Drippings of the Honeycomb: Eclipse Season 2025
Partial Solar Eclipse and Planetary Stellium in Pisces 🌊
“. . .the fear of the LORD is clean,
enduring forever;
the rules of the LORD are true,
and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.”
Psalm 19:9-11
This is the big month! It is eclipse season in Pisces! We are passing through fire and water into the new. If you are in any way involved within the astrological community, a lot of positive, excited reflections on how this could mean revolution, transformation, and spiritual awakening is being spoken into this year. All these delineations have their place and their truth, but I want to bring a little different take to the conversation.
In astrology there are different branches of focus. We all know the main branch of astrology, which is natal astrology, the study of individual birth charts, but there is other kinds of astrology. There is horary astrology, which is about asking a specific question, some examples being inquiring about one’s career, finding a lost pet, or inquiring about one’s family, friends, or enemies. There is electional astrology, which is about choosing the best date for an event or endeavor, e.g. weddings, parties, meetings, starting a business, etc. Then there is mundane astrology, which is the study of how astrology relates to the movements of countries, governments, societies, and the world at large. Each branch of astrology, although utilizing the same methods and archetypes, is going to require a different way of interpretation. A planetary conjunction is going to mean something different in a natal chart vs what it could mean for a wedding day vs what it could mean for the politics of world governments! You have to approach each one through its own unique lens of understanding.
What I have noticed is that a lot of astrologers, even really good ones, often blend all of these branches together throwing in smatterings of modern psychology for good measure. While I follow a lot of amazing astrologers who give very creative, encouraging, and poetic astrological readings, I don’t think they always hold true for what is actually being expressed to us in the sky. I am not going to say that it is a matter of positive vs negative readings because we all know that reality is often the blending of the two - negative experiences could have positive ramifications, and any energies expressed from the planets can be utilized for self-reflection and illumination. I also am not going to say that astrology cannot be used in this more subjective, psychological, self-expressing manner because each astrologer brings something significant and unique to how we can understand the stars and planets. It is all important. I know I have been blessed by these kinds of astrologers myself personally. However, what I am going to say is that ultimately the particular finds its greatest expression in unity, meaning that the myriad of ideas and concepts that astrology brings through its infinite diversity of human expression is grounded in and has its meaning (and being) within only One Source, namely Jesus Christ.
You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about Me. You search the planets and stars because in them you think you can find direction for your life, spiritual truths and awakenings, promises of fulfilled dreams, hopes for blessing and good fortune - but they instead bear witness to the only One who is the Source of all these things: Jesus Christ. Do you think it means nothing that some of this years biggest astrology is happening in the sign of Pisces? Even astrological history recognizes the sign of Pisces is symbolically associated with Jesus Christ and Christianity, with the sign of the fishes.1 I absolutely loved this description from Brady’s Book of Fixed Stars regarding the symbolism of this sign:
“As the spring equinox moved in Pisces, the ram god sent his son, Christ, to save the world, and he became the god of fishes. He was a fisherman fishing for men’s souls. His disciples were fishermen and one of his miracles, which proved him god, was the miracle of the loaves and fishes, where he was said to have fed five thousand on just a few fish and some bread. The new religion adopted the sign of the Fish as their symbol.” (Brady pg. 599)
The sky is quite literally shouting at us about the One Who is Worthy. Will we shut our ears to their sound?
Month in Review. . .
So what exactly is happening this month? Well, there is going to be the Full Lunar Eclipse (Blood Moon) in the sign of Virgo this Thursday night March 13th into the early hours of Friday.2. The main show, though, is the planetary stellium aligning in the sign of Pisces with Mercury, Venus, Neptune, and Saturn trailing a long slowly from Aquarius. These planetary conjunctions happening are all significant, but as the Sun makes its way into Pisces, these planets are going to experience what is known by three terms “cazimi,” “combustion,” and “under the beams” of Sol’s light. Each of these three terms are expressing that essentially Sun will be making conjunctions with these planets, but each defines exactly within how many degrees these conjunctions are taking place. Cazimi is usually around 1 degree - 17 mins of the Sun, combustion is 1 degree - 8 degrees, and “under the beams” is 8 degrees - 15 degrees (Kelly’s Astrology).
In ancient astrology this kind of condition of the planets with the Sun is usually malefic, with the exception of cazimi, but I will come back to that. It is malefic in the sense that because of the Sun’s rays, these planets aren’t able to be perceived within their usual identities or able to express their donegalities as they normally would. They are inhibited, or burned out. As I am speaking primarily from the mundane astrological perspective, the fact that all these planets are going combust at once does not portent good tidings. This in addition to Venus in retrograde this month, Mercury also in retrograde as well as in detriment/fall in the sign of Pisces, Saturn, Infortuna Major (the Great Malefic), making conjunctions with them all - most notably Neptune3 - and the month cumulating with the partial solar eclipse4, you can get the idea that each of these planetary events are adding up significantly.
I am speaking abstractly, but what does this all mean practically? Well, unfortunately I do not have the skill level yet to make accurate interpretations of these signs, although I do have a strong sense of their meaning. I am instead wanting to do something a little more creative, but grounded in truth. I have artwork here, one piece of my own creation, as well as readings of various Scriptures that I believe resonate with the song these planetary bodies are singing to us - or more accurately, what they are raising their voices towards in both dread - for the inhabitants of the Earth - and in joy for the redemption of God’s children - as harbingers of the coming King.
