The Dark Before the Moon
Saturday, October 10, is the New Moon, the moment the Moon disappears into the Sun's light and a new lunar cycle begins in darkness.
Something is beginning, but we can't see it yet.
Citrā and the Architect
My friend Aswin Subramanyan, an astrologer from India, is staying with me for most of this month. Having him here has me looking at the sky through the Nakshatras, the lunar mansions of Jyotish, and this New Moon falls in Citrā, (phonetically sounds like Chitra)
Citrā's symbol is a brilliant jewel, sometimes a pearl. Its deity is Tvaṣṭā, the celestial architect—the creative force that shapes things and gives them form. Planning, design, architecture and creation are all part of this Nakshatra.
In Citrā, something wants to be made. An idea, a vision, a desire wants to be born and take shape.
But what?
... Hold that thought.
The Square
Just under six hours after the New Moon, Venus and Mars form a square.
A square is an aspect of friction: two forces at cross-purposes, getting in each other's way as they try to move in their own direction.
This particular square is interesting because Venus is retrograde in Scorpio, a sign ruled by Mars. Venus is retracing territory already crossed, reconsidering what we value, love and desire, while coming into direct tension with Mars—the force that acts, asserts and pursues.
Friction as Information
Creation often begins with desire.
And when we move toward something we want, especially when other people or forces beyond our control are involved, we meet friction.
- The relationship doesn't behave the way we imagined.
- The plan runs into circumstances we didn't anticipate.
- The thing we thought we wanted asks much more of us than we expected.
Sometimes friction just creates more friction, and we scratch the same place until it's raw. But sometimes it points to something:
Here is where something has to change. Here is where it may be possible to create something new.
Citrā's images fit this well. A jewel doesn't begin polished. It's cut, worked and refined until its facets can catch the light. A pearl begins with irritation. Something enters the shell, and the mollusk responds by building layer upon layer around it.
The question isn't whether there will be friction. It's what we make from it.
I experience a version of this friction every time I look at a chart.
I primarily work with the tropical zodiac. But I also study Jyotish, which uses the sidereal zodiac. In this email, Citrā is sidereal, and the signs and degrees are tropical. I find myself seeing both zodiacs, sometimes multiple house systems, overlaid on the same chart.
They don't always tell me the same thing.
That creates an internal tension for me. I don't want to dismiss one system in order to make the other one right. So I'm learning how to stay with the differences, learn from both, and find my own way of navigating between them.
The friction hasn't disappeared. I've just gotten better at working with it. And sometimes it shows me something I wouldn't have seen through either system alone.
Psyche's Friction
What we make from friction is also what we explored in the introductory bonus session of Vision to Form, through the myth of Eros and Psyche.
In last week's newsletter, I told their story. In our gathering, a small group of us reflected on it together.
At first, Psyche seems to have received everything she could want. Instead of the monstrous serpent she was told to expect, her mysterious husband is generous, attentive and loving.
But she can't see him. He comes only at night, and she can never look upon his face.
Her sisters may be jealous, but I don't regard them as having created her doubt. They fuel something that is already there in Psyche:
He loves me. He cares for me. But why won't he let me see him? Why can we never be together in the light? Is he as wonderful as he seems—or is this the monster that was prophesied?
I suspect Psyche would eventually have arrived at those questions herself.
Maybe every lover eventually wants to see the other more fully. Maybe not. Venus in Scorpio certainly does.
Eventually, Psyche looks. Eros does not want to be seen, and flees. That moment doesn't end her desire. It deepens it—and changes what the desire asks of her.
Now she must search. Undertake impossible labors. Receive help. Discern whom to trust. Keep going when what she wants seems out of reach.
That is one journey of desire. We want something. We move toward it. We meet the place where reality pushes back. And then what?
Do we keep scratching the wound? Do we decide the friction means we chose wrong? Or do we get curious about what it's showing us?
Where does it itch?
The week opens with another image of resistance: the Sun opposing Saturn. So you may first encounter all of this as a blockage, a limit, or something that simply refuses to move.
And the Venus–Mars square is already building, becoming exact just hours after the New Moon. The friction may already be making itself known.
Look at your life.
- Where does something feel blocked?
- What keeps itching? What feels irritating, resistant or unresolved?
- What part of your life refuses to fit the form you've been trying to give it?
Before you give in to frustration at the blockage—or rush to make the friction disappear—ask:
What might this be telling me needs to be created, strengthened, changed or refined?
But maybe this New Moon isn't asking us to know exactly what is being born.
It's dark, after all.
Maybe we begin by noticing where life is rubbing against us—and listening for what that friction is asking us to create.
With love,
Meghna
P.S. If there's some friction pointing to a desire you want to bring into form, Vision to Form begins October 17 at 11am Eastern / 8am Pacific. It's where we explore the shape of our desire, bring attention and clarity to it, take concrete action, notice what reality gives back, and use that information to choose the next step. Register here
P.P.S. If you'd like to explore the myth of Eros and Psyche experientially, reply Eros and Psyche and you'll be the first to know when it takes form.
By Yann SEGALEN - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=66139563
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