April 12: Libra Full Moon

"It is love alone that leads to right action. What brings order in the world is to love and let love do what it will."
-Krishnamurti, Think on These Things

The Libra Full Moon weekend provides a stunning conclusion to eclipse season and the Venus retrograde cycle in Aries. The Moon waxes to Full at 23°20 Libra at 8:22PM ET on April 12th, and at 9:02PM ET Venus stations direct at 24°38 Pisces. Venus has been through hell and back since its 40 day and night journey to that underworld that began on March 1st, and the Libra Full Moon puts a spotlight on everything that has been learned, lost, and revealed. 

Venus emerges from the underworld bloody, battered, and bruised to find itself in the company of Saturn, the South Node, and a recently direct Mercury–signaling an announcement. What began when Venus entered its retrograde pre-shadow on January 28, finally starts to wrap up. But sound travels differently under water, and it may take time to hear and understand the message we receive. Open yourself to art, dance, meditation, and channeling this weekend so the information can flow through all available channels. Integration will not be complete until Venus passes its post-shadow in Aries on May 16. 

Libra is a social sign that loves a nice date night or a fun shopping extravaganza with pals. Looking good can make us feel good so put on your cutest outfit and head out on the town. Connection feels important with Jupiter trining this lunation from friendly Gemini, but beware of doing too much.

Mars' square to the Moon from sensitive Cancer is intensifying our reactivity. Cuddle up and lay low if you're feeling more like a hermit crab than a social butterfly. The fresh air of Libra can reveal where we're out of balance. Doing less can be the greatest kindness to ourselves, and the best path towards harmony. Eclipse season may be over but we're still in a tender moment. Mars in Cancer can provoke the tears, so check in with yourself and listen to your body to avoid an emotional hangover.

On an astrological level, March was one of the most difficult months of the year, and it takes time for energy to clear. The Libra Full Moon, the first sans eclipse since 2023, represents a turning point when we start to put the pieces back together. However, we're still dealing with the fall out through May. The Venus and Mercury retrograde cycles have linked two adjoining areas of your life: Aries and Pisces, the alpha and the omega. 

Eclipse season speeds things up, but retrogrades slow them down. Aries is about decisive action but Pisces prefers to marinate a long time in its juices. Venus returned to Pisces on March 27, and it will spend the next several weeks dreaming up a new vision in its Morning Star form as its distance grows from the Sun. Venus as the Morning Star is not interested in making nice. The warrior goddess energy will activate further when Venus moves back into Aries on April 30. 

Venus is exalted in Pisces, but it essentially has a chaperone as it's traveling with Saturn for the next 2 weeks. Pisces is one of the places Venus likes the best to make love, play, and pleasure, but Saturn indicates that there is a need for boundaries and clarity in this post-retrograde period. The trial by fire and water is over, but there is an emotional reckoning as we come to grips with our new reality. Saturn governs structure, boundaries, order, and final endings; indicating an immediate consequence to what has transpired in the area of love, partnership, and work. For many of us, life has been irrevocably altered by this Venus retrograde. The Libra Full Moon asks us to find a new sense of balance. 

It is difficult to feel calm in a storm or centered in the midst of chaos. Libra is the sign of harmony, equality, and social structures. The diplomat, mediator, or yoga teacher who tries to teach us how to live in good alignment. The social justice rallying cry of "no justice, no peace," links two of Libra's core significations together. For most of human history, we have sought to solve problems through violence and war. The strongest, the one who hit the hardest and destroyed the most, was considered fit to rule. The victor was often an abuser, but all has been considered fair in love and war. The warhawk, Aries' side of our nature has consistently won, while the peacemaking diplomat, Libra, has essentially lost. 

Yet, for just as long, there have been people, prophets, and movements for nonviolence. The greatest spiritual teachers from around the world have all advocated a version of the witches creed: do as ye will, but harm ye none. We can consider peace a spiritual state of being that humans are seeking to achieve. It is a quality that contains many facets and justice is one of them. The Libra Full Moon bridges you into a deep sense of ethics so you know what you want to stand for when Saturn enters Aries on May 24. 

Full Moons always bring the big feels, but our pain is present with the Sun at 23° Aries in a partile conjunction with Chiron, the wounded healer, highlighting the path we are called down in the pursuit of relief and our journey back to wholeness. Chiron reminds us that our suffering is not an inconvenience or impediment to life. It is a part of our human experience, as much as the good stuff, and a path to awakening. Suffering is not something to be glamorized, but it can help develop empathy and compassion. 

Both compassion and empathy are Piscean emotions that have been heightened in the collective by the influential and spiritualizing Neptune transit since 2010. We're in a transition stage as Neptune moved into Aries on March 30, the day after the New Moon eclipse, for the first time in 150 years. Aries is the sign of the individual who prizes personal freedom above all, and now empathy is coming under attack, being framed as weakness of the American Left. The need to consider how other people are feeling, to place ourselves in their shoes and see life from their perspective, is a Libra virtue that tempers Aries selfishness. 

Aries is the sign of Saturn's fall, where it suffers from a lack of rights and protections. This disempowered status doesn't bode well for Saturn's children, which include the poor, elderly, infirm, homeless, or otherwise marginalized people. Expect issues of imprisonment, exile, and violations of human rights to come to a head when Neptune and Saturn travel together in Aries from May 24-September 1st. This transit is but a preview; giving us a taste of what's to come when they both move into Aries in 2026.