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Aphrodite Medicine for Libra’s Full Moon

By Dana Gerhardt

Beguiling and bejeweled, the peaceful Libra Full Moon stands opposite the fiery warrior, Sun in Aries. Dressed as the Goddess Aphrodite, she winks at him, then slowly twirls, as if to say “Let’s make a little magic from our meeting. Let’s inflame the world with love and beauty!”

He says yes.

And now, that’s your assignment at this Full Moon.   Find the evidence of their lovemaking.  Where do fire and beauty mingle?  Where do love and harmony erupt in this otherwise fractious world?   What is your garden saying?  What are the birds announcing?  How about the clouds?

Listen long enough and you might feel the urge to become an agent of love and beauty yourself–or at the least, find more inner peace and balance. To that end, here’s a little ritual that can help reduce the conflict and momentarily at least, bring yourself and humanity into one beautiful whole.

Before the Ritual

Preparation is everything. This is how you shift yourself into a more powerful frame of mind. Find a quiet place where you can protect yourself from intrusion.  Once there, as the Sufi teacher Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan recommends, take steps to “surround yourself with a zone of silence.”  Mist the air with rose water. Light candles or incense. Or play a piece of contemplative music that will shift you from the periphery, into the calm center within.  Perhaps there’s a prayer or sacred phrase that drops you in. Maybe there’s an activity, like coloring a sacred mandala. Or–bare bones it–simply surrender to the rhythm of your breath.

After a while, you may feel something subtle arising, a feeling perhaps of curiosity or expectancy.  With this shift, you’re ready to go deeper.  Imagine a curtain were parting in front of you, revealing a pathway through the forest. Start walking down it. Notice the details of the flora around you. Eventually you approach a clearing where sits a beautiful temple. Its spacious interior and graceful columns are open to the sky and surrounding nature. Within this temple sits a circle of figures under the full moon, immersed in meditation. Stepping up to the circle, you wordlessly join in, finding your place among them.

Raising the Energy

As you step into the circle, you notice a feeling like love is circling through the group. Softly, it enters you too. You feel yourself growing more present and safe.  A beautiful woman with the wise bearing of an elder takes her place in the center of the circle.  It’s Aphrodite.  As she starts to speak, the very air begins to listen.  Her words, like music more than words, seem to be weaving themselves into your very cells. Tonight’s teaching?  It’s about the artful practice of coming into balance with another—the Aphrodite way.

Aphrodite smiles and takes a graceful turn through the circle, saying “To keep your balance while dancing requires an awareness in the inner ear.”  Then she stops and looks deeply into your eyes. “Keeping your balance with another,” she says, “requires an awareness in the heart.”

She asks everyone in the circle to bring to mind the image of someone whom they very much love.  As you do this, you notice a corresponding warmth that starts building in your heart.  Strengthen this feeling by breathing into that heartspace.

The Heart of the Ritual

“You live in divided times,” the Goddess says.  “It’s easy to fight. It’s harder but more powerful to be receptive.  Get familiar with this feeling of love.  Amplify it.  Wrap it around you like a comforter.  Then, so held, bring to mind the image of someone you disagree with.”  Allow the image of this person to appear to you.  Notice if the feelings of love begin to disappear or drift away.  If they start to diminish, recall how you felt gazing at your loved one.  Hold onto this love as you return your gaze to your opponent.   Breathe.  There is nothing to say.  Just be.

Aphrodite enters your visualization and appears to hold each of your hearts on either end of a scale.  Ever so gently, she tips the scales now one way, now another, as if pouring and measuring love between two cups. After a few minutes of this concentration, the scales come to a point of stillness.  You notice that the entire Moon circle is filled with love—the love that comes from acceptance of another individual.

You release the image.  You feel a new peace inside you.  You feel centered into the quality of harmony, the precious gift of Libra.  Aphrodite stands before you and sends an imaginary pearl into your heart, saying “You need only to remember this pearl to return to this feeling.”   Breathe into the pearl in your heart.  Continue this concentration for several minutes.

Closing

Aphrodite raises her hands, signaling that the circle should rise.  Everyone bows to the center of the circle, then turns and bows to the person on either side.  Turning completely around, the circle bows to the world beyond the circle, vowing to offer this empathy to humanity.  Aphrodite sings a closing prayer.  Rising, give thanks for your participation in this ritual, then walk back down the path through the woods, come back to yourself in contemplation, and, finally, come back to your home and life, still vibrating with beauty, harmony and love.

