Gateway to Peace: New Moon in Libra

Autumn Leaves                                                                                                                      Catherine Al-Meten Meyers

On Friday, September 30 the New Moon in Libra ushers in the start of the new lunar month. At 8:11 P.M. EDT/5:11 P.M. PDT the New Moon is exact in the air sign of  Libra at 8/15 degrees.This New Moon in the first decan of Libra, has a strong impact on those with aspects in the cardinal signs of Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn. Look to the house that Libra rules in your chart, and notice as well any transits or aspects to the other three cardinal signs/houses in your own chart/life.  Libra’s symbolic emphasis on balance and harmony, highlights the areas in our lives where we are seeking greater equanimity. Issues may arise at the New Moon time that call us to find ways of achieving greater balance of body, mind, spirit in all areas of our lives. How we negotiate and find compromise in relationships is now key in moving forward. Despite a bit of edginess caused by greater awareness of conflicts, challenges, and points of departure, this New Moon in Libra serves as a gatewy into a more peaceful time.

Libra’s ability to allow us to understand ourselves through our understanding of others, helps us greet our differences and challenges with grace, aplomb, and strength. The challenge for Libra is not so much seeing the other person’s viewpoint as it is remembering who we are. Libra’s strengh is being able to empathize and feel compassion. Libra fights for the underdog, and makes room in the circle for everyone, even the bully. The problem or healing edge for Libra though is remembering to stand in our own truth and to speak out from a point of strength as well as tolerance. In other words, instead of hiding behind the diplomatic plesantries that are required to do business, maintain equilibrium, or handle certain situations, we also need to know when to put our foot down and say, “No, that’s not how I feel”, or “No, I won’t do that”.  This is a time when we can learn a great deal by allowing others to be who they are, and then deciding how it is we are going to either be in relationship with them, as they are, or make choices that are more in line with our own needs, health and well being, and code of ethics.  

New Moons always stand in direct alignment with the Sun, a conjunction. The strength of the Libra Sun combines with the New Moon to usher in a new phase of life as well as a new way of being. We choose now how to find and live harmoniously, how to create beauty out of what is growing where we are, and how to discover healing and growth of those areas of ourselves where we may not have seen it before.  This New Moon highlights the more mystical and intuitive nature of our being. In fact because  Though we experience a great deal of confusion and conflict via mass communication, this is a time that highlights peacekeeping and negotiating rather than war and conflict. It is also a very potent time for receiving inutitive messages, visioning, and consulting good and wise advisors. What comes to you now by way of dreams, hunches, life experiences, intuition, signs, omens, or repetitive patterns of people appearing and disappearing, now open many to very powerful insight and understanding. We may see far into our future or have profound awakenings about how the past is present in our lives and in the world around us. We may connect to the Divine nature of our world and our place in it, and feel the overwhelming presence of Spirit within our lives.

Earlier in the week, The transiting Sun in Libra formed a conjunction with Jupiter. We may have felt a sweeping feeling of grace or an easing off of tension and fear. This has paved a way to our greater understanding of how temporary life is and yet how eternal. We are each traveling in perpetual motion forward into the life we are creating. The more we become aware of how our thoughts, words, deeds, and emotions carry highly charged emotional energy, the more we come to understand how important it is that we live in mindful attention and intention to all we do. Nothing is wasted. No word goes unfelt. All we are, and all we do is energy helping create the ongoing Creation. Now, at this New Moon in Libra, it is time to once again examine how we are working from and for peace, with love and kindness, compassion and mercy as our guides.

Pluto in Capricorn just began its forward movement in Capricorn, once again digging deeper into our lives to transform and uproot whatever is not live giving and life affirming. We may find we’re going over old territory in some way. Instead of giving up or giving in to old patterns or behaviors, we need to remember what we have learned as Pluto has been transforming this area of our lives. Look to this area of your chart/life, and review and recommit yourself to growth in all the areas that will enhance your life and others.

According to Darkstar Astrology, astrologer, Marina, this New Moon in Libra, is transiting the constellation Coma of Brerenice. Just below the tail of the Leo constellation (Coma de Berenice was once considered part of Leo), Coma of Berenice is a constellation that represents devotion for a cause or group. The willingness to lay down your life (devote your time, energy, resources) for the good of others in a time of need. The New Moon in Libra sits atop the crown of Coma de Berenice. Berenice II was the wife of Ptolemy Soter III of Egypt. The Moon sits atop Diadem, the alpha star found in the wreath of jewels in Berenice’s hair.

The lessons of Libra include both sides of the coin. On one hand, we are called to be more aware, responsive, and understanding of those whom we are in conflict with, conditions that require compromise and diplomacy, and actions and words that heal, soothe, create, and build more peace and beauty into our personal lives and the world community as a whole. On the other hand, when we have lost our sense of direction or gotten caught up in external issues, conflicts, conditions, or other people’s burdens, we must check in with what is the “log in our own eye”. We must deal with the issues that are affecting our life and the family, community, and relationships that comprise our own circle of life. And we must be true to ourselves in doing so. We cannot abdicate our own responsibiliites at the altar of selfless sacrifice. It is no gift to others if we are falling apart where we are. Let the energy of the Libra New Moon send you on an internal quest to discern just how you are aligning yourself with the guiding prinicples and understanding that defines who you are.

Our lives are all about the constant seeking of balance. The balance between the polarities that are an inherent part of us. The oppositions and conflicts that we are continually meeting, resolving, and remeeting. The play of two child ren on a teeter totter. Be reminded that the point of balance in our lives, the fulcrum, is in constant motion. Our journey is about meeting in the shadows of ourselves in order to find peace, seek resolve, and discover who we are and what we are capable of being and becoming. To find ways to heal and come to wholeness, in the way we live out our journey. As the Sun and the Moon are still in alignment with Jupiter, we can do this more joyfully at this New Moon time. 

Jupiter was said to have taken Berenice’s hair from the altar in the temple where she had sacrificed it for the safe return of her husband from war.  He took her beautiful hair and laid it among the stars in the heavens. Jupiter lifts us from our own sacrifices and suffereings, when we are able to see what gifts we have in even the most challenging and difficult of seasons. The ancient myths and legends tell of universal experiences and emotions that affect all humans regardless of time or place. As with all religious and spririutal symbols, we find those that help us make peace with that which is either too difficult to comprehend or too hard to bear. Use your spritual practices and religious principles and rites to help you find a companion through whatever darkness and whatever shadows you are coping with now. Seek a vision, listen to the still small voice, find inspiration, or gather in prayer with others who seek peace. Use this beautiful New Moon in Libra to help you enter through the gateway of despair into the City of Light.