Rose's Astro Academy | An Astrology Podcast

E07 Understanding Virgo

September 04, 2024 • Rose Potts

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In this episode of Rose's Astro Academy, we take a detailed look at Virgo, exploring its meticulous, organized nature, as well as its shadow sides like perfectionism and self-criticism. We examine Virgo's connection to Mercury, contrast Virgo with Gemini's quick, idea-driven energy, and discuss how Virgo's earth element grounds its intellectual qualities. We also place Virgo in the seasonal context of late summer, examine how it functions to help prepare us for the coming winter, and reflect on it's mutable qualities. We all have a house that Virgo occupies in our chart, so this talk is for everyone, and will help you understand how Virgo energy influences some area of your life.  

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Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome to episode 7 of Rose's Astro Academy, where I demystify the system of astrology piece by piece. For our topic this week, we're exploring the qualities of Virgo. This is the first installment in a series that will explore each of the zodiac signs as the sun moves through them. We're currently in the midst of Virgo season and we just had the new moon in Virgo, so it's a perfect time to kick off this series with our talk on Virgo. Time to kick off this series with our talk on Virgo Now. This episode will especially apply to you if you're a Virgo. Sun, moon or rising. Those are the big three in astrology which I covered in last week's episode. But don't tune out if you don't have Virgo in one of your big three. We all have a place in our chart where Virgo energy shows up. There are 12 signs and each sign falls into one of the 12 houses, and the houses help to ground the signs energy into a specific topic or area of our lives. For example, in my chart, virgo occupies the 10th house, which is the house of career. So a lot of the Virgo energy that I'll be talking about today directly relates to how I approach my work and my career. If you're a regular listener of this podcast, you can probably notice those Virgo tendencies. I don't wing this podcast. I write, record and edit it and make sure it's just right before I hit publish. A lot of preparation and detail, orientation go into this podcast, which are very Virgo qualities. So that's to give you an example of how the Virgo energy we're going to talk about today can apply to some area of your life, based on which house Virgo occupies in your chart. This is then accentuated if you have planets in Virgo, and then accentuated even more if Virgo is one of your big three, which is the sun, moon or rising sign. If you're not really sure about these particularities of your chart, then this is some of the work we can do in a reading together. So let's get into it.

Speaker 1:

In Hellenistic astrology, which I practice, the qualities of the sign are derived from the season of the year in which the sun moves through that sign. Right now, with the sun in Virgo, if you're living in the Northern Hemisphere, in a place with four seasons, then you will see the qualities of Virgo all around you. I'm very blessed, for example, to be living in Ontario where the four seasons are very clear, and it's a really interesting meditation for me to move through the seasonal changes month to month and reflect on how each seasonal change is showing the qualities of a different sign. But if you're living in the southern hemisphere, where the seasons are flipped, or you're living in a place that doesn't have four distinct seasons maybe you have dry season and rainy season instead of a distinct spring, summer, fall, rainy season instead of a distinct spring, summer, fall and winter then the seasonal quality of each sign still applies to you. It's just harder to see it show up in your everyday life. The meaning of each sign was derived from the four seasons, but it is able to be applied universally, regardless of where you live, because it's a contained system of meaning. Now, if you're newer to learning about astrology, then this might have you scratching your head, and that's completely understandable and it's good, because it shows that your natural inclination is to be asking deeper questions about the philosophy behind this system, and that's an important thing to explore and understand if we're really going to demystify the system of astrology. However, it's a complex and lengthy topic, and one that we will dive into in full detail in future episodes. For now, it's important to understand that when the system of Hellenistic astrology was developed thousands of years ago. It was developed in the northern hemisphere with four distinct seasons, and they arrived at the qualities of the signs through reflecting on the differences between each sign seasonally and especially by examining the interplay of light versus dark in a day which we will get into in just a moment.

Speaker 1:

Virgo season is when summer is winding down. There is a noticeable change in the air, the days are cooling off and there is a growing awareness that the fun of summer is ending and the hardship of winter is approaching. At the summer solstice, which happens at the outset of cancer season, we have the day of the year with the most amount of sunlight compared to darkness. After the summer solstice, the days start to grow shorter, but we still have more light in a day than darkness. At the fall equinox, which is the start of Libra season and which comes directly after Virgo, there is an equal balance of light and darkness in the day, and after this point the darkness starts to outweigh the light, the darkness starts to outweigh the light. So Virgo is the sign which is leading up to this fall equinox moment, after which the darkness will begin to outweigh the light, and this is very important. Virgo represents the shift from Leo, which is the height of summer, to Libra, which is the moment of the fall equinox and marks the oncoming approach of winter.

