We Made This World, We Can Make Another
New moon at 21° of Virgo, Mercury stations direct, & the last week of summer
Thursday evening, at 6:40pm PST, the moon goes dark and renews herself at 21° of Virgo, priestess of systems, keeper of the holy order. Virgo is ruled by Mercury, who has been retrograding in Virgo the last three weeks, sending us into a deep process edit and analysis of our inner systems. Now, at the same time and sign as this new moon, Mercury is slowing down, coming to a stop, and by Friday, stationing direct. And so the final week of summer arrives as a kind of doorway opening, a turning point, one we are strongly encourage to pause at thoughtfully, conscientiously, meaningfully — Virgo-like — before we enter fall, start over, and move forward.
Mercury stationed retrograde in Virgo back on August 23, but it might feel like things have been messier for longer, as two-thirds of summer - the Leo and Virgo thirds - were under the spell of retrograde underworld journeys. It gave this whole summer season a surprising depth. Right when many of us were expecting to feel our most expanded, our lightest and loosest, we got re-immersed in some bondage or story from the past. There may have been weeks when you felt like you were reliving some of your deepest relationship wounds, your earliest conditioning, old fears of not being loveable exactly as you are, not being enough somehow, or never having enough of what you need. It’s been an education, if nothing else, in how far we have come, and how far we still have to go.
If the Venus retrograde in Leo was strong for you personally, you may have reconnected with an inner child or ancestral part, or some latent inner voice of truth, some new part of you that you are tasked with loving, developing, and eventually embodying fully. Many of us received a kind of healing reconnection with our anger and rage, some inner fire that could burn away whatever was making us hold our tongues or compromise our authentic expression. Some of what transpired may also just be mysterious and still unfolding, having to do with Saturn’s transit in Pisces, started back on the Virgo full moon (Washing Order into Chaos), and its initiation of some new level of integration between our ego agenda and our soul identity.
Mercury winding back on us in the middle of it all seemed to cause what I can only describe as a thorough review of our unconscious and conscious contracts - the agreements, relationships, jobs, patterns and systemic ways of being we got into to survive. Some of these agreements and patterns revealed themselves as needing to be transcended or rewritten or thrown out entirely. Mercury retrograde never breaks anything that isn’t breakable. This end-of-summer new moon Mercury direct is our opportunity to make some new agreements with ourselves and others from a more conscious, more honest, more integrated place than we were in three months ago.
However these energies are showing up for you, take a few days if you can to slow down, stop, and come direct yourself. Wait for the weekend, and or wait until you feel grounded and fully planted in the present before making any big moves. But like, put some moves in your pockets. The Virgo new moon is here to remind us that the only way to escape the bondage of the past, and the tyranny of a default survival mode, is to fully occupy a new dimension of consciousness. Not just in our own minds and intentions—in our everyday actions. Virgo and the magician Mercury both want you to recommit, wholeheartedly, maybe even gladly(!), to the daily, consistent self-discipline necessary to embody and actualize the vision you have for your life and for the world. It wants you sense what you need to pull that off, to build or repair a system or two to make that kind of consistency possible.
Virgo’s genius is for restoring order, healing ecosystems, sanctifying ruins. In the chaos and entropy of a changing climate system, in a society where we still can’t agree to make reparations for slavery real and tangible, in a religious extremist patriarchy that’s openly deranged and bent on destroying systems as a form of domination and control, it really matters how many of us can embody our Virgo attributes enough to be the change, and keep being it. Rather than blaming the forces that are larger than us, blaming circumstances we inherited, blaming capitalism—though all of that is very real—Virgo wants us to practice locating the power we do have and using it, over and over, wisely, lovingly, on repeat. We made this world, we can make another.
Ok, last piece of context that feels important—this is the last new moon we will have until November 13th, as the next new moon will be a south node/clearing solar eclipse in Libra. The Virgo new moon is also generally a solid new moon for ritually support our creative lives. So if you have a new, creative idea brewing, or even an idea for an idea, one that might take months or years to manifest, one that has something to do with the house in your chart that Virgo styles, consider this next seven days full of good moments to make or renew some vows. The most potent vows won’t be about reaching a specific destination or goal, but devoting yourself to a journey or process. Virgo knows that if the process or system is attuned and holy and harmonious, it doesn’t matter exactly where you end up; you will want to be there when you get there. And 21° of Virgo feels particularly powerful for creative intentions that transcend our personal ambitions—projects that will take a team, a community, maybe even an entire society to pull off, and that serve the culture or group soul or world soul somehow; the anima mundi. So consider all of that my fellow priestesses and priests as you wield the renewed energy of Mercury. And blessings on all doors that are about to open for you.
Before we get to my specific ritual suggestions and creative writing prompts for this moon, I want to shout out the title of this post, which comes from this powerful piece of artwork made by Roger Peet, and sold by the important organization Justseeds Artist Cooperative, a decentralized network of 41 artists committed to social, environmental, and political engagement. I bought a print of this piece a few years ago now, for my Leo/Virgo cusp husband Brian S. Ellis, and it hangs in his office where he is busy creating new worlds every day. Maybe you also need this in your office as you prepare to manifest some important social enterprise or culture changing novel or fiery book of transformative poems:
Ritual & Creative Prompts
(Disclaimer: Prompts are not instructions! They are made-up limitations and suggestions. Use what sounds good to you, adapt in any way you want.)
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