Libra New Moon 2 October 2024

Personal relating mirrors global interactions –
live the way you would truly love to live, and all is done.

 
(don’t worry about the astrology, go for the gist)
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We are not our early conditioning
.       So, the learning about love in relationships moves on, from carefully considering what’s appropriate (Virgo) to keeping ones balance through the turbulence of old patterns of reaction in-built from early life. This is about the deeply buried emotions around limits imposed on how and why love should be withheld – or expressed – by whoever had authority in the family situation. The limits could be cultural, ancestral, or simply the circumstances your family was living through during your childhood. These may have been accepted as the norm; the love may have been assumed even when not expressed outwardly, but the limits were there, and would still be affecting relationships now (Venus rules Libra, and is in a grand trine with Mars in Cancer and Saturn in Pisces). The focus is on keeping ones balance in spite of what rises in-our-face: old traumas from way back, past life sufferings, even the pain of other members in our early family life.

We are not the roles cast in our family
.       By the Full Moon on 17 October we will be aware of this emotional wave as more than personal, as rather stemming from the collective unconscious (as Venus moves into trining Neptune). But the first half of the month it’s likely to feel very personal, being brought into awareness through present behaviour of family members. It’s a call for us to recognise that everyone needs equal consideration, be they strangers, friends, or siblings, parents, and so on. Your mother is another woman, your brother another man; and you are an individual in your own right. Our children may have started out as the ‘fruit of our loins’ so to speak, but once they are adult, they need to be given the same respect as any other person in our life – the same right to space, attention, and love; the same need for nurture when suffering as any other person you meet; the same gratitude for having life and being part of our world. They may be our son or daughter, but they are not ‘our children’ as such any more. It’s so easy to fall into possessiveness when we think in terms of roles like that (Venus through Scorpio). Saturn in Pisces represents all old structures that have a universal influence, including the structures of religion – the Venus connection to Saturn in this chart may also highlight the love of spirit that can be expressed through any of the world religions. And perhaps this is a time to remember that spiritual love is in fact universal. Paying attention to that love, and accepting its all-inclusiveness, will allow so much more love and light into the world, and help us personally to weather the storms that may whip up around family issues.

Find and care for the child you were
.       This month may not be easy (Sun/Moon eclipse with Mercury on the South Node all square Mars). The issues that could be our stumbling blocks are old feelings of unfairness, memories of harshness, anger about being unheard, hunger for more nurturing, for more loving hugs. The point is that we tend to gain our sense of ourselves from how we felt we were treated as children, and it’s these pains of feeling small or mis-understood or whatever that need to be addressed (Chiron in Aries square Mars in Cancer). But in fact we are now individuals, with the same rights, space, and responsibilities, as everyone else. It’s up to our own selves to stop holding onto our inner sense of damage. If we don’t grow up, navigating through the emotional energy of Mars in Cancer rising from everyone’s childhood could feel like playground fights, or classroom competition. And it doesn’t sit well with Libran desire for peace.
.       What we really need to do is compassionately address whichever inner part of us is insisting we remain in that old shape. I have a pattern of holding a lack of worth in my posture, some hold it in their shape, or areas of pain or dis-ease in the body or in the emotions. We are not to try and get rid of anything, just notice how it is inside with kindness and interest – from the larger person we are now than our memories. A lovely book for working with the inner experience is Peter Gill’s ‘The Way of Curiosity: Discovering wisdom through listening to the body’.
.       Another good book to reference when we feel stuck with something is ‘You can Heal your Life’ by Linda Goodman. Often we hold that old pattern through a continued sense of entitlement in the way that babies and young children assume they must be fed and nurtured, and it hopefully lessens through late teens and 20’s. But we are all different, and grow at different speeds according to our soul map of this life, so all or none of this may apply to you! Most beautifully at this time the energy of personal pain is likely to be matched or more by healing through generously standing up for those in real need, and this means also standing up for ourselves when faced with family put-downs (Jupiter in Gemini sextile Chiron). Let’s make sure we speak as adults endeavouring to bring harmony to each relationship we have – loving diplomacy.

Don’t brew a battle – call in the angels!
.       Where the first half of the month is focused on personal relationships, the second half is linking those relationships to what’s going on in the world and how that impacts us all (Venus and Mars join the pattern of outer planets). Relating within community requires that we have our personal life covered, that we are already taking care of our inner selves, so that we have mental space to focus on wider needs (Venus leaves Scorpio for Sagittarius 8 hours after the Full Moon). Maybe there’s a general event, or maybe just a change of attitude, but something opens our awareness to the bigger picture, and we feel prepared to adapt to circumstances that have been changing in the background. We may well find there’s a need for expansive generosity and communication (Jupiter sextile Chiron).
.       With Mars moving through emotional Cancer, and the Moon throwing light on Chiron wounds, we will definitely need to work at not joining factions, or arguing with our neighbours, families, or ourselves. The energy is likely to provoke a desire to protect whoever one identifies as ones family, which could be those who have the same belief structure, those we would fight to defend, those who the media may show in a needy light (Full Moon in a grand square). On a personal level, we need to stand back, check what we see, consider what might be best, speak when appropriate, take historic circumstances into account, and let go of personal preferences and treasured identities – all this could be too much when we’re feeling the need for action!

The Libran balance point for this month . . .
.       When the emotions rise from a sense of unsafety, we can so easily be manipulated, even by our own principles of fairness and justice; rushing forward without consulting the wider picture. The quick, straight-forward guideline is to stay awake to ourselves as individuals, and go forward with caution and all-inclusive love (Mercury trines Saturn, and Neptune holds the balance point in the Mars/Venus grand trine). We can do this!

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Contemplation for this New Moon in Libra

In wobbly times
you need to go inward
digging deeper to anchor your root
From there your courage will rise up steady
and you may weigh and balance
unavoidable human karma
as it arises
so it may fall away
leaving life’s beauty refreshed.

With love,
Margaret

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