I'm not your door, but I might be my own.
~ Seanan McGuire, Where the Drowned Girls Go

Pick a Door... Any Door...

The chart for the New Moon in Virgo contains three opposition aspects, each being like a door you could open and walk through. Each leads you to a challenge. Where will each one take you? That's the question.

There are several astrological factors that make each door important in its own right. You may need to take a test-step through each door to see where it leads, grab what it has to offer, and then step back and make your final decision as to which one you'll commit to.

So take your time, but don't take too long. The next New Moon after this one will be the Solar Eclipse in Libra on October 14. Libra is famous for its tendency for indecision, having the ability to see the value in both sides of a choice. It will help if you already have a clear idea of your priorities by that time, and this New Moon in Virgo is the prelude that will help you prepare for that eclipse.

The chart itself is in a See-saw distribution pattern, with one group of planets on one side and the rest grouped together on the other side. In this case, one side contains all the inner, "personal" planets – Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars. On the other side are the outer and "transpersonal" planets – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Chiron.

This may polarize the personal versus the transpersonal in how you see your choices. Do I choose what will feel good to me now, or do I pick a path that may be harder or longer but could result in greater implications and rewards? Do I make the here-and-now my priority, allowing me to just get from one day to the next? Or should I forego some short-term rewards for long-term challenges?

There's no right answer to this that fits everyone. If you've broken your leg, you need to tend to it and let it heal before you can continue the longer journey. Or, if you keep tripping over the same old problems and obstacles over and over, then a more visionary but longer-term goal might allow you to create a stronger foundation that will help you avoid those problems.

So here you are: which door beckons to you the most? Door #1, Door #2 or Door #3?

Every wall that would entrap me has a door that would free me. And I languish because the fear of freedom often leaves me preferring the familiarity of the wall.
~ Craig D. Lounsbrough

Door #1: Mercury Stationary Direct opposite Saturn

The door with the brightest colour and the loudest creak probably belongs to Mercury. Having been retrograde since August 23, Mercury is now stationary and officially resumes direct motion just 18 hours after the New Moon is exact. Stationary planets have a very loud voice in the choir of planets, and Mercury's voice is especially important because Mercury rules Virgo, where the New Moon takes place.

Your mental state might be a bit fuzzy or distracted or sharp-edged under the station, whose effects can be felt for up to a week before and after the station, depending on how sensitive you are to Mercury's mischief. (e.g. If you have strong Gemini or Virgo or Mercury in your chart, that would probably be you).

At the direct station, Mercury is opposing Saturn, which can add a rather serious overtone to your mental state. The station indicates a change in your mental energy flow, and perhaps a situation or decision coming down to the crunch.

With Saturn observing from afar, it might feel like this decision or situation is bound to be a difficult one. However, Mercury is long past the exact pass of this aspect, which reached exact back on August 1 just before Mercury entered the shadow. Mercury stations about 5½ degrees shy of being exactly opposite – well within orb of the opposition but not precisely.

So, although there may be some difficulty or a need for discipline involved, you've probably already known what you need to do for a couple of months now, and the retrograde cycle has been a time when you've been preparing and psyching yourself up for it. Therefore, this Mercury station is likely to be more of a reminder of the importance of that decision, and a nudge to make sure you have the resources and commitment you'll need to complete the process.

That said, Door #1 doesn't really lead anywhere, except back to something you've already been through. While it may be helpful to reread the memo from the last week of July and the first week of August, your best forward motion will be found through one of the other "doors." In the meantime, at least take a peek behind this door to see what could be helpful to you in your journey.

The road to recovery may be tough,
but I've closed all the doors
that lead to giving up
With only one choice in hand,
I am focused on healing.
~ Vijaya Gowrisankar

Door #2: Venus sextile Mars opposite Chiron

This option starts with Mars opposite Chiron, which reaches exact on September 24 and remains in-orb from Sep. 13 to Oct. 5. Mars is the dispositor (ruler) of Chiron being in Mars' sign of Aries, while Mars is in the opposite sign of Libra. Therefore, there is a polarity set up between action vs reaction, being upfront vs indirect, and self-reliance vs cooperation.

During this transit, you may find you're wrestling with how to approach a situation by being forthright and outspoken, while not upsetting or alienating others. You may find that even a little aggressive energy could offend or be taken in a way you didn't mean it.

