There is a common misconception about Libra energy that it is “peaceful.” As we move into this fairly dramatic Libra season I’d like to reframe that. Libra is interested in restoring balance. Often, this means listening to the voices that aren’t speaking as loudly as others or aren’t even in the room. Libra’s goal may be peace, but it’s just as likely to be justice. And you know how the protest chant goes: no justice, no peace. When your focus is justice, you may create friction and conflict merely by naming the elephant in the room (or the elephant not invited to the room). At its best, Libra helps us include and integrate what’s been excluded and marginalized. Libra’s favorite tactic is diplomacy: how can we find common ground even in situations where it’s hard to agree? How do we foster a shared willingness to do the hard work together? What happens when we’re willing to listen, even when we disagree? Libra’s super power is always tracking the “we” over the “me.”

We are also in eclipse season, with both a solar eclipse on the 14th and a lunar eclipse on the 28th. Eclipses are a cosmic record scratch, a time when the ordinary flow and continuity of time, as we experience it by the cycles of the Sun and Moon, is disrupted. Eclipses can feel alarming and jarring, like walking into a room where the lights go out suddenly. With the second eclipse happening so close to Samhain/Halloween, I recommend treating eclipse season like a haunted house — things may jump out at you, but they aren’t actually going to hurt you. Eclipses help us see our lives differently and make changes. Often, what surfaces can seem surprising, like a lawn suddenly dotted with mushroom caps after a heavy rain. The hidden world is revealing a part of itself, and often what feels so scary is just remembering how much is always happening that we can’t see or predict.

Ordinarily eclipses happen in opposite zodiac signs, but as we’re shifting from Taurus-Scorpio eclipses to Aries-Libra eclipses, this month we’re straddling the two. Our first eclipse will be in Libra, the second in Taurus. That means both eclipses will be ruled by Venus, who spends this month in repair-oriented Virgo.

As Venus was so recently retrograde, we’ve spent several months this year deep in relationship-resources-creativity-values review. Many of us have ended relationships that weren’t working, recommitted to sustainable and ethical spending, taken an inventory of our true values, and put to rest old creative projects or mediums that were no longer the right fit. This month’s eclipse season won’t undo all of that work, but it will expose any cracks we hadn’t yet noticed. Again, it doesn’t make these cracks. If your relationships are mostly caring and respectful, eclipse season won’t turn you or your beloved into a monster. If you’re enjoying becoming a YA novelist after years in academia, the eclipses won’t rob you of that joy. All they do is help us see more clearly whatever has been hidden. And when I say “help,” I mean jump out of a closet and yell “Boo!” or rather “Boo! And by the way have you considered that when you minimize your real needs in order to keep the peace in your relationship, you are weakening its foundation of radical honesty?” When you learn something new, lean on that Virgo Venus energy to do what needs doing, whether that’s pruning or mending.

My books are open for readings this month, so get in touch for some personalized care in these chaotic times. And if you are an artist, writer, creative, or maker of any kind you may be interested to know I’m expanding my practice to include Creative Coaching.

So many of my clients are brilliantly creative! Often our sessions stray into creative coaching territory, and I’ve found astrology offers unique tools for overcoming blocks, generating material, clarifying your focus, and knowing when to edit. My books will open for a limited number of coaching clients in January, so get on the list now if you’re interested. You can also find me on Instagram and join me on Patreon for a lot more astro content for less than a dime a day.

Aries

Don’t get too spooked: This eclipse season may have you anxious about security — specifically the stability of ongoing partnerships (platonic or romantic) and a generalized low-level doominess about having enough (love, money, healthcare, clean air, etc.). Pay attention to the information coming your way right now, but promise me you won’t leap to unfounded conclusions and then leap toward supposed solutions that fail to take into account the big picture, okay? And even if you do, be kind to yourself about it. Laugh it off and try again tomorrow.

Taurus

Don’t get too spooked: This month’s eclipses want you to love your body more and appreciate its special strangeness without alarm or shame. It can feel nearly impossible to become an adult in this world without learning to hate your body for some reason or another, and this month is shining a bright light into some of your deepest held stress patterns about who you are, how you inhabit your body, and what that means about who you get to become. As much as possible, resist the story that anything about you isn’t lovable as it is. You may feel inspired to make changes for your own comfort, health, or gender euphoria — can you do this without hating what you’re trying to change? And as you consider bigger changes, maybe postpone committing to them until eclipse season is fully over on November 13th.

Gemini

Don’t get too spooked: You are not past your creative peak. There may not even be such a thing. Don’t get too spooked that your best ideas are in the past or that you’ll never have time to play or explore again. Part of what this eclipse season offers you is opportunities to look into parts of your own mind, heart, and history that you usually ignore. Don’t be afraid to get non-linear, to not have a plan, to experiment with how things feel before you know what they mean. You have weird things to do right now, and you don’t yet know what they are.

