Virgo New Moon and the Art of Procrastination
Photo of me with Lil Man. Not pictured is Baby Corn who was making biscuits on my thigh.
It’s a funny thing that September 10th is the New Moon in Virgo, a sign associated with detail, perfectionism, preparation and focus, and here I am waiting until the last minute to write about it all. Hence the title, the Virgo New Moon and the Art of Procrastination. In my defense, it was less procrastination and more the realization that we are knee deep into September and I’m still processing July and August, and so the Virgo New Moon feels like it’s asking me to slow down and simplify so I can put my attention into what really matters to me.
So I’m sitting here typing away on my laptop, my neck and shoulders stiff and achy from a full and hectic day of work, and I’d honestly like to escape the digital matrix for a while and just be, but I wanted to get this out of my head and into the ether of the internet. Sitting next to me making happy paws is Baby Corn, aka Bug, the kitten that my husband and I adopted a few months ago. He’s been a constant presence all day, curling up beside me while I worked on designs for clients, then walking across my keyboard in the middle of retouching portraits so that my screen went all cattywompus and it took me a solid ten minutes to get everything sorted again. He doesn’t care about deadlines, he just wants to be with me, and I’m too busy with work and self-appointed obligations, like writing this essay, to just sit and be present with him. And as I’m writing, Lil Man, 16, and Peach, 17, have decided to join in the fight to get me away from the glowing box, and I will, I just want to finish writing this.
This might not be the informative astrological essay you were expecting, and that’s ok if what I write no longer resonates with some people. If you hadn’t noticed, I’ve been changing my approach to writing, and rather than focusing on what I think people want, I’m writing what I want to, which is very strange for me, but incredibly liberating. I’m typing faster and I feel more alive, more inspired and more myself. Frankly, pouring hours into essays trying to translate my polymathic brand is exhausting, and with social media feeling more and more like a ghost town, the timing feels right. If you look at the past Eclipse Season, all the signs were there. Whenever I get the urge to write for someone other than myself, I remember the song “Garden Party” by Ricky Nelson. My mom loved that song, and I remember her playing it when it came on the radio and she sang along to its gentle melody. She explained after the song that the reason she loved it was because it was about performing for an audience of one. The line I recite to myself is “You can’t please everyone, so you’ve got to please yourself.” And that’s something I’m working to embody more and more.
And that brings us back to the New Moon. Virgo is about attention to detail, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed when there is too much going on. This New Moon feels a bit like a mini reset for the fall, a time to figure out what stays and what goes so we can focus on the details that actually matter.
Work is a part of life for most of us, and it has to get done, but that doesn’t mean we have to let ourselves get buried under every tiny detail. We can streamline. We can simplify. We can find ways to be more efficient and effective so the minutia doesn’t become so overwhelming that it crushes us. And the same applies to the rest of our lives.
Virgo is detail-oriented, analytical, practical and often associated with perfectionism, but that doesn’t mean we have to do everything, notice everything, fix everything or do every single thing perfectly. If anything, this New Moon feels like a reminder that attention is finite, and when we spread it across too many obligations, too many people, too many tasks and too much noise, we lose the ability to focus on what actually matters.
The word that keeps coming up from this summer and into the fall is discernment. I’m someone who has always taken on a lot. I became quiet infrastructure that so many people in my past had taken for granted and taken advantage of. I was told so much as a young woman that I was too opinionated, too honest, too direct, too independent and therefore too aggressive, so I softened, way too much, until I became what I thought I needed to be to survive. It’s taken me years to finally settle and realize that I don’t want to be a supporting character in anyone else’s life while neglecting my own. I don’t want to keep saying yes until I’m resentful, or taking responsibility for things simply because I know I’m capable of handling them. I can be generous and helpful without becoming the infrastructure that keeps everyone else’s life running.
That’s really what discernment has come to mean for me. It’s knowing the difference between what I can do and what I actually need or want to do. It’s realizing that “good enough” is sometimes perfectly fine, that not every problem needs my attention and that another person’s lack of preparation doesn’t automatically become my emergency.
And Paganista is changing with me. Not all at once, but slowly, intentionally and over time. I’ve spent the past 25-plus years working as a professional photographer, designer and art director, so when I created a place for my own passions, hobbies and interests to live, I did what I knew how to do: I made it a brand. I gave it structure and thought about what it was supposed to be, what belonged there and what people might want from it. After everything that has shifted this year, I’ve realized I don’t actually want another thing in my life that I have to manage that way. And the Virgo New Moon feels like a beautiful reminder that we can always reassess what we’re doing, clear out what no longer fits and make room for something that feels more like our own.
And there it is. All this talk about Virgo, discernment, attention and clearing away the chaos, while a tiny living thing has been sitting beside me all day asking for exactly that: my attention.
Virgo may be detail-oriented, but we can’t possibly give every detail equal weight. We can’t do everything, fix everything, perfect everything and still have enough of ourselves left for the people, animals, ideas and quiet moments that make our lives feel like our own. To me, that’s where the real usefulness of this New Moon is. Clear some of the clutter. Make the work more manageable. Hold the boundaries that need holding. Stop volunteering for every problem. Give yourself enough room to notice what is actually in front of you.
I have to work, and I’m lucky that I work with really awesome people. I also want a life that isn’t consumed by a never-ending to-do list or overextending myself to make other people happy while making myself exhausted, overwhelmed or miserable. I want to be more intentional and discerning where I can, make things simpler where I can and stop confusing being capable of carrying something with being obligated to carry it.
Not every detail deserves my time or attention. The older cats have settled in after dinner in their preferred spots, while the kitten creeps closer and closer until his tiny little razor beans ever so gently caress my forearm as I finish this sentence.
And I think that’s enough for tonight. Happy Virgo New Moon.