At worst, this energy could aggravate someone's tendency to inflict hostility on others to get their own way. However, in most cases it's more likely to make you more sensitive to how your anger, irritation or forcefulness might come across to others – and how that energy in others comes across to you.

If you're normally a very sensitive person to the feelings of others, you will probably adapt to this energy well. But if you prefer to "shoot from the lip," as the saying goes, or do things your own way, this energy dynamic could be a bit exhausting, since you'll need to be more sensitive and attentive than you're used to being.

Cooperation is the key, and to help this be easier to access, Venus steps in to act as intermediary between Mars and Chiron. Venus rules Libra, where Mars is, so she has the last word between the three of them. Venus is trine Chiron and sextile Mars, which forms a Wedge aspect pattern.

Venus in Leo understands both the advantages of cooperation, as well as the value of having a strong sense of self from which to negotiate it. Leo's ideal energy is to express the brilliance, warmth and beauty of the Sun, its ruler.

Therefore, Venus hopefully aims to inspire the best use of the Libra-Mars energy by appealing to action that seeks fairness, kindness, and healthy compromise when necessary, without needlessly sacrificing your own interests.

This is a long-term influence, remaining within a 6-degree orb from Sep. 6 to Oct. 24. They don't become exact during that time (their closest pass is just under 1° orb on Sep. 26) but they do finally reach an exact sextile on June 29, 2024.

Venus is also tightly square to Jupiter, reaching exact on September 17. The one warning with the Wedge figure is that Venus could be tempted to go overboard with her upbeat outlook. Even with the best intentions, be careful you don't overextend yourself or make promises you can't keep.

That said, Venus can still help you navigate your Aries-Chiron struggles around courage, self-sufficiency and impulse control. By remembering that it's okay to shine a light of love on yourself, including (perhaps especially) your flaws and shortcomings, and doing so can help you be more tolerant and forgiving of those qualities in others.

So, Door #2 is a great choice if you need some help managing how you express your requests, desires, demands, and interactions with others. Even if that's not your biggest concern right now, check out what's on the other side of this door to see what gifts it can offer on your journey.

There are many secret doors around us, in plain sight. We just don't take the time to find and open them.
~ Rebecca Ross, The Queen's Rising

Door #3: Sun-Moon opposite Neptune

The New Moon in Virgo is also a doorway, and being opposite Neptune makes this door seem like a mysterious portal into another world. One level, Neptune in its own sign of Pisces is like a double-dose of fairyland and magical toadstools. It encourages the imagination to fly free, and dreams to explore beyond their usual themes.

The Sun and Moon in Virgo are agents of precision, intention, and aiming for the best that can be achieved in whatever you're doing. Virgo strives to colour inside the lines, if only because that's the way to ensure a successful result. And if something needs to change then it's the lines or boundaries that will change, not to ignore them – in other words, adaptation that is deliberate, calculated and specific.

Virgo is also about service to others or to a greater purpose, using decisive actions and choices to accomplish this. Virgo wants to make a difference – don't we all? Yes, but Virgo especially is determined to create a change that really matters to whom or whatever is the focus of that change. Virgo doesn't need (or usually want) parades, medals, fanfare, or shining, commemorative plaques. That part of us just wants to know that we've made a difference.

Neptune, on the other hand, is anathema to precision. Neptune and Pisces use intuition and faith in the natural flow of the Universe to arrive at the best solution, while Virgo prefers to rely on calculation measurement to determine the best path ahead. So, this opposition presents a major challenge of how to find common ground between two seemingly contradictory energies.

Shifting perspective(s) and being proactive are essential to your our life paths, progress and possibilities: "Just because a door appears closed it does not mean that it is locked – nor that it will not open with the right heart, call or touch."
~ Rasheed Ogunlaru

Door #3b: Grand Trine Kite

However, it just so happens that the New Moon opposition to Neptune forms the spine of a Grand Trine Kite aspect pattern along with Uranus and Pluto. Remember how this New Moon has a See-saw pattern that divides the chart between the inner/personal planets and the outer/transpersonal planets? Well, this is where you'll specifically work with that contrast.

These three outer planets put the New Moon effects into a larger-than-life context. If you're up for it, the New Moon (and the 4-week lunar cycle it begins) can invoke a level of service, craftsmanship, remediation and improvement that could have far-reaching implications and influence.

