Transcript New Moon in Virgo, "Discernment and Dignity"

Mercury retrograde’s ending, conflict avoidance, and coming out of denial.

Astraea Star Maiden, Virgo Constellation. Image by Fernando Gallego.

For the original audio version, listen on Substack or on Spotify.

Hello everyone, this is Erin Reese and I'm here to talk with you today about today's New Moon in the sign of Virgo, the Virgin.

Today is Thursday, September 14th, 2023 and the New Moon is technically going to be this evening at 6.40pm Pacific; 940 p.m. Eastern and in the wee, wee hours of the 15th of September in Europe.

Let's start by taking a deep breath in and just checking to make sure whether you're driving or walking or sitting that you are grounded rooted and centered in your body, in your root chakra, in your belly, in your feet, in your legs.

Take a deep breath in and release, dropping in so that you can hear whatever information is most helpful to you today.

Let's remember first that Virgo is an earth sign. It is a mutable earth sign and it represents the sixth house of the horoscope. We are dealing with themes of hygiene and that means spiritual hygiene as well as physical and mental hygiene as we prepare for the fall equinox which is September 23rd when the sun will finally switch into Libra.

One of the most significant aspects that we all have, and I probably can guess that no one here listening can forget, is that Mercury has been retrograde for some time now in the sign of Virgo and Mercury will station direct this Friday, September 15th at about 6 degrees Virgo. And it will be in the shadow period until the end of September meaning that even though Mercury has technically turned direct we are still going to be feeling some of the impacts of this wonky period.

This has been a particularly challenging Mercury retrograde.

Virgo is ruled by the planet Mercury so it has been amplified and many of our other planets have been retrograde.

Yes, this has been an extremely challenging time when it comes to commerce, decision-making, planning.

As I talked about when we had the full moon in Pisces two weeks ago, this has been a challenging time of getting that back-to-school energy going for September.

It's been a little bit clunky, and it still will be clunky for the next couple of weeks, but nowhere near as challenging as it has been this week.

So hang in there.

I'm going to talk a little bit about decision making and seemingly moving ahead in our lives when we have such an intense Mercury retrograde and some of the other aspects going on that are highlighted in this particular chart right now are amplifying this challenge?

We obviously have the sun conjunct the moon in Virgo at just under 22 degrees. We're at 21 degrees 59 minutes.

It is opposing within orb Neptune, Poseidon, Neptune in the sign of Pisces.

That is our analytical side, our practical side, our discernment side of Virgo being challenged by the waters and the dreaminess and the obfuscation of the sign of Pisces.

Neptune is in its ruling sign of Pisces. So that is one opposition that I'll be talking about here.

And the other opposition is this Mercury retrograde in the sign of Virgo is opposite Saturn, also in the sign of Pisces.

There’s another challenge to our decision-making faculties and our clear seeing.

Virgo, at its best, loves nothing more than mental clarity.

As I said, sort of mental and spiritual hygiene and practicality and discernment and discretion.

I really love the Sanskrit term for this, which is Viveka.

You may have heard of the Swami Vivekananda.

Viveka technically means discrimination, but it also means the sword of discernment.

Viveka is a good theme for us for this Virgo New Moon.

And when we have these oppositions (of Sun and Neptune, and Saturn and Mercury); everything has been incredibly vague and we have been getting information sometimes on a minute by minute or day by day basis that has challenged us.

Where are we going?

What are we doing?

What's happening?

“I thought we were going in this direction.”

At the 11th hour something changes.

The rug is pulled out from under us.

And all of this is truly challenging our faith.

When things get like this on such a Mercury retrograde, we are called to go deeper.

Go deeper.

Think about Neptune in Pisces and Saturn in Pisces. The spiritualization of our walk in the world.

We are called to trust that there is always a deeper movement, a deeper trust in the divine.

Even when we don't like what is happening, we can trust that it is ultimately going in the highest direction for us and all concerned even if we don't see it right now.

So what do we do and how do we make decisions or plans if we are inclined to plan at times like this?

We generally have three options when it comes to I don't know what to do.

We can wait which is probably a good idea if we can.

Sometimes we can't wait. We are either feeling our internal energies are activated too much or there is pressure from the outside to make a decision.

