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| Virgo the Maiden |
Preface: As I do every month for each of the signs, I want to emphasize that if your birthday does not fall during the Virgo timeframe for the year you were born, this DOES NOT mean that you do not experience the energy of Virgo, because somewhere in your natal birth chart, it is present. All twelve signs of the zodiac are expressed in your being, although some signs, and therefore their corresponding energies, may be more emphasized than others. The Sun sign is about your essence, your vitality (what makes you feel alive), and your self-image. Whatever your Sun sign, you are on a life-long journey to discover and fully embrace this sign’s energy. You may be tested in life to experience the meaning of your Sun sign’s energy.
The Sun transits the sign of Virgo beginning August 23, 2011
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Jane Addams Born September 6, 1860 “... social advance depends quite as much upon an increase in moral sensibility as it does upon a sense of duty ...” “Of all the aspects of social misery nothing is so heartbreaking as unemployment ...” “I dreamed night after night that everyone in the world was dead excepting myself, and that upon me rested the responsibility of making a wagon wheel.” Jane Addams (1860–1935), U.S. social worker and social reformer. Quotes from her memoir, Twenty Years at Hull-House, (1910). When I was a student in the administrative program at UC Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare,one of my first classes was an introductory course on social work and its history. In the field of social work, Jane Addams holds the title of “mother of modern American social work.” Jane Addams, and the field of social work, epitomizes what the zodiac sign of Virgo is about: improving or perfecting, and service. Jane Addams was born in Chicago in 1860 to a well-to-do family. Her father was a successful agricultural businessman who was involved in politics, working in campaigns to elect his friend Abraham Lincoln as senator and then president. Early on, Jane was concerned about the poor, and she wanted to devote her life to service on their behalf. At first, she wanted to do this through the field of medicine, but health problems and her family situation at that time were barriers to completing her medical studies. She very much wanted to attend Smith College, but her father forced her to attend Rockford Female Seminary. When she completed studies, she was filled with vague ambitions. An idea was germinating in her mind about starting a settlement house in Chicago modeled after Toynbee Hall in London. She finally shared this idea with a woman who had been her classmate at Rockford, and her friend was very supportive. Jane traveled to London to meet people at Toynbee Hall, and so entranced was she that she returned to Chicago eager to start a settlement house program. Jane Addams named her project Hull House. Initially, it was a residence of 25 women who worked in the various neighborhood programs Jane and her colleagues established, such as English language programs to assist immigrants in the community, a night school for adults, kindergarten for children, clubs for older children, gyms, and an array of other social services and cultural events. Hull House became a model for programs in other urban areas. Although Jane Addams accomplished much of her work in Chicago, she became very involved in policy at the national and international level. A pacifist, she joined various national and international groups to oppose World War I , and she helped set up frameworks to end all war. She was one of the representatives to the Woman’s Conference in the Hague, and she was chosen to head the commission to find an end to war. She traveled extensively, meeting with many diplomats in this process and becoming a person of visibility. She advocated the formation of the League of Nations. Her efforts in this area were recognized when she was named the recipient of the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first American woman to win this honor. Jane Addams leaves a rich legacy. In addition to developing program models for social services, she demonstrated the effectiveness of social advocacy and community organizing. She was instrumental in the advocacy of a juvenile justice system, youth counseling services, ending child labor, women’s voting rights, tenement house regulations, immigrants rights, and civil rights. She collaborated with labor organizations to reduce the workday for women, to develop factory regulations and workers’ compensation. The Transition from Leo to Virgo The Sun’s transit of the sign of Virgo occurs in late summer, when daylight still predominates, but is waning. The weather is still warm, and sometimes hot, but changes are perceptible. With respect to astrological personalities, we have