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The Libra New Moon takes place at 11:47 pm ET on Monday, Oct. 8, less than a degree away form the midpoint of that sign. An event at the midpoint of a cardinal sign is in itself significant, granting it expanded influence through a connection to the Thema Mundi, the hypothetical chart of the world (which has 15 degrees Cancer rising).

Justice by Aleister Crowley and Lady Frieda Harris.

The closest and most striking aspect in this chart is a conjunction of the Moon and the Sun to Ceres. The first minor planet, Ceres represents the feminine principle as we associate her with Gaia, the Earth, and with the Virgin Mary. Ceres also represents the principle of liminality: that which is lurking on the horizon of consciousness, sometimes available to perception and sometimes not.

As such, it’s fitting that Ceres also represents the collective grief of women (she loses her daughter to the underworld, for half the year, anyway, which is a mythological representation of why it’s cold in the winter: the Earth is grieving for her).

Recent events surrounding the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court describe a kind of prolonged political winter, and have illuminated the anger and a sense of loss that many women feel in our time, and perhaps have felt for time immemorial. When grief of any kind is suppressed, it turns to depression, rage and chaos.

Yet apropos of the theme of liminality, we cannot ignore the grief of men: the untold millions who have died in wars for years, those who have been injured and disfigured, and those forced to serve (which means to kill people they often know are innocent); the agony of those falsely imprisoned and executed; the fathers who have lost sons, daughters and wives.

Sun and Moon conjunct Ceres would appear to be a calling to end the partisanship that currently seems to divide the sexes. The human condition is one condition. We are all part of it, and all subject to it. We all share the Earth, and the experiences of being here. We are all responsible for what we co-create, and for whether we are, ultimately, able to work together.

That “underworld journey” is reflected in the recent station retrograde of Venus in Scorpio. During this six-week retrograde (which ends Nov. 16), evening star Venus will dive deep into Scorpio, disappear behind the Sun, and return as the morning star on Nov. 1. I have covered some of the themes related to Venus retrograde in Thursday’s subscriber edition.

We are also about to experience the central aspect of the Venus and Mars retrogrades of 2018 — Venus square Mars, on Oct. 10. My take on this pattern is that it represents inner tension that is so challenging it must be projected outward. This is true of many ‘negative’ emotions, and why we so often see them as existing outside of ourselves rather than within.

Aspects to Neptune and Pluto

Monday’s lunation also makes aspects to two outer planets that shape our moment: Neptune and Pluto (which are transiting in what seems like a perpetual sextile, currently 64 degrees, called the transiting yod by some astrologers; this has been going on for decades).

Justice by Camion-Jodorowsky.

Contact with these two outer planets — the New Moon quincunx Neptune and square Pluto — describes a sensation and experience of isolation that our society is soaked in right now. What might feel like deep loneliness is associated with something much more slippery: the oblique angle made to Neptune. This feels like the constant promise of something fulfilling, which never seems to come to fruition. Yet that is likely because it’s a false promise.

The angle to Neptune is a caution about being casual with matters of truth and lies. It is very, very easy on this plane of reality not just to lie but to use deception to construct an inner reality, or a consensus reality. We see this happening over and over again, yet rarely give it a name.

The outer planets, particularly Neptune and Pluto, can have a remote and bereft feeling, of representing something long ago and far away — that is, when they’re not busy shaking up or rearranging our lives. We rarely discuss the sense of cosmic isolation that we feel living on Earth; we’re more aware of the secondary effects, such as various dramas in our relationships.

The New Moon’s square to Pluto is evocative of enforced changes: the need for some inner encounter to shape one’s character. Think of the square to Pluto as an internal evolutionary drive of some kind, which can be accepted and embraced, or cast off and ignored, or toyed with as an external.

There are strong forces drawing all of us inward at this time. This astrology is a compelling motive to reconcile inner differences, rather than acting them out as dramas in our relationships or in society.

There cannot be a political movement to rebuild trust — though politics can certainly erode and otherwise damage it. Trust is an internal decision that each of us makes, and it begins with the decision to trust ourselves.

That could be the ultimate rebellion against authority.