2009 Libra New Moon
24 Libra 59
1:34 AM EDT / 5:34 AM GMT/ 10:34pm PDT (October 17th)

Every astrological occurrence prepares the ground for the ones that follow; every cycle leads to the next. With the Libra New Moon it’s time to put to work all the internal changes we have been undergoing all year that affect how we relate to each other. We are coming to relationships more intact and complete than we’ve approached them before. Everything that transpires between us and another will play out in new and different territory as a result, starting now. This New Moon is not only the first big chance to implement what we’ve been learning all year, but it is the foundation piece for the next two-plus years that Saturn will spend in Libra, starting at the end of this month.

Libra is the sign of relationships, which all of us have whether we’re in a primary/committed bond or not. Libra umbrellas the nature, quality and dynamics of our one-on-one interactions: give-and-take and reciprocity, fairness and equality, negotiation and passive-aggressiveness, what we’re willing to give and what we expect out of the other and the union. It’s a knotty, tricky subject, or at least, it has been up till this year. We’re already been approaching them differently, because we are each of us different ourselves.

Libra’s ruler Venus has taken us all on an extraordinary journey in her travels this year with her archetypal lover Mars, who rules the opposite sign of Aries. The cosmic lovers have had two mergings, in April at the last degree of Pisces (and the zodiac) and in June in the middle of Taurus, which fused their duality into integration and balance first in the realm of spirit and then squarely in the physical. Because the second meeting happened at the solstice, their integration of the feminine and the masculine permeated the entire summer with the message that each person is intact within the self and does not need to look outside for completion. As we assimilated the personal meaning of this message, the summer’s eclipses further drove it home in the arena of home, family and nurturing. The Cancer/Capricorn eclipses of July encouraged each of us to take personal responsibility for our own nurturing and stop looking to other people to provide it. (A lot of us made stark decisions about biological and chosen family, in the process.) August’s Leo Lunar Eclipse delivered clarity about love given and love received. Some of the resulting calculations left the realization that sharing your light with people who don’t see or appreciate it might amount to wasting it. And we recalibrated relationships in the aftermath.

We’ve been living with and moving ahead on the messages of the Venus/Mars conjunctions and the summer’s eclipses. Other major astrological events have played a role as well, particularly the shake-ups, shake-downs and shake-outs of the Saturn/Uranus opposition; the consciousness-expanding stellium in Aquarius; the ongoing refinement of our personal bottom line each time a planet changes signs and contacts the transforming scythe of Pluto. The cumulative effect is a definite decrease in co-dependency (remember that once-popular term?), along with an upsurge in personal completeness.

Let’s look a moment at that old term co-dependency. There was once a time, not too terribly long ago, when it was common to feel like there was a hole inside of you that another person could fill. It was common to pursue and link up with people in the hope and expectation that they would ease this feeling of emptiness and give you something that was not inside yourself. And yet, somehow, the trick never quite worked. It’s clear now why, even if you couldn’t figure it out earlier. That dynamic feels so foreign now, doesn’t it? The transformation in self-awareness that this year alone has brought has made that approach completed outmoded. You know yourself with a clarity you’ve never enjoyed. You value and love yourself more than ever before. You are clearer on what you want (and firm on what you don’t want!), what you’re passionate about, and what you absolutely, non-negotiably must have to survive and thrive physically and emotionally. More than ever before, you take responsibility for your life and choices. Even in existing arrangements of interdependence and reliance, you look primarily to yourself for meeting your needs.

Now that we are all new-and-improved individuals, we are entering a new phase of how we relate to each other. Dealing with each other differently is the cosmic imperative of this New Moon. The Sun and Moon’s conjunction is squaring the Nodes of our collective experience, forcing a change in both our past concepts of nurturing, family, tribe and the feminine and in our communal security, our societal structures and the patriarchy itself. This clash is forming an aspect pattern called a T-square, with the focus and way out of the tension being the New Moon. A trine from the luminaries to Neptune blesses this next chapter with enlightenment and divine guidance (though, alas, there’s room for propaganda, delusion and fantasy, too). The luminaries are simultaneously making an inconjunct to Uranus, which requires a choice with the potential to liberate us from a situation, a dynamic or thinking.

We can choose balance, sanity, fairness, respect and equanimity. The more of us that make that choice, the more we tip the scales of our society in that direction. We’re heading in that way, inevitably, as it is. Conflict, division and fighting do not have to be the answer. Underscoring the new paradigm, Venus and Mars are making a harmonious aspect under this New Moon. They’re in a sextile, a sympathetic link that offers opportunity in each direction, if the participants will reach out to each other. Instead of waiting for something to come to you, or pushing yourself on something, it’s an aspect of meeting halfway.

