Aries Ram-Raid 2025: Part 4

The Emperor, The Solstice and The Elk

Wikimedia Commons: Partial solar eclipse, Torquay, UK, on 29th March 2025, 10:48, projected with a homemade telescope.

This morning’s partial solar eclipse took place at nine degrees of Aries, corresponding with the first decan of Aries. The Tarot cards are The Emperor, and the Two of Wands.

The sun was obscured by up to 93% by the New Moon in Aries, so this was a deep partial eclipse. (A solar eclipse happens at a New Moon, while a lunar eclipse happens at a Full Moon.) Culturally speaking, eclipses have been regarded throughout history as highly significant, but not benevolent omens in terms of their meaning for world events. An eclipse marks an ending or a turning point but the full effects are not immediate.

An eclipse in Aries is expected to manifest its agenda or effects more quickly, by virtue of the very nature of Aries itself, which is fast acting, and we have seen a truly terrible earthquake happening in Myanmar and Thailand, not on the track of this eclipse, but very close in time, and closely coinciding with the imminent entry of Neptune into Aries 30 March. The ancient Greek name for Neptune was Poseidon, nicknamed The Earthshaker. I mentioned in a recent post that I was expecting to see seismic events featuring in the news at this time, though I was thinking in terms of the Aegean.

This is a story board for this morning’s eclipse, as told in Tarot cards…

From the Smith Waite Centennial Tarot

The Emperor

The archetype of Aries is represented in the Tarot deck by The Emperor, ruled by Mars, planet of action and fertility, and this Martian fertility applies to crops too.

Notice his armour, and the ram’s heads adorning his throne. The Emperor is in his maturity, now, and so we see him sitting, his campaigning days on horseback largely behind him. The Emperor stands for order, organization and the Rule of Law. The Emperor may represent the Government, a leader, a employer, a military man or a worker in the Emergency services or a family man. He may be an able administrator, a boss, an employer, but a good one.

The Emperor seeks to claim territory and consolidate territory and to create and impose order in that territory. At his best, he rules wisely, with care and justice. He may represent the best of fathers, husbands, brothers, the men we love.

He will fight if necessary. He will go to war, if that is what it takes to defend his territory and honour his obligations. He will do what it takes to defend his people and his loved ones. At his worst, drawn in his reversed dignity, he is a bully, an overbearing or inefficient bureaucrat, or a petty tyrant, a dictator and a warmonger. Ill dignified, he is the aggressor. The Emperor card may mean an army in the collective sense, just as it may mean a government. It may mean War.

For us at the individual level, this eclipse talks about changes of circumstances affecting our job, or sudden changes that may involve our father or or husband or partner during the next six months or so. It may be warning us of an increased risk of accidents or head injuries during this time. It warns against haste and speed.

The Emperor sees the big picture. He has a duty to all, and he will apply due process without fear or favour, but at his best he is as devoted as he is impartial, fair and even handed. He is needed, and he needs to be needed. Now he has a purpose and a calling.

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength but loving someone deeply gives you courage.”― Lao Tzu

Photo by Ante Hamersmit on Unsplash

And then, because this eclipse has happened at nine degrees of Aries, we also have the Two of Wands.

From the Smith Waite Centennial Tarot

Card Meanings: vision, ambition, trade, exports, deals, entrepreneurship, agreements, partnerships, government, meetings, the world is my oyster. Reversed: fear of the unknown, overweening ambition, lack of planning, delays and disappointments

First decan Aries seeks power and often has great charisma too. But one of the nicknames of this card is ‘The Melancholy of Alexander,’ referring to the restlessness of Alexander the Great, who won great lands but was never satisfied. We see parallels with the messages of this card, and with President Trump’s his deal-making approach to the geopolitical war in Ukraine, and in Gaza, and recent provocative statements about Canada, Greenland and Denmark.

Donald Trump’s statesmanship may leave something to be desired, but is he right about China and Russia’s interest in Greenland’s mineral resources? And the Arctic. He probably is, according to this article from 2018: How Greenland Could Become China’s Arctic Base. Vladimir Putin appears to give given President Trump the nod on Greenland. Nice for Denmark. But what about the Russian interest in Svalbard, and the Svalbard Treaty of 1920, which agreed Norwegian sovereignty of Svalbard, and which Russia also signed? March 24, 2025 Russia targets Svalbard in Arctic Power Grab

This eclipse at 9 degree of Aries, The Emperor and the Two of Wands says this political hot potato is not cooling down any time soon.

