New Moon in Virgo: Owning your Own Power

New Moon in Virgo: Owning our Own Power

Moon conjunct Sun @12:30am CDT on 9-20-17

Released from the shadow of Mercury’s retrograde (at 11:10am CDT on the 19th), the collective mind has collected some wisdom with which we can move forward into new territory in this dark moon transition.  And though the solar month of Virgo is coming to a close on the Autumnal Equinox of September 22^nd, Venus is making her ingress into Virgo at 8:15pm CDT tonight (the 19th)…which means that when the Moon and Sun conjunct, three planets will also be highlighting Virgo energy (Venus, Mars, and Mercury).  Virgo is the pure priestess energy of focus and dedication to spiritual service…much like Vesta (the asteroid that just moved from Virgo to Libra this Monday and was prevalent last month in Mercury's Retrograde station), it is the energy that keeps the sacred flame lit.  In this illuminating energy, we are inclined toward the discernment of truth.  Even as Neptune and Chiron are retrograding through Pisces in opposition to all of this Virgo energy…plunging us into the uncharted seas of the collective unconscious…we are seeking a balance within that will help us discern what is real and what is illusion.  So it’s time to ignite the fire within as we approach the colder months in our Northern Hemisphere.  What we radiate out to the world right now is what we will see shining back at us.  

Sun and Moon in Virgo 28

The Sabian Symbol for the 28^th degree of Virgo is “A bald-headed man who has seized power.”  This symbol has many facets…but whatever feeling you get at first from this image may give you the best clues for what you will personally be experiencing during this lunation.  However, let’s bring the focus to the details of this symbol (Virgo energy is good for such focus)…as it can help us zero in on how to best seize and use this power provided by our luminaries.  The main focus is on ‘power’.  What is power?  The word’s origins trace back to ‘ability’, ‘efficacy’ and ‘potency’.  It is the ability to create, decide, and act.  We all have this ability…even with other disabilities.  We all have power.  We all have the potential to use our power.  Another thing we all have is a larger environment of power dynamics that often keeps us feeling small, ineffective, unimportant, or unable to create necessary change (powerless).  But energy shifts from one moment to the next, and there are always opportunities that arise where we can seize back our power and activate our potential. 

Seize is an interesting word with many meanings.  It was originally a legal term referring to feudal property.  It is about possession…what we have and what we lay claim to.  And since we each can lay claim only to our own power…not the land, not others…the phrase ‘seized power’ has a hidden connotation that is often overlooked.  If we are seizing power, we must take back what is rightfully ours…and what is ours is only ourselves.  But first we must truly understand our own power.  Essentially…to seize is to grasp.  We must grasp our own power.  Another more formal definition of ‘seize’ is ‘to understand something quickly or clearly’.  Virgo energy, of which there is a potent amount right now, inclines us to get down to brass tacks about things.  So, naturally, we’re starting off this moon phase by separating the wheat from the chaff of what power really is, and how we can most effectively use it. 

And as if we haven’t learned enough already from bad examples of misuse of power (well, some of us haven’t learned)…there will likely be more blatant misuses of power to remind us of the obsolete power dynamics that are on their last grasp before falling away.  That ‘power over others’ rather than empowerment of ourselves AND others…it’s still clinging for life.  The best we can do is stop feeding it more power.  But that is a difficult understanding to grasp…an opportunity many of us have yet to seize.  It does seem that more and more are catching on, though. 

So the bald-headed man, then.  Why him?  There is some connotation of male domination within this symbol…but beyond our needs for gender equality, this is about revealing the head (which holds the power of the mind) and its ability to make necessary decisions about what power we have to create a change…and how to effectively use that power.   There is certainly a mental switch that must be flipped in order to activate ourselves within our own power.  We all understand on some level that thoughts and feelings can open and close doors of opportunity in our lives…we have the ability to empower ourselves or to shut ourselves down at each crucial moment where we must make decisions.  In this lunar phase, where Chiron opposes our luminaries and Neptune opposes Mercury, many of us will be feeling like escaping our wounds…and confused about what power we even have when our woundedness surfaces.  Decisiveness will likely feel like a tug-o-war of internal (Chiron Retrograde) and external (Sun/Moon) forces until we find the balance within these opposing energies.  

