The Sun Enters the Sign of the Virgin

Things you may not know about Virgo…

* Virgo precedes the Harvest season introduced by Libra at the Fall Equinox. At this time of year in the northern hemisphere the light is waning and we are rapidly approaching the turning point at which the darkness will take over and the daylight will be shorter than longer each day. Many of the core archetypes of the Virgin or Harvest Maiden stem from the anticipation of this solar transition.

* For example, take the idea that Virgos are critical or highly discriminating and organized. In fact, the coming of the Harvest and the weighing of our yearly work on the scales of Libra necessitates things like organization, preparedness, anxiousness about outcomes and results, anxiousness about impending or approaching judgments, and sharp attention to details.

* Or take the idea of purity. The descent into the underworld that happens at the Fall Equinox, as well as the mythic image of the judgment of the soul after death (the scales weighing the heart against a feather), also necessitate the image of purity one the one hand and puritanical anxiety or dread on the other. Similarly, sometimes people associate Virgo with both health and eating disorders, or they associate Virgo with both masochism and wholesomeness. The reality of guilt and culpability, as well as the monsters of guilt and the fear of damnation or judgment are things that drive Virgo.

* Being a Mercury ruled sign, sometimes Virgo is associated with crafts and trades, or the acquisition of special skills or knowledge. The transition from Summer to Fall is also a symbol of the movement from innocence or youth to knowledge and adulthood, and this transition is reflected in the idea of learning skills or trades, or developing expertise and know-how. Somehow this transition involves the humility of the student/master dynamic, and the complexities of domination, subordination, submission, reception, and personal dignity. Perhaps more than anything, Virgos desire to be respected for what they know or what they are practically capable of doing or contributing…

* It’s often said that Virgo is secretly the sexiest of the signs. Again, the transition between the Summer and Autumn time of year, as well as the loss of innocence and the descent into the underworld, give rise to an almost secret eroticism in the sign of Virgo. Think of the sexy librarian, the grad student by day and erotic dancer by night, or even the ultra nerdy, ultra uptight and organized boss whose computer is loaded with foot fetish pornography. These are of course caricatures, but Virgo often needs to break the rules in order to discovery the difference between a kind of sterile purity and the living fires of wholesomeness and vitality. The challenge of finding an authentic version of wholesomeness sometimes tortures Virgos who may alternate between overly strict self imposed rules and tortured self indulgence or secret debauchery.