Goddess in the Details - Virgo
Allegiances
It is time for all the heroes to go home
if they have any, time for all us common ones
to locate ourselves by the real things we live by.
Far to the north, or indeed in any direction,
strange mountains and creatures have always lurked:
elves, goblins, trolls and spiders – we
encounter them in dread and wonder,
But once we have tasted far streams, touched the gold,
found some limit beyond the waterfall,
a season changes and we come back, changed
but safe, quiet, grateful.
Suppose an insane wind holds all the hills
while strange beliefs whine at the traveler’s ears,
we ordinary beings can cling to the earth and love
where we are, sturdy for common things.
~ William Stafford
Amazing how quickly summer flies, even while it can seem eternal in those deep Cancerian moments with the water and the light, or steeped in the rush of the heart that Leo brings on, whether through celebration, creativity, or Earth love. But, with the Fall Equinox fast approaching, we now find ourselves back in the saddle of “common things,” as William Stafford so adeptly writes, of “clinging to the earth and love where we are.” To be sure, Virgo’s archetypal filter, which the Sun is now casting its rays through, is trained on the ordinary, on the tasks of putting our lives in order, of harvesting the fruits of the earth (bountiful during Virgo season) and getting to the careful work of separating the chaff from the wheat.
A practical Earth sun, Virgo wants to compensate for Leo’s lavish and exuberant summer excesses, at a time of year when culturally we tend to buckle down and submit to the routines of school and work. And as a Virgo sun sign myself, I must say that as much as I am at times deeply entranced by the Cancer and Leo vibes of summer, I often feel a bit at sea in their months (not just literally!), because for me, home base is about being productive and useful, within a regular routine of sorts. In summer, routines tend to dissipate, which can be hard for mutable signs like Virgo, as mutability prefers to operate within a structure, so as not to get lost in continual adaptation or expansion. So when the first colors of fall start to show themselves, as my little Japanese maple did last week, a little cheer rises from my heart! Back to home ground!
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All Things Great and Small
Being the only sign whose associated image is a ‘maiden,’ Virgo is intrinsically connected to the Divine Feminine, and thereby, to the Earth. In mythology, she is associated with the Egyptian goddess Isis, who oversaw the realm of agriculture and engaged in healing practices. Like the Virgo maiden, Isis was depicted carrying a sheaf of wheat. In an ancient cosmology tale it is told that she dropped the sheaf, and it rose to the sky and became the Milky Way. (Gotta love that Earth Sky connection!) It follows that in modern times, Virgo energy is often preoccupied with alternative health, herbs, and nutrition, as well as deeply tuned to the natural world. Was I surprised then, when, once tucked in to Virgo season, I saw the announcement that a musical group coming to my local community center bore the name, The Vitamin Quartet? What? Further investigation found that this quartet was featured in the big hit Netflix series, Bridgerton, which I consumed quite happily earlier this year. So, even more surprising, that a public eye hit TV show would sport a group with such a good girl Virgoan name! I tell you, these archetypes have their sneaky ways of showing up in our lives, if we know what to look for. Next up in the Virgo parade was a free feature series that recently appeared in my Inbox called, “Food Matters.” I work hard to keep my Inbox limited to only those things that I’m likely to be specifically interested in. And having kind of ‘been there, done that’ with years of focused scrutiny on health and nutrition, I rarely come across things that are waving the health flag at me. But hey, I thought I’d at least click into Food Matters, since they got in through my virtual front door. Turns out I was treated to a couple of docu-series episodes that did totally rock my Virgo boat, especially as all the mutable signs are continual learners, ever ready to grow and acquire new knowledge. But before I share a couple of tidbits gleaned, it is relevant to detour first to looking at some of the Virgo qualities. Perhaps trickling down from those early days separating wheat from chaff, Virgo provides us with the ever-important gift of discernment, as well as the impulse towards ordering and perfecting (witness my Inbox). Purifying, addressing inefficiencies, sorting…these are her fun! But too much of this staying on top of things can get one into trouble relationally, which is why Virgo has traditionally been one of the most maligned signs. Virgo energy does tend to ‘sweat the small stuff,’ thereby on occasion casting a spell of fuss and worry around the minutia that other types could care less about. It’s true that Virgo energy can get a bit abstracted, overly focused on what needs fixing, what ‘makes sense,’ or what could go wrong. But without Virgo, the cogs in the wheels of life would simply not go ‘round, and the big Fire sign visions would not be made manifest. We need this energy! |
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Good Medicine
Virgo knows that in order to improve things (this is what editors get hired for!), one has to eliminate flaws and imperfections. While useful in the workplace, trained on other realms, this mindset (which could be you in some part of your chart, don’t forget) is prone to seeing the glass half-empty, rather than half-full. (Half-full is traditionally Sagittarius/Jupiter’s realm, being the carrier of optimism for the zodiac. Sag, with perhaps some coaching from Gemini, coined the phrase, It’s all good, which of course to Virgo is delusional folly.)
