New Moon in Virgo

Toilet roll art by Anasstasia Elias

This is on Monday the 25th August, around 3 pm (GMT).

New moons represent new beginnings -  you feel out what an energy (in this case, Virgo) means for you, and you set your intentions for the month ahead in relation to that energy. New moons are also great for initiating projects.

Here, we are looking at the sun and moon conjunct in the early degrees of Virgo. Virgo's ruler, Mercury, is also in the sign.

Virgo represents clarity, order, service, perfectionism, problem-solving, craftsmanship, fine-tuning. It's an analytical, fiddly sign, concerned with getting the details right.

It's also about day-to-day routine, health, work, cleanliness, simplicity, purity. So a Virgo new moon means it's house-cleaning time, back-to-school time, end-of-vacation time. A good time to start new health regimens and to organize your life.

In the Northern hemisphere, you can feel autumn in the air as Virgo season takes hold – that crispness, like a ripe apple. Summer's big showy party (culminating under the happy-go-lucky sign of Leo) is over. The flowers are finished and the harvest has to be gathered... Time to get back to reality and make provisions for the winter.

This particular Virgo new moon opposes dreamy, delusive Neptune in Pisces, which underscores the theme of 'back to reality'. We bring the clarity, focus and pragmatism of Virgo to bear on our swirly dreams and fantasies, and on our destructive habits and addictions.

We also have Mars exactly conjuncting Saturn in Scorpio later on the 25th, and this reinforces the "reality" theme and deepens it. Intense energy is going to be available for getting rid of whatever in your life no longer serves you – and this goes deep. It's a surgical focus.

It seems to me like an absolutely great set-up for anyone trying to kick an addiction or deal with an intractable problem. Really, the best possible set-up. You will be able to see through the bullshit and denial – your own or whoever's - and do what needs to be done.

The amount of bullshit and denial involved – well we are potentially looking at the Augean stables here.

From wikipedia:

“The fifth Labour of Heracles (Hercules in Latin) was to clean the Augean stables. This assignment was intended to be both humiliating (rather than impressive, as had the previous labours) and impossible, since the livestock were divinely healthy (immortal) and therefore produced an enormous quantity of dung. These stables had not been cleaned in over 30 years, and over 1,000 cattle lived there. However, Heracles succeeded by rerouting the rivers Alpheus and Peneus to wash out the filth.”

So if you are dealing with a massive stable full of shit, take heart! You can use the energy of this new moon to re-route a river or two and clear it out. It's entirely do-able and you don't have to be Hercules.

Please take note, though: the clear-out of the Augean stables was meant to be humiliating. And the kinds of scenarios we are looking at with this new moon are potentially very humbling. Venus is still in Leo, and she'll be squaring the Mars-Saturn conjunction - along with Jupiter in Leo, which magnifies the ego insult involved.

Venus in Leo is proud: a prima donna, a queen. She wants the best of everything. Needless to say, she is not going to enjoy shovelling shit in the Augean stables. But it doesn't matter whether she enjoys it or not – it has to be done.

So if you're confronted with a situation that needs fixing but is uncomfortable for your ego, it's best to swallow your pride and get to work. Virgo is about humility – being a good behind-the-scenes worker, a good servant and helper. It doesn't demand the spotlight; it gets to work quietly and efficiently, without needing much recognition for its efforts.

--I keep thinking of Ebola health workers in West Africa in relation to this new moon. Quietly, humbly dealing with a horrible situation that few people would voluntarily take on. They do it because it's their job, because somebody has to, because they care. They sure aren't doing it for glory - it's dangerous and thankless work.

(Virgo is the sign of health workers, incidentally.)

Anyway, to sum up: the way to work with the energy of this new moon is to roll up your sleeves and do what needs doing, with a minimum of fuss.

Of course it's humbling to have to downsize financially, or to deal with your addictions and bad habits, or to confront ugly problems, or to clear out your junk. You are looking at your own imperfections and insecurities – your own shit. That's unpleasant.

But try to remember that the focus here is on order, healing, personal integrity and well-being. It's about what's really best for you and everyone...as opposed to what you'd like best.

(PS: here is a depressing article about the ongoing Fukushima crisis. Another Augean stables situation - one that we're not hearing much about these days. It hasn't gone away.)

Full Moon in Aquarius

(I'm nominating Spock as patron saint of this full moon.)

This is tomorrow: 10th August, around 7:10 pm (GMT).

It'll be the largest full moon of the year – the moon will be at perigee, the point in her orbit where she's closest to Earth. Very intense.

I'm going to try to be brief for a change, because I don't have a lot of time to write this!

What we have this full moon are a lot of intense, clashing energies coming from fixed signs. The sun and Mercury in Leo will be opposing the moon in Aquarius, and these poles will be squared by Mars and Saturn in Scorpio.

Fixed signs are...fixed, basically. Stubborn, intractable. They don't negotiate – they insist. Aquarius insists on its ideology and its vision for the future, Leo on its personal importance, Scorpio on its security and control.

What we've been seeing in the news these past weeks are a bunch of conflicts that look hopelessly intractable, involving ideological differences that admit of no resolution.