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About Dana Gerhardt

A popular columnist with The Mountain Astrologer since 1991, Dana Gerhardt is an internationally respected astrologer. She has lectured extensively and written for astrology publications on several continents. Her ongoing passions are the moon and living the intuitive life. Dana worked for many years in the corporate sector, where she observed the undeniable influence of natural cycles. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude from Occidental College in Los Angeles and did graduate work in literature at Columbia University and CSULA. Dana can be contacted by email.

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The Moon is in its
Full Phase

in the
Sign of Capricorn


Today's Lunar Aspects (Greenwich Mean Time)
(subtract: PST -8 hours, PDT -7 hours, EST -5 hours, EDT -4 hours)

  • Moon square Neptune, 10:55pm  May 15 2025
  • Moon trine Mercury, 5:29pm  May 16 2025
  • Moon square Venus, 5:45pm  May 16 2025

Venus is currently
The Morning Star

in the sign of Aries


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Astrologers use a variety of house systems, or methods of dividing up the sky into twelve sections. I use the Porphyry house system; another popular house system is Placidus (this is the default on https://astro.com). If the chart I send you looks different from what you are used to seeing, then likely a system other than Porphyry was used. Whole signs, Equal House, Regiomantus, and Campanus are examples of other systems. If you find all of this confusing, do not worry. It is likely not critical to your report.

m  Conjunction:  Like peas in a pod, planets in conjunction tend to come from the same place. They act together, but it’s also hard to tell them apart. This aspect can increase talent, focus, and intensity (“two are better than one”). Or one planet can disappear as the other dominates. Their connection feels so natural, it’s easy to think everyone blends these planetary energies just as you do—but mostly, they don’t!.

p  Sextile:  Planets in sextile are compatible, though without any fireworks. This aspect doesn’t demand your attention. It quietly presents an opportunity. You can join these archetypal forces. Donna Cunningham has called this the “Oh, that!” aspect, because that’s generally what her clients say when she describes their benefits.  To get the most from sextiles you need to actively work them.

q  Square:  Squares are wild and wonderful—but difficult too. The power struggle between these planets was likely defined in your youth, when they were impossibly challenging. People are usually aware of their squares. They force the issues that make you to grow. And that’s their gift. They ensure you learn your lessons. When you rise to the occasion, they bless you with energy, action, and success.

r  Trine:  Michael Munkasey has dubbed this the “goddess aspect” because it’s so lovely. Identifying talents you may have perfected in a previous life, trines can bring you joy. There’s a nice flow of energy between planets in trine. They support and reinforce each another. But without any struggle, you might take them for granted—neither using nor developing their gifts. An unattended trine can sometimes trick you into negative behaviors.

t  Inconjunct/Quincunx:  Your quincunx planets are innately incompatible. Bringing them into harmonious expression requires constant adjustments. This can be stressful, also motivating. You’ve got to keep changing your process, opinions or attitude—which promotes highly creative solutions.

u  Opposition:  They say opposites attract—and planets in opposition are never far from each other, though they’re constantly bickering. You may be triggered into awareness of this aspect by other people who seem to resist or undermine you.  An opposition can make you feel uncertain, insecure, or discontent, until you can accept and see yourself in both energies. Typically people find it easier to identify with one side and project the other onto unsuspecting others in the outer world.

First House: Personality, physical body, beginnings. Includes the Ascendant and rules physical appearance, the image you project to others, your general outlook on life, how you start things; may describe your role in your family system, often guides your first impression of immediate environment.

Second House: Money and personal finances, sense of self-worth and basic values, personal possessions, talents.

Third House: Communication, thoughts, language skills like writing and speaking, early schooling, siblings and neighbors, short trips, coming and going around town.

Fourth House: Your home, psychological foundations and roots, family, parents, domestic life, instinctive behavior, ancestry, your connection with the past, sense of security, domestic life, real estate. conditions at the end of life.

Fifth House: Children, creativity, romance; pleasure, entertainment, self-expression; all forms of “play”, speculation, gambling, and attitude towards taking risks; hobbies, attitude towards romance, lovers as opposed to partners, attitude towards having fun.

Sixth House: Work and job (as opposed to career), daily life, attitude towards service and coworkers, helpfulness, pets, attitude towards routine and organization, how you refine and perfect your skills.

