The Moment I Step Outside,
So Many Reasons For Me To Run & Hide…
New Moons are seed planting times, and this Libra New Moon at 15-degrees, 48-minutes of the sign of balance, harmony, & partnership on October 8 at 8:47 p.m. PT & 11:47 p.m. ET, calls us to make peace between ourselves & our most important partnership.
Which one is that?
Duh, girl–the one with YOURSELF!
Not what you were expecting to hear? You thought you’d get all that mamby-pamby BS about Libra & love & perfect relationships, &–dare I say it–soulmates here? Gag me with a spoon, as some of us used to say in our earlier years…
This Libra New Moon’s unifying message now—especially in the aftermath of the “we’re not gonna take it anymore!” Aries Full Moon September 24 (read full message here)—is that we must stop looking for that “perfect” soulmate outside of ourselves!
The Libra archetype can represent inner harmony that, when balanced, we project out and manifest in the form of people and circumstances we draw to us. This is the positive side of projection. When imbalanced, we’ll draw to us those who reflect back to us our own lack of inner balance.
We can do this by recognizing that any external battles of this sort represent the internal war between our two inner “animus” & “anima” archetypal energies, which ultimately boils down to an internal split manifested externally.
“Animus” represents the unconscious masculine part of a woman’s personality, while “anima” reflects the unconscious feminine side of a man’s personality, according to Carl Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious.
While a man’s task in assimilating the effects of the anima involves discovering his true feelings, a woman becomes familiar with the nature of the animus by constantly questioning her ideas and opinions.
One can be male and possess a high degree of “anima,” and vice versa. The more a male owns his “anima” and a woman becomes conscious of her “animus,” the greater the chance that a healthy internal energetic balance will prevail…
“You are a slave of what you need in your soul,” Jung said. “The acceptance [by a male] of femininity leads to completion…the same is valid for the woman who accepts her masculinity.”
“One Side Is Standing On Evidence,
The Other On Intuition And Sentiment.”
~ Noah Rothman
While the quote above by its conservative writer is meant to be derogatory of “intuition and sentiment” & to laud empirical “evidence,” it goes right to the heart of the split between anima & animus playing out on the world stage now.
Our current dilemma at this Libra New Moon revolves around reconciling any internally-driven perception that evidence is described only as “provable” fact, while a portion of our psyche is relegated to the dark corner to which our ego has banished “intuition and sentiment.”
The most important thing to realize is that these two energies are not at odds, or certainly don’t have to be! What we’re all called to do now is integrate the male and female portions of our psyches—however unconscious they may be. Only then can we bring this integrated, fair, & more balanced energy into our ego-oriented conscious mundane empirically-oriented daily lives & stop projecting onto others our own reluctance to “go there” intuitively.
“Is is in the nature of political bodies always to see the evil in the opposite group, just as the individual has an ineradicable tendency to get rid of everything he does not know and does not want to know about himself by foisting it off on somebody else.
Nothing has a more divers and alienating effect upon society than this moral complacency and lack of responsibility, and nothing promotes understanding and rapprochement more than the mutual withdrawal of projections.” ~ Carl Jung
I’ve Had It Up To Here…
The Libra Sun, Moon, & Ceres form a waxing cardinal square to Pluto in Capricorn at this Libra New Moon, indicating that evolutionary change is at hand if we can muster up the energy to see it through.
Dwarf planet Ceres represents—like the Moon—a mother archetype. In Greek mythology, she’s the mother of Persephone (kidnapped & raped by Hades/Pluto & eventually made the queen of the underworld.) Ceres, the goddess of the grain, also held the secret to fertilization, called the Eleusinian rites. Without her, nothing could procreate.
In astrological interpretation, Ceres represents sustenance, or that which nourishes us both literally & figuratively, mind, body, spirit, & soul. Her inclusion in this Libra New Moon’s square to Pluto makes very clear one particular dynamic: that in order to evolve (square) our partnerships (Libra) we must experience DEATH (Pluto) to the inequality (Libra square Capricorn) in our relationships!
So, if we no longer submerge our need to be internally whole, we can incorporate both male & female archetypal energy into our psyches and release our shadow projections. Then we can create something new, because anytime we experience death, we know it opens a space for something new to be born.
And what would that something new be?
A world in which—as our own best partner BECAUSE we nourish our inner need for partnership and wholeness—we project out both individually and collectively harmony, peace, balance, & happiness.
