Tonight’s New Moon in Virgo is surprisingly complex.
We’re in the mutable Earth sign that shifts us from summer into fall. A lovely time of year when subtle changes remind us where we are. The light seems to soften. Colors fade, but in a nice way, becoming muted and variable. Nothing jumps out at you. Instead, there’s a sense of being invited in.
A sign associated with humility and service, there’s nothing brash or in your face here. This is Mercury’s nighttime sign. Both perception and expression are quieter than in Gemini, though still important.
The Earth element means this is a sign that communicates through doing. Virgo does things as a way to show caring. There’s a love of simplicity, of nature, and of craft.
Virgo is described as loving to organize things, obsessively. Certainly Virgo don’t like mess. But when you see a Virgo trying to herd cats and line up ducks, it’s generally a response to anxiety.
Virgo wants things to be OK.
Which is where the complexity come in.
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Tonight’s New Moon is conjunct Mars also in Virgo. A Mars presence would definitely tend to trigger Virgoan anxiety. Mars always wants to DO stuff and Virgo wants to be sure we’re doing the right things first. But this Mars, being conjunct, is already under the beams of the Sun. It’s very tough to spot in the sky these days and will soon disappear altogether. So, Mars is weaker and more internally focused than usual as he approaches his conjunction with the Sun.
Would a weaker Mars feel better to the Virgo New Moon? Or trigger concern? It depends how you feel about Mars and about Virgo.
The New Moon and Mars oppose Neptune, which is a whole ‘nother thing. Neptune is retrograde in Pisces, floating in a deeply visionary, dreamy, and not very focused state. This could also trigger anxiety in the New Moon and Mars.
Yet there is also a silvery lining here: Given the state of the world, Neptunian visions can offer both solace and hope. Again, your response will depend on your chart.
There’s more to unpack and I want to pause and say that all of the patterns surrounding this New Moon share this quality of “it depends.” Which is why I chose the word “trust” as my theme.
In all the connections among personal and outer planets, we see possibilities for both anxiety and hope. This Virgo New Moon will always come back to figuring out the next step. Taking that step, and all the ones that come after, will be easier if we can find the capacity to trust. Trust in ourselves. In other people. In the Earth. In the cosmos.
A brief digression on the difference between faith and trust. Both carry the sense of believing in something even when conclusive evidence is not available.
Faith, to me, is more an Air element thing. It’s about what we think, what we say, signing on to a creed or taking an oath. Trust is more an Earth thing. It’s being able to feel in our bodies that, no matter how uncertain things seem now, it will be OK in the end.
This is a deep part of Virgo. We (Virgo Moon here) want things to be OK. And, when we can reach it, underneath the anxieties about whether this or that or the other actually will turn out well, we have a quiet but steady trust in the world.
This trust is being offered at this New Moon, despite all the things happening around us.
Uranus trines the New Moon. The trickster revolutionary is fully on board. This trine is a supportive aspect, an easy flow. I wouldn’t argue that Uranus is ever easy, but he’s not taking the New Moon and turning it upside down. It’s more a chance to check in. Picture the Sun and Moon with their notebooks out and Uranus reporting. We get a heads up on what’s going on that allows us to do some Virgoan planning and prep.
Now notice how much is happening in the early to mid 20 degrees. Mars at 24 Virgo. Venus at 25 Libra. Pluto at 24 Capricorn. Neptune at 21 Pisces. Eris at 24 Aries. These all aspect each other, one way or another. So the personal and the cosmically transformational are commingled. Talking to each other.
Venus is especially important, which means that some listening is also happening. The caring kind of listening.
Mercury rules this New Moon but Mercury is in Libra. Venus rules Mercury and since she’s in her own sign, she becomes the final dispositer of the New Moon.
She squares Pluto, trines Jupiter, and opposes Eris. With Jupiter’s support, she can create beautiful rather than disastrous transformations.
There’s a Grand Trine in Air as well that connects Mercury, Saturn, and the North Node of the Moon. This easy flow of perception, ideas, and language supports us as we navigate the difficult and challenging aspects of our lives.
As always, finding where 14 Virgo, the location of the New Moon, falls in your birth chart, will help you make sense of this Moon in your life. Also check what you have in and around 24 degrees of any sign. Those placements are bound to be touched by tonight’s patterns.
No one knows what comes next, not really. At tonight’s New Moon, though, we can lean into a sense of where we are, who we are, and what we can trust.
The chaotic rush of current events needs to be faced. Yet underneath that, there’s something stable. That something might feel quiet. Muted. Self effacing. And somehow, trustworthy.
The astrological charts are my own. The images in this post include the title,
adapted from the children together by Andrea Tummons,
and the following images:
the sandpiper by Ray Hennessy,
the coffee mug by Danielle MacInnes,and
the children by Larm Rmah