Solar ECLIPSE May 20 2012
*****
SEE BELOW ON THE SUN SIGN TABLE FOR PERSONAL EFFECTS ON YOUR LIFE OF THE APPROACHING ECLIPSES.
ECLIPSES SET A THEME FOR THE FOLLOWING SIX MONTHS.
There is a Solar Eclipse on May 20th 2012 at 0 degrees Gemini followed by a Lunar Eclipse on June 4th 2012 at 14 degrees Sagittarius. Both the Solar Eclipse and Lunar Eclipse are square Mars in Virgo - the Lunar more closely than the Solar - so in general it will be a time of irritation and aggravation. Though this May Solar Eclipse is in a Saros series which Bernadette Brady (The Eagle and the Lark) describes as being one which brings success in contrast to last December's which presaged confusion - emotionally and financially. This one will tend to bring a long sought after breakthrough though it does require effort and determination.
KEYS to Houses.
Saros Cycles
Previous Solar Eclipses in this series occurred in: 1994, 1976, 1958, 1940, 1922, 1904.
PERSONAL EFFECTS
Eclipses set major personal themes for your next six months depending on your Sun sign. Eclipses demand you live life in a new way which does take effort and offer an opportunity. If you get a grip and make much needed changes then you will avoid crisis. If you meet the challenges posed by the eclipses then those areas of your life will improve enormously. Have a look also at your rising or ascendant sign. Eclipses do have a powerful effect on personal birth charts, and you can find out precisely what effect by selecting your ascendant sign below.
House table below.
Aries
The Solar Eclipse on May 20th says you need to get yourself better organised in coming months and manage your time well. The Lunar Eclipse on June 4th hints that you should not get too bogged down in detail but remember the big picture as well.
Taurus
The Solar Eclipse of May 20th in Gemini says getting a grip of your finances will help you build security ahead. You may be tempted to throw money around to impress but you'll be better to see what you can do to improve your situation. The Lunar Eclipse of June 4th says you need to take partners into account when making cash decisions. This has to be a time to share and co-operate.
Gemini
The Solar Eclipse in Gemini on May 20th is important to you especially if you are born in late May. You are at a crossroads and must take decisions about your path ahead. It's your life and should be your decisions. The Lunar Eclipse in Sagittarius on June 4th says you must review one close partnership and decide what adjustmenets are needed to get a more fulfilling bond. If that is not possible then you must move on.
Cancer
The Solar Eclipse on May 20th in Gemini, the sign before yours, says you need to give yourself time for inner reflection and to put the past into perspective. Regard it as more of a time for inner rather than outer work. The Lunar Eclipse of June 4th in Sagittarius says that staying fit and healthy is important. Also that you do need to attend to chores no matter how much you'd prefer to sit quietly and think.
Leo
The Solar Eclipse on May 20th in Gemini says you will be widening your circle of friends in coming months and setting your sights on far horizons. The Lunar Eclipse on June 4th in Sagittarius says you must include loved ones in your friendship circle and give time for fun as well as setting plans.
Virgo
The Gemini Solar Eclipse of May 20th is at your Midheaven so pushing to make your mark at work or in your community activities is crucial. Don;t hide your talents away. Get out there and insist others recognise what you can do. The Lunar Eclipse in Sagittarius on June 4th says you also have to keep a balance with time left over for home and family matters.
Libra
The Gemini Solar Eclipse on May 20th is all about broadening your horizons and injecting more adventure into your life in coming months. The Lunar Eclipse on June 4th in Sagittarius says get your everyday life organised better as well.
Scorpio
The Gemini Solar Eclipse on May 20th says you need to change the habits of a lifetime, alter the way you share, care, co-operate and engage with others whether over cash or love. The Lunar Eclipse in Sagittarius on June 4th says that maintaining a balance by meeting your own needs as well as those of others is vital.
Sagittarius
The Solar Eclipse in Gemini, your opposite sign, on May 20th is all about close relationships. Do you need to be less self sufficient, more adaptable or adjust in other ways to make your closest liaison work better. Sagittarius The Lunar Eclipse in Sagittarius on June 4th says that not forgetting your own needs it vital as well.
Capricorn
The Gemini Solar Eclipse on May 20th hints that you'll have a heavier work schedule over coming months so need to stay fit to be on good form. The Lunar Eclipse of June 4th says give yourself quality time for reflection and winding down as well.
