The Total Solar Eclipse
Astronomer Johannes Kepler did not have the benefit of sophisticated telescopes or computers yet, in the 17th century, he was able to establish a proven harmonic relationship between the planets. In his third law of planetary motion Kepler states: The orbital period of a planet is proportional to its distance to the Sun This was first revealed in his seminal work Harmonice Mundi or ‘Harmony of the World’ in 1619. It is also known as the Harmonic Law.
Kepler’s discoveries still hold firm today and corroborate the Pythagorean based theory, that the fabric of our existence is woven with number.
One of the ways that we can visibly observe the presence of this theory is in the relationship and planetary intervals between the Sun, Moon and Earth. More specifically in the observation of Eclipses that occur in regular, repeating numbered patterns known as The Saros Cycle. On Earth we can witness anything between two and five solar eclipses in a year. The periodicity of each cycle is 18 years, 11 days and 8 hours and there are some 70 eclipses (lunar and solar) in each Saros series, spanning 1,260 years.
The Sun is but one star amongst an infinite number of others, within an infinite number of galaxies. However, without this star and indeed the solar system, life would just not exist. Although, in the greater scheme of things, the Sun is a fairly insignificant star, its size may be better appreciated when I tell you that, hypothetically, it could accommodate one million planets the size of Earth. Being approximately 109 times the diameter of the Earth, the Sun is 400 times greater than the Moon’s diameter, whilst the Moon is approximately one-quarter the Earth’s diameter.
In one of the most beautiful displays of perfection and synchronicity known to Man, under certain conditions the disc of the Moon is able to completely blot out the light of the Sun, which throws a path of darkness over the surface of the Earth. It is an event known as a Total Solar Eclipse.
Due to its distance from the Sun and Earth, and the plane of its orbit when it comes between them, the Moon will periodically cover the face of the Sun in various degrees of obscuration. Thus we can have Total, Annular, Partial and Non Central eclipses.
The next one in the Saros cycle, is a Total Solar Eclipse, which will occur on Mar 29 2006 at 10.11:21 GMT for duration of 4 minutes and 7 seconds.
The area of darkness that the Moon’s shadow will cause is known as the path of totality. This eclipse has a path of totality that sweeps up from Brazil crossing the South Atlantic Ocean and making landfall through Togo, Benin. Nigeria, Niger, Chad,Libya and Egypt and then extending on up through Turkey and ending in Mongolia.
With the introduction of space probes such as SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory), those in scientific community are beginning to understand the forces that the Sun can have upon the Earth. Particular attention has been paid in recent years to the impact of Solar Flares and sunspots on the Earth.
In brief, sunspots are the visible affects of the Sun’s magnetic forces. Sunspots have now been shown to have the greatest affect upon life on Earth when they are either most prevalent at times of Solar Maximum (around 100 sunspots), or most absent (zero sunspots) known as Solar Minimum. In yet another display of collaboration within the Universe, this sunspot cycle lasts for around 11 years - just short of the Eclipse cycle, enfolded within the longer-term solar activity cycle that lasts for 80-90 years. (Known as the Gleisberg cycle).
At times of maximum sunspots the Earth’s gravitational field is severely impacted causing migratory animals to lose their bearings, whales to beach themselves and lose directional ability. Power outages occur, electronic equipment, including mobile phones can go haywire and satellites in space can even be destroyed. Conversely, between 1645 and 1715 in a period known as the ‘Maunder Minimum’, the lack of solar activity led to the period known as the Little Ice Age.
It is therefore safe to extrapolate that if alterations to the surface of the Sun causes recognisable terrestrial events, that the entire light of the Sun being obscured from the Earth is going to have enormous consequences. Something that observers of rhythm and pattern (also known as astrologers!) have known since the beginning of civilisation.
This upcoming eclipse is one of three in the last century to occur in the sky at the 8th degree of the zodiac (8 Aries). The other two were in 1968 and 1987. This one however is expected to be the most potent. We judge this by the fact that the other two were not total eclipses and they did not last for even one minute of time. This eclipse is 4 minutes and 07 seconds in length.
The fact that we also have planets aligning with the Galactic Centre at the time of this eclipse and in angular relationships (or harmonic resonance) with other planetary bodies will also prove significant.
Empirical evidence shows that eclipses have most impact on those countries that lie under the path of totality and those for whom the degree of the eclipse resonates with their birth moment in someway. By this I mean that any person, country or manifest object whose inception involves 8 degrees of the cardinal signs (Aries, Libra, Capricorn or Cancer) is likely to experience events that mirror the celestial event.