Speaker 1:

Now, all of this talk about light versus darkness might be a little too intangible, so let's ground it into some more tangible manifestations of this. What did the onsite of darkness of the year mean in ancient times? It meant that the cold harshness of winter was approaching. In ancient times, when the system of meaning was developed, winter was a season that had to be meticulously prepared for Crops had to be harvested, wheat had to be separated from the shaft and stored, and meats had to be salted and preserved. They had to make sure there was enough wood to keep their fires burning through the winter and that their shelters were properly reinforced so that they didn't freeze. So the sign of Virgo as embodying this shift from the light half of the year summertime to the dark half of the year winter, embodies also the necessary busy work and attention to detail that is required to prepare for the winter. This is where we get a lot of the Virgo characteristics from. So let's get into some of those characteristics with some keywords for Virgo.

Speaker 1:

Virgos are often described as meticulous, prepared, judgmental or critical, helpful, organized list makers. They can also be anxious, overly self-critical and focused on preparing for some future judgment or evaluation. Virgos love detail-oriented work, prefer working behind the scenes and often enjoy being appreciated for their efforts without necessarily having to be in the spotlight. For them, they're all about tweaking things until they're just right and being of service in ways that are practical and tangible. Virgo energy is about meeting the needs of the group, helping to prepare the community for the hardships of winter ahead, working overtime to get everything in order and using Mercury's intellectual capacity for planning and organizing.

Speaker 1:

A helpful lens through which we can understand Virgo is to look at the ruling planet. Virgo is ruled by Mercury, but is also the exaltation of Mercury. This is the only sign in the zodiac where the same planet is both the domicile and exaltation ruler. So this is a very powerful place for Mercury and we can see a lot of the qualities of Virgo being representations of Mercury really excelling and being grounded by the earth element of Virgo. We can see this Mercury ruled nature in Virgo's ability to gather, organize and process a lot of information with keen attention to detail. There is a natural aptitude for problem solving critical thinking and clear communication.

Speaker 1:

Being an earth sign helps ground this mercurial nature into practical, hands-on skills. In fact, virgos are known for their skill-building abilities and known for being excellent craftsmen. The craftsman association comes in with the skill-building and refining, but also with the earth element, there is the practical, hands-on nature. Another thing that always comes to mind for me when I think of Virgos is the practical, hands-on nature. Another thing that always comes to mind for me when I think of Virgos is the strong association that a lot of them tend to have to herbalism. If we think of an apothecary, for example, it's very Virgo in nature. We have all of these jars of herbs organized on a shelf and each jar is labeled, each has its proper place and each herb has its proper use. Again, we see this impulse to organize and prepare and have all of our ducks in a row. But there's also this heavy earth element here and this healing and helpful nature of Virgo.

Speaker 1:

Another way that we can think about Virgo is by comparing it to Mercury's other rulership, which is Gemini, so we can look at how they're different from one another. Gemini, being an air sign, is very quick and adaptable and expressive and idea-driven, whereas, on the other hand, virgo, being an earth sign, takes the intellectual nature of Mercury but grounds it into something that is a lot more methodical, a lot more patient and lending a lot more of its intellectual capacity to planning, organizing and making lists. Rather than coming up with ideas and just verbally expressing them, which Gemini loves to do, mercury loves to take its ideas and put it down on paper in the sense of lists or also in the sense of writing in general. Another way we can think about Virgo is by looking at its mutable quality. The signs are divided into categories of earth, air, fire and water.

Speaker 1:

But there's another mode of classification to the signs, which is cardinal, fixed and mutable. Cardinal signs come at the start of a season and initiate change and new beginnings. For example, aries is a cardinal sign that marks the start of spring. Fixed signs come after the cardinal signs and embody the fixed nature of the season. For example, taurus comes after Aries and embodies the fixed nature of spring. Then come the mutable signs. These signs signal the transition from one season to the next. So when we say Virgo is a mutable sign, we're talking about how Virgo represents the change from summer into fall.

Speaker 1:

In ancient astrology they didn't use the term mutable. They used the term double-bodied, and this way of seeing Virgo helps us get at its nature more accurately. When they said double-bodied, they meant that the sign is of two natures simultaneously. The double-bodied signs embody the dual nature of the signs directly before and after them. In the case of Virgo, this would be Leo and Libra. So another way that we can think about Virgo is thinking about how it embodies the natures of both Leo and Libra simultaneously. Now, as with any of these levels of analysis, we can go quite deep into this reflection, but if we dip our toes into it just a little bit, we can come up with a few examples. The prideful nature, for example, of Leo in Virgo transforms into a sense of pride in a job well done. Leo loves to shine as the center or linchpin of their community, whereas Virgo loves to play a vital role in the community by helping and organize behind the scenes.

