You
can follow the current eclipse cycles in your birth chart
with my popular eclipse report, "Followed
by a Moonshadow." Three years of eclipse
cycles in a 40+ page report. More
info...
My desk is overrun with work, and it’s kind of freaking
me out.
At first it was all easily contained in a tidy sheaf
of neatly labeled colored manila folders, arranged in
chronological order. It was intensely satisfying to
label those folders and organize everything in them
just so, and they looked so crisp and inviting on my
desk, like new schoolbooks on the first day of class.
Each day I opened up my office door, picked up a
folder from the top of the stack, and happily set to
work.
Then, smaller bits of work began trickling in. Revisions
to earlier jobs. Inquiries about new jobs. Stuff I could
mostly keep stored in an out-of-way corner of my brain
without fear of losing it, or remember with a hastily
scrawled note on a post-it or on my desk calendar.
But sometime last week, I noticed it was taking me
longer and longer to settle down to work each morning.
I found myself feeling anxious when I opened my office
door. I’d glance at the stack of folders that never
seemed any smaller, no matter how many hours I worked
each day, and sigh. I picked nervously at the scraps
of work I’d stowed in my short-term memory and wondered
if I were forgetting anything. I rearranged the post-it
notes on the side of my computer monitor as if I were
doing something productive. Somehow, I managed to meet
my deadlines; but for what seemed like hours each day
I sat at my desk, surfing the web and playing with the
cat, all the while feeling anxious and dull all at
the same time and wondering where my energy and inspiration
had gone.
Eclipse Ennui
Looking at the chart for this Virgo New Moon/Solar
Eclipse, I grasped the source of my ennui: a raging
conflict between the New Moon in Virgo and Pluto in
Sagittarius. Virgo’s gift is for the work of the
everyday – work that is never-ending, self-perpetuating,
like washing the dishes or trying to keep your closet
organized. Work that will never, ever be finished, because
it’s the work of supporting and sustaining… what, exactly?
That’s the question Pluto in Sagittarius insists we
answer.
And it’s a tricky question for our Virgo natures to
grapple with. Virgo is ill at ease with both the abstract
philosophy of Sagittarius and the unquestioning faith
of Pisces. Virgo is a foot soldier, and remaining steadfastly
earthbound can limit one’s perspective. And when
our Virgo natures lose the sense of connection to a
larger purpose, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and disheartened
by work that is never-ending and repetitive.
But our Virgo selves needn’t feel as though life were
a series of meaningless tasks and rote servitude. Nor
is it necessary to abandon analytical rigor or worldly
pragmatism in order to find a sense of meaning in life,
some cause deserving of Virgo’s deft and graceful talent
for bringing order out of chaos. It is only necessary
to ask, as Pythia
did at last month’s New Moon in Virgo, "Whom do
you serve?" At the last New Moon the world seemed
full of options, a buffet of worthy people and causes
awaiting our Virgo talents. But now, the New Moon
is in the last degree of Virgo, square Pluto, and
a decision must be made: How will you use your Virgo
gifts, and in the service of what larger cause?
This Solar Eclipse signals an opportunity to release
Virgo’s more negative expression in our lives. It’s
time to release the tendency toward busywork that distracts
us from the real work at hand; the urge to criticize
the efforts of others; the complete denial of life’s
poetry and magic, in favor of a rigid, rational approach.
This Solar Eclipse lies close to the Moon’s South
Node, drawing a line that connects us to a long
pattern of such negativity. Where, in the previous years
when eclipses fell in Virgo (most recently 1997 and
1998), were you to quick to criticize, too slow to notice
the beauty around you, and too busy sweating the small
stuff to keep your eye on the big picture?
Turning Routine into Ritual
One of my favorite Virgo/Pisces parables is found in
the movie "Groundhog Day", with its provocative
thesis: What if you were forced to live the same
day over and over again? And not a particularly
exciting day, either, but a day full of minor annoyances
and petty frustrations, neither better nor worse than
a thousand other days of your life. Phil Connors, portrayed
by Virgo Bill Murray, attacks the problem with resistance,
cynicism, complaint, and nihilism – until finally, after
repeatedly trying and failing to kill himself, he surrenders.
He spends each day in devotion to good works and self-improvement
– even though he knows that he’ll have to do it all
over again the very next day. By the movie’s end, nothing
much has changed in the town - except for Phil, who
has become compassionate, accomplished, and beloved
by all.
It’s not easy to reclaim our spirits from cynicism
and our everyday routines from the tyranny of file folders
and post-it notes, and particularly not when Pluto is
the force behind the change. Pluto in Sagittarius –
a sign representing the laws of society - insists that
we temper even our finest Virgo/Pisces impulses with
a commitment to the world as it is.
As Phil Connors found, before we can hope to improve
society (like Virgo) or transcend it (like Pisces) we
must first commit to being part of it.
Pluto: Risk Going Deeper
When Pluto is involved, this commitment carries some
risk. A neighbor recently shared the story of being
unexpectedly confronted by an unfriendly dog that promptly
took his entire hand into its mouth. Most people’s instinct
would be to pull the hand away, and in doing so probably
shred the flesh against the dog’s teeth. But my neighbor’s
instinctive reaction proved much wiser: he pushed
his hand further down the dog’s throat, and when the
dog gagged, he opened his mouth. My neighbor pulled
his hand out, uninjured.
At this New Moon, the answer to overcoming Virgoan
ennui might be very similar to my neighbor’s approach
with the dog: when you’re feeling trapped in the jaws
of life, don’t pull away - go deeper. Maybe my
worktime edginess, for instance, is a sign that I've
been relying too much on past insights and would benefit
from digging in and discovering new ones instead.
The problems of the world can feel much too large and
overwhelming to be helped in any way by our small ritual
gestures of help and healing. Probably, they are. But
ritual and mindfulness remind us to operate in our immediate
environment in a way that’s guided by larger principles
of conviction, belief, and inclusiveness. And maybe
that’s enough. There will always be work that needs
to be done, and we can’t always change the outer world
- but we can always change the inner one.
