Welcome to September. School is in session--we are the students and life is the beneficent teacher. This month will come with all of the resulting benefits and challenges that Virgo energies can bring. One of our biggest challenges will be our inner perfectionism and a fighting of our natural flow to get ourselves to fit an external standard. If we can embrace imperfection, we can reach our ideals in a loving, sustainable, and ultimately more successful manner.
Included in the general reading is a suggested "back to school" playlist. If you resonate with the readings, I'd recommend looking up the lyrics to these songs as a supplementary tool.
Energy of the month: 8 of Cups ~All is full of Love: Bjork~
The overall energy for the month of September is that of mastery of love. How can love require mastery? Ordinarily, love is experienced as a state of natural flow. When we lose touch with that flow, we find that love and intuition are inherent skills that must be relearned. The lessons learned and integrated over our lifetimes join forces this month so that we can find our way back to this inherent skill with ease. Where there is water energy, flow, intuition, and receptivity; we find love. To tune into this energy, we can drink water that we infuse with feelings of love and/or appreciation, or bring our bodies into a large natural body of water. This can help remind us we are enveloped in love and fill ourselves with it (including that which we consider "imperfect.") We can tune into a supportive network, and find groups that help us reach a state of flow (in regards to a passion or reaching a "flow state.")
Love: Reverse Knight of Pentacles ~Feels Like We Only Go Backwards: Tame Impala~
On the reverse side of the hourglass, we find the challenge we must learn to navigate in order to reach this mastery of love. If we remove external standards, values, and external metrics which determine how much we are "allowed" to love ourselves; we can feel at a loss and ungrounded. Many of us find we have been following a false sun, and acting upon it. This false sun can be a value such as money, how much of it we have...and we may have followed it until we have forgotten why we followed it in the first place. Our ego's will believes it knows best and it can forcefully steer us in a practical or worthy direction...but perhaps it is our intuition that really knows how to lead it in the way. What direction would it take us if we stopped forcing it to go the other way? Where can you be more receptive to love? Where can you let it flow more naturally, instead of fighting your way upstream? There may be a more authentic guiding principle at hand here. Now is the time to be a receptive "knight," guided by receptive inspirations rather than tugging at the reins.
Money: Page of Wands ~Ready to Start: Arcade Fire~
Ironically, we may find ourselves better financially endowed when we are willing to step down from our Ego's "knight" status, allow ourselves to become a page (or apprentice) once more, and begin to walk the other way. We find steadier footing stepping in the bed of our intuition and allowing our passion (life purpose) guide us, as a walking stick would guide the blind. We can then alchemize and materialize our dream into reality, one that could sustain us. There is power in drawing from the ground (that which is natural)--it is like a lightning rod in reverse that powers us up from the deep bowels of the earth. There is wealth, in more ways than one, in pursuing this route.
Work: 5 of Swords ~Perfectly Out of Place: Dreams We've Had~
At work, you hesitate to voice any authentic opinions of yours that may go against the grain of the environment that you're in. You may be feeling like the unstable factor in an otherwise uniform and seemingly stable environment. This external reality is a reflection of some of the growing pains to be learned in the mastery of love. What parts of yourself feel unacceptable or irreconcilable? What are those parts trying to do or say for you? What can you do to come to an understanding of and appreciation of those parts? These parts may have been waiting for you to approach them for a very long time. Practice compassion towards these parts; rather than a thorn in your side, there is something worthy here of being integrated in harmony with the rest of your being.
Health: Chariot ~Love My Way: Psychedelic Furs~
You are in an empowered position where you are in control of your health decisions and the direction you want to take in favor of your health. All of you is working in harmony and working as a team to prioritize your health. It is the common goal that all parts of you can agree on. Use this as a focus point whenever you need to tune back into the energy of the month. This includes polarities such as eastern and western practices, receptive and active approaches towards heath, spirit and will etc. You are able to take a holistic approach and take all of yourself into consideration: past, present, and future.
Spirit: 9 of Wands ~Harvest Moon: Lord Huron (cover of Neil Young)~
In this ninth month of the year, in the transition from summer to autumn, we have at last reached the harvest month. It's a good time to assess what the harvest has brought in. You've built a steady web of support around your passions and purpose. You may also find that some harvest is wanting--in which case, where within you lies resistance to the self operating in harmony with the infinite? Renewing efforts in your passion and purpose is one way that you can express the flow of love within. September is a good month to commit to a class, routine, project, or group that helps keep you committed and focused on the external expression of love. If you get stuck, turn back to receptivity of imperfection, a commitment to the process rather than the end goal itself. Ironically, you can achieve more when you let go of the outcome and instead keep moving forward in the ways that call.