Today’s solar eclipse at 3:40 p.m., EDT, will only be seen in the South Pacific and the south-western coast of South America. But the eclipse is “angular” (rising, setting, or directly below) in Paris, and Tokyo, places to watch.

The eclipse is setting in Madrid, and the lines also pass through the Netherlands, although they miss Amsterdam. As far as I can tell, the game plays right through the eclipse, so we’ll see what happens in the World Cup.

Neptune is overhead in New York City at the moment of the eclipse, nipping the West Side of Manhattan below Central Park and a slice of Brooklyn that cuts through Coney Island (an extremely Neptunian place). The nodal axis also passes through Sacramento, so keep an ear out for Governor Schwarzenegger.

The energy from an eclipse is not all that local, however. We all feel the tension, like late on a hot afternoon when we suspect a thunderstorm is on the way. While full moon lunar eclipses tend towards overt explosions of energy, new moon solar eclipses like todays have a quiet intensity about them. If anything happens, it is most likely more of an implosion, a collapsing inwards, than an outward-moving energy.

But often nothing happens. There are exceptions, but like most thunderstorms, lightening seems to hit something only rarely. That takes little away from the feeling of the experience, however. Issues that normally bubble beneath the surface can come to a full boil around eclipse season, if we put a lid on the pot.

At best, we can think of a solar eclipse as a powerful new moon, a good time to set intentions for the coming months. Starting tomorrow, begin to move forward with your projects and put your ideas into action.

Today, I guess you can join the estimated 700 million people watching the World Cup Final.