September 9th: New Moon in Virgo

by adrienne maree brown

the new moon is a reminder that while life moves towards light - bending like trees, arcing up like new leaves - it all begins in the dark. everything new - seed bursting, brain forming, star being born - begins in darkness so total that there doesn’t appear to be room to breathe, there doesn’t appear to be a need for air. and once it begins, life is change, change, change...changes we want, changes we don’t want.

this year has brought so many changes we don’t want, interwoven with changes we want.

at a small scale, at a large scale, internal and external, change is constant.

the moon is it’s own proof, always full, always dancing with earth’s shadow. and so many changes come to us, and we get to choose how to respond, who we will be, what we will conjure and center in our lives. will we be blown around like leaves that have let go of the source of life, let ourselves become compost for some future season of growth? will we root down, will we manifest what we need down in the dark?

i write to you as a virgo, claiming the highest potential of this new moon. i like to change things because i believe they can be better, can be more perfect. it takes work for me be with what is. it takes work for me to trust what can only happen in the dark, in the places i can’t see.

virgo in our shadow can be nagging, nitpicky. but under that, in the deeper dark within, is our visionary calling, the gift of virgo: we can see something whole, beautiful, possible. Octavia Butler taught us, we get to shape change. all of us.

we get to shape ourselves for the world we are generating - we are the front lines of all the change we wish to bring into the world. each of us is a microcosm of all the possible justice, liberation, pleasure and honesty in the universe. act accordingly.

in the face of disappointment and betrayal, we have the opportunity to become more honest about what we want, who we are, how we love. and we can teach this way of being open and honest to the next generation. this will not keep us from heartbreak, but it will give us, give our species, more skill at loving.

in the face of environmental catastrophe, we can return to nature, to respond to her cycles, to stop consuming the earth and start living with her, to become warriors for the planet, to disrupt business as usual in a fight for our relative, our planet, our home.

in the face of our punitive justice system, we have so many chances to change our relationships to everyone in our lives, to become transformative with each other. when harm happens, conflict, difference, misunderstanding, we can hold hands and jump into the dark, down into the mysterious realm of roots. we can get curious about what gives us all this difference, if it is biodiversity or if it a dangerous toxicity. together we can find the medicine, the ways to grow and change with each other.

and then the cycle continues. in two weeks you will be able to harvest under the clarity of an aries full moon.

—Excerpt is from Many Moons 2018 Vol 2. Get your own copy here.

Read more from adrienne here.