New moons are traditionally a time for beginnings. For intention setting. Solar eclipses – which always occur during new moons – are different, though. Instead of initiatory, they are purgatory; they are a time for releasing what hasn’t worked to make way for the new. During a solar eclipse, the sun, representing consciousness, identity, and life force, is momentarily obscured by the moon, representing the subconscious and our inner landscape. This alignment – this relationship – creates the conditions for deep introspection, unveiling hidden truths and initiating profound and radical transformation. 

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Eclipse season happens twice a year – approximately every 173 days – and lasts for around 34 days at a time. Eclipses happen because of the unique alignment of the sun, earth and moon, but their relationship to the lunar nodes is what makes them possible, and is what makes them significant in both astronomy and astrology. The lunar nodes are not physical objects; they are mathematical points where the moon's orbit around the Earth intersects the earth's orbit around the sun (also known as the ecliptic). There are two nodes: the North Node (ascending node): where the moon moves from south to north of the ecliptic and the South Node (descending node): where the moon moves from north to south of the ecliptic. 

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A supermoon is a new or full moon, which is at its closest orbital point to the earth. The moon travels in an elliptical path around the earth. In astronomical terms, the deviation of the earth’s elliptical orbit from a perfect circle is called its eccentricity. This eccentricity means that sometimes the moon is relatively closer or further away to the earth, giving us super and micro moons, respectively. The lunar closeness – the greater intimacy – of a supermoon means that the effects of the moon are amplified. In terms of a full moon (because new moons can be super too) that means a bigger, brighter moon, and a heightened gravitational force; a force that causes much higher tides. A supermoon also augments our experience of its energy, on an emotional and spiritual level.   

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There are eight phases of the moon’s 29.5-day cycle, beginning with the new moon. The new moon – perceived as an absence of light on earth – becomes a waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, third quarter and, finally, a waning crescent. Light builds from new moon to full, climaxes, then gradually wanes to the new moon. The new moon is an invitation us to turn inward; to look inside ourselves. This new moon is in Leo, which rules the heart (and the spine). This is an explicit call to look into our hearts; to look inside and awaken. 

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Our inner and outer worlds are governed by the interplay of rhythms: the mitochondria in our cells have rhythm, as does the cosmos. Circadian rhythms are our own individual cellular clock. They govern, over a cycle that is close to 24 hours, the biological processes of almost all known plants and animals. Circadian rhythms are synchronised by sunlight but also modulated by moonlight. If we tune into the rhythms and cycles, we can bring ourselves into powerful balance; align ourselves with the universe.  

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During the new moon phase, the moon is positioned between the earth and the sun. The side of the moon that is illuminated is facing away from us. Without this reflected illumination, it appears utterly dark to our eyes, here on earth. This state of darkness – of what remains in mystery; of what is yet unformed – is deeply connected to the psychic space created by a new moon. It is an invitation to turn inwards and to incubate. To create life from the void. This new moon is in Cancer, which is the first water sign of the zodiac and is ruled by the moon. 

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The summer solstice takes place the day before this full moon. The summer solstice occurs when the sun is at its furthest point from the equator, making it the longest day of the year in the Northern hemisphere (and the reverse in the Southern). It has been marked as the high point of summer – or midsummer – since the Neolithic era. Its counterpoint is the winter solstice: the shortest day of the year. Like the full moon, the summer solstice is all about illumination: visual, physical and metaphysical. This moment is perhaps the most potent of the year to shine a light on our shadows; a time to release, dissolve or burn (fire rituals belong to the ancient rites of solstice) the things that are holding us back and step into our own light. 

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Sagittarius is a mutable fire sign represented by the centaur. Centaurs are human-horse hybrids, born from mythic consciousness. In mythic time, phrases such as or ‘once upon a time’ or ‘long ago and far away’ describe time as if the past is still happening. Sagittarius is concerned with not just the past, present and future as linear, solid constructs, but with more magical, cyclical, expansive expressions of time that themselves belong to ‘long ago’. On one level, this full moon in Sagittarius is an invitation to connect with that way of experiencing time; to connect with the big picture; to connect to the ancient magic mode of consciousness. 

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A new moon is the first phase of the lunar cycle: when the moon is on the same side of the earth as the sun, with its shadow facing towards us. This first, dark phase of the lunar cycle represents our pure life potential; what is yet unwritten. New moons are traditionally a powerful time to connect deeply with ourselves and set intentions for what we want to call into our lives. The deeply earthy, grounded sign of Taurus is all about embodiment and is asking us ‘what wants to be made manifest?’ 

