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.

Today's Astrology Forecast | Thursday, October 15, 2020 - Sun squares Pluto, back to January when "time ran out", a light on our collective narcissism

 

This is the USA birth chart (Sibley) with its progressions and transits for today, as the Sun reaches 22 degrees Libra and squares Pluto - from his seat on that HOT degree of 22 Cappy from January. 

 

We talk alot about Saturn and Pluto's big (once in 500 year) conjunction in Capricorn that happened in mid-January, but we lose sight of the other energies at this big pow-wow at our detriment - the Sun, Mercury and Ceres.

The Sun (our life-force, our ego, our light), having met Pluto back in January starting a new cycle, had his first square to Pluto (first challenge of new cycle) back in April (from Aries), his opposition (when Pluto was retrograde) back in July (from Cancer) and here we are at the CLOSING SQUARE of their annual cycle, with the Sun in Libra. ALL our cardinal energies brought to the table. This time the Sun and Pluto square, in Libra/Cappy, with a focus on our RELATIONSHIPS.

We have a dark Moon (also in a closing cycle), also in Libra - making tense aspects to Chiron and Uranus - and pulling us into tomorrow's New Moon at 23 degrees Libra - so very near today's square and also in conjunction with Mars/Pluto square from earlier this week. The energies are HUGE.

Before we talk about what this means to us personally, I thought it would be a good time to see what is happening with the U.S. chart - and I realize everyone reading this is not in the U.S., but I think the story here has ramifications everywhere. 

I was surprised/#notsurprised to find the U.S. progressed Moon EXACTLY conjunct the U.S. natal Pluto right now. Fate, fears, power, death bed struggles - this is going to create intense feelings and insecurity. To progress a chart we move a planet one degree for every year, so this is the first time in the U.S. history the U.S. progressed Moon (the Moon in this kind of chart, represents, among other things, 'the people') has met Pluto. Insecurity/uncertainty is the food of panic, and, speaking of panic, if we added asteroid Pan to the U.S. natal we would find him in the 8th house (death - will panic be the death of us?) widely conjunct the U.S. North Node and exactly semi-sextile the United States Cancer Sun. 

As humans, maybe we have a tendency not to panic over very real risks that are familiar and known - for example car accidents, which claim thousands of lives every day, do not stop most of us from driving. We are more likely to 'panic' in an encounter with something unknown - even if it ends up causing minimal risk to us personally. Scared people become narcissistic (and I am not talking about the collective narcissism systemic in our culture now, we will get to that in the next Trump health watch post) - as focus naturally shifts to self-preservation. This is kind of knee-jerk/hard wired into our lizard brains to keep us alive, but the irony is that our reaction often makes us less safe, especially in a modern world where threats are much more complex. It's not as simple as climbing a tree to escape a wild boar or tossing our enemy down an abandoned well. 

 

Fear can make us blind to the reality of a situation. Fear can also make us much more controllable. 

 

If we look at 22 degree Cappy (22 degrees of any sign tends toward self-sabotage) in the U.S. natal we find asteroid (again, #surprise, #notsurprise) Narcissus, famous for his love of himself. The U.S. has this asteroid on this HOT/powerful degree in its natal chart - and this degree was hot long before Saturn/Pluto set it on fire!

 

When astrologers think of this Cappy pile-up as about 'covid' and our reactions to covid, we are missing a big piece of the story. We have to stop and think about this narcissism our reactions are feeding. And, in reverse, the fuel of narcissism that is enabling our reactions! We'll talk more about this later. 

For today, we have the Sun, at 22 Libra, squaring Pluto, at 22 Cappy. We talked about this in the weekly HERE. Power struggles. Manipulations. Situations that feel like life and death. A continuation or more likely, given this is the closing/separating square, a CULMINATION to a January 2020 story. On the one hand, if this has been an ongoing situation, whatever the outcome - the pressure can ease. On the other hand, a crisis now can bring permanent transformation - there is no going back to not knowing/life before this 2020 Sun/Pluto chapter. 

 

Our goal here, to end the day standing in our own shoes which means our own true source of power. To NOT allow our fears to control us/determine what we do or what we agree to. To NOT try to control/manipulate other people. To bury what is DEAD.

Back with the big New Moon post folks where we'll pull in this week's aspects and the next two weeks, too! It's HUGE.

xo all

Today's Astrology Forecast | Wednesday, October 14th, 2020 - other people, our connections, our desire for peace and balance are pulling us into the future, uber productive day

 

 

The Moon, continuing her journey through industrious Virgo - opposes Neptune at 7:47AM EDT (note your dreams), trines Jupiter at 8:11AM EDT (optimism works in our favor), Pluto (power, intensity) at 1:55PM EDT and finally goes void off a trine to Saturn at 6:46PM EDT. She is then void for the rest of the day, so take tonight off and relax!

