Ancient Babylonian astrologers first recorded that eclipses followed patterns. They observed that 6585.3211 days (just over 18 years) after an eclipse, there would be another one with almost identical geometry. There were other eclipses in between, but these two seemed related. Another 18 years and 10 or 11 days later (depending on leap years) another related eclipse occurs. The pattern continues for around 70 iterations, spanning some 1300 years - then it ends. Such a series of related eclipses is called a saros series, or a family of eclipses, or an eclipse family.

Each saros series/ eclipse family starts with a partial eclipse close to one of the Earth's poles. Over the first half of the lifetime of the series (roughly 650 years), the eclipse gets more complete, and closer to the equator. Over the next 650 years, it 'wanes' again, and approaches the other pole, where its final partial eclipse occurs.

There are many such eclipse families making their presence felt on Earth. Every year there are 2-3 solar eclipses and 2-3 lunar eclipses, such that in any 18 year period (= one 'saros') there are around 85-90 eclipses (including both solar and lunar eclipses), each of which belongs to a different eclipse family. Each of these families exists in its own 18 year cycle.

This website sets out to show that each eclipse family has its own nature or set of qualities, and that this distinct character is apparent in the astrology of the first eclipse in that series (the family 'birth chart').

When an eclipse occurs, the family to which it belongs takes rulership of the heavens - and the nature of the family influences the kinds of events (including people born) on Earth, until the next eclipse family takes over.

From our perspective on Earth, the moon's orbital plane is at an angle relative to the sun's apparent orbital plane. Hence, not every full moon is a lunar eclipse, and not every new moon is a solar eclipse (for even though the sun, moon and earth move into alignment longitudinally every couple of weeks, the moon may be slightly higher or lower than the sun in latitude). It is only when the new or full moon occur close to the place where the solar and lunar orbits coincide (the so-called Lunar Nodes) that an eclipse occurs.

Roughly six months after the sun and moon align with one node, they'll move into alignment close to the other node - hence there are 2 eclipse 'seasons' in a year. Thus, eclipses follow a pattern of a full moon/ new moon pair of eclipses (separated by 2 weeks), then a gap of about 6 months, then another full moon/ new moon pair of eclipses (again separated by 2 weeks, but this time aligned to the other node).

There is a natural relationship, therefore, between the lunar and solar eclipse families that are separated by only 2 weeks - the one will always follow the other, always 2 weeks apart, then with an 18 year gap until they occur again. Both will be associated with the same lunar node. This website calls this close relationship between these families a 'clan' relationship.

There are 38 clans in all. The names of the clans used in this website (e.g. 16 north) are taken from Bernadette Brady's solar saros cycle names, though the meaning is expanded. The number ranges from 1 to 19 (pertaining to the 19 year Metonic cycle); 'north' or 'south' refers to the lunar node that the sun is close to.

Over millenia, some families fade away, and others emerge. When a new eclipse family appears, it will always be 2 weeks before or after an existing eclipse family - and it will remain in that relationship until the older family disappears. You therefore sometimes have 3 eclipses occurring in one eclipse season - either lunar-solar-lunar, or solar-lunar-solar, each separated by 2 weeks. The next family to disappear from the clan will be of the same type as the new family - so you might have a lunar-solar pair for many saroses, then a new lunar family starts and you have lunar-solar-lunar for a while, then the old lunar 'dies' and you have a solar-lunar pair for a while, then a new solar joins: solar-lunar-solar, and so on. All of these families are part of the one great clan.

Clans are therefore immortal. Individual families come and go, but the clan continues, like 'my grandfather's axe', or the Ship of Theseus. The nature of a clan is therefore difficult to determine when we only have a finite amount of data to interpret it by. The Types of Events graph includes (yellow) bars to show the frequency of different types of event occurring under the relevant clan, relative to the whole pool of data.

There is a slightly grey area around the cusp of any eclipse. What is the exact moment of transition? Does one family take over from another at the precise moment of eclipse, or is it when the Sun and Moon move within a certain proximity? Our research has led us to suspect the latter.

