Virgo New Moon 2023: Sloppy Accuracy

Before the Moon meets with the Sun and temporarily leaves the sky to become New in Virgo around 9:30pm eastern on Thursday September 14th she spends the prior day waning away from a conjunction with Saturn Wednesday Morning and melts into a conjunction with retrograde Mercury by cocktail hour. We fall into the contemplative, quiet initiation essence of this New Moon subjectively experiencing, emotionally intellectualizing, intuitively analyzing, physically scanning, thinking about needs and identifying snags, hooks and hang ups in the procedures of our nourishment processes and what corrections must be made if we are going to be properly fed and made comfortable amidst the tangle and crosswire of most recent logistical issues and technical problems as well as feel safe and sound in relation to the pressure, tests and obligations presented in the flow of the larger life period which reveal where we projected fantasies on reality and now we are beginning to realize we need more than a whimsical approach to stand up to formidabilities which have emerged in the usually smooth atmospheres we immerse ourself in.

(above image: Philip Guston)

By the time the silver coin of the Moon slips into its solar slot and blinks out for a night the luminary pair is still philosophizing a grounding if not a bit too both sobering and somewhat hedonistic trine to Jupiter who’s plans of mounting momentum add inertia to the New Moon’s applying trine to Uranus also in Taurus with the greater benefic. Both those outer planets are retrograde, so the reality of these plans are designed to sync up a little later on in the grand scheme of things, but all the same, what has been gained on a material plane has radical and life altering implications and what we will stand on, work with and rely on in the wide scope of the incoming future likely takes a much different shape than the status quo substances of the broad, general yesterday. Precise considerations which may alter the functioning of the procedures a great deal over time, despite seeming like insignificant tweaks at the moment actually lend themselves to all the details across the net effect reading with different data down the line when the many particulars end up sorting out in a varied fashion than before. We can look at a lot of various cycles and stations and aspects and configurations to point at when these developments might land, like Jupiter or Uranus’ direct stations, exit of shadow, the next Full Moon in Aries in a couple weeks, the next Full Moon in Virgo in 6 months, Mercury moving past these degrees in not too long, Jupiter and Uranus’ conjunction in April of 2024 as well as many aspects further afield and along the way.

Peggi Hablets

One such motion down the road and along this very way is Pluto’s movement out of Capricorn and into Aquarius, which is a triple act, of which we got our first dose this spring and will receive the next batches during 2024 before he’s powering a new era of the world and society and thus our lives until 2044. Thursday’s New Moon in Virgo moves the luminaries not only towards a trine with Jupiter and Uranus in Taurus but also Pluto in Capricorn, who is also retrograde. This review of what’s been happening theme, taking stock and making adjustments accordingly to get back to a progressive and developmental future persists throughout all these transits. Pluto tolls the bell of the ominous hold of things present in the infrastructure of our lives since 2009 which are coming to a close to allow for new concepts, theoretical synapsis and networks to form for us in the year becoming decades to come. Little bits of the way things are articulated relate to this big difference soon and later. With Saturn in Pisces as part of this mix, holistic systemization is appropriate, so this selectiveness in the minutia of the pattern at play has real effects written all over it. Seeing the forest for the trees and vis versa is what is sinking in here. It works both ways. Holism doesn’t mean blend everything into a giant spinning yin yang, it also means every single piece of the larger array has influence across the field at large, although as cyclical logic loops back around its the ultimate balance that keeps thing fluid and not frictive to a fault. The upcoming Libra eclipses will be dealing with streamlining this equilibrium. (Interesting that late Virgo degrees will host the South Node Lunar eclipse in Virgo in March of 2025 which begins the ending of the Aries-Libra nodal cycle)

