On October 4th, Mars was exactly conjunct the South Node of the Moon, the repository of unresolved karma. At the same time it was opposite Eris which is conjunct the North Node in Aries. I think it’s fair to say that Mars on the South Node triggered long-standing grievances while Eris, warrior sister of Mars, supported the Hamas attack on Israel three days later, throwing the country into chaos.
Mars and Eris aren’t the only antagonists, however. Pluto was pulling the strings from behind the scenes. On that very day, Pluto stationed within one minute of its natal position in the USA chart, involving us in yet one more conflict. Our “House” is literally in shambles. Without a speaker, it cannot function. Minority extremists are blocking diplomatic appointments and military promotions so essential to our national security. On top of that, I read yesterday that our national debt has reached $30 trillion and lenders are getting nervous about extending further loans.
Pluto is squaring the nodal axis, alerting us to the grave import of our choices and actions at this critical juncture. We clearly see the alternatives before us – we either move forward into a humanitarian future, or are we dragged backward into our patriarchal past, the source of the multiple crises we face now: legal and economic injustice, suppression of women, lust for power and money at the expense of our environment and another century of war. Pluto has been traveling through our second House of Values asking us to take a stark look at the reality that has emerged from our profit-motivated ideals.
The Lord of the Underworld has been squaring Eris throughout the turmoil of the past 5 years, uncovering secrets and corruption at the heart of our institutions. Pluto releases material from the collective unconscious, revealing what isn’t working, what is toxic, what no longer serves us and needs to transform. Eris, on the other hand, creates chaos, to shake us out of our apathetic stupor. Her focus is on the enormous gaps between the haves and have nots, the elite and the shunned. Eris wants to level the playing field.
Here we are now, caught up in another ancient feud that further strains our nation’s resources and creates a dramatic finale to our Pluto Return that began in February of 2022. Pluto stationed direct on October 10th, but won’t actually begin to move forward until the 18th. Energy will shift as Pluto moves into Aquarius for the second time on January 20th, 2024, returning to Capricorn in September to cover our critically importnat election, and bidding Capricorn goodbye for a couple of centuries on November 19th. It will remain in Aquarius until 2043.
Meanwhile, pressure continues to build as we enter eclipse season, which both increases intensity and offers opportunities for accelerated growth. On Saturday October 14th the heavens have choreographed a dramatic eclipse that crosses the USA in an arc that begins in Oregon and sweeps through the Southwest and Texas, over the Gulf of Mexico to Central America, concluding its passage through Columbia and Brazil.
This eclipse is not total, because the Moon is too far away from Earth to cover the Sun entirely. Astronomers call this an “annular” eclipse. Nevertheless we will see a dramatic display as the Moon blackens the center of the Sun and reveals a ring of solar fire, a perfect metaphor for our combustible state of geopolitical affairs.
The Sun and Moon meet up in our nation’s 10th House at 21:-07 Libra, 3 degrees away from the South Node of the Moon, and opposite a packed 4th House in Aries. Libra is ruled by Venus, so the focus, ironically, is on peace, loving relationships, harmony, balance and justice. And while Mars is in Libra he may align with these values. However, Mars rules Aries and the North Node, our unknown future. There’s a lot to unpack here, so let’s get to it. It’s a complicated weave of themes.
New Moon in Libra
Let’s begin by looking at the cast of characters and then examine the Houses involved.
The eclipse reaches its fullness at 10:55 a.m Pacific, when Sun and Moon conjunct our natal Juno. (When I mention natal planets, I am writing about their position in the USA birth chart. This distinguishes them from transiting planets which continually move around the Zodiac, triggering our natal chart.)
The eclipse falls on our collective Juno. So what’s her story? This mythical wife of Jupiter suffered many betrayals by her philandering husband, but she gained a reputation for her devotion and commitment to her marriage. She is the asteroid goddess of commitment. She isn’t without her faults, jealousy and revenge being her default reactions. Nevertheless, like Juno, the USA is committed to its allies.