And the world is getting drawn in, taking sides. It's a kind of contagion - & it's getting out of control. (“Out of control” is how the WHO is now characterising Ebola in West Africa.)

There's a lot of emotionally charged rhetoric going on...a lot of terror and panic. There are bombs raining down on a lot of places right now.

Mars and Saturn are traditionally known as the two 'malefic' planets, and having them mixed up with this full moon is...tough. It's bad enough to have the two of them conjunct: Mars-Saturn contacts are known for their violence and cruelty.

But also they are conjunct in Scorpio, sign of extremes. Black-or-white, all-or-nothing. So we are looking at extreme cruelty and no middle ground – scorched earth. Utter savagery.

Plus Mars and Saturn are squaring the sun and Mercury in Leo, which can be read as hubris and bombast on steroids.

And also they're squaring the moon in Aquarius, which can be about emotional shock and disconnection – shell shock. Or emotional polarization, or dogmatism.

So you can see how bad this can get...how this full moon lights up a very apocalyptic storyline. You have only to turn on the news these days to see these themes playing themselves out. It's tragic.

But remember the word 'apocalypse' comes from the Greek for 'revelation' or 'uncovering'. That's the potential good in this scenario: it represents an intensely powerful potential for revelation, mental clarity, objectivity, deep understanding. Maybe not on a global political scale – though one can dream. But on a personal level, definitely.

Aquarius is about humanitarian ideals and our shared vision for the future. At worst it can be rigid and dogmatic, but at best it is rational, unsentimental, independent-minded – and very concerned with the well-being of the collective, and with creating a better future.

These are all necessary qualities when you're trying to negotiate a peace deal or bring aid to a warzone or see through propaganda. Cool-headedness and clarity are very important right now, what with the overblown and emotionally-driven rhetoric we're being exposed to on all sides.

So in the spirit of Aquarian progressivism and optimism, I am determined to see this full moon as a good thing...as an opening for some kind of rationality and intelligence to get through to a world that is imploding with hatred and violence.

Something nice about this full moon: despite the fact that it is bound up with the two malefics (Mars and Saturn), we are also moving into a conjunction involving the two benefics (Venus and Jupiter). Venus is currently in the late degrees of Cancer, applying into conjunction with Jupiter in Leo, exact on the 18th  August. This aspect represents some kind of luck or blessing -  something lovely. So that's good, and much-needed.

The sun and moon also make some very nice aspects to the north node in Libra and also to the moon's dispositor, Uranus in Aries. Meaning this story is ultimately not about war, but about a struggle for peace, justice and right relationship. And this struggle takes place on an individual as well as a collective level - though the individual level is actually where it can make the most difference.

It is about thinking for yourself, exercising emotional restraint and discrimination, expressing yourself clearly and calmly... even when self-expression has the potential to get you ostracised. Lilith (a point representing the lunar apogee, or the point in the moon's orbit at which the moon will be furthest from Earth) is conjunct the sun and Mercury in Leo, and this carries the risk of ostracism via communication. But the message of Lilith is that it's better to be alone and free than to go along with the status quo and be enslaved. Even if it means you're demonised for it.

Lilith, in the Jewish tradition, was Adam's first wife, who refused to be made subject to him and was exiled from Eden. She was known as the mother of demons after that.

Well there are plenty of people out there willing to demonise (or worse) anyone who thinks differently from them these days, we know this.

Anyway, because of all these planets in Leo (Jupiter, Mercury, the sun, and in a few days Venus) opposing or squaring planets in signs that deal with the collective (Aquarius and Scorpio) I am inclined to think that this is about a personal, individual response to collective patterns.

That's only one way of reading it, of course. But I think luck and hope (Jupiter) are dependent on how we filter these collective currents through our individual psyches, and how we express ourselves (Leo).

Because the moon is in such an unemotional sign, I think it's probably a good idea to avoid getting too emotionally worked up over the panic-inducing things that are happening. The problems the world is dealing with are a direct result of people losing any sense of proportion or equanimity. And with Mars and Saturn in Scorpio, extremism has very dangerous consequences.

It doesn't matter what form your extremism takes. Leftists can be every bit as extreme in their views as radical Islamists. You have to take the other side of the story into account: that is the message of the north node in Libra, the sign of relating and fairness. You have to take other people's views and experiences into account. Maybe actively seeking out other points of view is a good antidote to extremism...we can easily spend our lives surrounded by people who agree with us and back up our opinions, and information sources that confirm our prejudices. The way things are going, that's a recipe for collective disaster.

Anyway, to sum up: it's extreme, violent weather out there. If you focus on changing yourself, freeing your mind and avoiding personal extremism, you'll be better off and maybe you'll be of benefit to others.

Don't surrender your mind to anyone or anything – not to a dogma or to an emotional appeal or a cause. Try to think for yourself and stay objective. If you feel yourself being swayed by panic or moral outrage, try to take a step back – there is detachment and clarity on offer if you want it.

Maybe ask yourself: "what would Spock do?"

And try to express yourself even if it feels isolating. That's the only way people get to hear alternate points of view at all.

(Dissent & skepticism, Aquarian style.)