The Cosmic Story: Super New Moon in Libra 2020
Balancing the Feminine & the Masculine
This week’s Libra Super New Moon fully engages this year’s heavy hitters – Mars Rx and Eris in Aries and Saturn, Pluto and Jupiter in Capricorn. They form a tense Cardinal T-square, an aspect that looks and feels like a drawn bow. For those of you with planets in the last 10 degrees of Cancer, you’re the target.
But in general, these planets continue to challenge and push against each other, so don’t feel surprised if you’re still feeling tense (who isn’t?) until October 19th.
Mars Rx opposes the Libra Sun on October 13th
Mercury goes retrograde in Scorpio on October 13th
Sun in Libra squares Pluto in Capricorn on October 15th
Libra New Moon October 16th
Libra Sun squares Saturn in Capricorn on October 18th
Mars Rx in Aries squares Jupiter in Capricorn on October 18th-19th
The Capricorn Amigos, Saturn, Pluto and Jupiter, are all moving forward again, leaving Mars as the only planet in the T-square moving backwards. Since Capricorn deals with government control and regulations, as we head into late fall, we can probably expect more shutdowns and mask-wearing. For those who are uncomfortable with looking within themselves for answers, this could lead their Mars into fighting for a lost cause or bullying voters.
But these Amigos are also breaking down our society, throwing what really doesn’t work anymore into the cauldron of regeneration. Whether you like the idea or not, our society doesn’t work anymore – not our governments, not our consumerism, not our corporations, not our healthcare, not our environment, not our old vision for the future. Neither left nor right realize that Mother Earth has put a hold on our whole way of living, and if we’re smart and want our kids to survive, we have to change our ways. Wearing masks is the least of it.
So with Mars Rx and Eris in Aries challenging the authority of the old Capricorn form of government, who in the US. is completely ignoring the will of the people whom it is supposed to represent, of course people are demonstrating and demanding accountability from a government which is suppressing lives and votes in the land of Liberty. We are seeing the hypocrisy behind our national story of Freedom and Liberty for all our people. The Swamp is fully exposed as its denizens work in the open to oppress the people.
An ancient warrior god, Mars symbolizes our yang, active energies. This energy can give us the courage to take a stand without going to war. Mars in Aries is searching for his identity and purpose. When Mars is retrograde, that search turns within. This is the time to grapple with our own identity, with our values and beliefs. This is the time to let go of our inner patriarchal government, those inner rules that bind us, shame us, sicken us, belittle us and try to deny our own authentic authority. Our work for the next month is to re-align ourselves with our inner purpose to strengthen our inner warrior/ess by dismantling the old operating system.
When we have no capacity to look within, we never discover who we really are. So we project our anger, frustration and fear outside ourselves, refusing to take responsibility for our actions. I notice a lot of people in the world and on Face Book pointing their fingers – He did it first! – like children laying blame on each other. We all did it, because we all allowed our government to run amok, thinking we could just sit back and let ‘Papa POTUS’ and gang take care of things. That’s how patriarchy wants it – to have all the power in wealthy, (for the most part) masculine hands. Like with the ‘little wife’, the MAN will take care of all of us.
Well, not anymore. Retrograde Mars and his sister warrioress Eris are challenging us to be courageous spiritual warriors of the Heart. And this New Moon in Libra is gathering in that energy and planting it in a seed of equality, fairness & justice for all.
Libra New Moon 2020
This Libra New Moon is a Super Moon, meaning that the Moon is very close to the Earth, creating a more powerful energetic pull from it. Stay open to what your body is feeling. Listen to it, trust it. Ask it for images.
Mars is also at its closest to the Earth, opposite the Sun. So its pull is also strong. Have you seen it glowing big and red in the night sky? The gift of this strong Mars Rx is total transmutation of Mars energy if we open to it. If we can change our Mars/Yang/Doing energy to align with our deepest Self, we will achieve wonders. Since the strong Moon energy also opposes Mars Rx energy in a tug of war between our inner being and doing, our work is to integrate this new masculine energy into new habits and beliefs. Let’s make new memories!
