Tag Archives: harvest

Sep 10 2024

An Autumn Equinox Workshop – Harvesting Transformation: An Autumn Equinox Celebration of Light and Shadow

As the air begins to cool, the leaves begin to change, and the days begin to grow shorter, I invite you to join me for an enchanting Autumn Equinox Workshop on Sunday, September 22 at 2 PM EDT on Zoom.

This special gathering will invite you into a magical moment of self-discovery and personal growth, as we celebrate the significance of the brief and delicate balance of light and dark.

In this workshop, we’ll delve into the Astrology Chart for the Autumn Season, exploring the celestial influences that will set the tone for the coming four months. They are truly transformational! I’ll share the beauty and symbolism of my Autumn Equinox Altar, a space filled with Nature’s miracles, intention and gratitude. We’ll explore the powerfully transformative Greek myth of Persephone, Hades, and Demeter, uncovering lessons that honor the cycles of life, appropriate timing, and the process of transforming into empowerment. Then, prepare to relax and breathe into the rhythm of the Earth during an Autumn Equinox Guided Imagery Meditation, where you will connect deeply with nature and your inner self. And finally, to honor the Earth Mother Goddesses, we’ll conclude with a heartfelt Seasonal Prayer of Thanksgiving, celebrating our connection to the Natural World.

This workshop is more than just an event; it’s a rich opportunity to deepen your spirituality and foster a profound relationship with gratitude and the cadence of nature. Join me for this unique blend of astrology, guided imagery, and mythology, all through a heart-opening lens that emphasizes self-awareness and self-enrichment.

*Just a note: You might enjoy creating your own Autumn Equinox Altar prior to our Workshop. Gathering symbols, nature’s gifts, and treasured objects that represent the beauty of this time of year can help you deepen your seasonal experience and make it much more experiential and meaningful.

Register for the Workshop: email astrology@michellegregg.com

Registration is simple.

Send an email to astrology@michellegregg.com and let me know that you’d like to attend (providing me with your email address), and then send your $30 payment via Zelle (to astrology@michellegregg.com) or Venmo (to MichelleGreggAstro). I’ll email you the Zoom link and password right away! That’s it! Then you’re registered!

Date: Sunday, September 22, 2024
Time: 2:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time
Place: Zoom
Cost: $30

About Michelle

Michelle Gregg is a professional Counseling Astrologer, writer, and personal catalyst. She has over 30 years’ experience working with clients from an astrological and Jungian model, helping them live more joyful, meaningful and fulfilled lives. Her forte is offering her clients new perspectives for moving through old patterns and issues that previously prevented them from fulfilling their true life-path and maintaining happy relationships. “In the proper hands, Astrology is one of the most profound tools available for finding insights and truths, and for learning how to best relate to our loved ones, and ourselves.  It is the spring-board to self-mastery and wisdom.”

Michelle has a thriving private practice with clients all over the world, blogs, and teaches a beginner’s astrology course annually. www.michellegregg.com, astrology@michellegregg.com

Sep 1 2024

Virgo Season, the Virgo New Moon, and You – A September Ode to the Time of Harvest

I'm longing for Autumn crisp mornings.

I’m longing for Autumn crisp mornings. I can close my eyes and see the leaves of trees in vibrant reds, oranges, and golds as they prepare to let go and spiral gently down to become the sheltering carpet for tree roots, the soil, and the wee seeds that will hibernate beneath them. I want the burst of sweet crunchy apples, pumpkin bread, communing with friends around my fire bowl on the back patio, sweaters and boots, and the warming fragrance of cinnamon. Autumn is my jam! And September 1st has always been my favorite day of the year. It’s the doorway into the fall of the year. Autumn is not quite within our grasp yet as Summer lingers, but Virgo Season, which started on August 22, and the Sept. 2 New Moon in Virgo tomorrow, are priming us for nature’s transformations that are on the way!

