Sun and Moon are passing figures of countless generations, and years coming and going wanderers too.
— Matsuo Basho
The Full Libra Moon will oppose the Aries Sun at 5:27 am EDT tomorrow. It will be an auspicious signal to begin a journey to the interior. Of course, you need not go. Like all of astrology, the cycles and patterns of the luminaries (Sun and Moon) may be safely ignored for the most part.
It is, however, to your advantage to let the Sun, Moon and the original wanderers (the planets) guide you beyond safety at this time.
Many find it helpful to receive guidance on the luminaries and planets. That’s the service astrologers offer. Among the best forms of that service are Planet Waves horoscopes. There has never been a better time than now to join those already on that path.
All of us now have the opportunity, at least figuratively, to emulate the path of Matsuo Basho, the famed Japanese poet. Besides his contributions to literature, Basho was known for the long journeys on foot that he risked and recorded. His writings of those tours have since guided, and will continue to guide, countless generations to follow. Your turn comes with the Libra Full Moon.
The Aries Equinox of 1689 was closely followed by a Full Libra Moon. Basho may well have seen it, because on March 27 of that year he made the first entry, quoted above, in the most famous of his travel journals, Oku-no-Hosomichi. Variously translated as Back Roads to Far Towns, or The Narrow Road to The Interior, Basho’s most seminal work began with a sober contemplation of what was driving him, at age 46, to eschew comfort and safety for uncertainty, and possibly death, on the roads to the interior of his nation, culture and identity.
Now, 324 years to the day after Basho set his intent in writing, the astrology of another Libra Full Moon will function to support a similar enterprise for you. In all probability, you will not be leaving home, or walking over a thousand miles as the great poet did. Instead, the sky favors a journey within your self.
In addition to reflecting the light of the opposing Sun, tomorrow’s Full Moon will oppose, and symbolically reflect, the Aries stellium that includes Venus and Mars. In combination, that closely proximate collection of objects will represent connection with the far reaches of the solar system, and by implication the far reaches of history, beginning with your own.
For as long as you have lived, the energy of Mars within has maintained you where continents move and mountains wear away. At the same time, your inner Venus has discerned and received to keep your energy going. You have done well to have gotten this far while living in a world where the illusion of safety and the delusion of comfort are purchased at the price of distraction and disconnection from the lights in the sky and the seasons of the Earth.
If you lose connection with both the heavens and the Earth, it is, in fact, only a matter of time before you lose connection with yourself. If you have ever wondered what metaphor is behind all those trendy zombie movies, that comes close.
Something like being a zombie is a real prospect for anybody who does not take sufficient time simply to feel alive. That is how you should be motivated to make a journey to your interior with tomorrow’s Libra Full Moon. You can bet it was Basho’s motivation. To feel life rather than protect it. To know purpose and place rather than cling to it. Like him, you first need a conscious intent to get started.
Ideally, weather permitting, you will be able to sit and watch the Moon with the intent of contemplation. It works, and if you allow yourself to understand that you will be watching very much the same object in the same part of the sky that served to inspire and encourage Basho, you will be connecting with a whole lot more, including what set his brush to paper and his feet to the road. This is beyond safety. This is about preserving your connection with what does not hold you down, because that’s where you really live.
Offered In Service
Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.
Beyond Safety: You have done well to have gotten this far while living in a world where the illusion of safety and the delusion of comfort are purchased at the price of distraction and disconnection from the lights in the sky and the seasons of the Earth.
Len, your words describing the energy of this moon are right on as usual. Safety and comfort that are neither, but are habits of toleration brought on by fear and old loyalties to people who are dead, and never exacted the promise I gave them from my childish mind in the first place.
This Libra Moon set golden as I woke this morning. I follow it over the horizon beyond the safety of the prison I made for myself. Break Free.
Ah Len. As always you are so eloquent, graceful in your words, and bringing just the right touch to the sky’s configuration. The love you have shines through and is a balm. Thanks so much for this; there’s so much to ponder and absorb here.
major changes happening for me, too, and I take great comfort in the reading of this piece, Len, as well as the others who have written such gracious, such generous posts. blows my mind the stuff I read here. please know my gratitude, all.
mary
Love is our shield Len, a Venus in the sign of Libra who tells you
Excellent full moon to you all
Musicman would that be bish bash bosh basho?!
Len I read what you wrote and was so moved. And I stepped outside and there was that moon, so so beautiful.
xxxp
Daniel: Thank you for sharing the love. The luminaries and the collection of planets (Venus, Mars, Uranus, Eris and Pallas among them) that, along with the Sun, comprise the Aries stellium are indeed setting off your native cardinal collection. To have the lunar north node transiting your natal Sun is a beautiful addition. Yes, it is good to have you alive and with us as you consciously co-create the world.
