Happy Super New Moon in Virgo! This New Moon became exact on Thursday, September 17 at 7 AM New York time (11:00 GMT). A Super Moon occurs when the moon is physically closer to the Earth than usual, thus amplifying its effects. This is actually the first of three consecutive Super Moons occurring when the moon is conjunct the sun.
After this past watery and mystical Full Moon in Pisces, the sun and moon in Virgo now pull us back down to Earth. As the most grounded of the Earth signs, Virgo implores us to, well, get our sh*t together.
Are there responsibilities in your life that you have been avoiding? Is there something you need to take care of? How is your physical body feeling? How are your finances? Is your house clean? Is your business organized? These are the type of questions that Virgo season forces us to address.
To figure out what you need to work on during Virgo season, start with what's closest to you – your own flesh and bones. How has your body been feeling? Have you been sleeping enough? Have you been exercising? Are you eating well? Are you drinking enough water? Are there some medical issues that need to be addressed?
Our physical bodies are under immense stress right now with Mars, ruler of the body, traveling Retrograde in its own sign of Aries. During a Mars Retrograde, physical issues can tend to pop up or recur, and and feeling burnt out and fatigued can be the norm for many.
Many of my clients as well as myself have been reporting feeling an uptick in Ascension symptoms lately. It is clear that we are being sent super high-frequency energies in preparation for the next stage of our planetary upgrade that is to occur during and after next week's Equinox.
The name of the game now and for the next 28 days is self-care. Putting yourself first is not selfish; it is a great act of kindness toward yourself. Ultimately, you come into this world with yourself, you are with yourself 24/7 and you leave this planet with yourself. No one else is going to put you first.
It is a natural human tendency to attempt to escape the self by focusing too much on taking care of others. It's definitely a tendency that has befallen me at times. When we expend too much energy taking care of others and not enough on ourselves, the Universe will usually try to alert us to that imbalance by making the issues within ourselves that need to be addressed even louder.
Self-care is not an easy thing to master, because we tend to fall into patterns of complacency. It is normalized on our planet for people to get into a routine consisting of survival (working for money), taking care of home/family, sleep and entertainment. Most people leave little wiggle room to optimize their physical and mental health through healthy routines.
Aristotle didn't actually say “We are what we repeatedly do”--this is actually a common misattribution; however, it is an entirely true statement. Elite athletes are so because they have a disciplined exercise and health routine. High earners are so because they are disciplined about the number of hours and effort that they put into work. Those who have achieved a level of inner peace have done so through disciplined meditation routines.
Now is the perfect time to start a new diet or to re-dedicate yourself to a diet that you used to do. It's a good time to do a juice cleanse or to go for bodywork like chiropractic, massage or acupuncture. Virgo season is also the perfect time to start (or re-start) a daily meditation practice.
Oftentimes I get asked this question: what kind of meditation would be best for me? My answer always depends on what I read is going on inside the person, however for people who are ungrounded, scattered, or nervous, I always recommend to just focus on learning and practicing abdominal breathing. It's not as fun or sexy as doing guided meditations, however it is absolutely crucial for the journey of Awakening.
The best way to do abdominal breathing, in my opinion, is to place your hand (or hands) directly over your solar plexus chakra. Direct the breath down into your hand(s), so you feel your hand(s) rising with the in-breath and falling with the out-breath. Focus your conscious attention on the rising and falling of your hand on your belly.
CLEANING HOUSE (LITERALLY)
If you are a Virgo sun or rising sign, you're likely pretty organized already, but for the rest of us Virgo season is a much-needed reminder to clean up and organize our environments! It is certainly easier to have a calm and organized mind when your living environment is clean and organized.
If your home is pretty messy, the best places to start are the areas where you spend the most time (e.g. bedroom, car and living room)--as these areas will most directly affect your energy field and mind. Personally, I am dedicating some time over the next few days to do some much-needed cleaning and organizing of my spaces!
IMPROVING COMMUNICATION
Virgo is ruled by Mercury, the king of communication. During Virgo season, interpersonal and internal communication comes to the forefront so that we can improve both!
The most effective way to become a better communicator is to learn to listen better. By listening better, we are giving the other person the gift of being heard, which is so often the underlying reason why we have conversations with one another in the first place. It feels good to be heard.
The best interviewers out there are the ones who you can tell listen very well. They are present in the conversation and thus they ask compelling follow-up questions that make for a really interesting interview. A bad interviewer will usually be nervous, stuck in their head and ask only the pre-written questions, as they are not really listening to what the interviewee is saying.
Being present in our interactions with others enhances our quality of life immensely. Conversations become much more enjoyable when you listen better. And by listening better to someone else's stories and experiences, it is more likely that they will reciprocate to you by listening to your stories and experiences. Being heard opens the heart and makes us want to make space to hear someone else.
Another great tactic is taking a pause before you respond to anything anyone says. It is never wise to respond to anything someone says with anger, as anger only will make a communication issue worse or cause further problems. Making it a habit to pause before responding gives you a buffer that ensures you won't say something you later regret.