So while Virgo energy is often tuned towards health, it can get marred by its ‘what’s missing’ orientation. As well, being Mercury-ruled, Virgo has trouble feeling and expressing emotions, and is thereby mentally ‘top-heavy.’ As my docu-videos arrived to remind me, what’s in our minds affects our health. No one experiences this more than Virgo, which tends to somatize emotions, thus bypassing having to feel them, and spending much attention on migrating and mysterious ailments, sometimes ongoingly, sometimes at key transformational junctures that often correlate with astrology transits.
Bruce Lipton, author of The Biology of Belief, reminds us that we have a choice about giving space to negative thoughts, and invites us to become aware of the habit, if it is ours. The title of his book says volumes. Brain chemistry, he states, is a translation of our beliefs, with negative beliefs walling us off from health. He suggests that those with mental strength can overcome this, take it as a challenge. (I appreciate that he invokes Fire sign strength and determination for a mutable—aka wavering—sign tendency.) And he adds that we can prime the brain to change its circuitry, and start slipping in new beliefs, behaviors, and outcomes that diverge from those entrenched in the past.
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In the wake of Covid, and much of the population getting vaxed, there are a plethora of symptoms that folks are facing – I’ve heard this from my both my Western medical doc, and my energy healer. Many of these have to do with energy, mental clarity, sleep, inflammatory pain, and heart issues. So even those who don’t have a strong Virgo or 6th house (the domain pertaining to Virgo themes like health) chart signature may be being forced to consider the challenges of the body more than we used to. Also, there’s aging. So, while yes there’s a direct link between mind and body, there’s also the very real fact that the microbiomes in our own bodies are changing in these very changing times, and we may be being forced to slow down, and tend and befriend our bodies in new and concerted ways.
One way to address negative emotions is breathwork. As a trained facilitator of Mind Body Skills, of which mindful breathing is a core tenet, I have experienced the amazing effects of having anxiety on the MRI table, or frustration at traffic insanity, melt away in minutes, practicing what I call “Earth Sky” breathing, silently alternating these words with each inhale and exhale. The experts in the health videos stressed deep diaphragmatic breathing, with a long exhale (which activates the parasympathetic nervous system, thereby calming the Fight or Flight response). Mindfulness teacher Thich Nhat Hanh suggests in his book, Being Peace, that we breathe in stating, I am calm, and breath out, smiling.
Breathwork is high octane Virgo medicine, as Virgo can be prone to edgy nerves, ready for the next wrong move or piece of bad news. Even when hard at work (as Virgo often is), conscious breath breaks help interrupt an excessive focus on the adrenaline-driven, ‘get it done’ mode, returning one to the gentle sea of body awareness. We can strengthen the effect by taking nerve-calming herbs like chamomile or St. Johnswort, and invoking St. Julian of Norwich (1343-1416), who said, famously, “All shall be well, all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.“
Centuries later, T.S. Eliot picked up on this phrase and dropped it in his powerful poem, Little Gidding. We don’t know Dame Julian’s birthdate, but Eliot had two fiery planets, Mars and Jupiter, in Sagittarius, hence his affinity towards the “All good” decree I might venture. (Although Eliot lovers will know his life was not ‘all roses’, even though he writes poignantly about them!) Aspect-wise, Sagittarius is square to Virgo, which means these impulses are in a tense relationship, but while Virgo feathers can be rankled with this Sag ‘chillax’ stuff, truly it needs it, and physiologically speaking, the breath, which has a direct pipeline to the heart, is a great way to get it. It’s free, too!