Cancer

Don’t get too spooked: Just because something reminds you of your past doesn’t mean the past is repeating itself. This month may bring situations where your self-protective drive goes into high gear, but what you’re reading as a cause for alarm may not be what you think it is. That rapping at the window may just be some tree branches, y’know? When in doubt, crowd source. Your community has things to teach you right now if you’re willing to learn.

Leo

Don’t get too spooked: There’s a disconnect right now between what’s filling your daily life and something big you’re wanting to dedicate your time to. The specter haunting you this month is the fear that you’ll never do that big thing that you know you have it in you to do — that the routine chores of answering emails and navigating bureaucracy will kill your creativity by a thousand small paper cuts. But is it the incessant demands of daily life or is it your own fear to sit down and try? What if you start it and it isn’t any good? That’s a fear worth facing this month, even if you have to wake up early or call in sick to carve out some time. Cut the big thing up into many smaller goals, and see how it feels to do just the first one.

Virgo

Don’t get too spooked: Your worth does not depend on you being brilliant, beautiful, or accomplishing great things. If you are fortunate to live a long life, you’ll have moments of brilliance and changing phases of beauty and may accomplish a few great things. And in between, you will be in a messy and slow process of becoming. Let this, too, be worthy of you. Let your best self be less important than your everyday self. This month’s eclipse may scare you by just showing you how far you are from where you want to be, but resist the idea of failure as some final form. You have so much you’re still exploring, give yourself permission to not know where you’re headed.

Libra

Don’t get too spooked: With the eclipse on the 14th falling in your sign during your damn season, this is a month to LOVE your innate complexity. Make room for all of your parts to be present, visible, and loved. Don’t scrunch your nose in disgust at any of them, if you can help it, and definitely don’t accept anyone else’s unhelpful opinions. This may be a time of big revelations and big decisions, and if so be sure to keep breathing and thinking realistically. You’re not going to make your wisest choices when you’re feeling alarmed, so find ways to move through your startle response (or your panic disorder, as the case may be) with patience and compassion on the way to making meaningful changes for the better.

Scorpio

Don’t get too spooked: In general you are more adept than other signs at looking into the shadows and seeing what other people flinch away from. During this eclipse season, you may find yourself needing to pace yourself. Your tendency is to rush in fully or to wall yourself off, but you’re learning that sustainability requires a slower, steadier pace. Be patient with yourself and with any intimacies that are growing, stabilizing, or changing. Listen to your gut but follow that up with learning more about what other people are experiencing — not to negate your own feelings, but to have better info to act on. Love and trust are always a little scary for you, but this month is trying to help you level up your capacity for building trust with trustworthy people.

Sagittarius

Don’t get too spooked: Your innate optimism has a lesser-known and less fun twin, which is the pessimism that sneaks in when you can’t find your way toward actually believing in a better future. Whether it’s climate change and natural disasters, reactionary legislation, or the rise of fascism worldwide, we aren’t in easy times and they don’t seem about to get easier. But for you, the future is supposed to be your best friend — it is the place where the grass is greener and where all the annoyances and suffocating boredom of your present circumstances will be transformed. I’m giving you a hard time, but in reality your capacity to believe in a better future does help you create one. Hold onto that this month when fear narratives try to twist you toward gloom and doom. The future is still unwritten. You can still help shape it. Remember what you love and keep moving toward it.

Capricorn

Don’t get too spooked: This month can feel a little like those dreams where you’re going on stage but you haven’t memorized your lines. Don’t stress, though: you may be in the spotlight, but you have permission to improvise. This isn’t a time for perfection, but for play. Reach for what you find fascinating and it will make an impact. Don’t succumb to the stress-narrative that control is what keeps you safe — rather, this is a month that rewards creative risks. What did you love doing as a kid? How much can you make room for that right now?

Aquarius

Don’t get too spooked: You have an admirable quality of holding wide open borders for who you consider family — collaborators, comrades, co-conspirators, friends of friends, exes, exes’ new dates — your ideals around friendship insist that all these people matter. And yet, where anxiety can seep in this month is around the very human limitation of time and resources. You may not be able to show up well for every single person you love, and that isn’t a personal failing, but just the nature of reality. Give yourself permission to have an inner circle of favorites and to prioritize them.

Pisces

Don’t get too spooked: There’s a swampy feeling to this month for you, kind of a humid Southern gothic vibe, so watch out for your tendency to play any kind of role in someone else’s drama. Trust that any tragedies or farces unfolding around you doesn’t require your participation, and reach for some mirrored sunglasses to deflect anything directed your way. Meanwhile, you’re toying with some interesting new ideas right now and will need to reach out to the right people who can help you take them further.

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