Virgo New Moon Eclipse - Do You Feel the Call?

The New Moon will occur in Virgo on Sunday, September 21^st at 3:54 pm. New Moons are always a great time for taking stock of your life and setting intentions. This particular New Moon (occurring within the eclipse portal) is not only providing that opportunity but also asking us to transcend our separative egos and be of true service. Read on, if you're ready to hear the call...

This New Moon is occurring at the last degree of Virgo. There's a feeling of tying up all the final details, while simultaneously stepping into Virgo's innermost sanctum. Within any eclipse portal, we can expect hidden things to be revealed. Here, we may finally see the flaws within our thought processes or systems. With eclipses, we must proceed with caution, however, as they have a way of obscuring one area of our lives so we can more clearly see another. We must remember we're not seeing the whole picture.

Virgo is the sign of the harvest, the time of the year when the fruits of your persistent hard work are gathered. A New Moon (new beginnings) at the last degree in the sign of the harvest (completions or endings) is another one of those paradoxical situations we seem to be finding ourselves in so much of late. In a very real way, we're being asked to focus on the next step that's right in front of us, while practicing a deeper surrender into the unknown of what lies further ahead.

The intensity of this New Moon and eclipse will be felt differently by everyone, depending on where Virgo is found in your chart. Some will be forced to pay attention to what’s developing right in front of them, attending to real-world, practical details. Because Virgo is associated with health and the body, others may feel physically and emotionally drained or tired. As Virgo is a sign of purification and healing, now is the time to let go, forgive, clear and release. There's a deep purification process underway here. At the last degree of Virgo, there’s an added urgency to our healing. Virgo’s window of opportunity will be closing soon, and I believe she's asking us to use it in service of the world.

The symbol for the Sun and Moon at 30 Virgo is:

TOTALLY INTENT UPON COMPLETING AN IMMEDIATE TASK, A MAN IS DEAF TO ANY ALLUREMENT. 

The total concentration required for reaching any spiritual goal. 

In all decisive occasions, what must be done has to be done so intently that no outer voices can penetrate the mind, still less the soul. The neophyte stands at the gates of the sacred Pyramid. There is only one step he can take — ahead, or he is lost.  This is the culminating step, the decision that results from a myriad of small choices. Still a shadow of hesitation can remain. Attention may be distracted from the Now by a voice from the past, glamorizing some old memory. The outer doors of perception and thought must be closed, so the soul can complete its CONQUEST OF ILLUSION.*

This symbol seems to reflect the urgency of whatever “final step” Virgo is asking us to take. There’s diligence and purity of focus in this symbol, along with the promise of finally overcoming some illusion we’ve been a servant to. This symbol also seems to hint at the hidden oneness within the duality of the Virgo-Pisces polarity. Where Virgo is intent on what’s in front of her, working diligently to improve something in very practical ways, focusing on routines and rituals and trying to get things right, Pisces simply surrenders completely to divine wisdom. The gifts of heaven are available to us through Pisces, but the journey is not knowable from the start. If Virgo organizes our lives, Pisces is where we totally let go of control.

Pisces and Virgo hold a "healing axis," with Pisces tapping directly into Source energies, and Virgo working hard to anchor goodness in more practical ways. Virgo’s quest, however mundane in appearance, is ultimately a spiritual one. Virgo is the disciple, standing at the gates, having done everything there is to do to prepare for the final step. Each of us individually must find that threshold within ourselves and cross it, if only through sheer discipline and determination. There’s no way to know what’s on the other side, which is why we must also rely on a deep Piscean faith and willingness to surrender.

ASPECTS

We have multiple big-player aspects to this New Moon, and most of those big players are in retrograde or reverse motion. That very much fits the theme of “going back over something” to get it right or finish something that’s incomplete. The big planets influence collective currents and collective shifts. Retrograde action is an inward-turning energy, so there may be little external evidence of the work taking place here. If there is, it may feel like “here we go again” or like we’re once again exploring something we’ve explored before. Each of these aspects offers us a clue as to the final step this Virgo New Moon is asking of us, so let's dive a little deeper.

Trine to Uranus in Gemini

This New Moon is trine to Uranus, the planet of change, freedom and the future. Uranus is the planet of humanitarian advances, as well as fifth-dimensional ways of being. Uranus is moving through Gemini, the sign of the mind, learning and communication. Uranus in Gemini is an awakening energy that can bring radical new insights and new understanding of existing conditions, as well as inspiration and motivation for change. Uranus in Gemini is typically a time of great technological and social change. But Uranus is currently moving backward toward Taurus, the sign of the status quo and materialism. Some of the “going back over” energy of this New Moon may involve looking again at our material resources and our values. There's a strong likelihood of us having a big a-ha, especially as we look back at where we've been. Pay close attention to the small interactions of your day-to-day experience.