How Do I Love Me?
These squares to Pluto in Capricorn virtually cry out for us to understand that once we value ourselves as our own best partner & nurturer, we forge such a relationship in steel. And when we have that kind of solidarity to self & knowledge that we ARE our own best mother, father, child, & partner, we can’t help but manifest others who’ll reflect back to us that same sense of trust, loyalty, and deep bondedness.
This becomes particularly important because on October 5, three days before the Libra New Moon, Venus stationed retrograde in Scorpio. The queen of beauty, harmony, & balance meets the king of the underworld and all things hidden.
Louise Hay, author of “How to Heal Your Life,” recommends that we look ourselves in the eye in the mirror and say “I love you,” and discusses how difficult this can be for so many of us.
In a sense, this Libra New Moon provides us the opportunity to be born again, to wipe the slate clean, to wash away our old mirror’s reflection–based on whatever it was we were told, taught, or forced to believe about our own sense of self-value–that doesn’t ring true with our soul’s inner wisdom.
Jungian astrologer Erin Sullivan writes in “Retrograde Planets”: “The transit of Venus retrograde exposes the need to see aspects of oneself which are normally hidden from view. Those values are often diametrically opposed to the ones consciously espoused and can create some of the most profound emotional disturbances…The degree of discord that arises within one’s personal life during the retrogression signals the distance that one is from one’s core values and higher creative inspirations.”
Sullivan continues: “Ideally, it is a time to contemplate what one’s deeper, more personal creative needs are and from what wellspring those needs originate. It is a time to explore one’s own needs for love and nourishment and to examine one’s capacity to receive both of those life-sustaining forces.”
The time is clearly ripe for examining our core values to determine what our soul truly needs to achieve happiness—physically, mentally, emotionally, & spiritually–because we are truly valuable, each and every one of us. Where we don’t see our value is where we can be become lost or mired in the tangle of conflicting viewpoints. Viewpoints which represent–at their best–not the objective truth, but others’ perceptions of what they deem to be the objective truth.
Bridging the gap between the intuitive, but less consciously-aware wisdom of our soul that we ARE perfectly beautiful, with our perception of what we deem to be the external world’s seemingly contradictory “facts,” is the Herculean task we’re asked to face right now…
It isn’t easy to smash through major evolutionary barriers. However, by digging under the layers of crust formed by the outer world’s values, we may recognize that submerged deeply under this veneer lies our soul’s hidden gold. Like the veins of precious metals and gems that run beneath the earth’s surface, this is where we find our true treasure.
When we discover this treasure, we realize that it’s really been there all along, waiting to be brought into consciousness…
…and therein lies the salvation of the collective. For if we can project out this great sense of self-love & self-acceptance, we can see that returned to us tenfold…
Don’t You Think I Know Exactly Where I Stand?
Meanwhile, Uranus in Taurus is still square to the transiting nodal axis—and will be off and on into the new year—telling us that perhaps successful evolution won’t come without revolutionary changes to our current value system.
Venus opposes Uranus and squares Mars (still conjunct the Aquarius South Node) and together they all form a fixed grand square to the karmic nodal axis at this Libra Full Moon. It’s clear that the degree to which Uranus will shock us into conscious awareness about our true value is the degree to which we’ve resisted honoring ourselves as worthy over the long term. In other words, the greater the shock, the more profoundly we needed it to jolt us into consciousness.
It’s interesting to note that at this Libra New Moon there are no major planets transiting through a fire sign. This makes the collective energy—for reasons I won’t delve into right now—an uber-fiery one, which represents both action and inspiration, impatience and impetuosity, all born of our instinctual and intuitive natures.
Combined with the initiative of the cardinal square by both luminaries and Ceres to Pluto, along with the group-oriented nature of Uranus, Mars, & the Aquarius South Node—it’s easy to see why people are rising up all around us now…
What could be better than using the group to get out the message that EVERY individual has VALUE? It’s through the power of group action that a change in core values can occur, regardless of how long it takes for that change to manifest in the collective…
I’m Just A Girl, Oh Little Old Me
Don’t Let Me Out Of Your Sight
I’m Just A Girl, All Pretty & Petite,
So Don’t Let Me Have Any Rights
Mercury in Libra also opposes Uranus in Taurus and squares the nodal axis at this Libra Full Moon, further proving that not only is it time for a change in our internal value systems, but that the time to speak out is NOW.
