I've been an expatriate for sixteen years now, and so I see the world as my home. Physically, I'm in Quito. I look across Calle Cochapata and see the Red Cross building, where there's a woman on crutches walking slowly towards a yellow cab. Beyond her, I see tile roofs and tall buildings, and way in the distance, the smudged figure of the Virgen de Quito, blessing this city. The sky is darkening at the horizon, and we'll probably have a thunderstorm in the next hour.

I'm here in the body, but my brain frequently disengages itself and wanders off. It roams to places I've been - Bali, Cartagena, Istanbul - and to places I've never been - Sydney, Havana, New Orleans. Everywhere I go, there are people just living their lives - looking for sustenance, puttering around their homes, maintaining connections with each other.

And so where are the enemies? Are the enemies the passionate believers in other religions? Are they the kids in street gangs? Are they the shrewd business-men who only look at profit? Are they the people who are disgusted by gay people? And if the enemies are only the people who think that I'm their enemy, then where does the process stop? Does this energy of hate and destruction boomerang back and forth forever?

The idea of "the enemy" has been with us a long time. Whenever you have an encounter with another person, you are taking a risk that this Other will be hostile to your own interests in some way. And yet everyone has to move outside their safe little turf, sooner or later, in order to develop. Eventually, you have to recognize Otherness as equal to you - equally good and equally deserving of the good things in life.

In astrology, this primal theme is symbolized by the Aries/Libra axis. Aries is the Self, and Libra the Other. Aries is also the sign of the Warrior, while Libra is the sign of the Peace-maker. This, of course, does not mean that all Aries people are belligerent and all Libra people are pacifists. After all, there is no such thing as a pure human representative of a sign - since all of us are influenced by many different signs.

But when a new moon occurs in a sign, this brings out its archetypal qualities, and we all experience them. And the new moon in April stimulates the Aries/Libra axis - and so issues of war and peace will come up for all of us.

Aries is the sign that focuses mainly on defending the integrity of the Self. And Libra is the sign that focuses on maintaining relationship, and on seeing the two sides of everything. Both signs have to work on integrating the qualities of the opposite sign, with Aries learning to compromise and cooperate, and Libra getting in touch with a clear and aware sense of self.

With the sun, moon, Mercury, Venus and the north node all in Aries, there will be real need to be true to ourselves. At the same time, with the Jupiter and south node in Libra, we will also all confront the Other. Can we maintain our strength and integrity as individuals, and also be just and fair - and perhaps even loving - when dealing with other people?

You could look at the twelve signs as representing human development. Aries, the first sign, is about coming up with the human ego, more valuable even than the opposable thumb. Because of this ego, we don't always have to do things the way they've done before. Aries is the sign of the pioneer, the one who thinks and acts for herself.

Taurus, the next sign, represents the rise of a relationship with the plant life around us. Next, Gemini shows the way we humans have developed speech and writing systems. Cancer, the fourth sign, shows how we worked out our lines of kinship. Leo, the fifth sign, is all about the birth of art and play. And Virgo, the sixth sign, is connected to the various ways we've learned to work, and to produce the things that make life easier - from candles to computers.

But now we've arrived at the 7th sign. Have we learned to relate peacefully with each other? Not yet.

None of the first six signs oppose each other, and so you come to the first opposition when you come to Libra. For the first time, a sign is challenged directly. Aries looks across the wheel and sees someone who threatens her to the core, and who also holds the secret to her identity. It is only in confronting her opposite, her mirror or shadow, that a human being becomes whole. This is something every astrologer learns, through a lifetime studying the circle.

The new moon on April 8 is more than just an Aries/Libra opposition. It involves an eclipse, which gives it more resonance, so events connected to this new moon will make themselves felt for a long time. The last time we had an Aries new moon and eclipse (in April of 1986), the Chernobyl disaster occurred. Nuclear fission itself is related to the Aries/Libra axis, in that it's a continuing attempt to regain balance, which leads to a chain reaction. It's kind of like that hate-and-destruction boomerang I mentioned earlier.

This new moon has one more unusual feature. It's part of a cardinal T-square, a volatile configuration. Saturn in Cancer is taking the catalyst position, halfway between the Aries and Libra planets, squaring both sides. This will make it a pretty intense new moon for those who have planets between 12 and 21 degrees of cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn). This is a sensitive area for both George W. and the US chart.

What does Saturn do? It harks back to the past in some way. Some unresolved matter could come up, something to do with social balance. It may make all of us very aware of the need to reach out.

Yes, we are all individuals, and this is the source of our creative spirit. But we also live in a world of Others. What do we do with them? We have a lot of choices. We can be hostile, draw lines in the sand, close the gates of our cities. We can try to manifest a wave of universal love, not an easy stance to maintain. Or we can dialogue with each other, work together, get to know each other, recognize our similarities and be intrigued by our differences. It will take some time, but, for the world as a whole, it's our necessary next step.

At root, I believe that we're all the same. When it rains, we all get wet. Now is the time to reach out through the rain, while it's still a temporary condition.

Index of Jenny' Writings on Blowjobasian.com