The symbol for Uranus at 2 Gemini is:

SANTA CLAUS FURTIVELY FILLING STOCKINGS HANGING IN FRONT OF THE FIREPLACE.

A rewarded faith in spiritual blessings. 

The popular allegory refers to the spiritual blessings which come to the "pure in heart," whose consciousness is likened to that of a little child. In this symbol, Santa Claus acts "furtively." The gifts from an imagined and intensely believed in spiritual world must not be examined closely or at length by the reasoning intellect. The would-be clairvoyant is told not to look straight and intently at what he begins to "see"; instead he should cast sideways glances at it, since the sharply focused mind would make the apparition vanish. The reception of new blessings from the spiritual realm above (the superconscious) requires mostly faith and purity of heart, and a common type of understanding (stockings) - thus a state of INNOCENCE.*

This symbol seems to be encouraging us to “become like little children” in our faith and hope, as there are gifts inherent in this way of being. Uranus is inviting us into a radical new way of being in the world, one based on hope and positive expectation.

Trine to Pluto in Capricorn 

The New Moon is also in harmonious aspect with Pluto, the planet of deep transformation. Uranus and Pluto working together can truly transform things, shepherding dead and dying systems or beliefs through the portal of rebirth into something radically different and alive. Pluto is also in retrograde, meaning he’s going back into shadow territory, digging in the dirt, for all the things that have been buried but that still exert a downward pull. 

Pluto, the God of the Underworld, may be shepherding Virgo, in a way that’s similar to the ancient myth of Hades and Persephone. In the myth, Hades, the God of the Underworld, falls in love with Persephone, then plots with Zeus to kidnap her and make her his queen. Though there’s violence and abuse of power in this action, over time, Persephone eventually comes to love Hades, growing into a capable and powerful queen.

Any Pluto journey holds the potential for us to grow more capable and powerful, as Persephone did, even if we resist the journey itself or feel afraid or sad for what must die. In trine, we know this New Moon is aligned with deep transformation, in a way that’s accepting or even relieving rather than fraught. There's the potential for us to mature our feminine natures, as well, and to find a way to love another, despite their bad behavior.

The symbol for Pluto at 2 Capricorn is:

THREE ROSE WINDOWS IN A GOTHIC CHURCH, ONE DAMAGED BY WAR.

The necessary realization by any individual making a violent use of collective power that it will lead to the inevitable destruction of some of the values ensuring group-integration.

The "chief" who claimed power from his tribe in order to lead or save it must reckon with the consequences of a too-impulsive use of this power in terms of violence. The integration he seeks to maintain or enhance may be partially destroyed if, in his ambition, he yearns to be the victorious war leader glorified by his people. A "rose window" symbolizes that through which the "light of the Spirit" enters into the edifice. Man's soul is said to be three-fold. Which part of man's inner trinity of principles tends to be destroyed by the use of violence? Evidently the principle of love and compassion.  This symbol opposes the power to destroy to the power to build. The "capital" of group-energies is partially squandered in armaments and death. WASTE is the opposite of group-integration.*

This symbol seems to point to the way in which our culture glorifies separation, war and violence, to our own detriment. Much of this material is being played out in grand style on the big stage by our leaders and "chief." This is the shadow material that must be witnessed and worked with if any future collective harmony is to be attained. Pluto, in its negative expression, seeks power, and oftentimes that power is gained through unsavory or even violent means (like Hades kidnapping Persephone). But shadow work is about looking within, not sitting in judgement of what we see "out there" or in others. This is the time to look within for places where this energy may live in you. How do you fight to get what you want? How do you separate yourself from others? Where is there "waste" in your life?

Opposition to Saturn in Pisces and Neptune in Aries

These two big players are still close enough together that it makes sense to read them together, even though they represent very different energies. Saturn is the patriarch of the skies. He’s the foundation builder, the karma keeper, and the one that encourages us to persist, even when it’s a struggle. In Pisces, Saturn is exploring collective fears and karmas. In retrograde, we know he’s going back over something again, hopefully helping us to release some of the ties that bind us, or potentially rewarding us in the places where we’ve put in the time and done the work.

