Virgo New Moon
THE ASTROLOGY
Virgo Season is upon us and so I thought I’d address the upcoming Virgo New Moon and wax poetic about the Virgo-Pisces axis, with the help of my vipassana teacher-in-spirit, Joseph Goldstein. He talks about “path and presence” which sounded a lot like the interplay between Pisces and Virgo.
The idea regards navigating having dreams and ambitions (the path) while also maintaining sanity/mindfulness in attending to the details of the path (presence). It’s about intentionally not cultivating expectations, and thus reducing the chance of disappointment because we got attached to an idea. It’s about being able to find peace in doing the smaller daily tasks that eventually lead to something larger.
But to find peace in the regular stuff of living, it helps to surrender* and let go of clinging to a particular outcome. A big Easier Said Than Done, but it’s a practice not a destination.
*footnote below on spiritual bypassing and the use of the word “surrender”
Jupiter in Pisces allowed for expansive dreaming, idealism, and creativity for the first half of 2022 and will return there later this year. Think back to March 2022: What was inspiring you during that Pisces/Virgo lunation cycle last Spring?
Six months later, this upcoming New Moon in Virgo will be a great time to check in with those aspirations, and refine the processes that are carrying us along our larger Path(s). With so much awareness of details, the trick for attentive Virgo is to discern which details will or won’t impact the final outcome. Seeing what is important helps inform our use of time/energy. To paraphrase Austin Coppock’s work on the decans, he describes a challenge of the first decan of Virgo in allowing processes to unfurl naturally, without too much or too little intervention. This is the decan that holds our Virgo New Moon on August 26th/27th. What gardens are you tending in the Virgo area of your chart, and can you be present, involved, but not over- or under-tending? Mars squares this New Moon from scattered Gemini, asking us to focus to move forward. Only plant as much as you can tend well.
My favorite thing about this approach is that we can feel freer to have boundless dreams. Why wouldn’t we? If we aren’t clinging to perfection or a certain outcome, we are more free. We don’t have to dismiss an aspiration as “too big” or “unrealistic” out of fear of not reaching it as we imagine.
The saying about not shooting for the Moon when you can aim for stars?
We can shoot for the Moon AND the stars behind it, because the path there is in the same direction, regardless of how far we get.
BUT HOW, CLAIRE?
What does being present feel like, though? How does someone know if they are being present with a task or not?
Not multitasking is a great first step, but there is more to it. Let me give an example:
Washing dishes is part of my larger dream of taking care of my physical self and not hating my space. When I’m washing the dishes or whatever it is, and I can manage to remember to wake up in my mind, I check in with myself:
Am I rushing? Even subtly? If so, why?
Am I in the past or the future in my mind?
Am I feeling the warm water on my skin? Smelling the soap?
Planning my next thing after this thing?
Part of this axis of Virgo and Pisces also holds the interplay between shame and acceptance. Not saying these two are a duality pair or the ends of a shared spectrum, but I see them in this axis. Shame/Lack in Virgo, Acceptance in Pisces. I find that most of the time when I am rushing, it’s because I feel like I haven’t done enough in the day/week/month/lifetime, and I’m compensating for this perceived but untrue sense of inadequacy. This not-enough-ness and/or shame in Virgo many times disguises itself as pushing productivity/rushing/picking-at/intervening. Part of the Letting Go is accepting the self and that enough has already been done. The practice of letting go in itself is a meditation that we have to return to repeatedly, indefinitely. Don’t be surprised to have to remember to let go multiple times a day, for the rest of forever until it magically gets easier. I do believe this is a muscle we can work and grow, just like any other muscle, but we have to practice. And if we don’t use it, we lose it.
IMPORTANT NOTE
*In this time, as we continue to fight systems of oppression and any oppressors inside of us, sustainability is so important. When I say “let go of the outcome” and “surrender” what that does NOT mean is that we don’t care, that we do not act, or that we lose a sense of urgency or purpose. Not having expectations isn’t the same as not having standards. We can still have standards!
What it recognizes is that human minds and hearts can only do so much in 24 hours, and that calm folks are usually happier and more productive with their aims in the long run (and this is a long run). It does mean that we intentionally channel our energy into realistic actions, instead of into internal turmoil that exhausts the mind, body, and spirit. We can use our hope, anger, or sadness as inspiration that fuels action.
Maybe that action is taking care of yourself now so you can fight another fight later when someone else is resting. Maybe it’s calling senators or hitting send on those community aid funds. Surrendering spiritually in the name of peace does not mean surrendering materially, surrendering to harm, or not engaging in challenges. I just wanted to be clear about this given this language lends itself easily to spiritual bypassing on these issues.
Upcoming Dates of Interest
8/20 Mars into Gemini
8/22 Sun into Virgo
8/25 Mercury into Libra
8/26 Venus disappears from morning sky
8/27 Virgo New Moon
9/4 Venus into Virgo
9/9 Mercury stations retrograde
9/10 Pisces Full Moon
9/15 Mercury disappears from evening sky
Thanks as always for reading and best of luck to you under these pedantic skies!
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