We have a New Moon in Virgo on 9th September 2018 at 7.01 pm BST. This powerful new moon has the Sun-Moon conjunction opposite Neptune and in a supportive sextile from Jupiter.
This combines the exacting, precise nature of the Sun-Moon in Virgo with the illusion, romanticism, and defuse lenses of Neptune. But we can use Jupiter keep an open mind to what is, rather than getting lost in the illusion or separate in the ego.
The current emphasis on earth, with 7 planets in earth signs, also supports a down to earth approach, preventing us getting lost in the Neptunian fog at this New Moon.
With all the retrogrades and eclipses, we have gotten used to the frustrations, delays and unexpected changes over the last few months. Now with the current flowing grand trine involving Mercury, Saturn and Uranus, we might be wise to start looking seriously at where and what we want to get moving, rather than staying in the surrender. We need to see this as a month of changing gears.
Venus moves into her detriment sign of Scorpio on 9th September, at this New Moon, which continues the emphasis on the Venus-Mars square – figuring throughout most of the first half of September, and of course reflecting the larger orchestration of Venus and Mars, as the cosmic lovers, and their retrograde cycles. Together they are calling us to look at the overarching relationship of the masculine and feminine in our lives and world at large.
Venus and Mars are at odds in September, in their challenging, generating awareness square aspect, means relationship issues, with a particular emphasis on sex, intimacy and sexual, intimate expression.
How we are in relationship with others requires us to look at how we function in relationship with ourselves and our desires, wants, needs and boundaries. We are working to balance all this with our social selves and our future selves – where we want our lives to go. It’s a lot to contend with.
While Mars has finished his retrograde, he is still moving very slowly in the shadow phase which doesn’t end until 9th October. He will hang around the cusp of Capricorn-Aquarius until mid September.
What this all means is that while the sense of crisis or futility is ebbing away, we still are required to work at the deeper level of the energy. We are just in a different phase of the same process – escapism, complacency or suppression are probably not the answers. Use the earth energy to deal with reality.
We entered the shadow phase of Venus retrograde on 3rd September. This gives us an interesting overlap of Mars-Venus shadow phases.
There are three distinct phases to a retrograde period. You can see the shadow phase as simply the territory that the retrograding planet covers three times (as opposed to usual one). It goes forward, backwards and then forwards again. So at the moment both Mars and Venus are in territory that they have or will cover three times.
How we relate to one another and how we relate internally to our inner masculine and feminine is the main thrust of the lessons. Both Mars and Venus change signs also, which doesn’t always happen during a retrograde phase, adding another layer of complexity.
The suggestion here is that we need to go deeper to really get to the meaning of these retrograde cycles. Both Mars and Venus run move from fixed to cardinal signs.
With Mars we have been looking at the established way of doing things and then how it needs reinventing and renovation. With Venus we are going to be looking at power and intimacy and how this interrupts the equality, harmony and balance in our relationships.
Together they are helping us explore and discover more about our relationship dynamics and how we can create more harmony within our personal and interpersonal relationships (with wider humanity).
We are becoming increasingly aware that we can’t keep doing the same thing over and over again. Patterns of behaviour need to change. We can’t keep doing the same old thing especially since the way we do anything is the way we do everything. We need to look at ourselves as a hologram and a spectrum, rather than separate bits. Everything we do, say, feel and think is a reflection of who we are, individually and collectively.
There will be reality checks with Saturn around 23rd – 25th September, again reflecting this tendency to not quite be in reality and a need for dealing with the here and now, taking the future unfolding reality of things to come more seriously than we would perhaps like.
We could find ourselves in conflicts. Mid month, Uranus is trying to break things down, lots will start coming up out of the wood work so don’t leave things to the last minute. Remember Saturn has some important deeper realisations for us. Stay open-minded and grounded, we are reinventing ourselves, we are rediscovering the meaning to life, even, so refrain from thinking you have the answers or that you are right on things.
The Virgo influence, with the Sun and Mercury, supports us right now to get clear, organised and practical about the changes that are in the pipelines. Get your ducks in order, get your space clear, get yourself nutritionally ready for what’s coming. Attend to details, focus energy and see what needs to be done.
This is how we can best support ourselves while we are reworking our lives. This is also a time when we are more vulnerable physically to the changing seasons and weather and so using the Virgo energy paves the way.
Mars now in Aquarius (ruler Uranus), now at odds with Venus emphasises the need for deeper, more embodied processing (the key to true awakening).
With Uranus moving through Taurus, we are all in a process of reinventing of our connection to our senses and bodies, on top of all the other reinventing. Relating to our senses from a more embodied place frees us, takes us out of heads and into a reality that brings more connection and meaning. This is about reevaluating our entire existence, in a way.
As we come into the last two months of the Leo-Aquarius nodal axis emphasis, the integrity of Leo, the impulsive playfulness, self-expressive authenticity shines brightly. We are beginning to see where we need to go, not so much in personal destiny but in a wider destiny.
We get so caught up in our own personal manifestations and fulfilling of purpose we forget to notice the stuff that’s really important – how we are living, our relationships, our beingness and what is really of value to us.
A big part of all this is our ability to get intimate with ourselves and others. Jupiter is also coming towards the end of it’s sojourn through Scorpio so how intimacy is expressed or not expressed is becoming a vital part of our spiritual evolution. I think we will discover more about that in the upcoming Venus retrograde.
Finally, in later September, Black Moon Lilith in Aquarius comes into a tighter opposition with the South Node in Leo, bringing a stronger emphasis on removing that which holds us back freeing ourselves and giving us more access to the more instinctive, wild side within. Really go there, with all your heart and awareness and let the rebirth emerge through you.