Aquarius
The Solar Eclipse in Gemini on May 20th says you need more fun, more affection and romance in your life. If you are not getting enough then you need to hand out more kisses and compliments and they will come back to you. The June 4th Lunar Eclipse in Sagittarius says you shouldn't forget your friends since they will point the way ahead for you.
Pisces
The Solar Eclipse in Gemini on May 20th is at the base of your chart so you need to focus on home and family affairs for a while as your priority. The Lunar Eclipse in Sagittarius on June 4th says you should not forget your work or community ambitions at the same time.
1: Personal identity, being independent, steering your own boat.
2: Personal finances, values & priorities
3: Everyday routines, communications, need to be efficient.
4: Home, family, roots, career slows down.
5: Romance, social life, children, fun, wanting to be adored.
6: Health and work, stamina is important.
7: Close relationships, adjustments needed, maybe new ones.
8: Joint finances, sex, and major change.
9: Travel, new interests, broadening horizons.
10: Career push, make your name.
11: New friends, taking a larger social role, planning long term
12: Hidden matters, quiet time, self understanding.
Astrologers look at two key factors which affect the strength and meaning of an eclipse. One is the Saros cycle, an odd 223 month cycle, amazingly pin pointed by the Chaldeans of Mesopotamia nearly 5000 years ago, who noted that eclipses occur in the same sequence every 18 years 11 days ( 6585.32 days). These saros cycles are numbered and have astrological meanings.
The July 11 2010 Cancer Solar Eclipse was in a series described as bringing 'successful outcomes to a long standing worry' which fitted beautifully with the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill getting sorted and the oil dispersing rapidly off the ocean surface.
The January 26 2009 Partial Solar Eclipse had Jupiter close by which should bring a morale boost and it is in a series that Bernadette Brady describes as easy with ‘change’ being the main theme. Which certainly fits the Obama Inauguration a few days before.
Places on the axis which will be focal points of attention – are Afghanistan with the Eclipse at the midheaven; London and Scandanavia with the Solar Eclipse exactly on the Ascendant; Japan with the Eclipse on the Descendant; and Western USA and Canada with the Eclipse on the I.C. Washington, DC has hard working, obstacle ridden Saturn conjunct MC opposition the unsettled Uranus in the 4th. Washington also has Pluto, Mars, Mercury in the 2nd so much aggravation around money no doubt.
It occurred before in Nov 1900, Dec 1918, Dec 1936, Dec 1954, Jan 1973, Jan 1991
***** The April 05 Solar eclipse certainly lived up to its reputation for creating challenging events for the USA and American Presidents, as well as overseeing death experiences in the UK (see below at Look See). The path of this total eclipse ran directly through the areas of the USA most affected by Hurricane Katrina.
ECLIPSE APRIL 05
Total Solar eclipse on April 8 2005 at 19 degrees Aries in 7 North Saros Series.
According to Bernadette Brady this is a powerfully energetic eclipse bringing passion, sensuality, lust and creative enterprises. Its impact won’t be subtle and can catch people unawares, bringing to the surface deeply buried feelings and desires which have been lying dormant. It occurred before in 1915 (February 14), 1933 (February 24), 1951 (March 7), 1969 March 18), 1987 (March 29). See below for Sun sign effects of this Solar Eclipse as well as for the Lunar Eclipse of April 24th.
Mundane Events: This is an eclipse series which seems to accompany challenging events for USA, especially American Presidents. The path of this eclipse falls across the USA and South America. In 1933 there was an assassination attempt on President Elect F. D. Roosevelt. In 1951 President Truman fired General MacArthur for threatening publicly to atomic bomb China. In 1969 newly elected President Nixon secretly starts the bombing of Cambodia; James Earl Ray is convicted of murdering Martin Luther King, and in the months following Senator Edward Kennedy’s car crash at Chappaquiddick with the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, and the Manson Gang murder of Sharon Tate catch the headlines. In 1987 President Reagan accepts full responsibility for the Iran-Contra scandal. It also accompanied major historical events for Germany and Chinese border disputes with Japan and Russia.
** PREVIOUS 7 NORTH SERIES ECLIPSES:
1915 (February 14): World War One is in its second year. February 2 the German start a submarine blockade of the UK to break the economy. 19th February the British and French fleet bombard the Turks at Dardenelles. The Second Battle of Ypres is waged. In January and April 1915 poison chlorine gas is used for the first time in warfare, by the Germans. D. W. Griffith’s movie “The Birth of a Nation” is released in the USA. It is slated as racist for its Klu Klux Klan sympathies.
