Become One-in-Yourself with the Virgo Lunar Eclipse
What does it mean to be one-in-yourself? This is the lesson of the zodiac’s interpersonal earth sign, Virgo, ruling the gut, our health, and our intrinsic connection to the earth. Coming from the word Virgin, meaning one-in-yourself, Virgo is independent and strong yet highly attuned to the cyclical earthly and human systems that sustain us.
Virgo is associated with the myth of Demeter and Persephone, the story of the seasons that explains death is the essence of rebirth. As Pisces winter thaw gives birth to Aries spring ignition, we’re reminded of all we’ve learned since Virgo summer retreated into the shedding of Libra fall. Each Pisces season, a Virgo Full Moon reminds us of this cycle, but this year the lessons are more pronounced as we sense the Earth standing between us and the light of the Moon. For the first time since 2008, this disruption in light that we call an eclipse is happening in Virgo, summoning a review of the ways you are learning to claim your full essence. If you’re somewhere that it’s night time at 2:26 am EST on Friday, March 14, when it is total, you can see if as well as a partial eclipse about 90 minutes before and after it’s totality. Energetically, these themes will be present through the weekend so you’ll have time to work with these enhanced pathways for healing.
Just as Virgo separates the wheat from the chaff, you too must release what no longer nourishes. Make no mistake – the chaff too, has an essential role to play. Protecting the grain from weather and pests as it grows, the chaff can be returned to the earth or fed to livestock who also need nourishment. What exterior shells have protected you as you’ve learned what nourishes your most essential, authentic being? How can those shells be an offering to the larger web you are a part of? As seeds of wisdom to the people in your community. As reminders that something no longer serving a purpose does not make it bad – it just makes it unnecessary for you to hold onto.
In modern day extractive culture, Virgo gets pinned as the perfectionist, obsessively organizing, maybe even trying to control the world around her. Virgo or not, we all have all the stars and planets in our cosmic make-up, and many of us work with these qualities as a by-product of capitalism that feeds delusions of eternal summer. Our avoidance of death, of the necessity of winter, keeps us on overdrive, burnt out and depleted, wondering why our gray interiors don’t match the technicolor screens our eyes are constantly glued to.
Virgo’s teachings remind us that our health results from reciprocity with each other and the earth. We attune to our own needs first and foremost, so we can put our energy into each other and the land. In return, our communities and the land support us in the scarcity of winter. Through our attunement with Self, we know what kind and what level support is needed to support our vitality and so we take only what we need. We know both how to receive, and how to offer our gifts in a way that is regenerative and not depleting.
Let’s be real – nothing about the dominant culture supports us in this learning. Most of us spend the vast majority of our time glued to a screen, for both work and recreation, feeding the void of a machine that does nothing to reciprocate our vitality.
As many of us wake up to this situation, we realize our life is more chaff than it is grain, and there is much that may need shedding.
Virgo is guided by Mercury, the planet of intellect. Another quality of our dominant culture is to weaponize the intellect as a critic, well-versed in turning inward, separating ourselves into the parts of us deemed good and worthy and those deemed problematic and in need of control and discipline. But remember, the chaff too is essential, providing protection as we learn what we need to be nourished and providing nourishment back to the earth when we release back to which it came.
Mercury is about to station retrograde in Aries where Venus is currently retrograding, reviewing where we need to recommit to our ongoing process of individuation – knowing our journey to wholeness never ends. Each Aries season, we’re reminded we can always begin again. But to begin, something must end, beloved, and this eclipse is here to help you.
Release what blocks you from your wholeness. Release the hope that clutters your mind with future thinking and prevents you from meeting yourself in the perfect imperfection of this precious passing present.
What are the micro-adjustments you can make to unblock the flow of your vitality? Maybe it’s putting on pants that feel really good on your body and support your movement. Maybe it’s adding some sea salt to your water or simply noticing the birds and swaying branches while you’re driving on the highway.
What versions of yourself are ready to be laid to rest as you realize they’re not aligned with your authentic essence? How can you honor them and grieve their death with gratitude for all the ways they’ve protected you while you learned what you needed to be nourished?
What triggers or frustrations can you broaden your perspective around, allowing them to be guides towards what is no longer serving you, invitations to redirect your energy, and messages to be grateful for?
How will deepening in your vitality, your one-in-yourself-ness, be an act of service to cycles that sustain you? What are all the ways that simply being you connects you to this greater web of being so willing to receive the beauty of your light and fertility of your intrinsic magic?
