I think of them as a bit like an inebriated uncle at the family get-together. Could be good, could be bad. He might stand up and sing Danny Boy and make us all cry with the beauty of it, or he might try and punch your Dad.
The uncle's character is determined by the sign of the eclipse. So a drunk Gemini can be chatty but mischievous, whereas a tipsy Sag tips over into the maudlin, lecturing mode all too easily.
We are currently in an eclipse season which is working across Sagittarius/Gemini and Cancer/Capricorn. Eclipses come in groups, repeating a pattern in the same pair of signs usually in three blocks over about 18 months. We are at the tail end of the Cancer/Capricorn set and moving into the Sagittarius Gemini set.
One effect here is quite simple., the eclipse action is moving from a cardinal axis to the mutable axis. If you have a mutable chart (many planets in Gemini, Sagittarius, Virgo or Pisces) you will be more effected. If you have a cardinal chart, the pressure weakens slightly – although you still have the current intense outer planetary set-up to deal with and the final eclipse in Cancer in July.
Lunar eclipses tend to be more emotional – or to do with the women in your life – and Solar eclipses are more practical or to do with the men in your life. Total eclipses are always stronger.
Of course, if you have planets at the degrees activated the effects will be stronger.
Here are the dates and the degrees of this set of eclipses.
June 1 – 11° Gemini Partial Solar eclipse
June 15 – 24° Sagittarius Total Lunar eclipse – with the Sun at 24° Gemini, of course, so both sides come into action
July 1 – 9° Cancer Partial Solar eclipse
When you look at the dates in your horoscope remember that eclipse effects work for at least two weeks after the event, so I’m using the dates as a reference point, not an exact timing. Click here for horoscopes by sign.
