Virgo New Moon of Perceiving With Your Fruiting Body

24°22' Virgo
3:59 AM MST
Thursday, September 17, 2020
Fungus: Agaricus julius 

Welcome to this beautiful New Moon in Virgo of Perceiving Your Earth (Fruiting) Body. Something about our physicality is regenerating, as fungi love to do. There are many Virgoan-Fungal correlations. Both live strongly in the realm of practical service where illusions of waste and disuse fall away. Both are organizing and discerning minds. Both are united by the theme of purifying, cleansing, and sacred bodies. Fungi even invite us to question our ideas of a body. And both value the slow and at times convoluted process of digestion.

Agaricus julius is the Rocky Mountain version of A. augustus (the Prince mushroom) and this mushroom has a powerful and unique scent and taste. Almonds. Yes, a kind of anise-marzipan odor that translates to the flavor. A beautiful autumn mushroom to behold from my fruiting body.

Virgo as a mutable sign represents the end of a season. Just as we transition out of summer and into fall in the northern hemisphere, Virgo is adaptable to circumstances, changeable and flexible, and mentally explorative. The other mutable signs are Pisces, Gemini, and Sagittarius.

What is the quality of our beingness? In this moment? How is the earth? Virgo, as an Earth sign, reminds us that our very own fruiting bodies are in fact, well, earth. Spirit into form, just as Leo (a fire sign) precedes Virgo. Virgo, mentored by Mercury, is a sign of dedicated mind, slow digestion, and discerning purity. Virgo knows who they are, not by knowing in the mind, but by knowing in the body.

Agaricus julius, freshly unearthed and rich with almondy odor. This mushroom still has their partial veil partially attached.

Practical and analytical Virgo very well might ask, why does MycoAstrology matter? Beautiful question, Virgo.

Astrology can provide us with the tools of observation, connection, and inquiry. I think, as with anything, astrology can become an obsessive, confusing, gendered, capitalistic practice that does more harm than good. If we remember that the basis of astrology is observation -- of the phenomenon that exists between sky and earth; of the connected, interactive, and dynamic dance together -- we can begin to see its essence. Grounding astrology with a wild, animated, ancient, sacred, confounding, and archetypal being of this earth adds a depth of medicine that I think is more relevant now than ever.

MycoAstrology observes these changes and cycles in a way that is earth-based, and integrates the wisdom of the fungi with the wisdom of the sky. Both are sources in the wild world that humans have revered and lived intimately with for medicinal, mystical, cultural, mythological, and orientational reasons to name a few. Heaven, or sky, and earth have long been thought of to reflect one another.  "That which is Below corresponds to that which is Above, and that which is Above corresponds to that which is Below, to accomplish the miracle of the One Thing." This which has become a very popular maxim is found in the Tabula Smargdina, "Emerald Tablet", scribed in Arabic by Hermes Trismegistus. This text is regarded as the foundation of pagan hermeticism, in which perhaps the most essential principle is that all great religions have equivalent mystical truths at their core, and all religions are in some way compatible with Hermeticism. 

We now know this commonly as "As above, so below. As within, so without." Whatever happens on any level of reality (physical, emotional, mystical, or mental) also happens on every other level.

The sky and earth reflect one another. From the tiniest hyphal thread, to the largest galaxy. Interestingly, too, the fungi exist as grand inhabitants of realms above and below. They are master in-betweeners -- existing primarily in spaces unseen, relatively unknown, underneath, and deep within.

Agaricus julius exists in an ecto-mycorrhizal relationship with a nearby fir. I've seen this mushroom fruiting here now for 3 years in a row.

Through our relationships with fungi we better understand that we are dynamic and interactive creatures that exist embodied and within relationship.
I believe that both of these animated beings - fungi (that which exists as a multitude of beings) and sky (that which exists a multitude of beings) have a common language that can invite our minds that have been habitually individualized to stop resisting the interdependency of our world. Yes, we know everything is connected. We know this earth is connected particularly through technology and capitalistic extraction. But, these are all surface level connections that actually exist out of self-reliant obsession. What are our essential connections?

Fungi invite us to embody our senses -- to observe our surroundings, above, and below, and even in the unseen. To taste, listen, touch, smell, see, and feel. Fungi have an uncanny way of provoking these incredible responses in us humans, and this happens in almost every way that humans interact with fungi. From the deeply respected, honored, and sacred entheogenic uses of fungi, to the therapeutic relationship of humans who slow down and forage in a wet and breathing forest, to simply pondering our unseen connectivity -- through our relationships with fungi we better understand that we are dynamic and interactive creatures that exist embodied and within relationship.

To me, astrology is like natural history on a planetary scale. Natural history can be described as a domain of inquiry involving living beings and their environments. The word inquiry is key. Part of our self-reliant illusion depends on the rigidity of our personal opinions. One of my favorite courses in college was my natural history course, and this was also when I was first incentivized to unite my passion of fungi into my academic schooling.

Agaricus julius from above.

You're going to give me a (passing) grade for observing a patch of mushrooms for 10 days and crafting some kind of project that communicates who these beings are? Not only through scientific research but through spending time with these organisms, lying there on the ground, underneath the shade of douglas firs, in inches of pine duff, and periodically shooing the mosquitos from my legs? Also observing the slurry of crows, jays, and chickadees in this private garden behind the building for the College of the Arts and Sciences? Making this spot a home to me?

Not only what and who and where are you perceiving, but how are you perceiving?  
In many ways, the most of us have become very removed from each other, the land, and even to the essence of our own beings. I believe the practice of observing the natural world (which includes our minds, our emotions, fungi, and planets) brings incredibly vast and abundant nourishment and connectivity into our lives. From bringing us into the present moment, to strengthening the bonds that are already there, to inviting us to perceive something different from what we've ever thought before. Michael Pollen said it well -- to "change our minds". Our compulsive existence as ungrounded, fixated, freight train brains have removed us from what truly matters. And, once again, Virgo knows who they are not with their brain but through their earthly body.

In the moment of this Virgo new moon, how are you perceiving with your earth-body?

Agaricus julius from below.