The Burning Question: Where Do We Find Shelter in the Whirlwind?
Every New Moon asks us a question which we may hear when we listen. The question now is: How can I find a sanctuary, whether it is inner, emotional, physical or spiritual, amidst any growing storm you find yourself in? Where do you find your shelter?
Libra teaches us about balance, fairness, relationships and partnership, this is because of its ruler Venus, the planet of love and relationships. Libra III, with its Decanic rulers, Jupiter and Mercury (who occupy home signs opposite each other, bringing tension in their relationship), asks us to shelter, restore, and recalibrate as we try to find our place in a world that is demanding constant motion. The old adage comes to mind, ‘You cannot pour from an empty cup’. Libra wants to help, mediate, and please those around them, but to be effective in the longer run, we also have to take responsibility for our own needs too.
Those with placements in Libra, or its opposite sign Aries, and the Squaring Cardinal signs, Cancer and Capricorn, have had a bumpy 2 years as the nodes transited through Libra and Aries, bringing Eclipses from April 2023 and finally left after March 2025. It is time now for the dust to settle and for the changes the eclipses in these signs brought to be integrated into daily lives and routines as the outcomes and way forward become clearer.
Allow me to pull on the Astrological threads and maybe weave some of them together for the New Moon and help guide you to plan that path forward.
Maybe it feels like you have been teetering on a balance beam, one side pulling toward harmony, the other toward decisive action? If you have been working on healing relationships or addressing justice issues since the Libra eclipses began, allow the darkness of the night sky now to take you within, reaching inner truths. As the Moon begins to grow in light, allow her to grow your plans for this part of your life and your chart, helping you in your journey toward equilibrium.
Libra: The Cool Breeze
Libra is ruled by Venus, the planet of harmony, beauty, love, grace, and connection. When Venus is in Libra, she is “at home” this means she can express her Venusian qualities in full, bringing diplomacy, attraction and social attunement to the front of our minds and supporting us in these activities. At this New Moon, Venus has returned to Libra, bringing her benefic attractions, (or things we tend to enjoy and regard as good) to bless the New Moon.
Libra is an air sign, cardinal in modality, and considered masculine or yang in gender, which means its nature is more outgoing and reactive. The Air element brings in the realm of ideas, communication, and connection across differences. Cardinal Libra adds initiative, beginnings, action and intellectual clarity, perhaps a sense of leadership or forward motion, initiating change or pivots coming as Libra season does at the turning of the season and changing of the light. A Libra New Moon asks us to initiate balance, speak new agreements and reset relational contracts.
Saturn is exalted in Libra, bringing discipline, structure, and long-term justice to add depth to Venus’ light-heartedness. But at this time of this New Moon, Saturn is in Pisces and retrograde, connecting us with flowing emotions, but averse to Libra, meaning the light of its rays cannot reach the New Moon. It is more of a dissolving pressure in the background, urging us to let go of rigid boundaries and reconnect to compassion, humility, and trust in flow.
As the first Libra New Moon since the Libra Aries eclipses in March 2025 concluded, this Libra New Moon offers a fresh slate to integrate the upheaval experienced and renew themes seeded during the previous Libra-Aries eclipses in 2023 –March 2025, before the nodal axis fully shifted to Pisces-Virgo. Though that eclipse window has now closed, this New Moon may bring to light the realisations, decisions, and emotional reckonings from that time, offering an opportunity for synthesis and understanding as events mature going forward.
You might be recognising where you’ve sacrificed too much in the name of keeping peace, or where you’ve been rigid when flexibility was needed. You may need to release old patterns while you are setting intentions for the new. Libra energy asks not for perfect balance on that gymnast’s beam but for continuous recalibration that keeps us centred amid life’s fluctuations.
The wisdom of the decan of Libra III is that the peace we seek cannot be found externally, we should aim to cultivate it inwardly. The world may spin, but we are invited to find our centre and rest in the eye of the storm.
