Virgo 2008 -Discriminating Practical Earth Spirits

by Robert Wilkinson

September is the end of Summer, a time when the Solar force is waning. This month sorts and adjusts what of our Summer labors are useful and working as they should, and the distributive Earth energies of Virgo help us do practical tasking preparing us for Autumn’s arrival on September 22, 2008, at 8:45 am PDT (September 23 in East Asia and Australia). The Autumnal Equinox was given that name because the lengths of day and night are the same. It is said that you can balance an egg on its end at that precise point in time, thus Libra's association with the sign of the balanced scales. For now, this time of Virgo prepares us for a new way of life and new relationships in the Libra time to come.

This year, Mercury, dispositor of the Sun and Saturn in Virgo, is ahead of the others along with Venus and Mars in Libra, heralding things to come. Its transit through Libra with the others has brought us (and when retrograde bring us) messages about values and actions that will be illuminated and empowered by the Sun after the Autumnal Equinox.

Venus is the ruler of the planets in Libra, and as it moves ahead of Mercury, Mars, and the Sun will help us capture the experience and information that Mars, Sun and Mercury will secure in our lives after then. This makes aesthetics and appreciation the prelude to the experience and understanding of the ideal we are moving into, and makes our feeling experience of things most important if we are to move through experience without getting hung up on ideas and decisions.

In Virgo, we learn what characterizes certain things and people, and have excellent chances to sharpen our discernment and see why we make the distinctions we do, and how the parts fit into the whole in a practical way. It is a time of education, re-education, taking care of details, and refining forms to reveal a more pleasing appearance and function in Libra. If there is too much worry, criticism, or fussing over details, try to see the bigger picture and allow many things to pass by without being fooled or getting seduced into hyperanalyzing them.

September is usually dominated by the Earth (practical, material) sign energies of Virgo, and this month Saturn in Virgo helps make this sign more relevant in terms of practical functioning and self-organizing into forms of power, and shows the requirements of Dharma to be learned for many months to come.

Mercury in the Air sign of Libra will show how Virgo expresses itself. Air keywords are associative, interactive, communicative, idealistic. That it goes retrograde this month shows that our understanding is slowing, but we can be more thoughtful in what light/life lessons we're learning through the Autumnal Equinox.

When the Sun spotlights Virgo, we are shown the light in this phase of the twelve-step evolutionary process that what was stabilized in Taurus, expanded in Gemini, consolidated in Cancer, and creatively projected in Leo undergoes the practical refinements and adjustments of Virgo. This month the new initiatives and vision offered back when Jupiter was in Virgo (August 2003 through September 2004) will continue to take shape due to the Sun vitalizing that structure and Saturn offering further developments regarding whatever responsibilities and duties we assumed back then, as well as in whatever Mars set into motion in late July and the first half of August 2008.

To remind you, there was a string of extremely important conjunctions in September 2004 at 30 Virgo and early Libra that were directly affected by the 2006 Solar Eclipse near the Vernal Equinox as well as the very powerful Fall 2006 Eclipses helping us to "escape from a narrow destiny." This was set into motion in new ways in August when Mars transited that point, will be vitalized in new ways as the Sun makes another pass over that point in the near future, and will be most important in terms of our dominion over our life affairs in 2009-2010 when Saturn passes over that point, retrogrades back over the point, and finally passes over it for the last itme as it enters Libra for the grand Cardinal showdown of 2010-2011-2012.

Virgo is symbolically associated with the Virgin holding an ear of corn, representing the harvest and the spread of the creative release of Leo confronting the problem of dealing with energy using discrimination. This sign's keywords are "I analyze." This is the sign of service and the readiness to serve and be served. In the year cycle we can now use the needs and decisions made in Cancer and creatively acted upon in Leo to act with an eye to the critical analysis of the fruits of our activities, and make necessary adjustments. This is the ordering and stabilization of the ideas we found in Gemini.

Mythologically, Virgo is the sign of the Healer, the Priest/Priestess who learns the proper methods for guiding self and others out of old ways through uncertain times into new lives, new days, new perspectives. Virgo is traditionally associated with health and hygiene, physicians and other types of healers. These are workers with fewer ego-demands than other signs who can acquire wealth through steady practical effort. They can be teachers of the highest order when not being too critical or nit-picky. As the great Manly P. Hall put it, they live "to serve mankind without thought of self," and are "ingenious, witty, studious, dexterous, versatile, introspective..."

Virgo, when freed of the traps of skepticism, fear, fault-finding, scheming, manipulation, nervous worry and self-centeredness, demonstrate a utilitarian dependability that is scientific, economical, precise, meticulous, honest, orderly, and unselfish. They are the embodiment of humility incarnate, and when well adjusted, show as methodical servants, healers on many levels using many techniques, and the faithful servant in any thing they are involved in. They are capable of becoming world servants showing a better way to do things.

