Journalling the Zodiac: Virgo new moon / eclipse
Early this morning (ok, yesterday now, it's just after midnight as I'm typing this) there was a partial solar eclipse in Virgo. A solar eclipse is like a supercharged new moon, as the earth where we live our lives and manifest our dreams comes into alignment with the heavenly energies of the Sun and Moon. We can shake up habits, refine goals, set an intention for the coming months. A solar eclipse in Virgo is a good time for starting new habits of well-being, self care, healthy eating and exercise. Virgo teaches us to listen to the wisdom of the body, to cleanse and refine what we put into it. The day before the eclipse, I was at a yoga workshop, which included a vegan lunch, bringing the body into balance as summer moves into autumn. Virgo is the sign of out everyday temples, the body, our home, the environment we live in. And Virgo rules our sacred work, those things that we spend our time on, day to day, and the meaning these sacred duties have for us.
The Sun and Moon at the eclipse are in the twelth house, where we serve something greater than ourselves. This eclipse asks us to look at the work we do, whether for a paid job or otherwise, and consider why we do it, what it means to us, and what ideal or higher power we are serving. As we transition from the creative, outward flowing energy of summer to the more reflective energy of autumn, we deepen and refine our goals and our visions.
More and more, I think that Virgo is the sign of practice. We practice yoga, or writing, or gentle parenting, or mindfulness. Whatever it is, Virgo asks us to show up, every day, to put in the time and the work. Through this discipline, we learn to discriminate. We learn when something is working, and how to refine it when it isn't. And so we ripen, growing ourselves and our work into our full manifestation. And when it is ripe, we harvest, and plough the seeds into the next project, and begin the whole process again. This solar eclipse, in the twelfth house, is the dark point of this cycle - our energies have gone out into the world, in the tenth and eleventh houses, and we can no longer control the fruits of our labours. Instead we wait in the dark, to see what new seeds will germinate in the coming months.
When I looked at my journalling questions for Virgo, I focussed on what I am in the process of perfecting. But as I wrote, it occurred to me that perfecting is maybe the wrong word. It implies that an end point is possible, that perfection can be reached. But perfection is surely a kind of death, an ultimate achievement - where do you go from there? Even death is simply a change in manifestation. Virgo is the sign of the harvest, and the harvest is part of the cycle, life and death and rebirth. The fruit contains the seed of the next cycle. We don't harvest when something is perfect, we harvest when it is ripe.
As usual, I spent much of August peeling and cooking apples, as we have an apple tree in our garden. If we hadn't harvested them, they would rot and fall to the ground, and all the hard work of the tree in manifesting apples would be lost. Or at least, not optimised. Instead I change their manifestation, transforming them into endless jars of chutney and a freezer full of stewed apple. So it seems to me that ripening is a much better word for Virgo than perfecting. Virgo is also the sign of discrimination, which the incomparable Dane Rudhyar tells us is the meeting of analysis and intuition. We need to work hard on our chosen projects, our sacred duties, to bring them into manifestation. But we also need to use our intuition, to understand which of our plans and ideas are ripening. We can know this by sensing pieces falling into place, by noticing the synchonicities around us.
More and more, I think that Virgo is the sign of practice. We practice yoga, or writing, or gentle parenting, or mindfulness. Whatever it is, Virgo asks us to show up, every day, to put in the time and the work. Through this discipline, we learn to discriminate. We learn when something is working, and how to refine it when it isn't. And so we ripen, growing ourselves and our work into our full manifestation. And when it is ripe, we harvest, and plough the seeds into the next project, and begin the whole process again. This solar eclipse, in the twelfth house, is the dark point of this cycle - our energies have gone out into the world, in the tenth and eleventh houses, and we can no longer control the fruits of our labours. Instead we wait in the dark, to see what new seeds will germinate in the coming months.