New Moon 21º Virgo Thursday September 14, 2023 7:39 PM MT

New Moon in Virgo

Hello and welcome to one of the most gorgeous new moons of the year! This is an excellent time for setting intentions and planting seeds for the next month, and the next six months of this lunar cycle. There’s so much yummy, juicy energy to work with this new moon, and hardly any difficult energies—and there haven’t been a ton of moons we can say that with this year—so please, manifest away!

Virgo is a really beautiful energy for manifestation as well. And not so much in the…make a wish and it will poof appear way… (that’s more Pisces energy), but more in the practical magic, clean your altars and clear your space for what you really want, make detailed step-by-step plans, and devote yourself to the daily rituals, routines and practices that will move you closer to the life you envision kinda-way.

Virgo is mutable earth, which may feel a bit like a contradiction in terms, but I think it really captures the essence of this season and energy. It’s the autumn winds bearing the first cool notes in the evenings, the leaves changing colors and falling to the ground, the richness of summer ripening and beginning to turn. It is a reminder that everything material will change, will end. That even that which seems so sturdy and permanent as earth, will crumble and become anew.

And that includes us. How many seasons we die and are born again. How many versions of yourself have you already been? How many more will you still become?

And at this new moon, we’re asked to choose, very intentionally, what our next season will be. What exactly we wish to sow, to plant, that will grow in the coming weeks and months. And then, create your plan, your ritual. What steps can you take in the next two week to get closer to this vision? What about the next six months? And the next two and a half years?

Break down these timelines into chunks, and work backwards to see what you need to start doing now, in order to get where you want to be in the future.

This moon is also sitting in a Grand Earth Trine to Uranus and Pluto. This can bring very innovative, surprising ideas and visions, as well as deep healing and transformations. It sits across the sky from Neptune as well, which means all of the outer planets are involved. This doesn’t speak to easy energy, but it does point to big, deep, powerful possibilities for change, evolution and growth.

Think big, really imagine into not only what you want to accomplish or make, but also who you want to become, and how your personal evolution can serve and expand the collective—and help build the world you truly want to see.

Mercury Stations Direct

Mercury is the ruler of this new moon (it both rules and is exalted in Virgo—its very happy place), and after about three weeks of retrograde motion, it stations direct tomorrow, September 15 at 2:21 pm MT. This is a huge green light and green flag for moving forward with communications, commerce, contracts, deals, travel plans and platonic connections.

Bring the clarity this season of review and rethinking has brought you into your visions, plans, and yes, routines and rituals for these upcoming months.

We will begin to feel a strong shift in momentum as now all the personal planets are moving direct again. (It may be a slightly slow start, however, as Mercury and Venus both finish retracing their shadow territory. Use this to your advantage—don’t jump in impulsively, but make strong, steady plans and ride the momentum as it builds.)

New Moon Writing Prompts

Astrologer Ari Moshe Wolfe talks about one of the lessons of the Virgo-Pisces axis (Pisces being the sign opposite Virgo, and the place where the full moon took place two weeks ago) is about accepting what we can and cannot change.

Inspired by this idea, the writing prompts for this week are rooted in the Serenity Prayer: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Freewrite on any/all of the following questions:

- What am I being asked to surrender to at this time? What in my life, work, family, friends, relationships, writing/art is out of my control?

- What are ways I can support myself in accepting what I cannot control and accepting life as it is?

- What is in my power to control? How/where am I being asked to take more responsibility for things in my life, and/or my own responses and reactions?

- Where am I being asked to find courage and take the chance on myself and my dreams?

- What is the next small step, or small change I can (and perhaps need) to make, in order to move toward the visions, desires and intentions I have for myself?

- What do I want for the next two weeks, the next six months, and in the next 2.5 years? (Try to get specific for each.)

- What routines, practices and rituals can I put into place to support me in making this move/change?

- What can I do today, to move myself closer to this vision?

New Moon in Virgo Ritual

(This is a little different than my usual format, but it’s how it came through. Thanks, Mercury.)

Clean your house, your floor, your writing desk. Light orange candles, or yellow, brown, gold or light green. Gather feathers. Write words of what you wish for on bay leaves or feathers and cast them into the wind, or bury them in loose soil or beneath a tree. Burn or spread rosemary. Or sage. Put out offerings of coffee and wine. Write about your visions of birds, your visions as birds. Write the vision of exactly where you want to be in three years, as if it exists here and now. Close your eyes and imagine that place as if you are there now, that place, that person you wish to be. What do you smell, see, hear, taste, feel in this place, in/as this future (you)? Open your eyes and write this. Use orange or green pen, marker. Draw Mercury’s glyph (a circle atop a cross, a half-circle atop the circle). Burn that paper, or bury it, or put it under your mattress.