**1933 (February 24): Hitler is appointed German Chanellor on January 30th. On February 15th there is a failed assassination attempt on the life of President Elect F.D.Roosevelt, but the Mayor of Chicago is fatally wounded. February 23 to March 12th, the Japanese Army advances into China, despite a League of Nations report proclaiming that Manchuria belongs to China. February 27th a fire destroys the Reichstag, German parliament buildings, and Hitler orders civil liberties and press freedom to be suspended. The first concentration camp at Dachau opens on March 20.
** 1951 (March 7): On March 7 the Prime Minister of Iran is assassinated. On March 6 Ivor Novello dies. On March 19 France, West Germany, Italy and the Benelux States sign a treaty to create a European Coal and Steel Community which is the forerunner of the European Union. In April president Truman relieves General MacArthur of his command in Korea for publicly calling for war China using atomic bombs. In July King Abdullah of Jordan is assassinated in Jerusalem.
** 1969 (March 18): In February the maiden flight of the jumbo Boeing 747 takes place. On March 2 the prototype of the supersonic airliner Concorde makes its test flight. On March 3 to 13 the US Apollo 9 tests the lunar module in orbit in preparation for the first crewed landing on the Moon with Neil Armstrong in July. On March 10th James Earl Ray is convicted of murdering Martin Luther King in April 1968. 25th March a military government takes over in Pakistan amid violence. Arab 8 Arab**this is a joyful, optimistic eclipse with better news, falling in love or a peak experience – the good feelings should last for the months to come. It occurred before in 1985 (Nov 12); 1967 (Nov 2); 1949 (21 Oct); 1931 (Oct 11) and 1913 (30 Sept). See below for Sun sign effects.
Mundane Events: Interestingly the British Mandatte in Iraq was terminated in the year following the 1931 eclipse of this series, so history may repeat. In 1949 France handed back sovereignty to Vietnam. In 1967, the UK left Aden and the People’s Republic of South Yemen was proclaimed. In 1985 the Ango-Irish agreement was signed echoing the mood of the 1913 eclipse of this series when the Irish Home Rule Bill was first introduced. But other events seem less upbeat.
**1985: 25,000 killed in a Colombia volcanic eruption the day after the eclipse. The Ango-Irish agreement signed, two days later. Egyptian commandos storm a hijacked aircraft in Malta with 60 killed. In the months following - General Zia ends martial law in Pakistan. 2 French agents are imprisoned for sinking of Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior. USA imposes sanctions on and then bombs Libya. The space shuttle Challenger explodes. Sweden’s PM Olaf Palme is assassinated. Russia’s nuclear station Chernobyl melts down.
**1967: UK leaves Aden – South Yemen comes into existence. The foot & mouth epidemic is raging in UK. There are major anti-Vietnam public demonstrations. Just before the eclipse: - Che Guevara is executed. Egypt sinks an Israeli destroyer in the aftermath of the 6 Day War (June 1967).
**1949: End of the Greek Civil War six days before. In the month following France hands back Vietnam. Israel moves its capital from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in the face of a UN Resolution for the internationalization of Jerusalem. First riots in Spotuh Africa against thhhhe government’s racial policy. Jo McCarthy is given the go ahead for his anti-communist hearings.
**1931: Concern over Japanese aggression in Mancuria. The month before there are riots in UK over economy measures. A Franco-USA loan is given to the UUUK.
**1913: In Northern Ireland the Unionists appoint their own provisional government to take place when the Irish Home Rule Bill takes effect. In the following month the Serbs invade Albania. Mahatma Gandhi is arrested. The Greek-Turkish Treaty is signed.
Solar Eclipse
May 31 2003 at 9 degrees Gemini in Saros Series 5 North.
This solar eclipse was most visible in clear weather from Greenland and the north of Scotland(UK). The eclipse path also covers the Pacific off USA’s west coast, China, Russia, Asia and north India as well as the Middle East to the west coast of Africa. According to Bernadette Brady this is an unusual eclipse series, bringing sudden intuitions, flashes of inspiration, dreams with hints of future events. Highly creative, it should bring personal fulfilment. Huncches can be acted on. Previous eclipses in this series were on May 19 1985; May 9 1967; April 28 1949; April 18 1931; and April 6 1913. Although major events have not fallen on the exact day, it would appear to have special relevance for Spain, Europe, USA and the Middle East.
