New Moon in Virgo: Honouring the Goddess
We are approaching a new moon today, with the Sun and Moon aligning in the early hours of Friday morning in the UK (15th Sept, 2.39am, UK time) in the sign of Virgo. A new moon is a time where we focus our intention for the month ahead, and what is seeded here in this deeply feminine sign has to do with discernment and refinement, healing and rites of purification. This is where we tune in deeply to the innate wisdom of the body and cultivate the power of our inner spiritual and physical essence.
Virgo is represented in the heavens as Demeter, the harvest goddess, responsible for the fertitlity and fecundity of the earth. And in her earthly form, she is the priestess devoted in service to the restoration of divine feminine wisdom. Perhaps more than any other zodiac sign, we need to restore the image of Virgo, which has been so run down in the popular imagination. Far from being merely a nit-picking critic, or servile adminstator, she is really the true alchemist of the Zodiac, and she holds the keys to the deepest wsidom of its mystery school. She is the creatrix, who alone can deliver the incarnate wisdom of Christ-Sophia, and she prepares the way for the Divine Union of masculine and feminine in Libra, as the year turns at the Autumn Equinox.
In the chart of the new moon, we find the Sun and Moon making an almost perfect trine to Uranus in Taurus, which invites in an opportunity this month for more progressive thinking, to see life from a different perspective. This aspect can help open up creative channels and the possibility of new initiatives coming through. There is also a wider opposition to Neptune, which speaks to the longing of the soul to be released from suffering, and the need for compassion and forgiveness in relationship to others. And we are still experiencing an unusually large number of planets in retrograde motion, so we are needing to look deep within for guidance, think twice before proceeding with certain projects and plans, and recognise the karmic threads that still bind us to past behaviours, motivations and connections. Six planets are currently retrograde: Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn along with the three outer planets.
This new moon is all about timing and adjustment, and we do well to attend to the small changes that we notice in our bodies and in the world around us. Virgo is ruled by Mercury, but unlike Gemini which privileges intellect, wit and language, Virgo carries an embodied intelligence borne of everyday observance, practice and attunement to subtle changes in the rhythms of the earth and the body. This also implicates our work, and how we bring sacred attention to what we do; to offer our work up in service to love and truth, rather than it simply being a toil, or as a means to an end.
Virgo rules the intestinal tract in the body, and so has a lot to do with what we take in to our bodies, as nourishment, and as medicine. So this new moon is a good time to address the question of diet and nutirition, to set an intention to eliminate toxins, and to purify and make sacred our physical vessel.
The Virgo Mantra
This is an important moment in the year to assess what is really important in our lives and to commit to that. Here is a reminder of the Virgo mantra: “I discern what is essential to my well-being, and it becomes my practice.” New moon blessings to all.