Virgo New Moon – Fate v. Control
(You can also find an expanded version of this Virgo New Moon update here on YouTube)
We’re once again in the dark moon phase at this Virgo New Moon, a good time to turn inwards – especially now as the days are noticeably shortening here in Europe.
The upcoming New Moon in Tropical Virgo takes place on Saturday, August 27th at 10:17 CEST. There is a strong theme of adapting to change, how to decide what needs changing, and how we choose to go about that.
What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.
~T.S. Eliot
It’s happening in the tenth Sidereal Nakshatra or lunar mansion known as Maghā – on the powerful fixed star Regulus – which can signify regal, conservative, and controlling energy. It’s about both adhering to authority as well as being authoritative. Maghā is the energy that brings about change, usually indicating the end of a cycle. The new moon phase is that liminal space between endings and beginnings, so this is even more emphasised now.
The Sun here in Maghā is good for leadership and authority roles, especially if that energy is used for self-control and empowerment and not just power or control over others. But the moon in Maghā Nakshatra can lead to fears of inadequacy, or a dependence on outer authority, which can be in the form of people, ideas, or money.
Maghā also represents our ancestors.
We gain strength and courage by acknowledging the suffering and wisdom that our personal and collective ancestors transmitted over countless generations of life experiences. What we encounter today pales in comparison with what most of our ancestors had to deal with. Our own resilience and capacity to overcome is a testimony to the strength that got them through all sorts of difficulties. We are a product of that, not victims of it.
The energy of Virgo is empowered by recognizing our innate capacity to overcome anything that doesn’t kill us and to heal ourselves, so we can become healers in turn. When we forget this and focus on disempowerment we fall into the bottomless pit of victimhood, Virgo’s weak point.
As the Sun and Moon are together now it gives us an opportunity to reflect on the big lessons of Maghā Nakshatra: What should we keep and foster, and what should we release or destroy, and – even more importantly – In whom or what should we have confidence? Who or what has authority over me?
During this New Moon, Venus – representing our values, money, and relationships – is in a tense T-square with Saturn, representing restrictions, delays, and limitations, and Uranus, representing individuation, innovation, and challenging how things are being done around here.
Adding to the tension, Mars is squaring this Virgo New Moon from the sign of Gemini, which it entered just a few days ago. This means the Sun, Moon, and Mars are all currently ruled by Mercury, which is traditionally considered in its diurnal or “daytime energy” to be the ruler of the vivacious sign of Gemini, while in its nocturnal or “night-time energy” Mercury rules the introspective sign of Virgo.
Nothing if not versatile, Mercury behaves very differently in each of these signs: in Gemini it’s about outreach, exchanges, and connections of all kinds, expressing enthusiasm for people and ideas using written or spoken words or symbols to communicate. Think of musicians playing and singing their songs.
In Virgo it’s about understanding, processing, and analysing those interactions, symbols, and words – internalising rather than externalising them. Think about how those same musicians also compose, arrange, write down, or record their music.
Mercurial Mercury
Because Mercury is typically very changeable (and particularly so when stimulating and hyperkinetic Mars is in Gemini!) there can be a sense of wanting to bring about change without really having a plan for what comes next. This can either lead to scattering energy and overlooking potential solutions, or to “analysis paralysis”, or both!
To complicate the situation, Mercury is currently in Libra, which also has its issues around making choices. Mercury in Libra can put too much emphasis on what others might want or think, so decisions are often agonising or unreliable because they aren’t sincere. This people-pleasing tendency can seem very diplomatic and kind on the surface but is deeply frustrating as it puts the onus of the decision on the other party. If you’ve ever sat with a Libran trying to decide what to order from the menu you know what I mean!
Changeability is what gives both Gemini and Virgo the reputation for being anxiety-prone signs, although the stressed-out Gemini might hyperventilate while the Virgo would more likely have an upset stomach.
Virgo is known for its tendency to be hypochondriacal, fussy, and nervous around issues of hygiene or health, largely due to internalized over-thinking. This is quite different to the externalized, spontaneous buzz and chatter – sometimes just to nervously fill the space – that typifies the more chaotic Gemini energy.
