the new moon at 27’27 virgo occurs on tuesday september 19th 2017 at 10:30pm PDT. this new moon is a time to focus on and commit to greater healing, wholeness, being of service and showing up to do our inner and outer work. virgo is a sign of integrity and discernment. virgo sees the pieces and what is missing- and is able to help support wholeness by attending to what is out of alignment. yes virgo can be perfectionist, critical and judgmental- but healthy virgo is about discerning and clear in our vision and perception of ourselves, others and the world around us. this new moon is a call to up level our game of healing, wholeness, integration and integrity!
the most significant aspect this lunation makes is an opposition to Wounded Healer chiron and karmic Task Master saturn- triggering the saturn/chiron square. the saturn/chiron square is a transit i have been calling ‘the core wound territory transit’ as it has been bringing us face to face with our biggest wounds and pain. those Unconscious conditioning and patterns we keep defaulting to and finding ourselves stuck in the same karmic situations over and over again? saturn/chiron is putting a spotlight on them. saturn reveals where we are hard on ourselves and the inner critical voice we internalized from childhood OR he reveals where we are avoiding accountability and playing rebellious child to the inner critical parent. chiron on the other hand reveals where our biggest wounds and pain are: where we don’t feel loved, accepted, seen, understood. chiron is where we run from our pain and trying to spiritually bypass and avoid it OR where we fuse with our pain and become victims to our own life circumstances.
this new moon triggering the saturn/chiron square is a doozy. the first saturn/chiron square was on december 28th 2016, the second on april 30th 2017 and the last is in less than two months on november 2nd 2017. so we are heading towards the last leg of this ‘core wound territory’ journey and hopefully we have used it to dive deep, face our stuff, get real and wake up. saturn is in sagittarius and chiron is in pisces- the two signs ruled by jupiter. jupiter is positive, expansive and optimistic! he sees the glass as half full! yet the saturn/chiron square has been a reminder that not all glasses are half full and sometimes things are negative, contractive and we need to be realistic in our assessment of ourselves, others, situations and the world around us. this is not a call to wallow in negativity but rather to face what is negative from a realistic, practice place. waking up to our own self delusion, denial, avoidance of reality, spiritual bypassing and ways we turn to additions to people/places/things/drugs/alcohol/romance/sex/shopping/etc… as a way to numb out or check out is so key. and this new moon in virgo will help you if you are willing to see and own your stuff!
the new moon is also conjunct vesta- the priestess asteroid Goddess who brings focus and commitment to a Higher Purpose and Greater Goal. vesta can put aside her personal needs and desires so she can realize her bigger visions- yet we do need to be aware of where we might be doing this as a means to avoid our personal stuff. spiritual bypassing occurs when we use spiritual practices and beliefs to avoid dealing with our painful feelings, unresolved wounds and developmental needs (john welwood).
as robert masters, my shadow work teacher, says in his book ‘spiritual bypassing’ (loosely quoted)- ‘we need to stop using spirituality (and anything else) to try to make ourselves feel better. we are not going to reach a point of immunity to suffering. spirituality helps us be more compassionate and kind to ourselves and others when in pain but it does not take the pain away. being more evolved does not mean you have less pain. you will have less suffering, but not less pain.’ this new moon can help us commit to that path or help us commit to going deeper on it. who would want to go deeper into their pain you ask? well until you do you stay in chronic suffering and pain- you get stuck in it, enmeshed with it. and you act out of it in Unconscious ways. this new moon in virgo can help you see where you are stuck, where you are enmeshed, or where you are running away from yourself. to see the self clearly is the mark of an integrated person. and when we can see our own pain clearly we can see and have compassion for others who are in pain too!
the ruler of this new moon is mercury who is in virgo (along with ALL the other personal planets sun, moon, venus and mars- WOW!). a stellium in virgo really crystalizes the virgo archetype- but they are all opposing neptune and chiron in pisces! the virgo/pisces axis is one of body and Spirit, thinking and feeling, distillation and dissolution. if pisces is the spiritual energy- virgo is the vessel that contains it. the virgo/pisces axis is the axis of the priestess for good reason! yet when we have an axis we have two signs opposing each other and until we have done the tireless work of integrating said opposites we tend to identify with one and project out/disconnect from the other. an honest self check in at the time of this full moon can let you know if your shadow default is too much virgo (perfectionism, criticism, judgement, being stuck in the mind) or if your shadow default is too much pisces (denial, delusion, avoidance of reality, playing the victim/martyr, turning to addictions to numb out). wherever your default is- your challenge is to move into the other side of the spectrum.
