Full Moon in Pisces / Penumbral Lunar Eclipse — September 16, 2016, 19:05 UT
”The maiden whom the Valar chose from among the Maiar to guide the vessel of the Sun was named Arien, and he that steered the island of the Moon was Tilion. –
”…But Tilion was wayward and uncertain in speed, and held not to his appointed path; and he sought to come near to Arien, being drawn by her splendour, though the flame of Anar scorched him, and the island of the Moon was darkened.
“…Tilion went with uncertain pace, as yet he goes, and was still drawn towards Arien, as he shall ever be; so that often both may be seen above the Earth together, or at times it will chance that he comes so nigh that his shadow cuts off her brightness and there is a darkness amid the day.”
This is how J.R.R. Tolkien describes eclipses in The Silmarillion. The Silmarillion is a posthumous collection of J.R.R. Tolkien’s works, providing the background to The Lord of the Rings.
Each year there are two eclipse seasons, and in every eclipse season there are commonly two eclipses, one Solar and one Lunar, and sometimes more. The New Moon two weeks ago was an Annular Solar Eclipse in Virgo. The second eclipse of this eclipse season is a Penumbral Lunar Eclipse in Pisces.
The Full Moon in Pisces is conjunct Chiron. In the same degree with Chiron and conjunct the Moon is 385446 Manwë. In Sagittarius 174567 Varda is square to the Mercury retrograde in Virgo. Varda is also widely squaring Manwë. Manwë and Varda are two trans-Neptunian objects discovered in 2003 and named in 2014. The names come from J.R.R. Tolkien’s fictional mythology.
Manwë was the King of the Valar in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth legend. Manwë was a kind, compassionate ruler. He sought peace. He was lord of air, wind, and clouds. Birds were his servants, especially eagles, which flew back and forth and brought to his knowledge everything that was going on in the world. Poetry was Manwë’s delight and the song of words was his music. He lived with Varda, the Star-Queen, on Mount Taniquetil by the sea.
Varda is the Queen of the Stars, and being associated with light she is central to the dualism of light and darkness in Tolkien’s cosmology. She made the stars and constellations, and she established the courses of the Moon and the Sun. Her face radiated light.
It is almost impossible to talk about Manwë without mentioning Varda. Manwë and Varda complemented each other. If Varda is beside Manwë, he “sees further than all other eyes, through mist, and through darkness, and over the leagues of the sea. And if Manwë is with her, Varda hears more clearly than all other ears the sound of voices that cry from east to west, from the hills and the valleys…”
385446 Manwë is a binary trans-Neptunian object. The secondary is named Thorondor after the Lord of Eagles, the “mightiest of all birds that have ever been”, in Tolkien’s writing. Manwë and Thorondor are predicted to be going through a period of mutual occultations and transits between 2014 and 2018, when one object crosses in front of the other as seen from Earth.
174567 Varda is highly likely to be a dwarf planet. Its moon is named Ilmarë after Varda’s handmaiden. Tolkien was inspired by many mythologies, and the name Ilmarë possibly comes from the magical Finnish blacksmith Ilmarinen in our national epic, the Kalevala.
The Full Moon in Pisces is conjunct Chiron. This composition suggests intense emotions, confusion, and perhaps feeling like being a bit out of control. The eclipse takes place on the South node of the Moon. The South node has to do with the past. The Moon is a warehouse for memories. Pisces is one of the Water signs, and water remembers.
This can also be a moment of intuitive understanding, which with the aid of Chiron, the Maverick, offers an opportunity to something extraordinary and radiant.