Speaker 1:

Libra is the time of the fall, equinox and the harvest moment, and there is an evaluation that takes place in Libra. It is the symbolic journey where we shift into more darkness than light in a day and the symbolic moment where the soul is evaluated in its journey to the underworld. Now that's a very deep interpretation for Libra, but that is essentially what the sign of Libra is talking about when we're talking about justice and balance and these scales of judgment. So the evaluation happens in Libra and much of the work of Virgo is preparing for that evaluation moment. With Virgos there tends to always be this sense that they're preparing for this upcoming test, that there's this judgment that's on the horizon and that they have to do all of the work necessary to meet the requirements of this test. So that's a little bit about how we can play with the associations between Leo, virgo and Libra and looking at them as a continuum, with Virgo embodying that change between Leo and Libra.

Speaker 1:

When talking about the nature of a sign, we can also think about what it would look like for the archetypal nature of a planet to combine with the archetypal nature of that sign. Let's take, for example, venus in Virgo. We've spoken about Virgo as being very detail-oriented and meticulous, so when Venus finds herself in that energy, the meticulous quality can lend itself to aesthetics, which is a Venus signification. There can be a very refined aesthetic taste, but this can easily be overdone, for example to the point of being self-critical of one's appearance or beauty. For Virgos, the bar is perfection, and this can be challenging when one is trying to measure up to perfection in how they look. But Venus and Virgo individuals can also be great painters, musicians or designers anything where we see a combination of beauty and refined skill.

Speaker 1:

For individuals with Mercury in Virgo, for example, this bar of perfection often comes through their communication. There is a meticulousness and commitment to continually refining one's ability to communicate, and this isn't the Gemini communication of oracular ability. This is more the methodical communication of writing. I can't tell you how many famous writers have Mercury in Virgo. Jk Rowling and RLL sign are just two examples of this, but the examples really are endless. So if you have any planets in the sign of Virgo in your chart, you can start to think about how that planet is expressing itself through the modes or ways of being of Virgo that we're talking about. As with any sign, there is a shadow side, so let's talk about some potential shadow sides of Virgo.

Speaker 1:

Virgos can spend too much time preparing and tweaking things and getting them just right. They can be overly stressed about the fine details and feeling like they're preparing for this impending judgment and feeling like things will fall apart if everything isn't perfect. With Virgo, the bar is perfection, and if they don't achieve that perfection, then there is a sense that they have failed. It can be very black and white in this way. So they have to be careful of that tendency, because they can over-refine things to the point of ruining them, like with a painting, for example. If you keep trying to refine the painting, you will eventually get to a point where you've ruined it. Or let's say you're giving someone a haircut. You keep cutting and cutting and cutting and then you've just overdone it. There's no hair left to cut. You've gone way too far in your effort of finding perfection. With Virgo, one of the biggest lessons is knowing when to stop trying to refine and tweak things and letting them be good enough.

Speaker 1:

Another shadow of Virgo that we have to be careful of is the tendency for others to take advantage of the overly helpful nature of Virgo. There is a desire to be of service to others in a way that is practical and a desire to play a vital role behind the scenes that can lead someone else to profit from the hours of meticulous work that a Virgo has put into a project. It can be way too easy for Virgos to do way more than was asked of them on a project and then to not receive fair recognition or compensation for their work. Another shadow that we've touched on a bit already is the critical nature of Virgos. Virgo has this incredible ability to really narrow in on the minute details of things, and this can lead Virgos to seeing things that others miss. This is an important quality and an excellent skill to have in many different areas of life, but it can lead Virgos to have an overly critical nature, being overly critical of others, but also of themselves. So understanding that critical nature, understanding that they see minute details way more than others, and understanding how they can work with that by learning when to turn that on and off, learning when to stop criticizing and examining and again just letting it be, is really important work for a Virgo to do. So this has been a bit of an exploration of some of the qualities of Virgo.

Speaker 1:

I hope this helped you gain some clarity and perspective on the energy of Virgo and how it might apply to your life. The specific area of your life that Virgo energy influences depends on which house it falls into in your chart and which planets occupy that sign. If you want more help understanding how this applies to your chart. That's something we can explore together in a reading. This year, we'll be doing an exploration of each sign as the sun moves through it, so stay tuned for our talk on Libra next month. I want this podcast to be a co-creative space, so if there's a topic in astrology that you would like me to talk about, please email it to rosesastroacademy at gmailcom.

Speaker 1:

New episodes air every Monday and Wednesday. If you want to book a reading with me, you can find out how to do that in the description or on my website, rosesastroacademycom, and you can follow along on my Instagram at rosesastroacademy. Finally, if you enjoyed this episode and want to see this little seedling grow, you can help out by leaving a review of the podcast and sharing it with your astrology loving friends. I'm so excited to see that we already have 10 reviews on Spotify, with only 7 episodes in. That's super incredible to see. I would love to see some more reviews on Apple Podcasts. I know it's a little harder because you have to write something, but I appreciate every single review, so so much as it really helps this podcast to grow and to find its audience. Well, that's all I have for you today. See you on Monday for a new episode. Thank you.