Think Mother Theresa, living legend of tireless service to the poor whose ministry set an example of humility, efficiency, and effort on behalf of those who have been abandoned by the so-called "civilized" world. Some of her recently divulged "doubt" is a classic trait of Virgo, the born skeptic. Another Virgo who aspired to great service was President Lyndon Johnson, a former school teacher who used his political muscle to give us the Great Society's Medicare and Medicaid programs that ensured a safety net for the elderly, the young, and the poorest in our very wealthy nation.

Other Virgo political figures were President and former Supreme Court justice William Howard Taft, Louis XVI of France (who actually instituted needed reforms helping the poor but was used as a scapegoat by Robespierre), reformed Dixiecrat George Wallace, Lafayette, Joseph Kennedy (father of JFK and RFK), Queen Elizabeth I, Geraldine Ferraro, Lech Walesa, Yasser Arafat, Prince Harry of England, and Senator John McCain.

In the field of literature this sign shows in such pragmatic authors as John Locke, Samuel Johnson, Upton Sinclair, H.G. Wells, Bret Harte, William Saroyan, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Leo Tolstoy, O. Henry, Joseph Pasternak, D.H. Lawrence, Maurice Maeterlinck, H.L. Mencken, Christopher Isherwood, Roald Dahl, Agatha Christie, Ken Kesey, Molly Ivins, William Golding, Richard Wright, Robert Benchley, Steven King, and the legendary Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, author of "Frankenstein" and wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Aubrey Beardsley and Grandma Moses are the major artists among Virgos, while in philosophy we have the awesome Johann Von Goethe, said to be one of the greatest philosophers the West has ever produced.

In music, the tribe of Virgo is represented by legends such as Charlie Parker, Jelly Ross Morton, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Hank Williams, John Cage, Charlie Byrd, Patsy Cline, Maurice Chevalier, Jimmie Rodgers, Cannonball Adderley, Otis Redding, Billy Preston, John Cipollina, Sterling Morrison, Keith Moon, Cass Elliot, Freddie Mercury, Barry White, Alan Jay Lerner, Roy Acuff, Billy Preston, Jose Feliciano, Mel Torme, and Leonard Bernstein.

Modern era talents this sign has given us very diverse and gifted musical greats such as Van Morrison, Elvis Costello, Dave Stewart, Itzhak Perlman, Andrea Bocelli, Paul Williams, B.B. King, Alex Lifeson, Neal Peart, Barry Gibb, Leonard Cohen, Chrissie Hynde, Fiona Apple, Harry Connick Jr., Branford Marsalis, Joan Jett, Liam Gallagher, Michael Jackson, Roger Waters, Mason Williams, Nell Carter, Jennifer Hudson, Nick Cave, Loudon Wainwright III, Gene Simmons, Joe Perry, Willy DeVille, Moby, Harry Connick, Jr., Gunnar and Matthew Nelson, Dweezil Zappa, David Silveria, Neal Peart, Pink, Tina Barrett, Rick Springfield, Shania Twain, Gloria Estefan, Maria Muldaur, David Clayton-Thomas, Billy Ray Cyrus, LeAnn Rimes, and Beyonce Knowles.

In the world of cinema we find some extraordinary shining stars who include some very talented and funny guys. Featured are Sean Connery, Peter Sellers, Gene Kelly, Fred MacMurray, Buddy Hackett, Charles Boyer, Raymond Massey, Van Johnson, Jackie Cooper, Alan Ladd, Anthony Quayle, Roddy McDowell, Mel Ferrer, James Coburn, Jack Warden, Donald O'Connor, Dickie Moore, Ben Blue, and Frankie Avalon.

Virgo has given us legendary lovely ladies Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Claudette Colbert, Faye Raye, Vera Miles, Ruby Keeler, Anne Bancroft, Greta Garbo, Yvonne DeCarlo, Martha Raye, Shirley Booth, Janis Paige, Mitzi Gaynor, Tuesday Weld and the ever-beautiful Sophia Loren.

Big time movie honchos include powerfhouses Sir Richard Attenborough, Daryl Zanuck, Preston Sturges, Elia Kazan, Oliver Stone, William Friedkin, and Brian DePalma.