Seventh House: Partnerships, one-to-one relationships, marriage, the first marriage, the “significant other”, business partnerships, competitors, open enemies, lawyers, mediators, counselors, contracts, negotiations, agreements. clients/the public.

Eighth House: Transformations and crisis, your ability to meet and rebound from crisis and change, sexuality; sex, death and rebirth, rituals and personal growth, your partner’s resources, addictions, psychology, other people’s money, taxes, divorce/alimony, inheritance.

Ninth House: Attitude toward expanding horizons, religious beliefs and personal philosophy, higher education, long-distance travel, morals, foreign languages and cultures, personal truths, publishing, commerce, advertising, your sense of adventure.

Tenth House: Career and profession, your contribution to society, social status, public reputation, material success, how you carve out a public identity for yourself; attitude toward authority figures, parents, caregivers, bosses, governments, attitude towards responsibility, desire for achievement.

Eleventh House: Friends, groups, organizations; hopes, wishes, aspirations, personal goals; your philanthropic attitude, concern for the collective, humanity; like tenth, can bring recognition and honors for fulfilling hopes and dreams.

Twelfth House: What’s hidden beneath the surface, karmic dustbin, limiting childhood/past-life messages, self-undoing, hidden enemies, hidden weaknesses, dreams, secret affairs, lost items, hospitals and prisons, hidden strengths, spiritual studies and soul growth.

A  Sun: Our vitality and magnetism; self-identity, ego.
Roles: The Self, the Hero, the Performer, the King.

B  Moon: Intuition, emotion, nurture.
Roles: The Mother, the High Priestess, the Child.

C  Mercury: Mind; physical dexterity and mental agility.
Roles: The Thinker, the Communicator, the Student, the Trickster, the Merchant, the Thief.

D  Venus: Our capacity for pleasure, receptivity, creativity, and social connection. Also indicates our relationships, self esteem, and financial abundance.
Roles: The Lover, the Seductress, the Artist.

E  Mars: Desire, initiative, anger.
Roles: The Protector, the Athlete, the Warrior.

F  Jupiter: Luck, opportunity, expansion, higher learning, religion.
Roles: The Scholar, the Gypsy, the Traveler, the Monk, the Professor.

G  Saturn: Hard work, commitment, focus, inadequacy, leadership, suffering, loss.
Roles: The Task Master, the Grim Reaper, the Wise Old Man, the Builder, the Cynic, the Boss.

H  Uranus: Change, breakthroughs, upsets, discoveries.
Roles: The Revolutionary, the Humanitarian, the Visionary, the Snob.

I  Neptune: Imagination, spirituality, idealism, addictions, deception, compassion.
Roles: The Artist, the Romantic, the Guru, the Addict, the Martyr, the Victim.

J  Pluto: Transformation, power, psychological dynamics, helplessness.
Roles: The Terrorist, the Detective, the Psychotherapist, the Dictator, shady people.

a  Aries: Pioneering, competitive, selfish, impatient, courageous, reckless, independent, dynamic, domineering, “Me first!”

b  Taurus: Patient, stable, lazy, dependable, practical, sensual, stubborn, artistic, possessive, greedy, gentle, loyal.

c  Gemini: Intelligent, curious, adaptable, quick-witted, restless, clever, scatterbrained, lacking follow-through.

d  Cancer: Nourishing, intuitive, protective, moody, sensitive, maternal, domestic, childish, cautious, creative.

e  Leo: Proud, dignified, vain, expressive, romantic, generous, childish, overbearing, self-assured, creative.

f  Virgo: Perfection-seeking, practical, methodical, petty, critical, studious, discriminating, cautious, never satisfied.

g  Libra: Charming, sociable, peace-loving, refined, diplomatic, artistic, indecisive, apathetic, easily deterred.

h  Scorpio: Passionate, secretive, penetrating, resourceful, suspicious, manipulative, jealous, sarcastic, intolerant, determined, aware.

i  Sagittarius: Freedom-loving, philosophical, optimistic, enthusiastic, careless, impatient, talkative, a know-it-all, broadminded, athletic, honest.

j  Capricorn: Serious, responsible, practical, hardworking, stubborn, brooding, inhibited, status-conscious, domineering, unforgiving.

k  Aquarius: Progressive, individualistic, unpredictable, cold, intellectual, artistic, eccentric, shy, impersonal, scientific.

l  Pisces: Compassionate, intuitive, ungrounded, romantic, impractical, self-sacrificing, seductive, musical, artistic.