About an hour before midnight, on August 22 Pacific time—and in the early morning hours of August 23 elsewhere—the Moon will begin a new phase with the Sun at 0°23′ Virgo. This is the first of two New Moons this year in Virgo season. A second will occur at the last degree of Virgo, on September 21, and that one will be a partial solar eclipse.
Zero is the first degree of any sign; 29 is the last. Both 0 and 29 are called “critical” degrees, the most potent of the 30 degrees per sign. When the Sun, Moon, or a planet traverses the 0 degree, it manifests most quintessentially the qualities of the sign at hand.
Virgo is our mutable earth sign. It is, paradoxically, both stable like the ground we stand on and also yielding, subject to change. The name Virgo is related to the word virgin, which means unadulterated. Before the spread of Christianity, to be a “virgin” meant to be a sovereign woman, not dependent on a man, and that was understood as a good thing.
In popular astrology, a Virgoan personality is often cast as hyper-critical, of self and others. Virgo’s style is both humble and detail oriented, maybe not cognizant of the big picture as is Virgo’s opposite sign, Pisces. Virgo is driven to improve everything, not to be pesky, but more in the spirit of offering skillful service.
The glyph for Virgo is said to look like a sheaf of grain. Virgo’s totem is a harvest maiden, one whose mission is to separate wheat from chaff. Learning to distinguish between what’s useful and what’s not, combined with scrupulous ethical standards, is key to Virgo’s best quality: discriminating wisdom.
Here, I’ll offer a bit of self-disclosure about the 0 degree of Virgo. In my birth chart, the Ascendant sign is 0 degrees of Virgo, conjoined by Pluto at 0 Virgo as well. Each year when the Sun passes over that 0 degree of Virgo, I take a moment to give thanks for some of my most salient personality traits!
It’s a good practice, at any New Moon transit, to contemplate the planet that rules the sign of the lunation. Virgo’s ruling planet is Mercury, whose domains include our multiple means of perception, communication, learning, and social and commercial networking. Mercury, the Roman name for the Greek God Hermes, is also known as a psychopomp, a being who guides souls between worlds.
Specifically, at a New Moon, we look to the current status of the sign’s ruling planet for clues about setting intentions for the coming month. At the August 22/23 New Moon, Mercury is moving direct, in the creative fires of Leo. Mercury is also making an encouraging sextile (60-degree) aspect with Mars, now in the harmony-seeking air sign of Libra. All this means that it’s a fortuitous time to initiate creative projects, to make things and speak in ways that are aesthetically pleasant.
And, there’s always more going on during any lunation.
The August 22/23 New Virgo Moon makes a tense square with the disruptive energies of Uranus at 1 Gemini, Mercury’s air sign. A square is an aspect of dynamic friction, with the potential to produce growth. In a natal chart or by transit, a square means that something’s got to be reconciled. At this New Virgo Moon, square to Uranus, one might find oneself shocked (Uranus) by some new information or curious or dubious about the truth of a story someone’s telling (Gemini.) Virgo brings the analytical skill to sort truth from falsehood.
Right now, and continuing until 2028, there’s a major transit, the double 60-degree sextile between Uranus, the Saturn/Neptune conjunction, and Pluto. Historically, this rare outer planet transit has correlated with technological discoveries such as the first electric motor, DNA, and the atomic bomb. Kenneth Bowser, one of the few predictive astrologers I follow, recently released a You Tube video, The Double Sextile of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, in which he forecasts a slew of scientific breakthroughs over the next few years.
Against the backdrop of this double sextile among the outer planets, the August 22/23 New Moon is a brief punctuation point. The Virgo New Moon will make a 150-degree aspect called an inconjunct, also known as a quincunx, with Pluto and with Saturn/Neptune. The two quincunxes, with the Sun and Moon as the “focal planets,” form an isosceles triangle. Astrologers call this aspect a Yod, a “finger of God,” though the Hebrew word Yod can mean the whole hand. A Yod is an aspect of fatedness, something one can’t get away from.
A Yod in a birth chart is a mixed blessing because it means ongoing subtle pressure for the person to adjust and re-adjust how to use the energies of the focal planet.
The Yod of the August 22/23 New Moon is a fleeting transit, as the Moon first and then the Sun will move quickly on from their quincunx with the outer planets. But while this transiting aspect is briefly in play, there’s a chance—stronger than with any ordinary New Virgo Moon—to zero in on earthy, Virgoan intentions for the coming month. One might fixate—a good Virgo word—on self-improvement, whether that be in habits of physical health or in other realms where “the devil is in the details.”
The August 22/23 New Moon is an invitation to sharpen one’s skills of discernment, so as to continually do better at all the things one is meant to do.
Blessings for this first of two Virgo New Moons!
~ Sara
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