The word I’ve been drawn to this Virgo season is devotion.

This is one of the words associated with Virgo energy, and I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to be devoted to something.

Here’s what Oxford Languages says about the origin of the word:

Devote: from Latin devot- ‘consecrated’, from the verb devovere, from de- ‘formally’ + vovere ‘to vow’.

To formally vow.

Which led me to look up the meaning of the word vow.

Vow: solemnly promise to do a specified thing.

Oftentimes in life we look for something to vow ourselves to—marriage, work, children, friendships, a mortgage, or religion. We promise ourselves to something outside of ourselves, time and time again, and we are made to believe this is the goal: giving to others before pouring into ourselves.

And time and time again, we are left unfulfilled, craving more.

As an unmarried woman in her 30s, I hear it a lot:

“When you get married…”

“When you have children…”

“When you settle down…”

It’s as if happiness comes from being of service to something (or someone) outside of ourselves. As if the one goal in life is to forget about our own happiness in the name of a vow to another. As if we are only complete once we cross the finish line at the altar.

Sure, devotion to something outside of ourselves is important, and I believe we have to contribute in some way, but does it have to be at the expense of our own sanity?

When I tell people I’m not married and don’t have kids, I’m faced with a look of pity, as if I haven’t made it in life yet.

It’s a look that says “Oh, you’re incomplete.”

How sad is that?

That we’ve created a society so focused on external goals we don’t believe one can be complete on their own. That being alone automatically equals loneliness.

This is not my reality, and it is one that has always confused me.

I feel more complete on my own than I ever have before, but it hasn’t always been this way.

Not until I learned to love myself from within, did I feel complete. Not until I learned to love myself from within could I even imagine being devoted to something outside of myself.

I see my peers striving for a life that no longer interests me: the white picket fence, the new cars, the seemingly perfect marriage, and the kids. Of course, I would love to have some of those things one day, but only once I truly understand myself and know that I’m doing it from a place of true love and devotion. Only when I know I’m not sacrificing myself by settling for something that doesn’t serve me, just for the sake of image.

And only when I know I am able to fully serve another, from a full and overflowing cup.

Until then, I am devoted to myself.

I am devoted to my dream of being an artist.

I am devoted to my dream of living abroad in an environment where I am consistently pushed beyond my comfort zone, in the name of growth.

I am devoted to my business as an entrepreneur.

I am devoted to my mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health.

I am devoted to being connected to myself, so I can better connect with life in the present moment, marvelling in the beauty of this planet we get to call home.

So under this New Moon in Virgo, my question to you is: What are you devoted to?

Are you living the life of your dreams? Or are you stuck in a story that was never yours to begin with?

This New Moon opposes Neptune in Pisces, which is a beautiful opportunity to plant the seeds of intention for your wildest dreams, but it’s important to remember the dream doesn’t become real unless we build ourselves to become the version of us who can sustain said dream.

We are also more connected than ever, if we choose to listen. Neptune in Pisces is intuitive, and when connected with the New Moon, it offers us the chance to hear our inner wisdom, our intuition.

Pisces is the dreamer, and Virgo is practical—we can’t have one without the other. If we have a dream without a plan, it will always be a dream. If we have the practical without the dream, we’re just doing the same tasks over and over without room for creation through imagination.

This New Moon also trines Uranus, offering a new insight into our conscious awareness. The invitation is to step into our uniqueness, to embrace the discomfort of change, and to create a sense of safety from within by staying true to ourselves.

When the luminaries (the sun and the moon) convene with Neptune and Uranus, it can bring anxious energy and the desire to escape reality because it’s just too painful to be a human here on earth. The key is to take that first step toward the version of you who is already living their dreams, knowing that without taking those steps, the dream will always be just that—a dream.

We have a choice.

We can keep doing what we’ve been doing and stay where we are—anxious, unfulfilled, and wishing for more—or we can take small steps outside of our comfort bubble while cultivating the ability to regulate our nervous system through slow growth.

We have everything we need within us, and the New Moon trining Pluto is reminding us of our power to change and transmute the stories of old, to step into the new.

Something fascinating to me is that the ruler of this New Moon, Mercury, is unaspected, which means it’s not making any angles to another planet. Mercury is also still retrograde, and sitting in its own little world.

It’s as if we are also in our own little world during this New Moon. Our mind (Mercury) is on a time-out, which could manifest as overthinking, feeling disconnected from others, or just needing some extra time alone to connect with our inner world.

Take this time to sit with yourself under the New Moon in Virgo on September 14 (or 15, depending on where you are) if you can. Tap into the idea that even when we are alone, we’re never actually alone.

We’re surrounded by love, spirit, nature, and this beautiful world that we are so lucky to live in. Pisces knows it’s so damn painful to be here, and Virgo knows we’re so damn lucky to have a body to explore the physical world and everything it has to offer.

Think about where you are now, in life. Where can you make adjustments to begin to embody the version of you who already has everything they ever wanted.

Get clear on what that is, and prepare yourself to take the first step toward whatever that is.

Because when we are fully committed to ourselves in this way, we will be able to better serve those around us with our cups overflowing, rather than giving every last drop of ourselves without any of that sweet nectar of our being to nourish ourselves.

That is devotion.

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