Virgo Lunation at 18degrees - Tropical

Stationary Uranus

There are a number of very important themes, including of course stationary Uranus, currently stationary at 5 degrees 41 minutes Gemini at the moment the lunation begins. That's a very important trend, because a stationary planet carries a lot of weight, since - as observed from Earth - it appears to move very slowly, or seems to stand still. The energy is very concentrated on that 5 degrees 41 minutes in Gemini. Read more on Uranus here. 

Kite pattern: Pluto, Neptune, Uranus and Mercury

Another important configuration is a kite pattern: a grand trine with two sextiles and an opposition. The planets involved are Pluto and Neptune, which are constantly moving in and out of connection with each other in the sky - you see them both moving within the first few degrees. Uranus moves a bit faster, but is currently moving backward again (retrograde) in Gemini. That means these three collective outer planets are constantly, and heavily, connected to one another within those first, crucial degrees of the zodiac: Pluto in Aquarius, Neptune in Aries, and Uranus in Gemini.

These three outer planets form a kite with Mercury, the planet of intellect and the nervous system. Mercury – freshly ingressed - sits at the first degree of Libra and forms an opposition to Neptune. This is a very short-lived configuration, since Mercury moves fast - but it's absolutely something we'll notice: a sharpness of mind and thought and a possible overdrive of the nervous system! An invite to stay grounded this during this Lunation, regulate the breath and find the eye of the likely inner storm. Especially when I relate this to my own experience and practice, I see a real abundance of messages surfacing from the unconscious - an unconscious knowing bubbling up.

Mercury is, after all, the messenger of the gods, able to travel between worlds. With Mercury we're able to catch a small glimpse - a kind of foreshadowing - of what may be stirring in the deep. You might notice this, for instance, in dreams, in recurring or spontaneous thoughts that keep surfacing, or in a new area of interest that suddenly comes to light and starts drawing more attention - all sorts of Mercury themes being shaped by the deep primal force of those outer planets.

All of this is relevant for this Lunation, so we'll be feeling and experiencing it throughout the month. If you want to know how this plays out in your own personal chart, take out your birth chart and look at the degrees the planets are in, and what gets touched in your own natal chart.

Sextile to Mars

Besides this kite pattern, there are a few other important aspects, such as a sextile to Mars. Mars, the planet of action and assertiveness, sits in the sign Cancer, which the Moon rules - so there's already an important bond between the Moon and Mars, since the Moon's position colors how we express Mars.



In this lunation, then, a call can be made on assertiveness and action, particularly directed toward values we feel emotionally invested in. It isn't random action, but a driving force that draws its power from an inner source we're emotionally connected to, along with a felt need to make that energy visible in the outer world somehow - and with it, to claim, or at least take up, a place in that outer world.

Jupiter and Saturn

There's a duet between Jupiter and Saturn, two planets that are only connected to each other - always a very dominant, single-pointed. Saturn retrograde asks: what is sustainable? What is durable? What is insightful? Where have we been limiting ourselves due to lack of convidence or the need for validation? Jupiter asks: how can we express our vision expansively and sustainably to the outside world, and how can we improve things - where meaning is genuinely grounded in a sense of responsibility and structure?

These are all matters resurfacing now in this lunation. Jupiter and Saturn have been connected for a while now, both within and beyond their exact orb - it's also a theme of this era. With clients in my practice, I constantly see the question: how can we improve things, how can we use the space available to us in a way that safeguards sustainability and genuinely improves things - not just out of self-interest, but truly out of a sense of responsibility.

It's a difficult factor to interpret, because Saturn retrograde is really a force that confronts you with your own inner limitations. While Jupiter is all about expansion and growth. When you feel uncertainty around a particular theme, or find it daunting to show the outside world, 'here is what I stand for, this is how I can contribute, this is how I can expansively commit myself to the sustainability of life, and genuinely connect meaning and responsibility with one another' - that is, at the same time, a very courageous act. We can look at the story of Zeus and how he won back the heavenly kingdom by overpowering his father Cronus:

“The first step of Zeus’ plan was to gain his father’s trust. He assumed the role of Cronus’ cupbearer, offering him a tainted drink. The potion caused the Titan’s stomach to convulse, forcing him to throw up his swallowed offspring. Each of Zeus’ siblings emerged from their father one by one, freed from their captivity. The rise of this new divine generation marked the beginning to the end of Cronus’ reign.”

In other words; by courageously taping into our expansive sense of (inner)leadership, we force ourselves to make a mends with our suppressed and/ or dismissed sustainable mature place in our world.

That courageous act is confirmed by Mars, which forms a sextile to this lunation's Sun-Moon conjunction. It's a theme of a recurring longing to grow: despite our own inner limitations, and despite limitations in the outer world, still finding some way to show more of ourselves outwardly - because it feels right, because of our emotional investment through that Mars, and because of an inner knowing that also stems from the radiant light of Jupiter in Leo, which simply wants to shine, wants to be seen, wants to enthusiastically share things with the world.

Venus into Scorpio

Venus moves into the sign Scorpio. So a kite forms with an ingress Mercury - Mercury having just moved into a new sign, this time Libra - and at the same time we see Venus just moving into Scorpio. So it's the first degree of Scorpio, and Venus forms an inconjunct with Neptune. That's always worth watching: on one hand, it's a beautiful configuration for inspiration, art and design, and for rest, leisure and enjoyment. On the other hand, there's also a risk of seeing things too dreamily, too much through rose-tinted glasses - and that's always something to watch with this Venus-Neptune connection.

Venus  forms a square to its own ruler in this case, Pluto (since Venus now sits in Scorpio). That underscores the need for intimacy, and once again coming to know something anew. Planets that have just entered the first degree of a sign, as Mercury and Venus have now, are classically not considered very strong yet - they still need to get used to their new backdrop, so to speak. But if you have personal points in the first degree of one of the cardinal signs, or in the early degrees of the fixed signs, you will feel this: a need for a new form of intimacy, a need for romance, a need for eroticism, perhaps rediscovering sensuality too - enjoyment, and not superficial enjoyment, but truly savoring things down to their core.

So what courageous act are we willing to do to overcome what withholds us from expanding further? What form of intimacy do we want to invite into our lives now that the days are turning darker and autumn is upon us?

Thanks for reading

xx Melanie

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