The beauty of life is,
while we cannot undo what is done,
we can see it, understand it, learn from it and
change so that every new moment is spent
not in regret, guilt, fear or anger
but in wisdom, understanding and love.
The Mind Journal
The New Moon on August 27, 2022 at 4 Virgo Signals that we are Due for a Tune Up!
We are to take time to regroup, catch up, and integrate what has transpired over the summer. It is an opportune moment to upgrade our routines of self-care so that we also then adequately give the care we want to give to something beyond ourselves. Our minds are energized and given to detailed analysis of what is working and what needs adjusting around our personal habits and the way we interact with others on a daily basis. We may feel a restlessness around the idea of making lists or creating detailed plans and find it easier to talk things out with others to gain clarity. The time we take now to digest what has been happening and then make adjustments in our routines will serve to re-establish our personal balance and well-being. By doing this, we can continue to effectively respond to and move with the rapid and surprising changes that continue to unfold in our world.
· The New Moon exactly squares Mars in Gemini
· Ruler Mercury in shadow phase trine Mars and Pluto
- Mars in Gemini for the next 7 months
· Fixed Grand Cross: Venus, Saturn, Uranus and the Nodal Axis
· All outer planets are Retrograde
We are living in an era where everything his sped up. We are in a constant state of learning and adjusting in response to a fast paced and rapidly changing world. We will continue to be bombarded with information, disclosures, communications, and decisions. The culture encourages us to be productive and to keep up with the technology and cultural shifts. We have normalized a way of living that would have been foreign to our ancestors.
Many of us have discovered ways to practice mindfulness, to not be swept up into the rapid pace and to move in tune to our natural rhythms. The Virgo New Moon gives us permission and a boost to further shape our daily lives and routines to better support a balanced life. The culture and world may be spinning faster and faster, and moving on a trajectory that has us wonder if a return to balance can ever be found. So, to create a life of balance within our personal lives becomes a radical act, an act that counters the fast-moving stream of the world, media, and culture that encourages us to go faster, bigger, and do more, be more, achieve more.
With all the outer planets Retrograde (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto) and Mercury slowing down as it prepares to turn Retrograde, we are cued to slow down and turn our attention inward. We are to contemplate and sit with the variables, information and choices that lay in front of us. The coming weeks are a period of gestation and discovery. There is an ebb and a flow to life, and we are to welcome the ebb - a 'pulling in' so that we can flow freely forward with life once we have done the laundry, caught up with ourselves and integrated the learnings that the year has yielded thus far.
The Virgo New Moon is an Opportunity to Take a Collective Breath. With the larger energies of the year (Saturn square Uranus) and the dramatic energies of early August (Mars, Uranus, North Node conjunction) we are feeling compelled to contemplate changes made and to be made. There is a buildup of repressed energy that has been trapped and held hostage by a collective desire to maintain the status quo that can only be released through dramatic and surprising change. Unexpected and sudden events or information may have us adjusting our approach and plans. Because the atmosphere of rapid change has been a theme now for so many years, it is beneficial now to take a moment and reflect on the changes we have made or are about to make and recognize how much has already changed in our lives and our understanding of life over the last decade.
Virgo Rules the Digestive System. The next weeks we are to prioritize time to digest the recent months. After a big meal, we know not to go swimming or do vigorous activity until we have allowed time for digestion. There is much for each of us to digest in our lives, our psyches and spirits. Like the digestive tract, Virgo excels at sorting out what is to be absorbed into the whole system and what will be ultimately eliminated.
Virgo is the Harvest Time. We are reaping the fruits of the work we have done to nurture the seed intentions we planted the beginning of the year. We recognize what is growing, what has withered on the vine, and what will nourish optimal growth and well-being in our lives. We are to take a good look at what is working and not working and make adjustments so that the garden of our life remains vital and continues to bloom.
Virgo is Ruled by Mercury, so our mind is kicking into gear to analyze the recent weeks and months. Like laundering our clothes, it is time to launder all we have touched, used and encountered since the beginning of the year. It is time to examine the particulars in order to clean, care for, order and put it in its proper place. In the process we also identify what needs mending or what is ready to be donated or released.
Virgo Rules our Daily Routines and Rituals. Attention to our overall health comes to the forefront. We are supported in beginning a new routine in our self-care that will support balance and harmony in our body.
Virgo is the Sign of Service. Service to the well-being of our body, mind and soul is an essential ingredient in our desire to effectively serve a dream of what we want to do in the world. We are supported now to discern the ways that our routines and ways of operating are serving what we want in our lives and supported to make adjustments in our daily habits that foster sustainability, balance and a healthy way of living.
In such ugly times, the only true protest is beauty.
Phil Ochs
Upgrading our Thought Processes to Serve and Not Torment Us
Virgo’s Shadow: Perfectionism. If we are trying to get something just right, we can find ourselves worrying, not able to sleep, or having digestive issues. Virgo zeroes in on the minutiae. Yes, we are wanting to give a keen eye to examining information as we conduct a detailed analysis and assessment of our life, but we can be mindful of not going overboard and becoming nitpicky or overly critical of ourselves.
New Moon Ruler: Mercury
Virgo, an earth sign, is pragmatic, creating plans and routines for the smooth running of mundane matters.
Virgo, a mutable sign, is adaptable and will readily adjust plans in favor of something that will work better.