This Libra New Moon asks us to ponder what adjustments need to be made as we engage in this evolutionary process, as the messenger god forms quincunxes (150-degree aspect) to both Hygeia (symbol of the female healer) & wounded healer Chiron in Pisces.
The Libra Sun/Moon/Ceres pairing quincunx Neptune in Pisces speaks of the necessary adjustments that may need to be made to allow our intuition to take up as much space in our brains & decision-making as our cerebral rational function. How can we allow our intuition to influence our ability to speak out about what we may have allowed to lie hidden or dormant out of fear that giving it a voice would prove dis-empowering rather than empowering?
Mercury moves into Scorpio October 9, just after the Libra Moon squares Pluto exact, & the messenger god will exact oppose Uranus on October 10. On that same day, Venus retrograde squares Mars in Aquarius, & I’d say we’re looking at—between now and then—some hidden energy or information coming to light.
On October 11, the Libra Sun exact squares Pluto in Capricorn, potentially fulfilling the promise of the October 9 Libra New Moon’s evolutionary thrust. On October 15, Mercury & Venus will huddle together to create an opportunity for further empowerment, although this may not happen in full view of us all.
Scorpio’s a secretive sign, after all, and the Mercury/Venus sextile to the Capricorn Moon/Pluto at that time may create the opportunity to hatch a plan not yet ready for prime time because this plotting pair involves retrograde Venus & will also quincunx Neptune. That’s a recipe for keeping it all on the QT, as they say, or not yet reacting to the hand that’s been dealt thus far…
Either way, however, what’s in play is unexpected information that could ultimately result in a rapid, or unexpected, change of values within the collective. While Venus’s square to Mars at the Libra New Moon still pits the matriarchy against the patriarchy, we’ll all be tasked to figure out how to rise to that challenge in our individual lives.
Simply put, Venus retrograde in Scorpio may well provide the match that lights the torch that beams the message to the world that she can no longer value peace if it comes at the cost of stifling her own healthy sense of self-worth…
It pays to focus on the positive now & not the negative because it’s the only way we’ll clearly see that being our own best partner means we must stand up for ourselves now, because if we don’t do it no one else will…
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Gwen Stefan’s a Libra Sun, born October 3, 1969 @2:09 p.m. in Fullerton, CA. I always suspected she had an Aquarian bent, and sure enough when I looked up her chart, she’s a Libra Sun conjunct Uranus!
In addition, she lacks any planets in fire and is uber-cardinal–a combination that makes her the perfect spokesperson for the strength needed at this Libra New Moon’s square to Pluto, which asks us: How can we evolve is we don’t even try?
Watch I’M JUST A GIRL here
(If you don’t want to watch the whole long video, check out
from 4:45 to 8:10–you won’t be disappointed, I promise!)
“Take this pink ribbon off my eyes
I’m exposed, and it’s no big surprise
Don’t you think I know exactly where I stand?
This world is forcing me to hold your hand
Cause I’m just a girl, oh little old me
Don’t let me out of your sight
I’m just a girl, all pretty and petite
So don’t let me have any rights
Oh, I’ve had it up to here…
The moment that I step outside
So many reasons for me to run and hide
I can’t do the little things I hold so dear
Cause it’s all those little things that I fear
Cause I’m just a girl, I’d rather not be
Cause they won’t let me drive late at night
I’m just a girl, guess I’m some kind of freak
Cause they all sit and stare with their eyes
I’m just a girl, take a good look at me
Just your typical prototype
Oh, I’ve had it up to here
Oh, am I making myself clear?
I’m just a girl
I’m just a girl in the world
That’s all that you’ll let me be
I’m just a girl, living in captivity
Your rule of thumb makes me worrisome
I’m just a girl, what’s my destiny
What I’ve succumbed to is making me numb
I’m just a girl, my apologies
What I’ve become is so burdensome
I’m just a girl, lucky me
Twiddle-dum, there’s no comparison
Oh, I’ve had it up to
Oh, I’ve had it up to
Oh, I’ve had it up to here…”
~Gwen Stefani, Thomas Dumont
athletes, soldiers, adventurers, and entrepreneurs, or those who forge ahead independently in any given industry or area of life.
When they refuse—mostly by throwing up their hands and saying “what can we do?”– Ceres storms the earth, unable to contain her rage & grief at what she deems to be an unnaturally forced separation of mother & daughter. 