Even when you're not feeling triggered, taking a pause before responding allows you another moment to collect your thoughts and to make an even more effective statement. Those with high levels of charisma generally pause before speaking or responding.
Another important part of learning better communication is boundary setting. With the sun and moon in Virgo and the Mars Retrograde setting the stage for the next 28 days, now is the most important time of the year to honor your boundaries with others.
It is OK to tell someone no. It is OK to tell someone you're too tired, or you need space to yourself. It is OK to tell someone you need a break. It is OK to tell someone you're uncomfortable or it's not a good time. It's OK to reschedule commitments.Honoring these feelings builds healthy self-esteem.
The most difficult people in your life to set proper boundaries with may very well be family members. They have known you for a long time, and they may think that it's OK to treat you like they treated you when you were a child. They may not be able to see or perceive how you have evolved.
With family members, you must remember that you are allowed to evolve and you are allowed to change your boundaries when you feel its necessary. Sometimes, a family member will actually be open to discussing boundaries if you give them the chance. It's best to always give others the benefit of the doubt, though if someone really won't honor your boundaries, family member or not, you may sometimes need to reduce or even fully walk away from communicating with them.
Another really awesome way to improve communication during Virgo season is to give out more complements. People love receiving complements, and you'll find that as you dish out complements to others you'll find them coming back to you in unexpected and heartwarming moments!
IMPROVING INNER DIALOGUE
As I have said, Virgo is concerned with communication, as it is ruled by Mercury. Thus far we have discussed the theme of communication with others, but what about dialogue with yourself?
One of the most difficult aspects of the Awakening journey is the challenge of mastering your mental body. In order to master this lesson, it requires a great amount of discipline and practice. Someone with little control over their mind will be able to progress spiritually in many ways, but will not be able to become as happy as someone who has really learned to master their mind.
When it comes to this topic, one of the most important things to understand is that thinking is not always the same mechanism. Sometimes you are actively thinking thoughts--for example while you are logically trying to solve a problem; while other times thoughts are actually thinking you. The reason for this is something called T-Fields.T-Fields are clouds of energy that are located within your energy field and in spaces in homes and businesses, especially where a lot of people tend to hang out.
T-fields can be passed from person to person kind of like a virus. This is why if you have dinner with some pretty negative people, for example, you're probably going to start thinking negatively yourself. And if you have dinner with some really positive, upbeat people, your thoughts are going to become more positive!
This is why your living environment really matters. If you live with negative people, you are going to be more likely to be haunted by negative thoughts because of the T-fields. If you live in a building with a lot of dark energy, you likewise are going to be subject to more negative thoughts if you haven't sufficiently cleansed your living space spiritually.
So whether you know it or not, most of the time thoughts are actually thinking you, and not the other way around. The more that you cleanse your energy field and do your spiritual work, you are able to let go of the subconscious patterns that were unconsciously imprinted on you by your parents or caregivers when you were between the ages of zero and six. As you shift these subconscious patterns into more supportive subconscious patterns, naturally the resonant T-fields in your aura will shift to more positive T-fields. If you are then able to surround yourself with positive people more of the time, you will find your thoughts permanently shifting for the better.
The other thing that is really important to remember when it comes to improving your inner dialogue is the breath. People who breathe shallowly most of the time tend to not have the most supportive inner dialogue, as when the breathing is shallow, the nervous system is stressed. A stressed nervous system will generally produce stressed thoughts.
When you remember to breathe deeply as you are going about your day, you are likely to experience a levity in your thoughts. This is why, as I said, I recommend a daily deep breathing practice for most everyone.
Here's a good 3-step process for getting yourself out of a spiral of negative thinking: 1) Take 3 deep breaths into the abdomen, extending the length of the exhale with each successive breath
2) Ask yourself this question: What can I be grateful for, right now? Speak what you are grateful for out loud or in your head.
3) Force yourself to smile for 10 seconds or longer!
An extremely effective way to improve your inner dialogue, especially in the long term, is to use affirmations. As our subconscious mind makes up 95% of our thinking, the way to truly make a difference in our inner dialogue is to change the subconscious. This can be achieved through hypnosis, subliminals and affirmations.
The subconscious is a like a hardened rock that is difficult to change. But by chipping away at the subconscious with new, higher-vibrational statements repeatedly, the subconscious then begins to shift. This is the idea of affirmations: what we repeatedly say becomes our reality.
A great exercise for this Virgo New Moon is to make a list of 10 affirmations and repeat them 10x each morning and night in the mirror! I'm committing to doing that for the next 28 days, who's with me?!
I'll be teaching a Mastery Empowerment Course on Sunday entitled Change Your Reality by Changing Your Words. Join me!
I am wishing you a wonderful Super New Moon in Virgo!
With Love,
Matthew John
Featured in audio form on Higher Self Channel & Higher Self Portal