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Full moons are a culmination of light and energy. A moment of climax and letting go. In astrological terms, full moons serve to illuminate what is hidden on a psychospiritual level, in relation to the sign in which the full moon is occurring. This full moon is happening in the sign of Scorpio, which itself represents the hidden: our deeper selves; what is beneath the surface. The shadow and the shaman. More than any other lunation of the year, this full moon in Scorpio is an opportunity to go deep; to gain access to places in ourselves we didn’t even know existed. It is like the soul equivalent of the Midnight zone: an area of the sea between 1,000 and 4,000 metres below the surface, which is in perpetual darkness. An aquatic version of the underworld; a place where the strange and powerful (and bioluminescent) dwell. 

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Eclipse season happens twice a year. During an eclipse season we will experience two, and sometimes three, eclipses, with solar following lunar, or vice versa. There are two conditions for an eclipse: the sun must be crossing a lunar node, and the moon must be crossing either the same node (solar eclipse) or the other node (lunar eclipse). That means, of course, that solar eclipses can occur only when the moon is new, and lunar eclipses can occur only when the moon is full. Lunar nodes are the two points in the sky where the Moon's orbital path crosses the ecliptic, the sun's apparent yearly path on the celestial sphere. 

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Eclipse season starts nineteen days before the sun passes through a lunar node and ends nineteen days after. There are two eclipse seasons, one at each node, during a calendar year, and they occur roughly six months apart. The lunar nodes aren’t celestial bodies; they are non-visible points in the sky where the orbital paths of the sun and the moon intersect. New moons become solar eclipses and full moons become lunar eclipses.  A lunar eclipse – this one is happening in Libra - occurs when the earth lies directly between the sun and the moon; creating a shadow that moves over the surface of the moon. 

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Pisces is soft, ethereal and healing. It is the absolute antithesis to ‘pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps’. It speaks to release as less of a purge and more a gentle dissolving of the things we need to let go of. This sign is super-intuitive and empathetic, so its mode of release isn’t a purge, it’s a gentle, compassionate dissolution. There is no trying with this new moon. All we need to do is slow down, connect and be led by our intuition. This moon is deeply healing and restorative. It wants us to rest and to dream. 

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Virgo is a mutable earth sign. Supremely grounded (the element of earth) and in tune (the flow of mutable), this very feminine energy speaks to our ancestral connection to the patterns, pulses and rhythms of the earth and how that relationship affects the detail in the shape and structure of our lives. It is very much to do with our earthly experience and how we show up day to day. 

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This new moon takes place in the sign of Aquarius: a fixed air sign and the penultimate sign of the zodiac. Aquarius energy is not straightforward. It can feel complex and possibly contradictory. Ruled by Saturn in ancient astrology, and Uranus in modern astrology, Aquarius energy is broadly about structure: creating it, maintaining it and upsetting it. It is simultaneously the collective and the unique, eccentric, authentic self. Saturn is form, authority and the long-term, whereas Uranus is the disruptor of form – in sudden and unexpected short-term ways – and rules freedom, eccentricity and originality.  

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Full moons are the culmination of the lunar cycle. A moment of heightened and energetic climax. A synodic month – the formal name for a lunar month – is around 29.5 days long, so creates an ever so slightly shorter rhythm than a calendar month. It is the synodic month that speaks most loudly to our biological self; our primitive self.

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A new moon occurs when the moon is directly between the earth and the sun, with its shadowed side pointing towards us. This arrangement - the nearly straight-line configuration of three celestial bodies in a gravitational system - is called a conjunction or syzygy. This is why we experience a new moon as lunar darkness. It is a time of mystery and dreaming. A time to create visions for the future. This new moon in Capricorn is the first new moon of 2024 and provides a distinctly earthy and grounded medium – much like earth itself – in which to plant new seeds and intentions.  

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The time it takes for the moon to complete one orbit around the earth and return to the same phase – full moon to full moon, for example – is approximately 29.5 days, known as a synodic month. The moon appears full to us when it is positioned directly opposite the sun in the sky as observed from the earth. During a full moon the earth, moon, and sun are approximately positioned in a straight line. This alignment enhances the gravitational pull on the earth, leading to higher high tides and lower low tides, which we call spring tides. This gravitational interaction directly influences how our seas behave. It intensifies their peaks and troughs. This is a climax of not only light and energy, but also the dynamic movement and shape of water. This full moon takes place in the sign of Cancer, the first water sign of the zodiac, which is ruled by the moon. 

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