As we enter the month of September, just beginning to leave the ripening heat of Summer behind, we move closer and closer to Autumn. Ten days ago, we entered the time of year that belongs to Virgo, and into the time of harvest. Harvest is a beautiful word that is intricately connected to the symbolism of Virgo, and evokes thoughts and images of toiling in the fields that were planted in Spring, in order to gather in the fruits of our labors that will nourish and sustain us through the Winter.

On a farm, the harvest is, by necessity, a time of discernment, perhaps the most Virgo quality of all. Farmers must analyze the bounty they’ve gathered and decide what to eat now, what is worth putting up for later, and what needs to be plowed back into the field, left to rot and nourish the soil for next year. When harvesting wheat, the millennia old symbol of Virgo, they must take discernment a bit further, so that it becomes an action of effort, separation, and organization. They must thresh the wheat to remove the husks, so that the edible part of the wheat is exposed. And then they must winnow it. Winnow is another beautiful word that means that a strong wind must stir and blow the husks away, removing the chaff – the husks that have been threshed away.

The protective husk is light and easily winnowed from the heart of the grain that is edible and nourishing. The husk serves its purpose as a protector so that that the kernel of the grain can incubate, mature, and ripen. But if the husk were to remain intact, the perfected fruit inside would never fulfill its purpose, which is to be in service to the nourishment of others. That nourishment can be literal, but also means to be in service to others in a way that nurtures their purpose, while living your own.

The beauty of using the metaphor of wheat here is that Virgo, the second Earth sign of the Zodiac, is of the soil. She is of the Earth. She is profoundly connected to its rhythms, the cycles of light and heat of the Sun, and the gravitational pulls of the Moon, and the movement of the waters of life. She is the embodiment of earthy intelligence. Virgo understands and desires everything that nourishes the body, and brings it into the most perfected state of health and well-being possible. Just as wheat is known as the “bread of life,” Virgo, from a more personal perspective, can be understood as the “bread of Self.” During this Virgo Season, which beautifully offers us a New Moon in Virgo as well (new beginnings in a Virgo fashion), be prepared to harvest your true and natural Self. Meticulously work toward separating the chaff, or what is no longer useful in your thoughts, habits and patterns, from the nourishing wheat that is your true purpose now.

The ”now” part is where you might find a bit of a hiccup. As a human doing your best, you still may hold on to old patterns – old chaff that protects a story you tell yourself about who you are, or a goal you once wanted to achieve, or an expectation of self that you haven’t fulfilled. If you really analyze it, that goal or expectation may not have been yours at all, but someone else’s for you. Or you may have evolved beyond the limitations of that particular dream. The old story you’re holding may simply no longer be viable or true. Virgo is the symbol that discerns what’s appropriate for where you are now, and separates you from what’s no longer necessary or serving the path to a more perfected you.

Virgo is about harvesting and honoring the natural kernel of Self; analyzing what you’ve learned, what you’ve accomplished, and with acclaimed common sense and prudence, what you haven’t. The questions become, “How can I separate the chaff from the wheat of what is truly, naturally, me? And if I can do that, how do I release the chaff that isn’t necessary to me anymore, and then maintain and perfect the wheat that is divinely me?” If you’re asking these kinds of questions, you have truly entered the higher vibrational meaning and understanding of Virgo.

I wish for you a healthy Self Harvest during this Virgo Season, and honest and practical new beginnings that serve you well during this Virgo New Moon.

May you bloom into the fullness of your cosmic promise. May the kindness that you give always be returned, and may you find peace and joy in the dance of the Universe.

With love, Michelle

Sep 15 2012

Aug. 30, 2019 – New Moon in Virgo Meditation – Repost and update of a beautiful Virgo New Moon meditation perfect for today. Relax, Restore, and Begin Anew!

Goddess of the Harvest

I’m re-posting this meditation, and have updated it to relate to today, because it so perfectly shares the beauty of Virgo energy – and we are definitely in a very Virgo moment with the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars all in the sign of the Goddess of the Harvest simultaneously. If you don’t have time to read, but you do have time to sit in meditation for 13 minutes, jump down to the link, get comfortable, and lose yourself in this lovely link to the current energy of the Cosmos.

