The Moon will meet up with the Sun on October 21 at 5:25 a.m. Pacific time. This New Moon cycle will begin at 28 Libra, the tail end of Libra season, just a day before the Sun shifts into Scorpio. We’re in mid-autumn in the Northern Hemisphere as we head toward October 31/ November 1, El Dia de los Muertos in Latin America, known also among many pagans as the Witches’ New Year, or Samhain.
Libra is the cardinal air sign of balance, negotiation, and peace-making in partnerships. A Libran personality may be, paradoxically, drawn toward conflict because of a desire to resolve it. Libra’s glyph is the scales, and it’s often said that justice and peace are inextricably linked. For Libra, a sustainable partnership requires fairness. Otherwise, there’s a fight.
Libra, of the air element, is inherently social, wants to talk it out and keep connections intact. The air element is cerebral. Yet Libra is ruled by Venus—which is traveling through Libra as well at this time. Venus loves beauty and affection, certainly a balance to braininess.
On October 21, the Sun/Moon at 28 Libra will form the tip of a t-square, an aspect of tense friction involving two opposed planets making a right angle with a third. For this t-square, the Sun/Moon will be square to Jupiter (expansiveness) at 24 Cancer, and the Sun/Moon will also make an out-of-sign square to Pluto (power) at 1 Aquarius. This t-square to the New Moon signals a potential for power struggles in any kind of partnership or negotiation. One might feel some kind of pressure to compromise or to relent, for the sake of harmony.
The New Moon is also separating (moving away) from an opposition with Chiron, the asteroid symbolic of wounding and healing, which is at 24 degrees of assertive Aries and making another square with Jupiter in Cancer. There’s some sort of teaching or healing to be found in negotiating with opponents, large or small. A Libran approach to these transiting squares is to search for common ground.
There’s something else big happening in the sky at this New Moon. A Grand Trine in water signs is forming and will become more precise during the last ten days of October and early November, and then continuing through the end of the year. A trine is a 120-degree aspect between planets in signs of the same element, representing like-minded harmony, ease and flow. Lots of people have trines in their natal charts, signifying areas of life that are relatively easy. A Grand Trine, in a birth chart or by transit, is rare because it involves three planets or sets of planets all in the same element, forming an equal-sided triangle, a symbol of balance.
At the October 21 New Moon, Mars and Mercury conjoined in water sign Scorpio will be “applying” (moving toward) a perfect trine with Jupiter in Cancer (October 24) and with Saturn in Pisces (October 25). Mars will also make perfect trines with Jupiter, then with Saturn, and Neptune over the next couple of weeks. The Sun, too, will travel through Scorpio beginning on October 22, continuing through late November, shining more light on this Grand Trine in water, the element of emotional themes of birth (Cancer), security (Scorpio), and dissolution of limits (Pisces.)
For those who know their natal charts, look to the houses occupied by Scorpio, Pisces, and Cancer to see the areas of one’s life most amenable to calling in emotional awareness, expression, and healing. For example, in my chart, Jupiter in Cancer will be making a conjunction with my natal Mercury in Cancer in the Eleventh House of hopes and dreams in public realms, making this whole season an optimal time, for me, to focus on my goals as an emotionally driven writer (Mercury in Cancer) working on a big (Jupiterian) project.
The Grand Trine in water will land differently for each of us depending on which houses in our charts are occupied by the water signs. In essence, though, the coming weeks of this magnificent Grand Trine in water invite deep dives into the recesses of the heart.
Blessings for the Libra New Moon!
~ Sara
Sara R. Diamond, an astrologer based in the San Francisco Bay Area, is a life-long student and practitioner in several esoteric paths. Her style of astrology combines modern-psychological astrology with insights from traditional astrology. Sara is also an estate planning attorney. In addition, she has published four books on right-wing movements in the United States and earned her Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. You are invited to contact Sara via her website at www.SaraDiamondAstrology.com.
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