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Beauty in Restraint: Libra
Greetings at the New Moon, late in Libra season, with darkening days upon us, and persimmons ripening on the limb here in northern California.
There’s been a strong intensification of energies this month – no astrology needed to notice it! For me personally, it has been pronounced, in the form of a series of high-energy, present-moment matters calling for my attention (some unexpected), asking me to repeatedly lay aside scheduled intentions, and focus on what’s needed now. It has almost felt like a portal to be passed through, with the key being to stay present, grounded, and spacious, amidst the flurry.
Further, last week when I’d intended to start penning this blog, before life’s momentum took me elsewhere, as I began to think about what I’d write I found I had made no notes (unprecedented), on what to include over the preceding weeks and that, when I thought about it, I was drawing a complete blank.
The night before I drew that ‘blank’, I’d had a dream in which a Teacher figure had asked me to arrive to give a group talk. When I arrived, I realized I had nothing planned to say at the talk. I was intending to take cues from the environment—things others were saying, or doing—that would help light me up so that I could know what was needed from me. In the dream I recalled that I’d previously been asked to speak for this group, but that that time my sharing had emerged impromptu, inspired by the themes or topics of that gathering. But not this time.
In some respects, this is how I’ve been crafting my blogs, I realize. Each month when we enter the archetype that the Sun is passing through, and before or on the New Moon when the Sun conjuncts the Moon in that sign, I instinctively open myself as muse and collect the signatures of the sign as they appear in my environment, both outer and inner, and in my inbox.
For the 2 ¾ years that I’ve been sending out these ‘Journals’, my content, or at least my themes, has arrived effortlessly—in fact some readers have suggested there’s too much of it. Which I understand fully, in this era of info overload! Good problem, bad problem…the jury’s out!
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New Book Launch
I think it’s no accident that I suddenly have far less to share about an archetype than I have had in the past. Because for the past 6 months I’ve been working on birthing a book (in both eBook and print format) which combines my blog writings down to one chapter for each archetype, with an introduction that will hopefully explain some of the things that confuse readers who are not conversant in astrology.
For the past 6 weeks, I’ve been very focused—synthesizing, condensing, and editing my writings at the rate of 1-2 archetypes per week, and tending to many other details for the book, which is tentatively slated to come out in January. At this point, my ‘vessel’ is open to multiple archetypal channels at once as I work on this, perhaps partially explaining why my Libra antennae aren’t calling in much by way of signals.
At this point, I feel I’ve done the work I set out to do in cataloguing and calling down the synchronous outer life occurrences that match the sign of the Sun in a given month. And, I feel that perhaps now is a time to pivot with my Earth Sky Journal writings in a new (as yet unknown) direction.
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Climbing our way out of Virgo due diligence
The timing of this shift aligns nicely with recent, and upcoming celestial events. In late August, and then four weeks later in September, we had the unusual phenomenon of two New Moons in the same sign. (Two New Moons in one sign, spaced at the beginning and end of the Sun’s transit through a sign, happens only every three years.)
With two New Moons in Virgo, and including two powerful eclipses (eclipses always coming in a sequence of two, with the Full Moon and the New Moon), further amping the Moon’s effects, and propelling their influence forward for the next 6 months as eclipses do (and beyond, if they directly impact our chart), we have many of us fallen into the Virgo work groove for far longer than usual, with our noses stuck at the grindstone, facing the profusion of tasks and concerns that inform whatever our business is.
I personally felt the Full Moon in Pisces eclipse so strongly (given that it opposed my Virgo Sun), that I was compelled to divert from my typical blog exploration on what I’m noticing ‘out there’, and focus my writing on my own experiences on a mountain ‘getaway’ at the time. (See Finding Ease in Struggle ).
Further emphasizing the lack of Libra vibe, I note that even though we’ve had the Sun in Libra for many weeks now, we’ve not had other planets in the sign to support the energy, as usually happens. (The inner, faster moving planets, Mercury, Venus, and Mars, typically travel in the same sign, or one sign ahead of or behind the Sun, so we often have at least one or two other planets beside Sun-Moon in a sign at the New Moon.)
At the Aries Full Moon on October 7, the Sun was the only body in Libra, with Venus lingering in Virgo conjunct the South Node (indicating clean-up work still to be done around Virgo’s ruminating and perfectionistic tendencies!), and both Mercury and Mars already in Scorpio.
Personally, what I have noticed is the distinct Scorpio flavor popping up in memes and themes around me, emphasized by both Mercury and Mars positioned there this month, with the Sun poised to enter the sign on Oct. 23. Death and transformation, letting go, intensity of all kinds, as well as the mining of the past for understanding old traumas and their influence on our behaviors and mindsets—these are Scorpio’s realm. Powerful unearthing and healing work is possible at this time.
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Lessons from Libra
But I will of course give a nod to Libra! As a counter-balance to uber busy Virgo, Venus-ruled Libra calls us to harmony and balance, and thereby urges us to slow down our activities such that we can reach the still point of peace within. Life is, after all, not just about the tasks, though Virgo can tend to think so!
Libra asks, How can we infuse breath (given that Libra is an Air sign) both literally and time-wise, into our days? Where might we need to apply reasoned, unattached thinking? And as we head into the dark months of the seasonal cycle here in the north, how might we rebalance the amounts of activity and inactivity we engage with? Where might we find, create, and strive for beauty in our lives, and harmony?
