New Moon Scoop: Moon in Libra
The Holly flower invites us to release the resentment in our hearts to make room for the joy of unconditional love. Our relationships will never be just without this commitment to the higher reality of their role in our lives.
The New Moon at 15 degrees Libra is exact October 8th at 11:46 PM EST
The Sabian symbol for the New Moon at 15 degrees Libra is:
Circular Paths
Dane Rudhyar speaks of this symbol as containing the essential repetitive and cyclical experiences of our day to day, ones which through their predictable nature also structure the appropriate time for rest, grounding and balancing projective activity with reflective space.
Our approach to this seemingly mundane facet of the human experience is what determines how we engage with it in our lives. Rudhyar suggests that it is our ability to connect with and understand the larger cosmic cycles that permeate our experiences that defines whether we perceive these life structures as limiting and as inducing restlessness, or as structures that allow us to assume the feeling of “transpersonal peace” that is the outgrowth of accepting the way the mundane informs the spiritual and the spiritual informs the mundane. This idea extends to include trust in divine timing and the ability to use our experiences as essentially symbolic and in favour of our continued growth on the Earth plane.
In one of the narratives that tells the story of the birth of the Mahavidyas (the tantric goddesses, 10 in number that are conceptual embodiments of the 7 visible planets, the two lunar nodes and the ascendant), Shiva (the primordial masculine force of the universe) is partner to Kali (Saturn, the mother of material reality) and becomes restless, deciding he is going to leave her. Before he can exit the home in which they live together, Kali projects her essence into ten distinct goddesses, which have been born from her and represent the multiple facets of the primordial feminine that animate, protect, challenge and guide humanity. The Mahavidyas (goddesses) then block all ten doors of Shiva’s home so that he cannot leave. Upon facing Kali’s myriad forms- some terrible, some peaceful- he comes to the profound realization that he will never escape the challenge that she provides him, because her essence exists embodied in the very universe itself. He then comes back to her enlightened, for he understood where the true journeying takes place: in surrendering to and integrating the wisdom of the divine feminine (cyclical) cosmic forces in order to vanquish his (limited, mortal) ego.
This story can be seen as the individual man also coming to terms with the limiting aspects of material reality (the circular paths) by recognizing them as a framework through which he can contact and connect to the divine journey of enlightenment. As long as ego exists, we will suffer, and so the path becomes not one of an outer journeying and seeking but one of an inner contemplation and dismantling of ego in order to connect to transpersonal peace.
With the arrival of Fall in the Northern Hemisphere, our circular paths have shifted to accommodate the energetic feeling of the season, which is one of purification through the release of what has not served our growth, and a harvest of the full-grown fruits of our labour that we can claim through integration and absorption in preparation for the internal period of Winter.
Considering the sign of Libra, we can take this idea of circular paths and apply it to our relationships, recognizing what relationships allow us to thrive by mirroring our true selves back to us. The essential quality of these relationships is their ability to exist in a conscious and continued resolution of the karma that is being revealed through the presence of the other in our lives and as a part of our experience. We are asked to consider the arrival at the spiritual, peaceful resolve in spite of and assisted by the mundane aspects of our relationships.
It may feel as though these relational dynamics are revealing themselves very succinctly during this time, as the energetic veil is pulled to bring our awareness to how we are managing the energy of Libra in our lives. The underlying expression of this energy is the vein of Justice that runs through all of our interactions and how tenderly we are able to mind its flow. What do we honour in our relationships to achieve a dynamic that embodies justice? Are we compassionate and able to see the true soul/Self beyond the karma of the other? Do we value the energetic presence of their being in our lives or do we concern ourselves solely with the material currents they add to our experience?
The New Moon in Libra (ruled by Venus) taking place just days after Venus enters her retrograde period gives us a clear indication of where we need to turn our attention to. Whether it’s through the reflection of our relationships or another aspect of our lives that is placed in focus at this time, there is a question of reassessing and reconnecting with our value systems. Venus actually begins her new 584-day cycle during her retrograde period, so we can see this period in our own lives as an opportunity to rebirth our relationships, our finances, our ability to attract the objects of our desire, and our ability to be inside the receptive exchange of unconditional, heart-centered love with our surroundings.
Just like Shiva, we will not escape the conflicts that bind us to the material plane throughout our human incarnation, but through learning the art of compassionate love, the domain of the goddess Kamala or Lakshmi (Venus), we can fuse more fully to our soul nature within and keep our hearts light in the face of a karmic world.
