Insights for Libra
September 23
Sun enters Libra: 02:49 AM EDT
Venus trine Chiron
A new season, whichever hemisphere you inhabit. The metaphysical moment when light and dark, day and night are perfectly balanced. A symbol of equality here on Earth. Nothing lasts, as we all know, and immediately following the perfect equilibrium we descend (in the north) into the waning of the year as the hours of the night gradually overtake the hours of the day. It is all in our perspective whether we see a fight between the forces of night, dark and cold struggling to overtake the powers of light, warmth and day. Or if we ease into the yin/yang of seasons with night and day nestled into each other as they dance the raveling and unraveling of light and dark.
For astrologers this becomes a contemplation on things such as war and diplomacy, relationship and equity. Systemic injustices of all stripes are Libra problems to be negotiated and supported or deconstructed and reconstructed by law. Libra is the only sign of the zodiac that is represented by a human made object (scales). The ancient ones knew something as they determined this. Humans make the laws of the land, although Nature has laws of a different kind. Question is: What do we know about these Libran things as war rages and inequities proliferate? Perhaps we are at a perfect moment of change as we wake up to the absurd impossibility of a world that refuses to honestly strive to find balance. Maybe the chaos is really change moving at an alarming but necessary pace.
As the Sun travels through Libra this year it will oppose Chiron and square Pluto. It also begins the Aries/Libra eclipse season at the New Moon. You can find details below.
Today Venus and Chiron remind us that when we care about an individual we take on the system. The personal is indeed political.
September 24
Mars opposite Chiron
First Venus, now Mars: What do we need to learn about the way identity matters? When is it a call to action, a mechanism to defend? When does it demand that we turn inward and ask ourselves, ‘Who am I”?
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September 25:
Mercury trine Jupiter
Maybe a good idea has been trying to catch your attention for a while, starting back in the summer. Maybe it’s time to realize it: Manifestation is magic!
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September 29
Full Moon: 06 degrees Aries: 05:57 AM EDT
Venus square Uranus
What ever happened to the notion that negotiation is preferable to war? As the world falls into chaos on account of war machines and climate the overarching cultural glue that binds us also becomes vulnerable. How do we rise to meet our challenges and our challengers without sinking to the lowest common denominator of aggression? As Venus makes the last aspect of the retrograde journey and leaves the shadow of the event it’s time to consider what, if anything we learned since mid-June about where our expectations of our good life meets the nuts and bolts of real life . It’s enough at the moment to simply observe what has changed for ourselves and those around us. Has our ‘good life’ been reshaped in the harsh reality of circumstance? What was different about this summer? And, most importantly, how does that change your expectations for the future?
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September 30
Mercury trine Uranus
Each day offers a promise, comes as a gift, asks us only to be alive in and through it. This day is especially blessed with inventive ways to be alive. Good ideas, yes, which want to be put to use by someone curious enough to experiment with how to live in this new and chaotic version of reality which cannot be avoided.
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October 2 & 3
Mercury opposite Neptune and trine Pluto
Mercury is on a roll. We cannot, should not underestimate the power and significance of Mercury, the Great Connector, the Magician who sprinkles the dust of awareness on us. Mercury is the mind of life. From trivial to transcendent we need Mercury’s gifts to communicate not just with one another but with the world around and within us. Mercury translates. It isn’t simply the provenance of human intelligence. It is how flowers know to turn toward the sun. It’s the underground conversations of tree roots and mycelium. It’s how hormones talk among themselves and the intelligence of the microbiome. It’s how the biosphere talks to itself. The Sun gives life with fire and heat. The Moon stirs the tides. Mercury is our curiosity which enables us to learn about it all. Awareness. The Lord of the Dance is they. So when Mercury shows up in connection with the three original outer planets (and a nod to Jupiter) we might pay attention to lines of communication: for our health and well-being as well as the health and well-being of our planet: 2 leggeds, 4 leggeds, winged ones and those that live beneath the greater and lesser waters: the crawlers and the sliders even the amoeba. A good way to do this, today, is to sit still, right where you are. Hold center in the gentlest way and be in awe and wonder of the vast interplay of energies of which you are a small but vital part.
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October 4
Mercury enters Libra
Everything changes. Having completed its extended time in Virgo (due to retrograde motion), Mercury wipes its hands of Virgo, ready to take on a new perspective: Libra. Presently this is the sign of the Sun as well as the south node. Libra is inherently challenging although it can be found disowning this very trait. Libra is the sign that fights for peace. We think of aggression as the opposite of peace. Aries vs. Libra. Better than this split view is to understand these impulses as the extreme ends of the same issue. How is it we can live together as individuals and maintain a civil society? Optimism says that our civil society is falling apart in order to come together in ways that are more relevant to the world we have created. I say we hold out for this long view, tumultuous as it is in the here and now.
