New Moon in Virgo Pt. 1 - What’s Happening in September-October 2012

by Robert Wilkinson

Over the next 4 weeks, the New Moon in Virgo indicates a time where we will get to be educated in some social-emotional way, and can learn find a fresh view of things outside of “social intellectual preoccupations.” This will show us the power of the Ageless Wisdom as it’s been cooking in our lives for a while, leading us to new understandings based in our patience, work, and persistence. Honesty is in the forefront, whether as a lesson to learn, something to acknowledge, or a quality to express.

This New Moon in Virgo is practical and distributive, and puts the Grand Irrationality into motion due to the Lunation septile Mars, triseptile Neptune, and biseptile Pluto. Destiny is in motion for everyone!! Expect critical decisions at forks in the road, and though things seem hard-edged and weird, take time to see recurring patterns that may not make sense when taken alone, but show larger forces at work when seen in relationship with other recurring patterns. I explain more later in this article.

The next four weeks will throw everyone into a) new directions, b) old directions that need cleaning up before entering a new life, or c) a combination of the two. There will be a hard edge to much of what comes down the next month, so be practical as you stand on the threshold of living a new law of your life that you’ve been rehearsing for about a year and a half.

Be honest with yourself without excessive self-criticism. Make adjustments as needed, get organized and energetic, and open your mind so you can be receptive to a more natural life or way of dealing with nature forces. This time we can step back from disingenuous thinking and communicating, and find a more innocent and natural way of seeing, thinking, understanding, and speaking.

This time gives us a chance to play with ideas and perspectives creatively, and remember what is significant to us in our society and culture while also realizing what is inadequate in our approach. Old ideas will not be useful to confirm new conditions, and periods of solitude can open us to new inspirations. Ultimately this period is teaching us about how well we’re managing our life energies through concrete actions, and showing us to let go of arguments that go everywhere and nowhere.

The New Moon occurs at 24 Virgo on September 15, 2012, 7:11 pm PDT, 10:11 pm EDT and 3:11 am Greenwich on September 16. When a Lunation is on one of the angles of a chart, it is said to be particularly powerful. Among the cities covered in this column, this month the Lunation is culminating in Tokyo and Australia, setting along the west coast of North America, on the nadir in Rio, and rising in Sofia, Cairo, Moscow, Pakistan, and India.

The Lunation finds 30 Pisces rising in Santa Monica, 20 Pisces in Vancouver, 11 Gemini in Montreal, 1 Gemini in Washington DC, 8 Gemini in Rio, 4 Leo in Lisbon (16 Sept), 17 Leo in London, 27 Leo in Berlin, 14 Virgo in Moscow, 1 Virgo in Sofia, 4 Virgo in Cairo, and 16 Leo rising in Johannesburg.

Moving into Asia and Oceana, we find Ascendants at 10 Libra in Abbottabad, 14 Libra in New Delhi, 16 Libra in Trivandrum, 18 Scorpio in Hong Kong, 4 Sagittarius in Tokyo, 11 Sagittarius in Perth, 12 Capricorn in Melbourne, 13 Capricorn in Brisbane, 8 Aquarius in Wellington, and 13 Aquarius rising on Maui (15 September.)

This is the fourth in a sequence of New Moons that fall in the sign preceding the Sun of the following Full Moon. This reverses the sequence of the 20 months preceding the 2012 Gemini New Moon that all had the New Moon in the same sign as the subsequent Full Moon. That pattern is now reversed for many months to come. I explain this phenomenon and what it means in the Full Moon articles, so I’ll elaborate on this new beginning that reverses “the natural order of things” in the next Full Moon articles coming in about two weeks.

The New Moons and Full Moons are “God’s footprints in time.” Each shows the next in the 12 phases of how things come to be each year. The cycle could be described as follows: Life energy is initiated in Aries, substantiated in Taurus, explored in Gemini, grounded in Cancer, renewed and creatively expressed in Leo, refined and ordered in Virgo, balanced in Libra, purified in Scorpio, expanded in Sagittarius, organized in Capricorn, solidified into a vision in Aquarius, and ended/perpetuated in Pisces.

This New Moon at 24 Virgo, like other recent Lunations, puts the focus on learning, communicating, discovering, and perceiving new ideas and ways of relating to others due to Jupiter being in Gemini and Mercury strong in its home sign of Virgo with the Moon making a conjunction to Mercury. Much that we focus on during the next 4 weeks will help us to a more practical functioning while showing us the innocence in our nature, or how we have allowed glamor to seduce us. This Lunation will bring echoes of Saturn in Virgo lessons we learned in Sept-Oct 2009, and again April-July 2010.

