Structural Astrology & the Total Eclipse

by Ysette Roces Guevara

Structural Astrology

It all started a little over a year ago, when Paul appended a postscript to one of his emails with a brief mention of the “Black Lights.” It sounded intriguing, so I asked him to elaborate, and he sent me a link to the Structural Astrology work of Charlotte Wenner.

Rooted in the astronomical findings of Kepler, Structural Astrology works with a primary set of eleven different points, eight of which were entirely unfamiliar to me. Because the field had been pioneered in France, disseminated orally, and further established in the Netherlands, there are very few resources to be found on the Internet.

© Charlotte Wenner, Structural Noetic Astrology Part 2: Processes of the Divine (forthcoming, 2024)

A few months later, John mentioned two of these points—the lunar bendings—in one of our sessions. My curiosity was piqued and I signed up for Charlotte’s masterclass on the ‘Invisible Luminaries’.

Before then, I embarked on a course with Monique Leurink. Her Diamond Astrology is adapted from some of the elements of Structural Astrology. Monique and Charlotte studied together under Dutch astrologer George Bode, who furthered the work started by the fathers of Structural Astrology, Dom Néroman and Jean Carteret.

Since diving into the domain of the Black Luminaries and the Lunar Nodal Cross, I have found myself returning again and again to some of the first principles of astrology. For if I hoped to make sense of the Black Moon and the Black Sun, I would have to ensure I had a rock-solid grasp of the regular Sun and Moon. What do we mean when we point to the Sun in a chart, or to the Moon?

At my request, Charlotte kindly published a YouTube video laying out the interrelationships between the Black and White luminaries. This helped, but consider just how many points, factors, and interpretations depend upon our understanding of the movements and interrelationship of the Sun, Moon and Earth, e.g. the Ascendant, natal and progressed Moon phases, the lunar nodes and their cycle, the Parts of Fortune and Spirit…

Structural Astrology has helped me visualize the astronomical movements of the luminaries in the heavens, and adjust my theoretical understanding of those bodies accordingly. I could see the potential for the solar eclipse on April 8 seeding that energy in body and soul, with Sun, Moon, and Chiron coming together a degree off my MC, within 2 degrees of my Mars/Venus conjunction, and close to my lunar S.Node.

Total Eclipse

Credit: Dave Sidaway / Montreal Gazette

I started preparing weeks ahead and on April 8th arrived on site, in a Montreal park, an hour early so I could get quiet and go inward. I was prepared and yet not prepared.

The overwhelming beauty of this planet has moved me to tears before, but as the Moon darkened the Sun, I gasped and wept, was shocked and transported. So much of that experience remains wordless. Yet even as I type this, the fiery Being who manifested that day—who showed herself in full, glorious totality for a minute and a half—comes alive in me.

The first time I revisited the eclipse energy I was shown that because I was so present for the eclipse, I was able to take in the fullness of her sublimity. Yet retrospectively, I felt not only my own habitual inattentiveness to the luminaries, but also the full weight of humanity’s general inattentiveness over millennia. A tidal wave of emotion crashed over me when I processed the extent to which we human beings fail to revel in the divine majesty of our Sun and Moon.

Even when we think we are appreciating the Sun—for example, by enjoying its warmth on our skin and lightening our hearts in resonance—we cannot gaze upon its face. We take it in only obliquely.

The Moon is what makes it possible to gaze upon the light of the Sun in ways that are bearable. When she adorns our night sky, she reflects the Sun’s light softly, gently. And when she intercepts the Sun’s path during an eclipse, she gives us an opportunity to take in a fraction of the Sun at full potency—but only for a brief glimpse.

When my husband and I compared our post-eclipse notes, he started laughing because he realized that—as ridiculous as it sounded—he had regarded the event as decidedly solar, and hadn’t even spared a thought to the Moon. The timing was not right for him to open to the eclipse on the day, but he subsequently received its gifts in perfect timing. Since then, he has been endeavoring to find the balance between the Sun and Moon in himself.

The metaphysical gifts of the eclipse have also had a surprisingly practical impact on us. A roller coaster sequence of events with our housing led us to experience the eclipse totality in Montreal. Realizing this, we were both able to connect deeply and sincerely with the vibration of gratitude. It felt like a step toward wholeness in what has been a long, often dark journey.

April 24, 2024