pressing the reset button: the virgo eclipse

with details on what it means for your rising sign

Before we get into the eclipse, please allow me to once again share with you in my excitement that my first book Heretic, newly subtitled A Queer Revolt Against Evangelicalism, Empire, and the Lies We Are Sold is officially out in paperback on September 23rd! Order from my local indie Astoria Bookshop to get a signed copy.

My launch event on October 8th with Casey McQuiston is sold out (waitlist here), but I have another NYC event coming in late November — stay tuned for details!

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The Partial Solar Eclipse (a new moon) arrives at 29* of Virgo at 3:54pm Eastern time.

We’re officially in the back half of eclipse season, and wow, has this one been a doozy. I wrote a few weeks ago for the Pisces eclipse about how not all eclipse seasons are created equal, how different eclipse seasons will activate different parts of your chart to varying degrees of intensity.

But personally: wow, has this been one of the loudest eclipse cycles I’ve experienced in recent years. First, the last week has held the worst consecutive nights of sleep I’ve had since I was hospitalized for weeks with a life-threatening infection a few years ago and was getting woken up for a 3am blood draw. Insomnia is a common eclipse side effect, but not one I normally experience.

Second, it’s my nodal return (my fellow late ‘80s babies: if you have a Pisces North Node and Virgo South Node, this is yours, too!). It’s also the last few months of my opening Saturn square, the first major life check-in post-Saturn Return. This eclipse season has seen major breakthroughs in terms of the structure and management of both my finances and my collaborations (Pisces/Virgo is my 2nd/8th house axis — see yours below!).

But it’s not only physical vitality (almost always impacted by major lunations) and long-term plans for topics related to my eclipse houses that has happened. Only two days ago, an estranged relative of my abusive ex-husband’s — who lives here in NYC and is decidedly not conservative or evangelical — messaged me in response to a viral reel of mine that’s going around on Instagram. She’s read Heretic, which discusses his family, that is also her family. We chatted and made plans for drinks. Notably, this Virgo eclipse is landing in my 8th house, which is the house of in-laws, or in this case, ex-in-laws (south node, baby!).

On top of the personal, there is the collective. The Horrors here in the United States persist, with new headlines demanding attention and energy. In the last week alone, we’ve seen the disappearing of hundreds of men wrongfully imprisoned at “Alligator Alcatraz,” anti-abortion groups claiming they killed children’s cancer research, Disney bending the knee to authoritarian pressure and canceling Jimmy Kimmel, Trump ripping away nearly $500M of funding for HBCUs, the overall continued fallout from Charlie Kirk — whose funeral is today, of all days. And so much more.

It’s enough to exhaust anyone. And so I do not having writing “advice” or even prompts for you, this eclipse day. My counsel — to myself, to you — is to rest. Really rest. Not doomscroll; put your phone in another room. Stare at the ceiling. Take a shower. Color with your kids. Watch a comfort movie. Do something away from a scrollable screen that allows your nervous system to turn off. Even if this eclipse season hasn’t been “loud” on a personal level, it’s been loud on a collective one. And we cannot make art or find flow when our nerves are at an eleven.

Remember that you are not defined by your productivity, or what you get done.

You are not defined by your follower count.

You are not defined by your word count.

You do not have to “earn” time off — contrary to the messaging of capitalism.

You are a person who is worthy of rest, with no qualifiers.

Listen to what your body is telling you.

This Virgo eclipse is a new beginning courtesy of the south node, which means that we are letting shit go. While the phrase “that which no longer serves you” has been overused to the point of meaninglessness, may we all integrate the knowledge that working ourselves to the bone for a company or country that will never love us back cannot be the end all by which we define our worth. Virgo loves a system and a definition, and this eclipse, let’s take back our systems (nervous and otherwise) and re-define what rest really means.

For more what this Virgo eclipse is highlighting for you, read below:

(and check this out to see what the Pisces eclipse earlier this month brought)

Aries Risings: your daily work life, especially the environment of your workplace; any people you specifically employ or who report to you; daily health & wellness; how your work impacts your body; pets

Taurus Risings: your creative and erotic energy; your relationship to pleasure; recreational sex; important children in your life; inner child work; games and play, such as sports and gambling

Gemini Risings: your home; relationships with caregivers, parents (especially fathers), and grandparents; roots and cultural heritage; relationship to privacy

Cancer Risings: your daily rituals and routines, including your writing routine; communication; K-12 education; siblings and close friends who feel like family; local neighborhoods; local and regional journalism; columns and blogging (like a newsletter!)

Leo Risings: your resources, material and otherwise; your personal finances, income streams, and budget; how you spend and how you save; what you value

Virgo Risings: your self-expression & identity; your (approach to) appearance, style, and aesthetic; your way of showing up in the world; your general vitality and energy levels

Libra Risings: your subconscious & personal connection with the unseen world; what you are slowly integrating into our consciousness; ancestral legacy, generational inheritance, and family secrets

Scorpio Risings: your friendships, community commitments, and/or professional networks; the internet and how you present yourself on it; hopes and dreams

Sagittarius Risings: your relationship with legacy & authority; your public roles and reputation; how you think/feel about the idea of “career”; in Hellenistic astrology, this is also the part of the chart that tells us about the birthing parent or primary caregiver

Capricorn Risings: your relationship to teaching & learning within the wisdom pathways (philosophy, religion, spirituality, and astrology); overall approach to beliefs; publishing; travel, especially international; national and international journalism; long-term plans

Aquarius Risings: your collaborations with others; contracts — monetary, emotional, spiritual, and otherwise, including but not limited to the book deal itself, short-term & one-off collaborations, anything to do with your independent clients/students, freelance work, debts, taxes, royalties, inheritance, alimony, child support; grief and loss; mental health

Pisces Risings: your committed partnerships, whether romantic or business, but most especially contracted relationships such as spouses, domestic partners, agents & managers, long-time editors, and co-writers

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