Then we can make the decision. It really doesn't matter if we turn right or left. We are going to get to the place that the divine is intending us to go.

You can sort of punt and trust. Make a decision. You're still going to get to where you need to go.

Or, the third option which I don't recommend is to spin your wheels and run around like a chicken with your head cut off and stay in a mental quagmire and berate yourself and turn on yourself with the lower vibrations of Virgo which is to be touchy, judgy, self-critical, harsh with yourself and blaming, never satisfied.

That’s really not recommended here with this energy.

I would say if possible, wait and if you can't wait to make the decision then punt and trust.

You're going to get to the right place.

There is no mistake in the ultimate Absolute.

It is very important to remember this.

There are no mistakes.

You cannot make a mistake because your egoic idea of a separate sense of self or a separate volition is ultimately one drop of water in the ocean of consciousness. And the wave of movement of the soul, the soulfulness is going in the direction of the ocean of which you are not separate.

Remember, you cannot make a mistake.

Don't beat yourself up with a baseball bat.

You may have heard the phrase, it all works out in the end and if it hasn't worked out yet, it's not the end.

Thus, the end for you, whatever you deem to be the end, may not be happening for a few days or a few weeks.

It could even be a few months or years or in some cases even a lifetime and that's okay.

We need to expand our sense of consciousness to a timelessness.

That's the Neptune and Pisces aspect here… to trust that this movement of consciousness, this evolutionary process that you are in in your personal life is part of a much greater movement as I've talked about quite often.

For those of us who are already sensitive physically, emotionally, empathically, let's remember that Virgo is also the ruler of digestion and we have great sensitivity at this time, not just with our digestion but with our whole physicality, again Virgo ruling the sixth house of physical health amongst other things.

So during this time of the new moon and until we get into October and the real feel of fall, please, please, please remember to be extra gentle with yourself emotionally, physically, spiritually, your nervous system, these sorts of things.

If you are receiving body work such as massage or craniosacral, chiropractic, acupuncture, please make sure that you give yourself an extra bit of time to integrate from these sessions and even take a few extra breaths before you get up off of the table if you're getting any treatments or if you're going into the doctors just move a little bit more slowly build in at least an extra 15 minutes ideally 30 minutes before you rush off to your next appointment.

I know it's challenging, so many of us are busy, busy, busy, but every part of your constitution will appreciate you for this right now.

One last word about day-to-day living, which is a Virgoan theme, daily life, with all of this retrograde energy as well as the obfuscation energy of Neptune.

We want to remember that calendaring and making plans is sort of like that game right now, Tetris, where you're moving the blocks around and you're shifting things, whether it's on a screen or your phone or whatever.

You can imagine a game where you're, or a Rubik's Cube, you're trying to get everything in order.

The problem right now is that so many parts of the screen are truly blocked.

You cannot see them.

It's invisible.

It's sort of like playing a game like this, blind.

And yet you're being obliged by the universe to move forward and to play.

Work with two things:

The part of the screen, if you will, that you can see and try to deduce the best you can.

Part of this is dropping deeper and deeper into your intuition.

You can call it your Spidey sense, however you look at it, your dream time, your feeling sense.

Drop deeper into that in terms of making decisions because your analytical mind right now will not be able to see everything that's going on.

So do the best you can and please don't be hard on yourself.

We have two important divine objects right now in the sign of Libra which are bringing up themes of negotiation, contracts, and relationships.

Mars is in the sign of Libra.

He's not too happy there because he's the warrior planet and he's being asked to work with balance and hamony.

Mars is in Libra and also the asteroid goddess Pallas Athena who is the warrior goddess.

She has just entered the sign of Libra where she will be until mid-November.

Both of these warrior elements, Mars and Pallas Athena, in the sign of Libra are saying, guess what?

You folks out there that are conflict avoidant, you're going to need to step forward now.

Remember that your responsibility is to own your side of the street and clean up your mess, okay?

The other person is responsible for their part. And you can push it back toward them for their side of the street in the matter, whatever that is.

Some contracts will be ending right now, some will be renewed, and some are still unclear as to where we're going.

Yet, it's important not to avoid difficult conversations right now, okay?