experienced the bravado of sunny, creative Leo, displaying talents for all in a reciprocal exchange of love. Time, as expressed in the zodiac wheel, moves on, and we embark upon a new stage of development. As the signs proceed around the zodiac, the succeeding sign shows a tendency to display behavior in “reaction” to characteristics of the previous sign. Whereas Leo was a showcase for a personality on exhibit, Virgo’s energy turns inward, desiring a little more modesty. Those of us who have strong streaks of self-involvement know that such a perspective can get boring, and that we can quell that through identification with a greater purpose. Virgo represents the beginning of that stage in the zodiac. Virgo taps into the need for personal growth and humility through service. I am now more cognizant of looking at what a sign “retains” from the previous sign. Virgo is intent upon taking risks, just as Leo was, but in a different style and with a different purpose. At the beginning of his book’s section on Virgo, astrologer Steven Forrest has a wonderful quote from author James Baldwin: “One can give nothing whatever without giving oneself—that is to say, risking oneself. If one cannot risk oneself, then one is simply incapable of giving.” [i] Leo took risks to perform and to love, and Virgo carries on, but with a different perspective and focus. Virgo is intent on discovering, perfecting, and transforming herself through being of service. Steven Forrest clarifies that Virgo is not about the servitude that astrologers of other centuries described, but rather about the desire to be of service as a form of self-expression. By perfecting herself, Forrest says, Virgo serves the principle of service. [ii] Virgo Symbolism, Rulerships, and Personality The symbol of Virgo is the maiden or virgin (like the medieval painting shown at the beginning of this article). In modern times, the term virgin has a sexual connotation of inexperience, but that is a distorted view of the symbol. Astrologer Catherine Auman says the name Virgo derives from the Latin word “virgo” meaning unmarried, and the term virginal means that she belongs to no man, that she cannot be possessed.[iii] The maiden, or virgin, in simplest terms, refers to the state of purity.  Bruce Nevin, an astrologer living in the Rockport colony of Massachusetts, explains that the sign’s glyph (shown above) suggests virginity by its self-contained final curve. The loops of the symbol resemble the loops of the intestines, which are ruled by Virgo. The “M” of the symbol stands for the Mind, which facilitates the talent for discrimination, like sorting the wheat from the chaff, metaphorically speaking.[1] Virgo is the sixth sign of the zodiac, ruling the sixth house of work, servants, health, diet, and daily routines. This house covers the terrain of skill building and competence, so that we can meet our responsibilities as adults and contribute to society. It is the place where we are apprentices in the development of a trade. Conversely, it can also be the place where we serve as mentors to others. Steven Forrest observes that modern astrologers have a gap in meaning for the sixth house. He notes that the western side of the chart has to do with various forms of relationships, but modern astrology leaves out the discussion of relationships for the sixth house. Forrest posits that the sixth house is about relationships, but ones that are no longer prevalent in our nuclear family constellation. These are the relationships that we traditionally had with aunts and uncles. These relatives cared about us, but they had the “emotional distance” to assist us with developmental issues that young people find difficult talking to their parents about. In our modern society, we may have mentoring relationships that substitute for the traditional ones, and in that case, the sixth house is where we might expect to find that activity.[2] Virgo is a mutable earth sign. Mutable signs are often in motion, says astrologer Lynn Bell, but they are not about action in the way that cardinal signs are. Instead, mutable signs move between the realms of the cardinal signs and the fixed signs. Bell uses the analogy of the Tao, what the Chinese refer to as the one constant in the world. This is the center between creative and receptive energy. When this mutable energy is disregarded, Bell continues, a culture (or person) may be uncomfortably caught between the need for constant action (the cardinal principle) and the desire for permanence (the fixed principle).