Libra Full moon Eclipse

Eclipse season starts nineteen days before the sun passes through a lunar node and ends nineteen days after. There are two eclipse seasons, one at each node, during a calendar year, and they occur roughly six months apart. The lunar nodes aren’t celestial bodies; they are non-visible points in the sky where the orbital paths of the sun and the moon intersect. New moons become solar eclipses and full moons become lunar eclipses. A lunar eclipse – this one is happening in Libra - occurs when the earth lies directly between the sun and the moon; creating a shadow that moves over the surface of the moon.

Because eclipse season happens only twice a year, it is a natural but rarer, more magical rhythm of the cosmos. The first eclipse of 2024 is a penumbral lunar eclipse, which is when the moon passes through the earth's penumbra (the outer part of the shadow that the earth casts in space). We experience this type of eclipse as a subtle darkening of the moon's surface, rather than the more dramatic reddish hue of a total lunar eclipse. The penumbral shadow is much fainter than the umbra - the innermost, dark, centre portion of the earth's shadow - so the effects of this type of eclipse are less obvious. There is a subtle but profound mystery to a penumbral eclipse, both visually and energetically.

In July of last year, the lunar nodes moved from Taurus (North) and Scorpio (South) into Aries and Libra, where they will remain until January 2025. The nodal shift of zodiac sign takes around eighteen months, and the complete nodal cycle takes approximately eighteen to nineteen years. In astrology, the nodes are often referred to as the nodes of destiny, with the north node speaking to our future and the south node, to our past and our karma.

“In your birth chart, the North Node, or head of the dragon, indicates an area of life where you are insatiable. No matter how much you strive and seek and sweat, this hunger is bottomless. It can’t be filled. The South Node is the tail of the dragon: a point of surrender. Here, you purge, renounce, release. Like a bout of food poisoning that cleans you out, this process is necessary, though rarely pleasant. The South Node is one mechanism through which your body, mind and heart self-purify.” Chani Nichols, Astrologer.

This full moon is taking place in Libra. Libra rules the 7th House of (long term) relationships and partnerships. Ruled by Venus, Libra speaks to us about our human desire for meaningful connections; to the beauty – Venus represents love, beauty, sex, fertility, and prosperity – that we find in our most significant intimate relationships. What do you yearn for, in regards to connection and intimacy? What does that look and feel like for you? Do you currently have the level of meaningful connection you desire in your most important relationships? Where is there more room for truth and beauty (think Venus)?

It’s important to note that Libra also represents balance. The word Libra comes from the Latin word lībra, which means pair of scales, and its zodiac symbol is a set of scales. So, not only is Libra about connection; it is about balanced, healthy connection. This moon is happening just after the Spring equinox – a balance of light and dark – which places further emphasis on what balance looks and feels like. This full moon wants us to really notice whether there is balance in our key relationships. Balance, of course, is explicitly about relationships and is defined as being a state of equilibrium achieved through having different parts or elements properly arranged. This moon illuminates the places where balance is lacking.

During any full moon, we are working with the oppositional energy of the sun and the moon; an axis of energy. The moon is in Libra and the sun in Aries. There is a deep philosophical inquiry with this axis. The question of how consciousness and self-awareness connect with personal identity has accompanied philosophy since antiquity. Classic existential inquiry, for example, asks the most fundamental questions about human existence and experience. What gives our lives meaning and value? What is it to choose freely? How do I live an authentic life? How should I relate to myself and to others?

This full moon lunar eclipse in Libra speaks very much to those questions. Libra is about relationships and relating. It is about who we are in relation to others. Aries is I am and self; it is about being our authentic selves and what that means. How we feel about ourselves and who we are in relation to others are deeply entwined. Quite simply, when we feel good about ourselves, we feel alive and vibrant, which is mirrored in our external world; drawing in vibrancy. Conversely, if we don’t feel good or comfortable in our own body, we may be reluctant to share intimacy with another person. When we feel worthy of love and connection, we’re more likely to engage in and be receptive to love and to making connections. All this is part of a healthy self-image, resulting in healthy relationships. Healthy relationships require a balance of togetherness and separateness. Closeness is important, but maintaining our own sense of identity and independence is equally important.

How do the people around you make you feel about yourself?

How do your closest relationships make you feel?

Do you have to abandon yourself, or make yourself smaller, in any dynamic?

With whom do you feel most free and most real?

Who are you when no one else is around?

How are you longing to show up in your own life?

This moon wants us to really feel into these questions. They are seed questions that will extend into the solar eclipse of this season and to the second eclipse season of the year in six months' time. Eclipses are also known for bringing about rapid and unpredictable change, and about doing and seeing things differently. This transformative energy may be experienced in our most intimate relationships. A new connection may come in seemingly from nowhere, for example, or an existing one may end abruptly. Intimacy itself is Venusian and beauty, love and sex are at the fore of our experience of this eclipse. A sextile between Venus in Pisces and Jupiter in Taurus supports a positive exploration of relationship; of an expansion (Jupiter) into our bodies (Taurus) and to heightened pleasure.

How to work with the energy of this full moon eclipse in Libra? Lunar eclipses can be revelatory in that they help us see thing afresh. Lunar eclipses tend to be associated more with completion, ending and revelation. thing afresh. Endings are necessary; they make space for the new. In this sense, an eclipse cycle – of which this is the beginning- can facilitate the cleansing and releasing of an emotional cycle. Use the questions above as a framework of inquiry. Try and feel into them over the next days. In terms of your relationships, honour yourself. Ask yourself if it is what is right. If it’s what is meant for you. Libra, in its south node position, is about our past and our karma. Old patterning and outdated ways of doing things. Think about your relationship conditioning. Is it time to stop doing things a certain way?

It might help to think about it as balancing karma. In astrological cycles of time, nodal transits are about balancing (again balance as a theme) karma from eighteen/nineteen years ago. Can you think back to what you were experiencing then, particularly in your relationships? Can you feel any connection between what was going on then and lessons learnt?

And enjoy. Enjoy your connections. Explore your connections. Remember Venus is also a big part of this. Venus is often seen as astrology's starting point for understanding sexual identities and relationships. Bring your authentic pleasure to this eclipse party and see what happens.

Image credit: NASA

Nodes quote from: Chani Nichols

Lynsey Allett21 March 2024