As we are all likely to have experienced some impact from the Aries - Libra eclipses, it might be helpful to look back over the past two years to trace your balance-seeking journey. What relationship themes have recurred? Where have you established more equitable connections, or experienced a challenging lack of them? What still feels out of alignment? Where did you find your shelter when it got difficult, what helped you then?
Perhaps you plan to initiate a conversation about boundaries with your partner, or maybe you are thinking about bringing more fairness to your workplace relationships or family roles?
What is a New Moon — and Why It Matters
A New Moon marks the lunar conjunction with the Sun, symbolising a fresh beginning. As the Moon and Sun meet, roughly every 29 days, while the Moon is hidden from our sight, there is a symbolic germination of intention in darkness. It is the seed moment, a time to plant what you intend to grow. A time for planting is not necessarily manifesting immediately, but setting a direction, calling in potential, and committing to a new course with trust in the unknown. Think of it as turning toward the unseen, opening to what wishes to be born.
Dietrich Pessin frames lunar phases as carrying their own predictive power and legacy across time. She outlines how each Moon is not just a moment but a node in a longer lineage, creating a Moon Family. Lunar Shadows III
The Moon Family & the Libra III Cycle
In Pessin’s Lunar Shadows III, she introduces how Moon Families work, as extended cycles across over 2 years that trace a signature through a New, First Quarter, Full, and Last Quarter Moon in the same sign close to the same degree.
This Libra III Moon Family runs:
* New Moon (this one): 21 October 2025 — 28° Libra
* First Quarter: 21 July 2026 — 28° Libra
* Full Moon: 20 April 2027 — 0° Scorpio
* Last Quarter: 18 January 2028 — 28° Libra
So this New Moon is the opening of this particular family. The themes we plant now may find their first fruits, clarity and illumination in the Full Moon of 2027, and the tensions will echo through the quarters in 2026 to January 2028.
In Libra lunations generally, the story arc is relational balance, justice, negotiation, boundary work, and bridging. Libra III, in particular, carries that relational theme into more internal, shadow, edge territory, the focus moves to where balance must sometimes appear through resistance, breakdown and inner shelter.
Who may feel this most strongly? Those with Libra or Cardinal natal or birth chart planets or angles, such as Sun, Moon or Ascendant, especially from 25°Libra to the first degrees of Scorpio, but also those degrees in Aries, Cancer and Capricorn, which will also be either opposed or squared by the New Moon. Also, those with late degree Air placements, Libra, Aquarius and Gemini or whose Lord of the Year or Solar Return Ascendant is ruled by Venus or Saturn.
To work with this Libra Moon Family consciously if your natal placements are activated: journal around your relational wounds and needs; slow down the pace of social demands so you commit with intention; practice rituals that recalibrate your energetic boundaries (e.g. grounding, cord-cutting, meditative pauses), consider shadow work and seek your inner calm.
The Moon Family cycle invites us to track unfolding themes around balance, fairness, aesthetics, and diplomacy that are yet to emerge between now and the Full Moon in 2027.
You may choose to consciously work with any of these cycles and choose the length that suits how long it will take to grow your plans, ie for a quick short-term goal, the monthly cycle is perfect, but for long-term plans, look for a Moon Family that connects with the relevant planet in your chart for optimum results. An astrologer or Astro Coach can support you with this.
The Celestia Circle also supports and guides you to identify those placements and to understand the themes and how they are showing up for you. Consider upgrading your subscription if you want to benefit from the group and support in the chat to look ahead at each month’s lunations.
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The Decan Libra III: Jupiter & Mercury
Each zodiac sign is divided into 3 divisions of 10 degrees, there are 30 degrees in each sign, so they divide neatly into 3. These are known as Decans or Faces and are older than the zodiac signs. There are 36 decans in total, each with their own stories, rulers, images and spirits.
