New Moon in Libra | October 16, 2020 - relationship opportunities/challenges, balancing things out, releasing dead passions, moving toward greater stability and happiness

 

 

We get what might be the most challenging/opportunistic New Moon of the year (cardinal t-square) in the sign that rules our relationships. Given the amount of time we have spent in the last few months with the same person/people I don't think this is much of a surprise!


On Friday, October 16th at 3:31PM EDT, the Libra Moon meets the Libra Sun (at 23 degrees) giving us this month's New Moon; our annual New Moon in Libra. Because this is happening in Libra we look to our natal Libra house (23 degrees) for the kind of theme we will be working with personally. Then we consider the general Libra themes (relationship, partnership, balance, justice, women, beauty) and we consider what Libra's ruling planet Venus is doing and where she is. And, finally, we look at the event chart for the time of the New Moon.

 

Something to keep in mind as we talk about the ways this New Moon is challenged - because the Libra New Moon wants to keep things light and balanced and peaceful and flirty and this chart speaks of something else - is that it is usually the challenges in these charts that bring us our greatest opportunities for growth. I know it sounds cliche and like something someone says when we are down and we want to punch them in the mouth, but luckily for them we just did our nails (heads up - my nails look like they were attacked by a badly behaved poodle, so I just might punch), but it is still true. 

 

Libra New Moons are about new ways to partner/new people/new connections/new situations. New LOVE - not the deep kind necessarily (although it could be), but the social kind that gets us invited to coffee and walks in the park. New peace and harmony. New negotiations. What is fair now? What is balanced now? What does justice look like now? This is a cardinal energy - something is going to START.

 

The stop gate to the NEW is Mars retrograde in Aries.

 

Are we willing to let go of our ego attachments that are no longer serving us/making us feel loved/bringing us peace? Can we let go of the stuff we are no longer passionate about? Our old ways of doing relationships? The old things we are doing within our relationships? The old ways we fight or the old ways we flight?

 

The Cardinal T-Square points to that Cappy Pile-up - Pluto, Saturn, Jupiter - and most exactly asteroid Wuhan. The changes wrought by the virus. The limits. The rules. We are at a very BIG moment.

 

Let's unpack the chart!

 

The Moon/Sun are at 23 degrees Libra. They oppose Mars (retrograde) and Eris in Aries and square the Cappy pile up - Saturn, Pluto and Jupiter and most exactly asteroid Wuhan. Venus, ruler of Libra and so ruler of this lunation is in Virgo answering to a retrograde Mercury (in Scorpio) who is opposing Uranus. She opposes Neptune (applying), trines the Cappy planets (all applying) and exactly trining Pallas (in Cappy) and is sandwiched between asteroids Pandora and Narcissus (who is exactly semi-sextile the New Moon). The New Moon is trining the North Node in Gemini while Mars trines the South Node (in Sag). Juno opposes Uranus (and we are going to look at her mega-importance in both the U.S. natal chart and Trump's chart in our next post). Vesta opposes Ceres.


With the important opposition and multiple squares - we can see this New Moon beginning can come at us with our back against the wall. There is tension/frustration. Limits. Rules. Libra seeks balance and whatever is seeded now will be anything but! We can expect relationship tension as we move through the next month, but there are also very strong indicators for IMPROVEMENT/RELIEF later in the cycle. For now there is a Cardinal T-Square aimed at Cappy with that empty Cancer leg, so all hard edges with no soft place to fall 

 

(unless you have something near 23 Cancer in your natal - like President Trump with his Saturn/Karma exact conjunction here being transited by asteroid Hopi - another stand-in for covid for him with Hopi exactly conjunct Wuhan in his natal - plus another stand-in for the Hope Hicks connection - and giving him a Grand Cardinal Cross. There could be some changes in his health now/his day-to-day, even within his partnerships or maybe with his natal 6th house (health) ruler in his 10th (career) - changes within his career. We'll get back to him, asteroid Narcissus and the U.S. historical Hopi - "kill all the buffalo to kill all the Indians" in the next post. More chickens coming home to roost). 


Just off that Sun/Mars opposition this week (plus the solar squares - we have a big one on Sunday, too) we are being asked - who/what do you want to partner with now? is this relationship balanced? is this working? have I lost me to we? do I need to give up a little me to even have a we? Situations will arise that enable us to find out! And the Cappy pile-up pulls in not only this year's restrictions (covid and our covid responses/authority/responsibilities), but collectively career/ambition challenges and also our Cappy natal house theme challenges.


The good news is the best aspect in astrology is arguably the 'trine' and the New Moon is trining the North Node in Gemini. 

 

This is in the very recent past, so we already have an open door somewhere. Something that has fallen smoothly into place, whispered "over here", drawn us an arrow. With the North Node answering to a retrograde Mercury - this open door could have a connection to the past, too. And with Mars trining the South Node and Venus (ruler of the Moon) trining the South Node's ruler Jupiter - it might be through what we are leaving behind/the door that closes/that we close, that shows us the way. 

 

If it's not this way then it must be THAT WAY.


And keep in mind, we have to factor in our own PERSONAL North Node from our natal chart - THAT will be the way through, too. The current energies are influencing the energies we CARRY. Always.