Giacomo Balla

Meanwhile, Thursday’s New Moon in Virgo also opposes Neptune in Pisces who is retrograde as well. All of this precision contemplation we’ve been discussing is done while drunk or otherwise thrown into some high saturation state or another. Neptune in Pisces has brought us the lubrication necessary to not notice how landslide escapist we have become since 2012 when we fell into a trance of scrolling and streaming images and CGI animations and binging series. We’ve been all liquored up on a simulated reality for a little over a decade now (what year did you get your first smart phone?) And Saturn has of recent slipped into the pool which does two things at once: it makes his difficult lessons and maturity tests more ambient, more dispersed into the atmosphere; and it also specifically puts laws and limits on that which is whimsical, totally untethered and ultimately loose at large. Neptune in Pisces brought us a chemical revolution which led to dyes, synthetic materials, pharmaceuticals, gold rushes and as of late swells in digital economies, metaversal fantasies and microplastics in our bloodstreams. Saturn in Pisces constructs historical masquerades, builds casinos, Disney lands, pirate radio stations and lets some massacres ensue unabated. The result is we culturally look back after this transit and say what the fuck happened here? Who let this happen? Did anyone authorize this? Things have really been let slip. On a personal level this happens all at once as we can see what goes on in our interior, and feel within our lives the pressures which most effect us. If we want to build the dream life we fantasize about we must identify what kind of atmosphere we want to be immersed in, what kind of vibe most suits us, where we feel the most flow and then begin to pick up the slack as we identify which patches tend to be slippery slopes for us where nostalgia, delusion, addiction and confusion drown our long term progress. Throughout this process we come to realize what we have been trippin’ about, what was just a projection, where we’ve been haunted by the ghosts of the past or polluted by the influence of others or where some whimsical bullshit is simply not fit enough for a strong and formidable fantasy. Saturn in Pisces is far from realist, but if it's too twee or flimsy or fake it doesn’t make the cut. The issue is he will go toe to toe and for a time blend with Neptune directly in 2025 by the end of this watery transit. For this reason days like the 13th and 14th of September 2023 are important, when we can still see all the little lines and wires and nuts and bolts from a bit of a distance and set things up in a way which is useful later and facilitates the long healthy running of the operations of our lives and circumstances. To wrap this idea up, I just caught a reel on IG talking about grunge/alternative guitarists of the 90s (Cobain and Corgan, who just before, as if the app itself is reading everyone's conversations, Elodie St Onge Aubut informed me are born only weeks apart and have prominent placements across the Pisces-Virgo axis with Ascendents only degrees apart) play in an widely influential style the reel’s host referred to as “sloppy accuracy” and proceeded to explain how with a little tweak to messy-up your strumming style you could fill out your sound by making this slackening adjustment to your playing.

Iggy Rodriguez

I don’t want to over emphasize the term “sloppy accuracy”. It fits, but a more complete way I have been suggesting to deal with this Saturn transit is by heeding the call of Saturn to be obligated to your life as a whole by being responsible for sustaining and stabilizing the flow state as a form of stratagem. If you strategically apply form to the flow you can smoothly progress across your chronology, filled with all its obstacles and challenges, relatively unhindered and lubricated enough to not be held back, caught up or blocked. The musician example is good though. I’ve said before earlier on in this transit that it is like a band performing live. If they are too sober, technical and rehearsed then it is not fun to witness and if they are too inebriated then there is no cohesion and its a mess, but if they are one cocktail and one beer in and all receptive to each other as well as to the mood of the moment itself then the magic happens, they fall into the creative trance and can remain there for the entire set. Obviously I’m not saying you must be inebriated to do Saturn in Pisces right, but you must in some way submit to what the world is and relinquish some control to find alignment in the tidal flow.

