Let’s start with the new moon point

The new moon on Sept 14 occupies the 22nd degree of Virgo. That 22nd degree is in the second half of the 30° of galactic space along the ecliptic known as Virgo, which is just before the vertical axis that’s perpendicular to the horizontal plane of the solar system.

The 22nd second degree of any sign occupies a space that’s broadly receptive towards the wisdom (yin) embodied by the archetype. It’s active in the social/emotional realm, and it’s contrarian in nature. The greater individuating process that this 22nd degree operates through is about training life force for a greater purpose.

This brings up two questions in one:

• What training are you going through in order to serve toward what greater purpose?

The new moon is “gibbous,” moving towards “full” to Neptune. There’s an urge in collective consciousness (Neptune) to realize the full scope of the evolution that human culture is experiencing. We might feel internally or notice in the world a push to figure out all the details (Virgo) of change.

You’ll get more done in the long term if you accept that what you’re rushing to change has a rich cultural tradition behind it. And that whatever change you’re rushing to must serve everyone to be sustained.

• Be observant. Learn. Receive your training. We have time to integrate and put this learning to work – Mars is direct until it gets around to Leo next December and doesn’t enter pre-retrograde shadow until next October.

• The sun conjoins Mars on November 17-18 at 25° 36’ Scorpio, which will imbue us with new relationships and ideas for moving forward.

Let’s look more closely at Venus square Jupiter (15° 18’ pictured below)

The exact square of Venus and Jupiter is just after the new moon, when the moon is between Mars and the lunar south node (bottom). This suggests the heart based impulsive behavior of Venus waxing Square Jupiter will be somewhat fantasy based, stemming from personality compulsions, rather than who people can become out of a greater understanding of a higher truth.

In the full moon picture above, Venus is 87° ahead of Jupiter and slowing down in preparation to station direct in a few days.

The date of the exact 90° waxing square between Venus and Jupiter is September 17, after the next new moon, while Jupiter is retrograde in Taurus, and Venus is direct in Leo.

This is a heart driven, riotous and rowdy combination, and to get a feel for what will actually be happening instead of the isolated events, we have to look at other positions and aspects of other planets.

The exact square of Venus (green circle on the pogo stick) and Jupiter (purple “4” with a left hook) is just about 40 hours after the new moon, when the moon is 26° into the new phase and between Mars (red circle with the arrow) and the lunar south node (upside down “U” with rings on the ends) at the bottom of the image.

Both Venus and Jupiter are at focal points of power within their respective quadrants.

This begs the question – “What truly lights you up?”

There’s an opportunity to speak and act from higher manifestations of an up-leveled quality of character you’re developing. Our social mind is getting practice integrating our personal and collective choices with what we recognize as the right and true path forward (Jupiter separating from the lunar north node), but you may be experiencing pressures to conform (Mars and moon applying to the lunar south node), to be “nice” for niceness’s sake, and to act out of habit, rather than acting from an individual’s greater understanding of a higher truth.

What’s the difference between being “nice” and being “kind”?

Looking back at the New Moon – what can we do about it?

The “what can we do about it” question starts with Mars. The outermost planet that’s still inside the asteroid belt symbolizes how the individual surges outward (“rises” in Libra) beyond known realms.

Mars is the personal octave of Pluto. Mars has 106 arc degrees to travel before it conjoins with Pluto. That means it’s 254° (360-106) ahead of Pluto in orbit. Within the numerological phases of Pluto, that means there’s a tension in the phase of acceleration that we’re each witnessing around us. We’re all challenged to claim our position on the continuum between focusing purely on our individual missions and giving ourselves over to the control of what’s happening in our environment.

• Is the acceleration you’re experiencing helping you focus into your spiritual mission for being here or…

• Is the acceleration you’re experiencing boxing you into the control of others’ (people, cultures, spirits) regulatory preferences?

Mars is 195° ahead of Neptune → that’s ½ way between the opposition at 180° and the inconjunct at 210°. Therefore, there’s a tension between what to let go of, what to take in, and what to take with you that the individual is feeling with respect to unwinding cultural norms that we’ve been talking about in the last few articles in this series. It requires a willingness to look deeply without attaching to what you see.

• Where are you personally feeling smothered? Is it a challenge to let go or is it a challenge to be patient? In either case, with Mars opposite to Chiron, personal embodiment practices seem important.

• What helps us recognize “what lights us up?” will be in recognizing deeper levels of nuance about, “what has lit us up in the past?”

For a personal example, I’m getting a part time job. Given equal job hours and equal income potential, should I work at a grocery store and get a discount on food or should I run tennis camps for kids at a local club? It might seem like a tough choice if you just look at the numbers, but I grew up playing tennis. I’ve been a tennis coach before and I enjoy it. On top of that, relationships I develop with children and parents could benefit everyone in the future with respect to the school my wife and I are starting.

If I get the job at the grocery store, I give up all control to retail scheduling. If I get the job at the tennis club, I have the opportunity to develop my personal mission and make everyone’s lives better in the process.

I love tennis. I loved it growing up too. Seems like a no brainer to me.

Mars seems to be highlighting a place in our individual uplevelings that drives our futures from either our intellectual past and/or our ancient remains.

• Can you bring your ghosts with you and enroll them in the service of a greater life purpose?

• Are you more motivated to participate by tangible or intangible? By the results or the process? By the answers or the pursuit of knowledge?

• What are you holding onto that you want to?… what are you reaching to hold onto that you won’t let go of versus what are you reaching for to grab onto so that it can carry you forward?

• Are you able to disentangle what you know from what you’re shown? Are you able to see what’s in front of you without attaching a story to it?

• Are you able to separate faith from proof and act on both independently?

Grab a journal. Get quiet, and get to work. I’ll wait… (about two weeks until the full moon in Aries).

As I hinted at above, Mars moves direct for the next 15 months, entering pre-retrograde shadow on October 4, 2024 (at 17° 01′ Cancer) and stations retrograde on December 6, 2024 (at 6° 10’ Leo).

Take-away: We have time to live into the next evolution of our individuality. It’s important to do so patiently, intentionally, and to appreciate the initiation that this time period will prove to be.

One last important thing to point out

As this section’s title suggests, there’s one last important thing to point out that allows us to zoom in and zoom out to see the essence of this whole chart all at once.

Venus and Mars are the only two planets that are moving direct. Every other planet (excluding asteroids) is moving in retrograde.

This symbolizes that every level of “individual” is getting the opportunity to align its values with its ambitions, its preferences with its choices, and its perspectives with its directions.

Every new moon is a seed, and this new moon plants the opportunity for identifying, recognizing, and serving a deeper relationship with the truth your soul has known all along.

Summary

Our new moon in Virgo challenges us to consider how we’re learning and where our learning is taking us. It’s challenging us to pay attention to details of how we’ve suffered (Venus conjunct Juno), to “express it and get it off our chest,” to make decisions about what to let go of and what to bring with us (as the moon and then sun pass opposition to Neptune in a few days).

As the sun makes its way through the end of Virgo and into Libra where we’ll get to live into the uplevelings we’ve been discussing recently.

Libra is the yin of Aries’ yang.

If you’re able, take this opportunity to mature your perspective on how you deal with others’ criticism and how you relate incongruences and upsets to others. Do you whine and complain at people or can you calmly point out the incongruences you see and allow for a meeting of the minds?

“Meetings of the minds” will shower your future growth with blessings.

Many blessings and happy new moon,

Joshua

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