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.)