Libra’s symbol of the Scales says it all. Libra’s life lesson is to learn to achieve a balanced perspective (Libra is an Air/Thinking sign), where we reconcile the opposites and finally see that they need each other – because they compliment each other. Each side has to hold equal weight or it won’t balance. Steven Forrest puts it this way: Libra teaches serenity. . . . The Scales symbolize that part of ourselves that is bothered by nothing, offended by nothing, shocked by nothing. It has signed a perpetual peace treaty with chaos. (The Inner Sky, p. 66)
We think of Libra as the sign of relationship. And it is, but not in a romantic way, since Libra is an Air sign. The Scales of Justice belong to Libra, who wants justice and equality in her relationships, so it deals with all our relations -- business, family, friends, the public and of course, relationships like marriage.
Libra also tries to balance the relationship between men and women as well as Masculine and Feminine consciousness. While masculine consciousness is left-brain logic and rationality, feminine consciousness is right-brain imagination and intuition. We have to acknowledge and trust our right-brain wisdom just as much as our left-brain knowledge.
Perhaps that’s why Libra’s ruler, Venus, takes on her courtesan persona in this sign of social interaction. Courtesans were highly educated women, witty and charming, sexual and artistic, who ‘balanced’ out the powerful male egos of patriarchy’s rulers. They did this by outshining them in intellect, attracting their sexual desires and softening their harsh realities. (Maiden, Mother/Lover, Crone)
But don’t get confused by her use of feminine wiles – a Courtesan is not a handmaiden. While she isn’t a poster girl for 60s women’s lib/climbing the corporate ladder, she is a powerful, witchy, courageous woman who can hold her own with words and deeds. (see Dangerous Beauty) She is the diplomat, the peace bringer, the Great Connector and Attractor.
She is Aphrodite, the Foam-Born, who arises from Mother Ocean to offer connection and love to humanity. She doesn’t have to act like a man to be equal to a man. Perhaps men feared this part of women because when we use our feminine talents and gifts, we offer men a different perspective on life from the usual masculine attitudes of competition, war and domination. A view so beautiful that women could take the war out of men with it. Perhaps it’s time for us to try this out. Instead of competing with the men, we could enchant them with our visions, our laughter and our love.
Venus/Aphrodite, the ruler of Libra, is in Virgo, the sign of the Virgin. Not the Courtesan. But we have to remember that being a virgin meant not ‘belonging’ to a man. A virgin was a free woman, who could engage in her sexuality and her intellect, her heart and her spirit, without a man trying to control her.
So the Courtesan is an apt archetype for this Virgo Venus, especially since Neptune in Pisces opposes Venus and they square the Lunar Nodes in Gemini/Sagittarius. We have to let go of old beliefs (South Node in Sagittarius) and open ourselves to many perspective on life (North Node in Gemini). Venus and Neptune join together to bring joy and artistry, self-ownership (Virgo) and spiritual wholeness (Pisces), love and imagination to the seed we are creating to plant this New Moon.
The Sabian symbol for both the Sun and Moon at 24* Libra is: A butterfly with a third wing on its left side.
Dane Rudhyar says this is “the ability to develop, for inner strengthening, new modes of response to basic life situations.” In other words, we have to develop new life strategies. The Butterfly is an ancient symbol of the Soul and spiritual rebirth. But this is even more special because the Soul has achieved a whole new dimension of spiritual growth, for three is the number of process and fulfillment. This is a sign of a new strength being born within us, one that is associated with the left side, the feminine side, the unconscious, instinctual side of us. It is the spiritual consciousness of the Heart (which is on our left side). And on a very concrete level, we all need to learn new ways of being, new responses to life situations, because our society is changing.
