Super Potent New Moon in Virgo Smack Dab on Saturn - September 18

Super potent, yes it is. But the challenge here is to focus the potency in the subtle and useful manner Virgo so enjoys. Let's be practical and use this energy most effectively to finish with any loose ends and prepare for the unfolding of what's to come. The energy preceding this New Moon will be very effective in tightening up the last details and finally completing things we've been dragging our feet on a bit...

The Virgo New Moon early Friday afternoon (12:44 p.m. MDT) finds us with the Moon meeting the Sun on top of (just a tiny bit past) Saturn, directly opposite Uranus and closely opposite Juno - both retrograde in late Pisces. Pallas and Mercury Rx are also in Virgo, creating a stellium in the sign (Pallas-Saturn-Sun-Moon-Mercury).

The third structure-morphing Saturn in Virgo - Uranus in Pisces opposition was exact yesterday, and this opposition aspect is still very tight and very much in effect, colouring the New Moon on Friday.

New Moons always signal the end of a previous cycle and the beginning of a new one, but with this New Moon happening right on the Saturn opposition to Uranus, the reverberations of this one have a much broader reach than usual. Reaching right into the new paradigm we're struggling to bring about...

Background: We're in the midst of a series of five Saturn-Uranus oppositions, four of which will be in the signs of Virgo and Pisces. The last time Saturn (structure, maturation and concrete progress) and Uranus (revolution, the unexpected and lightning-strike genius insights) opposed each other was in the 1960s...but in opposite signs from where they are now. (Saturn was in Pisces, Uranus was in Virgo). With these current oppositions, we're building on those 60s ideals of egalitarianism, freedom and love but grounding them in concrete reality. Building them right into the structures, right into the systems, and using them as a practical, day-to-day guiding vision. No fringe mentality here. No pie-in-the-sky. The challenge here is to apply the vision of what could be and should be on this planet right into the mainstream structural here and now. All the while determining what is the real track to take and what is just old paradigm hierarchy and control dressed up in new paradigm clothing.

With the Virgo stellium in the 10th house, watch what's being "handed down" to you, and reject what doesn't hit you as right.

We all have to take responsibility here for the question: What do you serve?

Our messenger planet is a crucial, crucial player here, keeping the necessary information circulating and providing perspective we might have missed the first time around. Mercury Rx disposits all the planets in the Virgo stellium while squaring Pluto, just direct in Capricorn. There's so much going on now, a behemoth of a process moving forward, and Mercury Rx in Virgo is working to keep it all straight.

There's no real new information being brought forth during the retrograde, but Mercury has its hands (and ears...and mouth) full going over what we've just experienced. Mercury is moving retrograde to the point where it conjuncted Saturn in Virgo on August 17 (which is also the point where Saturn left it's retrograde shadow) and will station direct there on September 28.

But back to the current situation...

Mercury Rx in Libra squares Pluto in Capricorn at the zero degrees of the signs early Thursday morning and retrogrades from Libra into Virgo tomorrow night, just in time for Friday's Virgo New Moon.

At that time, Mercury Rx will be on the 29th (anaretic) degree of Virgo directly opposite Juno Rx at 29 Pisces. Another potent alignment involved in this New Moon process. Our contacts and communications are so very purposeful now for bringing about the longer-term shift into the egalitarian Aquarian paradigm. This includes interactions with people in our day-to-day lives (could be some unexpected ones, too, with Uranus involved), but with Juno (soul mate asteroid) on 29 Pisces - the last degree of the zodiac - of equal importance is our communication with our spiritual guidance. Attuning to the assistance we receive from non-physical messengers as well as listening to the Universe talking to us through our mundane lives.

We must be very discerning now, clearing away the glut of unnecessary information we're subjected to on a daily basis and using our honed Virgoan wheat-from-chaff separating skills to get right to the heart of the matter.

The 29th degree contacts here between Mercury and Juno follow the completion/beginning theme of the New Moon with a final completion of old soul mate contracts/work, and a final clearing to make space for new ones designed to take us forward. If we listen closely, we'll be able to differentiate between the ways of interacting/relationship dynamics that are related to past cycles and are on their way out of our lives and the energy of the new ones. A final ushering out of the old and welcoming of the new.

All this has been an ongoing process, as there has been a lot of recent action on this 29 degree of Pisces. Venus stationed direct there conjunct Mars during its last retrograde in March-April 2009, making it a crucial influence in the current Venus cycle. Juno has been going back and forth over this degree and was there conjunct Uranus when Uranus stationed retrograde July 1. More on Juno on the 29th degree of Pisces here.

And this process continues with the New Moons in Libra and Scorpio over the next two months.

The asteroid Pallas is also in Virgo now, a part of the Virgo stellium, adding a feisty, philosophically-minded aspect to this New Moon. We're willing to stand our ground here. We know, quite specifically now, what's important to us, and we're willing to speak up about it.

This is a very sweet New Moon, also, as it marks the point where we've officially completed the first two-and-a-half legs of Saturn's journey through Virgo. (Yee haw!) Those who have been struggling with this transit (*puts up her hand*) should feel a lightening of the load here if we've kept out noses to the grindstone and worked on what Saturn instructed us to work on over the past two years.

Saturn is a picky taskmaster in Virgo, making us go over and over things with a fine-toothed comb. Even the smallest rough edge, neglected detail or sloppy statement can put us way off course. Saturn in Virgo knows this.

So we've been drilled on all those Virgo subjects. Yes, the usual ones like work, service, duty, communication, perfecting of details, cleanliness, organization, diet and holistic/systemic health and functioning, in general.

