16 Sep Canticles of Ecstasy ~ New Moon in Virgo- September 17th, 2020
Love overflows
in all things,
from the planetary depths
to her highest dwelling place
beyond the stars…
-Canticles of Ecstasy by St. Hildegard of Bingen
The New Moon in Virgo arrives early in the morning on Thursday, September 17th. This illuminating moment will serve as a reminder that the end of summer is near. The imminence of the Sun’s fall makes time very precious.
The final days of Virgo season are exquisite, summoning the full beauty and bliss of the earth’s treasures. Petals are soft and fragrant. Fruit is flushed and radiant. And the light glows like amber-gold.
O blossoming branch,
you send forth your noble beauty
in the same way the dawn arises…
The evening light is like celestial music and your heart swells with love for the earth. But at dusk, the trees shiver with melancholy: ancient memories of Demeter’s sorrow echo from the deep. 
The sorrows of the world have made so much of this year difficult. Even the bliss of summer was edged with anxiety. But this New Moon in Virgo asks that you disengage from worry, returning to the incorruptible beauty of life with devotion.
It may be true that the cloud of the pandemic has hung heavy over every simple joy. And the apocalyptic onslaught of the media’s theatre of cruelty, featuring 24/7 mayhem, murder, and misery, has made these many months feel disassociated and disjointed.
On the one hand, the feeling of dread makes time feel agonizingly slow. And yet, as another season slips by you ask, “where has all the time gone?”
“We shall awaken from our dullness and rise vigorously toward justice. If we fall in love with creation deeper and deeper, we will respond to its endangerment with passion.”
The power of rebirth and regeneration is enhanced at every New Moon, offering you an opportunity to align your energies with the wisdom of Virgo.
No matter what has unfolded for you this year, the wisdom of Virgo asks you to become conscientious of using the time that you have left. There is still joy to be had and important work to be done.
Above all, the Virgin will inspire you to purify yourself of the apathy and disgust that wastes so many divinely gifted moments.
O blood red,
which has poured down from that height
which divinity has touched,
you are the flower,
which the winter of the serpent’s breath
can never harm.
The Virgoan gaze is critical by nature, darkened by the responsibility to find flaws, correct mistakes, and diagnose disease. Where her mind goes, the divine order of the earth naturally follows. To Virgo, life is an alchemical process of refinement.
It is time to make an effort to purify your body, mind and spirit. Change your diet, turn off the news, or clarify your words with the light of truth.
“Our souls should be like a transparent crystal through which God can be perceived.”
Virgo is the Latin word for virgin, whose sacred purpose in the ancient world was to serve as a devoted priestess of the earth’s wisdom. A Virgin was whole unto herself and an embodiment of divine order.
Virgo’s work is to explore the mysteries of matter, instilling reverence for the earth’s rhythms of bloom and decay; ripeness and disintegration.
In Virgo season, the earth divinity speaks through every subtle vibration. And the fractal patterns of creation become distilled into color, form and language. In the Virgin’s mind life gleams with ritualistic significance. And every vibrant moment becomes a thread that weaves the tapestry of creation together. Seeing how even the most delicate threads contribute to the whole is her joy.
“God has arranged everything in the universe in consideration of everything else.”
The power of this New Moon in Virgo will reveal itself in modesty, quietly gathering strength from an earth trine to Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn. Like the roots of the trees, the Moon will syphon from these underground streams and minerals, fortifying your resolve with an awakening of sincerity and patience for every situation. The exchange between Virgo and Capricorn asks that you empty yourself of agendas and demands, finally making room for the blessings of the universe to take root.
“The Earth sweats germinating power from its very pores.”
Grounded in the germinating power of the earth below, an opposition between the New Moon and Neptune in Pisces will raise your eyes to the light of the heavens above. And this shimmering motion eternity will seem to say,
“There is the music of Heaven in all things.”
Realizing the perfect harmony between earth and heaven is the ecstasy that Virgo offers. To illuminate your connection to the essential qualities of this New Moon in Virgo, a meditation upon the life and art of St. Hildegard of Bingen will serve as a guide.
