How is that willpower muscle going?

The Moon is in Taurus and that is absolute prime time comfort eating (or shopping) step away from the fridge put down that chocolate danger zone. Today may have been worse as the Moon has, over the last 24 hours covered Mars, Venus and will shortly meet up with Mercury.

The Moon is exalted, or exaggerated in Taurus, and Venus is super strong here, so the desire for comfort and safety through indulgence has been enhanced over the last day or so.

Personally, I have kept my tummy warm and indulged with healthy clear Thai chicken soup and extra chilli and fresh rice noodles. Indulgence and warmth without the calories.

We are also now right in the middle of the dark phase or balsamic phase of the Moon. With a New Moon in Gemini around the corner, now is the best time to finish off things, banish stuff (and that includes bad habits) and get ready to let a new Moon cycle into your life.

And this isn’t just any New moon cycle, this New Moon (Thursday morning here in Sydney 7.02am) is a partial Solar eclipse…and eclipses are always worth taking notice of. Under eclipses, things can just happen, and under solar eclipses the energy comes from outside you rather than inside. The other thing about eclipses is their unpredictability.

This particular New Moon is at 11 Gemini, so if you have planets or chart points at or around 11 Gemini, Sagittarius, Virgo and Pisces it is likely that this eclipse may bring something surprising…so to speak. When it comes to eclipses, use tight orbs- the tighter the better…in fact no more than about 2 degrees either way.

April Elliott Kent is, in my humble opinion, arguably the best eclipse astrologer going round (check out her eclipse reports- I got one for myself a while ago). For an idea of what to expect when an eclipse does hit your chart, check out her post. The link to the newly revamped Big Sky Astrology is here.

Each eclipse has its own planetary pattern or Saros Series each of which last around 150 years. This particular eclipse falls into the Saros Series 13 South. Bernadette Brady in The Eagle and the Lark made this comment:

“expansive energy under which lies a more sinister flavour. An urge to expand is experienced, but the expansion contains frustration, inhibitions and loss or separation.”

She also made the comment that this particular Saros Series seems to have a particular sensitivity on the chart of Australia. Time will tell.

The ruler of this New Moon is Mercury, which is, at the time of the New Moon, about to move into the sign in which he is most powerful, Gemini. A trine from the Moon across to Saturn adds structure to your ideas, and a preparedness to pay attention to the details. Remember the warning- expansion may come at a cost- so don’t throw the baby out with the bath water, so to speak. Gemini loves a new idea, but Saturn is a reminder that sometimes conservatism and slowly slowly will bring more lasting change.