Virgo/Cappy trines are uber productive, and with Mercury retrograde we could be focused on something thing from the past, a re-do, re-vision. Mercury entered her/his shadow on September 24th, so ANYTHING we started before that date is fair game for progress now. Today's trines are powerful, expansive, stabilizing - things can fall smoothly into place with just a little effort.

In the meantime, this is also the day the Sun (at 21 Libra) trines the North Node (at 21 Gemini). 

 

Send the email. Answer the phone. Connect with people. Our relationships, our connections, the need for peace and balance (our shadow stuff that we project onto others can be especially visible to us now - take note of how you are interacting and what you are getting back from those interactions, ie how you feel after them) are pulling us into the future. The North Node in Gemini is giving us MORE OPTIONS/details/information - so pay attention.

A four star day in maybe (being generous) a one star week, so we'll use it or lose it. If something needs to get finished up before the New Moon on Friday - let's get it finished up.

 

xo all

The next couple days and the background buzz is more stressful, so we will need to choose to connect with today's easier energies and then SOMETHING SHOULD FALL INTO PLACE HERE. The Moon is dark (and with the Sun squaring Pluto tomorrow - lots of power moves and manipulations happening we won't get to see) and we are moving toward a New Moon determined to kick off a very unbalanced chapter - so let's get whatever today is wanting to show us.

New Moon post next and we'll get back to Trump/covid/the U.S. It was good news for him he came home from the hospital at Pluto's station which could indicate a permanent change of direction, on the other hand - he's got all these long term negative health aspects in general plus all the covid acute ones - tomorrow's Sun/Pluto and Friday's New Moon are all over his health/career and his chart and his progressed Moon is squaring Uranus - his health house ruler - exact next Tuesday. Exact and unpredictable. Maybe he's only out of the woods if his political aspirations continue to tank. If they actually are.

photo by the talented afamjaowy

Today's Astrology Forecast | Tuesday, October 13, 2020 - Mercury stations retrograde, the Sun opposes Mars retrograde, intensity, a change of direction, relationship shadows, get some exercise

 

 

The Moon moved into earthy Virgo late last night. She trines a retrograde Uranus at 4:35PM EDT, sextiles Mercury (Virgo's ruler) at 8:19PM EDT and meets up with Venus at 10:54PM (13 degrees).

We talked about today's INTENSE aspects in the weekly HERE for Tuesday.

 

The Moon, with multiple smooth/positive aspects is going to help. Her trine to Uranus helps us emotionally integrate change more easily, particularly anything unexpected regarding our finances/resources/values. That sextile to Mercury, which is exact about an hour before Mercury stations retrograde, speaks of some down-to-earth and realistic communication/problem solving available esp well-timed for business/service or related to Venusian themes - our relationships, money, values, self-esteem - just keep things practical and focused. 

 

Lean into one solid thing and not all over the place. 

Keep in mind today's Mars/Sun opposition intensified by Mercury's station can make us antsy/easily irritated. Other people will be feeling this, too. With Venus in Virgo the ways we are hard on ourselves can be projected onto other people, so we need to just stay in our own shoes. Get some exercise. Do something physical. We can choose to use this burst of energy as motivation, rather than a reason to lose it. But we might lose it, anyway. Let's not be too hard on ourselves here. 

The Sun is in Libra seeking balance and we are at the halfway point of the Mars retrograde with Mars closer to the Earth than he will be in years. The drums of war are beating all week. There is an old Mars retrograde axiom that whoever starts the war (during the retro) will lose the war, so keep this in mind, too. 

After tonight we have two of our three personal planets retrograde. If something important can be postponed until mid to late November, it might be a good idea to postpone it. If we can't, that is OK, too, just know there will be twists and turns and the need to revise things as we move ahead. Just do what you have to do. The stuff we dig up during Mercury's time in Scorpio will be needed when she/he gets back into Libra by the end of the month. We will need to be paying attention and we will be. And Scorpio rules death, too. It will not only be what we dig up, but what we put into the ground that will matter. With that pile-up in Cappy and Mercury in Scorpio and Mars slowing us down/not producing the results we are wanting - everyone is questioning their life on a deeper level than ever before.

In November things are going to change. Mars and Mercury will station direct. By the middle of November this holding pattern we are in will release. And we will know what we are dealing with because it will be happening. By December we are responding to what happens in November - we know now.

 

For today - take care driving. Take care with your tools. Take care with your words. Take care of you. If we are going to rise from the sweaty sheets of our 2020 deathbeds we have to know WE MATTER. Each of us. And each part of us. Everyone gets a seat at the table.

 

We are in the red hot middle of the Mars retrograde just as Mercury's gets started. 

 

Life is really an inside job now. 

xo all

 

photo by the talented Alice Litwin

13-10-2020 16:35:15 tu Trine ∆ ♅ Uranus ♉, R ♍ Virgo 09°24' 13-10-2020 20:19:05 tu Sextile ⚹ ☿ Mercury ♏ ♍ Virgo 11°40'

More information on the moonhoroscope.com
© Lunar calendar for every day