Juno is not the only body in our 10th house. Less than six degrees away, at 20+ Libra, is Saturn. As the Sun and Moon come together, Pallas Athena moves into exact conjunction with the Lord of Karma. What does that tell us?
First we need to understand Pallas, who was not born to a mother, but burst forth from the head of her father, Jupiter. She is pictured with a sword and shield suggesting that she is a warrior goddess. Greek legends like The Iliad portray her interference in the Trojan war as she brought victory to her favorites and defeat to those who had neglected to worship her. So we get a mixed message here. She was obviously biased, immersed in a culture of male dominance, quick to punish those who slight her, yet she is known for her wisdom. She sprang from the mind of god, and she is frequently depicted in the company of an owl, symbol of vision and sagacity.
Saturn covers a wide range of interpretations, because it operates according to our level of consciousness. Saturn is associated with the father and our current patriarchal paradigm, our unconscious commitment to masculine domination, control and a hierarchy of power which has its worst expression in Fascism and autocracy. It rules Capricorn where Pluto has been since 2008, uncovering the underworld of power politics and social injustice. Saturn manifests our reality out of our collective consciousness and reveals our limitations.
When we are unconscious, Saturn seems to be an enemy who has it in for us. But Saturn is a great teacher, and when we befriend him, he helps us grow and mature. If we become students of self-awareness, and heed his lessons, we learn to take responsibility for our lives, our actions and our impact on others. We master skills and gain wisdom and authority.
So what are Pallas and Saturn up to? In Libra, one of the themes may be a more equitable system of justice. Clearly the scales are tipped toward the rich and privileged. Maybe they are attempting to balance the scales, or find a way to bring peace and harmony to our troubled world.
I was pleased to learn that Biden is negotiating a safe passage for civilians to escape into Egypt. The Palestinians are trapped on a narrow strip of land, bounded by the sea and hostile territory on all sides. Israel is cutting off their electricity, water and fuel. This is a humanitarian crisis that cannot be ignored. Supporting these innocent victims will generate good will and possibly lead to a peaceful resolution.
The 4th and 10th Houses
The Fourth House at the base of our charts, represents our roots. This House is associated with the sign of Cancer, the nurturing Mother, feelings of safety and security. It is the home of ancestral influence, of childhood conditioning, where we are spoon fed the beliefs of our parents, many of which have damaged our sensitive psyches and created barriers to our spiritual growth. It’s the house of our inner child’s yearning to belong, to be loved, to be accepted for who we are. It is here that we have erected barriers to our authentic selves. Here we have abandoned all the parts of ourselves that were unacceptable to others in our limited world – our joy, exuberance, and excitement, along with our anger, our shame, our envy or jealousy. This is the home of the outcasts and there is much grief in this deep well.
I told you a few weeks ago that I would share the Gates of Grief developed by psychologist Francis Weller. The first gate is obvious – the loss of loved ones. Francis describes it this way: “Everything you love you will lose.” Ouch! We all know it’s true, that life is temporary and we will all die at some point, but we don’t keep that awareness alive. It’s on a shelf in our inner library.
Gate number 2 is “The parts of us that have never known love.” I had to meditate on that one, but after a while I realized Francis was talking about our shadow, a perennial theme of eclipse season.
Light reveals, but it can also blind. When the Sun is dimmed, we can see into the shadows. Eclipse symbolism is obvious, as one heavenly body casts a shadow upon another, it’s a good time to do Shadow Work. How many of us look forward to that?
Recently I realized that the second gate of grief shifts my perception of my Shadow self. Instead of seeing the dreaded chore of looking at my dark side, I now see it as a self-love project. I am in grief because I am not whole, and I am not whole because I have banished parts of myself, held them in contempt, heaped shame upon them. A lot of power and vitality is locked up in those banished traits.