This New Moon is conjunct the fixed star Arcturus which you find in the sky by following the tail of the Bear in the Big Dipper. Arc to Arcturus. There are many myths about connections between Arcturus and Earth. In the constellation called Bootis, it is one of the brightest stars in our night sky. It’s ancient meaning was ‘He cometh’ or ‘the One who Rules’. The Polonesians called it the Star of Gladness and Joy. For those of you with planets on this degree, it can bring honor, riches and self-determination to you. With this Libra New Moon, we can use this energy to plant the hope that we can transform our society.
Edgar Cayce, the Sleeping Prophet, says that Arcturus is the highest civilization in our galaxy. Arcturus is a 5th Dimensional world and a prototype for Earth’s future. Those personalities connected with Arcturus become the receiver and container of the Divine Plan of Life. These people bring in the new consciousness that is developing on Earth, raising the vibrational frequencies of the Earth. They set up a new electro-magnetic field for us to play in.
Now for Mercury, the messenger god.
Here we go again. Mercury is retrograde. Mercury retrogrades in Scorpio to late Libra, from October 13th to November 3rd (That’s right. Election Day in the U.S. – look for confusion and disruption and changing news. But we knew that already – the heavens mirror what is happening on Earth, just as Earth mirrors what’s happening in the heavens.)
During its retrograde, Mercury always becomes the Psychopomp/Guide of Souls. All three Mercury retrogrades this year have been in the water signs of Pisces, Cancer and now Scorpio. Watery Mercury retrogrades help us get in touch with our inner feelings . . . but not our emotions. E-motion is energy in motion. Emotions come and go with our mood, the day, the weather, our energy. Feelings are more basic.
Feelings are one of the bedrocks of our human nature. They are the deep instinctive feeling of knowing something is true or not for you. It’s a type of watery logic and judgment. Carl G. Jung called it our Feeling Function. It is a subjective process of making decisions, so it may be quite independent of external input. In Jung's view it’s a rational function, like thinking, because it is influenced not by perception (as are the functions of sensation and intuition) but by reflection.
When our instinctive feeling responses have been repressed and pushed into the Shadow, feelings become twisted from pain, neglect or cruelty. These feelings, and the emotions that travel with them, are what we confront in Scorpio. The fear and the expectation of betrayal, of death, of terror and darkness. This is the darkness of our secret prejudices, our secret obsessions, our dark sexual desires.
When any of our deepest needs and desires are repressed, their energy turns against us, causing low self-confidence, depression, anger, fear, jealousy, delusion, obsession. Since Scorpio is the sign of death, transformation and rebirth, these feelings can and should be released, redeemed and re-birthed.
This is our work for the next three weeks. To dive deeply into our own psyches and embrace those shadowy feelings. Bring them up into the light. We’ll discover deep, long-held secrets. Look at them, name them and choose. It won’t happen overnight, but you get to unseat prejudices and vote for a new outlook, since Mercury brings us back to Libra before he resumes his forward motion and outer journey.
But it just might happen overnight this time because Mercury Rx is opposite Uranus Rx in Taurus. Water and Earth are both compatible, feminine signs and so they work well together, even in opposition. Uranus is the Awakener, waking us up to a new reality. Mercury is carrying that awakening down to the depths of our psyches (which is symbolized by that butterfly!).
The Sabian symbol for Mercury stationing retrograde at 12* Scorpio is: A latecomer to an embassy ball survey’s the scene before making an entrance. This is an image of a Renaissance court in action, creating a new social order from all different perspectives. That’s what we’re doing now, as we imagine what the new world community will create together.
With Uranus opposing Mercury, expect the unexpected. What else is new?
Blessings,
Cathy
I want to age like sea glass.
Smoothed by tides,
but not broken.
I want my hard edges to soften.
I want to ride the waves
and go with the flow.
I want to catch a wave
and let it carry me
to where I belong.
I want to be picked up
and held gently by
those who delight in my
well earned patina and
appreciate the changes I went
through to achieve that beauty.
I want to enjoy the journey
and always remember that if
you give the ocean something
breakable it will turn it into
something beautiful.
I want to age like sea glass....…
Gail Sovie
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Copyright Cathy Pagano, 2020
