Full Moon in Libra - as Venus Stations Direct

Getting the Balance Right

Dear Friends

Tonight we have a full moon in Libra, the sign of the balancing scales. It is exact at 1.23am on Sunday morning, 13th April, and there are some remarkable astrological events to accompany it. Firstly it co-incides, almost exactly, with the moment that Libra’s ruling Venus stations direct, thus concluding her 40-day retrograde period, which began on 2nd March. And this Venus station occurs within a degree of her prolonged conjunction with Saturn and the moon’s north node. The full moon also coincides with an exact conjunction of the Sun and Chiron in Aries, which places Chiron in exact opposition to the Moon. In unpacking all of this, I will begin with the more general themes of the Venus full moon, and then bring in these other themes that are occurring in synchrony with it.

The Libra full moon occurs every year in either later March or April. It is called the Paschal moon, and it typically determines the date of Easter in the Christian calendar, which always occurs on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. This full moon carries the energy of resurrection and renewal, and it is a very significant symbolic moment in the year. Here we have the strong ‘will forces’ of the Aries season, which catalyse new beginnings and initiate action, being opposed by the more considered, reflective, and culturally sensitive quality of Libra, where our choices and actions are weighed in the balance, and assessed in the light of reason.

Venus Stations Direct, Conjunct Saturn & North Node

With Venus having been retrograde for the past six weeks, there has been a need to enquire deeply into the nature of love and relationship, and the ways in which the journey of our own soul is entangled karmically with that of another. Venus retrograde periods are often times of introspection and retrospection in affairs of the heart, during which it is often hard to be clear about the best way forward. As old patterns resurface, we can feel compromised, and drawn back into situations that require us to look deeply at who we are in our right, and who we are in relationship. The fact that Venus is now turning direct in conjunction with both Saturn and the north node, however, points to the possibility of drawing a line under the past, drawing up clearer boundaries and clarifying agreements, either deepening our commitment, or making a clean break of it, if that is what is called for. The conjunction is occurring in Pisces, so there is still an element of romantic idealism here that could muddy the waters, but this can also enable greater compassion both for ourselves and others. There is a feeling of things coming to a head over this full moon and if things are handled in a sensitive way, there is an opportunity for significant personal and spiritual growth.

Getting the Balance Right

Libra prompts us to take into account the needs and desires of another, to become aware of the fact that we are always, already related to the world around us from the start; that relationship to what is other than ourselves is a fundamental experience of being human. This is directly opposed to the self-driven, self-oriented energy of Aries, to which this truth of relatedness is not immediately apparent. Aries is motivated by the pure experience to be and to live and to experience everything that life is in its raw, primal essence.

The essence of the Libran image is perfectly captured in the famous Egyptian judgment scene: the weighing of the heart and the feather. The scene is a requisite feature of the so-called ‘Book of the Dead’ (more accurately translated as ‘The Book of Coming Forth by Day’), found on papyrus scrolls buried with the mummies of prominent Egyptian officals. The scene typically depicts the deceased being led (often by Anubis) to a judgment hall where stands a large pair of scales into which his heart is placed and weighed against the feather of Ma’at, gooddess of justice and balance. Only if his heart is lighter than the feather can he pass into the Field of Rushes, the Egyptian paradise. The judgment is overseen by 42 assessors, each of which pose a different question, which requires the so-called ‘negative confession’ in order to pass. And the god Thoth, the record-keeper, records the result. For those who enter the hall of judgment with a heavy heart, a crocodile-headed demon awaits to devour it.

A rare depiction of the Judgment scene (weighing of heart & feather) on a temple wall in Egypt - at the Hathor Chapel, Deir-el-Medina, Luxor west bank.

Full Moon in Libra Opposite Sun-Chiron in Aries

Libra really teaches us the value of ‘lightening the load’, releasing the burdens that weigh us down: the unredeemed guilt for mis-appropriated actions or behaviours, unprocessed grief or remorse, the burdens of responsibility that we have carried too long on behalf of others. Often, these burdens are borne of a deep sense of unworthiness that strikes to the core of our existence - who I am?; what claim do I have upon my own life? With this full moon being centred on its opposition to an exact Sun-Chiron conjunction in Aries, we are confronted with a wound that exposes a vulnerability that lies at the very core of our being - the right to exist. What is it that makes me worthy of my own existence? Is my life sanctioned by a force greater than myself? Are my actions motivated by anything other than my own self-interest? These questions might appear too raw to confront head-on, and many of us will proceed with our lives without ever properly admitting them. Those of us, like myself, who carry a Sun-Chiron conjunction in Aries in our natal charts have had no choice but to confront these questions (!) - and at a moment such as we are facing now, they bear proper consideration. Being stripped of pretence, exposing the rawness of who we are, can reveal a radical authenticity, the encounter with which can put us in touch with the very force that inspired our incarnation. And in the presence of that power, there can be a profound realisation that the “I Am-ness” and the “We-Are-ness” of existence are inextricable and forever intertwined.

The primal force of Aries may convince us that as autonomous individuals, we must make our own way in life, follow our own passions and seek our own redemption. Yet through the considerate medicine of Libra, we learn that our very being can only be validated through another's witnessing of it. From the Libran perspective, I am because you are. Libra teaches us that we never act in isolation; each individual action that airses from the will is met with a consequence necessary to restore the balance. Indeed the very circumstances of our incarnation in this lifetime are a consequence of the imbalance we have generated in former lives through the inconsiderate execution of the untempered will. Libra invites us in to this reflection.

My mantra for Libra runs as follows:

“I come in peace, I walk in beauty, and I choose the middle path.”

Full moon blessings to everyone!