[3] Because Virgo is an earthly manifestation of Mercury, the planet of the rational mind, it is characterized by both the urge to produce and the urge to analyze. This makes Virgo an excellent craftsperson, and someone who may be attracted to gardening, and to the practice of herbalism or other forms of healing. Interestingly enough, the earth signs are not viewed as particularly fruitful in childbearing. Astrologer Deborah Houlding says that ancient and traditional sources cite “the benefits of Virgo as bestowing purity, diplomacy, a mastery of words, a discriminating intellect, a propensity for study, a talent for investigation and analysis, skillful creativity, and a keen appreciation of the mysteries of nature.” [4] The more difficult sides to Virgo are pickiness, extreme criticism, skepticism, hypochondria, self-deprecation, and overly self-sacrificing.[5] Forrest says that in order for Virgo’s self-criticism not to be self-destructive, there must be self-acceptance.[6] Debunking the Virgo Stereotypes The Virgo need to improve or perfect is often misunderstood or exaggerated. Any personality characteristic can be taken to an extreme, but this is true of any sign. With a Virgo Sun and Pisces Moon, Jan Posse, editor of The Mountain Astrologer, observes, “Virgo knows only too well that we live in an imperfect world. She doesn’t expect to be perfect—only beyond reproach.” Posse also notes that astrologer Stephanie Austin often substitutes the word impeccability for perfection.[7] I have known many people with Virgo Suns in my lifetime. As with any sun sign, you will see variations in personalities because of the various combinations of energies in an astrological birth chart. I sometimes read that Virgos are very neat, clean, and orderly. Now, this certainly may be true of many Virgos, but it is not the common thread I see running through the personalities of Virgos. I have observed that Virgos seem to share a gift of knowing how to implement a concept in earthly reality, and the ability to articulate the steps one might take to resolve a problem. This does relate to orderliness, but it is the orderliness of the mind. It is analytical. It is the meshing of air and earth energy of the planet Mercury (Virgo’s ruler), which needs to utilize the rational mind, but in the context of earthly manifestation. At her most balanced, Virgo has the powers of discrimination and discernment. She uses her analytic abilities to determine where to put her energy. This reminds me of the discussions I used to hear in the 1980’s among working women with children about how to have a balanced life with so many demands. The concept I most remember hearing is that priorities change from day to day. What was a priority yesterday is not necessarily a priority today. This reflects Virgo energy, i.e. knowing where and for what to devote one’s energy. Popular western astrology often paints a picture of Virgos as demure, prudish, and perhaps sexually uninterested. Vedic astrologer Kenneth Johnson points out that jyotish (Hindu) astrology views Virgo as passionate and sensual with a soft, relaxed, languid, erotic quality. Even if we use the western astrology framework, Virgo is an earth sign, predisposed to sensual pleasures. I do not know how this "nonsexual" western astrology image evolved, but it may surprise many to know that Virgo was once associated with the sacred prostitutes in the ancient cultures of Egypt, Babylonia, Sumer, and Rome. The concept of sacred prostitution may be foreign to us in our present-day culture. In the Pre-Christian times of goddess worship, sex with sacred prostitutes was viewed as a sacred act. They were teachers of the mysteries, and of the healing, restorative, and transforming power of sexual energy, explains astrologer Catherine Aumen. Snapshot Profiles of Famous Virgos Leonard Cohen  Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack, a crack in everything That's how the light gets in. (From the song Anthem on The Future album) Source: http://www.cduniverse.com When I began thinking about what I was going to write about Virgo, the refrain from Leonard Cohen’s song Anthem kept entering my mind, the lyrics of which are presented above. After searching on the Internet for his song, I thought it would be interesting to find out his astrological profile. Interestingly enough, I discovered he was a Virgo Sun with a Pisces Moon! Now, it may seem peculiar that I associated that refrain with Virgo, but I think my subconscious reason is that I needed to examine Virgo's need to "perfect" as a process rather than a particular outcome. Songwriter, singer, musician, and poet Leonard Cohen was born September 21, 1934, in Montreal, Canada, with the Sun, Ascendant, Venus, and Neptune in Virgo. That is a lot of Virgo energy! Virgo’s opposite sign is Pisces, and Leonard Cohen’s Moon is in the sign of Pisces.