Worrying is negative goal setting!
Anxiety is becoming such a prevalent phenomenon in our modern life largely due to too much information coming from Gemini and overthinking Virgo. Mars transiting Gemini from now until the end of March 2023 will be bringing us all of that and more for months to come, so we might as well learn to manage this energy within ourselves!
These days there’s a lot of fear around change. I often get questions from clients during an astrology reading about whether something is ‘good’ or ‘bad’. The question itself reflects this deeper fear of change, which in turn comes from a misunderstanding of how life works.
Clinging to the idea that something should look a particular way or – worse! – the sense that things will always be a particular way stems from our fears about not being able to control things that deep down we know we can’t possibly control!
This clinging makes going through change a major source of anxiety and insecurity, when in fact it is built into the natural ebb and flow of life itself. Virgo rules the stomach, digestion, and the nervous system, and we know that mental stress immediately impacts our digestion. Just think of what happens when you don’t digest, process, and eliminate your food. That constipation and malabsorption also happens on the mental and emotional level, too!
Now remember all the amazing things that have happened in your life that were entirely unplanned and unexpected – entirely out of your control. It’s absolutely possible to live in the flow of life like that every day. This spontaneous, synchronous way of living brings peace and contentment with much less effort than we expend by our grasping and clinging!
There is a way to work through this anxiety and we can practice doing it every day.
A new moon is always a chance to renew our intentions and goals along with our thoughts and feelings. In the sign of Virgo this regeneration is especially connected to our health and daily routines, the work we do, including the drudgery and the daily grind, as well as our mental patterns and how that might affect our capacity to feel healthy or to experience healing.
Just take a moment right now to soften your heart and abdomen. Smile to yourself. Feel your feet and enjoy a long, easy breath in through the nose. Exhale fully and completely and now gently hold the breath out. Keep holding it out, without struggling or forcing it, until the body naturally asks you to breathe in when it’s time.
You have just practiced building up willpower. Studies have indicated that the ability to hold the breath for an extended period of time is a good predictor of our success in the face of difficult goals. Psychologists call this “Distress Tolerance”. I prefer to call it resilience.
As a side note, holding the breath out in this way is the only yoga practice explicitly described in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra*, with the aim being to concentrate the mind, leading it to stillness. Our awareness shifts beyond thinking when the mind focuses all of its attention on whether or not there will be another breath.
Try this practice regularly and see if you can still fret over your everyday anxieties while doing it!
We must get comfortable with discomfort in order to build resilience and thrive. This has always been true yet it’s even more urgent now. Anyone listening to this has enjoyed living in a rare period in which we haven’t had to question whether our basic survival needs will be met. This has made many of us a bit lazy and entitled, but the harsh truth is the universe owes us nothing. It helps to remind ourselves of this as we go through the coming period of profound change that will force us to adapt in ways we haven’t needed to before.
We can practice our own resilience by mastering how to breathe through any feelings of anxiety and the need to control what is going on around us.
This way we learn how to control our mind and our response to our thoughts instead. This is known as “surfing the urge” and it builds willpower and resilience because we’re resisting our knee-jerk reactions to what we fear or dislike the most.
Unempowered Virgo energy wants to control its environment and becomes anxious because of this very tendency to over control and be hyper vigilant – always wanting things to be a particular way in an attempt to feel “safe”.
Empowered Virgo energy understands that the purification of our own mind and a humble relationship to life itself is what brings us the freedom we need to feel powerfully whole and healthy in mind and body.
Practicing Mindfulness helps us realize what’s happening right now. It’s not a complicated practice – it’s deceptively simple. If you’d like to give it a go, begin with whatever you’re feeling right now in the feet, sensing whatever they are touching. Your eyes can be open or closed.
Continue sensing your body internally from your feet up. Aware of sensation in your legs, the base of the body, the back of the body, the head. Sensing your face, the chest and shoulders, the arms, elbows, and palms. Feel your heart. Make space for your heart. Release any tightness in the stomach and intestines. Allow the breath to flow naturally and feel yourself fully here in this moment. Each breath is a purification. Trust that your body knows how to breathe without you needing to do anything.
