“Aren’t Libras fake?” a beloved Aries asked me over dinner. “Aren’t Aries fake?” I countered, to provoke. “No bitch!” she exclaimed aggressively as some Aries are liable to do. Welp, as that magical Tame Impala song goes, “I know you might think it’s fake, maybe fake’s what I like.”
Astrologers like to venture that a Libra is an Aries with manners, and what are manners if not a codified way of engaging with others to subtly signal your needs and meaning? In response to the Aries “I,” the Libra positions a “we” that is wholly aware of the needs of the individual but invested in mapping those needs onto the concerns of the couple or the collective. Excuse me while I dip into the language of the monarchy, but I’ve often thought of Libra power as the queen’s power. The kind of elegant hand that places itself near a titled figure and guides them with tact and perception toward the world she knows is needed. A Libra rooted in her power can do this so smoothly, so weightlessly, the other person will believe it was their prerogative the whole time.
When I think about the queen’s power lifted off the crown and dispersed amongst those of us who do shadow work, who hold the line when emotional storms threaten, I think of healers, activists, resisters. I think of queer femmes, especially WOC, especially trans women. A lineage of women picking each other up without fanfare; not so as to be called good but because being anything less to each other feels unbearable. While last month’s full moon in Aries filled the sky and our bodies with powerful initiatory energy that demanded personal place and freedom, this month’s new moon in Libra is interested in what like spirits are capable of when they put their minds together.
The new moon in Libra knows you want to scream at misogynist senators in the elevator, or possibly just scream anywhere, anytime, at anyone who doesn’t exhibit human decency. The new moon in Libra supports your desire but finds your tactics lackluster. A mastermind, she likes to put many little pins in place, she’s sort of got the scheming brain of Sandra Bullock and the vibe of Cate Blanchett in Ocean's 8. Just showin’ up casual, looking stunning, keeping a poker face, and letting everyone know last-minute that she plans to reward them generously, justly, and equally.
What turns a Libra on? Justice. Integrity. A balanced approach. The ability to know what to share down the middle and when to lavish another person in garlands of adoration. A Libra likes romance mixed in with her equality, and this new moon wants to invite you over, offer you gifts all night, woo you into opening your heart, then seduce you into the ranks of the resistance. It’s notable that Venus, Libra’s ruling planet, is retrograde and the feelings that come up these next few weeks are bound to be anything but mutual. Venus retrograde, famous for triggering old attachment patterns and dragging our most dreaded relationship concerns into the forefront, might make this the kind of new moon where two people make a date to write down their intentions for a new cycle and wind up arguing about tone and intention all night long. Reifying old patterns instead of imagining new ones. Don’t let this be you, reader. There are too many rapists in charge, and if we can’t ruin their chances at power, the least we can do is up our own. To do that, we’ve got trust each other a little bit more and scheme like we've never schemed before.
A ritual! You want one? New moons are for manifesting, and Libras have the innate power to usher in the wandering soul’s journey toward partnership and conspiratorial enterprises. Get yourself an elegant broom. Light a thick white candle and imagine an eraser clearing your mind of everything you were taught you can’t do. Get yourself a coven. Get yourself a coven full of women and queer consorts that did not vote for Trump. This limits your coven to mostly WOC. Regard that. Get yourself a coven of stealth rebels. Ask them all to bring a broom and stand with the brooms laced brush to stem in a circle with a picture of every country currently ruled by a tyrant. Now we’re in a different Bullock movie. The one where they banish a violent sexual predator out of their world and then the whole town becomes a witch town. Let the homoerotic subtext in your coven become the whole text. Look at each other. Keep looking.
