The New Moon In Virgo Means It’s Time For Spiritual Healing

There are astrologers who, when looking at your natal chart, will tell you that your sun sign is who you are learning to become, while your moon sign is who you already are. I want to sit with this way of knowing as we welcome the new moon in Virgo. I want to encourage you, reader, to imagine that the cosmos is a body, too. A heavenly body with her own natal chart, the cosmos is our great river—a mirror we look up into so that we might endeavor to see ourselves. When our Sun is in Virgo and our moon is in Virgo, who we are becoming is already who we are. What we need to feel safe, secure, and strong, is something we’ve already had within us—a core truth we didn’t want to see but saw anyway. When our Sun and our moon is in Virgo, we are faced with ourselves and all the important work we have left undone in the name of our service to others.

In some ways, Virgo is the most human sign of the zodiac. Unlike the Gemini twins, Virgo enters this world singular and leaves it just the same. Mutable, which is to say social and adaptable, she plays well with others but remains her own confidante and only trusted companion. Still, it is worthwhile to summon the ruler of both these signs when we think about their power for both are ruled by Mercury—the messenger—and Mercury, too, has been direct in Virgo since September 9. What message does Virgo bring forth when her constellation shines ever brighter in our great mirror? When Virgo, the sign of service, of analytical affection, holds the new moon in her hands, she can’t help but begin the work of mending, of setting things right. She knows what a new moon can do because Virgo is a sign attracted to power, especially when that power is without artifice—as the moon always is.

It can be hard to know where to begin. Even if we were not raised in a culture of discarding, we live in one. We are taught to discard everything that does not fit, that we feel will not serve. We have embraced the ideal of minimalism which, for all its stark austerity, seems to encourage us to buy our simple things and gorge our landfills with all the complex objects we’ve acquired for what seems like no good reason. But, if we are honest, we can admit that some of our heaviest and least simple belongings are reminders of the reason we are here, and they are precious.

And some of these belongings are our suitcases packed with memories, our books of longing, our little satchels filled with favors we mean to return. When the new moon is in Virgo and the sun is in Virgo, we know we are ready to begin the work of tending to what we carry within us.

We can, in good faith, open the suitcases we carry and, with a keen eye, look for lessons that have stuck to the backs of memories. We can read the books of our longing and be unafraid of what grief was born there. Whether you are Jewish or not, the Jewish people are a people of the moon, and they claim the days ahead as days of grief. Our grief is followed by a new year, our grief is followed by the sweet autumnal gift of an apple dipped in honey. When the new moon is in Virgo and the sun is in Virgo, you are at the precipice of your own power. You are beginning to understand your worth, something no one else can define for you. You are stronger than you feel and have more to offer than you know. It’s time for you to set about fixing what you thought could never be fixed and return each favor you’ve been given as only a Virgo could do, gracious and three-fold as generous as when it came to you.