The third decan of Libra, where this New Moon forms, creates a symbolic contradiction, it is co-ruled by Jupiter and Mercury. Jupiter pushes for expansion, is visionary, faith-seeking and likes to create order while Mercury brings lighter analysis, curiosity and detailed examination, through an analytical lens, always communicative, travelling over boundaries and borders and likes to take things apart to understand and classify. This could account for any internal tension you may have been feeling at this time.
Austin Coppock calls the decan a “Gyroscope,” emphasising balance through dynamic spin, we can hold centre even as things rotate around us. He writes that “its secret resides in the eye of the storm, calm and clear as the chaos of desire and fear whirl all about. Yet this is a difficult set of contradictions to bear, and such a balancing act is more easily described than achieved.”
His book 36 Faces is out of print, but many of us are hopefully waiting for the second edition, which is promised soon. A gyroscope maintains equilibrium through controlled movement and its own momentum rather than stillness. This metaphor gives an insight into the best way to maintain balance here when everything around you spins into the (metaphorical) storm.
Kira Ryberg names this decan “Extremes”, in her E- book on the decans, highlighting the contrast and polarity that Libra must manage. Kira Ryberg reflects on Mercury who “is known as the trickster planet, and is rather mischievous all on their own, signifying theft, lies and deception” and that when the rulers of the decan, Jupiter and Mercury “get together, it can certainly bring chaos.”
Lunations, such as this New Moon, or if you have planets in this decan, they may show the emotional toll of keeping up appearances or holding everything in place given this tension. It is important to care for the nervous system of the body, or for the area of life in which Libra III shows up for you, there is a time to stop, breathe, and let stillness do its work. The decan urges us to confront inner edges, extremes of feeling or desire, and then return to equilibrium.
The ruling planets familiar home domiciles (Jupiter in Sagittarius/Pisces, Mercury in Gemini/Virgo) are all of the Mutable signs and are in opposition to each other (Sagittarius to Gemini and Virgo/Pisces). This means there is a built-in tension of the type of wisdom and logic applied, of expansion vs. detail, of faith vs. clarity. That tension shows up as part of the decan’s dynamic. It teaches us we must shelter enough to rest, yet remain open enough to receive insight, discern nuance, and re-engage.
Wild Way Oracle: Take Shelter
As we have discussed, Libra III is often associated with a moment of stillness amidst turbulence. The Wild Way Oracle card “Take Shelter” reinforces this theme with the image of a dove finding peace amid challenging storms by locating protection within it.
The dove seems calm and restful, in a meditative pose with the protection of its yellow scarf, showing us it has prepared. The tree may sway in the storm, but sanctuary can be found when we consciously return to the centre. The card offers keywords to help us at this time:
Rebalancing Body and Mind; Restoration; Equilibrium.
You may find these themes showing up in your life now. This lunation calls for recalibrating the nervous system, taking every chance to consciously turn away from overstimulation, and embracing the quiet sanctuary of equilibrium.
From the Wild Way Oracle guidebook:
“As the rain pours down and the tree sways violently in the wind, Libra III Dove has found shelter and peace.… Now is the time to recalibrate and return to your centre. You may need to take time away from technology, revisit your meditation practice or simply get some rest.”
That is the medicine Libra III offers: a pause, a sanctuary, a return to self so that one can reemerge with more refined balance.
Tarot — 4 of Swords
T. Susan Chang in “Reading the Decans: The Widening Gyre” associates this decan with the 4 of Swords in tarot. T. Susan Chang
Chang speaks of “moment of inertia” which she describes as the difficulty of shifting in a state of spin. Chang also notes that the decan’s lore includes extreme behaviour, ecstatic impulses, shamanic descent or flight. This is not to glorify chaos but to signal the human urge to escape the ordinary mind and to seek threshold experiences.
The imagery of the card shows a figure at rest, hands together, lying flat under a stained glass window, in repose, often in a religious or sacred space, there are 3 swords overhead with one set aside.
