by Lynn Hayes

New Moon.jpg

The New Moon on Friday September 18, 2009 captures all of the powerful September planetary events and provides us with an opportunity to pull them all together for the new lunar cycle.  New Moons, remember, represent the beginning of a brand new lunar experience as the Moon conjoins the Sun and their dance begins anew.  
The New Moon is actually the dark of the Moon – the Sun completely obscures the Moon’s light, and we begin the new cycle in a void.  This is an opportunity to let go of the lessons learned from the previous lunar cycle and begin the anew in the sign of Virgo.
Virgo isn’t a very exciting sign – it won’t bring fame or fortune like Leo, and it won’t attract passion and power like Scorpio.  Virgo is all about the necessary things we have to do to maintain life in a body like eating right, getting enough exercise, making sure our teeth are brushed and our house is clean.  But Virgo also inspires the powers of perception and discrimination.  Under Virgo’s influence we are able to sort through the complex factors that tend to confuse as and achieve clarity and purpose.
This New Moon sits right on the Saturn end of the Saturn/Uranus opposition, suggesting that the tension here between the Uranian drive for change and the Saturnian drive for discipline and convention will be exacerbated, but the Virgo influence will attempt to impose some kind of order on this tension.  Virgo wants to be prepared for everything, and needs a road map before beginning any kind of new adventure.  During this New Moon we will be called on to create a plan and a strategy (Virgo/Saturn) to help integrate the change that is sure to occur (Uranus).
Because Saturn and Uranus are in opposition, there is a tendency to want to favor one side over the other.  Perhaps we are more comfortable with Saturn and don’t want change.  Or maybe we are adventurous and chafing at the restrictions that Saturn has imposed, and ready for Uranus to take over.  But oppositions require balance; both ends of the equation must be integrated.  Uranus opposes the New Moon, so change is inevitable.  The only thing missing now is the plan, and the New Moon in Virgo can provide this.
Because Chiron is, in my opinion, the transformational ruler of Virgo, the power of Chiron to teach and infuse us with wisdom is at work in this New Moon.  Chiron teaches us through our own emotions and feelings.  When we feel something uncomfortable lurking within us, rather than reach for the beer or the candy bar turn your attention within.  See what emotion needs to be faced and released.  
But this healing power of Chiron goes beyond emotional healing; there is also the impetus to create perfection and balance in our lives so that we may experience the body truly as the temple of the soul.  Under Chiron’s influence, as we heal we become less distracted by life in a physical form and more aligned with the soul’s experience.
Chiron is still enmeshed in the triple conjunction with Jupiter and Neptune, and as we have been discussing here all summer the call of the soul has been paramount under this planetary combination.  
Pluto is powerful in this lunar chart, having just changed direction last week and still stationary, having only advanced by one minute at the time of the New Moon.  Pluto sits on the Ascendant of the chart in the charts for Washington DC and New York, and the triple conjunction of Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune trines the Libra Midheaven.  This suggests that issues of power (Pluto) will take center stage during this lunation, and most of us along the East Coast will feel it.  Pluto requires that we eliminate waste from our lives, and he’s not always nice about it. 
There’s no doubt that this is a major time of transition, and this New Moon can help us to move forward.  If, however, we attempt to hold onto the past, which will be tempting as Saturn embraces the New Moon, transition will be that much more difficult.  This is a time of letting go, but having a plan (Virgo) within which the process can occur.
More from Beliefnet and our partners