The Sun Enters Libra: Is the Fall Equinox Actually Important?

Hey everyone, this is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology. Today, we're going to talk about the Fall Equinox or the movement of the Sun into the sign of Libra, and we're going to talk about whether or not this is actually a thing. Lots of people treat the equinoxes and solstices as these major portals of transformation and change throughout the year.

Many astrologers write and talk and make content about this, and we're going to talk today about whether or not or how much emphasis or power astrologers have given to these moments of the equinoxes and solstices throughout history; we're going to talk a little bit about some of the reasons that the fall equinox does matter and some of the reasons that it doesn't matter.

We're also going to talk a little bit about why the zero Libra point, symbolically speaking, is relevant or important, regardless of which hemisphere you live in, and why the zodiac itself is not ultimately hemisphere dependent. So, a lot to talk about today. Some really interesting things I think will make for a memorable discussion of the entrance of the Sun into Libra. Hopefully, we'll all learn something and have prepared ourselves for the moment astrologically as well.

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Let's look first at the real-time clock and get a feel for what's coming, and I kind of jokingly, like, is the fall equinox actually a thing, like, is this really important? Here is the Sun entering the sign of Libra on September 23. That's Saturday. This is about two in the morning central time. It'd be three in the morning Eastern time and right around midnight on the west coast in the United States at any rate.

So, the entrance of the Sun into Libra is significant. Yes, I'll just, you know, I'll say it right away. We'll just get out of the way. Is it actually important? Yes, it is, but not for most of the reasons that people think it is because of, let's just call it, pop astrology and what pop astrology tends to say about the event.

It is also not hemisphere dependent, which means that it doesn't really matter if we're going into the autumn or if you're on the opposite side of the Earth in the southern hemisphere and you're going into spring; the zodiac is not about the literal causation of the seasons by celestial events. So we'll explain what that means as well.

But there it is, the Sun entering Libra is significant. Yes, but they're not really for the reasons that people think it is. It's not hemisphere dependent. So, we're going to talk about some of those things today. We'll just start with the basics. Why? What is the hype surrounding this? Okay, so the hype generally goes like this, oh, my God, it's the fall equinox, a major portal of transformation is in front of us, right? Like that, and I'm not trying to be a jerk. It's just kind of trying to characterize it.

The fall equinox or the spring equinox, the summer solstice, or the winter solstice. While ritualistically significant, don't get me wrong, I ritualized the equinoxes and solstices in my own life; I find them to be very beautiful ways of charting the seasons and so forth. But what kind of wait do they actually have astrologically this is really important. They are not generally speaking; the equinoxes and solstices, depending on what's happening around them, they are not all built the same. So it's true that ancient astrologers paid attention, especially in mundane astrology, which is the study of astrological omens and transits in relation to major world or collective events.

They did pay attention to the ingress of the Sun in Libra and Aries, especially the those equinoxes were studied. But they were studied in the full context of everything that was happening in the sky at those moments, and where those moments would be especially powerful was also dependent upon, you know, where the Sun may be ingressing into Libra or Aries while at the midheaven above a city, for example.

So in mundane astrology, they certainly have a history, but it's not a history that is like, Oh, my God, the fall equinox or the spring equinox alone on its own is this total, you know, it's not like it's a nuclear bomb of transformation. You know, it has relevance astronomically and astrologically. But the equinox and solstices are typically studied as important pivotal moments in this zodiacal year relative to the total context of what's happening at those moments.

So the first misconception is that they are all powerful, in the same way, all the time, and that's not true. Just like a full moon or a new moon, not every full or new moon is as powerful as the next; it really depends on the total context of what's going on around a newer full moon. So just remember that because sometimes people will hype it up, and you'll just think there must be something about the equinox itself that's so powerful, and that's pretty misleading when you understand that context is what makes an equinox relatively more or less significant. What other planetary ingresses are happening and what kinds of aspects are forming at the time of the ingress is incredibly significant as to sort of measuring the potency of such an ingress.

Now, the other thing is just, again, generally speaking, people you'll hear popular astrologers just sort of saying, this is a major energetic gateway for change. Well, you know, again, not to suggest that there's nothing to it. But it also there's going to be a huge amount of people that don't experience anything, right, that are not having some kind of life-altering, dramatic, energetic healing crisis.

A lot of that has to do again with context; the fall equinox is an important turning point. But just like the context in the sky, at the moment of an equinox matters, the context of your birth chart matters. Zero Libra Ingress, depending on where Libra falls in your chart and what other planets are configured to that area of your chart, or the Libra house, whole sign house, or planets at the very early degrees of, say, the tropical or cardinal signs, etc.