1913: April: Attempted assassination of King Alfonso X111 of Spain.
1931: April: King Alfonso X111 of Spain abdicates as republicans win election. Egypt signs treaty with Iraq.
June: US President Herbert Hoover proposes moratorium on World War 1 reparations and Inter-Allied debts.
1949: April: The US Marshall Plan for European Recovery Programme is launched in the aftermath of World War 11. Arthur Miller wins Pulitzer for Death of a Salesman.
May: Council of Europe is established. Israel is admitted to the UN.
July: Israel & Syria agree an armistice.
1967: May: The Bertrandd Russell International War Crimes Tribunal in SStockholm **l chart was also triggered by this eclipse and the ones coming until late 2003, as they all aspect the major mutable T square of Jupiter, Mercury & Uranus in Sagittarius opposing Pluto & Neptune in Gemini squaring onto Mars in Virgo - provoking violent energy, anger, and great concern.
June 21 20001:
The Solar Eclipse (partial) on JUNE 21 2001 at 0 degrees Cancer was in the 3 North Saros series. It brings on a slightly manic, excitably determined mood, with over expansiveness in some area of life. Jupiter's passage into Cancer in July only encouraged the tendency to take on large scale plans without an eye to practical consequences. It occurred before in 1983, 1965, 1947, 1929, 1911.
It clearly affected the USA chart which is highly Cancerian, (and George W. Bush's also Cancerian) creating a mood of national crisis and the need to take action to regain control of identity. The war on Afghanistan was launched on the over confident (might-makes-right) self justifying Mars Jupiter opposition in early October. Afghanistan itself has a Cancer Sun chart.
1983:The Ayatollah Khomeini declared Islam to be a "religion of the sword". The Soviets shoot down a South Korean Boeing 747, claiming it was on a spying mission. Violence in India leads to direct Government control of the Punjab. US Marines invade Grenada. Suicide bombers kill 300+ peacekeeping soldiers in Beirut. IRA bomb Harrods in London. Violence in Chile and Philippines against Pinochet and Marcos. Mount Etna had a four month eruption. A tsunami wave,49 foot high, in Japan and Korea, killed 100. Hurricane Alicia causes $2 billion damage in Texas. The first mouse used in a pc; the first laptop pc produced in USA.
1965: Soviet cosmonaut is first man walking in space. Start of regular US bombing of North Vietnam, and first combat troops, rising sharply to 200,000 by December. Civil rights demonstrations and violence in USA. Radical black leader Malcolm X killed. India invades West Pakistan and bombs Lahore. Rhodesia declares independence unilaterally.
1947: British rule in India ends in August; violence follows partition. India Kashmir dispute. UN plan for partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab zones provokes violence. Wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip in November in London.
1929: HHighest point on bull market on US stock market precedes the crash in late October which starts the Great Depression. St Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago. Arabs attack Jews in Palestine over use of Wailing wall.
1911: Famine in Russia affects 30 million. Floods in China kill 100,000. Albanian revolt. Italy declares war on Ottoman Empire and annexes Libya. Revolution in China. German gunboats land in Morocco. Assassination attempt against French PM. Russian PM assassinated. 24 Japanese anarchists executed for trying to kill the Emperor. Woman suffragists riot in London. Demonstrations in Ireland against Home Rule. Mona Lisa stolen. Coronation of King George V in London.
EARTHQUAKES & AGRICULTURAL EPIDEMICS:
DELAYED EFFECTS
What is of interest astrologically is that the path of the August 1999 total solar eclipse in the 1 North Saros cycle series (see below) which rose in the Eastern seaboard of the USA, then crossed the UK, curving down across Afghanistan, Pakistan to finish in southern India. It may seem too far back to connect this eclipse to events in 2001 OR 2002. Except there were major aspects to that 1999 Leo eclipse from Saturn in Taurus, Mars in Scorpio, Uranus & Neptune in Aquarius. At the time there was little outward sign of the kind of events such a powerhouse of influences might have suggested. But in January 2001 the same aspects recurred with Mars returning for the first time since 1999 to Scorpio, and along with the Aquarian Sun picking up the tale end of the waning, disruptive Saturn Uranus square.