And for the 20% of you that love conflict and arguing and find yourself to be a rather pushy or stubborn type of person, this is a time for you to listen, to give the other person a chance to speak. And think, oh, they have a point of view as well.

You'll know who you are if you fall into that camp, but most of the people listening are going to fall more into the conflict avoidant and people pleasing and fear of conflict camp here.

And for those folks, you need to remember that we are getting to a place of goodness of fit in these conversations.

Putting things back into a natural order of harmony and in that that means that sometimes there have to be extremely difficult conversations and sometimes things need to break all together.

It's not personal, it's evolution.

I'll take this moment to mention a shadow side of Neptune in Pisces which is vagueness and that also includes spiritual bypassing, not being able to face reality.

It's interesting to notice that Pallas, Pallas Athena, who represents the goddess Athena here in the sign of Libra…

In the myth, Athena battled Poseidon, which is also related to Neptune, for rulership of the ancient city of Athens.

And as we know, Athena won.

That's where we get the name Athens.

She battled Neptune. So in this moment, let's look at this idea of being willing to face reality, to come out of vagueness and to come out of denial in whatever area of life this is presenting itself.

You can be honest with yourself now.

This is the true meaning of leadership and sovereignty.

Which brings us to the final part of this New Moon in Virgo that I would like to speak about today, which is the Sabian symbol for 22 degrees Virgo, which is where the New Moon is.

We're technically at 21 degrees 59 minutes of Virgo, so we look at the 22nd degree of Virgo for our Sabian symbol.

Sabian symbols are esoteric symbols for each degree of the zodiac.

There are 360 of them and they are means of contemplation.

They can reveal to us parts of this lunation that might be otherwise hidden to us.

Let's look right now at the Sabian symbol for this new moon.

The Sabian symbol for Virgo 22° is a royal coat of arms enriched with precious stones.

And what I'm reading to you is from the evolutionary astrologer Dane Rudger.

The keynote for this symbol is the certification of aristocratic status at whatever level “nobility” expresses itself in cultural eminence.

[So we're talking about nobility and aristocracy, both false and true aristocracy or sovereignty. This is a reference to ancestral achievements in the symbol for Virgo.]

It is seen here in its most exalted character for “royalty” is spoken of traditionally [and this is important] the king is the spiritual symbol of unity, of an integrated nation.

As a coat of arms is visualized, we are dealing with a status that is not merely personally acquired, but has its roots in a notable past.

Every great adept has come out of a line of human beings who have made their marks upon human evolution.

Spiritual attainment is the result of a series of long repeated efforts.

It is the end of a Royal Road or Raja Yoga.

Raja means king in Sanskrit, in the broadest sense of the term Raja.

I think it's very interesting that this royal coat of arms Sabian symbol is up right now and this line here of traditionally the king is the spiritual symbol of unity of an integrated nation with deep roots in the past.

And it makes me think of our upcoming 2024 election.

It makes me ask, are we electing a person, a sovereign queen or king that we feel good about as a spiritual symbol of unity of an integrated nation?

Is our nation integrated or integrating?

And this makes me think about aristocracy or Raja Yoga in ourselves.

Do we see ourselves with dignity and with nobility and with respect?

Do we treat ourselves with respect?

Do we honor ourselves, our bodies, our minds, our spirits, our souls?

How would we be able to recognize someone that we would want to lead us in our nation as the “spiritual leader” of an integrated nation unless we were owning that for ourselves.

Do we lead our own lives, our bodies, our families, our homes with self-responsibility even if it's a tiny room in a home or a squat or a mud hut in a village or a huge castle?

Do we lead with dignity and grace?

So coming back to finishing up some of this writing from Dane Rudhyar on the symbol:

The coat of arms represents the collective status, the spiritual office.

Whoever wears it assumes the responsibility of an office.

As the French say, noblesse oblige, noblesse oblige.

[Nobility confers upon a man or a woman exacting responsibility.]

The question implied in the symbol is, are you willing, able, and ready to assume a, “royal office” at whatever level it may be?

We're talking about self-sovereignty here and there's no way that I believe personally that we would be able to know who we would want to vote for unless we have owned that for ourselves and treat ourselves with dignity and respect.

