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It's time to Marie Kondo the people in your life.
By Valeria Black — Written on Aug 30, 2019
Practical, dutiful, and smart are some words that leap to the mind when we think of earthy Virgo energy. And the new moon in Virgo on August 30th is flavored by just that.
If you feel the insane urge to cut out people from your life or clear the 3,000 unread emails in your inbox, don't freak out. How else will you make space for something better if the unsavory is taking up space in your life and your heart?
To help with that, here are three new moon rituals to declutter your life and make space for the better.
1. Declutter the wrong people from your life.
Does that person spark joy? Honestly, with that Marie Kondo reference up top, what else did you expect the first ritual to be? Only, we won't be chucking out clothes and 50,000 nutcrackers. We will be decluttering the wrong people from our life.
To do this ritual, you will need a bunch of white candles, pieces of paper, and a notebook. Start by taking three deep breaths and releasing them slowly until you feel grounded and at peace. Then list out all the people who do not spark joy in your life.
Don't censor yourself. Just go with your gut and write why that particular person is taking up unnecessary space and time. (Yes, we know it's brutal. But you have got to be just that with the wrong people.) Then write their name on a bit of paper and set up a candle for them.
The next step is important. Center yourself (by taking three deep breaths), thank the person for being a part of your life, and state why you feel it's best for the two of you to not be part of each other's lives anymore. Light the candle now and burn the bit of paper with their name written on it. This is an act of energetically cutting cords with the said person.
Repeat the same for each person on your decluttering list, but give a gap of five minutes between each. This will help you return to a peaceful state and disengage from the last person.
2. Be a goody two-shoes — in a good way.
Virgo energy is all about being of service to other people, so be extra helpful today when someone reaches out to you. Whether that be at your workplace or in your personal life.
Just remember: Virgo is an earth sign. So don't confuse helping people with giving them sermons on how they should live their life. That's very unhelpful. Instead, help them with your physical abilities today, whether that's something small like washing the dishes out of turn or something as big as nursing them back to good health.
3. Bring your shadow to light.
We all have a shadow in our psyche. It's an amalgamation of everything we have rejected about ourselves — either because people told us there was something wrong about that particular behavior or personality trait, or because we were too afraid to embrace that side. (Some people hide their power in their shadow because they are afraid of the responsibility.)
This ritual is geared towards helping you bring your shadow to light. Because when you do that, it stops being the reason behind your downfall and becomes the greatest source of your strength. And we don't need any elaborate paraphernalia for this. Just a notebook and a pen.
Start by meditating for 5-10 minutes. And if you can't meditate, take in three deep breaths and release them slowly until you feel grounded and at peace. Then write something like this on a fresh page of the journal: "Hi, dear Shadow. Can we talk?" You can be as formal or informal as you want to be. The point is to invite your shadow to have a conversation with you.
Then write a response underneath your salutation. Even if it's something as silly as, "Yeah, sure. What's up?" And continue the conversation like you would with someone you do not know. Here's an example:
"Some lady on the internet suggested I do this. And I feel incredibly foolish right now."
"Well, duh. Is that what you wanted to talk about?"
"Umm, no. I want to find my source of strength. Do you have it?"
"Well, duh, again. But I don't know if you are ready for it..."
The initial conversation will be weird and possibly silly because it won't be your real shadow. But keep going until you feel an energy shift and start writing responses that are not of your characteristic style. Your shadow's responses can even feel foreign if you have never interacted before. And you may feel chills and goosebumps on your skin when you write its response.
When do you stop this conversation? When it gets too overwhelming or you have received the answer you needed to hear (even if it's not something you wanted to hear). The latter will come with an a-ha moment.
You can do this journaling ritual every day or as often as you like if you are really serious about embracing yourself wholeheartedly. The point of this is to stop demonizing parts of yourself and live like a whole individual. The individual you were born to be, not the individual people think you should be.
Valeria Black is a freelance writer who reads Tarot cards in her free time.