Personally, I’m really working on reforming my Virgo lens on life these months and years, adding a good healthy dose of Jupiterian/Sagittarius buoyancy and gratitude to my diet. In these rapidly changing times of ours, focusing on what’s good is I believe a key to the way forward and through whatever may come next.
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Balance of Light and Dark
Another aspect of the fast approaching Fall Equinox on Sept. 23, when light and dark are in equal balance, is the darkening of days. It’s come on rather suddenly just in the past week I’m noticing. Relevant here is that Virgo is also affiliated with the Greek goddess Persephone, daughter of Demeter, whose fate it became to spend half her life down in the dark of the Underworld, and the other up on sun-strewn Earth.
This turn towards the darkness is I think inherent to the Virgo spirit. Being independent and introspective, Virgo welcomes a modicum of darkness, which affords time for turning inward. (All this splashing around in sunshine and light gets a bit much, she says wryly.)
In its inward phases, however, the Virgo mentality can get stuck in over-analysis, prone to dwelling on guilt and shame over failing to reach the high standards set for itself. It’s a paradox, for while Virgo’s is the realm of ‘common things’, it longs to see its ideals, seeded by polarity partner Pisces, made manifest. Falling short of this, Virgo can become its own worst critic. In phases such as these, engaging oneself with ordinary tasks, whether cleaning, gardening, cooking, or fixing things, can do wonders to help one recenter.
I once had a potent dream pointing me to this truth. I was walking towards the sea, keen on merging into the inviting waters when, blocking my trajectory, I encountered a large hole dug in the sand, inside which rested a human-sized spool of thread. The message I received was to tend to the mundane, exemplified by household mending, before attempting to plunge into the sea of Oneness…Sometimes too much of a transcendent good thing can be…too much! At play here was the dialogue between the Pisces longing for the beyond—the ideal, and the Virgo apprenticeship to living a purposeful, grounded life.
This brings us to another Virgo quality, balancing out the pride that Leo is known for, that of humility. Humility was considered by another honored, early female saint to be the greatest of all virtues. Hildegard von Bingen, visionary, composer, and healer, wrote extensively about herbs and nutrition, and as well, composed the world’s first opera, Ordo Virtutum, depicting the battle between 35 virtues and vices in her. So she knows her virtues!
The title of one of her many songs, O viridissima virga, translates as “Hail, oh greenest branch,” affirming the link between Virgo/virgin with the greenness of the natural world, and its freshness and innocence, qualities dear to Hildegard’s heart. For many reasons, I do think of Hildegard as having had a strong Virgo signature!
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There is a Sufi saying that speaks to this Virgoan desire to serve: I do not ask to see, I do not ask to know, I ask only to be used. This impulse is shared by the polarity sign, Pisces, both operating on the service axis. Mother Teresa, to name another great female saint, had Sun, Mercury, and Mars all in Virgo. In her collected letters one learns that, while she had one powerful vision of being wed to Christ at the age of 18, she sustained herself the rest of her life purely on devotion, with no more affirming visions. This is in line with the Virgo archetype which, while often deeply devout, lives its life in grounded work and service, with fewer ‘spiritual experiences’ and visions than those with more watery or fiery signatures.
Along the vein of humility, UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Magazine recently offered up an interesting article, The Eight Kinds of Humility That Can Help You Stay Grounded. The author states, As a psychiatrist, I think humility springs from deep awareness that the world can only come through our own eyes, experiences, and insights. No matter how knowledgeable or skillful I might be, there’s always more to learn. There are always people with different perspectives, life experiences, knowledge, and skills. There are always different people to cherish, be present with, and learn from. Humility helps us cultivate empathy and relatedness. Without those, where are we?
