A Guide to Changing Your Routine

On the heels of yesterday’s new moon in Virgo, today Mercury stations direct (September 15, 2023 at 4:21 pm ET) after spending three weeks retrograde in Virgo.

We can think of these events as one event. Mercury stationed retrograde at 21º of Virgo, where the new moon occurred. And as the ruler of Virgo, Mercury rules this new moon.

Mercury retrograde in Virgo has been a time of review of our systems, structures, and processes for our daily habits, routines, and rituals — the things we do consistently to facilitate our health, our work, and the various other pieces of our lives.

As it stations direct, it appears to stop before it pivots in its direction. That this is happening at the same time as the new moon is a reminder that before we make a change, or pivot to a new direction, we must also pause to consider what we’ve learned.

Unless we pause to consider the lessons learned and what needs to change as we move forward5 , we won’t grow. We’ll continue to do the same things, even if they no longer fit our identity or agenda.

A Guide to Changing Your Routine

Virgo specifically focuses on the daily rituals for health and work — reminding us that everything is holistically related.

Here are some questions to ask yourself as you reflect on how and where you might need to change your routine:

• What systems, processes, or habits are no longer working for you?
• What rituals and habits that once worked for you are no longer aligned with your identity?
• What habits or rituals are draining your energy?
• What habits or rituals no longer serve their intended purpose?
• Where might you need to redirect your energy and attention to better align your activities with your intentions and desires for who you are and what you want to do?
• What rituals feed your energy and help you create more time in your day for what matters?
• What is absolutely necessary for you to show up feeling at your best?
• Where do you tend to get most stuck in your day, and what causes you to get stuck there?
• What rituals and practices are you not prioritizing enough, and which ones are getting too much attention?
• What rituals and routines are necessary for you to maintain optimal health, in all forms: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and relational.

Exploring Obstacles and Creating Experiments

This new moon is happening in a close trine with Uranus in Taurus. Uranus is a planet of change; it invites experiments. And Mercury is stationing retrograde in close opposition to Saturn in Pisces. Saturn is the planet of limits and boundaries.

As you pause to reflect on what you’ve learned during this Mercury retrograde, consider what works well in your routine.

We don’t need to change something that isn’t broken.

Sometimes the most subtle changes can have a big impact that reverberates throughout your day.

Consider how you might experiment with your daily rituals even within the current construct of your morning routine, to find a better flow for your day.

Maybe you would be best served by

• altering the sequence of the rituals in your morning routine, or
• setting limits around certain activities to keep yourself in flow.

If you hit an obstacle in one approach (opposition to Saturn), how can you experiment with a new approach (trine to Uranus)?

Finding Grace in the Process

Rituals and routines can anchor us through periods of change, and Virgo can veer towards perfectionism, causing us to stick rigidly to a set of rules and systems by which we run our days.

That said, Virgo is also a sign of adaptation and change. And Uranus in Taurus wants us to change our status quo, to loosen our grip on the dogmatic way we approach life.

No ritual or routine is meant to last forever. Different seasons of our lives call for different sequencing or even completely different activities.

Part of this process of experimentation is to give yourself the permission to alter your own rules.

How can you give yourself the grace to make mistakes and “get it wrong” in service of perhaps finding a way that works better for where you are in this season of your life?