Perhaps you have noticed that these parts aren’t submissive. There are certain cringy moments in my life that I would prefer never to think of again, but they keep popping up, like irritating ads on the computer, and I cringe again and again. This is obviously an unloved part of me nagging like a child for attention.
At this eclipse our 4th House is loaded with allies: Salacia, Chiron, Eris, the North Node and Selena. I will be able to tell you more about Salacia very soon as I start a six-week course/research project on Friday, but she has something to do with ideal timing. In other words now is propitious.
Chiron is our inner healer and mentor. He teaches us through our lives how to live with our wounds and our grief. Francis Weller claims that unexpressed grief turns into grievance. It’s the festering of grief. That’s a brilliant insight and helps me understand both the importance of grief work and the eruption of grievance in our global population. He also claims that a sign of maturity is the ability to carry grief in one hand and gratitude in the other.
Then there’s Eris, troublemaker of Greek Mythology. Eris creates chaos, shakes up our reality to bring our focus into the moment, to increase our self-awareness, to witness our ego defenses, and to bring forth our authentic selves. Her conjunction with the North Node tells us that chaos is our current path to the future we seek. Chaos is not simply a lack of order. In fact chaos has an order of its own, one that reveals its beauty through fractals. The power of chaos is unlimited potential. Anything is possible.
We might finally be done with war. We might witness the human suffering that opens our hearts to compassion. We might awaken to our Oneness and begin to conceive a better future. The eclipse takes place in our collective 10th House. This is where we interact with our world and can have an impact.
The presence of Selena in Aries, the sign of new beginnings, conjunct our North Node as well. Selena reveals the path forward, like moonlight on water. She points the way to our spiritual path – reconnecting with our authentic selves, healing our grievances, and being willing to step into the unknown, armed with courage and curiosity. The work we do to liberate ourselves equips us to make a positive contribution to our world.
There is so much more to reveal in this chart, but I will restrain myself and just talk about two sets of planetary influence. I do want to remind us all, though, that during this difficult passage Neptune, planet of Oneness, has been opposite our natal Neptune, reassuring us that we are on a spiritual journey.
Mars and Haumea
Mars has just moved into Scorpio and met up with Haumea. This Kuiper Belt dwarf is the goddess of creation and regeneration. She has been opposing Eris for quite some time, and squaring Pluto, cooking up a new reality from the ashes of destruction and chaos wrought by both. Haumea has been in tension with Pluto during our difficult passage through an attempted insurrection, a pandemic, mass murders, political instability, real threats to our democracy and now a second war.
While Mars is associated with warrior mentality, it is also the masculine energy in our lives that gets things done. Mars is dynamic, the fulfiller of our desire, and when he comes into contact with other planets, he triggers and energizes them. Mars is co-ruler of Scorpio along with Pluto. Scorpio is the realm of the unconscious underworld and Haumea’s journey through this realm will be transformative. We must remember that she is busy building the future out of our best dreams and desires. Her passage will last 26 years, until 2049, and during this time we will face the worst of our climate crisis. Francis Weller calls the next forty years, “The Long Dark.”
Vesta
Another asteroid goddess, Vesta is the keeper of the flame. When she triggers planets by transit, she adds the intensity of devotion. At this eclipse, Vesta is in Cancer conjunct our Venus/Jupiter, and only 7 degrees away from our Sun, our identity as Americans. Venus brings the gentle bounty of the Feminine – love, harmony, peace, a sense of justice, balance and equilibrium. Jupiter inflates.
What a great opportunity to open our hearts wider. I highly recommend working with heart coherence and developing a practice. It doesn’t take much time, but it transforms the quality of your life. When the heart and brain come into coherence – syncing their energies – we bring the wisdom of the heart into the mind. In this state we make better decisions, we can witness without getting defensive, we can perceive the humanity in others and honor it. Here’s a link to my post on coherence.
I’ll be back with news about the lunar eclipse in Taurus on October 28th. Until then, remember that this new lunar cycle is under the influence of Venus and Libra. It’s a good time to cultivate balance and harmony in our lives.
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