But also on the finer points of Virgo. Honing our skills of personal discernment, defining and enforcing boundaries, separating the necessary from the unnecessary, rejecting those things that are damaging to our systems, defining our particular skills and service and applying them in the right ways in the right situations, removing our energy and influence from situations that are no longer right for us personally, determining preferences, stripping down to the essentials in self and life, learning and mastering ourselves.

Dispositing Pluto in Capricorn and now the North Node in Capricorn, Saturn in Virgo has helped us get clearer on what we're willing to support and what we're not. We've taken responsibility for the application of our own personal energies and skills in this world. We've learned to define and honour what we do...performing our duties only for those people and in those situations deserving of our skillful efforts. We've broken old, outdated service habits (the servant's soul) and learned to protect ourselves from those with the "master's" soul who would take advantage of our good-heartedness and dutiful natures. We've withdrawn misplaced allegiances and redirected our efforts where necessary. We've refined the detrimental tail-end Piscean martyr out of our systems (and all other Neptunian/Piscean detrimental bad habits).

Saturn in Virgo is the "don't be a dumbass" placement.

Piece by piece, bit by bit, detail by detail, we've done it. Realigned our systems, physically, emotionally and psychically painful as it was. It's taken every bit of our focus at times, with a thoroughness only Virgo can manage, and it hasn't been easy.

But now, if we've put forth the very best of our effort under the Saturnine weight of this transit, if we've accepted our challenges and kept on keeping on even when we thought we could go no further...we'll have gained Saturn's respect. Self-respect. And we'll start to see some of the fruits of our labours. We can start to see where all this Virgoan preparation has taken us. Blow away the sawdust and see what we've carved out.

The Moon enters Virgo tonight at around suppertime (MDT), and as it goes dark between now and the New Moon Friday afternoon, we emotionally wrap up the first two-and-a-half decans of Saturn in Virgo. It's over now. Sigh of relief.

But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves on the celebratory front. It's true that Saturn is heading into Libra at the end of October which will mean a shift in vibe from focussed, detail-oriented self-improvement/mastery to relations with others, but Saturn in Libra will immediately move into square formation with Pluto in Capricorn on the first degree of those cardinal signs. That square will be a long-term influence, in effect to varying degrees of intensity until November 2010.

That zero degree cardinal square again! You can see how very important it is that we get these cardinal new initiatives, new directions, new forms of leadership down pat. And that we successfully complete all preceding preparations while Saturn is in Virgo. We're heading to a long series of cardinal squares between now and 2015. Saturn in Libra squaring Pluto in Capricorn and then Uranus in Aries squaring Pluto in Cap. Grand-scale new directions on both personal and global levels squaring off against each other. New forms of leadership will be struggling into existence...and those who didn't get the self-sovereign, egalitarian memo will be fighting each other for supremacy.

We're going over and over the cardinal squares now because we need to get a handle on these energies personally, in our own lives, or risk being bowled over by transpersonal directions and events.

Saturn will also retrograde back into Virgo April 7, 2010 for four months...until July 21, 2010.

So we're not out of the Virgoan woods yet. As always, Saturn will bring us right back to anything we've put off, procrastinated about or skimmed over the first time. That four-month period (April-July) next year really will be the last sweep, fixing the last few problematic issues and completing the last few details of Saturn in Virgo. It will also involve the fourth Saturn-Uranus opposition and the final one in the signs Virgo and Pisces. That last sweep through Virgo will be the point where we can really apply our skills and show off our mastery a little. (Not too much showing off, though. It's Virgo, after all.)

Pay attention to the Saturn in Virgo-ish Grand Finale themes in your life during the last three weeks of October. These are the things Saturn will revisit in its final pass through Virgo next spring/summer.

However! All this info is not to take anything away from the fulfillment and relief that comes with this New Moon in Virgo, wrapping up the bulk of Saturn's transit through the sign. I could weep, I'm so happy about this one. This really is a time to honour ourselves and others for all the hard work and effort we've put forth as we struggle to transition to a new way of doing things on this planet...

Being over the hump with the Saturn-Uranus opposition cycle is nothing to sneeze at either. We've completed three of five oppositions with only one remaining along the Virgo-Pisces polarity (April 26). Another relieving aspect of this Virgo New Moon.

Post-New Moon will be quite action-packed, as the Moon will conjunct Mercury Rx in Virgo, enter Libra and immediately square Pluto in Capricorn on Friday, all before the day is through. This lunar action echoes, of course, the longer-term aspects up ahead - the completion of the Mercury retrograde, the transit of Saturn into Libra and the square to Pluto in Capricorn - and provides some emotional preparation.

The zero degree cardinal square between Libra and Cappie yet again! We're getting a real dose in preparation for the upcoming series of Saturn in Libra squares to Pluto in Capricorn, and we get another dose after Mercury goes direct, re-enters Libra and squares Pluto in Cap again October 10.

An interesting facet of this month's New Moon is that it kicks off a series of eight New Moons at 24/25 degrees of the zodiac. From September 2009 to April of 2010, all New Moons will happen at those degrees of the signs Virgo through Aries.

Anyone with natal placements at or close to those degrees, especially, should experience a dramatic, multi-layered cycle of fresh, new beginnings. The last tendrils of old cycles dropping away here in a grand-scale way.

This push of new energy in the latter degrees of these signs is directly related, of course, to the finale of the Pisces-to-Aquarius transition. The Uranus-Neptune mutual reception is hanging out near those degrees. As is the Aquarius triple conjunction of Jupiter-Chiron-Neptune.