Saturday, October 6, 2018

Relationship Contracts: New Moon in Libra + Venus Retrograde


This Monday, October 8 (Pacific), we have a New Moon in Libra, sign of the Justice Scales. Libra season asks us to look at our partnerships, formal agreements, and contracts. The overriding theme is honesty about the state of your relationships - and taking action to change, revise, and end them where necessary.

Corroborating this theme, Venus, the planetary ruler of Libra, turned retrograde on October 5th in Scorpio, sign of sex, intimacy, shared finances, shadow, and transformation. Venus-Aphrodite, the love and relationship planet, remains retrograde until Friday, November 16. The time when lady Venus is retrograde is always approximately forty days. This is affiliated with Noah’s story in Genesis – “And the rain fell upon the Earth for 40 days and 40 nights.” Whether one holds this tale as historical or symbolic, it represents a period of the material realm being destroyed, purified by water, rebirthing into an entirely new state, i.e. total transformation. 

With these two astrological relationship-renewal influences - the New Moon in Libra and Venus Retrograde - penetrating the airwaves, we can run, but we cannot hide. Get your psychic scalpel out, expand your truth-ometer skills, and be prepared to look at the trickiest of enmeshment situations. 

Are you prepared to tell the hard truth, primarily to yourself, about the other person or situation you are questioning? Are they a narcissist? Do you feel constricted or belittled? Are they capable of meeting you where you need to be met? Or is the relationship now defunct, even poisoned beyond repair?

We need to remember that death comes to relationships of all types. Even within a good relationship, sometimes mini-demolitions are necessary. Perhaps a harmful communication habit (e.g. arguing, stonewalling, withholding) can no longer be ignored, and the pattern must be changed lest the relationship ends. Perhaps the roles you have taken on are no longer needed. Pay attention, show up, be willing to change.

Certainly, a great deal of grief, perhaps symbolized by the tears in the story of Noah’s flood, comes along with relationship deaths. Remember that these relationships can be work contracts, professional agreements, and most definitely marriages – the terrain where Libra contracts most often mixes with Scorpio’s intimacy. At this New Moon time in Libra, emphasized by Venus' retrograde, we reevaluate these relationships, shed those we’ve outgrown, and make room for a fresh life chapter.
It is vitally important to allow this process without judging it. We must have the courage to recognize when a relationship contract, whether the whole kit and caboodle, or simply one aspect of it, is naturally defunct. Otherwise, we will never allow the new “us” to unfold. Picture a beautiful eucalyptus shedding its bark. As the tree grows, the original layer of bark thickens and the old, dead bark sloughs off. With many tree species, we never notice this process, but some trees shed in large chunks and peeling sheets wherein it looks much more dramatic and beautiful, like silver maples, birches, sycamore, and my own favorite, the madrone.

Just like witnessing our tree friends sloughing off, we must shed old friendships, partners, contracts when we grow out of them. This peeling away is a natural process that enables the fresh, new life to breathe through. Although it may look or feel uncomfortable, know that your life is getting bigger, you are getting stronger, and you are growing up, stretching toward the stars, higher and shinier than ever before. Onward!

"A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease."
~ John Muir
 
Erin Reese is an author, spiritual guide, astrologer, and modern psychic reader based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She works with clients all over the world. For readings and spiritual counseling by Skype, phone or email, contact her directly. She can be reached at erin@erinreese.com.
Tree Pose (Vrksasana) - Sedona, AZ