Saturday 10 October brings the new moon in Libra, exact at 4:50pm UK time (15:50 UTC) late this afternoon, with the Sun and Moon together at about 17 degrees of Libra. A new moon means a dark sky tonight: the moon sits beside the sun and shows nothing. There is no eclipse. This is the last new moon of Libra season. The sky is inside the Three of Swords decan of Libra, the period from 3 to 12 October whose Golden Dawn title is Sorrow and whose ruler is Saturn in Libra, the cut that follows the weighing. That decan ends on Monday.
The last two moons on this calendar set the scene. On 11 September the new moon in Virgo drew The Hermit and asked for one small intention sized to survive a bad Tuesday. On 26 September the Harvest Moon in Aries drew Judgement and asked everyone to harvest what grew from that intention and stand up out of one old verdict. This new moon is the next planting.
The Reading: Fresh Starts, Libra Style
A new moon in Libra sets intentions the Libra way: fair, measured, with the other person in the picture. After a decan of cuts, the intention tonight is likely about how to carry on well with someone after an honest conversation, or about a balance you have been meaning to put right. The dark sky shows nothing, so it is the right night to plant quietly.
The World on a new moon looks like the wrong card: it is the ending card on the beginning night. That is the point. Libra season’s last new moon asks for an intention about finishing. Most people set intentions to start things. The World says pick the thing you will complete, and let the completing be the fresh start. The wreath is a ring; the end and the start are the same point on it.
The Card: The World
The card drawn for tonight is The World, Major Arcana XXI, the last card of the majors. In the Golden Dawn system it belongs to the Hebrew letter Tau, to Saturn, and to all four elements together. The planet ruling this decan has its own trump drawn on the decan’s new moon. Our card page tagline is “The journey complete. The journey beginning.”
Maybe your deck shows a dancing figure wrapped in a flowing scarf inside a large oval wreath of leaves, a wand in each hand, and in the four corners a lion, an eagle, an angel and a bull, now still. Maybe it is our default image of a figure dancing within a wreath, four creatures in the corners, a scarf flowing, a wand in each hand. Across every version the shared picture is one figure inside a ring of leaves, moving, with the four corner creatures watching and still.
Those same four creatures appeared on Wednesday when the air signs drew the Wheel of Fortune. Then they sat in the corners reading while the rim spun, a note about money and sitting still so the wheel could turn. Tonight the four are still around a figure who has stopped spinning and started dancing. Security came from sitting still in the corner; finishing looks like moving freely inside the ring.
The Hermit’s intention was lantern-sized: one step. The World’s intention is wreath-sized: the whole small thing, start to finish, done by the next new moon on 9 November in Scorpio. Still small. Yesterday the fire signs drew The Devil and were asked to skip one round of the habit. Tonight write the intention that follows from what you saw. One finished thing is the opposite of a loop.
Libra, this is your own new year. Finish the thing you have nearly finished for months because finishing means someone might not like it. Aries, you sit opposite the moon and start everything. Pick one started thing and take it to the end before you light another. Cancer, the home task or conversation you keep at ninety per cent is the one: the last ten per cent is the intention. Capricorn, you finish things for a living. Tonight’s intention is to finish one thing for yourself, with nobody checking.
One Practical Thing for Tonight
Write one wreath-sized intention. One sentence, present tense, naming a thing you will have finished by the next new moon on 9 November. Give it the World test: can you picture the last step, the moment it is done? If not, it is too big; shrink it until you can. Keep it where you will see it, and let the Four of Swords on Tuesday give you the rest you will need along the way. In your journal: the thing I will finish is ___ ; the last step looks like ___ ; it is done by ___ . Write it in your journal ›
There is more on the drawn card in our World card meaning. The tarot calendar holds the full sequence. Monday 12 October brings the water signs’ reading on creativity and joy, the decan’s last day. Tuesday 13 October sees the Four of Swords take the sky for the last Libra decan, until 22 October. On a dark night the ring is still there, and finishing is how the next start begins.