Chiron Retrograde in 27 Pisces

Opposite the New Moon, we have Chiron focused on the degree with the Sabian Symbol of “the harvest moon illumines a clear autumnal sky”.  It is harvest season…the Autumnal Equinox is just two days after the New Moon…and we are reaping what we have sown (but also what we have failed to cultivate).  So Chiron’s influence here either brings blessings of fulfillment for work well done…or feelings of lack for not quite getting there by this time (or both). A wound reopened at the last full moon may come to full integration through a healing process undergone in the last couple of weeks…depending on how you addressed that wound.  Chiron in this position pushes us to reveal the gift within the wound, and seize the power to heal ourselves.  In the larger scope, we will likely see plenty of wounded people in power positions, making decisions from that feeling of woundedness, lack, or the shadow of powerlessness…generally acting from this wound results in hasty aggression and a lack of compassion for others.  What we can each do, individually, to counter that is to not mirror the same reactions within ourselves.  Instead, we can recognize the illusions brought up from those feelings of separation:  powerlessness, lack, and fear…and then transmute them with the light of truth illuminated by our luminaries:  own your own power.

There is an aspect pattern called a Yod (‘the finger of God’) pointing a focus at Chiron Retrograde during this New Moon…and at the foundation of this Yod is a sextile (beneficial aspect of 60 degrees) between the North Lunar Node in Leo and Jupiter in Libra.  This sextile creates two inconjunct aspects pointing to Chiron…showing an opportunity for necessary growth through integrating energies that don’t seem to fit together easily.  It does take work to heal whatever wounds are being highlighted at this time, but it is important to make the effort. 

And speaking of inconjunct aspects, the New Moon is directly inconjunct (uncomfortable aspect of 150 degrees) Uranus…adding some irritation to the wound…which makes it more imperative to heal.  

Uranus Retrograde in 28 Aries

The Sabian Symbol for the 28^th degree of Aries is “a large audience confronts a performer who disappointed its expectations”.  Uranus loves surprises, but in this degree…the surprise is more of a disappointment from the masses that were so hopefully expecting something great to happen (see, at the end of this post, my take on the Rev 12:1-2 sign of September 23^rd for clues on how this energy of disappointment may play out on the world stage).  There is both a caution here of taking on more than we can effectively deliver and also a caution of setting our hopeful expectations too high on others.  How we handle our disappointments is crucial to understanding our own power, and understanding how it is regenerative through such growth experiences.  The manner in which we meet these disappointments in life determines our future possibilities of development and achievement.  This is about taking responsibility for our actions and how they affect others…something we all must consider when ‘seizing power’.

Mercury in 13 Virgo opposite Neptune Retrograde in 13 Pisces

Adding to the focus on the Virgo-Pisces axis, Mercury exacts an opposition to Neptune shortly before the Moon conjuncts the Sun.  This first degree after the retrograde shadow concludes is the 13^th degree of Virgo, and the Sabian Symbol here is “a powerful statesman with a strong hand supplants political hysteria”.  So Mercury is reinforcing the New Moon degree symbol about power and how best to use it.  Neptune is still in the same degree as it was during the Full Moon this month (when it was opposite the Sun and conjunct the Moon then).  The Sabian Symbol for Neptune is “an ancient sword, used in many battles, is displayed in a museum”.  For more about Neptune in this degree, see Full Moon in Pisces.  Essentially, as the two are in opposition, the balance between these opposing forces has to do with activating our inner will power (Neptune) toward ‘getting a grip’ (Mercury) on unhealthy emotional panic.  Again, as it was during the Full Moon on the 6^th, we are drawing from ancestral power to really put things into perspective and shift the over-dramatics of this time into more reasonable actions that aren’t a waste of energy.  

