This month, the new moon arrives with an annular solar eclipse this Saturday, October 14th at 10:55 AM in California, 11:55 hours in Mexico City. A solar eclipse intensifies the seed nature of the new moon, especially in terms of duration since it often keeps on giving fruit past the lunation. Eclipses are wake-up calls and the solar ones often bring objective events, as opposed to lunar eclipses that are more subjective and emotional. This will be the first new moon since the autumnal equinox and we already had a full moon, so it arrives relatively late in the sign, at Libra 22⁰ (21⁰08′).
As mentioned when writing about the Aries-Libra full moon, those two signs share an adolescent desire to show the concrete expression of whichever Spiritual force has just gain prevalence, either the Day Force (Aries) or the Night Force (Libra) that integrate the individuality or relatedness of a person, respectively. Aries has an adolescent vision of what C.G. Jung called a personality centered in the Self that is reached archetypally in Cancer. However, the Aries type is more interested in individualism centered in the Ego as a contrast to the undifferentiated ocean of collectivity (Pisces), from which it emerged.
Similarly, Libra envisions the collectivity of interrelated personalities that will be archetypally achieved in Capricorn, be that a sociocultural civilization or what Dane Rudhyar called a consciousness Pleroma, perhaps borrowing the term from Christian theology that defines it as “the totality or fullness of the Godhead which dwells in Christ”, according to the Oxford dictionary. Regardless of the spirituality of the collective, Libra comes out of the rigorous self-evaluation of Virgo knowing, perhaps subconsciously, his strengths and weaknesses as an individual, but extremely insecure about how to establish relationships; in other words, his relatedness. Wanting to belong, however, the Libra type will act within a value system accepted by the collectivity, against which he constantly compares his contributions, and we saw how the symbol of the balance should be interpreted for its function and not its shape.
On Struggle and Morality
We also talked about the Gift of the Spirit for Libra: Ease. We discussed different ways in which one can define ease, but I didn’t touch on another possible antonym: struggle. It is a fact that any individual transformation is the result of a spiritual victory and that no victory may be achieved without a struggle. For centuries, however, humanity has pictured the struggle and eventual victory with a tightened jaw and a clinch fist, and in the West such a strained performance aimed at a spiritual victory constitutes morality as the glorification of a desperately-fighting “will to do good”.
Such idea doesn’t belong in the age of spiritual plenitude and abundance we are entering, for it is based on the environment of scarcity that we faced in the first millennium of the Age of Pisces, before the subage of Virgo.1 When morality is such an expression of tenseness of mind and feeling, it leads to disease—literally “lack of ease”—of a constricted will, just like the physical strain of a cramped posture results in body illness. It uses ethical judgements to decide who lives as a good or a bad person, going against the inclusiveness and integration of Spirit, the Principle of Wholeness. Such morality is scarcity of the spirit!
The required struggle is one that brings health of soul and body, which is not a struggle against any entity to be met with strained muscles but a struggle for understanding, inclusiveness, and a breadth of vision. As Rudhyar wrote: “It is an effort, without being a conflict … [rather] a constantly deepening eagerness for identification of the ego with the greater Self”.
Gradually, a morality of spiritual abundance will take form among men. Writes Rudhyar: “A morality that is wholeness operating through every part of the social organism; a morality refusing to be haunted by the ghostly sins of individuals, and accounting every man responsible for every other man’s failure … The crowning glory of such a morality will be the ease of living [and] ease in being”—emphasis mine.
Year of Preparations
So far, the symbols of each new moon this year have weaved a story of an individual preparation for a new lighter and subtler consciousness coming directly from the galactic center, symbolized by the long-term square (March 2023–March 2025) between Sagittarius A✭, the black hole at the center of our Milky Way, and Neptune, the planet of inspiration: from the Latin in spirare, to accept spirit. Such constructive energy has been expressed physically by the tremendous increase in potency of the current cycle of solar activity—even emitting gamma rays!—which is supposed to hit a peak in late 2024 or early 2025, and astrologically by this year’s square between Pluto and the Nodal axis, from March 3rd to December 15th (287 days).