[8] The opposite sign polarities are of great interest to astrologers, because they highlight sometimes competing orientations. Opposite signs share themes, but they have different perspectives and approaches for living life within those themes. We are most in balance when we can integrate the qualities of the opposite signs so they are working well together. Pisceans and Virgo are both capable of selfless service. Moreover, both signs strive for the ideal but with a different mindset. Virgos are practical idealists, wanting to bring improvements to a task or situation with the use of their analytic abilities. Virgos often deal in the “micro” world, attending to the details in the process of refinement. Pisces, on the other hand, operates in the “macro,” wanting to better a situation by bringing elements together in a working whole. They want boundaries dissolved, and they see the commonalties, rather than distinctions, between elements. I do not know much about Leonard Cohen except for the information contained in a Wikipedia entry. It was interesting to learn that he has suffered life-long depression, and he spent several years (in the 1990s) in a Buddhist monastery, reflecting the life one might experience with a Pisces Moon. He has also been drug-involved. In the Anthem song lyrics (not just the refrain), one might see the struggle within the Virgo–Pisces polarity. Pisces may choose compassionate forgiveness or escape in responding to a situation, while Virgo may be critical of the dynamics and may focus on the issues and solutions. When reading the lyrics to the entire song, I see a little of both perspectives. Perhaps when I kept hearing the Anthem refrain run through my mind, my subconscious was cluing me into the fact that Leonard Cohen might be an example of someone whose life process led him to a place where he could understand the value of imperfection. The Anthem song may be a gift of Leonard Cohen's struggle with the Virgo-Pisces polarity! If you are interested in the entire song, check out the link below the refrain. Michael Jackson  Singer, songwriter, and dancer Michael Jackson was born August 29, 1958. He has natal Sun and Pluto in Virgo and a Pisces Moon. He also has a strong Leo emphasis, with the MC, Venus, Mercury, and Uranus in that sign of the “performer.”[9] Jackson was known for his hard work in preparing for a concert, and for having very high standards for the production of his segments and the entire concert. Certainly, Virgo energy is involved in this desire to “perfect” one’s performance. Observers also remember how many times he changed his facial appearance, seemingly dissatisfied at various stages with his appearance. This involves the more obsessive-compulsive side of Virgo. He was nutrition conscious, and followed diet regimens. Like Leonard Cohen, he had a Pisces Moon and he had problems with drugs, which a Pisces Moon might make one vulnerable. Michael Jackson was known for his generosity, giving large sums of money to various causes, as well as contributing his time to various efforts. Lily Tomlin  Comedian and actor Lily Tomlin was born on September 1, 1939. Her Sun, Venus, and Neptune are in Virgo, and she has an earth grand trine (i.e. energy working smoothly together), with Neptune as part of that configuration. Tomlin’s MC is in Pisces.[10] I do not know much about Lily Tomlin but I thought I would end the article with a bit of laughter, demonstrating the sense of humor of one Virgo. I thought the following line reflected a funny spin on the Virgo-Pisces polarity: "Reality is a crutch for people who can't cope with drugs." - written by Jane Wagner for Lily's act Finally, here is a YouTube video of a media ad with a performance by Lily Tomlin promoting single payer healthcare in California. ENDNOTES [1] Nevin, Bruce. (1982). Astrology Inside Out. Rockport, Massachusettes, Para Research Publishers, p.89. [2] Forrest, Steven. (June/July 2002). The Case of the Disappearing 6th House. The Mountain Astrologer, #103, pp.9-16. [3] Bell, Lynn. (August/September 2004). Virgo’s Wings and Other Musings on the Mutable Signs. The Mountain Astrologer, #116, pp.36-41. [4] Houlding, Deborah. (August/September 2007). Virgo the Maiden. The Mountain Astrologer, #134, pp.25-31. [5] Nevin, Bruce. (1982). Astrology Inside Out. Rockport, Massachusettes, Para Research Publishers, p. 147 [6] Forrest, Steven. The Inner Sky. Op. Cit. [7] Posse, Jan. (August/September 2004). A Letter from the Managing Editor. The Mountain Astrologer, Issue #116, p.5. [8] Leonard Cohen’s natal chart information (using Placidus houses) is contained in the AstroDatabank of the Astrodienst website at: http://www.astro.com [9] Michael Jackson’s natal chart information (in Placidus houses) is contained in the AstroDatabank of the Astrodienst website at: http://www.astro.com [10] Lily Tomlin’s natal chart information (in Placidus houses) is contained in the AstroDatabank of the Astrodienst website at: http://www.astro.com The citation for the Jane Addams quotes can be found at: social_advance_depends_quite_as_much_upon. (n.d.). Columbia World of Quotations. Retrieved August 20, 2011, from Dictionary.com website: http://quotes.dictionary.com/social_advance_depends_quite_as_much_upon |
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