Venus is traveling a few steps ahead of Mars in this dance, as she has since leaving his embrace in before the solstice in June. Mars isn’t dropping out or wandering off in search of his own goals; he’s staying parallel with her. The female and male, feminine and masculine, receptive and assertive are all working together. And the part that is calling the shots is the one that has only recently stepped to the fore. The heart is going first now, and our ambitions and actions are trotting right behind it. This means that we are leading from the heart — not the mind, not the will, not the ego, not even past programming — in making decisions and choices. And wherever our heart wants to go, our will, our drive, our ambitions, our energy and enthusiasm all back and implement the decision. Venus and the heart say what they want; Mars and the will go after it.

The relationship of the cosmic lovers is instructive for what we may now experience. This New Moon ushers in cooperation and collaboration in place of competition, conflict and control, with the feminine calling the dance and the masculine willingly and helpfully joining in. The Venus/Mars sextile of meeting halfway illustrates a feature of the dynamic we’ll be playing out consciously in relationships from now on: each party making an energetic move or contribution to meet the other — not overpower, not manipulate, not dominate, not use, but meet.

This new beginning is preparing the way for Saturn’s entry into LIbra, which happens at the end of the month. We will spend the next two years or so working on relationships, meeting responsibilities and obligations through them and ultimately, committing to ourselves as we commit to the mirror that each relationship is. For now, we have a seeding New Moon that will last one long day. The Sun and the Moon meet by declination early Saturday morning, nearly 24 hours before they meet by degree on Sunday. Pay attention to the quality of your interactions and to the identity of the people you contact this weekend. Even though the calendar says “autumn” and leaves are already changing on the trees, you’re planting seeds for a prolonged cycle.

The Sabian Symbol for the Sun and the Moon addresses this very phenomenon. The Sabian Symbol for the New Moon at 25 Libra is:
THE SIGHT OF AN AUTUMN LEAF BRINGS TO A PILGRIM THE SUDDEN REVELATION OF THE MYSTERY OF LIFE AND DEATH.

Commentary: ‘The Sight of an Autumn Leaf Brings to a Pilgrim the Sudden Revelation of the Mystery of Life and Death’ is an image of someone having the ability to see much more in the simple things around them than most people ever notice. A ‘Pilgrim’ is a traveler, a voyager-someone who’s on a journey. Often the ‘Pilgrim’s’ journey is a spiritual trek or a trip to increase the level of experience and understanding. The ‘Sudden Revelation of the Mystery of Life and Death’ shows that the person on the journey pictured here is able to look at the smallest and sometimes most fleeting things and find layers and layers of meaning that others would probably not ever realize.

Oracle: This Symbol can indicate an insight into something that can change the course of one’s life. The ‘Autumn Leaf’ in this Symbol brings to the ‘Pilgrim’ the sudden understanding of the cycle of life, death and rebirth. The ‘Mystery of Life’ seems to unfold before the ‘Pilgrim’s’ inner vision. The ‘Pilgrim’ can see that the seed has grown into the tree and the tree’s leaves have now fallen with the change of the seasons, ready for the new birth in the spring. The ‘Autumn Leaf’ becomes the composted material that nourishes the new seeds and fosters and nourishes the new growth. Often we go through our lives without noticing the information that can be gained from looking at small or seemingly insignificant things. The ‘Revelation’ that is experienced can change one’s life, if time is taken to stop long enough to really look into it. At this point, you may feel that you’ve learnt much and grown tired of seeking information for life’s meaning through more conventional channels. Look for the answer to your problem in simple, everyday moments. They are fleeting, but they are around you. Look for the signs, they can have profound effects.

Keywords: Seasonal adjustments. Fleeting inspiration. Seeing things in their own time. Spiritual revelations. Conversations with God. Feeling blessed. The beauty and timelessness of nature. Contacts with nature spirits. Angelic visions. Photography and having a photographic mind. Being here now. Pilgrims and their journeys. The Hadj pilgrimage. Solving problems. Quick and deep minds. Snapshots in time. The Caution: Focusing on things that have no lasting value or are no longer relevant. Looking for answers in everything, therefore missing out on the big picture that’s right in front of you. Making a big deal out of insignificant or everyday occurrences.

To see the world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower; Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour. William Blake

A traveler without observation is a bird without wings. Moslih Eddin Saadi

Perpetual inspiration is as necessary to the life of goodness, holiness and happiness as perpetual respiration is necessary to animal life. Andrew Bonar Law

To see a hillside white with dogwood bloom is to know a particular ecstasy of beauty, but to walk the gray winter woods and find the buds which will resurrect that beauty in another May is to partake of continuity. Hal Borland

A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul. Goethe

Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain. Henry David Thoreau

NEW: SWAT readings of what’s going on now in your chart. 30 minutes, $100. Visit Kathy’s NEW SITE EmpowermentUnlimited.net for podcasts, mp3s, a discussion forum and more on the eclipses, the Aquarius/Pisces traveling party and the Saturn/Uranus opposition. To join her mailing list, send e-mail to kbiehl@fortunaworks.com.