So, the two things that can be easily forgotten are that most people will only experience any transit, as potently as it is configured to the birth chart. The second piece of context is that even in mundane or collective astrology, not all equinoxes or solstices are built equally; it really depends on what else is happening around them at the time of the ingress.

Okay, so those are two really important qualifying pieces of information so that if you see people just generically talking about how an equinox or solstice is important. I don't mind that from a ritual standpoint, from the standpoint of prayer, meditation, and religious observation, that these moments can pack ritual significance, meaning that they can be very powerful times in which to set intentions or to pray or to observe religious ceremony and rites of passage, etc., I'm totally fine with that. I have no problem with that.

But that's quite a bit different than saying that the equinox itself has always has the same kind of, like, sort of generically powerful, oracular significance. That's not true. So once we get through those things, and I think they're just very, I think this is just the very most basic level of misconception that exists out there. So they're just these all powerful events in and of themselves, and they're really not.

Now, there are some reasons why the fall equinox matters, and I'm going to go through them, and then finally, I'll talk a little bit today about why it doesn't matter which hemisphere you're in when it comes to the reasons that the fall equinox matters. It doesn't matter, in other words, whether you're in the southern or northern hemisphere, and I'll get to that after these three points.

So, here are three reasons that the fall equinox does matter. What are the important metaphors? Or what is the symbolic value of this moment? And remember, even these three themes I'm about to mention, while the core, let's call them characteristics of the fall equinox, just because the equinox has these characteristics doesn't mean that you will experience them with the volume at level, you know, at like 11 out of 10, you know, you may not even notice them and a lot of that will depend on what's going on in your life or slash your chart.

So, I like to do this not to be like a Debbie Downer because I like the equinox again; from a ritualistic standpoint, my wife and I, Ashley and I, we usually observe the equinoxes and solstices with some intention setting or something that we do together as a couple or as a family. So I love that.

What I don't like is when people, even if you do know some of the most interesting symbolic meanings of the fall equinox too, assume that those meanings will, you know, pack this incredible punch is just over the top. It just doesn't work like that. So anyway, okay, I'm going to stop ranting.

Three reasons that it does matter. Number one, when we reach the autumn equinox from the standpoint of the zodiacal year and the symbolism that it is rooted in, archetypally speaking, a great alternation of light and dark. Light and dark are principles that exist eternally for ancient astrologers in a kind of platonic sense, just like the Tao and the interactions of Yin and Yang in great circles and cycles in the I-Ching, which is not tethered to the literal astronomy, also exists in a kind of eternal dimension.

This reality is informed by the interactions of Yin and Yang, and so from the Zodiacal standpoint, rooted in its relative but symbolic observation of the heavens from the standpoint of the Northern Hemisphere, we are entering the dark half of the year where there will be more darkness in the 24 hour period than there is light.

Now, first and foremost, the power of the zodiac is oracular, which means again, and I'll get to this later, that it doesn't matter which hemisphere you are in, the relative orientation of the zodiac in the ability that the zodiac has to be relatively oriented in different places on the planet, is a testimony to the fact that it is symbolic in nature and oracular.

So, no matter which hemisphere you're in, when we get to the fall equinox, what we're really saying is that Yin is taking over. Yin is taking over the responsibilities. It's like if you are the chef at a kitchen, and you work the day shift and then someone comes in and says, okay, look, I'm taking over the kitchen, now I've got the duties that they're on me, and I work the night shift.

So, this moment is about the night shift starting, and the night shift is a metaphor. First and foremost. It is not a literal causal phenomenon, even if it's related to the alternation of light and dark in the northern hemisphere, right?

When we reach the moment of transition into the darkness, it is a moment of harvesting, and this is because, in one way, the light half of the year is about the ideal of spirit. The ideal of spirit is like the image of a perfect triangle in the platonic realm. But then, as the light descends, and we come into darkness, that ideal or that intention takes form, it takes shape, it comes into material manifestation, and then it is judged.

You look at, and you say, how closely does this form resemble the ideal and that has to do with behavior that has to do with actions, that has to do with intentions, that has to do with creation. So metaphorically speaking, there is a sense of reaping what's been sown, or of harvesting what we've been working on and seeing the results, and sort of weighing and evaluating them, and that is something every year that can be looked at from Aries to Libra as a kind of story that's being told that from the time we start the Zodiacal year in Aries, all the way up to Libra, it is as though ideas and images are forming and shaping and informing our lives, psychically, energetically, mentally, emotionally, relationally, etcetera.

Then, when we get to the time when darkness symbolically takes over, we are then in a space where we are reaping what's been sown and looking at the result, and that is a very real thing that if you trace from the time of zero Aries to zero, Libra can be looked at, and there's a kind of story again, that is being told from one point to another, and if you do the work of following that story, it is very true that the fall equinox or, just generally speaking, Libra season will show you something of what you've been doing and what has come of what you've been doing.

