We will have a New Moon at 26 degrees of Leo on August 18, 2020 at 7:42 p.m on the West Coast.
Just four days later, on August 22, the Sun will move into the next of the zodiacal signs, Virgo.
One may wonder, with each new cycle, whether things are now going to get “better.” In 2020, we may be asking that every single day, as there is no let-up in the amount of tension, outrage and fear in our collective atmosphere.
A short answer is that, astrologically, the tension is not going to subside any time soon.
A dominant transit of 2020 is the unusually long time Mars is spending in its fiery home sign of Aries (from June 27, 2020 all the way into January 2021). The upside of Mars in Aries can be increased stamina and action toward goals, but the downsides include impatience and aggression. To boot, Mars is making friction-provoking square aspects to this year’s conjunctions of Saturn, Pluto and Jupiter in heavyweight Capricorn.
We may find some relief in December when Jupiter and Saturn will conjoin in a new sign, as they do every 20 years, marking shifts in leadership and systems. Every 200 years, the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction is momentous in that there’s a shift in the element of the signs where they meet. On December 21, 2020, Jupiter and Saturn will join at 0 degrees of Aquarius, moving out of earth to air, which may bring a bit of a breezy detachment and lighten things up.
Meanwhile, Venus is making a brief sojourn through the nurturing water sign of Cancer from August 8 until September 6. Venus had previously spent a long time in Gemini, bringing a chatty, inquisitive, mental quality to all things Venusian (relationships, what we value and what we are attracted to). Venus in Cancer, now, may intensify our desire to make our home comfy and beautiful. It’s a short, sweet transit amidst the backdrop of our long, challenging Saturn-Pluto conjunction.
On August 22, the Sun will enter the sign of Virgo, giving us a month to contemplate Virgoan themes. Whether you have any planets in Virgo or not, everyone has one of the houses of their natal chart “ruled” by Virgo, and it is there that the Sun will highlight the themes of that house.
Everyone has their favorite seasons, often coinciding with one’s birth day. There’s another kind of birthday, when the Sun passes over the degree of one’s Ascendant sign. That’s the degree of a sign on the eastern horizon at the moment of one’s birth. For me, that’s 0 degrees of Virgo, so I just love it when the Sun reaches that degree. It’s not my official calendar, solar birthday. But I feel it like a salutation from the Sun, and I honor my essential Virgoan nature.
The cartoon version of astrology casts Virgoans as ultra-picky and critical. This misses the subtlety of the archetype.
Mythologically, Virgo is symbolized by a harvest goddess. She separates the wheat from the chaff. The Virgo inquiry is about discriminating wisdom: what is good and useful? And, how can I be good and useful? This does involve criticism and self-criticism. At the extreme, it can mean self-deprecation and perfectionism. Balanced and well, Virgo is associated with the cultivation of skills, and skills not just for their own sake, but for the purpose of service.
Each sign in the zodiac is a corrective and balance to the sign that preceded it. With Leo, ruled by the Sun, there’s a desire to shine, to perform on a stage, and be admired for it. Next comes Virgo, humble and unassuming, followed by Libra, the bridge-builder. And so on.
Word-wise, Virgo is associated with the Virgin, an historically distorted idea if there ever was one. Here, I will spare you a full rant about patriarchy and the suppression of the feminine in religion and spirituality.
Suffice it to say that outside of male supremacist cultures, a Virgin was historically a sovereign woman. She depends on no man. She depends on no woman either. She depends on herself and on the Divine. It is in this sense that she is “pure.” She is unencumbered by the chaff she separates from the wheat in the late summer harvest. She knows how to find and deliver what is useful, for herself and others.
Virgo is the archetype of the priestess. Unencumbered, she is free to do sacred work.
Now, the earth and its creatures are in pain. How can we be with that? What small or big thing can we do that would make improvement?
The Sun, dwelling in Virgo for the coming month, invites us to cultivate Virgoan ideals of discriminating wisdom, making ourselves useful and available for sacred service.
Blessings for the coming New Moon!
Sara
P.S. I’ll bet you know your Sun sign. Do you also know your Moon and Rising Sign? I’m offering simple, short readings on these Big Three in your chart, and how the Sun, Moon and your Rising Sign interact with each other.
Also, for your upcoming birthdays, I offer natal chart & transit readings.
Sara R. Diamond, an astrologer based in the San Francisco Bay Area, is a life-long student and practitioner in several esoteric paths. Her style of astrology combines modern-psychological astrology with insights from traditional astrology. Sara is also an estate planning attorney. In addition, she has published four books on right-wing movements in the United States and earned her Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. You are invited to contact Sara via her website at www.SaraDiamondAstrology.com.
This is incredible, so poignant, Although my sun sign is Sagittarius I have virgo rising, mars, Pluto and Uranus in virgo , a stellium.
I am very driven, meticulous and always working. I am pious too however provide a good service to others and love travelling.
super post! thank you.