Though her birth date remains unknown, St. Hildegard’s death and Feast Day falls on September 17th. What is known is that St. Hildegard was born in Germany in 1098 AD. She was Benedictine abbess, and spent her long life embodying the archetypal qualities of the ancient Virgin.
St. Hildegard was called the Sybil of the Rhineland, describing her profound visionary and prophetic gifts. Blessed with astonishing intelligence, she became accomplished in theology, philosophy, herbalism, natural history, painting and above all, music composition.
“I am the Supreme and Fiery Force who kindles every living spark…”
Even in a time when the Catholic Church denied women much respect, St. Hildegard burned so bright that powerful bishops sought her advice and she exerted great influence over people in power, including the Holy Roman Emperor, the Pope, and the Council of Cardinals, whom she openly denounced as evil men.
Her Nuns were devoted to her teachings and were given tremendous freedoms for the time, including being allowed to wear their hair long, uncovered and crowned with flowers on days of celebration. Miraculously, she maintained her position and was never accused of heresy.
Though the threads of Hermeticism had not yet been fully reawakened in Hildegard’s time, that ancient wisdom resounds throughout her work. Her vision of humanity’s relationship to the cosmos was that of the microcosm of the macrocosm. In her healing practice, she diagnosed and treated the imbalances that were caused by the failure to live in harmony with nature.
She transformed many of her visions into mandala paintings, describing her vast knowledge of heaven and earth as a cosmic equilibrium.
Hildegard’s worldview was a mythopoeic symphony, evoking the ecological wisdom of Virgo. She saw all of nature as holy, its sunlight, fragrance and rippling water as movements in music. She believed that to be out of sync with the beauty of nature was to deny its divinity and repress the innate joy of one’s body and soul.
She described the divine power of earth as Viriditas, Latin for “greenness”: the cosmic life force which animates the natural world. Just as the ancient Virgins knew, nature unfolded in a process of eternal becoming, a cycle of bloom, ripeness, and decay.
…arise in the end
as you rose in the beginning
when the blossom that sustains you
blooms
on all the boughs in the world.
Virgins are whole unto themselves, meaning they need no external authority to derive their knowledge. As a mystic, Hildegard’s visions moved her to understand the source of her knowledge as coming from a divine feminine principle, which personified as Wisdom.
“O Holy Wisdom, soaring Power, encompass us with wings unfurled, and carry us, encircling all, above, below, and through the world. “Praise her!…She is with all and in all; great is her mystery.”
Hildegard taught that embracing the Divine Feminine Wisdom was to find soulful intimacy with all of creation. The ecstatic bliss of this intimate union was expressed in all her arts and sciences. But her music was her most transcendent gift through which she elevated the soul, transporting the listener to the source of light and life.
Love overflows
in all things,
from the planetary depths
to her highest dwelling place
beyond the stars…
Hildegard’s compositions were profoundly innovative in the 12th Century. And her lack of formal training in Latin allowed her poetry to become a divine stream-of-consciousness. Even in the 21st Century, her lyrics feel lush, rippling with sensual imagery. This is the final secret of Virgo, whose sexuality finds intimacy with all of nature, wild and free.
Your flesh has known delight;
like the grassland touched by dew and immersed in its freshness:
so it was with you,
O mother of all joy.
Though her writings were received far and wide in Europe, there is no evidence to suggest that Hildegard’s music was ever heard outside of her convent in Germany. These great treasures, these Canticles of Ecstasy, were created with the total modesty of the ancient Virgin.
There is such a beautiful harmony in the fact that the New Moon is falling upon St. Hildegard’s Feast Day. You can hear her soul singing through this celestial blend of Virgo’s earth magic, Saturn in Capricorn’s ancestral wisdom, and Neptune in Pisces’ transcendent bliss.
Her light offers guidance through these perilous times of great transformation. And her spirit inspires you to celebrate Beauty, no matter the season.
Love overflows
in all things
Consider this New Moon in Virgo to be an opportunity to re-align yourself with the Divine Wisdom of heaven and earth. Devote your soul to the sacred music of creation which sings of the golden dawn that redeems even the darkest of nights.
We praise You for these gifts
Light-giver
Sound of joy
Wonder of being alive…
Much Love,
Rachel
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