Using our theory of number underpinning the Universe, the conjunction of two planets is thought to resonate to the number one, the number of Unity. Within ‘Unity’ all that is enfolded will unfold in the course of the cycle and indeed, continue to unfold further through subsequent cycles.
As the disc of the Moon is symbolically ‘putting out’ the light of the Sun, this correlates with events, which possess a quality of death and rebirth ‘the ending of one phase of being and the beginning of a new’. As the cycle unfolds the Sun, Moon and other planets will make aspects to the original eclipse degree of 8 Aries, triggering International events at those places where the eclipse is either visible, or is rising or setting at that location, or makes transits to chart positions.
People (or any other thing made manifest) who are born on or around 29 March +/- 3 days in any year, will find their lives and fortunes resonate strongly to the Solar/Lunar cycles and in particular to future eclipse cycles.
In fact, if the planets are analogous to the mechanism of an intricate celestial clock, the revolutions involved in eclipses may truly be described as the markers of time - the important cycles of destiny.
Kathryn Cassidy is a professional astrologer. She was first taught by traditional astrologer, Derek Appleby and later worked with Sun sign astrologer Jonathan Cainer for four years before securing her own astrology column in an internationally distributed magazine - Journal.
She now hosts a blog called Collaborating With Fate http://collaboratingwithfate.blogspot.com
where she discusses all aspects of astrology, with an emphasis on planetary cycles and the harmonic rhythms inherent in our Universe.
Harmony Of The Spheres
Everyday we witness synchronicity in the Universe. There is a harmony to the planetary cycles and if we listen for the tune, and become acquainted with the rhythm, we can dance in synchrony with the song called Life.
In order to demonstrate to those who doubt, I want to talk a little more about the subject of harmony. Antoine de Saint-Exupery once wrote; “All that is essential is invisible to the eye.” He was clearly being philosophical in his musings. We cannot ’see’ Love or Consciousness but neither do we question whether they exist.
However, lets discuss the quote from a more tangible perspective.
Recently it was revealed that a new security deterrent has been launched on the market. It is a box, the size of a speaker, which can be mounted in ways akin to a CCTV camera. The device is placed in areas of high crime, or where youths tend to congregate on street corners. It has been shown that groups of teenagers cause distress and concern to elderly pedestrians, local shopkeepers and homeowners. The box emits a noise that is only audible to teenagers and those in their early twenties. The noise is so loud and irritating that the youths cannot bear to be around it for any length of time and quickly disperse.
This remarkable development is called a Mosquito The noise is delivered in high frequency, short wavelengths (pulses) and the device works on the fact that from our mid twenties, the human ear experiences a big drop in its ability to hear upper frequency sounds.
Let’s repeat the salient point; The device is totally inaudible to those above 25 years of age !
Now, we take it for granted that animals have different aural abilities. These ultrasonic devices are commonplace in the form of dog whistles or cat deterrents. However, what does this development indicate when it is apparent that a proportion of our population have access to information that the rest of us don’t?
We can be flip and cite this as the reason that teenagers like music which adults find distinctly unpleasurable - we now know they are literally hearing something different to us. The implications though are worthy of further sensible discussion, for this device takes ESP out of the realm of the occult and places it slap, bang into the High Street! It has to be viewed as a tacit vindication of those who have long professed to possess the gift of Clairaudience (the ability to hear things not audible within normal hearing ranges).
Our military forces have probably been using these techniques for years, just as they use remote viewing and other ESP techniques, yet deny their existence to the masses. However, what I want to focus on here is that this is yet another invisible force hidden within the usage of wavelength.
Our ethers are already full of invisible wavelengths - TV signals, phone and radio signals. Infrared. Microwave, X-ray, Gamma rays and yet we can see none of them. Some are discerned by us as noise, some as heat and, I would posit, some by an invisible feeling which we know as intuition.
It is apparent that by slight alterations in the length, amplitude and phasing of soundwaves their manifestation is altered in the physical world. At certain frequencies (speed of light) we can hear our favourite Radio chat show. Just a slight alteration and we may be able to tune into the nearest airport control tower or the telephone conversation of other people. What else are we able to tune into?
And furthermore what, or where, is the internal dial or mechanism which once found could allow us to naturally tune into ‘invisible to the eye’ information?