Having turned to Libra and its growing Night Force, it is now time to concentrate on the collective preparations that ultimately depend on our individual relatedness. The Sabian symbol for Libra 22° has the image: “A child giving birds a drink at a fountain”, further explained as the concern of simple souls for the welfare and happiness of less-evolved beings who thirst for life renewal. Its keyword is: Solicitude, defined as “the state of being concerned and anxious” by Merriam-Webster. The symbol speaks of man’s efforts to make possible giving life-bestowing water for the thirsting birds by building a fountain where water is needed, perhaps in an arid area.
Heather Ensworth interprets the symbol as a call to surrender our ego in order to express compassion. Perhaps she sees the child as an ego-less version of ourselves? In any case, we have seen that water often symbolizes consciousness and the connection between child and birds indicate a spontaneous, naïve rapport at the spiritual level, a kind of honest relatedness sorely needed nowadays.
The Nodal Axis
For a solar eclipse to occur, the new moon must form a conjunction with one of the lunar nodes. In this case Sun and Moon are 3⁰ from the South Node (Libra 24⁰53′) of our collective past experiences, which of course implies an opposition with the North Node of our collective destiny. In a personal horoscope, the South Node represents what has gotten us to where we are, the product of our actions including wisdom we may have extracted from our past as well as any attachments to that same past, causing inertia that slows down or in extreme cases impede the fulfillment of our personal destiny symbolized by the North Node. We have seen how oppositions have energy to bring awareness of the polarity, in this case how to use as tools that which we have developed over this and previous lifetimes, our inborn talents, to help us navigate the road of our evolutionary growth.
It is said that if all or most planets in a horoscope fall on the semicircle between the South and the North nodes, the personal destiny is largely composed of sharing talents and karmic memory (South Node) with others in a novel way or for a new purpose (North Node). If the opposite is true and most or all planets are concentrated between the North and the South nodes, the personal destiny is to develop new talents and grow in a new direction (North Node), using what we’ve learned in the past (South Node). Colloquially speaking, one would say the former is a life that “pays” karma while the latter “accrues” it.
The Eris Archetype
In Greek mythology, Eris was the goddess of strife and discord, known to the Romans as Discordia. She was a sister of Ares (Mars to the Romans) and the real cause of the Judgement of Paris and thus the Trojan War. In the myth, the goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite were invited to a wedding, along with the rest of the Olympus, but Eris was not invited due to her trouble-making ways. She hated so much being left out that tossed the Apple of Discord into the party, a golden apple with the inscription: “For the most beautiful one”. As expected, the goddesses began to quarrel about who should get the apple, forcing Zeus to appoint Paris, Prince of Troy, to select the winner. The goddesses stripped naked for Paris, so he could make an informed decision, and also tried to bribe him. Hera offered political power while Athena infinite wisdom, but Aphrodite tempted him with the most beautiful woman in the world: Helen, wife of Menelaus of Sparta. By awarding the apple to Aphrodite, Paris doomed his city to be destroyed in the war that ensued.
Eris was discovered on January 5th, 2005 and was immediately assumed to be the tenth planet of the solar system, initially estimated to be larger than Pluto although it is a tad smaller but more massive. Nonetheless, its discovery fueled ongoing discussions within the astronomical community about what constitutes a planet. Talk about strife and discord! In August 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) published its definition of a planet, later adopted by NASA and other space agencies, by which both Pluto and Eris were effectively demoted by receiving the new “dwarf planet” designation,2 along with other orbiting bodies: Ceres, Sedna, etc. Eris is very far away, located beyond the Keiper belt, and currently three times farther from the sun than Pluto, in the aphelion of a highly-eccentric 559 year orbit that has it moving very slowly through Aries (1926–2048).
As you can see in the chart of the eclipse, Eris (symbol: ♁) will be at Aries 24⁰44′, forming an exact conjunction (same degree) with the North Node. In astrology, the Eris archetype operates as the female warrior (she is Mars’ sister operating from his sign!) seeking inclusion and equality relentlessly and at any cost. The conjunction brings such desire to our collective future which is further energized by the 3° square formed between Eris and Pluto at Capricorn 27°54′.