As usual, while Jupiter is in Gemini we’ll continue to learn more and more, expanding the truths and new potential futures opened while liberating us from ghosts of the past that were indicated in the 2011 Gemini Solar Eclipse. As Jupiter continues to dance near the degree of that eclipse, it continues to be a time of an acceleration of the eclipse effect!

This Lunation jumpstarts Virgo energy wherever it falls in our chart. As I mentioned earlier, this period involves us learning how to maintain our innocence and let go of spiritual materialism while also opening us to a greater practical discipleship. This period prepares us for major “sea changes” in our lives, releasing a lot of spiritual energy in practical and social ways.

This Lunation makes a conjunction with Mercury, semisquare to Venus, and as noted sets the Grand Irrationality into high effect through the septile with Mars in the Scorpio zones, biseptile Pluto in the Capricorn zone, and triseptile Neptune in the Pisces zone. The most recent Lunation that triggered this long wave global transformational influence was The Full Moon of Leo-Aquarius 2012 Pt. 2 – Illuminated Creative Mind Opening New Vistas.

In that article you can find the various “hot zones” active at this time, and there’s a link to more about what the Grand Irrationality is, its influence, and what we can expect as it is triggered in our charts. As I mentioned earlier, there’s more on this long wave phenomenon later in this article.

This New Moon has a social-emotional focus. As it falls in Virgo, it is ruled by Mercury, one of the three final dispositors in the chart, along with Mars and Neptune.

One major factor in this Lunation is that the Moon and Sun make only forming aspects in this chart, with no separating aspects. That implies that whatever the next 4 weeks are about, it’s totally future oriented with no echoes from the past.

Neptune and Chiron at the Cusp of the Age:

I’ve given you this information in previous New Moon articles, but I figure it’s so important for all of us that it bears repeating once a month. We stand on the threshold of an entirely new era that will not resemble the old Age in any way within just a few decades. In fact, we’re already solidly in the Dreamscape, and are already seeing long wave manifestations of the ending of the old and the emerging field we’re all learning how to maneuver through.

Other than the brief look we had in mid-2011, this is only the eighth New Moon with Neptune in Pisces for the next 150 years. We had Neptune in Pisces for the 3 New Moons for May, June, and July 2011 which gave us a front end look at how Neptune will function through 2025.

Between August 2011, when Neptune retrograded back into late Aquarius, and the recent January 2012 New Moon, we were given one last look back at a greater ideal, and the changes of the last half of 2011 helped many to break out of our "chrysalis" and transform how we live and all our relationships. That is now established in the collective consciousness, as well as a growing sense of the larger light field in which all sentient Beings live and love.

If you want to know what's coming for many years to come, take a look back at the intuitions and sense of belonging to a vaster interrelated whole you were shown in May, June, and July 2011. It may help to give a sense of our collective lesson in dissolving our separateness as we finish this transition through "the Winter of the 21st Century" on our way to Spring, beginning in 2025!

During those months that both Neptune and Chiron were in early Pisces, we were offered chances to learn about bargaining and trade-offs, with the ultimate payoff a deeper and larger feeling of being connected to others. During the last half of 2011, Neptune retrograded back to 29 Aquarius, the degree where humanity was forced to emerge from its "chrysalis" as a new world is being born.

Chiron retrograded back to 1 Pisces. So those two dancing together kept us attuned to elements of this transitional span of experience for all of 2011 as we prepared to cut loose into the Neptune in Pisces era for many years to come. During 2011 both Neptune and Chiron revealed our unique part to play within a larger light/life field.

During that time, these planets at the beginning of Pisces and end of Aquarius occupied degrees representing "the Cusp of the Age," the span where the Age of Pisces and the Age of Aquarius meet. From one point of view, where we were collectively between February 2011 and March 2012 revealed what the period of (approximately) 1990-2140 is all about in the broader context of human evolution. I suspect that future generations will look back at 2011 and 2012 as being crucial in showing long range patterns of larger evolutionary necessities.

Neptune and Chiron dancing between signs on "the Cusp of the Age" had the effect of making it seem like we have all been occupying a very weird dreamscape which we'll be navigating for years to come. The trick for us is to apply our new strengths and understanding freed from the ghosts of the past, and by riding the waves of intense (but curiously steady) pulses of spiritual energies shaping our minds, we can find techniques where our efforts will lead us to forms of good fortune.

During the year they danced together in this critical degree span, they provided us a bridge to understanding the global lessons we all must embrace, and helped us graduate into a new view of how we are an essential part of a greater whole. I'll give you links to articles explaining more about "the cusp of the Age" at the end of this article.

