As we move ever closer to the Solstice and New Year, the 2018 Virgo Waning Moon tempers Sagittarius Season with a precious pause. It’s prime time to purify, refine, and clear the decks for personal freedom, says Jennifer Racioppi …
Waning Quarter Moon // November 29 2018 // 7:18pm ET // 7 degrees Virgo
As the Sun blazes through the mutable fire sign of Sagittarius and 2018 passes through its denouement, the Virgo Waning Moon invites you to embrace a life purification process.
While this Virgo Moon’s sense of organization, discipline, and attention to detail might feel contradictory to the larger-than-life influence of the current Sag stellium (the Sun, Jupiter, and Mercury are all traveling close to one another in this live-and-let-live sign of fun), leaning into Virgo’s austerity will accelerate your path towards the freedom you most crave.
With just a few weeks remaining before the Sun enters Capricorn, use this time to organize your life. You might consider purging your closet, refraining from making big year-end purchases, limiting your intake of alcohol and sugar, and letting go of toxic relationships.
Take a stand for your truth, and let the rest go. Staying disciplined now sets you up for success at the start of the new year.
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// The Cycle //
In personal development circles, the idea of “becoming our best self” often equates with a journey of acquisition. Gaining the job/relationship/status/fill-in-the-blank becomes the objective. However, this journey towards achievement requires sacrifice too. Sacrifice means to release something of value to create or receive something of equal or more significant benefit.
While the Waning Moon often goes unnoticed, this is a critical time between the last Gemini Full Moon, and the upcoming Sagittarius New Moon. When used intelligently, this Moon is the missing ingredient in manifesting your New Moon wish. It asks you to make a sacrifice in order to achieve the freedom you ultimately desire.
In purity driven Virgo, this Moon commands discipline. As we inch closer and closer to the upcoming Solstice, consider any indulgences that are holding you back from the growth you crave most, and eliminate them. Yes. Choose to change. Now. (Not after the clock strikes midnight on January 1st).
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// The Transits //
This Waning Quarter Moon happens at an exciting astrological moment. In the days leading up to this turning point in the lunar cycle, the Sun and Mercury (who’s retrograde) aligned in a perfect conjunction with Jupiter, the planet of growth, elevating the potential for expansion!
However, Mars the planet of action, squares this trifecta of awesome, and opposes the Virgo Moon, creating a t-square. This is a fancy way of saying that the freedom-seeking Sag Sun needs to slow his roll! Traveling through mutable Pisces, Mars ushers in a deeper understanding of the values driving the desires for gains.
While this might require a sacrifice in the short term, in the long term it will deliver on Jupiter’s promise of freedom during his yearlong transit through Sag. While sacrifice can sometimes feel punitive, here it offers liberation.
Mutable signs indicate change, and require you to engage with your transformation process (not just wish for it from the sidelines of your life). To support this, the Virgo Moon makes a perfect trine to Saturn in Capricorn and, simultaneously, Mars in Pisces sextiles Saturn. These harmonious angles with growth-through-sacrifice Saturn indicate that discipline trumps freedom now.
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// The Square //
Virgo vs. Sagittarius is a classic battle between austerity (Virgo) and abundance (Sag). Both signs are mutable, meaning they prepare us for change, yet beyond that, they share few similarities.
The Virgo Moon aims to purify, reminding us that our emotional needs can be met through release. This is amplified by the fact that it’s the last Waning Quarter Moon before the Solstice, and this idea of surrender syncs perfectly with the metaphor of dwindling light.
Sagittarius, on the other hand, resists discipline in all forms. With a go-big-or-go-home motto, the Sag Sun drives merriment, not surrender. Yet, given Saturn’s essential participation during this Waning Moon, take this time to tune into the Virgo opportunity for purification. 2019 begins with the Sun and Saturn conjoined, meaning Saturn’s influence isn’t going anywhere. So we might as well honor him now and get a head start on the journey ahead.
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// The Opportunity //
Like the Moon, which wanes back to new, surrendering the light of the Sun in the process, we have to learn how to yield to our rebirth, again and again, month after month. And often our resurrection depends upon our ability to let go of something we cling to, to make room for something we want.
With this Waning Quarter Moon in fastidious Virgo, forming a mutable T-Square with the Sun and Mars, our egos might feel a wee-bit under the gun—which makes total sense. However, honoring Virgo’s mission to call out old habits, patterns, people, and behaviors that once served you but now block you is critical to your growth trajectory—even if your ego despises this.
This Virgo Waning Moon presents the perfect cosmic moment to surrender into faith: to let go of something, or make a sacrifice, on behalf of what you most desire.
Your freedom hangs in the balance …
Discover more about astrologer and success coach Jennifer Racioppi and her work HERE and follow her on Instagram.