I was looking out for the eclipse this morning, watching out of the window, but it was too cloudy. I settled instead for feeding this duck and doing a rune cast to mark the eclipse.

One simple method, which I used for this spread, is to shake up the bag of runes, and tip them out on to the field, and let them fall as they may. The field can simply be a plain piece of cloth, but I used my zodiac board, with its concentric circles, to see which runes would land closest to the centre. I shook up the bag, tipped out all the runes, and then swept off the board all those runes which did not land within the first circle at the centre of the board.

Five runes landed inside the innermost circle, and one landed right smack bang in the centre. This old Norse rune, variously known as Algiz or Elhaz, called Elk or Sedge, is inspired by the antlers of the mighty Elk, by the fronds of the sedge, and also by the claw marks in the snow of the raven. Possibly these are the footprints of Odin’s beloved familiar ravens, Hugin (Thought) and Munin (Memory)

Photo by Cristina Glebova on Unsplash

Elhaz signifies divine protection, peace, planning and preparedness to meet problems head on, but here it has landed upside down or merkstave. Here is a warning not to let our guard down at this time, or in the coming months. Nor will it do any good, kicking a can down the road, hoping it will go away. This works at the personal level as well as the macro level. But we can see the Nordic correlation here, and a message about the real prospect of future escalation in the Arctic via this ancient symbolic connection with Denmark and Norway.

In personal magic, one can directly invoke the protection of Elhaz/Algiz for ourselves or for a loved one, by making a drawing of it, just making sure to draw, carry or store it the right way up, as shown above. Now say its name, asking its divine protection. Stuff happens, shit happens, and one day we all die. But I have had more than one interesting experience with the Elk rune, and observed very particular results, sometimes in very short order, never to pour scorn in discounting the possibilities of magical rune work.

Photo by Philipp Pilz on Unsplash

The other runes today are a mixed bag, but all of them are strong in tone. Top left, we have Sowilo, the Sun rune.

This is a rune of success and new starts, saying we can get a lot done over the next six months, no matter what is happening in the world.

Then Beorc, next to it, means a birch tree, or it can mean a woman, looking like a capital letter B. This one again has been drawn upside down or “merkstave”. Challenges at home coming up, this rune suggests, affecting the family home, a mother, or to do with a mother, or possibly coming to terms with the loss of a mother. There is something profound here that we may have been dealing with since the spring of 2023, starting shortly before or after the hybrid solar eclipse at 24 degrees of Aries on April 20.

The rune Wunjo looks like a capital letter P, and spells joyful moments, but the rune Hagall is also here. , looking like a capital H, it means Hail, and prophesies sudden changes, possibly shocking in suddenness. Hagall is not evil as such, but may be deeply unwelcome, in the nature of sudden bad news, or a sudden storm.

There is a quality of black and white in this eclipse rune-cast overall; sharp ups and downs, sharply drawn contrasts to come over the next few months.

However, those astrological dice shown at the bottom of the rune-cast spell out encouragement, telling a story of Jupiter (enjoyment, opportunity and expansion) in Gemini (communications, writing, travelling, neighbours and siblings) in the 10th house (things going larger, things going public)

The tone and volume of discourse on social media is pretty heated right now. Across a whole range of issued. The message in these astro-dice, as if anyone needed reminding, is that words have power. Words are weird, in the sense of Weird or Wyrd, meaning destiny.

Much can be sorted out or achieved, whatever else is happening in the world right now, before and after Jupiter goes into Cancer on June 9th. Jupiter is happy in Cancer, the sign of the mother, the father, the family home, and the homeland. This upcoming transit running all the way through till June 30, 2026, offers hope of happiness at home, and a light at the end of the tunnel for lands at war.

Thank you for reading. Back soon. I wish you the protection and resilience of Elhaz, the joy of Wunjo, and the very best of Jupiter in Gemini and Cancer now, and in the months ahead.