higher frequencies of those energies as much as possible. They highlight our ability for individual and collective growth and evolution.

Eclipses are crossroads or turning points along our Soul’s Journey. They are often marked by events or situations that signify a critical shift in our lives, nudging us to either change and grow or face more significant difficulties at the next turning point.

In this case, the next turning point will be on July 22nd — when the Sun in a late degree of Cancer squares this month’s Solar Eclipse degree.

Solar Eclipses, in particular, often correspond to significant endings and beginnings. They occur close to the same degree every 19 years, and the last time we had a Solar Eclipse in this particular degree and sign was on April 19th, 2004. 

We will likely experience a resonance between now and that time — “resonance”, not repetition — so think back to the Spring of 2004 and ask yourself: Were there any major endings and beginnings? What was important to me back then? If I were to take those priorities to the next level, where would that next level find me?

If you’re looking for more guidance on those questions, I would suggest taking a look at your Natal Chart — the House placement of the Eclipse will indicate which area of life is the readiest to embrace a healthy sense of Self and rise to a new level of consciousness around independence and forging your path.

Solar Eclipses are also a good time to go within and seed anything we would like to learn over the next six months — we’ll dig into this in more detail towards the end of this article when we talk about setting Solar Eclipse Intentions. Setting Intentions for Solar Eclipses differs from a regular New Moon! So stay tuned!

Since this Eclipse is the second of two New Moons in a row in the same sign within the last 30 days (called a Black Moon), we are getting an extra dose of our inner warrior energy.

The very last degree (or more specifically, the last 10 minutes) of a sign is also quite potent and tells us that we are invited to deepen that which got initiated — at the time of the Super New Moon on March 21st — over the next six months.

Here are some things to note in this New Moon/Solar Eclipse chart:

  • We have two planets in an exalted state: Mercury in Taurus starts its Retrograde phase the day after the Eclipse becomes exact, and Pluto in Aquarius is also exalted, preparing to come to a halt and going retrograde on May 1st.
  • One planet conjuncts the Eclipse (Jupiter in Aries)
  • One planet squares the Eclipse (an exalted Pluto)
  • Jupiter and Pluto are both non-personal planets (and thus impact the collective as well as the individual)
  • Mars, the ruler of Aries, currently in Cancer, squares Chiron in Aries and sextiles Mercury in Taurus

Before we go any further, let’s first talk about the sign of AriesThis Solar Eclipse in pioneering, fast-paced Aries focuses more on…

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Because Eclipses are so powerful, they require a bigger orb than a regular Full or New Moon. I usually use a 5º orb instead of 2º… so since this Solar Eclipse takes place in 29º50 of Aries:

Do you have your Ascendant, Career Point (or personal planets) in the following: 24-29 degrees of Aries, Libra, Cancer, Capricorn, or 0-5 degrees of Taurus, Scorpio, Leo, or Aquarius? If so, you may feel the effects of this New Moon more strongly; this is also true for those of us who have our Ascendant or Sun-sign in Leo or Cancer (the Sun rules Leo, the Moon rules Cancer)

Setting Intentions for a Solar Eclipse is a little different from the regular monthly New Moon process — after all, we are setting them for the whole 6-month Eclipse cycle rather than just the next 28 days.

Solar Eclipse Intentions are best done 48 hours after the Eclipse becomes exact. This is because we are downloading new templates at the time of an Eclipse, and the energies are pretty intense, so we want to wait until it all settles down a little before setting our intentions — that said, we do not want to set them during a Moon void of course.

Given all this, here are the best and most potent times to set your Intentions for this Solar Eclipse: Between 6:11am, on April 22nd, and 12:13am, on April 23/24th. Note that all times above are given in US Eastern Time — i.e., the New York time zone.

Set powerful intentions — remember, they cover the next six months — and if possible, align them with the Aries energy!

If you live in a timezone other than EDT and converting time zones isn’t your thing, I suggest joining my Facebook Fan-page and following me on Twitter, as I post reminders on those platforms when it’s time to set your intentions.

If you would like more details on how to set Intentions, please click here.

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