The New Moon at 17°21′ Libra is exact this morning at 8:49am PDT. This entire stretch is all about Venus and the law that tells us consciousness is a mirror. Libra is one of the signs ruled by Venus, and this is the one where we know right relationships, the appreciation of symmetry and beauty, and balance and harmony as a credo. The scales that are this cardinal air sign’s avatar tell us a great deal about how it works. Put your thumb on one side of the scale, and the other has no option but to rise with equal emphasis. When we live in this posture in an embodied way, grace is as easy as respecting the mirror. My favorite trope of all time for this: you don’t see a wrinkle in your outfit and iron the reflection.
Emotional dysregulation is in some ways what Venus in Scorpio is all about, which is why she’s uncomfortable here. Too much intensity, especially set next to Libra’s capacity to restore equanimity. Libra teaches us to regulate, because regulating is the loving thing to do. When the embodied side of the scales tips under a trigger, we mirror it with the guileless self-acceptance that returns both sides to neutral. So much of the world’s poisonous enmity comes from this very dynamic, where people’s shadows manipulate the scale and rage gets mixed into the return to center. There’s research I’m aware of linking anger to the expanded bliss of a meditative practice, where the contraction of anger opens organically into those higher states. To me, that’s Venus in Scorpio reaching toward her trek through Libra. She’s retrograde there now, where the heart knows what it means to say, “I love you to death.” When personal love is that intense, rage easily finds a home.
In this New Moon, Venus is at 7° Scorpio retrograde and Mercury is just past her at 12°, fresh from their meetup. He’s in his shadow, so when he turns at the end of the month he comes right back to the spot where they held hands today. His retrograde in Scorpio gets us comfortable with deep change, the kind that goes all the way to death and rebirth. Venus is doing something similar with how we give and receive love, and when she returns to Libra to finish her cycle, those transformations install as an upgrade to your personal scales. Both cycles run past this lunation, so everything in the next four weeks works in tandem with these two for the rest of the year.
The Sun and Moon are in a Sextile with Jupiter in Leo. This is a lovely manifestation thread of cash and prizes, where our conscious awareness works very well with our sense of deserving, along with all the other yummy stuff that happens when Libra and Leo combine their air and fire. But it’s a New Moon, so our unconscious is in complete alignment with our desires for more. I say eat it all, and then go for seconds. The universe will correct you toward what is actually on its way to you, as opposed to your fantasies of the future, but this is one New Moon to unabashedly ask for everything you could possibly want, and ask for it to be delivered.
Here’s where the universe may check you, and you may not know it for a few months. It starts with the Venus/Mercury Conjunction. Venus and Mars are in an exact Square perfecting under the dark of this Libra New Moon, so a battle for supremacy is going to harsh the lunation’s loving buzz. Venus in Scorpio is fixed in her attachment, and Mars in fixed Leo is my way or the highway. Add Pluto down in Aquarius for a T-Square, and the conflict in the cycle ahead could be big. Sometimes change only comes when people are backed against the wall. Look at October 3rd and the days around it, when Mars’ explosive Opposition with Pluto perfected. There may be a thread there worth remembering, but only if it’s genuinely significant. Don’t force anything to fit.
Now here comes a contradiction to all that. Mars is also making a lovely Trine to both Saturn and Neptune in Aries, which lets us make choices in the coming cycle that align easily with what inspires us (Neptune) and what feels important (Saturn). We walk this New Moon into the future with Mars, though even he is subject to a retrograde: he moves into Virgo, then returns to Leo in a retrograde that begins before the end of the year. Everything unfolds in layers, so be patient with how long some things take, and trust that the universe will help.
That help comes as a Yod, or Finger of Fate, where the intentions you set now get ushered forward by assistance you can’t yet see. The little choices made in the moment get the winds of fate blowing your way, so keep your long term vision and play the long game. Mercury and Venus Inconjunct Uranus on one leg, so new directions can arrive suddenly, and on the other they reach Saturn and Neptune, so if you’ve been following your dreams and putting in the work, this New Moon has a lot to offer. Curiously, in a lunation this full of air, the only earth grounding us is Black Moon Lilith in Capricorn, waiting for us to remember that you can climb any mountain that’s yours, and the only thing holding you back is shame.
The Nodes have moved to 28°, and Chiron is still in an Easy Opposition with them, Trining the South Node in Leo so we empty the septic tank of old shame with ease. Sextiles require action to pay out, and Chiron in this productive geometry with our north star says our effort will be rewarded. The lighter your backpack, the easier it is to traverse incredible heights.
Notice that I haven’t really said anything about love, marriage, soulmates, beautiful appearances, or finances. That’s on purpose, because those are details, and the details are not where the work is. Live fully embodied, with life as your mirror, and those things arrive on their own, because the universe will mirror any desire you are not ashamed of. That’s the whole catch, and it’s exactly what Lilith has been waiting for us to figure out. You can ask for the soulmate, the money, or the beautiful reflection in the glass. But remember the work. Stay exclusively on your side of the street, stop being ashamed of what you want, and let the rest be delivered. Iron the shirt. The mirror will catch up. Have at it!
