The Virgin Mother is a being who seems to manifest in nearly all major mythologies. She is a mysterious figure, embodying what appears to be a paradox. As the Virgin she is pure and veils the great mystery, and as the Mother she is that which gives birth to all we know. She is intimately involved in the creation, yet all the time open to the influx of the creative force she veils, that which is known as Logos, Monad, Godhead, and by many other names. In Occult philosophy it is said that Mercury and the Sun are one. Leo has released the Solar energies and now Virgo shall harness this solar force so as to give birth to the symbolic Christ Child. Virgo is a sign of gestation, a sign of preparation, perfection of technique, perfection of the vehicle that will house and birth a greater consciousness. Virgo is a sign of service because it is through service that the over confident and zealous ego (Leo) can humble itself and grow beyond its lonesome world of individualism.

 

Virgo separates the wheat from the chaff, and as we said before this entails a sifting through all of the knowledge gathered in the Gemini phase for that which is actually practical and will serve some functional purpose (Virgo is an earth sign). The four mutable, or common signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces), all deal with change and transition. Virgo and Pisces denote crisis, individual and collective, while Gemini and Sagittarius denote learning, of the facts and then the meaning behind them. As we apply the zodiacal cycle to the individual man or woman Virgo is that phase in which the ego experiences a sense of failure, of inadequacy, and so the individual devotes him/herself, often voraciously, to self improvement, usually related to physical health or technical prowess within some given field. The work is very much mentally motivated. The sign is a very unstable one as it denotes the transition from Summer to Fall, and Fall polarizes Spring. Thus Virgo types will often be struggling to impose some semblance of order on their reality as a coping mechanism. This type is rarely ever satisfied with things as they are, always dreaming of a more perfected future self, always grasping but never quite catching it. "Sour Grapes" describes the plight of Virgo quite well. Without something to strive for he/she is often lost and thus when the goal is reached a new goal is required otherwise a sense of purposelessness settles in. In its search for perfection the individual develops a critical attitude toward everything he/she encounters whether it be himself or others.

 

Often times such a critical mindset is incapable of acknowledging the assumptions it erects its edifices of logic upon. Thus it is blind to its own truth (the Sun or Leo). Each sign is unconsciously operating upon the sign that comes before it and is likewise unconsciously drawn toward the sign opposite it. Secretly the highly critical Virgo type longs to dissolve himself in the great ocean of Pisces, which take the individual out of the head and into the heart. Yet such a type will scarcely admit to this, instead always maintaining a critical outlook, built on logic, and telling himself that perfection is just a matter of finding the ultimate technique. He is thus drawn to a teacher or an ideal he can serve in the hopes that these things will lead him to his goal. He is the archetypal disciple, the great servant of others, constantly wondering whether he is truly worthy . . . 

 

Mercury is both ruler and exalted ruler of this sign. Here Mercury operates objectively and dispassionately, often brutally, in his quest to separate Truth from untruth. While in Gemini he operated outwardly, seeking knowledge and ideas to make sense of the great web of existence, in Virgo he moves inwardly and more subjectively to perfect the physical or egoic vessel so that the Soul may one day shine forth. Virgo is the preparation for death (Libra, sign of Fall), and often times this is the source of the often neurotic and unsettling nature of those born under this sign; whether they realize it or not they are always preparing for death; death of the present personality for the birth of an exalted future personality! Yet these personalities are in fact endless and it is only The Divine that can bring the fulfillment Virgo craves.

 

 

Qualities: Mutable, Earth

Season: Summer 

Month: September

Planets: Mercury (ruler and exalted)

Body Part: Intestines/Bowels/Belly