A Note about Revelations in a Neptunian Climate

A question from a friend about September 23^rd arose after my previous post:  Kristi said, “Thank you for this insightful article. Do you have anything to say about September 23rd? There seems to be a lot of buzz on the Internet as that being a disastrous day.”

Thank you for your question, Kristi.  I must admit, I was not aware of the buzz until you mentioned it.  It was a bit of a twilight zone even stepping in all that coverage that would have otherwise alluded me…trying to keep my wits about me to discern what is real and what is blown out of proportion. Proportion is not something we, as a human race, have a reliable grasp on.  We often let it get out of hand.  Predictions are tricky things, especially when they are misused to invoke fear or separation.  What I mean is, looking at the larger scope of things and interpreting symbolism and signs can be a transformative experience of soul growth. What is tricky is sharing that power of insight with others.  Veering from ‘the stars incline; they do not compel’ to ‘the fault in our stars’ often leads to distorted views of ‘disaster’ (which literally means ‘bad star’).

It’s why I am not a predictive astrologer.  It seems a better use of this second language of mine is to interpret and translate as an art form…so that the reader may glean their own meaning from it as one would with a piece of art. 

Those new to astrology who are more versed in their own interpretations of available biblical text might not understand fully that the cosmos teaches us both about our interconnection as well as multiplicity of outcome.  It’s a big topic to teach…and each human teacher who learns is not allowed time enough in our bodies to ever reach a mastery level.  Such is the nature of wisdom that shifts and changes in timelines more vast than we can currently wrap our heads around.  As a whole, the human race has learned very little about our own Mother Earth in our time here…and her classes should be a pre-requisite on this Earth Walk.

The same can be said for those of us relatively new to interpreting bible prophecies who are more versed in a less limited cosmovision.  I’m no bible scholar.  Use your own best judgement.  My interpretations are more from a cosmic understanding rather than a religious one.  

That being said, I have researched the supposed ‘Revelation 12 Sign’ that has been forecasted for the 23^rd.  And though I am clearly pagan, I have been known to break out my own copy of the Bible from time to time in order to research symbols (my Great Grandma gave me one with my name on it when I was my daughter’s age, to carry on my wedding day).  While the alignments of the constellations, planets, and luminaries are indeed very interesting in matching certain parts of the biblical text in Rev 12:1-2, I believe they are taken out of context, especially in the predictions of the Christian idea of the Rapture.  Those who believe they will be leaving this earth because of these astronomical alignments will likely be disappointed to still have to be dealing with the worldly turmoil we’ve drummed up as a species.  But we’ve been there plenty of times before, remember?  Some Christian teachers/preachers are so eager to leave this world behind (spiritual bypass in its most obvious expression) that apocalyptic predictions are a dime a dozen…and all of them have proven false flags as well.  The difference with this one is that it’s very clever, quite fascinating with the many twists and turns in its interpretative spin.  But Virgo is a priestess energy of pure focus, of discerning what is true and what is not, so tapping into all of this Virgo energy of this New Moon is beneficial to keep us centered while the Neptunian/Piscean confusion creates opposition.

For those of you who have no idea what I am referring to, there are some who believe September 23^rd has biblical significance based on the alignments of the luminaries, the inner planets and Jupiter, and the constellations resembling a prophecy in the Book of Revelation.  The prophecy describes ‘a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth’.  With astronomy software you can see that on the 23rd, the constellation of Virgo (the female figure of our zodiacal constellations) will have the moon at her foot, the sun on her shoulder, some semblance of a ‘crown’ of stars above her head (depending on which 12 stars and/or planets you chose to count), and Jupiter moving out of what would be her womb space after a period of time similar to the gestation of a human baby.  All of these components are true, which is why it is fascinating even as a non-Christian astrologer.  Also, as an astrologer, I give a nod to the storyline of ‘rebirth’ that parallels what the stars have been telling us about this year already. 

