Libra 1st Quarter Moon at 14°59′
—July 6

Quite late! Apologies—traveling again—I appreciate your patience.

This first quarter Libran moon absolutely resonates with the skipping of the record, in that the record plays round and round and round… in skipping this conditioning, this patterning—that we can actually learn from the past, from our mistakes, feel from before…

Today’s energies would be best utilized in ‘realizing mistakes and learning from them, consolidating, remembering, and appreciating the experiences and learning what you have gained on your way to where you are now…’ further, ‘deciding what needs attention and what can be allowed to slide…’

Astrologer Dane Rudhyar transcribed this degree of Libra to that of ‘circular paths’, in that we live our lives quite circularly, continually coming back around to previous origins when a more evolving option is not taken… in which case, however familiar and comforting this may be—also a real waste of time and potential.

If you’re feeling somewhat familiar toward something within your reality now, but not familiar in a quaint or comforting way, it’s likely because you are—for whatever reason you’re back to a past point in time, now in real time, likely to rise above… in an effort of resolution—to take the higher road, to resist making the previous mistakes, to navigate it altogether differently, whatever makes most sense for you.

Whatever you’re reviewing or remembering, or actually replaying in real time—is likely a point of contention, of anger, or outright aggressiveness… as harmoniously inclined as Libran energies are, and can be, it’s as though this moon, upon its first quartered phase, becomes somewhat argumentative—albeit in the spirit and effort toward achieving what’s right, just, fair, or balanced…

This first quartered moon is occurring through the second decan of Libra, a decan that represents something of a double-edged sword, as well as representing 3 of Swords in the tarot… the second decan describes a scenario of binding obligations, contracts, vows, and commitments—all of which could absolutely be, or become, somewhat circularly inclined, which is to say monotonous and eventually meaningless… as in Libra, forever balancing, it is truly one’s choice in how these promises are nurtured and nourished, tended to and kept. As Saturn governs the second decan, these promises are somewhat tainted with a more somberly and struggling likelihood.

In other words—for reasons both personal and emotional, in both sickness and in health—sometimes obligations, contracts, vows, and commitments, even familial bonds or impractical expectations, need to be discontinued, broken, or otherwise severed.

The 3 of Swords can be a harsh card… one which suggests the harshnesses of the more difficult emotions—further still, it is this card that typically indicates, rather simply, that our largest emotional obstacles to process tend to arrive in threes. With this, it is also its own detail, that the moon will move on to oppose Chiron before entirely separating from the sun, creating a very harshly cardinal t-square alignment to navigate through…

These harsher emotions, when in threes, tarot writer Jessica Dore writes that “the one we’re most comfortable with takes the lead, shielding is from those we have a tougher time processing—the leading emotion is different for everyone—for some, anger takes the lead and creates a shield from deep sadness; it isn’t that sadness is inherently tougher to feel or process than anger, but perhaps that it is coupled with a third feeling, shame…”

Psychologist Edward Teyber says that “change becomes possible when we’re able to come to grips with each feeling in the triad—the anger, the sadness, and the guilt or shame—making way for each to be safely expressed… though it doesn’t necessarily need to be expressed right then and there, but the idea is to bring those feelings from the underground to the surface.”

Dore suggests that, since you’ve “been defending against these scariest emotions for a reason, learning to feel them will require discernment, patience, and compassion for yourself.”

Take your time… whatever is surfacing for you within your circular reality will need time to unravel itself for you to fully understand it as it needs understood, and emotions have cycles within themselves… however, the Swords in the tarot represents the mind, and our thoughts, and the cycles of our thoughts, so the understanding part over the processing part is really what’s being illuminated… and as Dore writes, “our minds are so powerful, known to wield swords to defend against feelings that are too tough to bear, and so our work is to notice the ways in which we haven’t made space and create that so that emotions do not become lodged in the heart, in turn keeping us stuck in old thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that betray our growth and well-being.”

Keeping us stuck living within the same circular patterns…

❝A man is deficient in understanding until he perceives that there is a whole cycle of evolution possible within himself: repeating endlessly, offering opportunities for personal development.❞
——Idries Shah

🖋️ by Jamie James; 📷 unknown

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