Modern stars feature Elliott Gould, Tommy Lee Jones, Cliff Robertson, Michael Keaton, Bill Murray, Lily Tomlin, Richard Gere, Keanu Reeves, Valerie Perrine, Jack Black, Rosie Perez, Jeremy Irons, Damon Wayans, Raquel Welch, Eileen Brennan, Richard Roundtree, Amy Irving, Sam Neill, Tim Burton, Barbara Bach, Timothy Bottoms, Marlee Matlin, Swoozie Kurtz, Jason Priestley, Salma Hayek, Steve Gutenberg, Ione Skye, Daniel Stern, Crispin Glover, Charlie Sheen, Macaulay Culkin, Tom Felton, Bonnie Hunt, Cameron Diaz, Rupert Grint, Henry Thomas, Ryan Phillippe, Chris Tucker, Paul Walker, Kevin Zegers, and Jacqueline Bisset.

In the world of television Virgo has given us some truly legendary figures. Think televison pioneers Clayton Moore ("The Lone Ranger") as well as funny guys Sid Caeser, Alan Funt, Durward Kirby, and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson of Jack Benny fame. Other luminaries include "Columbo" Peter Falk, "Man From Uncle" David McCallum, "I Dream of Genie" stars Barbara Eden and Larry ("JR") Hagman, Ben Gazzara, Adam West, Henry Gibson, Monty Hall, Angela Cartwright, actor and nice guy extraordinaire John Ritter, Cassandra (Elvira) Peterson, and multi-faceted funny ladies Carol Lawrence, Jo Anne Worley, Shelley Long, Isabel Sanford, and Jane Curtin.

Outstanding modern television luminaries include Dave Chappelle, Bob Newhart, Peter Scolari, Mark Russell, Adam Sandler, Ed Begley Jr., James Gandolfini, Joan Lunden, Lisa Ling, Corbin Bernsen, Tom Everett Scott, Jean Smart, Michael Michele, Scott Speedman, Peggy Lipton, Rachel Ward, Linda Gray, Amanda Tapping, Alexis Bledel, Jada Pinkett Smith, Benjamin McKenzie, Michelle Williams, Jimmy Fallon, Scott Baio, Ben Savage, Kel Mitchell, Rachael Ray, Robin Leach, and Dr. Phil McGraw.

A special nod goes out to Virgos Julie Kavner and Dan Castellaneta, the voices of Marge and Homer, and the great June Foray, the voice of "Rocket J. Squirrel."

In the world of sports, we have such historical greats as surfing legend Duke Kahanamoku, and awesome talents Kobe Bryant, Jean-Claude Killy, Lance Armstrong, Rocky Marciano, Arnold Palmer, Ted Williams, Frank Robinson, Jim Abbott, Randy Johnson, Roger Maris, Scott Hamilton, and Jesse Owens.

Virgo also includes an eclectic club that includes such diverse talents as Supremes Oliver Wendell Holmes and David Souter, educator Maria Montessori, legendary women's rights pioneer Margaret Sanger, Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov, "rob from the rich to give to the poor" American legend Jessie James, and Generals Norman Schwartzkopf and John J. Pershing. A tip of the birthday hat goes to great astrologers Steven Erlewine and Liz Greene, as well as to one of the most genuinely spiritual men I've ever been privileged to know, the esteemed Mike Miles.

Others who have made their mark on our world include Mickey Mouse, Cathy Guisewite, magician David Copperfield, 1st Amendment ace Alan Dershowitz, Claudia Schiffer, journalists Ben Bradlee and Charles Kuralt, American Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Warren Buffett, J.C. Penny, and Christa McAuliffe.

Finally, it's the birth month of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote and Ike's decision to send in the 101st Airborne to integrate Little Rock High School, kicking open a few doors, so to speak. Also happy birthday to the cities of Boston, Basel, Heidelberg, Jerusalem, Los Angeles, Lyons, and Paris, the state of California, and the nations of Brazil, Greece, Switzerland, Turkey, and Uruguay.

© Copyright 2008 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[Jilly]

Col Sanders and Hank Williams and their white Virgo suits. :D

Sanger was a eugenicist - the dark side of Virgo perfection for sure.

[Robert]

Hi Jilly - Yes, but hers was a complicated philosophy, since she was for absolute freedom to choose one's own path and not have it imposed by external authority. This was revolutionary and scandalous for a woman back then, and she was thrown in jail for her troubles, and even once had to flee the US. She also qualified some of what she said in ways that are somewhat contradictory. But regarding negative eugenics, (from Wikipedia): "Margaret Sanger was well aware that her fellow birth control advocates were promoting lethal chambers, but she herself rejected the idea completely. 'Nor do we believe,' wrote Sanger in "Pivot of Civilization," 'that the community could or should send to the lethal chamber the defective progeny resulting from irresponsible and unintelligent breeding.'" While there is much in her philosophy that is severely retrograde and contradictory, she kicked the doors open for women to assert the right to have control over their bodies.

[Virginia Harris]

Hi Robert,

Very interesting post! Thanks to the suffragettes, women have voices and choices!

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