In this New Moon Neptune has retrograded back to2 degrees, while Chiron is at 7 Pisces. This will help us heal anew through our positioning within collective consciousness. Chiron shows us how we can heal into our Higher Self. During 2012 the focus is on healing into our Higher Selves through seeing what we’re dedicated to, what skills we’ve cultivated, what “call” we’ve heard, and how we’ve quickened our striving.

For quite a few weeks we’ve had to deal with symbolic “traffic jams” in the collective consciousness, and gotten a new look via Neptune’s retrograde into the indestructible elements of our personalities. Through “a conscious handling of existence,” we have caught glimpses elements of our immortal self while “flying by the seat of our pants,” demonstrating a mastery of obscure conditions and growing into a new consecration.

During the next 4 weeks we will need to find protective mechanisms to provide a shield against aggressive social elements, and issues related to self-preservation will be the basis of greater realizations to come. We can lift ourselves to “surer foundations,” and find even deeper realizations about our place within the larger collective consciousness, with echoes of March 2012 when Neptune first occupied that degree.

More About Saturn's Universally Important Influence

Though not as prominent as when it was the nozzle for all the other planetary energies (returning for the last time December 2012 through February 2013, but in Scorpio), we'll continue to put a spotlight on Saturn in Libra, the cosmic timekeeper, since it does symbolize the ongoing lessons and limitations within the larger field of existence. Saturn will remain in Libra through early October 2012, making this the final New Moon with Saturn in Libra.

Saturn continues to be a very powerful influence since it is in its sign of "exaltation." That means Saturn's discipline and personal power focus is able to become very effective as it shows balance, rhythm, moderation, and reasonableness in how we demonstrate it.

What we learned from Saturn in Virgo in 2007-2009, returning briefly in 2010, will be of major importance in this Virgo New Moon. We learned a lot about how to apply those lessons in forms of practical action when Mars transited Virgo between November 2011 and July 2012. We showed our skill in applying Saturn in Libra lessons since then while Mars was in Libra in July and August 2012. As a side note, Mars in early Scorpio the last week of August and first week of September gave us a front end practice related to Saturn being in that span of Scorpio for the next year, so review what you were doing, since it symbolizes coming Saturn lessons.

Saturn was retrograde in late Libra between early February and mid-June 2012. This whole year we’ve been reviewing how to repair or reconstruct things from the past to come to a philosophical completion between now and October 2012. This will involve not simply reconstructing something, but also seeing things from a holistic perspective that enables us to be more well-rounded in our understanding before we enter a deepened, more intense period beginning in October 2012 when Saturn enters Scorpio, introducing a new set of lessons.

During this period of coming to a holistic philosophical view, many will be able to read meanings in symbols and things, and will move beyond knowledge into true balanced understanding. We can recognize a cosmic order in things, and use that to reorder our world. Here we perfect our integrity, and in doing so find a gift for furthering what we want in the way of a more ideal reality.

As Saturn rules Pluto in this chart, it shows that when we are confronted with the need to deal with something or someone in an organized, efficient manner, reference Saturn in Libra and the lessons of balance, justice, proportion, and moderation in judgment you've been learning. Naturally, the usual Saturn keywords will be crucial to effective behavior - patience, discipline, organization, patience, maturity, wisdom, patience, authority, responsibility, and of course, patience.

So as you open to the ninth New Moon of 2012, take stock of what you've been learning and put it together in a larger holistic understanding. In 2011 we learned about karmic consequences from a wider angle of view, while playing by the rules of whatever system we've been dealing with, or acting within, showing as much balance, grace, and equipoise as we could, given Saturn's penchant for heaviness.

We are all learning a lot about Dharma during Saturn's stay in Libra, as well as what we should not be trying to prop up through a misplaced sense of responsibility or obligation. If we run into roadblocks or delays, it should tell us a lot about patience, as well as what limitations and burdens we can live with and what we cannot.

As noted in previous articles, Saturn continues to usher in allies, friends, fellow truth-seekers, more balanced views, and corrective actions as techniques for community building or group awareness. The transfigurations in our actions and relationships we've gone through since January 2011 have led us to do forms of "repair work," where we confronted the consequences of past actions, whether our own or another's. The repair work could as easily be in the realm of our inner self as in outer affairs.

Saturn in this Lunation chart is at 28 Libra, the degree where Venus went stationary direct in November 2010, ushering in a new long wave Venus cycle that lasted until it again went retrograde at 24 Gemini in May 2012. From late 2010 through May 2012 we were learning how to overcome any sense of isolation, and were given opportunities to see that we are as surrounded by love and life as a fish by water. That period helped us find friends and allies, and this period cements that energy.

