Equinox & Full Moon in Libra: Opening

Today, Wednesday, March 20, we celebrate the Equinox with a glorious Full Moon in Libra that is also the last Supermoon of this year. The Moon will be large and luminous in the sky on this day of equal hours of light and dark.

The Equinox is the harbinger of spring in the northern hemisphere. This winter has felt long, cold, and filled with discontent, so spring will be welcome indeed.

In the northern hemisphere, this is the traditional beginning of the year, the farming year. Since the astrology we know and use developed north of the equator, it is also the beginning of the astrological year. At this Equinox, the Sun finishes a circuit through the zodiac to be born again in Fire.

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The Full Moon is exact less that four hours after the Equinox, and happens at 0° … the Sun at 0° Aries, which is the Equinox point, and the Moon at 0° Libra. This means our Full Moon illumination has to do with the Equinox, a moment of balance between light and dark, Sun and Moon.

Are there places where you have found balance? Where you feel a need for balance? Being tipped too far into the light can be as hazardous as being too much in the dark.

We need both light and dark, the recognition that both sun and shadow are part of our world and ourselves.

As Ursula Le Guin said, to light a candle is to cast a shadow.

This is also a time of birth, renewal, and breaking new ground. The Equinox is the Aries Point, the place where new things come into our lives. An Aries Point Full Moon is bound to bring something new and potentially startling to us all.

This newness could be anything, really, depending on how Aries comes into each birth chart and what we have going on in our lives.

The closest aspect for this Full Moon Equinox is the conjunction of the Sun with Chiron, newly in Aries. Chiron the wounded healer therefore joins the Sun in opposing the gentle Libra Moon.

Chiron in Aries can feel sharp, possibly piercing. Aries is associated with knives and bleeding. There are times, though, when surgery saves lives. So, if our Full Moon illuminates an old wound, there might be a needed healing in having the wound opened up one more time so any lingering toxins can be excised.

My Sun happens to be at 0° Libra––I’m an Autumn Equinox baby. This places the Aries Point Sun and Chiron opposite my own Sun. I’ve spent time this Mercury retrograde facing some past patterns I’d love to let go of.

Leaning into this Full Moon, I’m beginning to get a fresh look at my Libra Sun. It’s surprising me. We’ll see how that goes!

The Aries Point can be like a fiery rocket, but there’s also a lot of Earth in these charts, keeping our feet on the ground.

Mars, ruler of Aries, currently moves steadily through Taurus. His presence there, in a wide trine to the Moon, will slow things down. It’s possible our Aries Point Full Moon illuminations will be softer. Perhaps something we planted at the New Moon, or some earlier time, will emerge. We’ll see new buds, perhaps even a flower. Something new is born into our lives.

Of course, the South Node, Pluto, and Saturn are still moving through stern Capricorn. These are also aspected by the Full Moon. They are out-of-sign aspects, and so possibly not as strong as they might be, but the Moon trines the South Node and sextiles the North Node, while the Sun does the opposite: trining the North Node and sextiling the South.

This Eclipse Full Moon supports movement on our life path. Energy is flowing from the past toward the future.

Mars in Taurus is sextiling Pluto in Capricorn. This combination might bring a bit of ease to Pluto, since Mars in Taurus sometimes likes to be indulgent and relax. It can also help us move forward with necessary transformations. Mars, who does like to get things done, moves far faster than Pluto.

These ties create lines of communication. The energy created by the Equinox Full Moon flows into the Capricorn group, energizing and enlivening.

Imagine Capricorn as a bare and stony slope. Under the light of the Full Moon, we might see the tips of vines begin to emerge from cracks in the rock, then leaves unfurl, until a cascade of green pours over the grey stone.

We dare not forget Uranus, also in Taurus, who gets an awkward inconjunct  from the Libra Moon. Yet, I just cannot see inconjuncts between Taurus and Libra as truly difficult. Both are ruled by Venus, her daytime and nighttime homes. In this instance, I hear the Libra Moon reminding Uranus not to forget all the beings of the world as he initiates his Earth changes.

Eris, the chaos goddess, trines Jupiter the philosopher, while Venus sextiles them both. Venus is at her most cerebral in Aquarius. She wants to cool down the heat of Eris in Aries and Jupiter in Sagittarius in order to create the perfect plan, the ideal vision.

Meanwhile, Mercury approaches his retrograde conjunction with Neptune, both in Pisces. Mercury still carries his own illumination from his meeting with the Sun. Perhaps when he meets Neptune, the insights gained will emerge as poetry. Or song. A symphony, perhaps. Something magical.

Whatever Mercury and Neptune create will have the chance to become real, to take form, as both sextile Saturn, the planet who, for all his toughness, has the ability to make dreams come true.

With so much going on, it is especially important to check your birth chart.

Where is Libra in your chart? Do you have planets or points in that sign? Where is your Aries Point? Whether you have planets in Aries or not, the House in which 0° Aries falls is a place where new things enter your life.

At this Full Moon, we see the culmination of something we began at the New Moon. Because this Full Moon is also the Equinox, there is more.

Something is being born. Something new is coming in. Whatever that is in our own lives and in the world, it is our task to welcome it. In the light of this Full Moon Equinox, we are invited to say YES.