DISASTERS
At precisely the time those aspects repeated the devastating Gujarat earthquake in central western India on January 26 2001 - exactly on the 1999 eclipse path - occurred as these aspects all came together again. The catastrophic national foot & mouth epidemic in the UK, also started around this time. Both UK and India have very fixed charts with major planetary configurations in Taurus, Leo, Scorpio or Aquarius, which were especially triggered off by the eclipse and these transitting planets in fixed signs.
Even later still in late March 2002, when Mars again in a fixed sign - Taurus - running into the square to Uranus, coincided with a major earthquake in Afghanistan, also on that 1999 eclipse path.
USA/Japan Money Worries
The USA has a highly cardinal chart, mainly Cancer and Capricorn, so may have escaped the worst effects, tthough the first major economic recession for years is clearly beginning to bite there, and anxieties in the Far Eastern markets especially about Japan have been a contributing factor. Although Japan was not on the path of the 1999 eclipse, it clearly resonates to the 1 North Saros cycle eclipses, since a previous one fell in 1945, weeks away from the dropping of the Hiroshima bomb. In early 2001 the admission that Japan's economy was at the point of collapse was finally made.
ADDITIONAL NOTE:
Obviously the September 11 2001 plane attacks on the USA eastern seaboard could also be marked down on this destructive eclipse path. This all provides more questions that answers at the present moment but is worth watching for the future that eclipse effects can be delayed, especially where the eclipse path is concerned, in certain cases for some years. The eclipse path joining the UK to Germany & Europe fell in June 1936 and war did not break out for another three years.
Eclipses of the Sun and Moon occur regularly every six months. The solar and lunar eclipse always fall two weeks apart, on the New Moon and the Full Moon. Some eclipses are partial, and thus less powerful from an astrological viewpoint but even total solar eclipses happen almost every year.
Lunar eclipses, when visible, can be easily seen by half the earth's population, but solar eclipses can only be seen on the path of the eclipse trajectory, which varies every time. The total solar eclipse of August 11th 1999 was seen (cloud cover permitting) from places on a narrow band from the US Eastern seaboard, through Cornwall, north France, down through Europe, Belgrade, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan, India. The last time a total eclipse was seen was in Britain was in 1927, when novelist Virginia Woolf recorded in her diary "...it was an astonishing moment... We had seen the world dead".
At the simple level of sun sign astrology eclipses focus the attention of each of the 12 star signs (from Aries to Pisces) on a different area of their lives where they need to pick up the ball and run with it. Where the focus falls personally for you will depend on which sign the eclipse falls. (See table below). A passive wait-and-see approach, burying your head in the sand, usually does not work. You either volunteer to make radical changes, or they are involuntarily forced on you. Some change is inevitable but you do have a choice about how you handle it.
We do know there is evidence in nature of a tangible response to eclipse atmosphere in nature. Monkeys get nervous and waken up during eclipses, even when hidden by clouds. Mistletoe sap rises significantly. My own impression from working in a mental hospital, is that psychological disturbances become heightened, since the intake in the acute admission wards always went up in the days around eclipses. So human behaviour responds both personally and collectively, alongside nature to the little understood physical changes which occur in our universe during eclipses.
The theme set by the eclipses is felt most powerfully in the month preceding and following the eclipse date, but usually sets a tone for the six months ahead until the next eclipse. The eclipses also highlight areas in the personal birth chart. If you know your planetary positions, and find your ascendant sign, then read the meaning for that as well as your birthday (Sun) star sign.
For the astro-buffs, the eclipses also aspect planets on the personal chart. To take a tragic example, in the personal birth charts of both John F. Kennedy Jnr, and his sister Caroline, there is an Aquarian Moon opposing Uranus in Leo. This was exactly on last year's August eclipse axis, which started its trajectory on the Eastern seaboard where JFK Jnr was tragically killed only a few days before. Emotional upsets of a dramatically sudden nature were to be expected.
Although astrologers do not see eclipses as necessarily disaster-ridden they do appear to coincide with significant outer events, sometimes with uncanny precision. The Chernobyl disaster, when the Russian nuclear power station melted down sending out a nuclear fallout greater than 1000 Hiroshima bombs, occurred on the day of a lunar eclipse on 24th April 1986. The Titanic sank on April 15 1912 only two days before a Solar eclipse with the loss of 1500 lives. Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment (1964) and made President of South Africa (1994) on the exact day of solar eclipses; and was released from prison two days after a lunar eclipse (1992).
