Clarify: New Moon in Virgo

A guide to nurture your creativity in harmony with the seasons

Welcome. Creative Contemplation is our monthly practice of connecting to the energy of the new moon to nurture our creativity. Each new moon letter includes creative prompts, a tarot reading, special playlist, and a vision board to help guide your path.

If you haven’t already, download the accompanying journal with our monthly new moon themes, affirmations, and creative prompts for free here.

The New Moon arrives in mutable earth sign Virgo next week on September 14th, just ahead of the Fall Equinox, on September 23rd.

Virgo energy is not easy for me. Even sitting down to write this letter, I can feel the resistance. I’ll admit, focusing on the more shadow aspects of this energy (harsh criticism, over-analyzing, needing to be in control, fixating on the details, etc.) has been my default, rather than leaning into its rich blessings.

Yet. That’s why we’re here. This is the work.

We are halfway through the astrological year, a pivotal time to take inventory. Assess. Celebrate our progress so far, and chart our course ahead.

To honor this season together in community, I’m hosting a Fall Equinox celebration and creative check-in, September 24th, at 10 am CDT. Register here on Eventbrite for this donation-based offering. 🍂

Our affirmation for Virgo season is, “I attend to the details and gather information with diligence, paying close attention to the nuance.”

Our monthly theme is Clarify, a powerful tool at our disposal.

The phrase that keeps returning to me is “soft discernment.”

Virgo season in the Northern Hemisphere is a time of harvest. This is when we can see the tangible reality of all our hard work—how has the early spark of our creativity (beginning with Aries season) grown and matured through our practice of grounding (New Moon in Taurus), connecting (New Moon in Gemini), nourishing (New Moon in Cancer), and playing (New Moon in Leo)?

If you’ve ever worked on a farm, grown your own vegetable garden, or visited the farmer’s market, you know just how overwhelming gathering the fruits of our labor can be.

It’s a time of plenty but also process.

It takes coordination, communication, and attention to detail to effectively reap what we’ve sown.

It takes collaboration. It takes community.

Balancing our hard work with ritual and celebration is integral to this season. I think back to my own memories as a child snapping peas from the garden or shucking corn alongside my cousins while our mothers and grandmother were busy preparing the canning jars. The wisdom carried within the intergenerational work of our creativity deserves honoring.

How can we acknowledge our ancestors, collaborators, and partners in gratitude for the abundance?

And, if the harvest isn’t what you expected—how can you assess and prepare for the way forward?

Virgo season reminds us that failure is also information.

The beauty of working in harmony with the seasons is that it’s never too late to start again. This new moon, we’re being gifted with the chance to peel back the fluff and get down into the bones of our goals. How can we clarify what we want to accomplish in the next six months?

What has been working and what hasn’t? Where do we have an excess (I’m thinking of the image of tomatoes rotting on the vine) and where are we lacking? What’s cluttering our mind, body, and spirit and where are we malnourished?

Use this time to sift and sort with compassion and soft discernment. Listen to your body, mind, and heart for the wisdom within. The preparation you put in now will carry you through the next six months with blessings of bounty.

Tarot reading

The Hermit is the traditional card representing Virgo. This makes sense to me, especially in a season of taking inventory and finding clarity. The need to withdraw and rise above the busy-ness of the season to see from a higher perspective rings true.

Yet, the cards that intuitively came to me while preparing for this letter were actually the Seven of Pentacles, The Queen of Swords and The Star.

The Seven of Pentacles is a moment of pause in the deck. A time to set down your tools and see what you’ve been able to accomplish so far. This is not the end of the work ahead, far from it, but it’s also not the beginning. A sign of increasing maturity and flexibility, it draws on the mutable nature of Virgo season to allow time for adjustment. Re-evaluation and tweaking of our plans while we prepare for the months ahead.

The Queen of Swords is all about clarity but also integrity. When we’re clear about who we are and communicate that authentically with others, it’s a gift to everyone. Brené Brown says “clear is kind,” and The Queen of Swords has no time for bullshit. How can you boss up in your life and hold yourself accountable for your actions (or lack of action) in your creative pursuits?

The shadow side of Virgo energy can project the need for perfection and precision onto others—lashing out with criticism or micro-managing instead of reflecting on our own inner workings. Perfectionism isn’t the goal here (it never was) but there is a need to embody a calmer, cooler, more collected perspective that sees above the clouds into the future horizon.

Finally, The Star is one of my favorite cards in the tarot. In the Major Arcana, it comes right after The Tower card—a powerful time of disruption and transformation. Offering a balm of hope and encouragement, it arrives to tell us that no matter where we’ve been or the disappointment and losses we’ve faced, there’s a new beginning in store.