The New Moon occurred this morning August 30, 2019 at 6:38 AM Eastern

CLICK TO LISTEN: I want to share this gorgeous meditation with all of you! 

In creating this meditation I focused on the energies of the New Moon and Sun in Virgo as they emphasize and engage you in being complete unto yourself – the true meaning of the word “Virgin.” Virgin, in its original definition, means “a woman unto herself.”

At the moment of the New Moon, intended to restore your soul, the Sun and Moon are involved in a conjunction aspect to Mercury, Venus, and Mars. All five of these bodies are in the sign of the Goddess of the Harvest – the Virgin. That simply means that these bodies are sharing exactly the same spot in the sky. This is a connection of working in tandem – of close association – of a new beginning between your core creative Self symbolized by the Sun, your emotional Self symbolized by the Moon, the quickened thought processes and need for communication symbolized by Mercury, what you find beautiful and how you give and receive love symbolized by Venus, and the need to take action to get your desires met symbolized by Mars.

This connection highlights a need to express to others your emotions and your heart’s desires in a way that is practical, discriminating and that leads to finding the Self through service. Allow this meditation to refresh, restore and regenerate your spirit as you prepare for a new creative beginning in the next few days. A new cycle of creation begins today.

Below you may listen to the meditation or read it for yourself. 

CLICK JUST BELOW TO LISTEN

LISTEN TO THE MEDITATION

New Moon in Virgo Meditation

This is a guided imagery meditation.

The best way to engage in this experience is to sit comfortably upright with your bare feet on the ground or the floor, with closed eyes and an open heart and an open mind.

Relax your face. Smile and release any tension there. Relax your shoulders. Gently lift them and let them fall into a comfortable place. Shake your arms and hands lightly and then allow them to become comfortable and loose, resting your hands in your lap. Breathe deeply into your torso and as you breathe out twist easily and gently from side to side, then come to center and settle into an easy position. Now gently shake your legs and move them from side to side for a couple of breaths, then bring them to stillness, releasing any tension in them… just let them relax and become heavy. Now lift your feet a little and wiggle your toes and circle your ankles and let them come to rest, planting them firmly on the floor again, knees bent and wide, easily supporting your relaxed legs. Breathe very deeply, in and out, at a natural and comfortable rate.

Even gentle breaths – getting deeper and deeper as you relax.

Breathing slowly, slowing your heart rate. In. Out. In. Out.

Now the darkness behind your eyelids is growing even darker. Darker with every breath.

Open your mind to suggestion. Free yourself into a blissful conscious darkness.  Breathe there, relaxing in pleasure.

Now, breathing slowly and fully in and out, imagine that you are in a beautifully farmed field. Crops have been planted in perfect rows and beds, perfectly following the graceful rise and fall of the gentle hills. The varieties of ripe and heavy vegetables with their vibrant reds, yellow, oranges and purples and huge, luscious clusters of greens seem almost endless, growing with strength and perfect health from the rich, black, damp earth toward the gorgeous yellow sun on one side – and covered with dew and loud with the sound of insects wings under a black night sky on the other. You are standing in the fields, in the crux between the Sun and New Moon, of the Virgin.

The air around you is crisp and delightful – clean and pure. It vibrates with every hue, tangible and alive. The time of harvest has clearly arrived and there is a sense of expectancy.

Breathing slowly and deeply, turn toward the night side of the field. You begin to feel that there are others present. It is completely dark at the farthest reaches of the field, but you can feel their presence and slowly begin to hear rustlings as they seem to begin to move toward you.

Now you turn in the other direction, toward the glorious color of the ripened fields and sun and you see a woman walking purposefully, gracefully, toward you. As she gets closer, you see how fully awake, how vibrant, and how joyful she is! She is glowing with health, radiating love, and her eyes are alive with intelligence. Her clothes are all the colors of the fields and she carries a large woven basket. Then you realize that there is a glowing, ethereal light around her head. You suddenly realize that here is the Goddess of the Harvest, Virgo the Virgin herself, and it is because of her that this bounty is before you.

