Pumpkin-Spiced Boners and Savoring the End of Summer
The Beautiful Duality of Virgo
Welcome & Welcome Back, Witches!
Last week was my birthday, and rather than rush to get this together, I gave myself the gift of just…not doing that. And while that’s been delightful, it means that today’s topic has been burning a bit of a hole in my brain.
Which is what, you may fairly ask. Well, as Labor Day approached and passed, familiar echoes of the annual dispute cropped up all over the internet:
Team Summer til the Last Second? Or Team Early as Possible Autumn?
This debate rears it’s irksome head around my birthday every year, and as I get older, I’ve found myself getting saltier and saltier about it.
But this year, with so much happening in the world and in my own life, the whole discussion has me thinking differently this year (boner jokes notwithstanding). What is it about this season inspires such deep divides and intense feelings? And is there anything in the Virgo archetype that might help us learn from and empower this energy in a more constructive way?
What am I waiting for? Let’s get to it!
A quick note before we dive in, all winners of my Very Merry Unbirthday Giveaway have been selected, though a few of you have not responded. I will be sending out a Substack message to anyone I haven’t reached yet, so keep your eyes peeled.
Thank you to everyone who signed up for Practical Magic in August! Seeing new subscribers each week was the best birthday present I could have hoped for!
Battle Lines: Leo vs. Libra
Let’s start by exploring the two “sides” that come up during this season every year.
On the one hand, we have a certain eagerness for fall, represented by cardinal sign Libra. Cardinal signs like Libra love to start something new, which is why they are the starting point for each of our seasons. And so, naturally, it inspires an itchiness for shedding the sweat and sun of summer, encouraging us to embrace change that we’re seeing in our schedules and even in the temperatures.
The other side, heralded by summer’s champion, the fixed sign Leo, is not here for the change, or any change, really. It calls us to be present, to enjoy the moment that’s here. To stop rushing to the next thing just because. Like any good cat, that Leo energy just wants us to bask in the sun a little longer.
Two Things Can Be True: Mutable Virgo
But it’s not Leo season any longer (much to the general chagrin of Leos), and it’s not Libra season yet. It is, in fact, Virgo season.
Virgo is what’s called a mutable or double-bodied sign, meaning it is of two natures, between two seasons. Cardinal signs like Libra start the seasons, fixed signs like Leo maintain them, but mutable signs — Virgo, Gemini, Sagittarius, and Pisces — change them.
Virgo’s role in the zodiac is ushering us from the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer to prepare us for the reality of the harvest, when our work will be weighed and measured (what did you think Libra’s scales were for?).
A more modern analogy might be that Virgo’s job is to get us to reset our bed times for the school year. This time of year is simply about readying ourselves for change, which for me personally heading indisputably into the third trimester of my first pregnancy feels like a particularly pointed lesson.
Yes, And? Embracing Mutability
Mutability is an important quality to get comfortable with because it challenges our tendency towards black and white thinking. We want things to be either/or — Summer or Fall — but this time of year reminds us that life is rarely that clean cut.
The key to empowering this season is letting go of that need for clear line and instead embracing bothness. In improv comedy this concept is known as Yes, and?
Even for simple things, it can be good practice:
Yes I’m ready for tea and blankets, and it’s warm enough out to rock shorts.
Or, Yes I want to go out tonight, and I have to be home a little earlier than normal.
Because change, like the seasons, isn’t an on/off switch. Change is waves rolling in and out, and the tide coming in one wave at a time. Ebbing and flowing, but still progressing toward transformation.
In the end, Virgo energy is taking a light jacket for the morning, but still rocking a tank top underneath, because, you know, suns out guns out.
And That’s All She Wrote!
She, of course, being me. I hope you enjoyed the read — I had a lot of fun writing it for you!
Reply to this email or leave a comment to let me know what you thought and how these energies are showing up in your life. I love to hear your stories, plus every interaction really helps the newsletter’s visibility. 💜💜💜
See you all in two weeks for more planetary fun and who knows what else!
PSST: Do you ever think about filling your life with more…magic? I have! And I have all kinds of ways to support you in doing so, and I’ve cataloged them all here:
