Have you made your total solar eclipse party plans yet? While several eclipses happen every year, and astrologers always clock them, the one happening on April 8 is kind of a big deal because it’s actually going to be visible to a lot of people reading this. (Hopefully you already have your eclipse glasses; I am not a scientist or a doctor but I know the one way you can’t watch an eclipse is by looking directly at it, even with sunglasses. Safety first!) The magnitude of being able to watch a total solar eclipse live perfectly encapsulates the importance of eclipses in astrology: They are times of intensity, excitement, and (sometimes) chaos, when great, swift change and growth are possible, pushing us further on our soul’s journey.

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When is the April 2024 Aries solar eclipse and can you see it?

We’ll experience a total solar eclipse on Monday, April 8, 2024 at 2:18 p.m. ET at 19 degrees and 22 seconds of Aries. A solar eclipse happens when the moon and sun line up and, from our perspective, the moon blocks out the sun. However, a total solar eclipse, as NASA tells us “is only possible when the Moon is closer to Earth than average.” If you happen to live in the umbra or path of totality, you’ll experience a total solar eclipse; all of us in the penumbra will get a partial one. For instance, here at Allure’s headquarters in NYC, we’ll have 90% visibility (meaning there will still be a tiny sliver of sun peeking out from behind the moon) but the path of totality will go through 15 U.S. states as well as some of Mexico and Canada. You can see precise maps of where the eclipse will be visible here.

While the eclipse physically happens on one day for only a few minutes, New York-based astrologer and National Council for Geocosmic Research board member John Marchesella looks for events two weeks before the first eclipse, the two weeks in between eclipses, and the two weeks post-eclipse giving a total of six weeks in eclipse season. You may recognize this pattern from when a planet transits an important part in your chart. If your Saturn return is coming up, for example, you will start to feel it as soon as Saturn enters the sign your return is in as well as while it is approaching.

How can solar eclipses affect you, astrologically speaking?

Like lunar eclipses, solar eclipses align with the moon’s nodes, invisible points in the solar system where the sun’s ecliptic and the moon’s orbital path intersect. We might expect lunar eclipses to be more ruled by the moon, having to do with emotions, feelings and our inner world and solar eclipses to be more about shining in the world with events that are more outwardly obvious. But this is not always the case: What might be an inner experience for one person (like the deep reflection they do leading to a decision to end a relationship) will turn out to be a complete, front-facing shock to the person on the receiving end of that growth.

We do know that, since this eclipse is on the north node, it’s about transitioning into something new. But don’t expect a huge change all at once on the eighth: Marchesella tells us that that point in the sky where the eclipse occurred remains active for as long as six months or even a year after. Even if you don’t notice anything when the eclipse happens, when the sun comes to to square (a 90 degree angle) three months later, it will once again trigger the eclipse energy, creating what Marchesella calls an “eclipse aftershock.”

This eclipse is in Aries. What does that mean?

The eclipse is happening in Aries — a sign of independence, invention, and initiation — which means the event is likely to be about finding our individuality. Aries is the first sign of the zodiac, marking the beginning of the astrological year and the spring equinox. Aries is so important that astrologers can read a chart for when the sun goes into Aries (this year that was March 19 at 11:07 p.m.) and it can be used to predict what the whole year will be about for the collective from that location. In the metaphor where each sign is a human baby learning about the world, Aries is “I am.” While they can be known for being very concerned with themselves and their world, they are also people whose dynamic, charismatic, powerful energy we need. One would expect the eclipse to be about embodying the lesson of individuating oneself.

How do we know the significance of this particular eclipse?

Each eclipse is part of a series of eclipses that the Babylonians charted in the 600-700s B.C.E called the Saros series. Looking at a list of eclipses in a given year, they will seem random but the Babylonians found eclipses do follow a pattern, albeit one that can only be seen over thousands of years. A series starts when a small partial eclipse happens at one pole of the earth. Every 18 years, another eclipse happens diagonally in longitude from the previous one. Six hundred and fifty years later, there is a total eclipse at the equator, half way through its cycle. And 2300 years later, the cycle ends at the opposite pole. About 42 cycles are all happening simultaneously over a given period. This phenomenon is well accepted and documented by not only astrologers but also astronomers.