New Moon Watch: The Balance Amidst Light & Dark

Today’s new moon at seven degrees Libra promises to mark a significant turning point and adjustment for each of us. Although it is a new moon, it involves the old battle between light and dark forces — or better said, the forces of evolution and regression. Occuring in Libra, the dichotomy involves movement towards relating consciously or a recoiling towards isolation and self-defense.

The Sabian symbol for the new moon reads: “A woman feeding chickens and protecting them from hawks.” A new moon always initiates a kind of spiritual nourishment for the earth, but this particular lunation involves the disruption of growth by destructive influences.

Dane Rudhyar writes about the symbol this way: “The most basic “Law”…is that every release of new potentialities brings about a polarization of effects– that is, the new potentiality will be used both for construction and deconstruction. It will arouse individuals to take a series of steps which will lead some to greater success, others to deeper failure.”

The keynote is guardianship, which means: attention and management implying responsibility for well-being and safety. The chickens are getting new food, but at what price to the entire bird kingdom? You can apply this however you like — especially unnerving is what this implies for the United State’s economy right now. What exactly will 700 billion dollars worth of chicken feed wrought?

On a more personal level you can see this operating in your relationships — either with others or with yourself. You bring yourself (or your partner) a new level of truth and then you pay the price for disturbing the status quo. Understand that if one is working to awaken latent powers, talents, aspirations there will be a counter movement within the unconscious to block, thwart or distort one’s process of growth. As Rudhyar notes, it’s the “Law” of the psyche.

Libra is the odd sign out of the zodiac (a word that means “circle of animals”), being an inanimate object there’s nothing “alive” about the symbol — and it acts accordingly: assesing, judging and weighing — void of emotion, sensation or intuition. Libra represents a chilly kind of objectivity in the universe, the sort that addresses balance and adjustment without emotional coloring or tempering. Libra represents a quality of truth most of us would rather avoid; namely seeing objectively, without unconscious blinders.

Libra marks a major turning point in the zodiac. Where the six proceeding signs represent the development of personalization and individuation — Libra is the first sign of the zodiac to awaken the impulse to relate, to connect with others and step out of one’s bubble into the human community. Where Virgo, the proceeding sign, represents a kind of isolation and self-cocooning, Libra challenges us to emerge and connect and relate from truth.

Today’s new moon marks a period of struggle and the opportunity to establish balance and objectivity into our lives — but there will be a price. As Gurdjieff noted: “Humankind is third force blind.” We only see life in terms of duality; good/bad, night/day, pain/suffering. Somewhere in the middle is a reconcilling, balancing, uniting function that will neutralize the duality and bring forth a creative, vital third force. Something mysterious and unconsidered as of yet. Something new that can either uplift or, as the Sabian symbol warns, pull down and dissipate. Again, the keyword for today’s new moon is guradianship.

As the Sufis say: “Trust in Allah — but tether your camel.”