The Leap of Faith

New moon solar eclipse at 10° of Libra

Malina Dowling’s The Emperors, based on the male and female small emperor moths.

Wednesday, October 2nd at 11:49am PST, the new moon solar eclipse arrives at at 10° of Libra. This is an annular solar eclipse - not a total one - so the eclipse will not darken the sky dramatically, but for those under its path in daylight, the moon will appear slightly smaller than the sun while eclipsing it, creating a “ring of fire” in the sky. Eclipses are energetically unstable, like power outages or surges. They stir things up, bring unexpected eruptions from the unconscious, and seem to arrange fate-like events. They happen twice a year, and feature at least one lunar eclipse (on a full moon) and one solar eclipse (on a new moon). An “eclipse season” is said to last from the week before the first eclipse, to at least the week after the final one. They create these transformational vortexes each year that make it temporarily, painfully clear what is always already true: we are not fully in control. We are at the mercy of forces that are larger than us.

This eclipse is the third and last in a series of south node eclipses in Libra, the cosmic archetype of Beauty, Balance, Truth, and Justice—what we most need to create harmonious relationships. The first eclipse in Libra last year coincided with the eruption of fresh war in the Middle East, which has resulted in a genocide in Gaza—a cataclysm that has been brewing for generations. It highlights what this astrology wants us to see—what happens when that Libran relational harmony and peace are fragile, when they rest on implicit agreements to avoid facing the difficult deeper realities of inequality and injustice. The south node’s job is to relieve us of patterns and attachments that are getting in the way of our soul’s growth—in this case, Libra’s more shadowy attributes, like chronic unconscious submissiveness or conflict avoidance in relationships. So on a personal and collective level, we’ve had this uncomfortable diagnostic going on, this south node scouring of our relationships and their shadows, for the last year and a half. Unlike the north node of desire and increase, this south node cleansing and detaching and shedding can happen subtly, unconsciously even—I often find that I don’t know what a south node transit was up to until years later, looking back. But this particular series of eclipses has not been subtle.

Maybe it’s that the Aries/Libra axis is cardinal and initiatory, and cardinal signs are pretty hard to ignore. Maybe its the themes themselves. This particular axis governs the self, and its personal instincts and needs and desires and agendas (Aries), and how that self is modified by relationships and the need for others’ acceptance and love (Libra), others with their often very different and possibly competing instincts and needs and desires and agendas. Both authentic self-expression (Aries) and security in the form of secure attachment relationships (Libra) are fundamental needs. We all start out having to prioritize secure attachment, which we absolutely cannot survive without when we are young. If our authentic expression threatens the stability or security those relationships, we will unconsciously repress those parts of ourselves. But eventually, as we grow up and no longer need others as much to survive—like financially, materially—the priorities reverse. Authentic self-expression becomes the thing we cannot survive without—it becomes more important even than our attachment relationships. So if we can’t have both, it’s the relationships that need to go. The ultimate goal is to have both—that’s the promised land—that we get to have secure loving attachments, and be ourselves completely.

On the personal level, this series of eclipses has been concerned with getting us to put a stronger emphasis on our own personal power and intuitive knowing and taking action from that knowing (north node in Aries), and less emphasis on creating and enjoying smoothness in the social field (south node in Libra). To do this, it’s made our Libra/Venus tools—exquisite sensitivity, kindness, diplomacy, deference, empathy—temporarily less available or less effective. It might have pushed pause on our ability to enact the classic Libra flight moves, like just literally running away from difficult or activating situations, or doing complicated dances to avoid conflict. It’s likely reduced the reliability of our passive defensive strategies (denial, dissociation, people-pleasing and smooth-talking, shutting down and waiting for the conflict to pass). Simultaneously, it’s turned up the volume on our Aries/Mars tools, our impulsivity and aggression and passion and fight. It’s been pushing us to more actively define ourselves, to advocate for own needs and beliefs in what’s right, to risk being more honest and maybe a little messy—even when that creates conflict and uncertainty in our relationships.

This is temporary—the nodes will move next year, and it will be another 18 years before this transit returns. If you put your head down and refuse the call to change the way you show up in relationships; if you refuse to get to know your own power and anger a little better, and to practice feeling it and working with it and engaging in conflict in a good way; if you refuse to look at the maladaptive ways you’ve gone about receiving love, over-giving and being over-flexible, letting others take advantage of you, generally acting from fear of abandonment—if you refuse the work that’s on offer right now, then it’s possible very little will change. Deeply ingrained attachment patterns are, after all, deeply ingrained. Eclipses don’t do our healing or growth work for us. They just tend to bring plot twists and fate-like situations that force us to see what’s going on, and the role we are playing, if any, in our own stuckness or suffering. Like, what are we putting up with that we should not be putting up with? What have we been avoiding working on? Where are we shying away from using our power, because it will be hard, because it pushes us into the unknown, and the familiar is at least familiar? An eclipse vortex will pull back the curtain, or jump-scare us out of our ignorance and complacency. And it’s this exact seeing, this increased conscious awareness, that creates a very real opportunity for change.