So it's a harvesting moment in that respect. Now, not everyone is going to notice that harvesting moment because part of noticing it means you've been paying attention since the beginning of Aries. It's a story every year that if you don't pay attention to it, it can fly right under the radar; it's not like it's just going to make itself completely obvious whether you've been paying attention or not. In fact, for most people, if you don't pay attention, you won't notice it. So that's number one.

Number two is balancing. So the other thing that happens when light hands over to dark, metaphorically is that we just get a balancing of energies, forces, and ideas, where there's tension between opposites, and this world is built on the tension between opposites. The tension between opposites, sexually, intellectually, politically, religiously, etcetera, that the tension between opposites can be polarizing and destructive, but it can also be interrelating, dynamic, and creative.

There are different ways that ancient mystics said that opposites relate to one another. Well, when you reach the autumnal equinox, the zero Libra point, and for that Libran season, there is a sense in which extremes are being alternated or balanced out somehow, tempered. You could say that there's a tempering of extremes and polarization between extremes such that you're finding more harmony and flow between opposites.

Or you could say that where there's been a tilting of the scales in one direction, it can go in the opposite direction, which may not be a particularly great thing either. You know, most of us don't live well if we're just going back and forth between extremes. But sometimes, that's exactly what the fall equinox moment will represent; a swinging between extremes.

So, balancing or tipping or alternating of things that have been going in one direction and will now go in another direction, or the balancing or leveling of opposites that have been in some kind of tense polarized relationship with one another. Again, how do you even know this is happening if you're not paying attention to the story being told from the time of the start of the Zodiacal year at zero Aries, you can't most people unless you're tracking or paying attention to this moment, and Libra season may include this idea of harvesting or balancing, and it'll be happening, but you won't even be noticing it. Because it's, it's more subtle than most of us think it is.

It doesn't help anything that a lot of popular astrologers are like, Oh, this portal of major transformation, and we're either then co-opting, and fabricating and exaggerating and self-aggrandizing the stories of our lives to fit and astrological narrative, as we know astrology is real, but we're not sure how it's real. So, we just kind of exaggerate all of our experiences to fit the narrative.

Or, you know, we just don't know how to pay attention and track the transformation on a subtle enough level to actually see the results, and to me, again, that's the major misconception about the fall equinox is that somehow it'll just deliver this balancing moment, it'll be so obvious and overt, you'll just you can't miss it, and it's not like that. For most of us, these cycles are subtle, and the level of our unconsciousness that you know, I mean, I'm not saying I'm so conscious or anything or that, you know, any of us need to be perfect.

But it's like if you're just kind of going along unconsciously, and just expecting that all of these astrological signatures are going to do things for you doesn't really work that way. The fall equinox is a potent symbol. It stands for the beginning of a process that often unfolds over the whole 30 solar days of Libra, and it has to do with a kind of subtle ability to evaluate things that have been going on since the light half of the year took over in late March. If you're not used to tracking that, again, for most people, this space will sort of slip by.

Now, if there are major transits going on in your chart, at the same time, it's easier to note how this season will be related to balancing or harvesting because you have transits that are going on that are turning up the volume on life stories. That's where sometimes people will really notice, Wow, that equinox season is so potent right now, and they'll think, but then they'll make the mistake of thinking that that's just the equinox, no, it's not the equinox, it's that the equinox does this every year. But the volumes turned up, and you're noticing it because you have a Pluto transit that's been perfecting around the equinoxes this year, for example.

So, at any rate, balancing, though, of opposites in one way, one manner or another, or the alternation of extremes, those are really important. It can also be, I want to call it, a karmic tipping point, where behaviors that have been going in one direction suddenly have to face a consequence or a result that's a little bit like the harvesting. But that can have the effect of balancing or leveling things out for us energetically or spiritually as well.

Number three is judging or discerning. So the fall equinox can also represent something like a crossroads where we have a decision to make and we have options that we have to weigh, as we exercise wise judgment or careful discernment or you know, whatever word we want to use. Some people don't like love the word judging; it has a real negative connotation. So I add the word discerning because that's maybe a softer word, but they both are, we're, but we're focusing on the idea of making wise decisions, or balancing various factors and weighing them out and then coming to a conclusion about something that we've been considering and the usual track of consideration has been developing since zero Aries.

So I hope what I've communicated today without sounding like too much of a dick is that these are potent symbols, but they largely rely upon our ability to be tracking the subtle development of themes dating back to zero Aries and, for a lot of us just acting as though all equinoxes are the same. They're all super powerful in and of themselves; you can't miss what they're going to do or how they're going to show up. It's just false.