Neptune is the great dissolver. Neptune is where we're inspired, let it all go and fall into the arms of God in faith. We surrender any sense of self and allow ourselves to be carried by the prevailing currents. Neptune is currently in Aries, the sign of healthy (or unhealthy) aggression and confidence. Neptune may be working to dissolve something in our collective psyches regarding aggression, like the Plutonian shadow attachment to control and war, so that we can step into a healthier expression of the pure, creative life energy Aries represents. Neptune in Aries can also create fearful illusions around questions of safety, as well as delusions of unchecked power, that we'll need to see through.

Together, Neptune and Saturn are a very odd couple. Saturn wants to build, as Neptune seeks to dissolve. Saturn is quite focused on the material world, where Neptune sees only the invisible. This odd couple is standing in opposition to the New Moon, meaning they’re creating some real friction or a feeling of having to choose between opposing things. There’s no way to know what exactly is unfolding here, but I get the sense all of these big planets are working together to orchestrate an immense change. This is a slowly-evolving, but radical, transformation, impacting our collective systems, as well as each of us individually. At the New Moon, this opposition is putting tension on everyone to find ways to ground, get real and create order in our lives, while also upping our vibration through faith, trust and inspired surrender.

The symbol for Saturn at 29 Pisces is:

LIGHT BREAKING INTO MANY COLORS THROUGH A PRISM.

The analytical power of the mind necessary for the formulation of life processes in their many aspects. 

Cycles of existence begin in unity and end in "multi-unity." At the stage of consummation, the many individual differences are totaled; they constitute a sum. Within that sum — a unified total — the inevitability of the future process of differentiation is implied, because every cycle leaves a mass of waste products slowly returning to the unconscious state of chemical matter, of "humus." Unity will always break again into multiplicity. The "prism" is always there. There is no absolute unity; if anything could be called "absolute" it is the relationship between the One and the Many.  This symbol points to the fundamental type of operation in all modes of existence. The most beautiful and seemingly everlasting experience of unity will in time be superseded by the need to attend to a multiplicity of details. Existence implies DIFFERENTIATION.*

The symbol for Neptune at 1 Aries is:

A WOMAN JUST RISEN FROM THE SEA. A SEAL IS EMBRACING HER.  

Emergence of new forms and of the potentiality of consciousness. 

To be individually conscious means to emerge out of the sea of generic and collective consciousness. It is the result of some basic action: a leaving behind, an emerging from a womb or matrix, here symbolized by the sea.  Such an action is not to be considered a powerful, positive statement of individual being. The small tender germ out of the seed does not loudly proclaim its existence. It has to pierce through the crust of the soil still covered with the remains of the past. The seal is a mammal which once had experienced a biological, evolutionary but relatively unconscious emergence, yet which retraced its steps and "returned to the womb" of the sea. It embraces the Woman who has emerged, because every emergent process at first is susceptible to failure. This process is indeed surrounded by the memory, the ghosts of past failures during previous cycles. The impulse upward is held back by regressive fear or insecurity. The possibility of success and that of failure is implied throughout the entire process of actualization. Every release of potentiality contains this two-fold possibility. It inevitably opens up two paths: one leads to "perfection" in consciousness, the other to "disintegration" - the return to the undifferentiated state (the state of humus, manure, cosmic dust - i.e. to the symbolic "great Waters of space," to chaos). This stage represents the IMPULSE TO BE.*

These two symbols remind me of something a friend of mine (a powerful seer) once told me. She saw the Earth and all of its inhabitants connected like a mycelium network. She felt that the Earth was at a point where we would either figure out how to grow the network of connection and become one organism, or we would disintegrate - experiment over. She felt this was a natural passage of all sentient planets – a threshold that needs to be crossed if we are to proceed. Will we reach out to each other, connect and become one? 

I feel like the key to understanding all of this lies with that Piscean energy of trust, faith and complete surrender. We cannot know what the “right” course for this planet is. All we can do is grow our own area of mycelium connection, hope for the best, but know that however it goes down, it's correct and we’ll ultimately be alright. If we can live in this place of hope rather than fear, take the personal step in this direction that’s right in front of us, and leave the rest to the brilliance of the invisible networks that hold us, we just might do it.

Conjunction Mercury, Libra

Lastly, this New Moon is conjunct Mercury, the natural ruler of Virgo. Conjunctions are where energies are blended, though this conjunction is a loose one, with Mercury out ahead of the New Moon in the sign of Libra. Libra is all about balance and relational integrity. Mercury may be calling us to turn Virgo’s discerning eye on our relationships. Some of the shadow material activated by Pluto in Capricorn could involve beliefs around gender roles or “traditional” understandings of relationship, or questions of power as it relates to fairness and justice. We may need to speak up about whatever we see.