We can again see the long wave influences that have been leading us to others who share our sense of duty, responsibility, and perspective. This can finish our understanding in life areas related to Libra, Capricorn, and Aquarius in our charts, so keep refining, balancing, adapting, and harmonizing as you prepare for Saturn’s entry into Scorpio which will be a MUCH different manifestation of Saturn!!

A Little More About the Recent Past As Prologue

When Venus first transited the Gemini zone of the Grand Irrationality in the third and fourth week of April, it triggered that long wave influence, as well as set off echoes of the Gemini Solar Eclipse of June 2011 which also fell in the Gemini zone of that powerful configuration. We went through the second phase of that influence with more “irrational” destiny-producing developments (which could be good or bad, depending) when it next occupied 14-18 Gemini, as well as when Mercury and the Sun also transited this zone, between May 31 and June 10.

We saw further major developments related to these “forks in the road of destiny” allowing us to be liberated from the ghosts of the past in the last half of July. Now Jupiter is and will continue to be close to the Eclipse degree through Spring 2013, so we are definitely in a zone of major teachings, opportunities, or some other Jupiter expression from now through late November this year, as well as in April and early May 2013. Prepare for major developments!

The Grand Irrationality is a direct influence during this Lunation due to the aspects between the Sun and Moon with Mars, Neptune, and Pluto. As long time readers know, the Grand Irrationality is a long wave non-rational influence that has put everyone on Earth on the unceasing edge of major choice and change, confronting inner compulsions and outer irrational behaviors. It is why things seem to have an unending hard edge, why so many choices are continually thrown in our faces that require immediate attention, and why reason seems to fail at critical moments of decision.

It’s a time when things don’t have to make sense, nor will they for some time to come. The only thing that matters is that we learn how to ride this ever-changing wave of very strange and weird human experience, and not get lost in our own obsessions, compulsions, and the general irrationality of our times. There are numerous articles in the archives about what this is all about, and how to deal with these very strange energies, so please take a look if you are so inclined.

Last year’s Gemini Solar Eclipse that triggered the Grand Irrationality for years to come has liberated all of us from some elements and ghosts of our past, freeing us from old preconceptions and chains of mental slavery. That intense activation of June 2011 has shown as hectic intense bursts that often made no sense during the past year, and the current “off and on” patterns of other planets in irrational relationships is forcing us to choose wisely.

We have now been challenged to find ways to liberate ourselves from unhelpful views and attitudes while staying on track with the new elements arising from the numerous conjunctions to Jupiter in Aries that have presented themselves over the past 16 months. In this Lunation, Jupiter continues to bring us information, understanding, higher perspectives, and different Spiritual awareness while it occupies Gemini.

As I made clear for many months, Autumn 2011 was a time to cultivate the "plants in our garden of personality and life" that is what we’ve been drawing on to substantiate a new reality and set of values in 2012. Between June 2011 and February 2012 we experienced three "cosmic visitations" that changed our lives in big ways.

Jupiter expanded that theme in the 2012 Aquarius New Moon, accelerating a major transformation time that has had wide-ranging effects throughout the first half of 2012! As the Taurus New Moon in late April fell exactly on that same degree, in May many experienced spectacular developments related to the past times that Jupiter occupied 2 Taurus!!

We acquired some of the assets we needed while Jupiter was in Taurus from June 2011 through June 2012, and stabilized a growth pattern. Now we’ve begun to receive rewards from the invisible world for our faith, and this one will show us finding fulfillment in performing some function with social values. Many will find a “ghastly emptiness at the end of the quest,” but I would think that would only apply to what the ego mind manufactured that had no real permanence. For most who read this, put on the show! You’re probably more integrated than you’ve thought before now!!

Over the past year, Jupiter has shown us a new life dedication, how to find hope in the face of coldness or barrenness, and how to cultivate purity of heart and faith in a transformed future. We were also shown how to use knowledge and skill to anticipate the future, allow a new quality of being to supersede an old lesser order, and through releasing elements of the past, find our "pot of gold at the end of the rainbow" where we have accepted the Divine workings that show us who we are and who we aren't.

Jupiter went direct in motion last December, launching our 2012 Jupiterian adventure. During the last 7 1/2 months, we’ve all had opportunities to open to larger ideas, larger opportunities, larger understanding, larger ways to look at resources and values, and larger futures. We originally entered this phase of concretizing a better life between early June and late August 2011. We got a different perspective from August through December, and in March completed the third pass across the first 11 degrees of Taurus.