with so many neptune and chiron oppositions in the new moon chart and all week long (particularly tuesday the 19th through sunday the 24th)- there can be a nebulous, foggy energy present all week long. the positive side of so much pisces/neptune is mysticism, spirituality, intuition, dreams and psychic knowing can be at an all time high! yet the shadow side is it can be super easy to delude and deceive ourselves or others (or be deluded/deceived by others). not all is as it seems and there’s much going on behind the scenes and in the Unconscious. kind of like in the wizard of oz- we are not quite sure who or what is behind the curtain. this is not a week to be make definitive, critical decisions as such. it’s a time to tune into your inner knowing, to pay attention to the symbols, images and messages coming to you via your dreams. it is a time to feel your emotions and allow full expression of them. with so much neptune pisces energy present it would be a great time to get more intimate with grief and sadness. of course having a balance with this so you don’t get taken over by a deluge of emotion you cannot get out of is key. and that is where virgo comes in!
virgo help us see the pieces so we can see the whole. virgo helps us compartmentalize so we can deal with things in pieces, one at a time. virgo help us commit to seeing all of ourselves- and helps us commit to staying sober and not numbing out as we deal with what arises. of course shadow virgo comes from the head- so we need to balance that with pisces heart. shadow virgo likes to think about emotions while pisces helps us actually feel them. this is an interesting lunation and week for sure- where channeling your inner mermaid (part of her/him can reside in water and part of her/him can reside on land) could be a useful exercise.
there are are few other things to take note of in the new moon chart. one is the fact that juno- the asteroid Goddess of partnership and marriage- is making A LOT of aspects to other asteroids. her link with astraea speaks to blocked closure and where we stay to the bitter end when in fact we should be letting go. hygeia speaks to where we are seeking healing and at times perfection. kassandra was the prophetess who could see into the future but no one believed her- so she speaks to trust issues with ourselves and what we see and know- particularly when others outside of us are telling us we are wrong. tisiphone speaks to where we want fairness and want others to get what they deserve. demeter speaks to child-related relationships, nurturing and nourishment- and with juno perhaps where we play out parent/child dynamics with our partners. and last but certainly not least phaethon speaks to where we are out of control, taken on too much and perhaps addicted to drama as a means to escape. so wow- lots going on with juno- which can reflect in romantic partnerships, marriage, contractual arrangements and even business relationships. being willing to see where we are playing out some (or maybe all!) of the above energies in certain relationships in our lives could be the first step to real healing. (thanks to martha lang-westcott for her research on the asteroids)
i leave you with ellias lonsdale’s star sparks meditation on 28 virgo (we always round up to the nearest whole number with meditations on the degrees). i am struck by ellias’ words that ‘we need to digest and metabolize all of (our) pasts in the form that is optimal for long range purposes’ and how part of that process entails our willingness to ‘no longer fall for any version of guilt or shame. When we are at home in the personal soul and its impersonal reverberations, we do not judge and condemn our own process whatsoever. In fact, we come to stalwartly stand together with ourselves in solidarity’ which to me is what wholeness is about. this new moon in virgo can help you to digest and metabolize your past, your wounds and your pain IF you are willing to face and own and move through what arises. as robert masters says ‘everything can serve our awakening’. may this new moon help you to awaken to more of your shadow and Light!
blessings…
~divine harmony
STAR SPARKS
by ellias lonsdale
Virgo 28 Autumn leaves pressed in a book
Dwelling upon what we inwardly see and keeping this very much for ourselves in a seclusion that is impenetrable. Folding ourselves back into a private presence of steady and sustaining values and perceptions. Remaining at rest inside this dream vision without it ever changing or being disturbed by the slightest ripple of external events and dynamics.
Endowed with a certain strength of firm resolve to keep our own council and to reserve judgment for later. We chalk everything up to experience and are so blithely detached and removed that we could be taken as not there at all. In an emotional human sense, we are not.
But in our own mind’s eye, something fascinating and compelling is in the works here. For we are able, through our stillness and dispassion to observe and witness, ponder and behold. We value such activities by far the most. Our perch is inviolable. We know how to defend our turf, to be secretive and elusive. And we truly are purely on the inside, removed from events, with no response or reaction to most of what comes our way.
This is a maddening quality if life is all for passion and involvement. It is a refreshing space if we are here to move out of and beyond any and all special spheres of losing ourselves in the midst. And it is an indispensable ingredient when we are seeking to renounce what we had been swept away by, and we need to digest and metabolize all of those pasts in the form that is optimal for long range purposes.
Once we fully accept and honor our own need to be inside this frequency purely, the flow of it becomes much more whole and easy. Much of our process comes down to no longer falling for any version of guilt or shame. When we are at home in the personal soul and its impersonal reverberations, we do not judge and condemn our own process whatsoever. In fact, we come to stalwartly stand together with ourselves in solidarity, realizing we are just right for ourselves and nothing less.