During Virgo season, The Star card offers a gift of grace. If you have fallen short of your own expectations, or the expectations of others, Spirit is reminding you that you are enough. Spirit is willing to fill the gaps, as long as you are humble enough to ask for help.

(Check out my deeper tarot reading for Virgo Season & Mercury Retrograde, here. In the month of September, all new subscribers to

Clarity for Crossroads

will be entered to win a free one-on-one tarot reading with me).

Creative Inspiration

This month, I’d like to offer something a little different and provide practical tools for applying the theme of clarity to specific areas of your life.

Time

“The future is a concept, it doesn't exist. There is no such thing as tomorrow. There never will be, because time is always now.” -Alan Watts

This is our most valuable resource and yet, how often are we taking our own time seriously? This occurred to me about a month ago when I realized I had no idea how much time I was actually spending on my writing projects—which meant I had no idea how much time I needed to spend on them.

Make a simple spreadsheet to track each day the hours you’re engaged with your creative projects. Count any time used to promote, brainstorm, collaborate with others, etc. Is it what you expected? How can you use this information to clarify and prioritize your projects moving forward?

Home

“The space in which we live should be for the person we are becoming now, not for the person we were in the past.” -Marie Kondo

When was the last time you cleaned out the cupboards or your closets? What about that junk drawer in the kitchen or your desk? This is the perfect time to do so.

Since moving last week, it’s felt like such a relief to have a clear idea of what we have and exactly what we need—without having to guess or wonder what’s hidden in the corners of a cluttered home. Once you’ve cleared out space, focus on adding elements that provide comfort and coziness without feelings of overwhelm.

Heart

“Work is love made visible.” -Kahlil Gibran

I picked up Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach many years ago and just recently found an old copy. I started re-reading the daily devotional and really resonated with this passage about heart work. How can you reimagine the work you do as ministry?

Body

“Your biography becomes your biology.” -Caroline Myss

Reading “Anatomy of the Spirit” by Caroline Myss was one of the most transformational experiences. Learning how to see our body’s sensations as spiritual messages is empowering, to say the least. This month, take inventory of your body’s signals. Learn to listen to the rhythms and disruptions in how your body functions.

What’s working well? What’s not? Disharmony is information, too! Jot down a short list of your daily physical routines (when do you wake up, when do you eat, when do you exercise, go back to sleep, etc.?) Notice any patterns or discrepancies.

Mind

“The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.” ― Marcus Aurelius

Once, when I was going through a particularly challenging time in my workplace, I did a little doodle exercise where I wrote down all of the “thought” viruses circulating in my mind. After putting them down on paper, I created antidotes for each one. The viruses looked like blobs of germs, I drew little hearts with affirmations to counteract each one.

It was such a simple and transformative exercise. If we don’t identify the pain, we can’t come up with a cure. Make some time to identify the “thought viruses” in your mind and meditate on what positive and life-giving thoughts might soothe or replace them.

Soul

"Before enlightenment; chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment; chop wood, carry water." — Zen Kōan

This is a reminder that we are here, meant to be having a physical experience of enlightened joy. There’s no escaping the material world and that was never intended. Your soul is here to experience all of the sensations of a body, mind, and heart. Let yourself fully arrive here, an embodied soul delighting in the mundane beauty of being human.

Playlist

This is a collaborative playlist so add your own songs. I’d love to hear what brings you clarity!

Moodboard

Here’s a sneak peek of the Virgo mood board! If you’d like to add your own pins for inspiration, use this link.

Creative Prompts

1. Interview someone you love, ala StoryCorp. Listen for the details of their story and the intergenerational wisdom coming through. If you don’t have someone to interview, choose a past or future version of yourself to ask a series of questions.

2. Visit your local farmer’s market and choose a seasonal recipe to make. Was there a dish that you loved from this time of year as a child? A flavor that reminds you of your mother or grandmother?

3. Gift or donate something that’s no longer serving you. Notice the space it creates in your life. What would you like to welcome in its place?

New Moon Blessing

May I take inventory of my life with a keen eye and gentle heart. May the information I receive be a catalyst for healing and celebration. May I remember that I am not a one-man band, the act of harvest is a communal effort, just as my creative projects are not possible without the collaboration of others, (including Spirit), the bounty I reap must also be shared. May I tap into the wisdom of my body as an extension of the earth, listening to the wind and the growls of my belly with the same intentional discernment. May I create time to honor the unique and perfect wholeness of my being, just as I am right now.

All my love,
Mariah

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