Eclipse Eulogy: An Astrological Lesson In Compassion

Navigating the eclipses through the lens of grief, ancestry, and the 8th house

It’s been one week since my mother was rushed into emergency surgery. Five days since she died.

When she was alive, I could never see her astrology chart. Despite all my training and experience, it just looked like abstract symbols. Over the years, a few of these markings began to emerge from the noise.

Her Virgo moon I will forever attribute to her chronic anxiety—the source of her own discomfort and criticism, especially of the way my Gemini moon throws around money and ideas. What yoked us was our Mercurial moons and our talent for being aloof and avoidant.

Her Sun in Cancer was at odds with mine in Aries, and was the reason, I’m convinced, that she tried to nurture everyone around her but me. Her housekeeper, her hairdresser, her large adopted family, her dogs and neighborhood strays: my mother had endless time, space and resources for all of them.

Until her death, the only parts of her chart that spoke to me were those that mirrored our relationship. It was difficult to see her as a separate entity, with her own complex web of needs, desires, traumas and destiny.

A Nodal Story

Sitting with my mother’s chart after her passing, it was as if a fog had been lifted: a story began to take shape. One wholly independent of me—one her life had prevented me from seeing.

I had never realized she was born shortly after a solar eclipse, the south node of the moon draining the sun of its ego and vitality.

For the first time, I saw past my mother’s anxieties to her own insecurities and self-doubts—the abandoned hobbies and ambitions, the years of domestic abuse, the ways she constantly sacrificed her needs for others.

I could also see why my own amped-up Sun caused her such pain: I contain a fierceness that was completely out of reach to her.

What I once saw as derision and resentment now takes the shape of concern. My independence, stubbornness, and devotion to wild ideas made my mother worry. Her own experience taught her that there were consequences for shining too brightly.

A Final Message

As we prepare for the final leg of eclipses through Virgo/Pisces, I, like many of us, have been trying to sort out my own story.

For me, this terrain falls in the 2nd and 8th houses of my chart, an axis marked by finances—both personal and shared—and death. We could further extrapolate to say that the 2nd house is that which nurtures our person, and the 8th is a shared source of nourishment.

For months I have been looking at this part of my life, thinking I had it sussed out. This eclipse season has brought changes in my work life, both financially and collaboratively, but death had never crossed my mind.

Nor had the intense ways in which my own life was so deeply entwined with my mother’s.

As I said my final goodbyes to her lifeless body, it occurred to me for the first time: this is the vessel that gave me life.

Unraveling her story from mine starts now, and it’s the work of a lifetime.

A Guide to Eclipse Survival: Join Us Live in Los Angeles

Roughly four times a year, these harbingers of change descend upon our lives. Like trying to grasp at shadows, their actions are hard to predict — but one thing is certain: wherever eclipses land in our charts becomes a flashpoint for the unexpected.

Sometimes the shifts are subtle. Other times, they are life-altering.

This month, I’ll be joined by Marval A Rex for a deep dive into the upcoming eclipse season. Together, we’ll explore the stories being churned up on the Virgo/Pisces axis and look ahead to what the Leo/Aquarius cycle has in store. Expect history, survival tactics, and some good old-fashioned astro-therapy. Come ready to participate and find your footing in the change.

Learn Astrology! Make Friends!

Join me for an intimate, community-driven space where we discuss the current sky, explore your questions, and share practices together. Office Hours are designed to be conversational, flexible, and an opportunity to connect directly with me and with fellow astrologically curious minds, building knowledge and community simultaneously.

Office Hours are held online once a month and are open to all Club Astro members.

The next office hours are today, Wednesday, January 28th, at 4pm PT.

Joining is simple: Your paid subscription to ART of the ZODIAC provides access to Club Astro. If you’re already a supporter, welcome to the club! You’re all set.