It feels like a deliberate break, intentional rest, a sacred non-doing and is a card of retreat, recuperation, and inner processing.
In a practical reading, Chang notes that this card often urges literal rest, sleep, meditation, dreaming, or shamanic journeying. She suggests that when the 4 of Swords appears, you may feel compelled to lie down, to still the mind and to listen to the quiet inner voice.
This isn’t passive surrender. Traditional interpretations emphasise that this card depicts necessary mental rest, a strategic retreat that allows for restoration before returning to life’s battles. The figure isn’t defeated, they’re recuperating, gathering strength, finding their centre.
During this New Moon, a time of the dark sky, we are supported to go within for quiet, reflective rest, you may find that a deliberate pause restores your own mental equilibrium.
Your Inner Eye - Dreaming the Decans
T. Susan Chang develops this theme in her verse for Libra III:
Calm invoked for mental easeA wheel turning in the breezeAmidst the gyre and the spin,Cloudy forces rule within.You only see my sleeping form –I am the eye within the storm…
The visions of my inner eyeRestore my peace so I can fly.Watch in stillness. Mind the Gap.Keep your vigil. Find the map…
…Silence also is a prayer.Real as the world may seem,It is a dream within a dream.
Her words remind us that silence is not the absence of action, but can also be a sacred portal to inner vision. It is in the still point that we remember who we are and where we’re going. At the time of this Libra New Moon, mind the gap, and you may find the map.
She writes of the “eye within the storm.” The 4 of Swords invites us to withdraw from outer tumult, to let inner vision settle, to “mind the gap” between stimulus and response.
Astrological Conversation
* Sun & Moon with Venus in LibraThe New Moon is co-present with ruler Venus in her domicile. This adds to the lunation’s strong Venusian emphasis. We are offered relational themes of love, relationship and connection, aesthetic calibration bringing more balance and peace, negotiation for clear boundaries and respect, rebalancing of partnerships. The luminaries are empowered to express their nature through Venusian harmony.
* Trine to Pluto (whole sign) with impending squareAt the moment of the New Moon, there is a whole-sign trine from Moon, Sun and Venus in Libra to Pluto in Aquarius. But as the Sun enters Scorpio
on 23rd October, that trine will shift into a more tense square, the Moon leads the way within hours of the New Moon . This shift implies that what begins gently may meet pressure, especially around power, transformation and hidden forces.
Transits through Libra have activated a Grand Air Trine from Pluto in Aquarius to Uranus in Gemini with the Libra planet, (as well as the sextile both of the outer planets make to Neptune in Aries). If any of these impact your chart placements in air, this suggests the potential for breakthrough visionary insight, leaps of consciousness, and creative communication, especially through air channels (inspiration, thoughts and ideas, intuition and messages).
* Jupiter in Cancer (separating from superior square to Sun & Moon)Jupiter recently squared the Sun and Moon and they are now separating. That relationship brought benefic energy into tension. Jupiter as the superior planet, brought significations of expansion, faith, wisdom and opportunity, but required a response of action and integration. The New Moon is still holding that energy, continuing that integration, we might feel the impetus to channel Jupiter’s Cancerian compassion and promise into daily life.
* The Decan Rulers in Motion — Mercury, Mars, and JupiterLibra III’s decan rulers, Jupiter and Mercury, are now weaving into a harmonious water trine, giving form to the inner restoration this lunation calls for. Mercury is conjunct Mars in Scorpio, lending sharp focus, courage, and precision to communication and thought.
Mercury is moving into a degree-based trine with Jupiter in Cancer, after the New Moon, opening a channel of intuition, emotional honesty, and compassionate truth-telling.
The combination of Mars’ drive, Mercury’s articulation, and Jupiter’s wisdom can offer an outlet for the tension of Libra III’s opposing forces. It’s a moment when inner reflection meets decisive expression (Mercury-Mars in Scorpio). What we discover in the shelter of our own silence can soon be named, integrated, and acted upon with clarity.