Did you know that the light which we ’see’ is really just an energy? The brightness at which we view a light source depends upon the number of photons which strike our eyes. Photons contain wave packets of information. A large number of photons mean the light source appears bright, fewer make it dimmer.
The colours that we perceive aren’t really there either. The colours that we do ’see’ are determined by the wavelength - a shorter wavelength makes us see something as blue-er, a longer wavelength appears redder. Fundamentally then, all electromagnetic radiations are the same but each carries a different energy. This energy is distributed in a wave pattern known as an harmonic. Thus all of life can ultimately be related back to a number.
When we look at the use of certain rhythmic frequencies we can also see that they possess a power. We all know the story of the opera singer who can shatter glass. Stories abound of string instruments which start playing themselves when notes of a similar frequency are played nearby. And let’s cast our minds back to the opening of the London Millennium Bridge.
Here, in an extract from Wikipedia, is what happened:
The Millennium Bridge opened in London on June 10, 2000 but unexpected lateral vibration (resonant structural response) caused the bridge to be closed just 2 days later for modifications. The movements were produced by the sheer numbers of pedestrians (90,000 users in the first day, with up to 2,000 on the bridge at any one time).
The bridge was on the route of a major charity walk and it was an exceptionally fine day. The initial small vibrations obliged the users to walk in synchronisation with the sway, increasing the effect, even when the bridge was comparatively lightly loaded at the beginning of the day. This swaying motion earned it the nickname the Wobbly Bridge. Attempts were made to limit the number of people crossing the bridge: this led to long queues, but dampened neither public enthusiasm for what was something of a white-knuckle ride, nor the vibrations themselves.
Resonant vibrational modes have been well understood in bridge design. However this was the first time a bridge had displayed this type of pedestrian excited lateral motion. This motion was caused by the human reaction to small lateral movements in the bridge, which set up a driven harmonic motion in the bridge.
The bridge had to be closed, not only because it was impassable but because these rhythms set up a vibration which has the power to damage the structure of the bridge.
Theories exist in esoteric literature that it was knowledge of this force that helped build the Pyramids. Certain rhythmic sound frequencies when used positively are said to have the power to levitate heavy objects, whilst when used at another vibrational frequency, sound has the power to destroy, such as in the fall of the Walls of Jericho - ‘the Priests blew the trumpets, the people shouted and the walls fell flat’.
Chording into the symphony that governs life is our avian population. Birds are thought to set up resonances through their song. These trigger certain manifestations in the natural world, such as the opening of certain flowers, or signals which order the behaviour of other wildlife, flora and fauna. Where the destruction of our birds would leave us in the event of a global ‘Bird Flu’ pandemic, is a subject worthy of great consideration.
There are infinite demonstrations of the synchrony in the Universe emanating from the harmonic rhythms which flow through every facet of life. Nowhere is this more readily available for scrutinisation than in the study of Zipf’s law.
ZIPF’S LAW
This law is known as a power law. Roughly translated it states that the frequency of occurrence of an event will eventually settle down into a harmonic arrangement. This law can be observed at work in a multitude of events. Amongst the most common are.
Frequency of accesses to web pages
Frequency of keyword usage in a search engine
Words in the English language
For instance, words in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet.
Populations of cities
Income Distribution amongst the top earning 3% of individuals
Size of earthquakes
Notes in musical performances
Revenue of corporations
Gold records by musical artist
Internet traffic by site
Names in a population
To take ‘Populations of cities’ as an example, George Kingsley Zipf took the population of 50 cities in the United States in 1930. He discovered that if New York was the largest, the second largest city has half the population of New York, the third largest has one third the population of New York and so on down until the 50th city which had exactly one fiftieth the population of New York. This holds true today and across the series of examples above and many others too.
The reason for this is not understood by physicists. Yet once again computers are now proving what many have known all along - the truth of Universal harmony.
Our World orders itself in natural rhythms. Our planets are part of that harmony (a harmony of the spheres) and it is my belief that the ancient art of Astrology remains one of the only disciplines that is able to translate the ‘music’ into a cohesive understanding, or an En-light-enment, of our place in the greater order of things.
Kathryn Cassidy is a professional astrologer. She was first taught by traditional astrologer, Derek Appleby and later worked with Sun sign astrologer Jonathan Cainer for four years before securing her own astrology column in an internationally distributed magazine - Journal.
She now hosts a blog called Collaborating With Fate http://collaboratingwithfate.blogspot.com
where she discusses all aspects of astrology, with an emphasis on planetary cycles and the harmonic rhythms inherent in our Universe.