This concept that, no matter what we may know or excel at, there’s always more to learn gets at the heart of another aspect of Virgo thinking—that one’s body of knowledge or level of expertise is never quite good enough, not yet complete. As one can always be and do better! This, I confess, can get exhausting at times, but it keeps life eternally interesting, and drives the work machine! Meanwhile, opposite sign Pisces, sipping a Mai Tai beachside, binging on Netflix, or deep in meditation, merely laughs at the folly of Virgo’s earnest in-the-world efforts. The message being, there is of course no right way to approach life, particularly now, as the Earth, and the world as we have known it is shifting and changing at breakneck speed.
That said, Virgo does ‘have it right’ in some respects. Perhaps of all the signs (although all Earth signs are quite grounded in the physical realms), this archetype is the most inclined to make relational contact with more than human life, life be it four-legged, winged, rooted in Earth, or elemental. Sometimes affiliated with the goddess Artemis, she roams amongst and loves them all. Given this deep affinity for Earth relatedness, we would do well to call in a deeper drink of Virgo medicine, along with more Vitamin quartets, and Virtue operas!
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Back to music, here I invoke an artist who has been a personal favorite for some time: Polish musician/composer Hania Rani. Only recently did I have cause to consider her astrological signature, while recently exploring the German musician/creator Nils Frahm, recommended by a friend. The first video that came up when I Googled him was “Toilet Brushes.” (Another What?) Virgo, dedicated to purification, is traditionally associated with cleaning, and vacuuming, so while I shouldn’t be surprised by this zodiacally on-time title, I was. Who would name a piece that? The plot thickens. While listening to Frams’ unique, driving rhythms, marveling at his observable craftsmanship (another Virgo theme), I thought, he must be a Virgo, due to his visibly dedicated mastery. Sure enough, I determined that he is. I also immediately noticed similarities in his work with parts of some of Hania Rani’s. So I checked out her Sun sign: Virgo as well! What’s more, she and I actually share the same birthday. As I’ve said before (and will say again), you can’t make this stuff up!
New Moon Guideposts
This week’s Virgo New Moon, at 6:39pm on Thurs., Sept. 14, imprints this next lunar cycle with a strong dose not just of Virgo medicine, but also the dance that Virgo does with her polarity partner, Pisces. The Moon-Sun conjunction in Virgo will be opposed by Neptune in Pisces, suggesting that the dialogue, or dilemma, between these two energies will be quite palpable at this time. We will be challenged these next weeks to integrate the two voices of what makes practical sense, with where we’re pulled internally. Or it could look like trying hard to make things happen on the material plane, vs. surrendering to faith and intuition. Ideally we apply both in equal measure!
The New Moon is also in a harmonious trine aspect with a Uranus-Jupiter conjunction and Pluto. This calls the other two outer planet energies (the third being Neptune) into the configuration, and expands them (due to Jupiter’s influence). So, what we might be on the lookout for is unexpected occurrences and intense feelings or interactions, along with the Neptunian big picture magic. In all, we might have to reconsider my poem invocation at top, as strange mountains far to the north; touching the gold; goblins, trolls, and spiders; and an insane wind may yet be in play here, in addition to Virgo’s steady work of tending common things! I would say that Integration work, another key theme for Virgo, will be in tall order this month.
As a final tribute to Virgo’s love of all things natural and home-spun, I will leave you with the stunning trailer of a new documentary film, The Nettle Dress, screening only in the UK at this point (UK readers can check their website to see if it’s playing near you). The trailer traces the making from scratch (so to speak!) of a dress crafted from thread woven out of nettle stalks. The inspiration for this act of dedication is most poignant. Have a look.
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Further Meanderings
Bruce Lipton, author of The Biology of Belief – https://www.brucelipton.com/about/
Taste of Hildegard von Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGPZWUNwLG0
The Eight Kinds of Humility That Can Help You Stay Grounded https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/the_eight_kinds_of_humility_that_can_help_you_stay_grounded
Hania Rani, The Boat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBV-hkGr1Z8
The Nettle Dress Film Trailer https://www.nettledress.org (Scroll down to see trailer.)
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All photos copyright Diana Badger 2023