August 22 – The Sun Moves into Virgo
at 9:39 AM PDT (16:39 GMT)
Virgo reminds us that we are here to serve Mother Earth and all the life forms that she creates. Hopefully we have taken full advantage of the massive amounts of fire furnished by Leo and the Sun to burn off our past and open our hearts. When the Sun moves into Virgo, we use the abundant earth energy to ground cosmic light on the Earth and to embody the light of our soul in our daily lives.
The Virgo archetype represents the Priest and the Priestess, who through their own spiritual practice are able to stay centered and content within themselves. In life they are focused on their service and do not get pulled off their center by distractions. They mind their own business and do not open themselves up to be manipulated or controlled.
Because Virgo is independent and free, he/she is a healing force in the world. The Virgo archetype teaches that if we want help, we need to stay tuned into the help channel. If we want to be healed, we have to stay connected to the healing channel. It is the same channel — the neutral sacred space in our mind and physical and emotional bodies.
September 1 – Virgo New Moon Solar Eclipse
2:03 AM PDT (9:03 GMT) at 9 degrees Virgo
It is eclipse time again. Every six months the Sun, Moon, and Earth align to form both a Solar and a Lunar eclipse. At the New Moon, the Moon blocks the flow of radiation from the Sun. Solar eclipses create shifts in self-awareness — how we relate to ourselves and our role in the world. Solar eclipses mark major endings and beginnings. They form close to the same degree every 19 years. Where 9 degrees Virgo falls in our birth chart shows the area of life where we are reaching a completion of a 19 year phase and are entering a new phase and a new level of experience, achievement, and consciousness.
At the Virgo New Moon, the Sun, Moon, Jupiter, Mercury, and North Node are all in Virgo. The Virgin Virgo signifies completeness and the ability to hold Spirit in physical reality. Jupiter inspires us to open our mind and heart to new possibilities, perspectives, and a more holistic and inclusive way of living. When we are able to turn our attention from what we want for ourselves, and ask how we can serve peace and love, we find we get the greatest reward — inner peace and love.
The moment you become a servant, you automatically become a master. You can never become a master if you want to be a master. Therefore you shall serve in a “Uni-form,” “Uno-Form,” “One-Form. — Yogi Bhajan
September 10 – Saturn and Neptune Square
10 degrees Sagittarius-Pisces
The Virgo New Moon Solar Eclipse squares Saturn and opposes Neptune, building the energy for the third exact square of Saturn in Sagittarius and Neptune in Pisces on September 10 at 10 degrees Sagittarius-Pisces. Squares mark turning points that require a change in direction, which is driven by an expansion of awareness and perception of reality. We realize that we have out grown our past identity and role and need to step up to an expanded view of who we are and what we need to do in the world.
Saturn’s domain is physical reality, time and space, which have limits, produce consequences and require choices, boundaries, and commitments. Neptune’s domain is Spirit and nonphysical reality, above time and space, whose experience requires no boundaries, vastness, and a commitment to allow the yet unknown into our awareness.
This is a waning square, which marks the last phase in a cycle between two planets. The current Saturn-Neptune cycle began with their conjunction in 1989. Their first square was in 1998-99, and the opposition or half way mark was in 2006-7. Look back at these times in your life and note the choices you faced and the decisions you made that determined the direction of your life.
Saturn makes our life miserable if we aren’t realistic, practical, and in integrity with our personal commitments. Neptune guides us in magical ways, if our will is aligned with Divine Will. But when we give away our power to fantasies and addictions, we pay a high price. This waning square exposes where blame, shame, guilt, victimhood, and dogmatism continue to influence our attitudes and choices. It is time to release self-sabotaging fear-based baggage and trust our own inner authority. It is also good time to identify and extricate ourselves from lingering gender, religious, cultural, social, and media programming.
August 30 — Mercury Goes Retrograde
at 6:04 AM PDT (13:04 GMT) at 29 degrees Virgo
Mercury will be in Virgo from July 30 through October 7, giving us 9 weeks to pay attention to our inner messenger. Virgo insists upon both mental and physical cleansing of unnecessary clutter.
September 9 – Jupiter Enters Libra
where it spends the next 13 months until October 10, 2017.
Jupiter in Libra promotes balance, equality, peace, and justice in all our personal and social relationships. This topic will be covered in the next blog on Libra.
September 16 — Pisces Full Moon Lunar Eclipse
12:05 PM PDT (19:05 GMT)
Lunar Eclipses are more subtle (but no less intense) than Solar Eclipses. Their power comes from the impact they have on exposing what has been hidden or denied in our subconscious and emotional body. They expose motivations and conditioning that has escaped our awareness. “During a lunar eclipse, light that has traveled 93,000,000 miles from the Sun and another 238,000 miles as reflection from the Moon to the Earth is dimmed for a few hours; matrices are more readily dissolved and reconfigured, facilitating a recalibration of consciousness.” *(1)
This eclipse forms a dynamic t-square with Mars (in Sagittarius) and Chiron (in Pisces.) Mars is at the apex, squaring the Sun in Virgo and the Moon and Chiron in Pisces. Mars represents our personal will and the courage to use it to act for the truth. Mars represents our inner masculine (for both men and women) and expressions of the universal male polarity. The choice that the masculine must make is what to take action for — to defend and work for the highest good of all or to fight for power and engage in aggressive acts of exploitation, intimidation, and destruction.
This eclipse is about elevating our view of reality out of duality and conflict into unity and peace. Can we operate from love, abundance, and oneness and extricate ourselves from fear, scarcity, and separateness? To do so, we must upgrade how we relate to both the masculine and feminine polarities.
Pisces teaches us that we heal through love. Chiron supports our recovery from destructive patriarchal systems and beliefs that have infused the human psyche with fear, shame, guilt, and terror. The damage and perversion to the psyche has consumed our precious human and planetary resources in fighting wars, killing each other, building weapons of mass destruction, and denigrating the sanctity of life, the earth, and the feminine. The travesty of actually believing that it is OK to perpetuate this destructive system is the lie that we must no longer accept. The elevated masculine must step up, become warriors for peace, and direct the building of egalitarian systems that serve all life and Mother Earth.
September 21 — Mercury Turns Direct
at 15 degrees Virgo
September 26 – Pluto Turns Direct
at 15 degrees Capricorn
Mercury and Pluto are within 5 degrees trine each other from September 13 through the end of September. We are being supported in actualizing our dreams and pursuing new pathways to do so. Be available for an inner catharsis that catapults you to the next level of your destiny path.
References and Footnotes
Austin, Stephanie, Virgo Solar Eclipse – September 1, The Mountain Astrologer, August/September 2016, p. 99.
Austin, Stephanie, Pisces Lunar Eclipse – September 16, The Mountain Astrologer, August/September 2016, p. 103.
*(1) Austin, p. 103
Mom story – whoever is available I need help.
Free will is about making a choice to be and stay there. The essence of remembering.
Examples – Sikh man who choose to remember the One instead of losing his connection through anger and revenge. Stefan – Excuse me, I don’t listen to stories anymore.
Yogi Bhajan – driving on mountain, car veering to edge, chant come back, but forget, don’t stay there.
We live in a mud puddle.
Forgiveness — I made it this far.
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