Which Eclipse Chart?

I’ve made some references to eclipses at various times, and while the non-astrologer might accept that I know what I am doing (or that I am a crackpot), it occurs to me that those wishing to learn the art might benefit from working out what I am doing.

When deciding which eclipse chart to use for a reading, the astrologer first has to answer the question “What do I want to know?”. (This is actually a good question to ask before casting any chart or using any technique, but I am amazed at how many astrologers forget to ask it, and attempt to answer a question using a technique or chart that was never intended to answer their question… much like a doctor ordering a blood test when the most useful information would come from a urine analysis.)

If the interest is changing trends in the personal or popular climate, we read an eclipse chart like a “super new moon”, or “super full moon”. For this purpose, we use the exact conjunction or opposition. In other words, we align the Sun and the Moon so that they occupy exactly the same degree, minute, and second of the zodiac signs they are in, The reason for this is that personal and popular trends are identified on the zodiac, the symbolic circle representing the path of the Sun through the heavens (relatively speaking), on which all of the planets are brought together for analysis.


A Solar eclipse represents a change in those things that persuade reputation and prominence. In other words, in any eclipse period, there is a particular energy that holds more sway than usual as “the subtext that has influence”. In popular political terms, this will be the focus by which the people can influence government. In personal terms, it represents the influence that will affect our reputation. This has a spiritual correlation with the things we find persuasive in any period.

A Lunar eclipse represents a change in the subtext itself. If a particular approach has influence in government, then what factors influence that approach? It is the Lunar eclipse that media and government need to pay attention to if they want to understand the things that influence the masses. In personal terms, the Lunar eclipse represents the influence that will affect our emotions or security. This has a spiritual correlation with the way we experience intuition.

If the interest is natural disasters and toppling of governments and other specific events, then this narrows the astrological analysis to the part of the world from which the eclipse is physically visible. The reason behind this is that we are looking at material phenomena, and therefore we need information relating to the material eclipse. When we are dealing with a visible eclipse, we want the moment at which the eclipse is at its most intense, “the instant of greatest eclipse”. This varies from location to location, and NASA conveniently supplies these data for various cities from which the eclipse is theoretically visible. In the case of yesterdays K2 eclipse post, I used the time at Islamabad because it was closest to the K2 site.

Learning how to read these charts is another matter, but the above gives the broad brush-strokes about which chart I use for what purpose.