Just when you thought the torrid temps couldn’t get any higher, another new moon in fiery fluffball Leo arrives on Monday, August 21.
This is the ~Great American Eclipse~ we’ve all been waiting for. Finally. Yet this much anticipated arrival is also a luscious out-breath, that lets us return to a sweet sense of self-containment.
With the Sun moving into embodied, earth girl Virgo the next day, Mercury retrograde tracking through those same woods, and wilderness survivor Saturn stationing direct, it’s time for a slow jam prom date with your sense of integrity.
While patriarchal maneuvers have tried to co-opt the symbol of the zodiac’s “Virgin,” the original meaning of the figure was a witchy woman who lived entirely by her own code and didn’t give it away for free. This is a new moon for figuring out exactly what you’ll stand for and what you won’t fall for anymore.
In the words of the late, great Virgo himself, MJ, “Take a look at yourself and make that change.” The Numinous breaks it down below.
Aries & Aries Rising
New moon mantra: Accepting the limits of my body helps me harness infinite potential.
At work:Have you been going so hard lately you feel unstuck from the solid ground? This is a month for moving back into your glorious gut, and letting your bod serve as a knowledge base. Trying to decide whether to take on more responsibility? Feel into your blood and bones for the info. And check in with compulsions and anxieties that leave you feeling hot and bothered. Treat your body as the benchmark for badassery. There’s no shame in slowing your professional roll down.
Out of office:Let yourself be dazzled by the intricacies of your physical form. Start a brand new fitness regime and rather than being goal driven, just get curious about how this practice results in micro-shifts in your physical environment. Delight in trips to the grocery store or an open-air market, and play with subtly shifting spices and at-home tasting menus. Discover the divinity in every detail.
Taurus & Taurus Rising
New moon mantra: Getting messy with my paint set allows me to remain in process.
At work: Channel your inner sculpture this month, Taurus, and show up to work ready to get your hands dirty. Revel in half-finished projects and everything that exists between the initiation of an effort and the perfected, refined end result. Let yourself release from results. Play with the messy, beautiful oil paints of possibility. Allow plenty of solo inspiration time in the break room, no matter what form this takes. Let all this undoing help you “do” exactly what you love.
Out of office:Undone fashions. Loose locks. Channel ’70s disco bohemians. Let things spill over the top—stacked ice cream cones, bubble baths, and impromptu dance parties. Elaborate meals with no recipes. Spontaneous sensuality. Let your life feel like an endlessly unfurling romantic encounter, a creative salon, an all-night Spanish feast.
Gemini & Gemini Rising
New moon mantra: Renegotiating my relationship to the past paves the way towards my power.
At work: Consider your career lineage during this moon cycle, butterfly babe. Think back to your first dollar selling lemonade or baby-sitting. Sink into that sensation of self-sufficiency. Trace the path through your power moves and consider the through-threads. These may not be about roles or skills on your resume, but about general feelings and common themes. Let the job highlights play and step into the most expressive, big screen moments. Let those lead you towards your true vocation.
Out of office: Get comfortable with ancient history this month. Visit an art museum and head straight for the Egyptian wing. Think about those overstuffed sarcophagi and their treasures. What items are true extensions of your essence? Dive into your DNA. Ask your family for tall tales, and then figure out exactly where you fit into this framework. Assess exactly what you want to take with you, and what’s history.
Cancer & Cancer Rising
New moon mantra: Getting curious about brand new skills helps create the foundation I crave.
At work:With so much precious time spent inside your opalescent shell, you can sometimes forget the power of your water energy to move. This moon cycle is all about recovering your rhythmic sense of curiosity. Step into a wildly new work mode by volunteering to take on a project that’s way outside your usual zone of expertise. Study up on a new technology or approach. And don’t overplan anything—trust that you can rise to meet the challenge on a minute-by-minute basis without this feeling anxiety-laden. As you gather new information, let things shift and integrate.
