New Moon at 13° 24′ Libra on Wednesday, October 6 at 4:05am in Tucson, Arizona.
Well, nap time is over. The astrology for the New Moon in Libra conjunct Mars right now paints a very sophisticated kind of hot mess, but not a hopeless one.
Venus-ruled Libra is loveliness, harmony, seeker of balance and justice, the mediator, the peace-maker, the potential rectifier of extremes. Opposite the sign of Mars-ruled Aries [the self, personal will and impulse to action], Libra tempers the environment to prevent or mend the bridges unabashed force or desire might burn when left unchecked.
Without Aries, however, Libra [drawn as a pair of scales] might be caught in endless deliberation, offering up a dozen viable options without the courage or direction to choose anything. Sometimes, however contrasted the outward picture might seem, we need each other, if we have any hope of being our best selves. Libra can teach us the value of “other”, partnership, how opposing forces can in fact be complementary.
Conflict and creation alike require a melding of two polarities. Certain situations require mutual effort, but you can only manage yourself. With Mars conjunct the New Moon opposed by Chiron in Aries, the Universe begs some self-work, deep wound-healing, and course correction, lest we perpetually drag the unconscious pain and direction of the past, perceived curses or flaws, into everything and onto everyone we encounter. It is this unconscious, which we have the choice and power to uncouple from.
Libra illuminates the way to create necessary space for listening, healing, and beauty. It is the bridge between feeling and intuiting the depths of emotion, and the respect for constructing walls required to let life carry forward. Somewhere in it is the balance. Pluto stationing direct today gives you the potential to start creating a better version of that during this lunar cycle.
Aspect Details & Self-Work Applications
CRUEL TO BE KIND?
{New Moon in Libra Conjunct Mars in a Separating Opposition to Chiron Retrograde in Aries}
This New Moon has a few threads of influence via planetary aspect, but let’s start with the dominant one, the conjunction with Mars, which feeds into nearly everything else. Mars brings the emphasis of individuality, personal will and direction, the place of anger, sexuality, drive, general motivation, active separation to assert oneself. It may initially feel at odds with Venusian Libra’s focus on partnership, union, connection, but it need not be.
Where can addressing the force of separation or assertion of personal creative individual energy assist or give life to deeper union or balance?
The opposition of Chiron retrograde in Mars’ home sign of Aries offers more specific hints. Where has your will gotten you in trouble? Where have you denied, rejected, or judged yourself or your desires because of perceived influence of others? Where have you needed separation or rejection from other to be your motivation? Where have you mismanaged or misapplied anger, passion, excitement, sexuality? Where did you run yourself into a wall? Where or when did you give up on yourself and put all your energy trying to seek validation or attention from someone else?
Where have you let these wounds become part of your core identity? Where have you let these perceived failures prevent you from connecting, sharing, allowing yourself to be seen or received? Where have you let yourself burn out to the point of isolation? How often do you define partnership as seeking someone to save you from yourself? Or an opportunity to save or fix someone else? When have you let someone else drive you to act against your will or make decisions for you? How often when any of these situations happened, did you blame everyone else around you? How often when any of these situations happened, did you only blame yourself instead of acknowledging co-creation?
These are questions to consider, engage with, and inspire rebalancing throughout October.
AN OPTION TO MEDITATE ON THE NOT-SO-DISTANT PAST
{New Moon in Libra Revisiting Last Year’s Mars Retrograde Via Opposition}
This is taking the astrology more specifically than usual, but it might be worth thinking back to the period of September 9 through November 13 of 2020. This was a period when Mars was going through its last retrograde in Aries. Incidentally, the place of Mars now is on the verge of its half-way point from the site of that retrograde. This means the current lunar cycle combined with Mercury Retrograde in Libra are re-activating that Mars trailhead and making it easier to look back, make sense of the past, retrieve lost information or correct misunderstandings.
You can apply the questions of the last section generally to your life, behaviors, and interpersonal dynamics, or you might specifically reflect on your actions, desires, intentions during the last quarter of 2020. Whatever was going on then, something in the current moment is showing you the other side, the receiving end, the consequences or fruits of where you have a tendency to direct your personal creative energy and will.
What were your hopes or goals? What did you want? Where did you see yourself going? How do you feel about those intentions now? With the information and experience you have now, would you make the same decisions? Do you see room to pivot?
Has anything come to light requiring healing, processing, separation from or integration of? Are there others around you now that might assist with something you assumed to be a solitary responsibility? Conversely, are there things you always required others for that you might be ready to try more independently? Are there any consequences or old habits that sprung from the collective isolation that might benefit from healing or rebalancing at this time? Examine your general physical activity and health then and now. Ask yourself if you’d like to make any changes.
People generally seek out astrology to predict the future. Using the tool of cosmic cycles for examining one’s personal history might be a more useful way to invent the future you seek to experience rather than constructing a reactive narrative called “Fate” for what seems to blindly happen.