October 08
Mars square Pluto
Venus enters Virgo
Who we hate, who we fear: these can and often are projections of our own minds. It’s always good to look for triggers. Of course there are hateful things, fearful things afoot in this world. What matters most is how we act when we are faced with such strong, and difficult situations and people. One thing for sure: It’s never ever ok to blame the victim. That is a sure-fire indication of the most dangerous harmful projection of them all.
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October 10
Venus opposite Saturn
Pluto stationary direct
Consider the consequences of desire. The cost may be too high. The effects on people you don’t know and can’t see could be catastrophic. We live in a time of reaping the whirlwind. The effects of intergenerational trauma aren’t just psychological. The whole earth you might say is suffering from just that. A legacy of disregard and abuse from Mother Earth’s most cherished children with our remarkable (even if it’s just us doing the remarking…) cognitive abilities.
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October 11
Sun opposite Chiron
The beat goes on. The march of inequities. Daunting. Relentless. Overwhelming. Find the peace in your heart, not the escape hatch. Witness a tree with full acknowledgment that you are equally alive. Recognize the life force in birds and squirrels as akin to your own. Don’t do anything. Just be with it. Such are the great teachings of Chiron. The getting of wisdom isn’t always (or ever) heroic.
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October 12
Mars enters Scorpio
Mars is at home here. It knows how to get around in the world of desire. But how? Now? One way is to manipulate the undercurrents. Scorpio is a sign of great empathy. To the fearful this feels like an invasion of negativity and cause for paranoia. Which is to say these intense feelings give rise to the instinct of self-defense. Who wants to feel jealous or vengeful? The superpower that renders Scorpio most powerful is kindness. As HHDL said, “Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.”
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October 14
New Moon: 21 degrees Libra: 01:55 PM EDT ECLIPSE
Mercury opposite Chiron
Often our greatest teachers are not standing at the front of the classroom. They are the ones who look us in the eye and demand we meet them as equals. Maybe it’s the bully doing their best to intimidate you. Could be the one who feels you are treating them unfairly. All relationships are balancing acts between self and other. A solar eclipse can make it shockingly clear. A good time to make an intention regarding how you intend to handle this.
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October 20
Mercury conjunct the Sun and square Pluto
Consider your persistent, unwanted thoughts. We all have them. Are they intruders? Do they have a message? Do you need to feel something that you are denying or ignoring? Pluto is a lot scarier when we push it away then when we turn toward it. Mercury loves a mystery. Add a conjunction to the Sun and you have the ingredients for a really deep mystery that wants attention. Science wants to manage matter, to shine lights in darkness. Some of us prefer to go spelunking in the nooks and crannies of our psyche. Not to shine a bright light but more to feel what it’s like. No judgment; maybe some awe, a bit of curiousity, even a bit of fear which is more like respect for the unsolvable.
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October 21
Sun square Pluto
As days become noticeably shorter here in the north and longer in the south we sense the change. Somehow it has become more and more difficult to anticipate change without fear. Whether it is the promise of summer or winter hanging in the breeze, the unknown, the unexperienced seems to loom rather than invite. That’s today but not necessarily tomorrow or the next day. Maybe it is how we begin to remember ways to engage with the inevitable unknown, the mysterious future that becomes present and then past. Find your fear, the resistance in your body. Drop your shoulders, release your fists. Meet the day because it surely is meeting you!
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October 22
Venus trine Jupiter
Mercury enters Scorpio
Mercury trines Saturn
Shift happens. In this case we descend more deeply into the dark of the year (here in the north). Feelings are stirred. We anticipate winter as leaves fall and nights lengthen. Life is cyclical. Cycles teach us so much. People say ‘don’t sweat the small stuff’. Actually it’s often the small stuff that gives us peace, offers us feelings of safety and connection: a smell or a touch, a familiar gathering with people you trust, a craft you return to now and again, the ritual of putting the garden to sleep for winter or taking your sweaters out for the chill days ahead. How are you blessed? What can you do to acknowledge these blessings? If only for yourself. No big deal.
These insights, are meant as contemplations of a sort: Astrology is a kind of sky writing which invites the muse. No two perceptions are exactly the same but any of us can find insight through the images if we look. These are mine, happily offered for you to reshape and fashion into something of your own. Follow the links, where you find them for further musings on the planetary aspects.