Libra New Moon Solar Eclipse: October 14
The Libra New Moon solar eclipse at 1:55PM ET on October 14, is the first of its kind. The lunar nodes moved into Aries and Libra on July 17, 2023. Now the South Node is activated in Libra in a way it has not been since 2005. If you know your chart, you can think back 18 years to what transpired in this area of your life. For more precise insight, book a reading with your favorite astrologer :)
Aries is the individual that initiates new ventures and excites to see its impact in the world. Libra creates the structure in which personal actions can contribute to greater good. We had the first eclipse along the Aries axis on April 20, so your initiation has already begun. What began in the Spring now takes fruit in the Fall. Over the next 18 months, we’re embarking upon a journey between personal volition and social responsibility. Not in the sense of obligation that we experience as a burden, like doing for other people what they could and should do for themselves, but more for the betterment of ourselves and everything around us.
The New Moon at 21°07 Libra, copresent with Mercury and ruled by Venus in Virgo (ViV), wants you to extend a hand. It will show us where there is a need for help that we have a capacity to give support that can create improvement. This kind of mutually beneficial engagement with life enriches us on a spiritual level. ViV is quite soulful and its opposition with Saturn in Pisces on October 10, was a reminder that any work done with a sense of purpose can feel uplifting.
Libra is a sign of unity but building consensus is not an easy task. The Libra New Moon solar eclipse asks us to make friends with what is difficult about being human. Mars transit through Libra from August 27-October 12, identified exactly what that unpleasant element might be in your life. Where we struggle to have healthy conflict. Where we don’t know how to disagree without anger and violence. Eclipses are portals that open into mystery. That can be terrifying, but it's also an opportunity to let something new move through.
This is an invitation to be a friend, even in situations that feel unkind, and find what is worthwhile in people who are disagreeable. It’s a lesson in diplomacy and we may not like it but its part of our maturation process. We also don’t have to know how to do it ahead of time. The universe is going to model for us a practice if we are present to see and sensitive enough to feel. Mars transit through Scorpio is the perfect accompaniment to eclipse season because it is heightening our emotional intelligence.
Libra is an air sign that asks us to coexist. It dwells in the mental realm but has heart. Libra season is an invitation to revel in the beauty of diversity, which is the foundation of nature. To find what is mutually beneficial and enshrine that on the altar of our communal good. If we are attuned to what is unfolding through the end of the month, we will receive important guidance about our life purpose as it relates to the positive contributions we can make on Earth. Venus’ transit through Virgo anchors us in the mundane. The small specific tasks we can do to have a concrete, even if just momentary, impact for good.
Eclipses show us what is hidden, and in doing so reveal deeper patterns. What we took life to learn and what we came here to teach. Each of our lives unfolds according to what the divine wants to show us for our own personal growth and evolution. The Soul Academy of Earth where we work out our stuff can feel more like the school of hard knocks. There’s a set up of difficulty and challenge that is designed not just to build character but to propel an unfolding along a set of themes. The topics we become experts in. What could you teach a graduate class about? What do you feel like you’re particularly adept at facilitating?
The process of growth is represented by the North Node and release with the South Node. The Libra New Moon is facilitating an elimination in the places that Mars pointed to as imbalanced over the past 6 weeks. All of us have a karmic past that left its mark on us. The South Node is a gaping hole where we feel empty and in lack. But that longing and sense of being incomplete can propel us towards our destiny. We may avoid what is ours to do in the world, and, if so, this eclipse cycle can remove those blocks so we can barrel forth more brazenly in Aries season next year.
The South Node is associated with Saturn, the lord of karma, because eclipses challenge us to look at what we hide from. We might really fear our path or run from it. Avoidance can keep us stuck for a long time. Saturn rejoices in the 12th house of self undoing, also known as the place where we meet God. Its a place of limbo where we can linger for eternity, but it also can bring matters to a head. When we face our stuff it gives us the opportunity to redo what wasn’t done well the first (hundred) times around. Eclipses are catalysts that release our obstacles so that the real work can begin.
The Libra eclipse is also encouraging us to commit to the beauty we have the capacity to create but have not yet figured out how to manifest. The harmony we’re trying to align with where we are discordant. To meditate long enough, weighing things in the balance, that we find the center middle. Things are not going to get better unless we actually find a way to coexist. To give up the high of superiority, the thrill of power and domination, and make better friends with the calm of peaceful existence. To do so we might have to take a more rational approach to survival fears and ask ourselves if there is a different way other than winners and losers? One that might not feel like victory but facilitates a greater freedom? A love that ensures equality.