Out of office: It’s puzzle piece season for you, dear Cancer, but the big picture doesn’t yet have to add up. Toss out the box and just revel in all the tiny colored geometrics. A partial cat eye. One petal of a flower. There will be plenty of time for seeing the grander vision. For now, descend into the city streets. Get lost in a new neighborhood. Sample the local street eats. Play with shifting, rainbow shades. Model your life after Willy Wonka’s wildly expressive candy landscapes and taste absolutely everything.
Leo & Leo Rising
New moon mantra: Honestly assessing how I express myself raises my vibration even higher.
At work: Imagine yourself as an erudite art critique this week, and let yourself view that critique as the highest form of love. Get curious about the work you’re putting out into the world—its nuance and texture. Dive tenderly into the details and dance an intricate tango with the things you’re creating. Comment on your maneuvers with the excitement of an Olympic announcer. Understand that this commentary only heightens the commitment to your craft.
Out of office: It doesn’t have to be bombastic this month. Button it up. Sport a low heeled boot and a Victorian ruffled collar. Consider your limits as luxe, lacey entryways into the true parlor of your passion. Revel in the quiet craft of sand art, deco architecture, patterns and prints. Take a trip to the fabric store and run your hands over all of the threads, delighting in the detail that it took to birth these crafts into being.
Virgo & Virgo Rising
New moon mantra:Snacking on some solitude doesn’t have to signal isolation.
At work:Tuck into your corner office and put your phone on silent Virgo. It’s a cycle for understanding the value of your own process when it’s temporarily removed from the cacophonous conference room. Quiet the voices offering commentary. Imagine for a moment that you’re an industrious island and that everything you need is already indigenous to this landscape. You can grown your own coconuts and crack them open with your own tool kit.
Out of office: Celebrate delicious self-sufficiency with some woodsy solo endeavors. And if you’re not feeling the great outdoors, take a staycay at a local beach or even inside your apartment. Set up a tent or a little canopy above your bed. Treat it like a summer blizzard where you gather your provisions and camp out with yourself. Bring a flashlight and marshmallows and whispers heroic stories to yourself way after dark.
Libra & Libra Rising
New moon mantra: Surrendering the self-critique lets me partner with the way things are.
At work: Think of this cycle as the opposite of your monthly review. Drop the critique. Interrupt the assessment. There’s no need for a five year plan right now or to check in with your goals. The only thing that’s asking for alignment right now is soul goals, Libra lady. And a sense of right timing. Read the signals in your workplace for a sense of when to make your moves and when to stay slow and steady. Really tune into the subtler signals of your environment and let those inform you about leadership styles that aren’t all brute force and gross action.
Out of office: Turn the love lights on, Libran queen. Blur your vision. Fire up the candles. Place a gauzy shade over the lamp and just let it be. This is the lazy, hazy cloud-puffed pathway to all possibilities. Sink your teeth into an actual puff pastry. Paint stars on the ceiling. Get diaphanous with your wardrobe. Wear some metaphorical wings. Snack on an ice cream float. This is a houseboat cycle for you and you’ve done all you can to prepare your vessel. Now, give it up to the mysterious power of the elements and simply drift away.
Scorpio & Scorpio Rising
New moon mantra: When I get real about my values, the road to adventure opens wide.
At work: Figure out where you’re putting your time and energy this cycle, Scorpio. With your no-holds barred approach to the world and high threshold for discomfort, chances are there’s some energy spillage that needs cleansing. Is there a work endeavor you’ve been chasing down beyond the pale that’s ready to be purged? Some dream that needs to decay to become flower food for even bigger blooms? Decide exactly what’s most meaningful and let this process of selection re-up your faith in the unfolding future. It may be time to shift professional gears entirely. Save some of your precious fuel for the long haul.
Out of office: How can a sense of precision and assessment feel genuinely expansive? Think of it as a crystal-clear cycle of alchemical mixing. Take out your perfume essences or your wine grapes, and really feel into each item you have on hand. Decide exactly which things smell and taste the juiciest to you use those in your metaphorical road-tripping recipe. You can’t take it all with you, but this new moon offers you the power to discern exactly what should journey onward in your pack, and what needs to be left behind.
