New Moon in Virgo

10 Sept

Written By

Dear Friends

We have a new moon in the sign of Virgo, in the early hours of tomorrow morning (11th Sept, 4.26am, UK time). 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. The new moon makes a sextile aspect to Mars in Cancer, which can be good for energy, vitality and positive action, the sextile aspect tending to bring out a more constructive expression of Mars. Perhaps there is a some light relief in this new moon, after all the intensity of the recent eclipse season!

The Themes of this Virgo New Moon

Virgo is represented in the heavens as Demeter, the harvest goddess, responsible for the fertility 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 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. Restored to her rightful place as the representation of the goddess in the heavens, she has the capacity to remind us that every mundane, worldly act, has its divine correspondent; that by bringing sacred attention to our daily activities in the form of offering, we can reconnect earth and heaven.

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, 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 is a sign of weaving, and its medicine is woven stitch by stitch into the very fabric of life. And every choice we make in life becomes a part of that weave. And the gift that Virgo offers us is the gift of discernment, a fundamental quality of the soul, that allows us to determine what is real, what is essential, what is nourishing for body and mind, from what is not. Discernment is borne out of that embodied mindfulness, that attention we pay to the smallest details, and the capacity that gives us to take the next step, to work the next stitch, to integrate intention and action.

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 Aspects in the New Moon Chart

As mentioned above, we have just one significant aspect to the new moon in Virgo, and that is the sextile from Mars in Cancer, which tends to brings the archetypal warrior into play in a more constructive way. This is because the sextile aspect carries more a Venusian energy, which softens the Martian instinct, and can make him more conciliatory in his actions, while still bringing forth his courage, strength and vitality.

We can also see in the chart that both Mercury and Venus have just moved signs. Venus has just moved from Libra, where she is very much at home, to Scorpio where she demands greater depth, is less likely to accept superficial niceties, and can be more suspicious or mistrustful. This is emphasised even more at the moment, as Venus is now making a square aspect to Scorpio’s ruler, Pluto, which bring up feelings of jealousy and the need to get the bottom of situations that have been festering - specially in matters of the heart.

Mercury has also just moved sign, out of Virgo, and into Libra, joining in with the outer planet line-up of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, to form the base of a kite aspect pattern; being opposed to Neptune which can reflect a certain dreamy idealism or fantasy; trine to Uranus - the capacity to think outside the box - and a trine aspect to Pluto - which brings depth of insight and a readiness to face the shadow aspects of life.