Susan Ferguson

The late Virgo degrees in the Lunar Zodiac fall within the 14th Shape or “Mansion” which is He-Goat in the Greek Magical Papyri’s Prayer To Mene list. This Shape across the traditional materials seems to have a very horny and fidgety energy which is intent on penetration and is best directed towards being productive and industriousness so as not to fall into any Pan-ic mode of barnyardy debauchery, or at least the psychic anxiety of what that implies within the subconscious as it is distributed to our biological systems and leads to stress from lack of satisfaction or completion; that being the case if satiation didn’t happen to occur-- if it did occur then the rub is it might have been via some unexpected nervous impulse or tick. The hand here is steadied by applying the itchy need to fuck with something towards a utilitarian end. This is the last shape in the season of Summer before the Autumn Equinox and is opposite Key, the final and 28th Shape. That phallic HeGoat is pre-equinoctial and in axis with Key which is an item intended for insertion into a slot and is precursor to Spring Equinox on the other end of the equal light spectrum seems significant. There is something here about slightly disturbing things, somewhat upsetting the status quo so as to effect the balance and initiate new designs via breeching through what has become the norm for some time and bring about new cycles from gestural invitation. Knowing that all the planets being aspected by this lunation: Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Saturn (by extension of sign based aspect and Mercury, Virgo’s ruler) are all changing signs and on to new things by some time in 2024 or 2025, we can feel the narrative tensions of tying up loose ends in simultaneity with breaking eggs for new omelets.

Rick Ruark

It may be that we are having the most trouble with things we are trying to release and seem stuck to us, and as we arrange them to be let go they break down and cling to us circumstantially. We need some sort of liquification to occur for the harder clung particles to break down and the crust to loosen and drain off with the cleansing waters. With a whole cast of outer planets, and more recently inner planets as well, all retrograde, Saturn is also teaching us patience. As I write this aboard my boat Driver, on my mooring in Belfast Bay, Hurricane Lee is making its approach to landfall nearby by this Saturday. I saw other cruising sailors I know on social media in the past few days changing their course to move into what seemed the best hurricane hole for protection from the storm force winds over the weekend before they could proceed on their longer voyages in whatever direction they are intending to be headed. I was thinking of also leaving my own mooring and head into such a cove nearby, as Belfast Bay has no southerly protection, and depending on which direction the rotating hurricane distributed winds to us could mean pretty good holding or a dangerous rodeo for the many boats moored here. But looking on Marine Traffic visual data revealed all the nearby spots to sit out such a storm were rapidly filling with anchored boats and expected to overcrowd by the time the heavy weather hit. Meanwhile, I’d been having rear differential failure in my truck and hadn’t driven it for over a month until yesterday. I ordered a used rear axel assembly to be sent up from a scrap parts yard in Pennsylvania and its supposed to ship out on the New Moon and be here during the storm. Since I knew I’d have new gears in by early next week, yesterday I drove my truck to run errands. Shockingly my engine overheated at the redemption center across town and opened the hood to reveal a missing alternator belt, which also runs the water pump for the radiator. I became paranoid and thought someone had tampered with my vehicle for leaving it in the dirt lot up from the dinghy dock for so long unattended. What kind of psycho would shear off someone’s alternator belt? I had it towed to the garage that is going to install the rear end and when I got there a friend of mine's fantastic, vintage motor home was sitting in the driveway with the hood up being diagnosed for a range of mystery problems that cropped up just as they were selling it. I reflected: really I want to be unattached to land, not even have this truck or maintain it, I want to head out on the boat and be nomadic, securely transient. But neither myself nor my friend can move on from these things we own and are responsible for until they are brought back into running order enough to be worthy of value and utility to be passed on to someone else. I noticed all around me, clients and friends have been caught up in puzzles, snags or preset procedures that need physical attention to move through and be put behind us, but for the most part there has been not many if any moves available on the chess board. By last night, with my truck at the garage and no vehicle of my own temporarily I became giddy. I took the dinghy back to the boat (after spending multiple days trouble shooting a swamped motor which had just been fully submerged in a capsize episode, a sordid story for another time, or maybe for oblivion) and made dinner and drank a little too much wine, feeling giddy from not knowing how I’ll pay for all the repairs while meeting the expenses of all my other current goals. The anxiety and stress over logistical details that had plagued me all week flipped, and I was suddenly punch drunk, laughing, let go, just another resident of the universe, happily afloat with linguini and vermouth. My truck maybe fucked, a hurricane might be imminently on its way, I might not have enough income to make smart moves to make income, my dreams may be an incredible amount of maneuvers away from the moment at hand, but in the soft focus of eternity it all doesn’t matter, and the manic, divine grin of a wonderful and devouring world can be fully extended across the board, ready to lap at all the mind bending downloads and realizations that ooze from the consciousness connected sky.