Virgo New Moon: Changing the Way We Change

The Virgo New Moon arrives on September 10 at 8:27 p.m. Pacific, and as I've been preparing for this podcast, I keep returning to the phrase changing the way we change. There is certainly no shortage of change around us right now. What interests me about this New Moon, though, isn't simply what is changing. I'm becoming much more curious about how we respond to change, how we try to create it, and whether some of the ways we've learned to make change happen are themselves ready to evolve.

There is a remarkable amount of movement in the sky on September 10. Mercury moves into Libra, Venus moves into Scorpio, and Uranus stations retrograde in Gemini on the same day as the New Moon. Uranus feels especially significant because it is also woven into the larger kite formation in the chart, alongside Pluto, Neptune, Sedna, and Mercury. These are some of the same outer-planet relationships I've been following throughout 2026, and they continue to suggest that we are moving through changes that extend far beyond a single lunar cycle.

With Uranus stationing in Gemini, I've been thinking a lot about information, technology, communication, and discernment. We have access to more information and more ways of communicating than ever before, yet that doesn't necessarily mean we understand one another better. Mercury at 0° Libra opposite Neptune in Aries adds another layer to this question. How do we remain open to another person's perspective without abandoning our own discernment? How do we question what we think we know without deciding that nothing can be known? Perhaps changing the way we change also requires us to develop new ways of listening, communicating, and determining what we trust.

Another aspect that has captured my attention is Mars in Cancer conjunct Priapus and square Saturn in Aries. Priapus is the calculated point associated with lunar perigee, the place in the Moon's orbit where it comes closest to Earth, and I've been thinking about it through the symbolism of proximity. When something comes very close to us—when it touches our home, family, safety, memories, or sense of belonging—it can be difficult to maintain perspective. Mars can compel us to act, while Saturn introduces a pause. That tension makes me think about the difference between reaction and response. We live in a culture that encourages immediate reaction, but perhaps we don't always need to know what we think immediately. Sometimes the pause is precisely where discernment becomes possible.

Ultimately, though, I keep coming back to the New Moon itself. The Sun and Moon meet at 18° Virgo conjunct Orcus at 17°. Orcus is associated with oaths and promises, and that symbolism changes the usual New Moon question for me. Rather than simply asking what intention I want to set, I'm more interested in asking: What am I actually willing to commit to?

There is a meaningful difference between intention and commitment. An intention can remain an idea, while a commitment eventually has to become something we practice. This is where Virgo offers some of its greatest wisdom. Our lives are shaped by what we repeatedly do: how we care for ourselves, how we speak to one another, how we tend our homes and the land beneath our feet, what we give our attention to, and how we respond when something isn't working.

I close this podcast with a meditation called The Path We Practice, in which we imagine leaving a familiar, well-worn path and beginning to create another one simply by walking it. There is an image from the meditation that has stayed with me: we don't always have to fight the old path; sometimes we simply stop feeding it with our footsteps.

Perhaps that's what I most want to carry from this Virgo New Moon. We don't have to transform our entire lives in one dramatic moment. We can choose one thing to practice differently and choose it again tomorrow. Over time, those choices become a path, and eventually that path becomes a way of living.

Maybe we aren't simply being asked to change the world. Maybe we're learning to change the way we change.