For purely practical reasons, a simpler model is adopted for the eclipse.family website. Since it is not feasible to include precise timings for events and nativities (especially when dealing with different time zones and different calendars), only the date is considered here. An eclipse happening on a given day is assumed to take over rulership from the stroke of midnight (Universal Time) on that day - and therefore any event occurring at any time in that day will fall under the rulership of the new eclipse. A little like the old king dying, passing rulership to the new queen immediately even though her coronation only takes place later.

While this is clearly imperfect, the number of events occurring close to the cusp of an eclipse, and which might therefore be wrongly classified, is relatively small.

In any 18 year period (one saros), there will be around 85-90 eclipses (including both solar and lunar), each belonging to a different eclipse family. This is a manageable number to delineate.

Over an infinite time period, there will be an infinite number of eclipse families because over long periods some eclipse families end and others begin. This is not a manageable number to delineate.

By limiting the scope of this website to the period 1701-2200 CE, the pool of all possible eclipse families is kept to a manageable level (126 different families), while nevertheless covering every event in your lifetime, and the lifetimes of several generations either side of you.

An average eclipse family exists for around 1300 years (and some of the lunar eclipse families can last for up to 1500 years) - far longer than the 500 year window we’re looking through, so the family ‘trees’ will overhang this window at one end or the other, or both. For example, the L102 family started in the year 461 CE and finished only in 1958. This is why you will see some Nativities and Events which predate the 1701 mark listed as occurring under the rulership of one or other eclipse family.

The graph shows which types of events are most associated with the particular eclipse family and clan - longer bars mean a higher frequency of that type of event under that family and clan, in relation to the whole pool of data (blue bars show the relevant family data; yellow bars the relevant clan data).

There are 34 possible event types, from Adventure to War, covering every possible kind of event (type 'Other' is used for anything which doesn't fit into any of the other types).

Many people and events are assigned multiple types, weighted for importance: The first splitting of the atom is both 'Nuclear' and 'Science/ technology/ innovation'; Explorers reaching the bottom of the world's deepest cave is both 'Adventure' and 'Underground'.

This list of 35 weighted words is a stripped-down interpretation of the eclipse family ‘birth chart’. The larger the word, the stronger its manifestation in this family of eclipses.

The complete word list for each eclipse is far longer than 35 words - only the top terms are included. This list is not intended as an inflexible description of every single person born or event occurring under that eclipse family. Rather, people and events will typically express some of the qualities in the list - and the mass of them together will reflect the whole list.

Notes for astrologers:

This is the ‘birth chart’ of the relevant eclipse family (i.e. the chart of the first eclipse in the family or saros series), with the table showing the longitude (degrees, sign & minutes) of the planets and lunar nodes.

It is the delineation of this chart which describes the nature or character of the entire eclipse family.

Notes for astrologers:

These tables show nativities and events grouped by type (the same categories as are used in the Types of Events graph).

Faced with countless events, only those which are in some way archetypal or have huge or widespread significance are included; and the kinds of people chosen are limited to those who are similarly archetypal or have a similarly enormous or widespread effect in the world. If you find any glaring omissions in the list, please send details using the form below.

Where events last for longer than a day (such as most wars, revolutions, etc.), the start of the event is used as the ‘Event Date’ - that’s the moment it became manifest. In the same way, influential people do not achieve the pinnacle of their greatness on the day they were born, but their birth date marks the beginning of that manifestation.

For many events it is not a straight-forward matter to mark one day out as the start date. In some cases this is just a judgement call; in the majority of cases we have used the date that has become most generally accepted as the start date.

Many dates are taken from Wikipedia - a fantastic resource, but not universally accurate. If you spot any errors on eclipse.family, please send details using the form below, preferably with some kind of evidence to support an alternative date.

The Gregorian calendar is used for all dates from 15 Oct 1582 onwards; before that date, the Julian calendar is used