AND we have Venus, ruler of this lunation exactly trining wise Pallas (in Cappy). 

 

This speaks of strategies, practical systems, connecting the dots - realistic plans for what will make us feel more secure, more financially stable, more connected to other people, MORE LOVED. This is fortuitous and she moves on to trine the other Cappy planets next week - more stability, more power, more luck. And yes, these are practical earth signs, so the harder we work the luckier we get, but that's ok because that's how we roll anyway. This situation is unbalanced, yes, but there is a way through this if we can just keep our wits about us. Big girl pants on. We are a general here and not a foot soldier. 

 

The Moon is in Libra so we are weighing out our options, our goals, our ambitions, our next moves.

 

(it's not a coincidence the U.S. is having hearings on a new female Supreme Court Justice right now)


Before she gets to these other trines, Venus, is going to have to get past this approaching opposition to Neptune - exact on Sunday - so the details (of our relationships, our money, our values) get blurry/confusing. Maybe too fantastical. Keep your credit card in your wallet and your eyes off that cute guy, who won't be nearly as cute tomorrow and maybe he will be off with your wallet. There might be vague results here, maybe a disappointment. Oppositions can bring endings. With Venus in dutiful Virgo - are we going to keep serving this situation, this relationship, this project or not? 

 

But ultimately Venus reaches her Earth trines and later in this same New Moon cycle reaches her home sign of Libra - this is a very good signal we will reach some sort of agreement/cooperation, fair deal or partnership decision during this cycle!


Let's look at some of the event chart's other aspects to flesh this out. And you might have natal energies that more closely align with something here.


We have Ceres (at the end of Aquarius) retrograding back toward an opposition with Vesta (almost finishing up in Leo). A detached style of nurturing/or collective need at odds with our sacred focus/our heart's desire. We have Juno (in Scorpio) opposing Uranus (in Taurus). Maybe this speaks of our need to get to the bottom of things within a relationship vs the potential instability this will bring to our finances/resources. Or this could be about mergers/intimacy vs liberation. It is not only Mars, but Mars' sister Eris that opposes the New Moon now wanting to just blow this whole thing up. All these energies have a voice now. Everyone gets a seat at the table.


With Mercury retrograding through Scorpio there can be some deep/dark truths we don't want to look at and with these challenges to this cardinal New Moon (fresh start) something we won't want to deal with/adjust to, but adjust we must. We'll talk about the New Moon energies as they play out over the next couple weeks and the next month. 

 

We are on the precipice of some very big changes! There are big/better turning points coming. And we are figuring out what we need/want now. This is a PROCESS. This New Moon chart allows us to look ahead at the next month and see what we will be dealing with emotionally. We can see it's not an easy chart. But nothing about 2020 has been easy, so this last leg won't be either. That's OK. We are playing a long game. We've got this thing. 


And keep in mind that new beginnings launched through squares and oppositions can be the difference between, for example, you redoing a room because you have company coming in a week (and the kind of pressures, time restraints that would entail) and you are redoing a room because you just got a bonus at work and really want to redo that room! It doesn't have to be some big crazy thing - unless you have planets/points in your natal/progressed charts in the crosshairs. Collectively though, this is one big old stressful chart that kind of pulls everything together!


MONTHLY AFFIRMATION TIPS: 

 

Get grounded - we have moved from an earth sign into air so this is important - always make affirmations from a  positive place (positive meaning both certain and light-hearted/happy). It is a good idea, since the New Moon is literally a blank sheet, to work in a clean, uncluttered space and maybe right after a bath or shower.  We are planting seeds in the dark here - think about the ultimate seed in the dark planting - making a baby. What would you do then? Do that (yes, maybe even that, Venus is in Virgo answering to Mercury in Scorpio and this is about our relationships, it can't hurt).

I find affirmations are most effective if I speak less on New Moon days so my words will hold more weight when I need them to. I usually burn a white candle to help me focus and thin the veils between me and me. It also helps to channel ancestral energy a bit since I am always thinking as I move my story forward, their story moves forward with me. Write your affirmations down by hand in cursive, we want the letters all connecting and flowing together. Speak the words out loud. 


This month, I'm writing mine on my chalkboard while burning a white candle - when the candle burns out, all by itself, then I erase the words first and then clean the blackboard with water. Some people store them until the corresponding Full Moon (in this case during Aries season) and burn them then. Do what feels right. 


I don't think it's terribly important what we do with our writings as long as we are not pulling them out and checking on them all the time. 

 
We are not handing a honey do list to the universe! We are lining up with the universal energies of creation here.

And I wouldn't be sharing them with other people, although this is Libra so there might be exceptions to this, which also feels like it dilutes the process or pulls them into our story. I was writing them on my blog for a few months, as examples for people, and that definitely wasn't helpful.

Then - and this is the important part - release your attention from your words knowing your intention is known. 

 

Know these things are already yours.  


xo all

 

Since the Libra Moon is going to close out with a square to Saturn (tonight), let's wait for the Scorpio Moon to do the intentions (she will close with a sextile) - so sometime between 6PM EDT tomorrow night and 6PM EDT the next night. Think about not only what you need from other people, but what you are willing to give/offer, too. We need to be willing to do things differently if we want to have different results.

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