Virgo 25°

Yes well, in some ways every sign serves as a remedy to the excesses of the previous sign. So we see Virgo, the sign of humility, follows Leo, which is given to excess pride—a term we use for pack of lions. Now…

Virgo’s ruler is in dispute. Traditionally it’s Mercury. Yet some say it’s Chiron, once a planet that was pummeled by asteroids and disabled; some say the as yet undiscovered Vulcan. All make sense but what’s ironic and fitting is that we don’t have the whole story, pieces are missing. In myth, we do know that Mercury, Chiron, Vulcan were all healers.

Vulcan or Greek Hephaestus is the potter god, the smithy god, an alchemist and a healer. All this substantial change befitting Virgo the mutable-earth sign. Hephaestus is lame god, a humbled being who channels his disability into work and service to gods and men alike— I work and I serve are Virgo’s two mottos—in his workshop making all manner of tools, weaponry even robots! Virgo rules the digestive system. The symbol Virgin is about to ingest a sheaf of seaded grain. Digestion metes out nutrient from detritus. Digestion is a also metaphor for our conscience, our own little workshop where we fix what’s broken inside and work it all out, what then guides our attitudes and behaviors as we negotiate life’s imperfections which can be humbling.

This next song was written by a Virgo who is coming to grips with loss—a truly human experience that takes time to digest—and is trying to heal.

Poor old Hephaestus really is the god of the human condition. He knows first hand that our reactions to loss, pain, suffering, disappointment can go either way. It can give rise to virtue or to vice. Out of clay, he sculpted Pandora who, with her infamous little box, brought all virtue and vice into the world. She is the vessel, correlating to Mary Magdalene, the vestal virgin, the sacred harlot.

 Our conscience is our moral mechanism for digesting, discerning between virtue and vice. And in processing hardship, we do undergo an alchemical change, the baser elements of self being burned away in Hephaestus’s kiln. Let’s hope. We are working the eternal flame of Leo, now, into a forge of self-compassion, becoming purified in the fire of our own being. That’s the virgin purity bit!

 We are all works in progress, being sculpted by experience. Our own suffering should help us focus on what’s important in life and make us more functional. Werk. Being humbled should inspire us to help others with their own struggles Serve. Now was it Jesus said about the meek…..? Yeah.

Oh, and as a side note, Stella fronted two cover bands in my life, the original bands of which were both led by Virgos: a Till Tuesday cover band called CU Next Tuesday. And a Pretenders cover band called The Pretenders.