This helped us demonstrate mastery of what Jupiter's been teaching us in terms of opportunities to enter into a creative partnership with Nature Herself, and could see where we can naturally "pour ourselves out" into some way to manifest our Soul. So contemplate the wreckage of the last half of 2011 as necessary to make space for the future growth of the new initiatives and expansions originally set into motion between March and May 2011.

Things should have become more solid and stable since late February, which opened new worlds and new discoveries in June 2012. Now we continue our individual mental-spiritual discoveries, and get to claim some things that have been hidden up to now. Just keep sharing perspectives and discoveries with others, making sure to check them to ensure they are as they seem.

August 2011 put us all through "a liberating ordeal," leading us to be freed from old social rigidities and finding joy in fellowship with new associates with whom we can work and play. Since then we’ve been practicing a new freedom, with our efficiency sharpened when Mars transited Virgo between November 2011 and July 2012.

This Lunation shows us how to become more childlike, and step back from intellectual preoccupations to become educated in a new way within a social or emotional reference. In August we could see how being “quarantined” from certain people and situations led us to a greater play, creativity, or at least protected us from social “epidemics” that we may not have known were happening. We’ve now “retired” from old social situations, and are free to explore the future unencumbered by the past.

Overall, due to the mix of Aries, Gemini, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Capricorn, and Pisces energies, this will be a very eclectic, spread out, and diverse New Moon period. The emphasis of planets in Virgo will help us finish adjusting to future conditions already on the way, and so be practical in whatever “discipleship” you claim as your path to Higher Awareness.

During the time this Lunation is in force, our natural child-like innocence is in focus, both in terms of our relationships as well as our work. Some highly specialized interactions and interpersonal connections can be forged, and these will show us how connected we really are. This will be a time of powerful and deep feelings, shifts in direction, a time for simplicity, detachment, and seeing a bigger synthesized picture of what’s been going on relative to the huge shifts that are right in front of us.

The line of growth is through understanding magnetism in a more focused, active way. Here we get to eliminate, regenerate, attract, and repel as part of a greater effectiveness.

Let your warmth of feeling come forth, and if there is a chance to interrupt a karmic return through allowing your Soul to come forth in some form of compassionate intercession, by all means do so. Over the next 4 weeks, the deeper and more precise the focus, the greater the power to eliminate the outworn and attract exactly what is needed to penetrate into unknown zones of life.

In the next part of the series we'll discuss the various aspects at play in the chart, as well as some important degree symbols and other interesting elements affecting all of us for 4 weeks to come.

Here are two articles related to "the cusp of the Age."

Neptune Then, Neptune Now - The Cusp of the Age of Aquarius

Neptune Retrograde Into Aquarius - A New Look At the New Age This one has links to articles related to this theme, so enjoy following the breadcrumbs through the woods of time!

© Copyright 2012 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[Antonio]

very good post, congratulations!

Cumprimentos
António Manuel

[The Mystic Wendy]

Amazing insight, thank you for much for sharing your expertise.

[Elah]

Compassionate intercession. This says it all to me. With natal Saturn in Virgo in my 3rd house..I get it. The work must flow from the core of values. Compassion is key.

[Ann]

Hello Robert, Thank you for all of this information. It has a feeling about it that I can't quite put into words - it just feels huge. Would you be able to explain what you mean by "spiritual materialism"? I think and understand in pictures and can't quite grasp this. I would appreciate it very much. I seem to have "lost" all my spiritual scaffolding and am floating without a life jacket. My picture of this time is when you bring a compass out of your pocket and adjust it to find True North. It feels like a reorientation inside. Cleaning windows on the inside of the self! Also as if I'm in a boat passing through different lock gates before I can head off on the real journey on the river! My Venus is at 23 Virgo in the 6th along with a lot of other things! Thanks for helping us all.

[Debbie Eastick]

thanks Robert, good news I'm hoping (in 11th house lol) anyway opposing my juno/pallas conj in 5th whilste trining my vertex in 8th house taurus, maybe quite surprising...the liberating ordeal wiped pretty much my whole life prior and it has been mind work exterminating the false beliefs programmed in there from birth that created that now demolished life at the forefront (sat been in my 12th house) anyway, this is a perfect new moon to use my new hopefully purer mind power to create my life, as me doing me :)

[Francine]

Thank you Robert for sharing your knowledge and Light with us in such a refined way. And thank you for opening me to the incredible potential of this New Moon and its effects which I expect will be even more significant since my Solar Return falls on Virgo 23,56 !

[grace]

Thank you Robert, you remain a beacon of light in some very confusing and seemingly dark times. We must all hold to our highest vibrational selves individually and collectively.