Solar & Lunar Eclipses

An eclipse can only occur when a New or Full Moon falls close enough to the lunar nodes for the Sun, Moon and Earth to align precisely — which is why eclipses cluster in pairs or triples roughly twice a year, during eclipse seasons, rather than at every New or Full Moon.

Astrologically, eclipses are read as New or Full Moons "with the volume turned up" — compressed, accelerated versions of the ordinary lunation. Because every eclipse depends on the nodes, every eclipse is also implicitly a nodal-axis event.

Eclipses belong to numbered Saros series — families of eclipses that repeat at almost exactly the same relative geometry every 18 years, 11 days and 8 hours, each series running roughly 1,300 years before the geometry drifts out of alignment. Some astrologers track which Saros series a given eclipse belongs to and compare it to earlier eclipses in that same series, sometimes from decades before the person's own birth.

Because eclipses only occur near the nodes, and the nodes shift sign roughly every 18–19 months, eclipses cluster by sign-axis for stretches of a year and a half before moving to the next pair of opposite signs. See North Node & South Node for the full sign-by-sign breakdown.

An eclipse is most significant when it falls within a few degrees of a natal planet or angle — especially the Sun, Moon, Ascendant or Midheaven — with effects many astrologers consider unusually long-lasting compared to an ordinary transit. A person's own natal eclipses — any eclipse near their exact birth date — are sometimes read as a lifelong thematic signature tied to the Saros series active at birth.