Welcome to the New Moon in Virgo, offering new beginnings of many kinds. The solar eclipse accompanying this New Moon gives extra oomph to any wishes and intentions we make, and extends their effects across the next six months.
How do we choose which goals and intentions to focus on?
CLICK HERE to listen to this post (and download the mp3 if you choose).
Virgo is mutable Earth, a sign caricatured as fussy, anxious, and obsessively organized. So, sure, this can be a time to set intentions to clean out the garage, or organize your files, and those are good things. Limiting your intentions to such mundane concerns, though, would miss the heart and soul of this New Moon.
Virgo is the sign that tends the Earth with care. Taurus, Earth sign of Spring, is the gardener who prepared the soils, planted seed, and watched over their growth. Virgo is the sign of harvest, the time when the fruits of summer are ripe, when grain is gathered in, threshed, and ground. Virgo bakes bread.
Virgo is the sign that tends, mends, and brings healing. Autumn is a fruitful season but everything new in Spring is now a bit ragged and worn. Virgo loves to gather up the tattered edges and weave them whole again. She is a spinner, a weaver, and a healer.
In many cultures, weaving is magical. Grandmother Spider is a powerful wise woman. The Norns, sometimes known as the Fates, create the tapestry of reality with their spinning, weaving, and clipping. This attention to detail, this ability to mend, and in so doing, make the world: These are Virgo skills.
This New Moon holds great energy for healing and mending. If we need to cut a thread, tie a knot, and move on, this is a great New Moon for that. If we need to hold something close, reweaving it into the fabric of our lives, that can also be wished for.
Virgo is ruled by Mercury, who governs exchanges of all kinds, journeys, deals, sleight of hand, deftness, cleverness, and language. Hermes is the god of thieves as well as merchants, the wordsmith whose patter keeps you from noticing what his hands are up to.
Are we as clever as we need to be? Are we too clever? Mercury is in Libra now, balanced, harmonious, fair-minded, and also diplomatic and charming. If we need to smooth waters of communication with someone, or see through a mask to the truth underneath, these can be goals at this New Moon.
Some astrologers see Chiron, the wounded healer, as the modern ruler of Virgo. Where Mercury is facile and quick, Chiron is deliberate and slow; both are insightful, careful, skillful, and bring healing. At this New Moon, Chiron’s energy is strong and deep healing of old wounds is possible.
Chiron is tightly opposite this New Moon, an aspect often seen as challenging (“oppositional”) but one that places Chiron and New Moon face to face. Chiron is in Pisces, the sign always opposite Virgo, and brings everything that complements Virgo into the New Moon energy.
Are there habits or even a whole lifestyle you want to change? The energies around this New Moon will help make that happen.
Virgo tends to focus on details and miss the big picture. Chiron in Pisces reminds us that all the small things we do can have big effects. If Virgo is the pebble dropped in the still pool, Pisces is the widening circle of ripples, connecting the tiny to the cosmic.
One way to explore this aspect of the New Moon is to think about little things that bug us. A habit, a quirk, a phrase––something we do, or forget to do, or something someone else does that just gets under our skin. Chiron opposing this New Moon invites us to put that little annoyance into a larger context, and either let it go, or realize what bigger thing it’s connected to.
Yes, Chiron can carry the “don’t sweat the small stuff” intention for this New Moon, but can also open the window of insight so we suddenly see what bigger stuff that small thing is pointing to, and begin deep healing.
This WILL be a New Moon of change. Sometimes Virgo loves things to stay the same––as long as they’re organized, of course––but this New Moon is getting a push from Uranus in Aries, who loves quick and complete change.
There’s also a wide trine from Pluto, who facilitates transformation at the deepest levels, so if we manage to resist the fiery enticements of Uranus, Pluto will invite in whatever changes are inevitable.
Are there habits or even a whole lifestyle you want to change? The energies around this New Moon will help make that happen.
Then there’s the solar eclipse. This eclipse is partial, only visible in South Africa, Antarctica, and some spots in the Indian and Atlantic oceans. Astrologically, it’s just as important as any other, and its effects continue over the next six months.
So, where does this New Moon fall in your birth chart? Looking at your chart, find the symbols for the signs of the Zodiac around the outer edge (which is where they usually are). Notice that the signs go in order, counterclockwise around the wheel.
This New Moon is in late Virgo, at 20 degrees, which will be close to Libra. Figure out which House the New Moon falls in, in your chart, and then check Molly Hall’s summaries of the impact of the New Moon through the houses.
Molly Hall also describes the impact of the eclipse through the Houses here. The eclipse happens right at the New Moon, so the Houses for each are the same.
You’ll also want to look around the wheel of your chart and see which planets and points fall inland around 20 degrees. Degrees between 15 and 25 will be most strongly activated, but Pluto is way back at 13 Capricorn, so, be generous.
Places where the New Moon touches your chart can offer clues to the kinds of intentions and wishes that will feel most important to you now. Of course, since these areas of your chart are already feeling the effects, you may already know exactly which areas of your life are calling for attention.
This New Moon arrives at 2:41 am on Sunday in the Eastern Time Zone, which means overnight Saturday. Making New Moon wishes is best after the New Moon, so plan time on Sunday for setting intentions. Dana Gerhardt’s website MoonCircles offers ideas for New Moon rituals. You may want to try my guided visualization, available to subscribers (Use the Subscribe button to the right, and you’ll receive an email with the link). Of course, sometimes our own rituals are best.
This New Moon in Virgo invites us to look at the details of our lives with compassion and, indeed, with humor, and then embrace the energies of change and step into a new version of who we are. It’s time to weave new patterns into our tapestry.