Sagittarius & Sagittarius Rising
New moon mantra: Taking a long, hard look in the mirror reminds me of who’s boss.
At work: You’re the original truth-sayer, wild pony. And this cycle, it’s time to speak some serious truth to your own power center. Step into the office bathroom and strike a pose in front of the glass. Look deep into those gypsy eyes and assess exactly what you want and need from your endeavors right now. Don’t leave anything unturned. Look underneath rocks at work and inside filing cabinets for things you’ve hidden away and let dealing with them directly feel deliciously head-on.
Out of office: Strip it down. Bare, beautiful skin and the simple strength of your limbs. Walk in the full-on sunshine. Let yourself feel extravagantly exposed. Let your hair air-dry and go au naturalwith your scent. Build something from the ground up—even if it’s just IKEA furniture. Sample self-contained, clean, single-note scents like pine and cedar wood. Engage in morning affirmations in front of the mirror, no matter how silly they seem. Speak your desires into being.
Capricorn & Capricorn Rising
New moon mantra: Integrating my darker parts lights everything up.
At work: Sometimes it can feel like darker emotions will run the show if you leave the door even slightly ajar. But this cycle is all about harnessing those tender places to fuel new forms of power. Start with the project you’re dreading the most. Feel into the resistance around it. Is it a fear of the challenge? The drudgery of the mundane? Get curious about the sensations of “stuckness” and then just slowly apply yourself as you melt the ice. Imagine yourself as an intrepid explorer in the office, or a career medic rushing to the scene where you’re needed the most, even if it’s the rawest and most arduous. You were built for endurance, Cappy. Let the difficult lead you towards the sweet relief of the levity that follows.
Out of office: Play with gothic palettes and styles this cycle. Witch it up. Even if you’re not ready for a full dungeon plunge, start with a smoky eye or spiky metallic accent. Revel in old school “horror” movies that are deliciously fun, like Gremlins.Step into your own closet and play dress up. Let your darker shades expose you to the full range of your human palette.
Aquarius & Aquarius Rising
New moon mantra: Letting the full flower of my eccentricity bloom, leads me straight to the heart of my essence.
At work:Go far beyond the known roads this round, dear rocket girl. That utopian scheme for your office that you’ve never shared with anyone? Reveal it at a monthly meeting. The wild entrepreneurial scheme that’s been cooking all the way on your back burner? Fire it up for dinner. It’s a “get out of my dreams and into my car” cycle for you, and you can risk birthing things onto the material plan without feeling like any part of yourself has to get lost in translation. Chances are, the dreams and schemes you’ve been pondering under cover of the night are ready for someone else’s day break—harness the strength of your wild, weird tribe of change makers.
Out of office:It’s a moon cycle for bringing the mystical down to earth and playing with visionary dreaming in the here and now. Mix up your earth tones with color. Sample spicy dishes that wake up your senses while still providing the fortifications you need to complete your mission. Play with futuristic glass and steel accents in your home space. Let your everyday landscape be slightly otherworldly.
Pisces & Pisces Rising
New moon mantra: My gentleness is a limitless source of strength.
At work: Don’t underestimate your softness, this cycle, deep sea sweet cakes. As the zodiac’s final installation, you bear the weight of all the psychic lessons that have come before you— from Aries through Aquarius. The release that finally comes with your arrival is the potency of accumulated magic. Let yourself feel into this history, Pisces. Don’t be afraid to let it show. Let your tears fuel passion projects, or your anger fuel change and more demands for recognition. Don’t let anyone tell you that these emotions aren’t “workplace appropriate.”
Out of office:Release fully into the force of fluffiness. Surround yourself with plush cushions and faux fur rugs and build an elaborately powerful pillow fort. Play with tender pink shades. Imbibe elixirs that are both tart and juicy like grapefruit spritzers. Notice when you’re holding back tears, and let them flow and wash you clean of any notions of “weakness.” Sample salty snacks that taste of your own inner oceans.
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Words: The Numinous
