Happy New Moon in Virgo! This New Moon at approximately 11 degrees of Virgo became exact at 9:56 PM New York time on Monday, September 2, 2024. This New Moon began a new Eclipse Season (the first actual eclipse of this season will occur on September 17).
Virgo is an earth sign that is represented by The Maiden. It is associated with Persephone in Greek mythology. Virgo is very much associated with the wheat crop, as the ancients thought that Virgo—the second-largest constellation in the sky—appeared to be a woman with wings carrying a sheaf of wheat.
In the Northern Hemisphere, the final third of summer (Virgo season) has historically been the time when the most crops are reaped. In order to reap crops, it requires discipline, planning, and pragmatism. These are three qualities that the sign of Virgo models for the rest of the Zodiac.
Virgo means virgin in Latin. The sign of Virgo is also associated with purity and self-sufficiency. The Virgo glyph is an 'M' with a tail that turns inward, representative of Virgo's ability to introspect and discern. It also may represent sexual shyness, as Scorpio, the most outwardly sexual of signs, has a glyph that is an 'M' with a tail that is an outward-pointing arrow, representing a phallus.
Virgo is a mutable sign in Western astrology, because it comes at the end of a season. In many parts of the Northern United States, Canada, and Europe, the deciduous leaves change colors (or at least start to) during Virgo season.
Virgo is the ruler of the 6th House—the House of Health. This house is the realm of health, daily routines, and repetitive tasks (including those that are involved in work/career).
Virgo is ruled by Mercury, the planet of communication. If you have your sun, moon, Ascendant, or Mercury in Virgo, you’re probably a good communicator. You probably have good speaking and/or writing skills, are detailed, and practical.
Mercury is exalted (amplified) right now, as this New Moon coincided with Mercury still being in its Post-Retrograde Shadow Phase. During the time since this New Moon, we have been feeling strong Mercury Retrograde-like effects. And now, Mercury has re-entered into Virgo, making everyone super picky about everything (but also giving us a wonderful opportunity to refine how we communicate, and to focus on integrating the teachings in the following sections).
Virgo is a wonderful sign that helps us to get in touch with the logical, the practical, and the everyday things that really take up the majority of our lives on earth. Let’s discuss how we can best utilize the Virgo energies to improve our daily lives.
USING THE LEFT BRAIN: DISCIPLINE, LOGIC & PLANNING
Virgo the Maiden can seem cold, but she is simply focused. She is a model of discipline, pragmatism, and logical planning—all tenets of the left (logical) brain, or the yang energy. Applying this Divine Masculine aspect to our lives can help us to experience greater success in life. With Mars in thinking and communication-oriented Gemini in this New Moon chart (it has ingressed into Cancer now), it’s a great time to integrate these Divine Masculine energies in a harmonious way.
Two of the best traits of Virgo are being organized and detailed. Having things in order improves efficiency in all areas of life, and helps you to avoid unnecessary hangups that are due to being disorganized.
I'm a Lunar Virgo and I tend to be pretty organized when it comes to keeping track of numbers and records. When I was a kid, I ran a backyard baseball league and obsessively kept stats (I was batting champion one year). I really, really love statistics, whether it's about baseball or finances or whatever. One thing that isn't an inherent strength for me, though, is organizing possessions.
I'm committing to doing some cleaning and organizing of my physical environment during the remainder of this Virgo season. What are you committing to organizing or cleaning during the remainder Virgo season?
As a Lunar Virgo, I also have a discerning, skeptical, and logical mind. It's seemingly an odd trait to have for an intuitive, but I actually find that the skepticism and discernment helps me to more often than not separate true intuition/psychic receivings from illusion of my mind.
Logic and pragmatism are important virtues on the spiritual journey. Science says that adults make approximately 35,000 decisions every single day. Most of these decisions are relatively inconsequential--and most of these decisions are made with the left-brain/logical mind (e.g. following directions to cook something, how to drive to your destination, following protocols in your work).
I believe that we should strive to establish a healthy balance between the left brain/logical side (yang) and the right brain/intuitive side (yin) in order to be the most effective humans.
The planets are providing us the opportunity to find this balance right now, as the Retrograde Neptune in Pisces (which represents the right brain/intuitive/yin side) opposed the sun and moon in Virgo (representing the left brain/logical/yang side) on this New Moon.