Chief Niwots Son: Thank you for your observation. It appears that you have received a head start for a reason. Perhaps because you need it. Perhaps (and more likely) because we need you.
be: Thank you so very much for your affirmation, and for reconstructing Matsuo Basho’s natal Uranus position – now being transited (North: conjunction / South: opposition) by the lunar nodes. It really is as though we will collapse the centuries and experience this Libra Full Moon while in Basho’s presence, with him in our presence. Wow. Chills. Perhaps we should prepare something to share with him.
Paul: You are most welcome.
paola: Thank you for sharing your transformational breakthrough with us. It shows. Your words “sound” different today. Please accept this virtual hug.
jinspace: Thank you for sharing the synchronicity of your amazing story (and the courage it reveals). With the lunar north node on your ascendant for this Libra Full Moon, it is as though your aspirations and dharma have merged so as to become indistinguishable from one another.
Lizzy: Thank you for taking the time in your long day to validate and affirm others.
Sina: Congratulations on how your own courage has prevailed. Thank you for sharing the success of your adventure
Day before yesterday, I finally told my husband he had to get a job and help support me and our children, as my position was no longer secure…see Genevieve’s Full Moon article. I had been so patient with my delicate Gemini, not wanting to ruffle his mercury bird feathers but after the jolt I’d received, I had to ask him to help me, because it certainly hadn’t been forthcoming until then. It was like a huge relief to finally release the pressure I had been feeling, and I was grateful (to myself) that I didn’t explode like a volcano, and just released a little steam from a side vent, which was just enough to push the engine forward a bit. Today, he started a new job 🙂
I love this adventure!
Sina
Sorry – seven words. Been a long day…
Paola, that’s a beautiful realization.
Best of luck jinspace!
“To feel life rather than protect it”. In six little words you’ve said it all, dear Len. I’ll make this my mantra for these days. Thank you for this beautiful piece.
Beyond safety! Okay, Len, I didn’t make this up:
Tomorrow I actually am leaving home in the most literal sense, taking off on a journey both exterior and interior into the unknown. Tomorrow is moving day, from the pueblo that’s been home for 7-1/2 years, back to city living for the first time since 2003. I’ll be working on a writing project that’s focused on very interior subject matter. I am also leaving the comfort of living alone, which I have done nearly my entire adult life, to share a flat with 2 people, one I’ve only just met and the other I have yet to even see. I’ve been envisioning myself hunkered down in my new room, writing, writing, writing…
be – to add to the uncanny, my ascendant is just shy of 17 degrees Scorpio.
I will most certainly be watching that full Moon tomorrow night, and contemplating what lies ahead.
Actually this is a great gift: a door opens on an unknown world.
Don’t know… I feel I am on a journey of releasing – physically, and emotionally, in this case anger and old pain. I am realizing how harsh I am on myself, especially when I make a so-called ‘mistake’. I had never fully realized I was so hard on myself. And now the thing is – not to be hard on myself because I think I am hard on myself.
A love like a big, maternal, all-accepting and unconditional love: I realized I love myself like this only when I am sick or suffering.
Life can be so much *easier*.
He is…!!
Bish Bash Bosh!!
Paul
Uncanny Len; the synchronicity of Basho’s time on the planet and ours. All those countless generations in between his and ours; yet we are still connected. I looked at the year 1643 (46 years before 1689) and discovered he had a natal Uranus somewhere beteen 15 Scorpio and 19 Scorpio, the path of the “present” transiting North Node between now and the Summer Solstice.
On an earlier thread Musicman 1 asked “. . what exactly is the point of your existence” (see No Hunkering Down, this is an Adventure) and he would be delighted in reading your words “To know purpose and place. .” and to find the connection between what drove Basho and what is driving us now. Easy to believe that the (unknown then) Uranus under which Basho was born fueled his desire to find purpose and place, just as the North Node guides our present generation to do the same. We really are all One, beyond time immemoriable.
be
“It will be an auspicious signal to begin a journey to the interior.”
Begin? I must have gotten off to an early start, right around the time Mercury went retro in a Water sign. Just now coming up for air (pun intended) and you say NOW is the time to journey within?
Aye, aye, Captain!
beautiful Len, thanks. I’m getting a lot of love on this FM. My Libra ascendant is at 8 degrees, my natal Pluto, Saturn, and Venus are all at Cardinal signs at approx 5 degrees each, and the North Node is conjunct my Natal Sun at 17 degrees.
It’s a good time to be alive.