New Moon in Virgo: Spinning 'Round

I haven't been sleeping well. My sleep habits have been iffy since transit Neptune began its opposition of my natal Sun a couple of years ago (more about that later) but, right now, there's more happening. It's also true that during the course of a day this past eighteen months or so, my mind has to bounce back and forth between at least three different, completely unrelated things for most of the day. Certainly, all those mental gymnastics impact its ability to wind down at night but, the past couple of days, it's been more obvious. I've been working on this post for the past four days and usually, once I understand the energy, it's easy and the writing flows. Not so much this time.

The energy of this New Moon has been frenetic and anxious. It was no surprise to me that I drew the Nine of Swords. That's the card that represents the energy of sleepless nights due to overactive brains. The New Moon in Virgo tends to be a time of mental adjustments anyway but this time, this New Moon is directly opposite Neptune. So, it's not just me with the foggy, random, hyperactive brain. We all have a little touch of that spaciness right now, especially those of us with Virgo Suns.

The underlying anxiety of this Moon seems to come from the quintessential Virgo/Pisces search for perfection. This theme came up during the last Full Moon. But now, instead of the Sun opposing the Moon which represents our individual, personal emotional, unconscious needs and motivations, the Sun and Moon together are opposing Neptune, the Universal Soul. The stakes have now gotten a lot higher. The issues are more expansive, reaching beyond your personal ego to encompass your entire soul. As I have been learning during my once-in-a-lifetime encounter with Neptune, we will be completely, totally, and thoroughly changed. (Fun fact: Neptune takes 164 years to transit through all 12 zodiac signs, spending about 13 years in each sign. So some people may never experience a Neptune opposition to their Sun, depending on where Neptune is in relation to their natal Sun when they're born.)

In true Neptune fashion though, we probably have no idea what's going. A Neptune transit is slow-motion, dreamlike change. All of sudden, something we used to love doing, we hate now and we have no explanation for it. A new ability suddenly comes forth, something we had no idea we knew how to do but there we are doing it, easily, as if we were born to it. Then, suddenly, there are opportunities to do it, everywhere, and we start finding it hard to remember a time when we didn't feel that way or weren't doing it.

With the New Moon in Virgo we're trying to make logical sense of illogical processes. No wonder we can't sleep. We're worried about how to manage all this newness in true Virgo fashion. We're feeling a new Self coming through with no idea where that Self is coming from or where that Self is going. It just is. We know we're supposed to do something. But what? And when? And for how long? And with whom? It can just feel like too much sometimes.

The temptation is to shut down and shut it out. To cling stubbornly to what we know until it passes. If that's what we want, we can remain in the same place. But it'll never feel the same and we would have missed out on so much.

Once again, we are faced with the same lesson we needed to learn at the last Full Moon. This is our second, and more urgent, opportunity to get it right. The only way to successfully navigate a Neptune transit is to relax and give into it. There's no need for us to fight. We can float peacefully in the warm, salty Neptune waters and let the tides and currents carry us to where we need to go.

Neptune energy is a paradox. It appears soft, yielding, and weak. Yet it gets whatever it wants. This is the message embodied in the other card I drew for the New Moon. The Strength card represents the Neptune cypher. In our goal oriented, overly rational society, the idea that one can succeed without hard and focused toil, without brute force or making detailed five- and ten-year plans, is anathema. But that is exactly where we are right now.

When we allow ourselves to trust and surrender to the will of the Universe, we become exactly who we need to be. That is the key that opens all the locks. It's not magic. It's being in alignment.

Don't do. Be. Be.