Saros Cycles Articles
Eclipses belong to Saros Cycles
Eclipses don't just occur in the sky as one-off events. As Bernadette Brady notes[1] "each eclipse is a member of a family and each family has characteristics. They belong to larger patterns called Saros cycles and those cycles have a beginning and thus a chart for the moment of this beginning, the first eclipse." This whole cycle may well take well over twelve hundred years to unfold, producing eclipses once every 18 years. We should keep in mind that eclipses always come in pairs. After the first one of the pair takes place the next one occurs roughly two weeks after.
There are many Saros cycles in operation at any one time, thus we get two to four solar eclipses a year but these individual eclipses that happen in any one year will all come from different families, different Saros Series. For example the cycle which produces the eclipse on Monday 19 March, 2007 started in 1664 and has produced eclipses on the following dates in the following degrees of the zodiac:
February 1971 - 6 Pisces
March 1989 - 17 Pisces
March 2007 - 28 Pisces
This solar eclipse is known as Saros Series 9 New North (Jansky system of naming eclipses) and on 19th March 2007 it occurs at 28 degrees Pisces. So have a look at your chart and see if you have anything at late mutable degrees. If so, it will have a much more personalized meaning for you as it is actively engaging with a theme or issue that you are running in your life.
The birth chart of Saros Series 9 New North, born 21 August 1664, has a Venus-Mercury conjunction on the Mars/Pluto midpoint and Mars on the Uranus/Pluto midpoint in its natal chart. Thus this whole series has a strongly physical component to its expression. This can range from struggling with a new sport or your first yoga class to minor accidents, so if it is aspecting a theme in your chart , then it is better to consider how you can use such positive energy.
Another example is the recent Central Annular Solar Eclipse on February 7th 2008 at 18 degrees Aquarius in Saros Series 10 North and Total Lunar eclipse on 21st February 2008 at 2 degrees Virgo.
Bernadette Brady says of this Eclipse series that there is a strong emphasis on communication. Though setbacks may occur with frustrations and restrictions. The energy is generally low and drained, so a good time to take life quietly and not take too much on board at once.
[1]Brady, Bernadette (1998). Predictive Astrology, York Beach: Samuel
Weiser, Inc. p. 219=2E