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Instead, in this time of great change, and the necessary reconsideration and dissolving of old habits and mindset—with Pluto in ‘out of this world’ Aquarius and Saturn conjunct Neptune—we can practice adjusting our perspective, staying calm and cool (as Air signs do so well), and help ourselves adjust to a new era, with the aid of balancing self-care practices. This is in sync with expansive Jupiter now in Cancer, archetype of caring and tending.
Libra beckons us to a centered way of being, which is a core teaching for this time. We are being called to tend to our frequency, or energetic note—to drop our awareness out of our heads and into our bodies and our hearts, and experience our interconnectedness with the earth and all her denizens.
The archetype of social harmony also calls us to graciousness in our dealings with others—an essential medicine for the contentious fervor of this disruptive, transitional period. Rather than succumbing to the lower octave manifestations of anger and aggression that Libra’s polarity partner Aries can invoke, higher minded Libra inspires us to step back, consider our grievances and our stressors, and tap into our greater wisdom. It counsels restraint, and gentleness, towards both self and other.
3I/Atlas Interstellar Object
The big news in the astrological world at the moment is the appearance of the 3I/Atlas comet or ‘interstellar object’ issuing from outside our solar system, which will be passing through 22° Libra at its Perehelion (point closest to the Sun) on October 29th. It is accompanied by an entourage of six other more traditional comets, three of which are now visible.
Comets have traditionally been taken as omens of change—whether for good or for ill— and this 3I/Atlas ‘object’ in particular is being seen by astrologers as a significant harbinger of deep transformation, offering the opportunity, in this already potent time of higher-level change, to tune in and access new levels of awareness and consciousness. Other strong change signatures supporting this theme include the outer planets mini-triangle; the Saturn-Neptune conjunction; and Pluto’s recent ingress into Aquarius, Neptune’s into Aries, and Uranus’ into Gemini. Given all of this, we need to slow down, and listen. Libra the mediator is concerned with both giving and receiving, in equal balance.
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Libra New Moon indicators
The chart of 3I/Atlas’ Perehelion is similar to that of today’s New Moon (October 21). 3I/Atlas is conjunct the Sun, and thereby part of the chart’s powerful and uncommon Grand Cross configuration. This is further indication of the potential in this time for drawing down insights and breakthroughs, and the interrupting of worn-out patterns that can be left behind.
The Grand Cross, or Grand Square, in mostly Cardinal signs (the modality signifying initiation and action) is created by four (or more) planets in four different quadrants of the sky forming roughly 90° squares to each other, and as well, two sets of 180° oppositions by these four planets crossing through the middle of the chart. The effect of square aspects is to create internal friction and pressure, which in turn provokes a type of psychological fuel towards a certain focus. Whereas oppositions offer either perspective and balance (the Libran part of the self-other pole), or antagonism and discord (the off-centered Aries manifestation). According to Bil Tierney, an authority on astrological aspects, the Grand Cross indicates crucial karmic lessons that must be resolved.
There is a strong ‘disruptor’ energy in this chart, and not just with the rogue comet arriving from outside our solar system. The Sun-Moon-3I/Atlas conjunction opposes the conjunction of wounded healer asteroid Chiron, and ‘outsider’ dwarf planet Eris—the warrior sister of Mars, intent on truth and justice, but mythologically driven by revenge for having been socially excluded—in Aries.
Chiron-Eris in Aries calls out the need to break with old, wounded patterns and self-consciousness, and assert one’s individual spark, leaving behind mindsets or conclusions we’ve drawn about ourselves and our place in the world. Aligned with Aries’ higher purposefulness, we have the opportunity to serve as sacred warrior or pilgrim in whatever large or small way we’re called to, and the will to accept challenges and risks. We may be reaching this moment politically in this country. (I was touched to hear that the frog has been taken as the No Kings mascot in Portland, and elsewhere, along with animals in general. Earth Love prevails!)
Forming the other opposition axis of the Cross are Jupiter at 24° Cancer opposing Pluto at 1° Aquarius. Transformer-through-struggle Pluto’s presence in the Grand Cross, squaring Jupiter, suggests a new kind of leadership taking root from the depths, from a more community-based, horizontal social structure, concerned with freedom and inclusion (Aquarius).
One other piece of astrological ‘news’ is that this week Neptune, which has been in Aries for many months, is retrograding back into Pisces, where it will stay until late January. Now, both Saturn, also Rx in Pisces, and Neptune return to the sign of the deep, transpersonal waters of gestation. Once again we are summoned to the crucial work of letting go, and dwelling in creative unknowing, which I have written about frequently since Saturn first entered Pisces almost 2 ½ years ago.
Saturn returns to Aries in February, and on Feb. 20, the conjunction with Neptune will be exact at 0° Aries, the World point of initiation. Until then, the heavenly hint is that we drop once again into the imaginal realms and call in guidance and intimations as to our part in the way ahead.
With energies likes this afoot, and the sounding of the Libra note in this chart, we do well to keep our heads cool, our hearts and minds open, and our courage high as we head into the depths of the Feminine energy of Scorpio waters, as the Sun enters the sign on October 23.
On the feminine note, I close with an excerpt from a translation of the Tao Te Ching by David Hinton, taken from his book, The Way of Ch’an. In discussing Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, Hinton says, “…the generative fabric of reality that was the Paleolithic ‘sacred’ appears in recurring references as female: ‘mother,’ ‘mother of all beneath heaven,’ ‘nurturing mother,’ ‘valley spirit,’ dark female-enigma.’
Can you be female
opening and closing heaven’s gate?
Can you fathom earth’s four distances with radiant wisdom
and know nothing?
Give birth and nurture.
Give birth without possessing
and foster without dominating:
This is called dark-enigma Integrity.
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