Full Moon in Libra 12:48 pm MDT 8º Libra opposed Sun and Venus in Aries
Welcome to the full moon in Libra, the first full moon of the new astrological year!
Sun in Aries—Spring Equinox
Last Saturday (March 20) was the Spring Equinox, the first day of spring, and the start of Aries season—which also kicks off the astrological new year and a new annual cycle. At the equinox, the days and nights are of equal length, and from that point forward the days stretch slowly longer until the summer solstice. We have officially entered the season of renewal, of growth and rebirth, the world is waking up from its winter death and slumber, as are our bodies and our psyches.
The watery womb of Pisces season gives birth to new life in Aries.
If we look at the zodiac as the growth and development of consciousness, Aries is the “I AM” of infancy and childhood, the recognition and centering of a self as a self—as an independent and autonomous being.
This isn’t to say Aries people are immature or egotistical, but that the qualities of independence, self-sufficiency, and the honoring of ego and individual selfhood are important to any placements in this sign, in the natal chart and as planets transit through in real-time, as the sun is now, along with Venus.
Venus in the Heart of the Sun
On Friday, Venus experienced cazimi, where she passed through the “heart of the sun” (meaning she conjuncted, or connected, with the sun on her journey through the zodiac). This is a time of deep renewal, purification, and revitalization for Venus—planet of love, luxury, aesthetics, pleasure, and becoming our best selves through the purifying fires of intimacy and relationship—and it acts like a new moon (on steroids), beginning a new eight-year cycle for us.
Venus rules Libra, where the full moon occurs—making her moment in the sun even more potent right now.
The seeds, visions, goals, and projects you plant now will grow for the next four years before reaching a culmination (like a full moon), and then enter a waning cycle of release and change for the following four years.
Think back to what was happening in your life in 2013 and how it may have come to fruition or climax in 2017. If you know the part of your chart that contains Aries, this can give you even more information.
Aries is the sign of my tenth house of career and vocation. In my case, in 2013 I completed the first version of my book manuscript and graduated with my MFA in creative writing. It was also the birth of The Thought Erotic literary journal. Several drafts later, my collection of short stories, The Seven Autopsies of Nora Hanneman, was selected for publication with FC2 and published in, yep, 2017. I also began teaching at Lighthouse Writers Workshop that year.
I’m using the energy of this Venus cazimi to complete my next book, a novel of speculative literary fiction. And also to plant the seeds to expand my business of writing and creativity coaching and teaching, into launching and teaching my own personal courses and programs on writing, creativity, the erotic, healing, and re-storying our personal and collective narratives.
SPARK—a course on integrating + empowering your creative-erotic self for radical pleasure
In honor of Venus and this Libra full moon, I’m excited to announce a brand new offering with the amazing Ansley Clark (poetry editor of The Thought Erotic and all around fabulous human).
SPARK is an 8-week guided course and community, offering lessons, exercises, practices, and support to tap the vast stores of creative energy and power contained in our sexual, erotic, and pleasure-seeking drives; the course is designed for women and nonbinary folks.
SPARK will launch in late April! Please stay tuned for more details, which will be coming soon! (Or shoot me an email for a sneak peek!)
On the course:
Creativity and the erotic—our intimate connection with ourselves, with others, and with the world around us—are deeply interdependent. We see sexuality and the erotic as pathways to radical pleasure and creativity.
Our social conditioning and the social water we swim in (patriarchy, homophobia, transphobia, sexism) dissect and divorce the two. Because this conditioning has a very prickly and oppressive relationship to sexuality, it labels the erotic taboo, bad, shameful, and wrong. This is an effective strategy to separate womxn and nonbinary folks from the power of the erotic. Similarly, creativity often gets labeled frivolous, unnecessary, and selfish. People (yep, women and nonbinary folks, especially) are assigned guilt and shame for wanting to pursue their passions and take time for creative pleasure.
We’ve found, through our own experiences and through working with others, that addressing the blockages and healing the stories around our sexuality has a ripple effect on our creative process and output—and vice versa.
As writers, we have found the writing process to be one of the most healing and empowering ways to understand and express our sexual identities. This course offers a safe, welcoming, communal space to explore, expand, heal, and express your sexuality and erotic energies. You do not need to be a writer to thrive in this space; it’s designed for writers and non-writers alike.
