New Moon in Virgo September 17, 4:58 am MST, Moon + Sun Trine Saturn in Capricorn

New moons are times of intention setting and planning—and this new moon in Virgo trine Saturn is the apotheosis of organization and plans.

It’s also a lovely moment in the midst of the intensity of Mars retrograde through Aries happening right now (from September 9 to November 13), which can make the Martian energy of aggression, action, movement, and anger feel internalized, repressed, pressurized. (Heyyy, quarantine.)

The Devoted One

Virgo is the Virgin, the Priestess, the Devoted One. Virgo reminds us that each small task we undertake, each detail we give attention and care, is in service to something larger than just that act, and in service to something bigger than just ourselves.

Virgo season falls during the harvest—the time we labor hard, not for instant gratification, but for the looming winter ahead. Virgo plays the long game.

And with the sun and moon in Virgo in positive conversation (trine) with Saturn, the taskmaster, in Capricorn, sign of worldly efforts and worldly success, now is the time where if we develop our devotion through incremental tasks and steps, through the ritual of daily practice, we can be assured that we will, in the future, reach the heights of our mountaintops, whatever that may be for you personally, and for us as a collective.

At the Pisces full moon, we visioned into new possibilities—for ourselves, for our creative projects, and for our world. Now Virgo asks us to break this vision into doable daily steps—and to complete these tasks, one by one, day by day.

Saturn expects diligence and may crack the whip at anything less, but with this teacher energy looking on, we push ourselves to excel, to be better than we thought, to reach higher than we knew we could.

This new moon is asking us to roll up our sleeves. Dig in our heels, perform the work, execute the labor, however minuscule, however mundane—measure, cut, lay the boards, hammer the nails—to build the staircase to those castles in the clouds.

Creative Ritual—The Sacred in each Small Step

1. Think of one small task, a daily practice you can commit to for the next two weeks (or month), which would move you forward in a creative project and/or help you to feel more grounded and connected to your grander vision of a better world.

2. This “small task” may look very different for different folks. It may be writing one sentence in a journal, or writing half an hour on your book project. It could be meditating on your own heartbeat for 10 minutes, or donating an hour of your time, or $5 a day, to an organization doing work you believe in deeply. It may be lying on the floor playing with your child or pet each day when you finish work, or dedicating your morning coffee-time to a visualization of yourself completing your chosen heartfelt goal. If you already have a creative practice, think of a manageable but meaningful step you could add to deepen it.

3. If you’re having trouble selecting a task, journal on the following question: What do I need in order to complete my project or reach this goal? (And/or:) What would I need to do to make this vision a reality? As you freewrite, break down the larger idea into smaller steps and chunks, getting smaller and smaller until you reach some step you could take—or something you could do to prime yourself for the next step—in the next two weeks.

4. Write this task on a sticky note on your mirror, add it to your calendar, set a reminder on your phone, plug it into a habit tracking app. Then perform the task, the step, for the next two weeks. As you perform the task,

And check out this post for more ideas for adding ritual to your writing or other creative practice. Maybe you’ll find a task idea here.

New Moon Writing Prompts—Creative Writing + Journal Writing

The Virgin (/) Priestess is the queen of the harvest, the act of separating the wheat from the chaff, determining what is good for us and our dreams, what serves us and the worlds we want to build—from what does not. What we need to release, surrender, and transmute. The following exercises help us get in touch with our inner (or outer) Virgo.

Creative Writing Prompt—The Wheat from the Chaff

1. Think of a character you’ve been working with. Think (or write) for a few minutes on what it is they carry, hold onto, keep in their life that isn’t serving them, that is toxic or harmful, or old or expired, that is some pattern or habit from a previous version of themselves that they haven’t allowed to molt and fall away.

2. Make a list of things that they don’t really need or want anymore. Of things they’d like to, or should, say no to. From big things to small, the mundane to the existential, list everything you can think of. (Writing to a five-minute timer can work well for this.)

3. Now write a scene wherein we see the character in some way burdened or held back by one (or more) of these things they don’t need, but they continue to carry or enact. Write the scene and see/decide whether or not they choose to release or transform this old, obsolete thing, relationship, pattern of being.

Journal Writing Prompt—The Wheat from the Chaff, Redux

1. Perform the exercise listed above (Creative Writing Prompt—The Wheat from the Chaff); this time, the character is you.

2. In addition to or in place of #3, write a scene in which a future version of yourself has already released this unneeded thing, this burden weighing you down. What does that future-self look like, how do they move through the world, what have they done or accomplished, and what can they do?

Photo by Paz Arando on Unsplash