Equinox & Aries Full Moon: Authentic Self in Relationship

Aries Full Moon + Chiron Aries Point – September 24, 2018

#Me Too Chapter 2

On the eve of the Aries Full Moon, with Chiron exactly conjunct the Aries Point, another woman has come forward and accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault. This news came 24 hours after the fall equinox (spring equinox in the southern hemisphere).

The chart for the equinox gives us a picture of major energetic themes we will be working with in the coming three months. Two big themes that jump out at me from Saturday’s equinox chart are:

  • Major issues of assertiveness vs. compliance in relationships.
  • A society-wide reassessment of values (especially around money, sex and power).
Equinox: Sun enters Libra, Saturday, Sept. 22, 9:54 pm EDT, Washington, DC.

Equinox: Sun enters Libra, Saturday, Sept. 22, 9:54 pm EDT, Washington, DC.

Healing Relationship WoundS – Emergence of the Authentic Self

At the equinox and at Monday’s Full Moon, Chiron is just a sliver of a degree away from 0 Aries 00 — aka the Aries Point.

Astrologer Eric Francis often says that the Aries Point is where we experience the personal as political and the political as personal. Aries Point astrology focuses the collective consciousness on the archetypal themes shown by the planets involved.

The fall equinox is, by definition, the moment when the Sun enters Libra. The 2018 equinox chart features the Sun, Mercury and Ceres opposite Chiron and the Aries Point, all squaring Saturn in Capricorn. So, what is that picture showing us?

Sun, Mercury, Ceres in Libra Opposition the Aries Point

The Sun brings attention and energy to the Libran themes of relationship, harmony, balance and justice. Mercury in Libra activates communication in and about relationships, while Ceres emphasizes the need for a global rebalancing of relationships so that the scales are no longer tilted toward men (“she must have been asking for it”).

Chiron on the Aries Point

Chiron in Aries specifically activates the wound of “Who I am – my real self – is unacceptable.” People born with Chiron in Aries (roughly 1968-1977) share a common sense of feeling unwanted, of not being good enough, or of needing to fundamentally change who they are in order to be loved or accepted.

Chiron on the Aries Point at the moment of the equinox indicates we have reached a time when we as a society can no longer afford the suffering caused by patriarchal relationship paradigms based on power, fear, shame and control.

Chiron, the wounded healer, always heals through a process of expanding awareness. Chiron activations magnify the pain of a situation until we can no longer deny or ignore it. Chiron teaches us that we cannot heal what we cannot feel.

Ceres Square Saturn

Ceres conjunct Mercury and square Saturn indicates the start of a society-wide conversation that leads, eventually, to new freedom and protection under the law for women. Saturn (the judge, the authority) is in his home sign in Capricorn, a transit that lasts for  approximately 2.5 years and occurs once every 28 years or so.

Saturn in his own sign is empowered to be the wise judge. Saturn in Capricorn periods often coincide with legislative reforms and political shifts that redress power imbalances toward women and minorities. During the last Saturn in Capricorn period (1988-1991), Douglas Wilder became the first African-American governor and David Dinkins became the first (and only) African-American mayor of New York City.

The previous Saturn in Capricorn cycle (1959-1961) saw the enactment of the Civil Rights Act in the USA. In 1960, the first female contraception pills were legally approved for sale in the U.S. Journalist Fred Kaplan points out that this was a watershed moment in women’s rights, not least because for the first time a heterosexual women could actually plan a career. “This allowed not just a sexual revolution, but it allowed women to get jobs, to advance professionally,” Kaplan writes. (Source)

The Aries Full Moon and Brett Kavanaugh

While women in western society certainly have access to more freedom in choosing a career than their counterparts in 1960, many if not most women in the U.S. still live under the constant fear of sexual assault.

The reaction of President Trump and prominent Republican senators to Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation that Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a party when they were both still in high school shows how far we still have to go as a society in balancing the masculine and feminine.

President Trump’s typically tone-deaf tweet that “if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities (sic)” ignores this reality. Justice Department statistics that show that 7 out of 10 sexual assault victims never report the assault.

