by SOL W JONASSEN
〰️ What is my true duty and responsibility, and what is not? 〰️
This Virgo New Moon will shed some light on the distinction between being servile and being of service. Virgo is a sign that finds beauty in perfection, holding on to a pretty rigid standard that leads to neurotic tendencies when these standards are failed. This can translate to shame, leading to hiding flaws through compensatory behavior.
It is not easy to master the Virgo energy. The archetypical journey from Leo to Virgo reflects the journey from Leo’s satiated ego to the ongoing self-questioning that occurs in Virgo. Virgo is here to purify the ego from being corrupted and inflated by grandeur and delusion, and thus in Virgo there is a crisis. Virgo is the beginning of self-awareness, and when that happens, we see where our motivations spring from. So we can start to see if we give because of a need to live up to an ideal, feed the ego, or if it is because we come from a true place of service.
Whereas Leo wants to live up to the expectations and often plays the hero, Virgo comes after to make sure that this doesn’t inflate the ego. To feel unique is vital, but eventually, as we mature in our understanding, we see our yearning to live up to expectations is actually compensation for not feeling good enough to begin with. We have to work more, work harder, prove our worth, and be perfect in order to live up to Virgo’s conditions for how to feel safe in this world. When we grasp for love and acceptance, we might end up being servile to a degree that undermines our self-worth.
Serving life means serving ourselves and our path and, at the same time, offering our gifts as an authentic act of service to humanity without needing to be someone special. Being special weighs heavily on anyone’s shoulders, and it is a type of pressure that often leads to inauthentic behavior. This is a trait that the analytical Virgo mind picks up on immediately and then feels shameful about. Virgo is well aware of both their flaws AND their strengths. It is like knowing all and knowing nothing at the same time. This is how imposters feel, and it could lead to sadness because of a lack of self-respect and how that sets the standard for how one is being treated.
Serving can morph into feeling enslaved pretty quickly when the intention is to gain acceptance or love or in an attempt to mask inadequacies.
Right now Pluto is also back in Capricorn in a sextile to Neptune in Pisces, and the ideals of the old are becoming clearer than ever. As we have all been cultivated in societies that focus on reward and punishment, our individual expressions have been distorted to please the system. To be spiritually sovereign is the capacity to make up our own minds regarding what is healthy or not. As this is the last time Pluto will move through Capricorn in our lifetimes, we get to see how the ancestral wound of obedience can stifle our true growth.
The sextile to Neptune highlights the breaking away from ideals and ideas that simply aren’t sustainable. These long held illusions create a type of misalignment with our bodies and emotions that, in the long run, create a sense of not existing at all unless one fulfills the expectations. The ongoing Jupiter-Saturn square tells a story of being able to be leaders in our own lives, even when life is chaotic, and poses us with a plethora of moral and ethical questions. The most important one is: What is my true duty and responsibility, and what is not?
This leads us to the ruler of the South Node, Venus, resting perfectly on the SN in Libra right now, further emphasizing how we serve each other. Because it happens on the SN, we get to look at some old programming that perpetuates an imbalance of power in relationships. Mars, the ruler of the North Node, slides into Cancer a few days after the New Moon, and Mars will square the nodal axis all the way until mid-September. Expect some challenges in the establishment as Mars in Cancer will trigger us to seek out safety in a slightly different manner than we’ve been used to. Which is not by pleasing others but by listening to our own needs and feeling in if we give from an authentic space or simply because we feel we have no other option.
The evolutionary lesson for Mars in Cancer is the realization that safety comes from within, so it is a matter of how we meet ourselves at any given moment. If we meet ourselves with judgment, pining for perfection, anxiety lurks around the corner, and we will not feel safe. If we meet ourselves with compassion, we can hold space for what is uncomfortable, even our flaws.
And herein lies the potential of this New Moon, also reflected through the Sabian symbol: «After the wedding, the groom snatches the veil away from his bride.» Secrets are now out in the open. That which is shaded is suddenly seen. And it needs to come out. We need to be able to meet the world in our full-ness, not hiding behind puritan ideals and the shame of being unable to meet them. We now move away from an inauthentic expression into a radical compassion for whatever is hidden behind the veil.
Sol W Jonassen
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