She catches and captures your eyes, and then very slightly nods to a place behind you. You turn to see the others that you sensed before, now walking toward the two of you, coming steadily from the darkness into the light. There are women, men and children. There are animals of every kind. There are birds and insects and frogs and creatures you don’t recognize. And as they come slowly forward, you realize that each of them is either hungry or in need in some way. They are the faces of all humanity, diverse in appearance, but the same in their need.

As you take in the state of these fellow beings, your heart is touched with compassion and your mind begins to race with the need to help, to restore all of them. You turn and look again to the Goddess, and you see that she is ready to do what is necessary to serve those who have come; those who have found their way to her perfect fields.

The Goddess beckons to you and as you move toward her, and the closer you get you feel that you are melding with her. As you come to her side, she smiles and embraces you and you feel yourself becoming one with her – becoming her! Your body is now her body, as hers is yours.

Your ideas now take on a life of their own as the mind of the Goddess becomes your mind. You now know what to do. You are energized and can now organize and put forth the perfect way to serve those before you who are in such need.

You move farther into the fields and begin to bend and pick the ripe vegetables. Your mind is so clear that you communicate silently to all present to move into a line in front of you, and as they do, you offer the first the food that you’ve harvested – all the while knowing that you are being guided by the Goddess herself. You can feel her energy inside and around you, smiling and joyous with this deed.

As you offer the food, you realize that even the vegetables themselves are happy and radiating light. They feel fulfilled that they have a purpose and that their energy is not wasted – that they also have a practical use that serves.

You continue to bend and pick, and feed the next in line and then the next. You are reaching out to each one not only with the food of your labors, but also with your mind. It is as though you understand the needs of each one and through making your offering of newly harvested food to them you also offer whatever it is that will make them whole. Your understanding of each other, your communication with each other, is complete.

The work is hard but it exhilarates you. You are becoming stronger and more vibrant with each offering. Within the body of the Goddess you feel that you are now positively glowing with life force energy.

Then as those who have eaten move from the line, you notice similar changes in them. They are more alive. They now wear smiles. Their eyes have begun to shine. And they are stronger too. They begin, one by one, to bend and pick the ripe food with you. They offer the others who have not yet eaten the same service that you have provided for them.

Before long everyone present feeds another, until everyone has been served and made stronger, happier and more alive.

As you are resting and breathing, happily lying in the fields with all the others, you have another realization. Each of these whom you have fed and served is a part of you! And with that realization comes another – every one, every animal, every being, every thing is a part of you. The ground, the Sun, the sky, the crops, the dew, the insects. You are all a part of each other and a part of the Goddess and a part of the Universe. To serve others is to serve yourself. To serve yourself is to serve others.

As you stand now in this fresh awareness you understand that you have become the Goddess. Her body is yours. Her mind is yours. And then, beautifully, all present share this understanding. Each one comes to you and as you embrace them, they all meld with you just as you did with the Goddess.

To serve others is to serve yourself. To serve yourself is to serve others.

Breathe with this. Sit with it a moment. Inhale slowly and fully. Exhale slowly and fully.

And again.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

When you’re ready, bring your breathing back to its natural rhythm.

Begin to come to full awareness and open your eyes; eyes that are now glowing with purpose and service, ready to plant the seeds and then to reap the harvest of your compassionate work in action. Breathe. Smile…

Now you are feeling refreshed and restored, regenerated in the power of the New Moon in Virgo.

Mmmmmm. Ok. Very nice. How do you feel?

I have loved sharing this meditation with you. I hope on some level that your experience here will make a positive impact on your life and that it will help you get through the month more meaningfully and gracefully and creatively. And I really hope you don’t leave this as “shelf help” – meaning don’t just put it away and forget it’s impact.

And I’m here to help you! Reach out for an Individual Consultation and we can explore this month’s energies within your personal birth chart – see where the New Moon requires growth for you – and then get you on track if that’s what you need! If you’re having challenges connecting or manifesting accomplishment, service toward others, or practical organization please email me at astrology@michellegregg.com! I’d love to help. We can get very specific to your needs in sessions that are one-to-one. So I’ll talk to you soon, and Happy New Moon in Virgo!