A First Quarter Moon of Connection & Divine Embrace

Tuesday morning’s First Quarter Moon in Capricorn, taking place on October 16th, brings some interesting new energy to bear on the Libra lunar cycle that has been underway for the previous week. The outer planet energies that were then highlighted remain active now, as we enter the next major phase of the cycle. If you follow along with the cycles of the Moon, you might have noticed that at First Quarter Moon time, there tends to be this unmistakable feeling of tension in the air. Have you ever experienced this? The First Quarter Moon marks the halfway point between the darkness of New Moon and the brightest light of Full Moon, and represents the phase in the growing cycle when a plant first sprouts its shiny green leaves. This is an extremely energy expensive time in the plant’s life cycle, and it requires the proper nutrients and environment to actually grow. So if we feel that tension in the human energy of the Moon cycles, it is the time when the intentions we set on the New Moon become tested — the time when make or break is in the air and push comes to shove; the tension we feel is a side-effect of what pushes and prompts our own growth. How much do you truly want your vision to express into fruition? How do you respond when the rubber meets the road and energy expenditure is required? Some folks thrive in this phase, digging in and pushing through. Others not so much. Perhaps they get sluggish, scared, or shy away from the effort required to move on with things. Of course, no one is static, and we all change and grow over time, but sometimes noticing and identifying your general pattern with the lunar cycles can be helpful. I suggest you take some time during this First Quarter Moon phase just noticing your relationship to this aspect of being, and your response when energy is required to confront something, to keep evolving, and to move forward.


The specifics of this First Quarter Moon in Capricorn are that as the Sun and Moon come to their square alignment with each other, Venus, currently on her retrograde journey, conjoins Mercury in the watery and intense depths of Scorpio. We could experience a lot of emotion coming up around relationships and intimacy at this time. With Mercury in the picture we have an opportunity to see and communicate more clearly around such topics — not to say that this is an endeavor that will be easy. It takes tremendous courage and self-love to be vulnerable and see our own wounds around self-worth more clearly, and it can be the realms of relationship and intimacy that provide the most fertile soil for such an endeavor.


Also very heightened in this lunation is the new planet Eris, Feminine Warrior archetype in support of soul intention. Eris is opposite the Libra Sun, part of a nearly exact T-Square with the Sun to the Moon in Capricorn. Such a strong presence of this new archetype emphasizes an important component of the human condition, especially now, in this climactic period leading up to the expected major cultural shift of 2020. This is that every one of us needs to stand up and be counted, espousing in a quite definite way what it is in which we most deeply believe.


As we face a world heading down what looks like a frightening and chaotic path, we are each and every one of us being called upon to receive the strength and fortitude of a presence that is much wiser and more intelligent than our human minds to find solutions. It is this wisdom of Life itself that is infinite, eternal, divinely ordered, and one that can help bring each of us the energetic and manifest support we need to be in alignment with our own highest intent. One that brings us the strength to truly know ourselves, what we value, and what we choose to act upon in light of that. And in recognizing our responsibility to act, it may be helpful to us as well to remember that complacency does not equal neutrality, having just as many karmic implications and consequences as what comes out of making bold stands. I believe that in this time we each have a unique and beautiful opportunity to discover the nature of ourselves as an expression of the divine, and to heal, part of that healing being that we remain an actively contributing member to the collective of humanity as we continue to evolve as conscious beings.


The Sabian Symbols for this First Quarter Moon are appropriate. As a reminder of our sacred path that continually opens up before us we find, for the Moon, in the 24th degree of Capricorn, “A woman entering a convent.” Marc Edmund Jones states that, “life can have no satisfaction for the individual unless he [or she] is able to develop and maintain some enduring allegiance on an overall significance… [one’s] talents are exalted only by a dedication to eternal ends.” For the Sun, in the same degree of Libra, the symbol is “A third wing on the left side of a butterfly,” which reminds us of the sacred Third Eye from Eastern teachings. Jones comments on, “the illimitable potentiality of both mankind and his [or her] world, and of the practical fruits of [our] efforts whenever [we] retain [our] own unconditioned uniqueness of makeup, and are alert to whatever opportunities arise… [thus permitting our] own special destiny to fulfill itself.” We are lifted up when we remember and act from the recognition that we are each a part of something much greater and wiser than ourselves, and that we each hold within ourselves an intrinsically valuable and unique piece of the eternal tapestry of creation. In these troubling times, may we remember this inherent divinity and unique beauty of each of our Souls, and embrace the collaborative, collective fabric that we all weave together.