The Tao of Astrology
Free Chart Interpretation Zone

Virgo Archetype

 

Virgo is the archetype of striving for purity and perfection through logical analysis and practical integration.  Virgo seeks efficiency and precision in action, thought, and service.  Planets in Virgo take on a kind of Zen Master aura, skillful at coping with life, pointing out errors, and fixing people, situations, and things.  Virgo is dependable and unselfish, fascinated by capturing the details of life’s process in order to evolve consciousness.  Virgo is the archetype of sacred ritual, health, and body wisdom.  This archetype expresses realism and devotion in thought and in service to life.  The enlightened Virgo is about awakening the inner teacher’s guidance to become a healing vessel in the worl through the expression of discipline in self-sacrifice, pragmatic contemplation, and spiritual craftsmanship. 

Virgo and its planetary reflectors Mercury and Chiron symbolize the pursuit of practical knowledge aimed at gaining and fine-tuning skills and healing abilities.  Virgo is the sign that governs apprenticeship, training, and natural healing such as through massage and herbalism.  For the diehard Virgo planets in a chart work is the equivalent of play as Virgo appreciates labor and sweat.  Virgo grows excited when skills are honed to perfection and devotion to craft is the first order of business.   Service-oriented Virgo inspires you to become an expert technician of the skills you’ve chosen to master.  The house with Virgo on the cusp is where you need to analyze, perfect, and craft something of use to your fellow beings.  Devotion to this realm of life experience should be the focus of your education.  The same goes for the houses that contain Mercury and Chiron. 

It is in those realms of life experience that you can bestow others with practical insight to help them cope with the harsh side of existence.  Virgo governs the intestines and the purifying functions of the body like the sweat glands.  It also governs the hands when being used to demonstrate skill.  It is the sign of nutrition, vitamins and holistic health practices like vegetarian foods.  Most people in Western society think all this is boring and unimaginative.  For Virgo it’s all sweet bliss.  The more effort involved the tighter Virgo rolls up the sleeves.  Virgo teaches the value of hard physical work.  It governs the harvests of our labors.  Virgo seeks to serve life humbly, evolving in the world through mastering skills and analyzing structures.  This archetype, like all the earth signs, holds a deep reverence for nature and its healing power. 

When your Virgo energy is misdirected you become too fault finding and anal retentive, so focused on the details that you forget to enjoy life’s simple pleasures.  Lost in cold logic and dry routine, the shadow of Virgo emerges making you and the people in your life uptight, fussy, critical, and lacking in both compassion and perspective.  The Dark Virgoan is the martyr who needlessly sacrifices himself on the altar of perfection and workaholism and blames those who he labors for.  Learn to overcome the shadow through expressing the opposite sign Pisces, gaining compassion, mystical vision, and enchantment.  The key word Discriminating appears on both the light and dark sides of Virgo.  There is a fine line between healthy analysis and legalistic repression.  You have to work extra hard to expand the vision of any Virgo planets in your heart.  They are masters of detail, but tend to miss the bigger picture that grants life meaning.  Virgoan logic ignores emotion, the currency of the human soul.  Virgo has to learn to realize the flow of spiritual currents so that service to others can be rendered effectively.

The Spiritual principle of Virgo is devotion, which literally means “to vow.”  The English poet Wordsworth was devoted to his craft.  When he decided to go against the grain to pursue his calling as a poet as opposed to doing the “right” thing and taking up his responsibilities as a member of the clergy, he wrote, “I made not vows, but vows were made for me.”  In a way we are all born with a set of vows inscribed in the heavens at birth.  When we realize that this unspoken set of vows echoes through our hearts and bodies, we must take deliberate action to fulfill them no matter what obstacles lie in our path.  I am reminded of the vestal virgins who devoted their lives to tending the sacred flames and performing the daily sacred rites.  I remember my teachers who humbly accepted me as an apprentice to their crafts of astrology, martial arts, and creative writing.  These devoted souls were conduits for Virgo expression.  The mentor is what our society has lost and with it the spiritual insight and mental health that is the natural fruit of the harvest.  The glyph for Virgo symbolizes the three peaks of perfection in body, consciousness, and spirit.  The third peak is closed at the bottom to symbolize the generative power of the virgin matrix in reality.  It reminds us of the sanctity of life in bodily forms and the wisdom of simplicity and living in the moment.  The body is the temple, a wise Virgoan prophet claimed.  Virgo teaches us that we can accomplish anything if we can break it down into steps.  The success of any venture happens along the way to completion.  By the end of the journey you’ll be transformed and humbled.