Here are some general tips for improving your use of discipline, logic and pragmatism:
Write down daily and weekly goals. Set intentions soon after every New Moon for the next 20 days. Put these goals in a journal or somewhere where you can see them daily [e.g. a wall in your office or the refrigerator (after you remove any inessential postings on your refrigerator, of course)].
Keep a list of daily rituals on a clipboard or a whiteboard and check off each completed ritual as you do them
Schedule a weekly or bi-weekly cleaning and organizing time
Schedule daily, weekly or monthly rituals (e.g. meditation time, cleaning the house, going for acupuncture, or backing up your files) in your smartphone or Google Calendar, if you use one
Keep a journal on your bedstand and commit to spending 5-10 minutes each night writing down some thoughts on your day and some thoughts/ideas for the days ahead
A CREATIVE ENERGY, TOO
As the opposing force to Pisces, Virgo shares in some of its features—most notably creativity. As a mutable sign, Virgo teaches us how to create—but where is differs from Pisces, is it teaches us then how to follow through on our creation—thinking it through practically, and dividing it into steps.
With Mars in Gemini squaring the Retrograde Neptune in Pisces in this New Moon chart, this is a very creative time—especially for literature. So if you are a writer of any kind, now is really the time to get at it! It is especially a great time to create fantasy worlds and pen those.
With Mars in Cancer now, we are feeling inspired to express our passions and emotions through art.
However, with Mars squaring Neptune in its home sign in this New Moon chart, there will also be lessons around illusion and discernment.
ILLUSION & DISCERNMENT
One of the important lessons of Virgo and the 6th House is getting real and getting practical. With this Mars-Neptune square, the topic of discernment will be really important over the next few weeks. We need to figure out what is real, and what isn’t—and that includes what is going on within the confines of our own mind.
I’m sure you don’t need me to remind you of this, but so much of the time, what we believe to be the case about things in our lives and the outside world doesn’t turn out to be reality. The types of fears, encounters and arguments that we visualize and angst over never come about, and the things that we never could have anticipated end up hitting us over the head.
It’s humbling to remember that there are always higher forces at play, and that as much as we try to plan (Virgo style), no amount of planning will ever suffice to prepare us for the surprises that do actually come our way.
IMPROVING INNER DIALOGUE
As I have said, Virgo is concerned with communication, as it is ruled by Mercury (which is now also in Virgo!). Thus far we have discussed the themes of communication with others, and rituals, but what about dialogue with yourself?
One of the most difficult aspects of the Awakening journey is the challenge of mastering your mental body. In order to master this lesson of the mind, it requires a great amount of discipline and practice. Someone with little control over their mind will be able to progress spiritually in many ways, but will simply not be as happy or content as someone who has really learned to master their mind.
When it comes to this topic, one of the most important things to understand is that thinking is not always the same mechanism. Sometimes you are actively thinking thoughts--for example while you are logically trying to solve a problem--while other times thoughts are actually thinking you. The reason for this is something called T-Fields.
T-Fields are clouds of energy that are located within your energy field and in spaces in homes and businesses, or wherever people congregate. T-fields can be passed from person to person kind of like a virus. This is why if you have dinner with some pretty negative people, for example, you're probably going to start thinking negatively yourself. And if you have dinner with some really positive, upbeat people, your thoughts are going to become more positive!
This is why your living environment really matters. If you live with negative people, you are going to be more likely to be haunted by negative thoughts because of the T-fields. If you live in a building with a lot of dark energy, you likewise are going to be subject to more negative thoughts if you haven't sufficiently cleansed your living space spiritually.
So whether you know it or not, most of the time thoughts are actually thinking you, and not the other way around. The more that you cleanse your energy field and your space and do your spiritual work, you are able to let go of the subconscious patterns that were unconsciously imprinted on you by your parents or caregivers when you were between the ages of zero and seven.
As you shift these subconscious patterns into more supportive subconscious patterns, naturally the resonant T-fields in your aura will shift to more positive T-fields. If you are then able to surround yourself with positive people more of the time, you will find your thoughts permanently shifting for the better.
The other thing that is really important to remember when it comes to improving your inner dialogue is the breath. People who breathe shallowly most of the time tend to not have the most supportive inner dialogues--as when the breathing is shallow, the nervous system is stressed. A stressed nervous system will generally produce stressed thoughts.