Now that we are a year-and-a-half in to this transit, I’m guessing you’ve noticed what the south node in Libra is up to for you personally. This last few weeks and last few days especially have shone a bright light on it. Mercury is blazing through Libra right now. It made a conjunction with the south node on Sunday, and a cazimi with the Sun on Monday, so if you weren’t feeling this eclipse last week, you likely are now. There may have been a big revelation in that time, a rude awakening. Or it might be more like something has happened to draw your attention to an unhealthy situation or dynamic you’ve been aware of for a long time, but weren’t sure how to address, or whether you were even allowed to name it. Now we are getting clear on the fact that, whether we name it or not, whether we face it or not, it’s standing in the way of progress. It’s like a crack or fault line, something foundational—this eclipse wants to make it so that you can no longer avoid knowing that it’s there. It needs to be addressed and healed, or you need to be willing to move on. Honest efforts to address it now and in the coming six months will be supported.

In addition to the Mercury conjunction, there are many other interesting conditions surrounding this eclipse that are worth noting. Libra’s ruler Venus is in the intense healing waters of Scorpio, where Venus is in her fall. That’s likely to raise the degree of difficulty around whatever’s going on, as well as the potency of the healing. There’s also a tight conjunction between the eclipse and a point called Black Moon Lilith, the lunar apogee—that’s associated with the dark feminine and wounds to feminine power in the collective, like aspects of the feminine that have been violated and demonized and suppressed that are now full of rage and ready to howl their way back to life. That’s actually very Venus in Scorpio, and makes me feel like we are being cordially invited to confront the more fucked up and culturally gendered aspects of Aries/Libra axis dysfunction; like who is expected to lead and embody power, who gets to express agency and anger, and who is expected to be nice and supportive and and pretty and shut up? There is also a square from Mars in Cancer that feels like an aggravating emotional education. Our urgency to act on what we are seeing and learning will likely meet all kinds of restraints; we may be forced, for now, to practice patience, to move slowly or not at all. We are learning not to rush to resolve tension and conflict, to withstand our discomfort, to allow energies and people time transform. Finally, there are supportive trines: a trine to this eclipse from Jupiter in Gemini, which feels very benevolent, very encouraging; a reminder that we are in a process of transcending old paradigms, and things are going better then they seem. And there is a grand water trine forming this week between Venus in Scorpio, Saturn in Pisces, and Mars in Cancer. If you’re really in the thick of it right now, look to your water sign houses in your chart, look to those parts of your life—as weird as it is to say it, that’s where the stability and integrity is coming through right now.

So much of the goodness in life comes from Aries/Libra mastery, and particularly the mastery of whole-heartedness and authenticity in relationships. As I said before, that’s the promised land—that we get to have secure loving attachments, and be ourselves completely. I’d wager most of us have been on a significant healing journey as adults with all of this. Take stock of how far you have come in this grand adventure. And take stock of where you are being shown you need to stretch a bit more, and heal a bit more, and grow a bit more. Working with our own creative lifeforce is a lifelong game. Transforming dysfunctional and disempowering cultural dynamics, creating a society where everyone’s humanity is respected, where everyone’s potential is nurtured, that’s the work of many lifetimes, many generations. This series of eclipses has just poured a little gas on that transformative fire. And this eclipse we are in now, it’s a new beginning.

There will be one more eclipse in this series—a solar eclipse in Aries at the very end of March, just after the start of spring. The nodes will already have moved on to Pisces/Virgo, so it’s a callback, a final new beginning, predicated on what initiates now. I’m thinking of that as a sister eclipse to this one, and I’ll talk a little more about the Aries side of this in a few weeks on the full moon. But for now, imagine that whatever you are being pushed to let go of now, or whatever loss you are in the process of accepting and grieving, that’s what will create the right conditions for something new to happen in spring. If you feel uneasy now, it’s because these new energies—the energies of the growth to come—have already appeared. They are announcing themselves, and altering your sense of stability and belonging. They are dialing in a change that your soul needs—not your ego, and not your body, who both might prefer stability over change. While it is initially disruptive, you can trust this new awareness or new way forward being ignited in your spirit. Write down any realizations you are having. While it may not quite be time to take big, outward actions, it is time to act to stabilize any fresh awareness. Then, just keep moving forward with integrity, day by day. Summon your bravery and boldness and fuck it. Commit to doing the work to make a better life. Commit to letting go of what you’re being shown is standing in the way. You don’t have to understand it all, or see the future clearly, to take the leap of faith in yourself.

And in case you need it like I need it, a little Rumi:

Don’t Go Back to Sleep
-Rumi

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don't go back to sleep.

You must ask for what you really want.
Don't go back to sleep.

People are going back and forth 
across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.

The door is round and open.
Don't go back to sleep.

Based on the blue princess and monarch, also of course from Malina Dowling - you can follow her on Instagram at @void.bug

Ritual & Writing Prompts

For paid subscribers, some shortcut links to the archive of writings on Libra lunations in In the River of What’s Happening Now, and some specific suggestions on how to be with these energies. I skip the ritual prompts during eclipse season, as eclipses are generally a time to ease up on the wielding our personal will. But I am reposting the shadow work prompts from the Libra eclipse a year ago, and there is a sweet new creative prompt for the poets and writers out there.

(Disclaimer: Prompts are suggestions, not instructions. Play with what inspires you, ignore what’s doesn’t, relate with it and adapt it in any way you see fit.)

The Libra archive (in reverse chronological order)

In Beauty It is Ended - full moon lunar eclipse at 5° of Libra (spring 2024)

Shadow Work, or How to Stay Believing in the Possibility of Peace - new moon solar eclipse at 21° of Libra (fall 2023)

What a Beautiful Wreck We Made - full moon at 16° of Libra (spring 2023)

Everything is Vibration - new moon at 2° of Libra (fall 2022)