It requires subtle tracking; it usually will be louder if you have major transits going on at the same time, and oftentimes, when it comes to their impact in the collective, it's not just about the equinox, but about the total context of what's going on around them.

So I hope that this has been useful and educational; I hope you don't feel like I was being too pedantic, but you know, it's hard sometimes when I see, like as an astrologer, when you see people trying to suffuse every single thing with the same kind of transformational or critical healing power or whatever. Our science is actually very nuanced, and it's important to, you know, not just crank up the volume on every single event but teach people the nuances of those events so that we understand.

Some equinoxes are a really big deal. Some are a little bit lighter, for example, right now, you know, the fall equinox is hitting in, in my life, as I have a major transit from Uranus to my ascendant ruler hits a little different, you know, and I can see it and feel it very vividly. Wow, this is, you know, this Libra and season; as soon as Mars entered Libra, the South Node entered Libra, and now the Sun is preparing to enter Libra; these Libran and archetypes are a lot louder because there's a transit in my chart that's very loud at the moment, and so I can really see the arc from, say, the last end of March when the Sun entered Aries to now because I've had a major transit going on during that timeframe of the solar year, right and that's exactly what I'm saying for all of you guys, too.

If you notice, these themes are very vivid from one year to the next and you're scratching your head, like what makes a fall equinox so potent at one time and maybe kind of a nothing burger at another time. That's probably why. So anyway, nuance and sophistication. That's the name of the game when trying to really advance our understanding of astrological omens.

So, last but not least, I wanted to mention because people will always say, you know, is there something to the do we need to flip the zodiac for the southern hemisphere, and I've done videos about this before. First of all, I believe, let me just put it this way. The zodiac itself is not of this world; ancients did not believe that it was of this world; they believed that it was the manifestation of an organizing pattern in the mind of God and that it manifests it is reflected here, as we can observe it from Earth, in the patterns that we see circling us in the heavens.

Now, that pattern, we tend, we connected it in the northern hemisphere to the alternation of light and dark in the solar year as seen from the northern hemisphere. But that cycle was not thought to be literally connected to the Sun, but rather the Sun is a reflection of that cycle from a heavenly realm, and so there will never be any way in which, in this relative world, that the absolute isn't relatively reflected. Right.

So in other words, it doesn't matter if it is the northern hemisphere or the southern hemisphere; either one would be a relative orientation of the Absolute, so you can flip the zodiac if you want. That's totally fine, and in fact, I encourage you to do so if you want to explore with it.

There's an astrologer who I know named Theo, and he has a group. It's dedicated to people flipping the zodiac and experimenting with charts, and I think he's sort of an advocate for flipping the zodiac, which is cool, I have no problem with it. I don't think you have to. I don't think that you have to get a more accurate reading. I've been doing readings for 13 years from people from both hemispheres and have had great success, and I believe that is because, ultimately, we're not talking about a causal, mechanistic, empirical system.

But we're talking about a symbolic language that from the very get-go was understood as relatively oriented to our material condition, and so, in other words, it doesn't matter if it's actually transitioning to light or dark, where you live, for you to enter into the symbolic orientation of the zodiac, which, whose orientation came from a different hemisphere that you live in? Because again, I would say the zodiac itself is a kind of symbolic language and not meant to be understood as a causal literal language.

We don't have any problem if you were to look at the Tarot; everyone sees the Tarot this way. But because there's astronomy and observable patterns in the heavens, it almost feels like we should be looking at it more like it's some kind of empirical causal science. I just don't think that's the case, but that's my belief at work. So, there are great debates about this in the astrological community, and I respect the debate overall; I think that it's fun to have those kinds of debates.

But for me, whether you're in the southern hemisphere or the northern hemisphere, The zero Libra point means the same thing. It's not literally anchored in what the light is actually, like literally doing where you live. Because it's a symbolic system, you can enter into it from any place in the world and participate in its relative orientation at a symbolic and oracular level, and it has great import, and I see that all the time in my client practice, which is why I believe this way.

But like I said, I've seen, you know, literally, at least 1000 of the getting closer to 15,000 clients that I've had, I see about 1000 a year, and it has been easily probably 1000 clients from the southern hemisphere, and I've never had any problem using the orientation of a system from the northern hemisphere to speak to their lives. So that doesn't mean that you couldn't flip the zodiac, by the way, but at any rate, it feels like once a year or so I have to make a video talking about this because I also get lots of questions about it.

So anyway, I hope that this is useful and that you will be able to have a little bit more nuance and be able to play with the symbolism of the Fall Equinox a little bit more after this video, and then stimulate good thought. That's it for today. Hope you guys are having a good one and we will see you again soon. Bye, everyone.