WILL WALKING ON EGG SHELLS TURN THEM INTO SOIL FASTER?
{New Moon in Libra in a Loose Applying Conjunction to Mercury Retrograde}
I’m usually quick to defend against inflating the potentially negative impacts of Mercury Retrograde, especially given that almost all planets have ANNUAL retrograde phases. Used appropriately, retrogrades can afford a break in momentum to pause and look back, reassess, redefine unfinished business.
However, given so much collective intensity in other areas, for those where the Mercury retrograde degrees (10-25° Libra) aspect placements within one’s natal chart, it just might feel like a very challenging time or one where so much seems to be happening at once. Mercury is, after all, not only in trine to Jupiter retrograde, which has a tendency to make everything a bit extra and amplified, but in a square to Pluto retrograde in Capricorn, which has a tendency to dredge up the most deeply wedged sewage. Even though the New Moon’s conjunction with Mercury has a fairly wide orb, the proximity may, for yet another reason, heighten emotion, desire, neediness or reactivity.
With the communication planet’s retrograde taking place in Libra, a sign generally involving or emphasizing relationships to others, and the co-presence of Mars in the same sign, emphasizing one’s personal and individual responsibilities and desires, interpersonal situations might feel unintentionally triggering or destabilizing. Conscious communication around such perceptions, however, can be very healing.
The place of “other”; one’s general relationship to pleasure; one’s embodiment and expectations surrounding one’s roots, family or ancestry; one’s relationship to social media (not to mention social media’s relationship to itself); and collective influence (whether ideological, technological, or social) on maintaining personal balance are all key areas to watch and take a little slower right now.
CUT TO THE CHASE: IS MY EX COMING BACK?
{I’m Not Done Yet With Mercury Retrograde in Libra}
Pop astrology defines Mercury Retrograde as a time when exes resurface, and whether literally, via social media, memory, hearsay, or mirrored patterning observed in others, it is common to find oneself reflecting on the place of personal or business partnership dynamics of the past; where one has been inevitably will influence where one chooses to go, and it’s not such a bad idea to spend some time reflecting on this. Pluto’s involvement will make it easier to go deep and get to the root of matters (whether you want to or not). Jupiter may make it easier to reach out or be found, particularly in a social media context (whether you want to or not).
It can be a useful time for reconnecting, making amends, putting the past to rest, or finding the courage to redo or take a leap of faith on a perceived missed opportunity or false steps; nonetheless, at the core of it all, one’s relationship to and peace within oneself is the most important part. Humans evolve, and attempting to resurrect, correct, or relive a past moment through another in the present generally proves unsustainable when the reality of presence catches up (generally at or shortly after the Mercury Retrograde period ends, in this case around October 18). Use the retrograde to honor and integrate wayward past aspects of self; rediscover, reconsider, update your personal narrative regarding what and how you love or even how you express it. Focus on your energy and self-care first and foremost.
Give yourself extra time for new endeavors, particularly those involving others or finances (remembering that the sign of the retrograde is Venus-ruled Libra, which tends to have a heavy hand in these domains). And perhaps be mindful that Venus herself will go retrograde from December 19-January 29, 2022; the degrees involved have a direct connection to the current lunar cycle, the Mars retrograde mentioned earlier, and the current Mercury retrograde, so if you’re left with question marks and feeling a lack of resolution at the end of October, 2021’s holiday period might provide some missing pieces on the love or fiscal front.
TRANSCENDING LIMITATION & PRIVILEGE
{New Moon in Libra in a Loose Applying Trine to Jupiter Retrograde in Aquarius and in a Loose Separating Trine from Saturn Retrograde in Aquarius}
The co-presence of Jupiter (expansion) and Saturn (limitation) in the collective, technology and progress-oriented sign of Aquarius has placed a unique challenge on the year. We’ve grappled with often contradictory feelings and pressures regarding desire for growth, overwhelm, restriction, censure, acceleration, and unanticipated delays or obstacles all at the same time. Within this sea of pressure is the ambiguity of one’s place in the whole, the value of personal impact, or the unintentional group consequence of one’s actions.
Though perhaps still a bit confusing, this New Moon in Libra receives flowing trines from BOTH the push and pull Jupiter and Saturn influences. The restrictive Saturnian influence is separating, while Jupiter is VERY loosely applying. Libra gives an opportunity to bring a softening, a recalibration and more general harmony to many of the questions this year has raised. Looking at Saturn first: Where might it be safe to let down certain walls? Where might it be healthier or opportune to finally set more firm boundaries? Where might more discipline, structure or support be applied to enhance growth?