It also talks here about our roots and our ancestry and that makes me ask are we listening to the land for guidance regarding leadership for ourselves and for our land and our nations.

Are we listening to the land for guidance or are we only looking at what we're hearing in society and in the media and in the glitz and the glamour?

Or are we only looking at zeros and ones in our computerized bank account and coming from fear in making decisions?

Are we dropping in deeper – grounded rooted and centered and deeply listening to the movement of the soul?

Remembering that we have to think long-term here in terms of evolution, not being so reactive.

Are we using our true warrior grounded faculties and not turning away from conflict just because we would rather stay in this Neptune and Pisces denial or vagueness?

When we think about our roots in our history we ask if we're considering what is good and right and true for the situation at hand.

Are we taking the time to deeply listen and to think critically and to meditate or pray or contemplate not just from our heads but rather including our hearts and our souls and our bodies and information from the land, ancient information here?

Only when we are seated or seated on our own “throne,” our seat, and we are self-actualized or self-actualizing as the sovereign of our own lives, doesn't matter whether we're, you know, a street sweeper, a dishwasher, an executive, an artist, a mother, a father – then we will recognize who is a true and good and right leader for our tribe or our country.

In the ideal version of our United States or Western nations, we hang on to the idea of democracy, an elected government, not a monarchy.

And this is ideally a reflection of a people who have some pride, some healthy pride, some dignity, and some connection to the land, and we make a free choice from that place.

Rather than a monarchy where the “divine leader” is assigned through birth, we in the United States are running a more Aquarian experiment of leadership by the people. It's good to remember that the United States, for example, has a natal moon in its chart in 1776 of the moon in Aquarius.

We are running an Aquarian experiment of leadership by the people, for the people, and of the people. So we want to look at are we preserving that democracy in truly having our voices heard.

And we're still in a really young phase in our nation of the United States.

So we get to ask ourselves sort of like teenage questions at this time.

Is our American experiment going to fail?

We're young, we're developing.

We may think that we're old, but we're really young.

So are we strong enough to insist and stand up for our rights to make well-informed choices and vote?

So again, coming back to coming out of the vagueness of Neptune, the obfuscation, we want to look at things more clearly.

That's the first step.

How do we truly influence our elections?

We see things accurately.

One of our primary responsibilities for our own self-sovereignty and dignity is awareness, seeing things accurately, looking at reality. We want to look at the accurate state also in coming back to the Sabian symbol about aristocracy, looking at the accurate state of our leadership, being telling ourselves the honest truth about what is happening.

We’re coming out of vagueness and into transparency.

Transparency of seeing our own lives accurately as well as elections, politics, these sorts of things.

It is not necessarily a spiritual issue, but it is a spiritual issue. Because if we don't look at these things accurately, there is a shadow piece that we keep putting under the rug.

So for myself, I know, for example, the Democratic National Committee is meeting today to talk about delegates.

How do we feel about our debates in this country, whether it's Democrat, Republican, Independent, or Green? Do we feel that we need to have transparency to be able to hear all of the candidates that want to run for office in the primaries?

Do we feel that they should [that's not a word I use very often, should] be obliged, noblesse oblige as I mentioned in the Sabian symbol, are they obliged to allow or to require actually all candidates that want to be considered in the primary election to be seen in a public debate so that we as the people can make a well-informed decision.

This is the sort of thing that is coming up today.

I think it's interesting that this meeting of the Democratic National Committee is happening today on this new moon with this Sabian symbol.

And again, not to be too political in a more esoteric or soul-based audio here, but just remember that it's mostly about being honest with ourselves and hearing all parts of self in our life and in our internal and external family systems so that we can make well-informed decisions, making the best decisions that we can.

I hope I didn't lose you by that discussion of the Sabian symbol for the new moon and that diversion into politics, but let's remember that we're looking at these things as esoteric symbols for evolution of human consciousness whether you are someone that follows those things or not they are pertinent to our own personal lives and how we hold ourselves with dignity and what is most discerning at this time for ourselves and what is good and right and true for us and for the highest good of all.

I hope this is helpful.

I welcome your feedback.

Have a blessed new moon.

Thank you.

Please share this astrology update with those who may benefit. ♡