“For he carried a head where his tail should be,
and the two, of course, could never agree,
but wiggled about with main and might,
now to the left and now to the right,
pulling and twisting this way and that,
neither knew what the other was at.”
-John Greenleaf Whittier; from The Double-headed Snake of Newbury poem
On April Fool’s Day of 1718, a dragon near the bottom of the world tasted its first luminary. Said another way, on this day in the early 18th century, an eclipse occurred near the South Pole, which opened up an entire series of eclipses to continue in fractal movements until the 30th century. On October 2nd, we will experience one of these eclipses in Libra (B.Brady labels this series as SS 8 South). If you aren’t familiar with the Saros cycles or that eclipses belong to ‘families,’ I’ll do my best to explain.
The Saros is all about predicting eclipses. Going all the way back to the Babylonians, we can see that they understood them; NASA understands them and even has its own precise language around them; And we astrophiles are hardly aware of them—I say hardly because left without these machines, who among us could predict the when and where of the next eclipses? Not me, that’s for sure.
Each eclipse of a series has a space of 18 years, 11 days, and 8 hours between them; meaning, if you do the math from the Solar Eclipse on Oct 2nd, the last would have been on September 22nd of 2006.. Then in 88’ and so on, going all the way to its origin point in 1718.
I rarely write about the Saros during eclipses because it’s such a complex idea, yet I always am pulled to do so. I feel it’s important to have this concept in mind when entering “the Dragon Hole.” No matter how little we understand it, it stretches out our imagination to capture even more context to the nature of these little miracles. And being none of us were alive for these origin points, it offers up an interesting opportunity to time travel and learn a bit of history from that time. With 1718, we might wonder how pirates like Blackbeard and their threat to global trade and imperialism relate to our current moment; even though there remain real pirates in the world, I think the metaphor works well if we think of the internet as the wide-open seas.
Studying the origin eclipse chart is also another option to consider when building context for the true nature of an eclipse (for this series, it was an Aries Solar Eclipse at 10º, perfectly opposite this one; so that too is a consideration; aspects to the “natal” eclipse chart; complicated, I know).
In the simplest terms, eclipse season and the spaces between them—the dragon hole—has an unbelievable way of twisting around the plots of stories—not just our own, but those we share collectively as well. Whatever the tale is going into them, it will often look quite different on the way out. It is their nature and also it’s what happens when we encounter dragons.
Most modern astrologers and nearly all astronomers will brush off the dragon consideration, but what if we took it literally? Why not!? It’s not just in India where we find the symbolism of a serpent devouring the Sun and Moon, it’s all over the world! Take the Maya for instance, they believed that when an eclipse was occurring, it was K’awiil (a giant serpent) who dove through the darkness into this realm to eat up the luminaries. Also, most cultures throughout time didn’t have what we call “eclipse chasers.” Instead, they knew of the true nature of eclipses, and they often were in the midst of some ceremony, practice, or prayer while they were happening; the last place you’d see most people who understood the unseen during an eclipse is outside gawking at one with funny glasses on. Now, I’m not saying I fully agree here, I do enjoy spotting an eclipse if it’s in my neighborhood, but what I am saying is it’s crucial to have the deeper, more mythical context in mind as well.
The Dragon Hole opens with the lunar eclipse on the 18th and closes with the solar on the 2nd. Already we know that on the 18th, it is the big day when Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, is set to lower interest rates, after two years of hikes attempting to save the world from the inflation monster. Depending on who you ask, you naturally will get a different answer, but that one man’s power to control the cost of money, thus the global economy is unparalleled. In other words, there is a dragon coming for that full moon and it’s hungry for cheaper prices. Who knows, maybe you will finally be able to start that business or buy that house once rates begin to fall. A simple twist of fate perhaps? Money aside, wherever the eclipses fall in our charts is where we consider the necessary changes—even if they are forced by some flying lizard.
All in all, it’s just nice to have this context orbiting around in our heads. Even if we don’t see the eclipses, we still get to experience them in the subtle realms. It’s how it works. Don’t know how, don’t really know why, but I’m always curious. I’m just amazed that they occur at all.
Enjoy this shadowy season and may it twist and shout in all the right ways for you.
More info on these two eclipses and where they will occur HERE
If you’d like to learn more about eclipses and the nodes of the moon, you can do so HERE
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Just listened to the last heavenly holes, I can't begin to tell you how much I enjoyed your guest's perspective. So much to chew on.
I don't think that it's inappropriate to accept the archetypal nomenclature given by the mechanistic astronomers, they are still one half of all history's sky science. Pluto's naming and timing of discovery fits it so well. Then there's Chiron, only first spotted in 1977... But named by a child. Andy quickly. There was unusually little debate about the name. And it was offered by the son of the astronomer that found the planetoid,the child knew the myth well and saw how well it related to the planets either side of its orbit. We think or imagine or dream as one, even the stuffy among us.
Being in an Air sign might we see some flying dragons? But the head is Aries which portents some fire breathing…
I love the internet metaphor, wide open sea full of pirates. Thanks Adam x