ASP New Moon

New Moon 0* 22' Virgo

Aug 23rd 2025 2:06 am Eastern

12th Shape: ASP

21° 25' 43'' Leo – 4° 17' 09'' Virgo

Saturday’s New Moon in Virgo is one of two this year, the former being a regular lunation in the first degree and the latter being a South Node eclipse in the last. This first regular New Moon in early Virgo marks the last normal lunation until two weeks after eclipses, defining the wider parameters of “Eclipse Season”, a period when the fast forward button of ongoing manifestation is being pushed by the North and South Nodes, making us eager to shed that which has become outdated and compulsive to experience that which is newly emerging; as if old story elements are being deleted and new story elements are being scripted into existence. Saturday’s end of the spectrum is aligned with purgation, elimination, cleansing, removing, refining and spiritualizing, which plays out within the Virgoan procedures, processes, operations, logistics, and detailed components of which our life circumstances are engineered. Particular parts or units which have become worn out or after some further research and development have proved to be redundant and in essence add to friction rather than promote optimum functionality. The Pisces eclipse which follows this up emphasizes the urge to feel, flow, immerse, improvise and believe rather than be over-engineered or strangulated in logistical details.

There is a great amount of newness in the skies, with many outer planets having changed signs in a short amount of time, the initiating of new activities amidst progressive pressure and rapidly shifting ideas proliferates before we can even totally get a sense of how big the re-orderings may be. It is fitting then that the Picatrix calls this mansion “The Changer”. What specifically does it see as changing? When we put the material together comparatively across all the traditions we see themes of alliances, aristocracy, reputation, status, bloodlines, the arrangement of marriages, the choosing of who mingles with and/or breeds with who and the protocols of behavior in tense or dangerous situations. Deeper than this we might see the prismatic origins of reality in all its permutations and combinations and the entanglements which weave reality’s very fabric, the helixed DNA of the world and holographically of each of its inhabitants— the way in which we fit into a puzzling network together with all else, tension pulling so many directions, and what we are driven from an invisible yet crystalline intention behind the scenes to establish our essence in the manifest arena.

The Picatrix here sees a dragon and man fighting, which harkens to many archaic sources in the primeval conflict between the inhabitable world of sustaining nature supporting humanity versus the purely chthonic chaos which has no empathy for the survival of mankind— this concern of early or even pre-civilized people, contemplating how to establish themselves and endure, echoes into less ancient crests donned by powerful families and persistent cults, such as St George pitted against his reptilian foe. It goes on to suggest this mansion for the improvement of situations concerning allies, captives, and officials, and persuades servants be honest or reliable, and can bring about the destruction of riches and ships. I frequently mention that Picatrix outlines whatever can be affected by a particular mansion when aligned to malefics for cursing and benefics for enchanting positively. We might guess alliances and riches here could be helped or harmed depending on the case, but either way affairs of alliances for wealth and power are the topic at hand. Similarly, the talisman for the “seperation of lovers” could just as well bring lovers together I’d guess, as the arranging of marriages appears in the Indian literature for the 12th Nakshatra. Arranging a marriage often pulls one pair apart to put another pair together, usually to form an alliance. This quasi eugenic selective coupling is a mainstay of society we’ve come less and less to heed, but it might instead, in contemporary times, highlight the idea of “power couples”, or any sort of partnership and connection which is fruitful rather than a hindrance.

Besides prosperity through marriage the Nakshatra reflects on the fruits of progeny themselves, through which we might glimpse the energetics of fertility in conception and the meaning of generational transmission, the carrying forth of a particular essence woven with other essences, the “permaculture” of procreation, and for our more general purposes, for anything we choose to create, and how our participation with other beings, organisms and ideospheres modulates that which we initiate, formulate and bring about. When the PGM says Asp it means Cobra, specifically Thermouthis, the Greek name for the Egyptian goddess Renenūtet, a goddess of fertility, food, fields, grapes and protection of the Pharaoh. Her festivals which fall on the first day of harvest key into Virgoan ideas, and as it relates to child gods born into abundance also furthers the progenation dynamics. Another reference may be Wadjet, the Cobra goddess, matron and protector of Lower Egypt. She may have first appeared on the snake encircled staff which becomes the caduceus (which makes sense as the opposite Shape to ASP is HERALDS WAND) as well as the uraeus, the cobra formed emblem of power worn in the headdresses of pharaohs and deities.

