Photos by Willow, available at Etsy
Happy Equinox, northern hemisphere dwellers!
The Sun enters Libra tonight at 7:03 p.m. CST, marking fall equinox in the northern hemisphere. As the daylight hours and nighttime hours become perfectly balanced, we take some time to balance ourselves and our lives, as well. Fall equinox provides a moment that feels almost suspended in time, a moment for us to take a deep breath after a busy summer. As we move into Libra season each year, most people are back to work or back to school and have settled into their new routines. Garden produce has been mostly harvested with garden beds cleaned up and prepared for next year. Ranchers have baled their hay for the year and mostly hauled it home. Harvest for grain farmers is complete or nearing completion. Whatever work we've been busy doing all Virgo season, equinox provides a little breather.
Venus-ruled Libra is a sign related to relationships, social life, and art, among other things, so Libra season (September 22 to October 23) is a time of stronger social energy - fall get-togethers, parties, backyard fires, pumpkin patches, corn mazes, tipping back a little cider, and the last outdoor farmers and craft markets of the year.
We know winter is soon on its way, but for now, we get to soak up the last bit of toasty warmth in the Sun, enjoying both the beautiful fall leaves and the beautiful people in our lives. Every last moment before the snow flies is precious!
The fall of 2022 appears to be an even more sociable time than usual, as action planet Mars is in an extended, seven-month transit of social butterfly Gemini. Mars is in the shadow of its upcoming retrograde until October 30, indicating a period of super-charged connections, conversations, information-sharing, and networking.
The sign Gemini is ruled by the planet Mercury, and we will experience a potent conjunction of the Sun and Mercury retrograde on the zero degree of Libra to mark fall equinox. The Sun-Mercury Rx conjunction at zero degrees Libra occurs on September 23 at 12:50 a.m. CST. This, again, indicates the importance of reaching out, connecting, and making the effort to get together with those we like and love this Libra season.
On the zero degree of Libra, this Sun-Mercury Rx conjunction indicates fresh social starts and new beginnings in the social realms. We start again. We start a-fresh. Because the people we love, no matter how frictional our relationships may be, are worth it. Because people and community are worth it. Because humanity is worth it. Because renewing the social fabric that supports us all at one time or another is, without a doubt, worth it.
Just following fall equinox, we will experience a New Moon at 2 degrees Libra (September 25 at 3:54 p.m. CST). This New Moon occurs in a tight opposition to Jupiter retrograde at 3 degrees Aries.
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This Sun-Moon in Libra opposition to Jupiter Rx in Aries at the time of the New Moon indicates that we're working intensively, throughout the lunar cycle, to balance our identities (who we are and what we're about) with our social and relationship needs. Aries opposite Libra is the fine balance between me and we. We're balancing and re-balancing these things until we can engage harmoniously and peaceably in relationships and social settings without detrimentally compromising who we are and how we really think and feel.