Virgo, ruled by Mercury, employs the mind to analyze, discern, formulate and implement plans. While we look at our daily routines and diet, we are to also look at the diet we feed our minds. Our minds are energized (Mercury trine Mars) and able to see the truth beyond the surface appearance of things (Mercury trine Pluto). We can identify and make adjustments around how we feed or deplete our mind through our usage of social media, technology and the kind of information we open ourselves to receiving. We can also make adjustments in how we talk to ourselves so that we feel uplifted and not depressed.
Our minds will be especially active in the coming weeks. It serves us to look at how our mind can best serve us and not torment us with over-analyzing, over-striving to meet some standard of perfection, or worrying about possible future scenarios. In this way, we can change habits and routines to support harmony and well-being and not be overly ambitious to initiate a regime or plan that creates added stress and a fear of failure before we have even begun.
Mercury in the shadow zone (of the upcoming Retrograde: September 10- October 4). We are contemplating interactions and relationships with others. What we are discussing with others now will likely be revisited in some way in September. Agreements we make may need to be adjusted or re-evaluated based on new information.
Mercury in Libra (will go retrograde at 8 Libra and remain in Libra until September 23 when it will re-enter Virgo.) We are thinking about our interactions with others and how we can best support conversation and dialogue that results in all parties being heard, considered and satisfied with the end result.
Mercury in Virgo (re-enters Virgo on September 23 and remains in Virgo until October 10). We are likely to circle back to themes of the Virgo New Moon throughout September. Decisions we are making now to create more harmony in our lives may need some tweaking and further contemplation. There is more laundry to handle and more that needs to be analyzed so that we can move forward in the most beneficial way.
If you touch one thing with deep awareness,
you touch everything. Thich Nhat Hahn
Directing our Mind Rather than Letting it Run Rampant
Mars Square the New Moon. Mars, like the New Moon, is in a sign that is ruled by Mercury. Gemini differs from Virgo in that it is an air sign – quick, interactive and insatiably curious about engaging new things. Mars in Gemini, though, is not inclined to do the Virgo thing of making lists, schedules and living up to timelines. It prefers spontaneity and we may find it easier to talk things out with others to support us in finding the clarity we need to discern how we want to adjust our daily routines and habits.
Mars (action and drive) in Gemini may have us feeling more chatty than usual and seeking added social interaction. We are likely to think quickly, jump from topic to topic, speak off the cuff, make swift assessments and decisions, and be willing to verbally spar just for the heck of it. We will have a tendency to multi-task, run added errands, feel eager to satisfy an endless stream of curiosity, and to speak without thinking things through. Gemini is also the trickster, the inventor of ‘alternate facts’ and ‘social media’ so we can expect an increase in misinformation, gaffes, and ill-thought communications.
We will feel more creative and playful in working with words and ideas, but if we go too fast, cut corners, and don’t give a topic or task the time it needs, we can find that our energy becomes scattered, our thoughts scrambled, and come to see that we are racing about just for the sake of racing about.
Mars has begun a 7-month journey in the sign of Gemini that will end on March 25, 2023. Typically, Mars spends one to two months in a sign, but this year we have the benefit of a Mars Retrograde (October 30 – January 14) which will offer us ample opportunity to focus our thoughts, think before we speak and take things a step at a time and not get ahead of ourselves.
From now until near the end of March, we will be working on how we use language and shape our communications. Rather than just spontaneously speaking whatever comes into our heads, we will find ourselves in dynamics where we will need to slow down and consider the facts and the information that is being communicated and find a new way to articulate what we wish to say in order to facilitate shared understanding that nurtures truth and clarity. There will be a plethora of examples on the world stage and in media that will show us the wrong way to work with Mars in Gemini, but for our part, we are invited to slow the pace of our mind, allow our thinking to sink a bit deeper, and examine our knee-jerk ways of acting and reacting. In other words, we are to practice mindfulness around how we use our minds so that we hold the reins and don't allow our minds to just run amok. Mars will enter its shadow phase the beginning of September and future posts will say more about the upcoming retrograde.
A Journey to Being Better Supported by our Relationships
Fixed Grand Cross: Venus oppose Saturn square the Nodal Axis and Uranus
Venus in Leo has us desiring a freedom to express herself fully and creatively. But something is blocking the flow of how we want to express (Venus oppose Saturn). We are being restrained and feel held back. Possibly there is some external authority that is denying us something we want. It is not that we are being permanently thwarted, only that something is being delayed. We need to slow down, identify patterns that have developed in our relationships and discover a way to approach relationships in a new way.
Relationships, or one particular relationship, may feel unsatisfying. Somewhere the relationship is not living up to its potential, or the dream we had for it. We are torn between accepting the security and predictability of what we have established in this relationship versus upsetting the apple cart in order to reach for something that is more expansive and freeing.
A fixed grand cross signifies that the beliefs that have shaped our viewpoint may actually need reviewing. We need to take a look at ourselves to identify what needs and patterns within our relationships are rooted in some past scenario and aren’t necessary to assert anymore. There may be a relationship we feel has run its course and is to be released. Just as likely, we are called to address one or more relationships to update the shared agreements and shared understandings so that our relationships can support and be aligned with the future we envision for ourselves. We can look to what light’s us up about the relationship to guide us.
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