New Moon in Virgo

Balancing, Centring, Nurturing

Virgo’s New Moon falls just a few days before the Autumn Equinox this year, so the themes of balancing and re-centring are strong as we prepare for the energetic balancing of equal day and night.  This New Moon is a good invitation to give thanks for all the solar energy of the Sun you have been gifted through the summer.  The late-summer fruits are still abundant and the grain harvest is being brought in.  Eating fresh, seasonal produce with gratitude for the life it gives can help to connect you more deeply with the dance of the seasons. 

Physically Virgo directs energy and awareness to the gut, making this a good time to bring more conscious awareness to your relationship with food and any digestive issues that are arising.  Going into the darker half of the year, strengthen your health and immunity by eating well to keep your inner fire burning.  Your solar plexus is central to your overall wellbeing and it can be the seat of anger, frustration and low self-esteem when it is out of balance.  

Stress and fatigue are also clear symptoms of a gut-health imbalance.  As we enter into the winter of 2020, you may be feeling additional stress as a result of Covid-related changes in your life, work and financial situation.  Perhaps you are beginning to feel Covid-fatigue – like many people, you may be feeling exhausted with the ongoing lockdown situation, tired of the constant negative news cycle, and anxious about what’s coming next.  

There is no return to normality.  The world we thought we knew is falling away: many people will not return to work in the ways that they worked before.  This is an unsettling reality, and also an exciting opportunity to do things differently. If, like me, you’ve known there was something deeply wrong with the way things were, you now have an invitation to create new possibilities for yourself and your life.  This will take strength, courage, commitment and firm foundations. The invitation is to come back into balance with the seasonal cycles, doing the deep inner work that’s required to ground you through these changing times. 

Solar Plexus energy is also about commitment.  Committing to this practice on a daily basis can be your anchor to creating a beautiful, deep, inner connection with yourself.  

Virgo’s New Moon gifts you the opportunity to listen to your gut – what is your instinct telling you?  Now is a good time to journal, exploring your connection to your deep inner truth and wisdom, setting intentions for the month ahead.  You can even create your own New Moon ritual including nourishing food, a cleansing Himalayan salt bath and an intention-setting ceremony.  Virgo’s quality as the Vestal Virgin is a reminder to tend to your own inner hearth-flame.

Focusing on the Sacred brings you home to yourself, back to peace and balance.  

How Luna Rhythms Yoga can support you during this Virgo New Moon:

At Luna Rhythms, our unique system of yoga integrated with the lunar cycles and solar seasons teaches techniques from the ancient yogic practices of asana, pranayama, mudra, bandha and mantra in alignment with the energies of the day, season and cycle.  This New Moon in Virgo is the perfect time to deepen your commitment to your practice.

With a focus on the Solar Plexus, or Manipura Chakra, you are invited to connect with, strengthen, and cleanse your core.  Plank Pose is a balancing and strengthening posture that tones your core abdominal muscles through holding the position.  From uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend) place your hands beneath your shoulders and step back with both feet, toes grounded and heels high.  Your connection to the earth through your hands and feet is a two-way relationship – sinking your weight into the ground while feeling the resistance beneath you that creates core strength in your body.  Your torso and legs should be plank-like in this posture, a held straight line that’s aligned through your hips.  Abdominal strength will help you to resist bending or falling at the centre in this pose.

Plank Pose is integral to the Sun Salutation sequence, Surya Namaskar, so if you have a regular practice and are familiar with this vinyasa, now is a great time to practice it.  Giving thanks for the summer sun and re-igniting your inner fire for the darker, colder months to come. 

A gentler, but just as vitalising, dynamic practice is Head-to-Knee pose.  Lying on your back, bring one knee in to your chest while raising your head to meet it on an exhale.  Inhaling, replace your leg on the floor, and exhale to repeat on the other side.  Five to ten repetitions of this is great for cleansing your digestive system and toning your abdominal muscles! 

If you still have any strength left after that, here’s a pranayama practice you can try.  Bhastrika is the Bellows Breath. Sitting cross-legged, use your belly as a pump to create an equal forceful inhale and exhale.  You can mentally repeat the mantra Sat Nam as you practice this breath.  Sat on the inhale, Nam on the exhale.  This equalises the breath and connects you to your own inner truth and wisdom.  When you have completed your practice, bring your hands up overhead, connect your thumbs and exhale to prayer-position at your heart.  To take this practice further start from lying on your back, raising your head and feet slightly – just enough so that you can see your feet from where you are – and breathe.  

Bhastrika is an advanced pranayama practice and should not be practiced by beginners.  Ensure that you have sufficient experience or the guidance of a competent teacher, and only practice this breath for as long as feels comfortable for you, increasing the duration as you become more familiar with this breath.  Stop and breathe normally if you experience any discomfort or dizziness. 

Virgo’s New Moon invites you to return home to yourself.  To balance, cleanse and nurture yourself and to recommit to the practices that will nourish and ground you through the coming winter.

Be well,

Diana.

For more practices, tips and videos, visit the Luna Rhythms Facebook Page.

To deepen your practice with Luna Rhythms Yoga, you are invited to join my online membership group, Luna Rhythms Wisdom, where we meet together and practice with the five phases of the moon each month: New Moon, Waxing Moon, Full Moon, Waning Moon and Dark Moon.  Membership of the group is £29.99 per month for all your Luna Rhythms Yoga practices.