Sol’s Gold. . .
“. . .his beams foster
Soul in secret, where the soil puts forth
Paradisal palm, and pure fountains
Turn and re-temper, touching coolly
The uncomely common to cordial gold.”
The Sun from The Planets poem by C.S. Lewis.
I do want to highlight one important aspect, though. I have mentioned “cazimi,” and in ancient astrology this position of a planet - quite literally in the heart of the Sun - was seen as benefic. The planet becomes elevated and amplified within the Sun’s light. Instead of diminishing, the Sun magnifies the planet causing it to shine more fully as itself clothed in Sol’s golden rays.
This brings up the struggle I have in trying to understand and interpret the signs and transits of the Sun when it has such a complex astrological history. For despite this understanding of cazimi, the Sun’s status in Medieval astrology was regulated below both Jupiter and Venus, who are Fortuna Major and Minor respectively. The Sun does not have as honorable status as one might imagine, especially as seen through our modern, heliocentric perspective where the Sun has surpassed all other aspects of the planetary bodies. It is called a “solar” system after all. This is even evident in how modern astrology has overemphasized sun signs as significations of a person’s personality and interpretation of the natal chart. Whereas the Medieval would have looked to the “rising sign” for this purpose, since it was placed in the 1st House of Self. So, it is difficult for me to interpret from my heavily biased modern lens a more astrologically accurate understanding of Sol.
However, I always go back to Scripture in trying to understand God’s purposes for the movements of the heavens:
“In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. . .” Psalm 19:4-6
“Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”
Matthew 13:43
“And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. . .” Matthew 17:2
Through these passages we begin to grasp the kind of glory that is given to Sol. Whatever misfortunes or malefic events are signified by conjunctions with the Sun, there is ultimately a transfiguring glory to Sol’s light and heat - otherwise we wouldn’t have been given such powerful symbolic language through these comparisons. His golden rays transform that which it touches, like the ultimate Midas Touch. And Sol transposes all elements he touches, as “nothing is hidden from its heat” - this being a metallurgical process where “the flooding of a lower medium” is raised “to a new significance by incorporating it into a higher medium.” (Ward pg. 104 - 105). C.S. Lewis expands on this idea in Discarded Image:
“. . .Sol produces the noblest metal, gold, and is the eye and mind of the whole universe. [. . ."] Though he is no more metallurgical than any other planet his metallurgical operations are more often mentioned than theirs. We read in Donne’s Allophanes and Idos how soils which the Sun could make into gold may lie too far from the surface for his beams to take effect. Spender’s Mammon brings his hoard to ‘sun’ it. If it were already gold, he would have no notice for doing this. It is still hore (grey); he suns it that it may become gold. Sol produces fortunate events.” (Lewis pg. 95)
There seems to be an aspect to the Sun’s rays that is able to burn away the dross and refine all things as gold, to transform the lowly and mundane and raise it up to the heavenly and sacred - a process that does not annihilate the identity of any being, but raises it up to a higher glory, to make them somehow more than themselves - to make them “more gold than gold” (Ward). I sense something of this nature is playing out in the cazimi events this month, as these planets pass through the refining fires of the Sun and are transfigured.
This imagery only deepens and strengthens by another very interesting astronomical event happening this month. It seems that every 15 years or so, Saturn’s rings “disappear” from our viewpoint, because of its alignment with Earth. Saturn’s rings are fascinatingly thin for how massive they are, only about 30 feet thick, and so when we see Saturn from an edge-on view, the visibility of Saturn’s rings are reduced considerably to nigh invisibility. I could not help but notice that from our perspective, Saturn will appear to be naked. His rings are his glory, and so without them, he is diminished - put to shame. However, due to the fact that Saturn will be so close to the Sun this month, it will be very difficult for us to actually view this event. Saturn has lost its rings, but he gains Sol’s golden light as his heavenly remnant. And there is beauty, mercy, and goodness in that image.
“I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.” Revelation 3:18
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. | Genesis 1:1-3
So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. | Genesis 2:21–22
And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. | Luke 1:30–35
. . .they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. | Acts 2:1 - 4.
And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. | 2 Thessalonians 2:6-12.
“Therefore God sends them a strong delusion. . .”
Even in Tropical astrology, where this month’s events are happening between the two signs Aries and Pisces, Aries is The Ram - which has Abrahamic symbolism, which also speaks to Christ. “There was never a clear distinction between these two constellations, as Pisces is so large, its two Fish reaching through the sky actually encompass the stars of Aries.” (Brady pg. 597-598).
Note that Virgo is a very important sign in relation to Pisces, its polarity. Virgo is “the maiden,” or “the virgin.” The Madonna and Child.
Another important note is that while most of these planetary positions will come and go within March, the Saturn and Neptune conjunction is going to be with us this entire year, and will not separate until early next year. This is a malefic conjunction between Saturn, signifier of calamity and death, with Neptune, signifier of the subconscious, illusions, and dreams - their fusion will be the lasting themes through the entirety of 2025.
Unfortunately, those of us in North America, except for very most northeastern states, won’t be able to witness the solar eclipse at all!
The Mandala does have a springy vibe. Lotsa subtle textures. Love it. Thanks!
This is very interesting! 🎏 Love your springy art too. 🌱