The Kite starts with a Grand Trine aspect pattern, in this case, in Earth signs – the Sun and Moon in Virgo, Uranus in Taurus, and Pluto in Capricorn. The element of Earth is about our encounter with the physical world, the sensory side of our awareness, and the ways that we manifest what we aspire to.

Having a Grand Trine in Earth makes it easier—even beckoning—to make something happen in a concrete way. The trine aspects mean that resources or support are likely available to help you do just that, although the easy flow of this energy could make it all too easy to just sit back, relax and enjoy the feeling of abundance around you.

In other words, although the opportunity is there to manifest something, it's also easy to be a bit lazy and not really do much with it. There's nothing wrong with that and maybe that's all you need right now, but you could also be missing out on some extra support, courtesy of the Universe.

However, this is a Grand Trine Kite, which contains an opposition aspect from one of the Grand Trine corner planets to another planet. In this Kite figure, that's the Sun and Moon opposite Neptune. In order to take the best advantage of the Earthy Grand Trine energy, it is necessary to master the tension, struggle or conflict in the opposition. The reverse is also true – in order to work effectively with the opposition, the Earth trines can provide support, guidelines, goals and know-how.

In this case, the challenge is to mix Neptune's non-Earthy energy in with the Earthy trines. Neptune is about as non-Earth as a planet can get. Its realm is the imagination, aspirations, creativity, dreams and fantasies, compared to Earth which is looking for something real, specific, concrete and defined. The Grand Trine Kite is saying: it's fine to aim for something magnificent, but it's the manifest details and actions that will get you there.

In a Kite configuration, the energy moves from the "top" to the "tail" of the kite. When the top gets triggered or activated, your reaction or solution is taken up by the planet at the tail of the kite – the Sun-Moon conjunction in this case.

A big part of how the tail planet(s) respond is to draw on the other trine planets. A Grand Trine is like a circular track where all the lights are green and all the gates are open. The response of the tail planet tends to circulate around and around through the element of the Grand Trine – in this case, Earth.

So, in the face of larger-than-life Neptune ("Surrender! The Universe will handle it all. Aim for the farthest point of possibility that you can imagine"), your response boomerangs back to the Sun and Moon in Virgo. ("Get to work! Don't waste time or energy on ideas that may never come to be. Focus on what you can do here and now.")

The more you feel polarized to the transpersonal perspective of Neptune, the more you might get stuck in a rut of trying to do more and more things, as if you're trying to build a ladder to the farthest galaxies in the vast sky. But the best way to ground that nebulous energy is to just do what can be done, and if that seems to fall short of your most grandiose vision, that's okay. Neptune's potential always loses something in the translation into the physical realm.

Neptune and all the transpersonal energies are ideals to inspire you or transformation that's meant to facilitate your growth. You still have to get up every morning, brush your teeth, shower, feed and clothe yourself, and ensure that your creaturehood existence can sustain your journey as a spiritual being through a physical world.

Therefore, Door #3 might look at first like an impossible struggle between the here-and-now and the Big Picture; between seemingly insignificant actions versus a vision of magnificent potential that could change your life or even the world. The trick is to open yourself to seeing the common ground between them, instead of just focusing on their polarized differences. This creates a path where those duty-bound mundane tasks can actually feed and cultivate greater visions and goals.

Sabian Symbol

Sabian Symbol for Virgo 22: A royal coat of arms (enriched with precious stones).

A coat of arms refers to a design with a collection of symbols that represent someone's ancestral lineage, rank or family name. A country may also have its own coat of arms. This design is typically found on a plaque, shield or garment, and usually includes symbolic animals, objects, and a text motto that represents the theme of the name. Having started in the 12th century, we could think of this like a medieval billboard.

In the case of this Sabian Symbol, the coat of arms belongs to royalty – leadership, authority, accomplishment, privilege, status. (The coat of arms image here is for King Charles III.) The symbols signify not only your talents and achievements, but especially the principles and ideals that you stands for and the forces in the universe that concur, support and validate these.

When all is said and done, you're still "just little old me" who must put your pants on one leg at a time and tend to your bodily functions every day. But you are so much more than that, both in the effects of your day-to-day actions and in the broader impact you can have on your life as a whole and on the world around you.

