Welcome to the Libra New Moon. This is the time in the lunar calendar when we turn our attention towards relationship and connection, negotiation and compromise, balance and harmony. Also a solar eclipse, we are at a major turning point for the year. The new moon solar eclipse is exact on October 2, 2024 at 2:30 pm ET, 10 degrees Libra. That’s 11:50 am Los Angeles, 7:50 pm London, 8:50 pm Johannesburg, 12:20 am New Delhi on October 3, 4:50 am Sydney, 6:50 am New Zealand.
New moons are new beginnings. But a solar eclipse? It’s a new beginning that can swiftly close and open doors and send us in a new direction. There’s a psychic force to solar eclipses. We don’t always see them right away, but whatever part of our astrology they touch will see change in some way.
Lest we think anxiously about eclipses, note that they move the wheel of life and life is movement. Eclipses are often not that far behind the major milestones of our lives — moves, career changes, achievements, marriages, births, divorces, and endings.
Today’s new moon eclipse is part of a series of eclipses, like a chapter of time, that began around the Aries New Moon solar eclipse of April 20, 2023. It threads together with the solar eclipse of October 14, 2023 as well as the lunar and solar eclipses of March and April 2024. In theory, when we look back at those periods, we see a common thread, even if that thread is emotional and internal. (This is the last eclipse we’ll have in Libra until 2033.)
Libra will be our lens for the next six months, until the next eclipse and final eclipse of the series in Aries, on March 29, 2025. And what is Libra? It’s a cardinal sign, which means it aligns with one of the four directions. It speaks about the seasons of life. It helps us to discover the importance of relationship and connection, that we need other people to help us see and discover ourselves, that negotiation and compromise is an essential to life. Libra is one of the four pillars along with Aries, Cancer, and Capricorn, holding up the sky.
In the chart of the solar eclipse, we find the Sun and Moon not too far away from the South Node, a point in the sky that can bring up emotions, memories, and experiences from the past. There may be something unresolved that we have to look at, especially an unresolved relationship. Or, we may need to let something go. The South Node can sometimes bring endings.
Venus, the ruler of the eclipse, is in Scorpio, which is to say the energy of the eclipse points over to the sign of Scorpio, where we find Venus. Scorpio is a very different energy than Libra. It’s a sign that has an emotional charge. It’s the intimate side of relationships, the trust and vulnerability that allows two people to make a real connection. It can so speak to the shadow side of relationships such as power dynamics, toxic interpersonal skills, and even abuse. That said, Scorpio is also the power to completely change something for the better, to talk about a difficult subject in order to put things in light.
Squaring the eclipse is Mars in Cancer, a provocative energy that can be both courageous and demanding. Conversations may hit an emotional nerve as Mars squares Mercury in Libra, too. Emotions may run high over the coming weeks. How do we make space for diplomacy while having real, honest conversations?
Regardless, use this eclipse to review your relationships in all their forms. In its best form, this is an eclipse to get real about who we want in our lives and the emotional work needed to open new spaces within ourselves so that we can forge deeper connections. It’s an eclipse to let a relationship go, especially one that is no longer supporting you.