Sovereignty within territory and right to rule extend from ancient Egyptian divinity and kingship to the medieval era allies and officials mentioned in the Picatrix as well as the power over lords, aristocracy and affairs of state which is the domain of Musisin, the Grimorium Verum spirit which resides here, his syncretized Quimbanda counterpart Exu da Capa Preta, “Black Cape”, notably having a fearsome reputation, denoting someone who might flag for a specific order and hold a position of power. The Chinese lunar station continues this theme by discussing appropriate behavior in dangerous situations and making the best of scenarios or circumstances which are precarious or unfortunate as well as the building of stockades and defenses, returning us to the themes of what humans do and how they situate themselves, relate and align to endure the sometimes hospitable and other times inhospitable world. To this point the Fangshi associated with this Xiu is an elder courtier and survivor of battles, someone who outlasted adversarial episodes and now holds an esteemed position.

Being the regular New Moon preceding the eclipse sequence this is a contemplation of alliances, a quiet seeding of creative/procreative coupling and/or uncoupling, an early conceptualization of sovereignty, a silent pivot within the components of power, a stirring in the DNA or crystalline structure of your order of essence, an emerging notion whispering to the spectrum of your prismatic core to begin a subjective cycle of manifestation in which many new things unfold into your world and others simply fall and flutter away. As noted initially, its a new era, and we are, like it or not, shaking off old costumes and facing the world more nude now or alternately, beginning to slip into new uniforms and the roles they belong to before we even know it. We might inspect our pins and badges and insignias and so forth and make sure they still belong? Are we ready to affix new codes to our lapels which augment, mutate, modulate, or reprogram our power?

The current Grand Air Trine of Uranus, Pluto and by sign Mars, fits the idea of shifting alliances and relational tactics of power. The New Moon itself is in fact tightly square to Uranus in Gemini, so the detailed perception of progenitive alliance minutia clashes in narrative tension with the newly shifting and rearranging ideas of communication and exchange, which are only beginning to radically shuffle telecommunications and swarm us with a plethora of paradoxical polarity swaps, having perpetual-paradigm-morph written all over it. It would make sense that as paradigms are likely to epiphanically explode new seeds are to be planted in our web of inter-relationships: romantic, platonic, professional, clandestine or otherwise. This catalyzes some “pulling some strings” as new biological children and/or various brain-childs are conceived. Indeed, September 7th’s Full Moon falls in the Shape of CHILD, which will be more directly compelled to the celebrating of new life, metaphorical or literal. With Leoline Mercury and the Virgoan Sun in mutual reception this is all still pretty Daimon driven; the technical parts of enacting your incarnated purpose. The spirit is ready to express when pressed so which channels need to be arranged and who’s got to be speed dialed into the equation. The second Virgo lunation a month from now will shear back anything excessive that gets called up, and it may be that whatever new connections get concocted stay and old (even 18ish year old) relations get pruned back. With Mars sextile to Mercury potentiating the pistol-as-peacemaker dynamic, if things get too diplomatically out of wack; critical responses which disturb the peace ironically mismatch with Jupiter bringing in an abundance of soothing and fulfilling refreshment. Venus is also square Chiron, so all the old wounds irritate as we grow more abundantly clear what we need and what to do about it.

This sounds rather cinematic, or rather the part of the story where narrative tension from various subplots lasso the protagonist and whatever elements are antagonizing them become clear. Some strings are pulled, others cut, others newly attached. DNA songs rise to the surface and seek concert and collaboration with others, territorial dominance is run through spreadsheets and cheat codes are applied, supplied by someone you are lucky to know. The idea is to endure into the new era incoming despite the chaotic anti-fixity of informational frameworks: we gain from the volatility or simply get too confused and our theme music goes into discord. Think of a story of genealogical comparability and place-bound belonging thrown into survival mode which must retaliate via conspiratorial alignments, relational maneuvering, information swapping and place holdings rather than by force or violence. There need not even be aggression here. One may proceed with love rather than war altogether, but either way the elements of chaos, critical details, holding power, sovereignty, enduring throughout an era shift and assuring you're spiritual essence transmits with fidelity frame the quietly accumulating moment. Choose wisely and selectively who and what you should mingle with to bring about that which you are gestating so that once this thing is born you reign over the location and are well situated to transfer and allocate resources within that realm.