Take a deep breath in through the nose again and exhale even more deeply from the mouth.
Notice how wonderful it is to breathe!
Our need to control comes from the assumption that we know best how life should unfold. But it limits the endless other possibilities that lead to connection and synchronicity.
The notion that we have brought ourselves to this stage in our life through non-stop control and conscious thinking is and always has been false. Most of what happens in life is beyond our wildest imagination – we’re not MAKING it happen, we are choosing how we participate in what is arising in our awareness. This is the difference between cooperating with and surrendering to fate – you could say, having faith – and trying to micro-manage life.
In preparing this, I looked back on my blog post for the Virgo New Moon in September 2020, and this passage jumped out: “Spiritual practices are designed to sustain us through life’s ups and downs, not to make us comfortable. They’re not hobbies or pleasant distractions that get set aside because things are too difficult. If we have genuinely learned the essence of the teachings we’ve been studying for so long, we know that they are especially valid in their total application when life shakes our courage.”
Surrender to what is right now and practice keeping space open for healing and creativity to flow. Surrender is not the same as capitulation: it simply means letting go of the things that we couldn’t possibly control anyway.
Let’s look at where this New Moon in Virgo is happening sign-by-sign:
For Aries: The New Moon in Virgo is in your 6th house of work, co-workers, your daily life and responsibilities, pets, issues of health and illness, and your daily rituals and habits.
For Taurus: This affects your 5th house of children, studying, creative projects and hobbies, your love life, entrepreneurial projects, gambling, luck and risk-taking.
For Gemini: This involves your 4th house of lineage, your residence, emotions and what makes you feel secure, parent/family situations and issues of property, house, and home. As Mars is now in your sign until March 2023, you are likely to feel the urge to take action in the most important areas of your life – just ask yourself “Do I need to do this now?” over and over before jumping in!
For Cancer: This is in your 3rd house of siblings, cousins, vehicles, neighbours, community, local travel, skills and talents, teaching and learning, communications, and the way you think and communicate your ideas.
For Leo: The New Moon in Virgo happens in your 2nd house of what supports you in life, including food, your family, wealth, self-esteem, your earnings, talents, personal resources and income, and how you see yourself in these areas.
For Virgo: This is in your 1st house of you and your identity, your body and constitution, health, your personal needs and desires. It affects all the main pillars of your life: You, where you live, your emotional and material security, your relationships and your role in society.
For Libra: This involves your 12th house of the past, ancestors, psychic awareness, research, and your subconscious mind. It also represents people or things that are confined or hidden from view, sleeping and other bed pleasures, and faraway places and people.
For Scorpio: This involves your 11th house of friends, colleagues, associations, goals, and wishes, and all kinds of networks including the Internet and social media.
For Sagittarius: This is in your 10th house of social status and career, responsibility, authority and commitment, as well as how you engage with and are seen by others.
For Capricorn: This involves your 9th house of travel, adventure, publishing, higher consciousness, higher education, your sense of purpose and your beliefs.
For Aquarius: This is in your 8th house of payments, death, and taxes, psychology, shared resources, marriage and intimate relationships. This is also where our deepest fears can undermine us, and all fears are fundamentally a fear of death. With Saturn also in your sign since December 2020, you are definitely putting your house in order!
For Pisces: The New Moon in Virgo affects your in 7th house of committed relationships, professional and personal partners, experts you consult with, close friends and clients, as well as your way of relating to others.
Do you want to have a deeper understanding what is going on in your life right now and how best to handle it? Book a consultation with me here!
And for more regular updates, find me on Instagram @yogadeva
*If you’re interested in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra, I recently uploaded recordings of TKV Desikachar chanting the Yoga Sutra on my YouTube channel. It’s recorded from an old double cassette tape I bought in the 1990s to learn the Yoga Sutra, so the quality is not great but there are not many recordings of Desikachar available and I treasure this one.