March 24, 2024 | by Daniel Giamario |
The Full Moon and Penumbral Lunar Eclipse
The exact Full Moon is at 12:00am PDT, midnight, on Monday, March 25, at 5Libra07.
A few points of note:
- Full Moons, being an opposition to the Sun, are better understood as a resonant polarity, equally involving the Sun at 5Aries07; this one also being the closest Full Moon to the March Equinox. Indigenous traditions of many cultures placed great emphasis on the closeness of peak Lunar events to peak Solar events, whether Full or New Moons.
- This Full Moon is one of two “Micro Full Moons”, happening at apogee, farthest from Earth, creating a slightly smaller Full Moon appearance.
- This is a penumbral Lunar eclipse, barely noticeable at all, unless under skies without any light pollution. There will only be very slight shading. The Nodes are too far away from the Moon and Sun to even produce a partial eclipse. Nevertheless, it still qualifies as the start of the first eclipse season of the year, followed, of course, by the big “Great North American Eclipse” on April 8.
- This is a South Node eclipse, which implies the necessity to pay even more attention to shadow material, both collective and personal, of the Libra and Aries Mystery Schools. Any Full Moon can reveal the “shadows of night”, much more amplified with Lunar Eclipses, even only penumbral ones.
Suggestions for themes of inquiry:
- Examine all issues of co-dependency.
- Consider discarding outmoded and obsolete personal identities.
- Consider the damage done to the Earth and her peoples by patriarchal versions of Libra and Aries.
- After consideration of the shadow, the distortions, and cultural assumptions, with your Spiritual Will, intend a new way forward.
Micro Moon over Lake Naivasha, Kenya, by Naraya Naserian
Updates on The Visible Planets
Mercury
This is a great week to see Mercury just after sunset – its best apparition for the Northern Hemisphere of the entire year. It is at a bright magnitude of -0.4, but will soon fade. Maximum elongation of 18.7degrees is on March 24 at 23Aries10. Mercury will remain in the evening sky until just after stationing retrograde on April 1.
Venus
Now sinking fast in the morning sky. Though still at magnitude -3.8, getting more and more elusive to see. A hard to spot 8th Venus-Moon conjunction is on April 7, just before the Solar Eclipse.
Mars
Very slowly rising in the morning sky at dawn, and also very slowly increasing its current magnitude of +1.2, Mars will soon join Saturn, just after the eclipse.
Jupiter
Currently the brightest object in the evening sky, shining at -2.1 magnitude, Jupiter is soon to descend into the celestial underworld on the other side of the Sun, around April 14. Mercury and Jupiter will not meet up this time. However, the comet will! This comet has not been seen since 1953-54. I remember seeing it as a young boy. It will be close to Jupiter after sunset later this week, and may be visible during the solar eclipse. More about the comet shortly.
Saturn
Saturn is really hard to spot now, slowly rising in the morning sky. Did anyone see the Venus-Saturn conjunction a few days ago? Venus descending while Saturn is ascending.