When you remember to breathe deeply as you are going about your day, you are likely to experience a levity in your thoughts. This is why, as I said, I recommend a daily deep breathing practice for most everyone.
Meditation is such an incredibly helpful tool for everyone—not just those on a conscious Awakening/self-improvement journey.
A very simple and (I think, beginner-friendly) form of meditation is to simply sit quietly, and focus on breathing deeply into your abdomen. As thoughts inevitably come up, rather than following the thoughts, imagine that they are simply clouds drifting by in the sky. Observe the thoughts when they come up—and when you catch yourself following the thoughts (and beginning to ‘think’), remind yourself to bring your focus and attention back to the physical sensations of your breathing (e.g. the movement of your belly, and the feeling of the air going in and out of your nostrils).
Try this for just two minutes at first. You’ll get better at it after just a week of practice. When you’re ready, you can increase to five minutes, 10 minutes, or more!
Many studies show that meditation is great for physical and mental health; let’s talk more about how Virgo season can help us to improve our well-being.
DAILY RITUALS TO IMPROVE PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH
The pragmatism and ritualism of Virgo also assists us in improving our physical and mental health and vitality. Use the remainder of this Virgo season to implement new strategies to enhance your physical robustness and mental well-being. Start taking some new supplements (or start taking ones again that you maybe had taken in the past), and recommit to daily meditation and exercise.
Take a moment and write down at least 3-5 new rituals (this could include a new diet and/or supplement regimen) that you will be implementing this Virgo season. Examples could include: meditation; an exercise routine; cultivating an altar; a tai chi or qi gong practice; practicing a sport; doing dry brushing; going for weekly massages.
PLUTO RE-ENTERS CAPRICORN
The Retrograde Pluto re-entered Capricorn, initiating its final journey through the sign of the Sea Goat until 2254.
It’s been an interesting journey with Pluto traveling through Aquarius recently. It’s brought out a lot of idealism and enthusiasm for the future; the endless war in Gaza especially has brought a counterforce of people committing more deeply than ever before to creating unity and peace for the future.
We have also seen Artificial Intelligence become really en vogue. If you notice now, pretty much every website and social media platform you use has an AI integration. For example, usually now the first gatekeeper for chat-based technical support is AI.
With Pluto regressing back into Capricorn, where it was when when the October 7 attacks occurred, it is likely that we will see a bookend to the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza. The United States is going to be presenting a new ceasefire deal shortly, and we may finally be at a point astrologically where a ceasefire could take place (hopefully). In that case, Israel would probably turn its signs completely toward Lebanon.
During this final Pluto in Capricorn time, our planet will experience a recalibration geopolitically in one way or another. The U.S. presidential election will set the stage for the next two decades of Pluto in Aquarius, where we will see a radical reshaping of all aspects of life—as we shift more toward technology, and away from hypercapitalism (oddly enough, as of course the two have been up until this point super-intertwined).
As Capricorn rules over economics and geopolitics, those will be the two main points of discourse in the time leading up to the upcoming election (Pluto will again ingress into Aquarius on November 19).
Pluto’s time in Capricorn began with the 2008 global recession, and although the stock markets have taken a dip lately, overall all of the economic markers in the U.S. are still strong. But the possibility is absolutely out there for some sort of Black Swan event to occur to crash the markets sometime while Pluto is in Capricorn—and regardless of whether that takes place or not (hopefully not of course), there is still a huge question mark as to whether 2025 will continue to be a ‘soft landing’ or whether there will be a recession.
Astrologically speaking, a recession is more likely than not (the ‘bookend theory’), however the question is of course when.
I have a feeling that a new election may surprisingly be called in Canada before Pluto enters Aquarius in mid-November.
Capricorn is the cardinal earth sign, so it will bring focus strongly back to the Earth itself. How we will address pollution and climate change as communities and as a collective is a crucial question right now. Now is a great time to do what you can as an individual, and recommit to recycling, and taking care of the Earth in any way that you feel called to.
We should celebrate this last foray of Pluto into Capricorn by getting out in nature as much as possible-- and experiencing love, joy and connection with our beloved pets, and animals in general.
Wishing you a happy, healthy and productive Virgo Season!
With Love,
Matthew John
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