Jupiter is considered by some to be the planet of “privilege”. What we have a relative excess or easy accessibility to. Everyone has Jupiter somewhere. Too much or too little alike can prove toxic, harmful, or detrimental. Is there something tangibly or energetically in excess that can be redistributed, redirected, or shared to create more overall balance? Jupiter’s trine is more closely applicable to Mercury rather than the Moon’s position, so perhaps consider the place of old ideas, conversations, projects and collaborations as a stepping stone or inspiration to getting the balance right.
Background Aspect Influences
TRIGGER WARNING?
{Pluto Stations Direct in Capricorn}
Pluto, King of the Cosmic Sewers, stations direct within the seeds of this New Moon, and this coincidence brings heavy emphasis to the forces and themes under his thumb: death, rebirth, transformation, utter demolition and transmutation, power, corruption, manipulation, sexuality. Pluto’s retrograde period lasts roughly 6 months every year, and the day or so when a planet appears to stop and change direction is arguably a time of its most concentrated power and influence. As if things weren’t intense enough.
Pluto’s orbit is a grindingly slow 248 years, so when he rolls around or gets involved, he leaves quite a deep impression on the thematic terrain in question. And keep in mind that no one, and even groups of generations, will never experience the challenging depths elicited from Pluto transiting through particular signs. To put it in perspective and open a political can of worms: in February of 2022, Pluto will be revisiting a place he hadn’t been since the signing of the Declaration of Independence; the closer this moment of cyclical return gets, the more perhaps we see a brutal deconstruction of all that document represents (not to mention the shadow energy behind events surrounding that time generally).
AN HISTORICALLY CHAOTIC MERCURY RETROGRADE
{Stationing Pluto in Capricorn in a Separating Square to Mercury Retrograde in Libra}
Bringing it back to personal timelines, since 2008, Pluto has been moving through Capricorn, the sign governing structures, hierarchies, literal bones and foundations, business, institutions, what is materially essential, what allows survival, ancestry itself. Personal and collective involvement in any of these areas are undergoing an extreme gutting and rebuilding process that hasn’t been experienced on this level since the 18th century.
Pluto through any sign is inevitably intense, but questions of security, power, responsibility, legacy will seem especially important on a macro level. More personalized, one’s own ability to empower oneself; establish roots; discover, vivify or preserve one’s heritage; rectify multigenerational patterns of disempowerment; and similar light topics might be exploding out the pores of what should normally be everyday activities or interactions. Just be aware that everyone is experiencing this, though the area of your natal chart governed by Capricorn might feel like the area your inner black sheep feels tasked to be the generational curse-breaker.
To reiterate, Pluto is slow, and this has been an ongoing influence that receives more direct activation at specific moments. The coincidental New Moon cycle and Mercury’s square to Pluto’s present activity are more likely to bring those heavy issues up right now and for the coming weeks. With Mercury being in Libra, interpersonal dynamics might feel more like an extreme sport of past life shadow dancing.
Be sensitive to two-way triggering, and understand that the depth of emotion and the weight of choices experienced at this time might be carrying or unintentionally evoking a boatload of ancestral energy with them. Just remember that within Plutonic demolition is the potential for seemingly miraculous rebuilding. Whether friend or foe, those near and dear in your life at this time play a crucial role in your personal evolution. So, in the spirit of Libra, be kind, while firmly honoring your limits, boundaries, and intentions to the best of your ability.
STEPS TOWARD DE-COLONIZING COMMUNITY
{Venus Approaching Ingress into Sagittarius}
A final note that Venus, ruler of our Libra Moon, is in the final degrees of Scorpio (linked to Pluto) and will enter the next sign, Sagittarius, on October 7. Once again, we have yet another giant exclamation point on raw emotional depth and desire and the Plutonic themes of the last section echoing through the seeds of this lunar cycle. The moment of transition is likely to be felt viscerally and will probably come as a relief, because Venus has just about scraped the bottom of the barrel. She can only go up from here.
If, over the last month, dark sides of desire, impulse, or expenditure reared their heads within yourself or others among you, this lunar cycle provides a brilliant opportunity for invoking much needed temperance. Within a few days, Venus will conjunct the South Node, the cosmic dustbin, and provide the inspiration or opportunity to offload any incompatible belief systems, dogma, cultural baggage, outdated or misunderstood religious or philosophical limitations, tendencies toward misappropriation or exotic fetishism, glamorization of wayward gurus, and the like, that may have on a level contributed to personal misdirection.
This doesn’t signal a time to blindly burn books or replace traditions you feel have failed you with more extreme ones. But it is a good time to learn and evaluate the place of belief systems in your life, your relationship to adopting more respect and less ignorance for other cultures, your relationship to the natural world, to teachings, education, and teachers generally.
How can we bring more balance to the place of authority in our lives? How do our de facto authority figures affect our relationship to desire and well-being, partnerships, other people? Where might each of us be in a position to teach, share, bring value, or contribute to collective knowledge in some way? And what might this act of communicating and sharing do to bring more peace and harmony to our own lives and communities?