Journaling Prompts, Ritual & Astro-Coaching Suggestions
Journaling Prompts
* Where do I feel exposed, drained, unbalanced?
* What is my deepest longing for sanctuary or rest at this moment?
* Which relationships might need new boundaries or recalibration?
* In what inner voice or intuition do I sense my “centre” or true shelter?
* What would it take to pause or withdraw temporarily, what support might I need, and what wisdom might I find there?
Ritual / Astro-Coaching Ideas
* Shelter Ritual: Create a small, simple altar or sacred spot in your home (or outdoors). Light a candle. Sit in silence, breathe, and imagine a protective dome or bubble of light around you. Identify the storms outside and visualise them receding. See your strength growing as you rest silently. When you find your balance, notice the sensations in your body, stay with it a little while, before you slowly return.
* Technology Fast: For one evening, try a retreat from screens. Replace scrolling with journaling, gentle yoga, breathwork, or reading, or any other preferred activity.
* Dream Invocation: Before sleep, ask: “Show me the shelter I need now.” Keep a notebook beside your bed to record your insights.
* Become The Observer. Watch your thoughts and emotions without attachment. Notice them passing like clouds in the sky. Allow them to come and go with ease. You are not your thoughts. From this centred space, you can find shelter within yourself, honouring the Four of Swords’ mental restoration. Your internal balance becomes your sanctuary amidst life’s storms. You can find a recording of the full Mindfulness Witness (Observer) practice here.
And finally… Picking up your Threads & Aligning with This New Moon
Returning to the question: Where do we find shelter in the storm? This New Moon in Libra III asks us to pause, step aside, and restore before we reengage. We are reminded how important it is to find our own personal inner sanctuary that allows for relational clarity, to shelter in silence, finding our inner peace, and that the answer lies within the pause itself.
Libra ruler Venus in Libra offers grace, Exaltation ruler Saturn in Pisces asks for commitment, Decan ruler Mercury with Mars in Scorpio bring discernment and courage, Decan ruler Jupiter in Cancer adds compassion. Together, they craft a sanctuary of a kind, a space where thought, feeling, and faith reconnect.
The overarching theme of this Moon is seeking, holding, and fortifying shelter. The question invited us to find sanctuary. The astrology, decan, tarot, verse and oracle all converge to suggest that shelter is not escape, but rather it is preparation, of the ground from which balance and new relational vision can emerge.
The wisdom from T. Susan Chang for this decan reminds us: “Real as the world may seem, it is a dream.”
Did you find your answers? May you find your centre in the storm, tend to your inner sanctuary, and reemerge with renewed balance.
Travel well, friends.
Sonia
If you are looking for an Astrologer, and you enjoy my style of Astrology, I currently have space to take on new clients. If you would like a personal individual Astrology reading, I set a healing Reiki intention for every client before the reading. You can opt out of this if you prefer when you book at CelestiaAstrology.com.
The Guardian of Your Portal reading is still available by donation at the special suggested price of £40 for a limited time if you want to try a Consultation from a different perspective (please read about this style of Consultation before booking so you know it is for you). This is special pricing for The Witch’s Season and the price must rise after.
If you prefer to go deeper and work with the Moons’ cycles and the planets in your personal chart then I also offer Astro Coaching. Contact me through a message here, or book at CelestiaAstrology.com. You can also become a paid subscriber to download my Astro Coaching WorkBook and access the archive of posts which guide you through it, working with the Moons. Upgrade your level to join the AstroCoaching Group and Astrology Q&A.
Please do leave a comment below, I would love to hear your thoughts, experiences or questions.
References:
AustinCoppock.com The Decans: Images and Applications
Bernadette Brady, Predictive Astrology The Eagle and the Lark
Dietrich Pessin Lunar Families III
KiraRyberg.com The 36 Decans
T Susan Chang Dreaming the Decans
The Wild Way Oracle deck @nicola_allan on Instagram & Twitter