The reasons victims don’t go to the authorities vary — shame, fear, the belief that reporting it will do them more harm than good — but they all indicate a deep soul sickness still at work in our society.  #WhyIDidn’tReport

I think it’s no coincidence that the Senate Judiciary Committee will be hearing testimony from Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Kavanaugh just a couple days after Monday’s Aries Full Moon.

Aries Full Moon conjunct Chiron, Sept. 24, 2018.

Aries Full Moon conjunct Chiron, Sept. 24, 2018.

Chiron in Aries magnifies the pain we suffer when we believe we must deny who we really are in order to have and maintain relationships. For most of us, this self-repression operates across the board. It exists in our most intimate partnerships and extends to family, business and social relationships.

For women — and this is a theme that has come up repeatedly in readings with my clients in September — this prohibition against full selfhood is so ingrained into the fabric of our society that many of us (and that includes many women) do not even question it.

Monday’s Full Moon on the Aries Point appears designed to light a fire under our collective asses and force us into important conversations about how we balance the masculine and feminine in our society.

Venus Retrograde: Reassessing Values Leads to Becoming Fully Resourced

Venus, the ruler of Libra, is in Scorpio at the equinox and at the Aries Full Moon. Scorpio is Libra’s 2nd House, the house of money, income, earning power, resources, personal power….and what we value.

Venus stations retrograde on October 5 and will remain retrograde until mid-November. Venus retrograde in Scorpio can be a challenging energetic, but the planetary or cosmic intention for this period is that we go inside and really examine our values.

Jupiter, the philosopher-king of the zodiac, has been touring Scorpio since last fall, and will be accentuating the Scorpio quality of the coming three months as well.

Scorpio is the depth psychologist of the zodiac. Scorpio says, “If I get to the root of what is bugging me about this situation, and I confront the thing I’m most afraid of confronting, then I can change everything I don’t like about the situation.”

A typical example of this is the person who talks about winning the lottery or focuses on becoming a millionaire – because when they are rich, then they will have free time to work on their art or then they’ll be able to attract the man/woman of their dreams.

We have been taught to see money as the answer to so many of life’s problems. And while a certain level of wealth helps solve problems, social science studies consistently show that, outside of the most poverty-stricken segments of society, more money doesn’t buy more happiness.

Venus in Scorpio wants us to look within and find where the wires got twisted, to root out the programming that causes us to live from values that are not aligned with our own souls. This  programming runs far deeper than money, of course. It shows up in the relationships we settle for, in the isolated suburban lifestyles so many people embrace, in our pursuit of happiness through success or fame, and more.

When we know what is truly important to us and align our actions with our own values, the result is often a major increase in abundance.

But we can’t sustain a life lived according to our own inner compass if our relationships are based on people-pleasing, conflict avoidance, or suppressing the vital-but-disallowed parts of the Self.

It’s going to be an interesting three months – stay tuned!

7 thoughts on “Equinox & Aries Full Moon: Authentic Self in Relationship

  1. Caroline says:

    Oh Gosh, so true.

    That entertainer. Yup. Just because it’s who I want to be. No more, no less. And let’s let go of it MIGHT make me a living. how about, I’m allowed abundance however it comes because I’m enough. Ooh it feels hard to say that. I AM Abundant. I AM enough. Oh yes, what interesting times. Thank you wise one, I bow to your Astro-awesome goodness 🙂

    • Danielle says:

      I’ve been married for 16 years.. all within 2 days about a weeks ago something feels like it just shifted. I can’t explain it.. I sit here in confusion bc we got into 1 argument & from that time a few weeks ago it’s like I feel so distant from him.. is this bc of the energies. He doesn’t understand why I feel this way or why I’ve grown so distant but something just shifted in me. Still trying to figure it out. I think it’s bc I don’t deserve the anger he has ? I feel like I feel everything & he doesn’t “feel “much at all?? but I don’t know .. thx 4 the post dk— may have nothing to do with this but had to vent & post

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