However, there are some neophyte discrepancies that seem to be a distortion of the cosmic truth in order to fit it into a somewhat cherry-picked box of biblical interpretation.  Firstly, such a sign cannot be seen by us humans because the sun blocks our view of all of it (you can only see it in this way through astronomy software on a computer screen).  Secondly, the main point of this ‘Rev 12 Sign’ is that the crown is supposedly made up of the 9 main stars of the Leo constellation and the planets (which means ‘wandering stars’) of Venus, Mars, and Mercury positioned above the head of the constellation of the The Virgin.  This part is a bit confused because there are actually many more fixed stars than 9 that are visible to the naked eye in Leo.  There is also already a crown constellation (Coma Berenices) above Virgo…as well as 12 other visible fixed stars always above her head in an even more ‘crown-like’ formation.  There are other slight discrepancies, but I’ll leave it at that.  The point I’m trying to make is that aside from Jupiter’s involvement being congruent with human gestation within the Virgo constellation…the rest of the alignments are relatively common (Jupiter being ‘within the Virgin’s womb' happens about every 12 years…it’s just that this time, Jupiter is there for about 42 weeks).  It is an interesting spin, but understandable, to associate Jupiter with Jesus.  Jupiter was, after all, named after the Roman ‘King of the Gods’.  Astrologically, Jupiter’s energy is often Bacchanalian (or can be, since it's very expansive and abundant).  There are some obvious correlations between the dying/reborn God-man of Bacchus/Dionysus and the later story of Jesus.  This is a stretch, but so is most of it.  Also interesting to note is Comet Borisov (which many are now calling ‘The Conception Comet’) came from the loins of The Lion and travelled through The Virgin’s womb just before Jupiter entered the womb (Immaculate Conception?). 

Whether you take all this as a sign of The Tribulation Period or not, it is always best to know who originated the idea that this is the actual sign described in The Book of Revelation.  Most importantly, what have they gained?  Aside from that, how do they reconcile what their bible says about astrology and divination?  Why would a biblical sign, then, be shown astronomically and then be interpreted as a predictive astrologer might interpret it?  This is the biggest stretch.  I have heard some say that “it’s astronomy and not astrology”…but if you take an astronomical alignment and ascribe meaning to it as it relates to humans on earth, you are practicing astrology.  Predicting dates of the ‘End Times’ based on astronomical alignments is also in the realm of astrology (not good astrology, but astrology nonetheless). 

I know, it’s difficult to live within such rigid rules of what you can and can’t do if you’re a follower of the Biblical God…or the Church’s interpretation of God.  There’s a whole lot of Neptunian confusion surfacing around this…and there will be more to come after.  Perhaps our collective power to interpret things would be best focused not on how to escape responsibility for the tribulations of our planet, but on how to not contribute further distraction and destruction and to actually midwife the rebirth and restoration with more conscious contributions to Mother Earth.  There’s a hopeful thought to consider.  “Not our problem, we’re gonna get raptured” just doesn’t seem very ‘Christ-like’.

There is some concern from Christians who hold the 'no man shall know the time or date' view of all these various End Times predictions and also from Christian Astronomers who are trying to give the facts in a climate which would rather propagate whatever is more sensational.  They worry that the disappointment that will arise after this weekend will be similar to The Great Disappointment that resulted in so many different off-shoots of the faith (which also followed a failed apocalyptic prediction).  They'd like to guard against people losing faith again because of more false flags.  I'd just like to guard against a possible scenario of Christians blaming astrology for them being 'left behind' with the rest of us.  Remember, this arose from biblical prophecy students still trying to pin down the perfect day to get the heck off of this planet...I don't even know any actual astrologers who are even propagating this idea.  We're still just doing what we do.  But even though we didn't make this mess, we'll still be here teaching the lessons we can learn in the aftermath of Neptunian mystification. Stay tuned.  

Love and Gratitude,

Felina Lune Kavi