Mars and Pluto
We have talked at length about the empowering T-square configuration between the Nodal axis and Pluto that will continue for the rest of the year. In the chart, however, Pluto will also form an out-of-sign square with Mars at Scorpio 1°45′, which at worst predicts violent conflict, and it was exact during the weekend when the war between Hamas and Israel exploded, but at best may help us transform the manner by which we satisfy our desires. While Pluto was retrograde, up to a few hours prior to the eclipse, the square with Mars helped us ponder individually and collectively the consequences of our actions. However, now that it began to move direct, it is time to change whatever is keeping our actions ego-centered.
In Scorpio, Mars performs as its higher octave, Pluto, and more so with the square between them. It is still the planet of action, but it will act slowly, methodically, deeply (very!) like the careful incision of a skilled surgeon, and yet perhaps secretly or even surreptitiously like the stealth attack of a special forces commando. Either way, there is energy in the new-moon seed to work on the excision or annihilation of old egocentric patterns of behavior.
Mars was only the first of the personal planets that will be conjunct the South Node and form a square with Pluto. Within four days past the eclipse, Moon, Sun, and Mercury, in that order, will have done so, followed by Venus in late November, just before the T-square of Pluto with the nodes ceases to be felt. This is another case, like the successive oppositions of the personal planets to Neptune, where the “big boys” (Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto) prepare us at the threshold of the Age of Aquarius.
Venus Comes Out of its Shadow
On October 7th, Venus came out of its retrograde shadow (Leo 28°38′) to complete its journey through Leo this past weekend. The retrograde shadow is the span of degrees revisited by a planet during retrograde motion. It is delimited by two degrees: where the planet began its retrograde motion and where it began moving direct again. While the planet is within that span, there is a tendency to reflect on the issues raised even when visited for the third time in direct motion. In this case, Venus forced us to take a good look at our relatedness while it transited through its retrograde shadow.
Furthermore, you may recall that Venus formed an off-and-on square, mostly on, with Uranus since late June! This is an eternity for an aspect that normally lasts a few days, urging us to accept our intuition and open our minds to novel, perhaps revolutionary, ways of relating while, at the same time, rejecting anything that has become routine or is based on old paradigms. Interestingly enough, the square stopped being active a few hours prior to Venus coming out of its retrograde shadow. It is time to act! Venus spent the weekend in Leo, where it expresses a relatedness from the heart, before following the symbology of the Sphinx and moving on to Virgo, where it fosters a practical and discriminating outlook in relationship matters.
At the time of the eclipse Venus will be at Virgo 5°03′, out off Uranus’ influence, and forming an opposition with Saturn (Pisces 0°52′) that was exact four days earlier. And let me add that it continues to form a sextile with the Mars in Scorpio discussed earlier, so Venus will have enough energy to help us comprehend how to build relationships based on a new value system founded on love and compassion. Pam Gregory said that the opposition of Venus in Virgo and Saturn in Pisces brings energy for detailed beauty.
Wrapping Up…
As evidenced by the events of last weekend, we are living what may be called a schizophrenic reality: on one side, our emotions are tugged by the violence and chaos around us, while on the other we get the feeling that a new consciousness is taking hold around us.
There is no way to stop this tsunami of subtler consciousness that is fueling a quantum jump in humanity’s evolution. It is best to stay informed but not get hooked with events, or form attachment to causes, stemming from the inertia of old paradigms and past behavior.
That said, none of this is predetermined, for we may always exercise our free will. The energies just mentioned are available to illumine the road ahead but we decide if and when we’ll enter and follow the Path. These energies are available to help us but we must do the necessary work.
It should be obvious that most of us have changed quite dramatically due to the strong energies of this year of preparations. We are no longer who we were just a few months ago, much less when considering the past two or three years. Such changes put strain in our relationships, to the tune that some may end and new ones will be formed. Once again, it is time to let go of the past and the attachments it feeds, so we can embrace the road ahead, the future making our personal destiny a reality.
Always Love. 🌹🙏💖
- In a future write-up, I will retake the topic of the Age of Aquarius, and will make references to previous astrological ages and subages. ↩︎
- Perhaps feeling bad about Pluto’s demotion, in June 2008, the IAU Executive Committee assigned the name plutoid to designate a trans-neptunian dwarf planet such as Eris ↩︎
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