So: if you could create your own coat of arms, what would you put on it? What principles do you stand for? What are your aspirations in terms of the effects you want to have on the world around you? What have you achieved in your life that describes the best that you're capable of? What would be a heartfelt motto that guides your decisions? What symbols, colours and shapes would exemplify these?

This is what Neptune, Uranus and Pluto are for you in this 4-week lunar cycle – your greatest potential that you aspire to in your life right now, supported by your principles, strengths and achievements

Before enlightenment; chop wood, carry water.
After enlightenment; chop wood, carry water.
~ Zen Kōan

Keepin' It Real

This New Moon in Virgo brings you into a confrontation between who you are as an individual and the greatest potential of who you could be. The upcoming 4-week lunar cycle draws a contrast between what you do on an everyday basis and the magical impact you wish you could have on your life or on the world.

This is a See-saw chart where the personal planets are on one side (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus Mars). The societal and transpersonal planets are on the other (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Chiron). This is emphasized by Neptune in opposition to the Sun and Moon, comparing the practicality of Virgo with the intuitive imagination of Neptune. As a result, there may seem to be a wide—or widening—gap between you the individual and your place in the vast collective; between the personal and the transpersonal.

At best, you may feel inspired to do something that supports and nurtures your greater potential. All those little details you have to pay attention to in your day-to-day life are but fractals within the greater pattern of life. To paraphrase the Emerald Tablet of alchemy: "That which is below is like that which is above, and that which is above is like that which is below, to accomplish the miracles of the One thing," or "As above, so below."

Whatever you do mindfully in the microcosm, with the principles and ideals of the greater whole in mind, the more you will be contributing to the macrocosm of that greater pattern. That may sound like magical thinking but even on a practical level, as you train your conscious awareness to include both the microcosm and macrocosm, you will be strengthening your ability to bridge that gap and feel a part of the whole.

On the other hand, at worst, faced with Neptune's vast unknown, you might wind up feeling like anything you do to improve your life is but an insignificant drop in the ocean. You might be tempted to give up; to decide that nothing you do could really make a difference, and therefore you might as well avoid the disappointment and just surrender to the feeling that you're not good enough.

I really want to encourage you to not do that! It's one thing to feel discouraged (hey, you feel what you feel) but do resist the urge to buy into the belief that your feelings define the reality of who you are. Your feelings are an expression of your perceptions or experience. Who you are is the person who is feeling, not a person who IS the feeling. And the person you are can choose a different path to go from here.

And that's what the New Moon in Virgo is all about - choosing which path you want to take.

Consider doing service of some kind, especially if you feel caught in a trap of discouragement. Often the best thing you can do for yourself is to do something for someone else. In the process of giving your time and energy to help a person or situation outside of yourself, you raise your own energy and can benefit from that.

You also usually learn something from doing that. Raising your consciousness through service gives you a fresh perspective, and reminds you of truths you had forgotten. This can put your personal problems in a more realistic context, so that you can see your feelings are not the entirety of your existence.

Where to start? "It's always best to start at the beginning," famously said Glinda, the Good Witch of the North in the Wizard of Oz. You start with one step. One action. One gesture. Make a call to a local food bank to see if they could use some extra help. Search online for volunteer positions. Check with neighbours to see if someone needs help. Watch to see who crosses your path who could use some help.

Even sitting down with someone and giving them a listening ear can be helpful. Or, think about what you need right now. Perhaps you could find someone else who needs the same kind of thing, and each of you can be a support to the other.

This is one of the principles behind the concept of the Wounded Healer, and Virgo is definitely in the healing business, whether it's physical health or psychological groundedness or environmental sustainability or contributions that support the wellness of the collective.

In other words: keep it real while keeping your eye on the bigger picture.

The next update will be for the Full Moon in Aries on September 29, 2023. In the meantime, stay safe. Stay sane. Stay awesome. The world really does need you. ❤️

Ever since the world's existed
There's one thing that is certain
There are those who build walls
And those who open doors
Ah but this my love I'm thinking you already knew
~ by Carlos Varela, translated by Jackson Browne, Walls and Doors

© 2023-09-13 Wendy Guy, all rights reserved. Astrological diagrams by Wendy Guy. Divider of three doors by Diane Joanis via Pixabay.com. Photo of flying kite by Philippe Oursel via Unsplash.com. Sabian symbol image of King Charles III coat of arms via WikiCommons.