The symbol for Mercury at 7 Libra is:

A WOMAN FEEDING CHICKENS AND PROTECTING THEM FROM THE HAWKS. 

The need to face the antagonism of "powers of darkness" as one attempts to feed the mind of as yet helpless and frightened apprentices. 

The most basic "Law" of our universe is that every release of new potentialities brings about a polarization of effects — that is, the new potentiality will be used both for construction and destruction. It will arouse individuals (or groups and nations) to take a series of steps which will lead some to greater success, others to deeper failure. Whoever makes possible this new release has to accept the karma of both the success and the failure. When Jesus showered his immense love upon lukewarm, self-centered individuals, it inevitably came to be turned into violent hatred when these soul-minds were unable to cope with its frightening intensity. Jesus had to accept spiritual responsibility for those who crucified him.  Thus, the forever-present struggle involved in making it possible for the future-oriented actualizers of an ideal to survive the attacks of tradition-worshiping minds that can only follow the lines of automatic response.  GUARDIANSHIP.*

This symbol seems to be asking us to step into a protective role in our immediate environments. The "hawks" are circling, and in this symbol, the hawks represent any power of darkness. Although it may be tempting to view the hawks as aggressors we must fight off, the symbol is calling instead for us to "feed the flock." Can we hold love and hope over fear, not as an abstract concept, but as a way of interacting with the people we meet or see every day? Can we offer grains of truth in a way that’s nourishing to those in our care?

Years ago, when I first got my rooster, I learned a lesson in “guardianship.” It was a difficult one to walk, as it required changing my entire outlook on aggression. I learned, over time, that when my rooster attacked me (which was almost every day), he was doing so out of fear. Though my impulse was to protect myself or fight back, if I did, the conflict would escalate. The only way forward for us was for me, as the more conscious participant in the relationship, to bridge the gap. When he was aggressive, I brought myself down to his level, kneeling on the ground so he was less likely to feel threatened. Though he was capable of clawing my eyes out, I would speak calmly to him, trying to show him another way for us to interact. It took quite some time, but we did eventually come to a point in our relationship where I could pick him up and stroke his head, and he’d close his eyes contentedly.

I believe this is what this symbol is calling us toward. Can we hear the call to guardianship for those around us who are frightened, even if they're behaving badly? Can we help alleviate fears and feed the souls longing to grow, so that the flock can come together? This isn't about “saving” anyone, but about opening the final separative gate within yourself. This is also more than humble service. Indeed, I learned more from my rooster than I’m sure he ever learned from me. Thus was my spiritual reward for reaching out to him, despite my fears.

WORKING WITH THIS NEW MOON 

Any Virgo New Moon is a great time to focus on body-mind-spirit health and well-being. Virgo is excellent at creating routine and can help you see what's working and what isn't. But I believe this New Moon is significantly more than that. Yes, it's a good time to start a diet or organize your closet, but at the final degree of Virgo, there's an opportunity here for much deeper healing and reordering. Virgo is presenting us with the final threshold of her path of learning through service to others. Through sheer discipline, we must trust the spiritual lessons we've learned and take that final step into the pyramid where body, mind and spirit merge. It's not enough to preach "love and light" if we're practicing fear. It's not enough to walk up to the gate and peer inside.

Virgo is a disciple. The work that Virgo does for others is simultaneously her path of spiritual reward. It’s not that her acts of humble service buy her admission, but that in purifying her intention, again and again, within those humble acts, she is purified. Yes, she improves the lives of those around her with her work, but the path she’s on is also self-serving in the most blessed of ways.

Now Virgo is standing at the threshold. It's time to tap whatever faith you can find within yourself and step across the line. Now is the time to be a guardian of our fellow men and women. Virgo, with the help of some friends in very high places, is asking us to unearth any attachment we have to separative ways of thinking. If you've been working to develop your spiritual vision, now is the time to embody it. Move the theories of love and light from your head into your bones. Be a humble servant, as it's truly the path to heaven. If you can hear this call, you're standing at the gate of that sacred pyramid. There's no going back. Walk in faith. It's the only way forward.

*For the sake of time, I have abridged some of the Sabian Symbols, without fundamentally changing their meaning. For the full symbol, as it was originally recorded, you can visit: The Sabian Symbols - Contents