Watch for details and more info coming soon! Hope to see you there in April!
Full Moon in Libra
Full moons are always oppositions, so the moon in Libra sits across the sky—staring down, and reflecting the light—from the sun in Aries.
Libra, as the opposite sign from Aries, is deeply concerned with connection and relationship to others. Where Aries is “I am,” Libra is “I balance.” Libra’s focus is on finding balance through connection and compromise to the other.
The Libra-Aries axis, then, is about finding balance and integration between an independent individualistic sense of self and a being integrated into an interdependent network.
Full moons are times of tension, of tumescence, culmination and climax that begin the subsequent period of detumescence, denouement, release.
Consider what you’re ready to release in the Libra areas of relationship (intimate, business, family), fairness and justice, and balance, and the Aries fields of independence, individuality, and initiation. This may feel a little counterintuitive, but contemplate, what role does release and letting go serve in initiating and beginning new things?
The moon is asking you to determine what—quite specifically—you need to let go of in order to gain or attain your goals for this new eight-year Venus cycle.
Maybe they are fears, negative beliefs, old stories. Or maybe it’s a relationship or job you’ve outgrown, whose security may be preventing you from stepping out into something more right for you now.
Use the below journal writing prompt and ritual to explore this further.
Full Moon in Libra Writing Prompts + Rituals
Libran Full Moon Journal Writing Prompt
1. What are some major things that have occurred for you in the last eight years, especially in the part of your chart that contains Aries? What reached a turning or decision point in 2013 and how did it play out until 2017? Look for patterns, cycles, and seasons.
2. What do you want to plant and commit to now that will grow and blossom over the next four years?
3. Set a timer for seven minutes and freewrite on possibilities.
4. Now cull from that freewrite a list of one to seven things you want to dedicate yourself to.
5. Put them in order of importance. Which ones light you up the most; which ones scare you? These probably belong at the top.
6. Select one item (or combine up to three into a one-sentence vision).
7. Write this item/sentence as if it has already come to pass (e.g. I have a completed final draft of my novel).
Full Moon in Libra Ritual
1. For this ritual you’ll need a black candle and a white candle.
2. Taking your responses from the journal writing prompt (above), choose one thing you really want to plant to focus on and work toward in the next eight years.
2. In the next few days after the full moon, make a list of things you need to release in order for that vision to manifest. What do you need to let go of to clear and open space for the new to enter?
3. Take that list and set it below your black candle. You can also burn it (in a safe way) in the flame of the black candle.
4. While the candle burns, read through the list and imagine these things being removed from you, in the smoothest, kindest way, for the best good of all involved (you can say this aloud if you’d like).
5. Let the candle burn itself out (again, be safe!) over the next few days. (If you need to put it out, snuff it [rather than blow] and then relight when ready.)
6. Write your dream (from #2) ON the white candle. You can write on the glass container (bonus for using green ink) or scry (carve) the words into the wax with a pin or needle.
7. Once the black candle has burned itself out, light the white candle and read your vision aloud. Allow the white candle to burn itself out, imagining your goal as having already come to pass whenever you look at or notice the candle.
Fiction Writing Prompt—Libra Full Moon—Justice or Just Is?
1. Consider: What do “justice” and “fairness” mean in your world? And/or to a specific character?
2. Freewrite on this idea for 15 minutes.
3. These are quite fluid terms that change based on our operational realities, so spend some time really delving into how your world and character define and understand these terms, what they mean to them specifically.
3. Now write a scene in which this (or a) character is forced to confront or grapple with their idea of fairness or justice, where perhaps this ideal is put to the challenge in “real life.”
4. How does this character live up to or fall short of their ideal of justice? How does theory vs. practice differ or match up? What else do you learn or discover in watching this character grapple with their ideals?
5. Set a timer for 20 minutes and write this scene.
6. Consider after: How does your character’s ideas of justice differ from or match up with the social norms, laws, and infrastructure of the world and government or political powers. Is there a tension there you can exploit in your story?
7. Consider: What did you learn about your character through seeing what they would and wouldn’t do in service of their ideals, when their back is against the wall?
Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash