Mrinmoyee Prajna This Amabasya culminates on October 16th at 12:30 pm PDT in the sign of Virgo and the Lunar House of Chitra.
New Moons are considered less auspicious, but this one is a particularly powerful one as it starts off the celebration of Navaratri, the 9 nights of the Goddess Durga where she is worshipped each night in a different form.
The forms are viewed as different manifestations of the feminine power or Shakti, and are connected each with a lunar phase as the moon grows from new and approaches full.
Celebrations start from tomorrow, the 1st day of the waxing lunar cycle, and build in intensity throughout the days. The new moon night is Mahalaya, the great void where the infinite is worshipped before the Goddess takes form. This celebration is said to be when Durga descends from her heavenly abode Mount Kailash, where She resides with Shiva, and comes to Earth for 9 nights. It is a very powerful and potent time of the year!
The New Moon in Virgo comes after passing through Adhika Mas, the ‘lost month’ of the Vedic calendar where all auspicious events are not performed.
After this period where we were essentially called to go inward and tend toward inaction, the manifestation power is now called forth through these nights of Navaratri. The sign of Virgo tells us to pay attention to detail, and to use our analytical and critical thinking skills along with our intuition. That this New Moon occurs in the last degrees of Virgo indicates the completion of one cycle that is more critically and personally based as we move in the more feminine and connective energy of Libra. The Lunar House of Chitra where this new moon falls is a strong one, whose energy is ‘the power to accumulate good karma or merit’ making the actions we perform during this next month phase even more important!
Of course the ‘dreaded’ Mercury retrograde began on October 13th and carries on until November 3rd.
As Mercury retrograde is a time to edit old information verses processing and creating new, it is always advised to give more time and allowance for communication, information processing, and travel. It is very interesting to note that Mercury is retrograde until election day in the US, in a year where a much greater number of people are using mail-in ballots. If voting matters to you, take care that your ballot is well received to be processed in the right place, the rest is out of our hands. This retrograde period certainly indicates confusion and possibly mistakes with processing that level of information during this time!
Tomorrow the Sun shifts to zero degrees Libra. The monthly day that the Sun is at zero degrees is known as Sankranti. It is said that what we do on this day we will have to redo, and is well known as a good day to take a holiday among astrologers!
Love and Blessings,
Mrinmoyee
