March 23, 2024 | by Silvianne K. Delmars |
This astro week begins on Monday, March 25, at midnight with the Libra Full Moon, and ends on Monday, April 1, with the last quarter Moon in Capricorn. Here are the highlights (all times in PDT).
Monday, March 25
The Libra Full Moon at 5Libra07 / Sun 05Aries07, exact at midnight, is accompanied by a penumbral lunar eclipse, meaning the Moon will only pass through the outer shadow of the Earth. As a result, it will be perceived as just a dim shading of the Moon, if at all, starting at 10:00pm and ending at 5:30am.
But even if not visually dramatic, energetically, eclipses are always worth paying attention to. Since this is a south node eclipse in Libra, the emphasis is on the past, and the rooting out of any tendencies we may have toward co-dependency, or any other old, no-longer-useful relationship patterns – not forgetting to turn the spotlight on our relationship with our selves!
This lunar eclipse is opening a two-week window of accelerated change that will culminate with the powerful north node New Moon solar eclipse on April 8, exactly aligned with Chiron in Aries. Being deeply intentional over the next two weeks about uncovering what we are ready to release will help us to direct these powerful eclipse energies towards creating sacred space for a new sense of sovereignty and purpose to emerge and flower over the next six months or more.
And don’t forget to look for Mercury in the evening sky. It has just reached its maximum distance from the Sun on Sunday and will soon disappear from view once again in early April. This will be this year’s best opportunity to view this low-horizon planet in the northern hemisphere.
Monday/Tuesday, March 25/26
The Moon is traversing the constellation of the Virgin Priestess and will pass by bright star Spica over these two evenings, closest on the 26th. Look to the east soon after sunset – and track them as they travel across the night sky together, visible until sunrise. Spica represents the sheaf of wheat (or ear of corn, or rice paddy), held in the hand of the Great Mother in offering to humanity. What message might this constellation of nurturance and wisdom, activated by the Libra Moon, hold for you during this potent eclipse window?
Friday, March 29
The Moon goes out-of-bounds today until April 4, reaching its extreme south position on Monday in late degrees of Sagittarius / early Capricorn. We are being given the opportunity to wander wildly once again outside of the prescribed boundaries of what’s possible, especially with regards to how we hold the balance between nurturing our essential nature as a unique individual and how we play with others.
What new paradigms for more authentic collaboration, sourced in true self-agency, can we imagine into being?
Saturday/Sunday, March 30/31
These two mornings, the waning Moon will pass close by the bright star Antares, in the heart of the Scorpion constellation. Because the Moon is out-of-bounds in its southern declination, it will actually pass in front of the star, visible in northeast Melanesia, Micronesia and most of Polynesia. Such lunar occultations of Antares can only occur during the once-every-19-years Lunar Standstill cycles, as Antares lies slightly south of the ecliptic (the usual path of the planets, Moon and Sun).
Monday, April 1
Sagittarius synodic overstory Mercury, in its Hermes evening star phase, will station retrograde in Aries this afternoon. This marks the beginning of its Synthesis and Metamorphosis period, as the trickster messenger planet prepares to pass between the Earth and the Sun (becoming invisible to us) in early/mid April.
We are being invited to digest all we have taken in during this fiery journey through vision-questing Sagittarius since the first of the year, as Mercury prepares to make its quick-change transition to a whole new cycle, which begins when it goes direct on April 25 in bold and spontaneous Aries.
Onwards
Our week ends this evening with the 4th Quarter Moon in Capricorn, squaring the Sun in Aries. This last quarter turn of the Moon month invites us to contemplate where we stand in relationship to the New Moon intentions we set at the beginning of the cycle. Time to harvest and let go. What can we celebrate? What actions or omissions do we need to forgive ourselves for, so they can be released and plowed back into the soil of our becoming to serve as compost for the next moonthly cycle?
Honoring this liminal space of change, I would like to share this excerpt from an ancient Mayan rite of passage (collected and adapted by Mary Ford-Grabowsky):
“A Prayer for Your Journey
You are to wander now, entering and departing through strange villages, strange rooms. You may feel that you are wandering or lost, that your gifts and the items of trade that you carry with you find no favor wherever you go.
Do not turn back! Do not go back to sleep. Something you are accomplishing. Something the universe is assigning you.”
This is a week that encourages us to go within, and nurture our deepest, strongest roots, so we can sway with the potent winds of change bearing down upon us in April and beyond, and skillfully navigate this eclipse season, full of so many possibilities for healing, and renewed dedication to our sacred mission.
To fulfill this promise, it is vital that we continue to give priority to this inner journey of releasing the old (despite pressures from the all-planets-in-direct-motion period ending this week), so we can act from a more fully grounded sense of our innermost truth and sacred connection to Great Mystery. This is what the times demand of us, and is a crucial, on-going process in preparing us to fully share the gifts we bring at this Great Turning of The Ages.