The 1 North eclipse last August which warned of health problems, and cautioned against hasty decisions was previously around 18 years before in 1981. Two days before the solar eclipse in July 1981, Prince Charles and Princess Diana were married, which is perhaps a case in point. Eeriely this 1 North eclipse, which over shadowed the recent tragic death of John F. Kennedy, was the one in place when his premature baby brother, Patrick Kennedy, died in 1963 on August 9, two weeks after the solar eclipse of July 20th, and only four months before the assassination of J.F.K. in November. Rolling back to 1945 to another 1 North eclipse influence, American forces dropped the world's first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing 130,000 people, four weeks after the solar eclipse.
The Solar Eclipse falling July 1st 2000 is in the Saros series which was previously operating on the day Nelson Mandela was imprisoned in 1964, 2 Old North, also occurred on the day of the birth of the Queen's grandson and second in succession to the throne, Prince William. This cycle hints at separations, and major challenges, though with a long term hopeful outcome. Mandela's release from prison in 1992 was two days after the same 10 North lunar eclipse as oversaw his birth in 1918. When he became President in 1994, it was on the day of the 14 South solar eclipse in Taurus generally though to bring breakthroughs, and success after a long period of hard work.
Eclipsed Countries: Britain
Certain countries appear to resonate more strongly to specific Saros cycle eclipses. The 18 North solar eclipse fell only a day after the death of Princess Diana in a Paris car crash in 1997. Rolling back 18 years 11 days to the previous 18 North solar eclipse, Earl Mounbatten, the Queen's uncle, was killed along with three others by an IRA bomb, only five days after the total solar eclipse. The Fastnet Yacht Race disaster also occurred in the same month, with 17 yachstmen drowned. Back one to 1961, this eclipse was fell five weeks after Princess Diana's birth, and within two days of the Brandeburg Gate being closed and the building of the Berlin Wall began. In 1944, close to the 1 North lunar eclipse, the heaviest German bombing raids on London since 1941 were taking place, with the Royal Family still in residence. Back to 1926, the 18 North cycle oversaw the births of the two most powerful women in 20th Century British history. In 1926 the lunar eclipse was closest to the present Queen's own birth; and in the previous year the 18 North solar eclipse was the cycle in place within weeks of Margaret Thatcher's birth. Back again to 1908 and the King and Crown Prince of Portugal were assassinated within two weeks of the 18 North lunar eclipse.
Other powerful British figures died or saw their effective careers end under the influence of 11 North eclipses. Queen Victoria died in 1901, and two cycles later, her grandson Edward V11 abdicated the throne in 1937 for love of Wallis Simpson. One cycle later in 1955, the great British statesman and war Prime Minister Winston Churchill resigned through ill health. Two 18 year 11 day cycles later in 1991, Mrs Thatcher, Britain's first woman, and longest serving Prime Minister of the century, was forced to resign. These events did not occur on the day itself but within the weeks surrounding the eclipses, but it is still astonishing that they happened in these specific sequence years.
America
The surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on 7th December 1941, which destroyed 8 battleships and 300 aircraft, and brought the US into World War 11, followed ten weeks after the 16 North solar eclipse. This eclipse had peaked in its trajectory across the heavens exactly above Pearl Harbour. On the following 16 North eclipse phase in 1959, the Cuban Government expropriated US owned sugar mills and plantations. One 18+ year cycle later, the 'King' Elvis Presley died 8 weeks away from the 16 North solar eclipse. Roll on another 18+ years to the autumn of 1995, and America still a country in shock from the Oaklahoma bombing earlier that year, was obsessed by the O.J. Simpson trial which brought in a 'not guilty' verdict three weeks before the 16 North Solar eclipse.
The Gulf War
The best example of eclipse-coinciding events, where the eclipses are heavily aspected by outer planets is the Gulf War. Saddam Hussein gathered his troops on the Kuwait border in July 1990 three days before the solar eclipse in Cancer on July 22nd 1990, opposed by the awesome triple conjunction of Saturn, Uranus and Neptune in Capricorn. The lunar eclipse two weeks later on August 6th, in Leo, aspected by a threatening Mars Pluto opposition saw the UN impose sanctions, and US troops moving in.
The next solar eclipse on January 15th 1991 in Capricorn was aspected again by the massively powerful triple conjunction, and one day later Operation Desert Storm launched against the Iraquis.